My road to the need for an intentional reset may be different than yours. But we all have times in our lives when we realize that things are just not what we thought they would be. We all have or will have a time when we need to stop and rethink how we may be approaching our wants and needs in life. Have they been serving us well or are we finding we need a change. For me this has happened plenty of times throughout my life. I would say that this time has been a slow build up until the day it wasn't.

In January of 2022 my husband and I moved from New York to Tennessee. We had wanted to leave the hustle and bustle of the state and move somewhere where we could live a more simple life. My parents had moved to Tennessee six months prior to us and the idea of living close to them as they slowed down to enjoy life felt right. We packed up all our belongings and headed south.

In the beginning it was like a dream! Simple and so peaceful. Nature around us was absolutely beautiful. People were not in so much as a rush all the time and everyone waved to you weather they knew you or not. The fields of grass or crops went as far as you could see. Farm animals grazing along side the fences. Less noise when you stepped outside. The nights sky told a brighter story with all the stars due to less light pollution. Waking up and sitting on our porch with a cup of coffee knowing we made the right move.

We made the right move, but did we change how we lived? Not as much as we thought we did. We slowed down and enjoyed everything around us. What we didn't do was stop spending money on things we didn't need, accumulating so much with no place to put it. We moved with so much stuff that for 2 years we had to rent a storage unit to store all of our things that didn't fit into our rental. Before we moved we had paid off all of our credit cards. As time passed we ended up bringing our balances back up on all our cards again. We may have went places and enjoyed ourselves but we also started to pay interest on it. Still fully enjoying spending so much quality time with my parents every week and other family members who lived nearby as much as we could. Holidays were joyous and weekend BBQ's were a blessing. But stress was starting to creep up on us again despite the beauty and love surrounding us.

After two years it was time for us to build a house next to my parents. So we started to prepare by paying down our cards again. Working a lot to do so. Getting our credit in shape for a loan. Picking the model house out we wanted and sharing all the details with my parents. We started the process, things were moving along smoothly and right before the land broke ground our lives took a turn where we didn't expect it to go.

My Mom suddenly passed away in July of 2024. My best friend and one of the top reasons for moving to Tennessee. Very much why we had wanted to build our home next to my parents. Being near mom while dad was working still meant we could help her when ever she needed and have more quality time with her. The most devastating moment of my families life. But for me it was one of my worse fears come true. I now had to learn to navigate life without her.

I believe it is important for me to mention that after all the services were over my husband suggested we continue to build because my dad and I would need each other more so now in order to get through our broken hearts. He also suggested we choose a smaller model home that we didn't need as big of a mortgage. We were so used to hosting dinners before. Now such a large home didn't seem important. So we went with less square footage but similar features that we still wanted. In December of 2024 right before Christmas our house was done and we moved in.

The first year as I tried to deal with my loss I walked around in a fog. I mechanically went through the every day motions that I needed to. We got all of our things out of storage, unpacked our stuff as much as we could and tried to feel blessed we had a new home. It wasn't the same celebrating when we couldn't celebrate with mom too. Other times I just sat on the couch or in bed watching something that would help me escape reality. My husband was amazing through it all. Although he himself was grieving, he was my rock. He handled my nonexistence with such love and undrstanding.

After that first year of dealing with all the "firsts". First holidays, birthdays, anniversary's, seasons and moments without my mom. While I walked around my house I looked at everything much differently. What is all this stuff we have and why do we have so much meaningless stuff? This was the questions I started asking. Physical things started to have so much less value to me. We had so many collectables and trinkets from places we had gone all over. So much that it all seemed to look like clutter even though they were placed nicely on shelves, cabinets and mantels. It all seemed so busy. Our closets were full of boxes of things we couldn't find room for. Our belongings started to feel stressful. We were not managing our stuff, our stuff was managing us.

This is when I knew I needed a reset. Life felt so much more important than the items in it. It seemed like the perfect time to purge and begin to free up my mind clutter. I started to wright down plans of what I needed to do. What areas I could start spending less, what things I could get rid of and maybe sell, how I could start it while I was still working a lot and what my end goal really would look like.

My end goal was to own much less stuff, feel free of constantly finding a spot for things we didn't need. To spend money on essentials and start paying down our debt again. To free up time to enjoy the free things in life like nature, family, friends and each other. Less time needed to clean because we didn't have so much to have to clean. The ability to work less and have time to work out again and sit in peace with God. This was our original plan when we moved to the south. This is what we need to accomplish. The question was; where do we start?

Somehow for us it ended up being the walk in pantry.

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