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We talk a lot around here about trying to be a family that makes more than we consume. It's not easy, that's for sure. But sometimes we push through and something really cool happens.
A couple of months ago I sat down with Adali (our oldest) and gave her a school project. I told her she was going to make her own comic book! Needless to say this went over very well ;) I wanted to make sure she didn't just draw a few pictures and call it a day, though. I wanted her to know what it was like to work towards something bit by bit. To take on something that made her push through the dip we all face when trying to finish a project.
So I told her we were going to approach it in "phases." This way she wouldn't be overwhelmed and we could tackle each major step together. Here's our process:
#1. The Big Idea
This was easy. "Adali, what do you want to make a comic book about?" "NINJAS," she said. That's my girl.
#2. The Story
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Ashley and I are super excited to be a part of ConvergeFL this year - we'll be moderating a 10/20 session on creativity all day Saturday!
What's a 10/20 you ask? Good question. They are hour-long sessions with a group of attendees where anyone can take 10 or 20 minutes to ask a question or pitch an idea. Everyone can jump in and have a lively discussion - it's just limited to 10-20 minutes. There’s a moderator in each group (us!) to keep time and offer some topics if no one's feeling chatty.
I should also mention that the first day of Converge is filled with tons of great keynote presentations about design, business and the web. You should totally come check it out. We'd love to see you there!
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The theme for our closet is, “Never organize what you can discard.” This is embarrassing. I’m going to show you what I had to deal with. I’m not even sure how it got this bad, but that’s how it happens. No one sets out to have a ton of clothes in their closet that they don’t wear, or a bunch of shoes that they no longer wear, or boxes of junk that they’re not even sure where it came from or boxes on the top shelf that they don’t even know what is in them. So, here it goes....
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Tonight I got to spend some time with my oldest son. We walked around Target and looked at some toys he was saving to buy, and then we headed over to Panera Bread to eat a cookie the size of my head and draw some stuff. What you see above is our first father-son collaboration! He drew the robot's body lines and I gave him a quick overview of how light and shadows worked, filling in the shading.
What really struck me was when I gave him the pencil to start drawing. He didn't hesitate, or ask me what I thought he should draw. I wish I could have gotten a video, because the sureness of each stroke was amazing. He just dove in and pounded this thing out in 30 seconds. It was beautiful.
I was so struck by his confidence - it was nearly foreign to me. And I realized in that moment that I had a lot to learn from my little guy. Fear of failure is something we all struggle with - it becomes harder as we get older. Self-consciousness kicks in and we subtly begin to question our art, creativity and instincts.
Drawing with Jett made me remember that I shouldn't be so worried about what others think. That I should embrace whatever craziness comes out of me and run with it. That I still have a lot of work to do to be comfortable in who I really am.
So the next time you sit down to draw, paint, sing, write, play, run - whatever - do it like you mean it. Embrace it and own it. Find that childlike confidence and bare your soul. It won't be easy, but you'll be glad you did.
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Some really smart person once said, “If things in your life aren’t adding up, start subtracting.” This quote can apply to so many aspects of everyone’s lives but for now, I’m going to concentrate on clutter in general.
Guys, it will creep up on you and weigh you down and you won’t even realize it. It’s everywhere. I mean, EVERYWHERE! Once we decided to start traveling full-time, I went a bit crazy. Nothing too new – I mean I am one to clean out crap of random spots pretty regularly, but this has hit a new level. I made a list in August of all the things I needed to simplify for my family during the month of September. For example....
- Our Closet - Not just clean it out, I mean get rid of anything that is not used, does not fit or has so many holes that it isn’t even acceptable to wear to work in the garage :)
- General Crap - We don't have a lot of knick-knacky things. I’ve been this way probably my whole married life. It’s just more things to dust, more things that you have to worry about the kids not breaking, and just to take up space?? No, thanks. Less is more, people.
- Garage - This is my problem area really. I have a lot of tools that will not be going on the road with us, so this is something that will take quite a while to simplify and figure out what to store somewhere.
- Playroom - Might as well get them their storage totes that they will have in order to keep whatever toys they want to take on the road with us. We will not be taking the 200 stuffed animals that fill up their beds and playroom :)
- Storage Closet - HOLY COW! That place is/was a disaster. We had saved all our kids clothes that were still wearable so we had about 6 or 7 totes of clothes and blankets from all stages. We had held onto them in hopes of having our adopted kids by now, but since that is taking forever, we have decided to sell what we could, and we donated the rest.
- Kitchen - I will not need my 3 cookie sheets, and 3 muffin tins, and 8 mixing bowls and 5 loaf pans. This will be hard for me to clean out and get rid of stuff. I love kitchen supplies and gadgets but I am looking forward to simplifying it soon and getting used to using less.
- Kid's Clothes - While we don’t really have that many clothes for the kids, simplifying for our traveling means we will have less items, but better quality to make them last longer. We haven’t started on this yet, either.
That’s about it for my list of things to simplify. While that may not look like much, it is a bit overwhelming on top of all the other things we need to get done in the next 11 months. Here’s to getting it all done! Hurrah!
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Jonathan Longnecker / October 14, 2014
Ashley Longnecker / October 07, 2014
We’re Jonathan & Ashley Longnecker. We love weird ideas, great food, travel, drawing, music, homeschool, tattoos, dreads, woodworking, design and our 4 amazing kids.