This week is my birthday. For those of you in my neck of the woods, a.k.a. ‘Merica, it is also Mother’s Day, so for my husband, it’s a double whammy of gift-giving expectations. While there is a certain appeal to amassing more things, newer things, better things, to replace my other things, there is something I want even more. Something that is free, and easy, and can never be snatched off the counter by tiny toddler hands and thrown in the toilet. It is something I want to give to myself as much as I want it given to me. Above all else, it’s something I want to give to my daughter, so she never forgets what is truly important in life.

I want to live simply.

This idea came to me this weekend while visiting with family. It was the very best of visits, the kind that end with all of…