Delighting in the Days....

Oct. 11, 2008 - Living Simply Saturdays

Simple living is becoming more and more appealing to me. As I cleaned out my closet a few weeks ago, my frustration grew as I realized how much time and money I have spent on stuff!

Moving stuff around, organizing stuff, looking for things amongst my stuff,...it’s such a waste of time. Time I could spend doing other things: Bible study, sewing, playing with the kids...this list is endless.

Of course we do need some stuff. But a lot less than most of us have and a lot less than most of us think we need.

I cleared out a few garbage bags full of clothing from my closet. It has been 3 weeks since then, and I have not missed any of it. My husband and I share a closet, it’s not large, so that helps me to have less...since I don’t want to spend money on more storage!

Since this is my first post about simple living, I am rambling a bit. There are many areas I want to work on to make my home a happy and peaceful place, and my life a lot less complicated. Some of the things I am thinking about are:

Get clothing ready for Wednesday night Bible study in the morning.
Get everything ready for Sunday morning the night before.
Do major grocery shopping once a month, then weekly for fresh produce, milk and cheese.
Continue to get rid of stuff!
Finish organizing the kitchen - I spent a few hours on this last night and will finish it today. I have tossed a few items and put a few of the rarely used ones in the garage. It is does not made simple living any easier when you have to dig for an appliance!
Simplify food prep - I recently watched Raw Food Made Easy(which was awesome) and was encouraged to spend a little time on the weekend preparing dressings and cutting veggies for the week ahead. This is very helpful when you are striving to eat a lot of fresh veggies. I also plan to implement a baking day once week.

That is what is on my mind at the moment. I hope to write more about each item mentioned as I work on that area.

Be sure to visit Keeper of the Home to join the Living Simply carnival.

Have a lovely day,

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Apr. 14, 2007 - Organizing 101

Posted in Home Management

I am steadily working on my garage and it is beginning to look better! Ye-haw

If you need some organizing tips you must visit Laura at http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com

I urge you to click here and read today's post. It is full of links to great organizing advice. One of the links she provided lead me to Come 2 Order 2 Day . It is an awesome site! I really enjoyed the article about Organizing 101 and Create a home for everything you own

So go and check them out!

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Dec. 28, 2006 - Homemade Laundry Soap!

Posted in Home Management

I did it!! I made my own laundry soap! This is so exciting.

The welltellme.com discussion boards have a thread on making your own laundry soap. I thought I would give it a try. There was nothing to lose since it did not involve too much time or cost.

All you need to do is grate 2 bars of regular soap, put it in a pot, cover with water and heat on low, stirring until the soap is dissolved.

Here is a picture of my soap on the stove:

After that, fill a large bucket with 4 1/2 gallons of hot water. Stir. Then add 1 cup of baking soda and 1 cup of borax ( you can use 2 cups of baking soda if you don't want to use borax). Stir that up and let it cool, stirring occasionally. It will thicken as it cools.

Here is a picture of my soap:

Can you believe that made 5 or 6 gallons of laundry soap!? I won't be buying any for a long time. This is going to last a while. I've tried it out and it works great.

Look how big the bucket is:
Check out the thread on welltellme for more information: http://www.welltellme.com/discuss/index.php/topic,786.0.html
Some people have used a few drops of essential oil for a nice fragrance. I bought good soap from the health food store and it smells very nice. You could use plain ivory soap if you want to (I was trying to make it with less chemicals). The whole 5 gallons cost about $7.00. You could make it for even less if you bought less expensive soap.

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Oct. 26, 2006 - Home Management

Posted in Home Management

I am adding a new category to my side bar - Home Management

This topic has been of great interest to me over the past few years. Even with that interest, I still struggle quite a bit.

As I strive to improve my home management skills you can be assured that I will be writing some posts on the subject in the coming days, weeks and months.

In the meantime, here are two articles I really enjoyed. The first I came across through Tiany's blog (which is also full of great information)
Dying to self as a mother
Helping your family love being at home

My next post will be about chores. Hopefully I will have a little time later to get that one on here.
Until then....

Happy Homemaking,
Stacy

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Sep. 12, 2006 - The Gift of a Clean Kitchen

Posted in Home Management

My house has been a terrible mess lately! I really mean it - just awful! Well, I finally got the kitchen cleaned up and am so happy. I have kept it clean for 3 days now! Yay!

We are trying to do the dishes and put them away right after the meal is over. If we don't, they are forgotten. It is not nice to wake up to dirty dishes. It is like starting the day already behind.

Of course there are more important things than dishes - but a clean kitchen really does a lot for my mood. It seems to help set the tone for our home. My husband has been very happy too. He keeps saying, "It is so nice!". Obviously I think it is nice too - I took a picture!

I wish it was not so hard for me to keep my home clean and tidy. I really did not have much training in this area. So now I am learning and training my own children at the same time.

It is exciting to think about how prepared my daughter will be when she becomes a wife and mother. Since we are homeschooling, we have the time to teach, train and prepare our children for REAL life. No matter what they do, there will be dishes that need washing and clothes that need cleaning...so they may as well learn how!

I just wanted to share my excitement with you. It is a funny thing to blog about, but I have been truly blessed by a clean kitchen! When I wake up in the morning it is a little gift for me. It helps to start my day out happy!

Happy cleaning to you!!

Stacy

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About Me

I am an Australian married to an American, currently living in the U.S.A. Join me as I strive to delight in the moments that make up our days and aim to have a happy family that loves God and serves others.