A Quiet Simple Life | Sallie Borrink

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

A Quiet Simple Life

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Acknowledge Your Limits | Cozy Life Reset – Day 7


I’ve written about the idea of limits many times in posts such as Limits Are God’s Idea and Margin, Rhythm, and Decision Making. It’s difficult to have a cozy life of peace, understanding, joy, beauty, and faith if you are stretched beyond your limits over and over again. I’ve been wrestling all weekend with the reality of needing to acknowledge my limits. So it’s appropriate to make acknowledge your limits the topic for day seven just before I go to bed after what has been an emotionally draining day.

I’m in the situation of needing to make a difficult real life decision that will definitely be the best for me and my family but probably won’t be understood by some of the people it will impact. I’m sorry to be vague, but until I deal with the situation I don’t think I should say more. It’s not a bad situation. It’s simply something that is beyond what is good for me and my family.

Do you ever struggle with acknowledging your limits and acting accordingly?

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Using a Habit Tracker | Cozy Life Reset – Day 3


So many ideas. So many goals. So much honest forgetting to follow through when it isn’t right in my face. Maybe you have that problem, too? 

I’m a list maker and always have been. I can work through a to-do list with the best of them. But ***for some reason*** certain daily personal goals don’t get done unless I have a ***different checklist right in front of me*** every day.

I’m tired of getting to the end of the day and realizing I forgot to do X or Z. And I do mean honestly forgot even though I sincerely desired to do that specific thing when I started my day. 

So I will be using a habit tracker again after getting out of the habit. (Ha!) I’ve printed off three pages of habit trackers from my shop and will fill out the first one after I hit publish on this post and mail it out to my subscribers. The tracker will be hanging on the door of my office where I have to walk by it a hundred times a day and can see it from my desk out of the corner of my eye. I chose ones with a fall theme. I also chose the apple picture for this post to remind me that I have goals I would like to meet before the autumn arrives. Meeting these goals would bring me much peace and joy if I can meet some or all of them by fall. 

Here are some posts I’ve written in the past about related topics.

Is there something you would like to do to reset your cozy life? 

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Habit Trackers In My Shop

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Quitting To Increase Peace | Cozy Life Reset – Day 2


This isn’t something I specifically did today, but about a week ago. However, it’s definitely related to what I’m doing with this series of cozy life adjustments.

Caroline and I had agreed to be on the church nursery roster starting last year. I had seriously thought about not continuing, but then November and December happened with all of its unusual family demands. Before I had the presence of mind to ask to be removed from the list, the 2024 assignments had already been made.

We just went with it, but every time we serve in the nursery we end up sick.

Every.

Single.

Time.

I don’t know how it is in your homeschool, but sickness is not conducive to getting much quality learning time. Losing basically a week of homeschool time multiple times a year simply isn’t worth it. Caroline’s education comes before serving at church. Her education is my primary ministry at this point in my life. 

So I sent a note to the woman who organizes it and asked that we be removed for the rest of the year.

There are other ways I’m serving at church and they do take quite a bit of my time from my perspective. Others might look at my commitments and think it is very little. But I know what works for me and what doesn’t. We’re all different. Honestly, David and I are both leaning strongly toward declining all ministry opportunities next year to give ourselves a break. 

Is there anything you need to quit? Is your ministry in your home suffering due to ministry outside the home? Here are some posts I’ve written in the past about these topics.

What did you do today to reset your cozy life? 

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In My Shop

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Removing the Distracting Possibilities Around Me


One of the things I’ve been working on is removing the distracting possibilities from my life. That’s what I’m calling all the things that call out to me with their potential.

There are only so many hours in the day, days in the week, and weeks in the year. There are only so many years in a life. I could live five lifetimes and never do or learn all the things that interest me. I could never read all the books, do all the projects, become proficient in all the instruments, learn all the languages, or develop all the skills.

Even though I’m interested in so many of those possibilities, I’m more committed to prioritizing and enjoying my cozy life. It’s difficult to rest and enjoy your life if you’re constantly distracted or tempted by other things around you.

So I’ve been slowly and methodically removing the distracting possibilities over the past several months. It’s been a slow process as I’ve had to fit it in around the responsibilities of life. Some of these things I probably could have gotten rid of many years ago, but they were still potentially useful if I decided to move in a particular direction. I’ve now reached the point in life where those possibilities have dropped off my list of likely to be acted upon. It’s been time to let them go. It’s included everything from physical items to papers in manila folders and three-ring binders to digital files to mental to-do-someday lists.

The distractions come in a variety of formats, not just in the physical realm.

But every time I let something go that I know I will never get to, it further frees me up for the things I truly do want to be a part of my life.

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