"I want Saturday morning cartoons and Sunday morning breakfast.... like fill up your entire dining room table - have to sit on the sofa... kind of breakfast. I want evening walks on Monday and endless popcorn and movies on Tuesday. I want a random trip to Walmart on Wednesday -- just to get ice cream and diapers. I want thirty minutes alone on Thursday to paint my nails or soak in a bath.... and on Friday... Friday I just want to fall asleep on the couch in anticipation of Saturday morning cartoons." 
 
Have you ever heard of 'free writing'!?!?!? It's a technique where you sit and just write... with no concern to spelling or what you're actually writing. I do this... ALL. THE.. TIME. I've done it since I was little - writing has always been a kind of 'therapy' for me.... and if you just allow your pen to scribble on paper - you'll see 'yourself' and your 'heart' really come to light. 
 
And that above... .that's what I wrote yesterday.  
 
The pressure we put on ourselves to have so many things.... to make X amount of money each year...  
 
I'm over it. 
 
I just didn't grow up this way... and I want to get back to the simple life that I'm used to. 
 
I remember my mom selling her jewelry and her musical instruments (that she LOVED) -- just so that she could put food on the table. 
 
Hotdogs... mac n cheese... spaghetti.... beefaroni - my parents made sure I didn't go hungry. 
 
At my dads - my sister and I had a bed in the laundry room. 
 
But we had a bed..... we had a DAMN bed.... it wasn't a 2,000$ bed... but we slept just fine. 
 
And now.... we're working our lives away... we're not living... we're living to work. 
 
I want to work to live. 
 
Work just enough to be comfortable... to eat... to have a roof over my head...  
 
A lot of people are curious as to why I got rid of my Studio.... why I'm selling my 'badass' 4runner... why we got rid of cable... 
 
And it's because -- I don't care about those things anymore... I want to simplify my life again... when life was about EACH OTHER. 
 
Why is it that the more money you make..... the more things you have -- and the less time you spend together...  
 
That's sad.  
 
I feel that if your bills are paid -- you have food on the table and you have a little bit of money to put aside... you're good to go... you're living the 'best' life.  
 
You're living richly..... 
 
That's the kind of rich I want to be. not the kind that compares houses.... cars.... studio spaces... 
 
I want to put work down... I want YOU to put work down.. and I want you to go take a walk... walk as far as you can.. and just 'be'. 
 
When you get home -- I want you to sit on the couch.. sit on your COUCH.. you have a COUCH -- that's incredible. Be grateful. 
 
Leave the dishes in the sink... they can sit for five minutes. 
 
Watch the same episode of Spongebob 14 times.... hold your child... give them kisses. 
 
You are SO richly blessed. 
 
Stop wasting your days away. 
 
Take off work... burn a pizza together. 
 
Eat 6 bags of popcorn together and wipe the butter on your jeans. 
 
You are clothed.  
 
Live... just please go live. 
 
 
Ava keeps me grounded.... she's almost 10 months -- and I don't know how I'm going to out-do her 9 month pictures.. I love them SO much