Simplify.

When we all came to China, we had a lot of dreams for our time here. We thought we would build up a good Family, become that teacher that just changes lives in the classroom, be able to speak Chinese rather well, travel to all of these amazing places and to become this super Chr*stian because we were away from so much temptation. Some of those dreams have come somewhat true, others I laugh at now and some have changed. We have a great Family. Small, but never cease to amaze me. Teaching feels more like glorified babysitting in a lot of ways. All of those creative ideas I have normally fall by the wayside because they just don't work here. Fluent in Chinese?!?! hahahaha. I have seen some amazing sights... Great Wall, Ice Festival in Harbin, Terracotta Soldiers, climbed mountains, etc. Now I face different temptations than I did in the States. Some temptations I still fall too and some I battle out. I do feel as though I have grown up and have changed in a lot of ways. Dreams...

One dream that I know I expressed with several people before I left was to make my life simpler. It was a practice I thought would be easy here and one I wanted to bring home. However, in all of my goofball ways I have managed to pump my schedule to all new levels, have more stuff in this little apartment than one can imagine accumulating in just over a year, computer has more programs than I don't even know how to use,etc. etc. Simple would not be a word that I would use to describe my life at all.

Today I stopped my Myspace account. (Well in the process.... they make you give reasons, email verification and several other tedious steps in hoping that you will get frustrated and just keep it. Pressing on though.) While it is not a huge step, it frees up maybe 10 minutes each day which is normally wasted anyway by just looking at other profiles. I hope to sit down this week and re-examine the craziness which is my life. Hopefully I can plan out some good ways to simplify my life a little more.

Simplifying is a discipline.