Coming out of hibernation with a new focus

I haven't kept up with blogging for the past six weeks or so simply because life got too busy and because I wanted to evaluate my reason for blogging in the first place.

I've always loved writing so my primary reason is simply to keep the writerly side of myself alive, despite the busyness of daily life. Secondly, in aforementioned busyness, the days tend to slide together, and it's always good to go back and look at the journal of my life, even if it's mundane and ordinary.

I've really struggled with finding a theme for my blog over the past two years that I've haphazardly blogged, and I think for 2014 I want to focus on the concept of mindful spending.

While my frugality is so ingrained I don't think I could become a spendthrift if I wanted, I don't think of myself as miserly (my blog name is mostly just to be catchy). I have a hard time overspending for certain things, but I don't ever want to become tightfisted toward my family or to those in need. One of the benefits of cutting back my spending is to be able to bless the less fortunate.

So I have recently become intrigued by the idea of buying nothing new. In fact, there's group of people who sign a compact every year (called, appropriately enough, The Compact) not to buy new, excluding certain items such as food, underwear, or anything else that really can't be obtained used.

I'm not going to do anything official, but I am going to try to make this year the year in which I really try to do away with unnecessary spending to free up some clutter and find joy and contentment in people and not things.

Speaking of joy:

My backyard