Currently Clicking #19

Each and every week, I gather links of all of the places I have been perusing in the great, grand internet. There are plenty of people out there doing big things and small things. Some of these are practical, some are inspiring. This week I realize that I always need to eat more salads and figure out how to eat healthy on a budget. I am also drooling over a house tour, wondering how you know a trend is truly over, dreaming of a peach dish to make, thinking about what it means to separate work from motherhood and whether or not is possible, and reminding myself about the reasons we all have to let go of our past. 

1.  I always need to eat more salad. Here are 5 Tips for Making a Week's Worth of Salads on a Sunday. 
2. Trends come and go. My ever changing hair over the years should probably be a sign of that. How do you know if a trend is done and over with? How do you know if a trend is officially over? 
3. I am completely in love with this house tour. They make living with two children in a 1100 square foot house actually seem doable. I love the back yard space and the flooring throughout the house. I am becoming more and more ready to get our house on the market and find a new place to call home. 
4. We always need tips on healthy eating on a budget. This post has some great tips to keep in mind, especially when aiming for a whole food, plant based diet. Also, might I add her grilled peaches and sweet cream with crunchy bits looks so darn delicious. 
5. Now that I am a mother, even more of this post rings true: 10 Things Women Like To Do Alone. 
6. One of my goals someday, hopefully, is to have the ability to work from home or something that looks somewhat like that, in a job that is creative and challenging. Here is a great post about working from home for entrepreneurs.  But on the flip side, here is another point of view of being a work at home mom. Both of these links were seen at Shutterbean and I love her list posts so very much. As a mom and a person in the work world, can we every truly find balance between the two? Are we meant to? 
7. And lastly, a good reminder: 10 Reasons to Let Go of Your Past. 

The Art of Letting Go

I've been starting to sift through room by room in our little home. The piles have become mounds and I have picked them down to just lint in the carpet. Neat piles surround me every where I look and I can't help but wonder why we have all of this stuff in the first place. What significance does it hold? Where along our journey did we gain this item or that item and why must it still reside in our lives? Does it have meaning or is it just gathering dust? 

I've been spring cleaning for what seems like forever. I've also been thinking about what that means in my own life. What spider webs have I allowed to wreak havoc upon my heart's own closets and what blocks have I left in my own pathway to the door? 

I don't feel much of a need for most of the items in our home. Much of my past is very much the same. I have my decisions, my dreams, my dreams lost, and those moments that I hold on to far too tightly at times. In my quest for a clean home, I also desire a clear mind and spirit. How often do we walk through life with too many piles at our side? How many oversized bags have I drug behind me in hope of finding a new fork in the road? 

I think of these piles today. I think of my college days. I think of the friends I lost and the friends I gained. I think of moving home and meeting my husband in a whirlwind of an entirely unexpected moment. I hold onto things and moments for far too long. I must let many of them go. Maybe those songs aren't meant to be sung anymore. Maybe the rain will never fall upon my life like it once did. This process is an art form, a picking away at the piles and a sorting through of feelings and mistakes. Letting go is tough. But, in the long run, a clean slate is so much better. 

I desire a clean slate today, one I can fill up with new experiences and new moments.