Striving for Simplicity~Small Family, Big Plans

Well Linny at A Place Called Simplicity has started something else that I think is great, it is called Saturday's Striving for Simplicity and it is a place to discuss simplifying life so I thought I would throw in my two cents worth ;-).

I do not have a big family yet, right now it is me, the husband, my sweet girl, and my wonderful boy but we have big plans, well actually God has big plans and we are just along for the ride! So, I am trying to simplify things so that I will already have some great practices in place before we add to our family. One thing that I feel is very important to me is letting go of others preconceived notions of what my life should be. I tried to make every part of my life look like others said it should for a decade. Finally about two years ago I decided that what God thought about it was FAR more important than getting a family member or friend’s stamp of approval. This has led to several changes in my life but the most recent one has been our decision to homeschool. For years women taught their children, the center of life was the home and not the school. I feel like deciding to make our home the center of our lives again is a giant step in the right direction.

I have also started paring down in more tangible ways. One way is that I have a giveaway bag next to my bathroom door in my bedroom and when anyone puts something on and realizes that hey have grown three inches (for some of us that is in height and for others it's in width :-) not saying who is who!) they place it into the bag and that keeps our closets from getting bogged down with last years size. Another thing I did was hang two rods in my son’s closet and I put the clothes for the current season on the lowest rack and the off season clothes on the top rack. This way he can reach what he needs but he can't get to a snow suit in July. My son's room is a bit on the small side so I also bought some "soft bins" for his folded clothes and use those for storage instead of a big chest. He has a student desk my grandfather made with big cubes in it that are just the right size for the bins.

One way we keep the house running is having a set cleaning day. We straighten the house everyday but every Tuesday is cleaning day and we all work on one room at a time each doing our "jobs" and then moving on. When we are working on getting chapter books read we will stop in between each room and read one chapter, it's kinda like a little treat for finishing each room. It makes quick work of the cleaning and gives us a little rest in between (which my back really needs sometimes). I am looking forward to getting others tips! I would love some tips at meal planning and tips to help laundry not be such a chore! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

In Christ Alone,