~ Let The Countdown Begin! ~

I will be joining in the countdown to Christmas Day with "25 Quotes To Christmas" !  Each day I will search to find a quote that can help and enhance our lives and bring holiday cheer!  Also, I am working on a post about how to simplify the holidays...

Happy Christmas Counting!! 

SimpleMom

Day 25:
"Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of
a truly merry Christmas."

~ Peg Bracken 

~ Simple Quote ~

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."  ~Leonardo DaVinci

Have a simply sophisticated day everyone! :)  No new posts until the holiday weekend has passed. Have a wonderfully relaxed and simple weekend. 

SimplMom 

~Thankful Thursday ~

Thankful Thursday falls on Thanksgiving Day!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and try to keep it as "simple" as possible :) Or, if that is pretty much IMpossible, then maybe try to take a breather during the busyness and fun to find some simplicity in the day.  

God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

~SimpleMom~

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life."  ~John Burroughs

Love this! Simple and beautiful things found in nature all around us every day. I am trying to find more ways to just enjoy what God has already given to us. If we cannot simplify our physical space...maybe we can simply get outside more and enjoy nature and the world around us. Perhaps this will help our lives feel more "simple".  

Have a wonderful day!


SimpleMom

~ Simply Genius ~

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.  It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."  ~E.F. Schumacher

Love this! All of you out there trying to simplify your life with me....you are a courageous genius! If that doesn't brighten your day then I don't know what will!! :O)


~Have a great weekend everyone~ 

SimpleMom

~ Thankful Thursday ~

It is time for Thankful Thursday and reflections of gratitude this week!

This Thursday I am super thankful for my families health so far this month!Whoohoo! I am also grateful that my hubby has a 4 day weekend and we get to spend some awesome time at home together! Love weekends like that! 

What are you thankful for this Thursday?

SimpleMom 

Spiritual vs Physical Clutter

"Eliminate physical clutter.  More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter."  ~Terri Guillemets

As we embark on simplifying our lives...this is a three fold process. It not only involves eliminating physical clutter , or  "junk" as some may call it , but also eliminating spiritual and emotional clutter. 

This is a post and topic we could expand on, and will, but for now...I leave you (and me) with some thought provoking questions. 

What spiritual clutter might you need to "clean up" in your life? This could be in the form of sin that has not been either recognized or dealt with. I know that sometimes personally I do not even realize I am sinning until I spend time in prayer and ask God to reveal my sins to me. Then it's like the light bulb goes on...WOW ...I didn't realize I was doing that!  This clutter can also be in the form of unresolved conflicts and issues. We ALL have these , right? The nagging "oh yah, I should talk to that person about this and that" or the nagging reminder that someone is upset at you or you are upset with someone...I Have been spending devotional time reading about this very subject. At first, I felt that I had no unresolved issues or conflicts for once in my life. God quickly revealed that I was wrong. There are 2 that came up of course involving family. Don't they always! But, it's the kind that is a silent killer. You act happy and fine when you are around them and vise versa. But there is that silent tension..the things that aren't being said..yet..sort of are being said at the same time. Yah, familiar huh?  So many of these in our lives. If you are like me, you just kind of let it go and let it go..saying "well I am going to pray on that for a while" or " I will deal with that later" or "God will let me know when to deal with it " yet, here I am 2 years after the fact not dealing with the issue. It is never fun or easy to deal with conflict.  And if you are like me again, you avoid it at all costs! Well, God has revealed to me lately, that we really have to just kind of "man up" or grab some Godly courage and deal with it. Because it truly is spiritual AND emotional clutter. We may think we are fine, but it is there, lurking in  he background. The tension from it will come out in different ways and if left unresolved can cause issues later on spiritually and emotionally. I thank God for speaking to me about these things....but I must admit...I am not looking forward to it! I have to remember though, God is there with me and will give me His divine strength to get through it and say the right things. And most important...he will bless me (and you ) for obeying Him -cool! :) 

I want to share with you a verse that I came across today, that really has stood out and maybe you will find it helpful as well! 
  
Matthew 18 vs 15-17:
¹⁵ “If your brother or sister^[a] sins,^[b] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. ¹⁶ But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’^{[c] 17} If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

Wow! Isn't this just about the most simple, direct and awesome way to handle issues? Well, at least I think so :) It is amazing to me the times you can read a passage over and over and then one day it will stand out in a new light. I realize what I need to do. Now, if they don't listen to me....I can certainly bring another person along next time and try again. If they still don't listen..I am not sure I can take them to the Church, but I can take them to a Pastor with me...or call a pastor, have him come over and hang out with us and resolve it..or maybe seek Church counsel? A Godly mentor? If after that they still don't budge, well I am free to just kind of say "see ya" and treat them as an acquaintance , if that. I don't know how people in those days treated Pagans and Tax collectors..I would be interested to find out. But, I am sure they were not rude or mean in any way. Probably just chose to not associate much with them. 

I have some big steps ahead of me in dealing with some spiritual clutter. Both on a personal level with sin and on a level of conflict. I know that I can only do this with God's help! On my own I am a wimp and coward..it's true! Ask anyone who know's me...I run from conflict faster then you can blink! :) But that's ok, its' how I am and so I know that to deal with these cluttering issues I must lean only on God. And thankfully, I trust Him and know he will help me..so it makes me feel better :)

Are there spiritual and emotional cluttering issues in your life? If so, I pray for you too! Lets clean out the junk!!  It really will help on our journey to a simpler life :)

SimpleMom 

~ Some Simple Thoughts ~

So, I have been thinking about this blog. How I had intended for it to go and how it's not really going anywhere yet :) I know once I get the blog out there more , there may be more people interested. But, I also have to post more. One issue is my busy day. It's hard to find the time with the kids, helping my oldest with his cyber school work, and other Mommy and Wife duties to sit down and type posts every day. 

When I started this, I wanted it to be a place to not only get out my thoughts but to share with others, get ideas, support, connect and encourage. So, I will be thinking about the direction of this blog ...if I have the proper time to commit to it...and what I can do to keep it informative and interesting. 

Thanks to those who check in on us...

SimpleMom

We Are On Facebook!

You can now connect with us via Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100001780519532

I will be creating a fan page that you can "like" as well! 

~Simple Mom ~

The Plan -Part 1

Hello! I will begin this post by saying I am so so so sorry if any of you have been checking back and waiting to hear what our "plan " is! Wow, it has been a very busy month since I last posted but I am here and ready to tell you what our idea is....

This plan to live a more simple life has taken many twists and turns.  Some things have changed greatly while other's will remain a constant.  I will start with what will be the main focus and the constant throughout this journey. 

*We have realized an aggressive savings plan is necessary! This will take anywhere from 3-5 years depending just how "aggressive" we are with it. It could take  less or more then this time frame..probably more :) What does aggressive savings look like to us? Basically putting as much as possible into a savings account that is strictly going towards our future "smaller home" ideas. Those are the ideas that will probably change allot over the next 5 years but the savings plan will be the same. We are currently working on this. We are laying out our plan , to make sure we have enough to live on. We don't want to live so tight that we cannot eat properly or enjoy our life now. But we will put away as much as we can and see what happens! This is exciting.   Doing this, requires great patience, vision, and commitment. We both have to remind each other that even though it will take a while, there is an end goal in mind that is going to be great! Also, we have to be on the same page. That is why I have put off posting this. It has changed allot...and well we both had to talk many times about our different goals and ideas and then bring them together to unite one common plan we both can love. That took some time :) 
I put the savings part first because this really is the MOST important part. Without the funds , we cannot do much.  

Our goal from the start was to free up fincances. To down size as much as we believe we can possibly do and then be able to pay for most of a new home with cash. We would like to save enough to at least begin the home building process and maybe pay as we go. Save along the way. Or pay for as much as we can and then take out a smaller loan that we can pay off sooner. 

*The Plan: has changed very much. At first, it was to find and buy land soon. We went to see some land and we love it and it is selling for an amazing price right now because the builder/ owner wants out of the project. We are still discussing if we want to go with this land. We have not placed a bid yet and we have some time to decide. We have allot to take into consideration. If we buy this land, we could sit on it for the time that we save enough money and then start building. It is in a nice community but we have to think about if we would want to live there for sure. The good thing, if we don't want to live there  in 5 years then we could try to sell the land. Allot of pro's and con's to consider. 
So,we may buy the land and then hang on to it, save the money, when enough is saved start the building process and either take out a small loan to pay the rest off -that can also be paid off in a few years....or if we have enough cash then pay for it all cash. With building a much smaller home , if we do it right it could be built for under 100,000. There is just so so much to consider, discuss and think about. So as we go along and the plan changes, new things come up, or we finally decide what is the right path I will be sure to post! Much is up in the air right now. 

*What can we do now to save?: When we realized we would not be building or moving for close to 5 years, we thought "what can we do now to cut down on our bills?" .  We will be refinancing the house in a year or so , so hopefully that will bring our mortgage payment down some. Also, we have taken steps to cut down on our electricity costs. Simple things , such as making sure if we are not in a room the lights are off. Sometimes we leave fans running all day and no one is in that room so now we make sure to turn them off. I try to do dishes only when the dishwasher is really full and we need them washed. We will be upgrading our dishwasher to an energy saving one in the next year.  Our most urgent need is a new washer and dryer. It is very very old and uses allot of water and electricity. So for now, I do laundry on Saturday or Sunday . One day a week as to save. We do not let our oldest son fill up the bath tub to the rim anymore...only about half way. That was taking up allot of water.  Small changes that can make a huge impact! I wanted to wait and see if it changed our bills much before posting..and it did! Our electric bill was around 80.00 when it was well over 100 before! Hooray! 

So, even though we have a big picture and goal in mind, we can do things now to help. There are other options for energy saving in the home we are looking into. We already have the energy saving light bulbs and fridge so that helps. 

*Remembering the goal: It is important as time goes on and we live our lives, that we do not forget our end goal. We love our home but it is more then enough room for us. Also, I miss the country and peace and quiet that brings. We want to be able to have a home built and build as much of it as we can (that will help save money too!) for the best price we possibly can -to avoid a large and heavy mortgage payment, and to live more simply. 

I am already so pleased to see the changes we have been able to make and how it is effecting our lives in a positive way. We have even cleared out some more "things" we do not need and take boxes of clothes, toys, and other items we just do not use anymore to local charities. It is refreshing to clear out the home and to also be giving good items to people who could not afford them otherwise. It is a process of simplifying and giving back. A process that really keeps on giving :)