Fight for Your Right to Simplify

I am stretched so thin that I can feel my skin splitting. OK, that's just gross. Let me start with this. When I was a kid, my little brother had a toy called Stretch Armstrong. You could pull him, stomp him, bend him into unnatural shapes and he was pretty tough. But after too much abuse, the goo would start to leak out of him. That is how I feel. I am loosing goo. I guess that is gross too. But there is no pretty color to paint exhaustion.
This farm has moved me to a place of simplicity I had longed for but thought unrealistic. Now I know it can be done and I am not going to give up so easily. I was living my life at a slower pace, cooking from scratch, gardening, meandering through chicken coop, picking fresh blueberries for crying out loud! Then I got what I asked for: our house in Atlanta sold in two weeks! But we weren't finished building onto this house. Rush set in as I had to finish painting 1,700 sq. ft. here and help my parents move from there. Suddenly the kids were fixing their own breakfasts and lunches as I "went to work." I sanded, painted, packed, garage saled. For two weeks we had 8 people and all their stuff crammed into a tiny house with two bedrooms and a loft.

We doubled the size of the house and only added two people. You would think we'd have plenty of space to organize. But instead it looks like a bomb went off in here. Everywhere I turn there is stuff, stuff, stuff. It's pouring off tables and benches! People are asking me where stuff is and where stuff goes. I want to escape. But I have to finish what I started. My simplicity is under here somewhere!

I felt immobile last week. So this week my goal is to whip it all into shape so I can get back to being a farmgirl. It's time to start the homeschool year, replant the garden for a fall crop and eliminate whatever is eating my chickens! Doesn't that sound more fun than being stressed and overworked?