The Simple Wife

Drum roll, please...

The letter Z is up for The ABCs of Living Simply. 

Now I think I'm going to print all of mine out on some fancy paper and then make it into a scrapbook-y kind of album thing-y.

Which is totally going to challenge my crafting skills, but scrapbooking is something I just can't seem to master.

The letter Y is up...one more to go!

Click on The ABCs of Living Simply button to download.

Two down, two more to go

Letters W and X for The ABCs of Living Simply are up on the Free Downloads page. Only Y and Z to go.

Then I have something fun planned that I'm so excited about!

Thanks for hanging in there with me--somehow these 26 have taken way longer than the 26 weeks I envisioned. Summer threw me for a loop--I think all the suntan lotion made my brain fuzzy!

It's Monday and I've actually posted the next ABC of Living Simply

I know you can't believe it, but school has begun and I need to get back in the habit of getting these up. After all, we're up to the letter V and getting close to the end of the alphabet.

And I have a really cool bloggy thing I'm so excited about, but I can't do it until these ABCs are done.

So click on over there (--->) on the ABCs button and you can download "V is for value story."

The letter U is up!

See, I really didn't forget!

The letter T is up...

...for The ABCs of Living Simply. Click on the button on the right.

S is for she finally put up another ABC!

After a totally unintended break, the letter S is up for The ABCs of Living Simply on the Free Downloads page.

The letter R is up...

...for The ABCs of Living Simply.

The letter Q is up...

...for The ABCs of Living Simply.

And the plumbing is fixed--even though he flooded the basement even worse than we did to fix it. I have the last bunch of fabric in the dryer now. Guess that's what I get for stacking some on the floor--which I only did to get it out of the flood last night. Luckily, it's just bits and pieces.

Gotta go tuck Audrey into bed and get to bed myself. As much as I like getting all the laundry and cleaning done on Mondays, it sure makes me tired!

The letter P is up...

...for The ABCs of Living Simply.

Organize something

The letter O in The ABCs of Living Simply is up! Just click on the button, or on the Free Downloads page link.

I really needed this one!

The letter N is up on the Free Downloads page.

M is for...

The letter M for The ABCs of Living Simply is up on the free downloads page.

No ABCs tonight...

...in fact, maybe not until next week. Yep, definitely not until next week.

Today didn't go quite as I expected--I was gone all day subbing at the last minute at school for someone this morning and then running errands and delivering cookies this afternoon. Luckily, I started the laundry last night--something I've never done before. But God knew I needed a head start on my day.

I'm speaking in Boulder tomorrow, and then we're headed out of town on Wednesday--and there's still lots to be done--housecleaning, packing, more cookie deliveries, and such. It's just not going to get done tonight. I'm tired--weary, even. And I can tell I need some extra rest in order to stay healthy. Toben said I have to be in bed by 8. (Something I know isn't that unusual for me, but lately I've been staying up late--10:30 even!--and still getting up by 5:30.) I need to go take a shower, spend some time hanging out with the girls, and then review for tomorrow.

I'd covet your prayers for tomorrow--I'm excited to share some of the things God has been teaching me about marriage. Not because I've got it all figured out, but because God is so wonderful. I just love how all of his plans fit together perfectly for our good.

Love you all lots and lots!

Joanne

Let go of stuff

Hey all,

Thanks for being patient! The letter L is up for The ABCs of Living Simply. Just click on the link over there on the right.

And while you're at it, go visit Melissa here. She's been doing some major purging and getting rid of stuff. It's been fun to read her tallies for each day of what she got rid of. The thing that struck me is this--for "Most Difficult to Part With" she didn't really have anything to list. As she's said, it was nice stuff, but just stuff. And what's left is what adds to her home, tells a story, makes her smile.

You know, one of the things that has helped me with the whole stuff thing is to have the freedom to take things out of my shopping cart. So often I rush through Target (or somewhere else, but mostly Target!), throwing things in the cart because it caught my eye and was on a great sale. I've learned to give myself the freedom to walk around the store with it in my cart, and the time to think about whether it's something I need, something I want, or something I'm buying just because it's on sale.

More often than not, I head back around the store for a second pass, putting things back where I found them--or even giving them to the checkout person and being comfortable enough to say, "I changed my mind."

K is up!

The letter K is up for The ABCs of Living Simply. Just click the link over there on the right!

The letter J is up

Hey all,

The letter J is up for The ABCs of Living Simply.

I is for include your family

The next letter in The ABCs of Living Simply is up on the free downloads page.

Are we having fun yet?

The girls headed back to school this morning so we're back into the swing of non-vacation life around here. The letter H for The ABCs of Living Simply is up on the Free Downloads page.

I haven't forgotten the alphabet...

...and will continue with letter H next week once Christmas vacation is over!

G is for get going!

The letter G is up over there on the Free Downloads page. Once again, something I need to hear myself.

Too much of my conversation and thoughts these days revolves around "When I get the book done, then I'll ___________." Fill in the blank: do the ironing that's been piling up for (gulp!) months, clean the girls' closets, refold my wardrobe, pick up the basement, get better about planning menus again. You name it, I've been putting it off for the past month (at least!).

Yes, some things really do need to wait until I meet my deadline. But not nearly as many as I'd like to think. I need to get going--to do what I know I need to do. To stop making excuses.

So don't leave me any nice comments that will inspire me to procrastinate some more. Just tell me to get my rear in gear, to get my act together, and to just do what needs doing--and to do it "without arguing and complaining."

:)

F is for flexibility

The letter F in The ABCs of Living Simply is up over there on the Free Downloads page.

Have to say, it's rather ironic that today's letter (or yesterday's, rather!) is for flexibility given that all my plans went awry today. I spent all day feeling disappointed at not being able to go to Boulder (and second-guessing my decision when the sun came out and the roads cleared up around noon)--and so I didn't enjoy being home by the fire with the girls the way I could have. Boy, this is a lesson I'm still learning, one I need desperately.

I'm feeling awfully convicted as I sit here--I need to go read some Christmas stories to the girls, crawl in bed myself, let my Abba comfort me, and redeem what's left of this day.

'Night, ya'll...

***

ADDED LATER:

My dad just called to tell me that I made the right decision this morning. A couple of guys at his office were in accidents this morning--one even totalled his car. He said the roads were so bad he didn't think I would've made it on time had I tried to get there. It was so what I needed to hear...thanks, Dad!

E is for...

The letter E is upon the free downloads page for those of you doing The ABCs of Living Simply.

D is for do one thing at a time

The letter D in The ABCs of Living Simply is up on the free downloads page.

The ABCs of Living Simply button

Copy and paste this code to put The ABCs of Living Simply button on your site:

<a href="http://www.thesimplewife.typepad.com/"><img border="0" src="http://thesimplewife.typepad.com/ABC_Living_Simply.jpg"/></a>

I'm learning this HTML code stuff as I go...I'm pretty sure this will work!

C is for create memories

The letter C is up on the free downloads page for those of you doing The ABCs of Living Simply. (A day late--yesterday was a Brownie day, Toben is out of town, and it just didn't get done by the time I went to bed last night...)

B

The letter B is up for download on the downloads page!

The ABCs of Living Simply

Drumroll please (you'll have to use your imaginiation--I haven't figured out how to imbed an audio file that plays when you get here!)...

Go check out the Free Downloads page over there (<------) to download the introduction and first issue of The ABCs of Living Simply.

I'll add a new issue each week and let you know here when each one is available. (I'm going to aim for Mondays--we'll see how it goes!)

Each issue can be downloaded and printed onto a 4 x 6 card and put together to become your very own little card deck/booklet filled with ideas for living simply. I'm thinking that I'm going to print mine on pretty paper, hole punch the tops, and tie it all together with some ribbon. I'd love to see what you come up with as we go along too.

Enjoy!

P.S. I've clicked to open these files, saved them to my desktop, then opened them in Preview to print. It seems to work fine. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them (or ask Toben to answer them and I'll pass his answer along!).