Our move is complete, although our “settling in” is far from done. Turns out, 9 people have a lot of stuff. The only thing we haven’t unpacked: the books. We need to buy a bookcase first. My body is aching and exhausted (*except for one part) and for the last two days I’ve been having […]
Clean with pretty things
Yesterday I talked about how I want to have a cleaner house (even while living with a husband and 7 kids – what can I say, I like to dream big). A thought came to me late yesterday afternoon. I remembered something I read years ago. The main message was this: Use good tools. Clean […]
I want a cleaner house this year
There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks now. I want a cleaner house this year. We’re about to close on a home, a first for my husband and me. It feels huge. The house we’re buying is currently inhabited by a retired couple from Australia. There are no kids there, but the […]
December: Things I Enjoyed
This is a new feature here: Things I Enjoyed is simply quick takes on stuff I liked using, reading or wearing in the previous month. Tangie Laundry Paste Concentrate I recently decided to start buying my laundry detergent in bulk, since I go through so much, and the stash I bought back in the summer […]
Why I won’t feel bad about my house anymore
Every once in a while, I feel bad about my house. I have a lovely house. I am thankful for it. But it’s not Pinterest-worthy. It’s rarely even Instragram-worthy. I look at pictures of my friends’ homes on social media, with their perfect, unblemished walls, and I wonder whether they repainted just last week. I […]
From Crunchy to Soggy, and the sweet spot between frugality and environmentalism
There is a sweet spot between frugality and environmentalism. While I aim for both values and they have much overlap, they are sometimes at odds with each other. And I discovered that I’m happiest when I stay in that sweet spot. Read on to see what I mean. As I review the nearly 2,000 posts […]
Back-to-homeschool to-do list
I didn’t post a summer bucket list this year as in years past. I’ve been focused on writing my new book. However, there are a couple of things I need to accomplish before the busy season of homeschool and extracurricular lessons begin. They’ve been niggling at the back of my brain, but for some reason […]
This crunchy, frugal mama: why I don’t make homemade laundry detergent
(This is a post in the No Spend Challenge series.) I’m about to make a radical statement. Are you sitting down? This frugal, crunchy mama is about to spill it: Why I don’t make homemade laundry detergent. Gasp! I wrote on this topic a few years ago after several good, solid trials into homemade laundry […]
The right size for a home may be smaller
I read this post recently from Becoming Minimalist’s Joshua Becker and found myself agreeing with every word: 12 Reasons Why You’ll Be Happier in a Smaller Home Since we’ve decided to buy a home, I’ve been thinking a lot about our real needs. Our current home, while lovely, is simply too big for us. A […]
Large family logistics: it’s all about systems
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about systems, and how implementing them is the answer to solving so many problems, especially in a large family. It started with our embarrassing habit of arriving 1 minute late to our place of worship. Yikes. Week after week we couldn’t get our stuff together to get there before […]