A Quiet Simple Life with Sallie Borrink

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Laura Ingalls Wilder

AQSL 005: Bringing Peace to Your Life and Home

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I define a cozy life as one that brings greater peace, understanding, joy, beauty, and faith to you and your loved ones. Today we're going to take a look at peace, the first item on the list.We'll look at a definition of peace and the specific parts of our life that it includes. I'll share five choices we've made over the years that have brought greater peace to our home, including one that might surprise you! Hopefully at the end, you'll be inspired to make some changes that will bring greater peace to your life and home. Listen to the … [Read more...] about AQSL 005: Bringing Peace to Your Life and Home

A Day in Our Cozy Life #1

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As I've been looking through old posts, I realized that I've actually shared very little from our family life. I've written more about issues, things I'm learning, helping people solve problems, and encouraging others. But I haven't shared much about our day to day activities of pursuing a cozy life and bringing peace, understanding, and joy to our home. I'm far enough along this parenting and homeschooling journey that I want to be more deliberate about sharing some of the fruits and joys of our experience.Today is the first in what I hope … [Read more...] about A Day in Our Cozy Life #1

AQSL 002: Creating a Quiet Simple Life

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Are you ready to create a quiet simple life? If you are looking for encouragement and ideas, you are in the right place. In this episode we are looking at both quiet and simple. We'll examine what they mean and what they can look like in our home.Please feel free to leave a comment about the content or ask a question. I'd also love to hear what you found particularly helpful or encouraging. Listen to the Podcast My podcast is available to play right … [Read more...] about AQSL 002: Creating a Quiet Simple Life

100 Books from Our New Home Library

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When we did our cozy home remodel, we changed our learning room into a library. In my dream home, I would have a large library filled with built-in bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Instead, we have several places where we keep our books including what you see below.Because our book space is limited, we've had to be ruthless in keeping our book total to reasonable levels.We've weeded through our books continuously over the years so what is left is the best of the best.Here's a look at what we have in our library. Since the … [Read more...] about 100 Books from Our New Home Library

100 Wholesome Books for Girls and Tweens

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Finding wholesome books for girls and early tweens can be challenging. So much of what is being published today is drivel at best to downright concerning or even abhorrent. If you have a sensitive girl, it's even more challenging. In an effort to help, I've compiled a list of books for girls of various ages that would fall into the category of wholesome. What is a Wholesome Book? Wholesome can be defined so many different ways by families so let me lay out what my criteria was in creating this list. Wholesome to me included books that … [Read more...] about 100 Wholesome Books for Girls and Tweens

The Long Winter – A Month of Cozy Books

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The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a must-read American pioneer children's novel. It is one of my favorite novels in the Little House series.My husband, David, didn't read the Little House books growing up and decided to read them all a few years ago. He thoroughly enjoyed them! So you are never too old to add them to your collection whether it is to read them for yourself or read them to your children. The Long Winter The Long Winter tells the story of the Ingalls family surviving the epic winter of 1880-1881. And I do mean … [Read more...] about The Long Winter – A Month of Cozy Books

Farmer Boy – A Month of Cozy Books

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Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a look at her husband's childhood in upstate New York. It covers the time period of when he was a boy just beginning to mature into young manhood.Of all the Little House books, Farmer Boy is perhaps the coziest as it shares so much about family life, homemaking, character development, holidays, and the seasons. Farmer Boy Almanzo is the youngest of four children. With an older brother and two older sisters, he often finds himself being bossed around. Throughout the book, Almanzo is slowly growing up, … [Read more...] about Farmer Boy – A Month of Cozy Books

Hibernation Homeschooling

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Many of you have probably heard the term carschooling which is about homeschooling on the go. But I would guess you've never heard of the opposite - Hibernation Homeschooling. That's because I made it up to describe what Caroline and I have done this winter.Rather than going through a detailed telling of all the events over the fall that led up to this, I'll summarize it by saying that we were worn out from running around, sick of being sick, and basically hit the wall. When Caroline got Influenza A in early December, that was the … [Read more...] about Hibernation Homeschooling

My Little House in the Big Woods Fantasy

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As we wrestle through the issue of what to do next regarding housing, I find myself returning to what I call My Little House in the Big Woods Fantasy. I'm smart enough to know that life for the Ingalls family was not simple. It was hard work to do all that they did in Little House in the Big Woods. I have no illusions of having a cow and making my own cheese. Rather, it has to do with the idea of living in such a small house and having less stuff.Sometimes when I watch the television series Little House on the Prairie or read to Caroline … [Read more...] about My Little House in the Big Woods Fantasy

Living a Quiet Life

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My favorite books have usually centered around living a quiet life at home. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Grace Livingston Hill, Grace Richmond, Sydney Taylor (author of the All-of-a-Kind Family books) and Maud Heart Lovelace (author of the Betsy-Tacy books) all write stories about home life and the relationships of the home. While the characters may go here and there at times, most of the story revolves around the home.While some people read to escape to places and people and events they can never experience in real life, I read to be encouraged … [Read more...] about Living a Quiet Life

Content at Home Amid the Tyranny of Change

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I'm a homebody. Although I was a go-go-go person when I was college-aged and just out of college, I'm most happy now when I am at home. I do need to get out from time to time and once in awhile I even get in the mood to go to the mall.But for the most part, I love hearth and home and am most content at home. The Tyranny of Change I am also not particularly fond of change, especially change over which I feel I have no control. It is one thing for me to decide to change the living room window treatments. It is something completely different … [Read more...] about Content at Home Amid the Tyranny of Change

Creating a Family Economy

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A few months ago Pam sent me links to two articles: The Power of the Home Economy (now archived) and Love is not Enough: Toward the Recovery of a Family Economics (via Wayback Machine now) They were both very interesting and I highly recommend both of them.Sometimes reading about family and family economies is challenging for me. We live in the city, we don't have any children, and we don't know if we will have any. So a lot of times what people write about in these articles doesn't completely apply to us. But I do believe there is great … [Read more...] about Creating a Family Economy

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