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April 26, 2013 in Simple Living Travel
Last weekend we made a fast trip to Beijing.
Took the fast train (300 km an hour) for the 400 km trip Friday after classes and explored for 2 days.
A few years ago we studied Chinese history in our homeschool studies and the kids learned about the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. It was all stories back then…
…. but last weekend they were standing on history! Read the rest of this entry →
April 25, 2013 in Creating Simple Living
Is life about finding happiness?
It sounds a bit selfish doesn’t it?
I used to think it sounded selfish. But what if it wasn’t selfish?
What if we are meant to find happiness in life? What if it is true that happiness is the difference between being alive and truly living?
I think society is full of many things that are selfish, but it may be more in our definition of happiness than in actually finding it.
April 24, 2013 in Books on Simple Living
I am so excited to say that ‘The Simple Living Handbook‘ is published!
This is my first traditionally published book and I can’t really express how exciting it is!
The Simple Living Handbook is a combination of a guide book to simplifying your life with the story of how we simplified ours. It talks specifically about simple living in the home, our lives, and our minds.
It has been my baby for over a year now and I am pretty proud of it.
Publishers Weekly reviewed it and said:
“While readers might be expecting yet another book on how to simply clean and organize material possessions, the author goes several steps further to apply the
simplification process to all areas of life. This thought-provoking offering will have
readers seeing their lives and possessions in a new light.”
—Publishers Weekly
April 23, 2013 in Creating Simple Living
When packing to move to China I started realizing something.
In China I have been struggling and thinking more.
This 1 thing is a material trap for both pack-rats and minimalists, people with money and people without.
This 1 idea is what keeps us thinking, planning, and comparing. Often wasting both our time and our money.
Realizing this 1 idea can help me and you have more of these resources to put toward our living.
April 22, 2013 in Simple Living Weekly Challenges
Image: by antpkr FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Welcome to Week 4. I am really excited to say that it is week 16 of the Simple Challenges! If you started in January with us, you have been simplifying for 4 months already!
Where are you at? What is different?
The really exciting thing is that you are making habits!
April 19, 2013 in Simple Stories
Image: Foto76 – FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The following is a guest post from a reader. Louise, thanks so much for sharing your story today!
I started living the simple life about 20 years ago and at that time it was because I had very little money. For me, this style of living has developed over the years. Now, I have more money but I really don’t have any desire to accumulate material stuff.
There are two kinds of things in life. There are the important things and things that have no purpose. I want to live my life with things that have purpose and meaning.
April 17, 2013 in Simple Family
Image: David Castillo Dominici,FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Chinese people touch each other… and they touch me too.
Of all the ways I thought culture would be different here in China it is the touching that keeps catching me off guard.
… but the touching, still seems odd to me.
I am not sure what this tells me about Chinese people, but I know this tells me a lot about myself.
April 15, 2013 in Simple Living Weekly Challenges
Image: by digitalart FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Welcome to Simple Living Challenge week 3! I hope you had a bunch of fun on the growing week last week.
This week is back to work.
This week we are going to make a big difference to a small space.
April 10, 2013 in Creating Simple Living
Image: debspoons of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
For some reason I really don’t like the ‘boundaries’ word. I think it is sometimes used inappropriately and can lead to breakdowns in close relationships. I think our culture suffers because it doesn’t know how to develop close relationships and boundaries often give us the excuse.
However, over the last few weeks in China, I have been thinking and talking about boundaries more.
April 8, 2013 in Simple Living Weekly Challenges
Image: posterize of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Welcome back to the Simple Living Challenges!
Week 2 of the month is a fun week, a week where we can focus on growing and adding instead of focusing on all the excess.
Week 2 is the week we focus on learning and personal growth.
This is the week we can nurture the part of who we are that is different than everyone else, really find our individuality.
Ready for a specific growth challenge?
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