Happy Monday! I had to go back and reacquaint myself with what had written in Simple Living This Week No. 41 since a few weeks have passed. As I mentioned in Surge Capacity and Dealing With Difficult Times last week, I’m finding my mental reserves depleted like many other people. That, in turn, has meant adjusting my expectations regarding how much I can get done in a day and a week as I show myself some grace. I hope you are doing well in these difficult times and I mean that sincerely.

I signed up to do the September Content Warrior Challenge as part of my membership in Income School’s Project 24. The goal is to write 60,000 words in a month. (Videos count for 2,000 words each.) I’m a tad bit behind. Okay, a lot behind. I’ve had a very productive month, but it hasn’t translated into a lot of written posts or new videos. I have about nine days left. I can do this! I think. LOL! If you’ve ever thought about starting a website, especially one that is information based, I highly recommend this course. I’ve never found any blogging course and membership combo that I thought was really worth the price. Either they were too cheap and wouldn’t offer enough or they were ridiculously expensive and out of the reach of the average person. This one truly is worth it if you take advantage of what you pay for.

Caroline and I are continuing on with our homeschooling. We are doing a lot of reading aloud which works well when both teacher and student are feeling mentally fatigued. I have my post about this year’s curriculum choices about 2/3 written. Hopefully I will finish it this week.

We’re well into The Long Winter now as we work our way through the Little House series. I had forgotten how much Laura writes of not liking to go out among strangers and being in the busy town. Caroline has found this an interesting part of the story. I think she feels a bit of a kindred spirit with Laura. Except the trampling the hay in the wagon in the hot sun. She’s not feeling the connection there. LOL!

We’re also enjoying reading aloud The Story of the World, Volume 1. It is providing the overview that I had hoped for. More about that in the curriculum post, but it’s one of the things we’re reading aloud so I thought I would mention it and recommend it.

It actually gives me a lot of joy to read aloud with Caroline. There were a few years I could not do it so David did all the reading aloud. I feel like I missed out on a lot in those years. I’m thankful I can do it now.

David planted our fall pansies in the deck planters a few days ago. They might not be the best bunch we’ve ever had, but we’re thankful to have them. Our geraniums are still going strong as well and we’ve been seeing hummingbirds every day. I love hummingbirds. They are an amazing part of God’s creation.

I wrote in late May that we had decided to purchase a trellis for morning glories. The trellis is in the front of the house, but I can see a good portion of it from my laundry room window. We ended up with bright pink morning glories and I’ve enjoyed them so much. Every morning I would open the blinds to see how many flowers I could see that morning. It was a nice routine for the later parts of the summer and now early fall. They should still be blooming for some time.

Do you remember when I waxed eloquent about my new trashcan? I am still so thankful for this trashcan. LOL! Seriously. Part of living simply means figuring out what doesn’t work for you and changing it. Simple living doesn’t equate to cheap living. It’s not simple to live with situations that constantly complicate your life. Changing our trashcan simplified our lives and eliminated stress in multiple ways. I say this not to tell you to buy a new trashcan (although I highly recommend the simplehuman trashcan I bought). I say this to encourage you to make changes, even ones that might seem costly or unnecessary. Sometimes they are worth every penny in terms of the return you will get in your life in other ways.

I don’t have any monumental goals this week around the house. Writing, creating, homeschooling, and laundry is basically it. Life is pretty simple right now.

What do you have going on in your home? Are there any changes you made at one point that turned out to be really significant? I hope you’ll leave a comment and share.

Artwork: “The Cradle” by Helen Allingham