Core Truths

We previously questioned the things that take up our time, including the number of our things, the size of our homes, and the amount of our debt. In this particular episode, we continue that conversation by addressing specifically how the size of our homes and amount of square footage we purchase--along with the cost to fill, maintain, and upkeep it--consumes our time. We're on a mission to live a simple life. But we can't do it alone. We hope you'll join us on this journey!

We are by no means “minimalists,” but over the years we have found ways to get rid of some of the clutter, and more importantly, not bring more stuff in. We’ve answered lots of questions since launching the Core Truths episode, “ The ‘Things’ Taking Up Our Time ,” and we thought it best to share more of what we’ve done. Whether it is buying the things, storing the things, sorting the things, or even purging the things, we have found that by having less we are getting more of what we really want, which is more TIME! Our journey to having less stuff and having more time started back in 2015 when I read the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (I share more on this in “The Great Purge” ). I’m not going to lie, I thought the book would be about how to organize and store and how to keep the house clean. Boy, was I wrong. We started out following the guidelines in the book and have continued to do so through various stages of purging. One of my favorite principles of the book ...

In this episode, we highlight the "things" that are taking up so much of our time! Buying things, storing things, sorting things, purging things. We also talk about one of our favorite gifts to give...and it's not one more "thing!" We hope you'll join us on this journey!

We've shared with you our quest to live a simple life, our thoughts on this notion of "busyness," and our desire to create a new normal for ourselves and our family. In this episode and in our quest to live a simple life, we talk about the value of time and question the things we allow to take up our time--such as the number of our things, the size of our homes, and the amount of our debt. We hope you'll join us on this journey! 

Back in February, when Opal and I saw Free Burma Rangers Movie in theaters, this quote really stood out to me. It gripped me as if the silver screen was speaking to just me. I’ve reflected on it so much since then and what it means to me in my life. I couldn’t wait until the movie was released for digital purchase to be able to hear his exact words again. “You might as well go for it because what are you going to hold onto? You’re going to lose your life one day anyway. So, saying yes is [saying], God, all the good things you have for us, I want them. And anything useful to do that I can do, I would like to do it. So, I’ll say yes. And I want to say no to the swamp of sin on one side that gets me bogged down. And no to the swamp of good things to do—Christian things to do—that God didn’t ask me to do that will also bog me down. And I want to say yes to that line that God has to which I believe has no caution lights. It’s green. Go man, as fast as you want to go! How much faith do ...

In this video message and our quest to live a simple life, we question how do we go back to things being normal when "normal" wasn't working for us. We hope you'll join us on this journey!

We were busy, too busy, before the world told us to stop. For months, no for years, my husband has been telling me we were doing too much. He has been telling me we were too busy. He has been telling me we were not intended to live this way. He has been telling me, the “busyness” has to stop.  But we kept going. Before the world told us to stop, we would sync calendars, we would coordinate drop-offs and pick-ups, we would tag team tuck-ins. We would meet at games and we would trade off kids. We would work in the car and we would eat in the car. And “watching” our kids at their events became a balancing act of returning one more email and not missing their next best shot.  And every early tired morning-after-morning my husband would say, we are too busy. And every rushed text during lunch to make sure we had all of our bases covered for that afternoon my husband would say, we are too busy. And every night when we dragged in, still needing to eat dinner, still n...