Becoming Minimalist

Though it may seem I am very random, ("You're so random, Mom" - if I had a nickel for every time one of my kids said that...) I am actually very intentional, and I always have a back-story.  This is my back story to how we became minimalists.  It started one day while I was dusting my living-room. Dusting my living-room is a monumental task (at least it used to be), so much so I would listen to an entire Ella Fitzgerald CD or TV sermon while doing it.  This particular day I was listening to a TV sermon while dusting a memento from Yellowstone National Park.  I picked it up, dusted Old Faithful and carefully tried wiping off the surface it sat on before putting it back in place while not bumping into or knocking over the next memento that sat next to it.  And on it went, from one special memento to the next while this preacher talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath. It's so important she said, that it's one of the commandments, the fourth actually.  Hmmm...our Sundays looked like this...(we went to a Saturday night service because this was the service opened up for the people who didn't have Sunday church clothes - not that we don't have church clothes, but it's where we felt more at home) sleep in, late breakfast, trip to the hardware store because we were either beginning a project or ending a project, early dinner, clean up from said project and one of us needing to pull out a splinter, put on a band-aid or take a pain-reliever, drop on the couch, exhausted, then to bed.  What would a Sunday Sabbath even look like?  Then we took a trip to visit our daughter and son-in-law and their Pastor gave the same sermon.  Next Saturday our Associate Pastor gave the same sermon... I asked my husband what he thought. He surmised that Pastor's have a cheat sheet, but "What do you think?" I insisted (family joke).  But before he could answer, I shouted "Let's do it!"  He's a good man and a good husband and he basically does whatever I want. So, our first Sunday Sabbath looked like this.  We  slept in, did a Bible journal entry together (so amazing so far!) he went for a breakfast sandwich at a fast food place and sat and read, I drank hot chocolate and curled up on the couch with the internet, looking at all the things I bookmarked to read later.  I read an article by Joshua Becker, which linked me to another article, which linked to another and another and another (40 articles to be exact) and finally I was halfway through "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter" which I bought on my Kindle, when my husband came home. I said as he walked through the door, "How much do you love me?" to which he replied with one eyebrow raised in the air, "A lot..." to which I replied, "Good, because I want us to become minimalists." His expressions were priceless.  First confusion, then a nano second of a smile - this is where I think he thought becoming a minimalist was a sex term - then to a sad realization to which he replied, "Crap, you're going to make me clean the garage aren't you?" to which I replied, "Yes, but not today, it's the Sabbath." And thus our journey to becoming Sabbath keeping minimalists began... 

...to be continued...