Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books
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Most people who are behind on retirement planning feel overwhelmed. They have no idea where to start. The “experts” throw around numbers like saving 15% of your income and saving $1,000,000 (now recently updated in places to numbers approaching $2,000,000) if you want to retire and not end up on the streets. This is especially …
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It’s the last day of August. Where did the summer go? I know we always ask that question each year, but this year I’m asking it in a different way as I’m sure you are as well. This will be our fourth week of homeschooling. We are off to a good start and I’m thankful. …
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One of the oft-cited cardinal rules of having a strong family is eating together as a family. I agree with this in theory. I do think a lack of regular and meaningful family time is a significant problem in our culture. In our case, because we work from home and homeschool, we have the opportunity …
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I’ve discovered the secret to living simply. It is this. Put your hands over your ears. Close your eyes. Now loudly say, “La la la la la. I’m not listening to you!” I’m serious. Sort of. The number one key to living simply is to listen to God and stop listening so intently to everyone …
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An early favorite book when I was beginning my simple living journey was The Yankee Way to Simplify Your Life by Jay Heinrichs. In the book he writes: There is one time of the day when the phone never rings, the world keeps getting brighter, and you have the whole day ahead: early morning. Did that …
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Does your life reflect what you say is important? Three years ago, I posted this entry on my blog. The parts in bold I have bolded today. One of the most interesting experiences in my early study of simplicity was participating in The Pierce Simplicity Study. Linda Breen Pierce was doing research for a book …
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I noticed a number of years ago that if I run into people I haven’t talked to recently and asked them how they were doing I almost always got the same answer: “Oh, I’m so busy!” Now, however, it isn’t enough to be busy. Now the answer is crazy busy. You have to be crazy …
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The tension I feel in writing about a topic such as this is that some people might be quick to be offended. They will think I am criticizing them and their life choices. Or they will think I don’t understand their situation and so they write off everything that is said rather than pondering whether …
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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 …
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I mentioned yesterday that my husband and I frequently say to each other, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” We remind each other of this because: We are the type of people who find a lot of things interesting and could have more “hobbies” than there is time in the day. We are …
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“God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends.” Jeremy Taylor
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When David and I decided to take a serious look at our life the year after we were married and make some changes, I don’t think we fully appreciated how complicated it could be to simplify. We knew we wanted more peace, more time, and a more integrated life. We also wanted less debt, less …
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My study of living simply and the simplicity movement started after we had only been married a year. I was teaching full-time and wanted to be home, even before we had children. Out of my study evolved many additional interests regarding simplicity such as: margin overload consumerism LBYM (aka Living Beneath Your Means) clutter calling …
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“Never let mistakes or wrong directions, of which every man falls into many, discourage you. There is precious instruction to be got by finding where we were wrong.” Thomas Carlyle
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Today was a day described well by this quote: I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. Helen Keller My day was filled with small tasks – laundry, meals, cleaning out the refrigerator, more laundry, cleaning the …
