Make Your Home a Haven From the World - Day 24

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Our society today is a complicated one.  But our homes and our own individual lives don't have to be complicated or bogged down with too many obligations, pulling us this way and that.  There may be some out there who enjoy never having a moment to just breath.  I'm not one of them.  I think we owe it to ourselves and our families to slow down and to simplify our lives in any way that we feel inspired to.  There are infinite blessings in simplicity.  

I cherish those evenings our family has at home when we're all together (a rare thing some weeks).  It's tough having to run children to and from practices and trying to get dinner on the table at a decent hour too.  I think it is important to step back sometimes and find things that we can cut back on in our lives.  It's a personal decision, but a valuable one to take a look at the things that are truly a priority in our lives (i.e. - church, family time, etc.), and find a way to cut out the things that are lower on the priority list.  Sometimes those decisions are hard.  

My oldest daughter is in ballet.  She recently was invited to join the junior company at her ballet studio.  Such a humbling, amazing opportunity.  But we talked about it for a long time, weighing the time obligation that it would require.  And it was just too much.  We respectfully declined the opportunity and chose to only have her dance twice a week instead of nearly every day.  It took courage to say no.  But we value our time together as a family and we value simplicity and some down time during our week.

For us, our home is more peaceful, when we simplify our schedules and allow more time to be together at home.

*This is a 31 days series:  Make Your Home a Haven From the World.  I will be writing on this topic every day for the month of October.  Click on the link on the sidebar to read the previous day(s) posts.