If you’ve read the Simple Mom blog before, you’ll feel like the content in this book is familiar, but unlike some books based on blogs, this one doesn’t feel like a series of blog posts stuck together.  I think it’s helpful to consider topics in different ways, so even though I’ve read many of these ideas in blog posts, reading them in a more structured narrative was helpful.

The author defines simple living as “living holistically with your life’s purpose.”  She gives helpful pointers on how to identify a purpose statement for yourself and your family, and then how to structure your activities, commitments, and home around that purpose. I think this is a really profound point – all the organization and paring down in the world will be useless to you if the system you’re devising doesn’t line up with your particular and unique priorities and goals.

The first half of the book explores ideas related to simple living, identifying your purpose so you can live simply within it, and gives guidelines for how to take concrete but manageable steps toward a more workable and sustainable life.

The second half of the book focuses on how to make your home more organized and simplified.  Once you’ve identified your purpose and goals, it’s much easier to figure out how to apply those to your space.  The book walks through each section of an average home and makes suggestions for how you might get it under better control.  Reading this section made me feel like I could actually do this and that it would be effective, rather than seeming overwhelming or of questionable utility.

Overall I found Organized Simplicity to be a helpful and inspiring little book and I’d recommend it.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Related posts:

1. Second Quarter in Books
2. The Week in Books 2009, No. 3
3. Change Your Life in One Week!

First we melted some chocolate in the microwave and blew up some water balloons.  When I say “we” I mean “I” and you should know that I nearly passed out from the balloon blowing up part.  Yeesh, water balloons are tough to inflate!

When Bakerella’s instructions said to let the chocolate cool, she wasn’t very specific so we dipped some balloons in it when it was too hot and they popped noisily.  The kids loved it!  Eventually we had to put the chocolate in the freezer for a bit and then the bowl making went more smoothly.

Hannah got to make the first chocolate bowl because she dearly adores any chance to show the little kids how to do stuff.  She is always reminding us that she was “the first baby.”

Next, Jack got to try.

Jack also takes his older sibling teaching responsibilities seriously.  Eventually Sarah got a turn.  Then she monitored who got to go next.  “Hannah TURN! Zhack TURN! Sawah Soo TURRRRRRN!”

After they finished making the bowls, they began arguing over who should get to lick the bowl.  As I tried to mediate the dispute, I started twisting the bowl against the spoon to see if I could get some of the chocolate out to dispense in three equal portions when CRASH!

The bowl hit the floor and smashed into smithereens.  The kids looked at each other like “Shoot, Mom is really mad.  We should stop arguing now.”  I wasn’t mad, of course, but it did solve the dispute!  It was everything we could do to keep them from coming to lick at the glass shards.  Hannah asked, incredulous, “So you’re just going to throw it AWAY?  WITH the chocolate on it still?”

While we waited for the bowls to harden, we made the pudding.  I got all the ingredients ready in advance so the kids could mix.  If you don’t have some of these multi-sized nesting bowls, you should get some.  They are invaluable, super handy, great for cooking with kids, and are made of some sort of less breakable glass.  If only I had used one for the melting chocolate part of this project!

The kids enjoyed mixing the pudding.  Again with the TURNS!  Then we watched for the pudding to develop bubbles “like volcanos” on the stove.

I forgot to take a picture of the part where we popped the balloons to get them out of the chocolate bowls, but that was fun.  It was hard to get the balloon bits out of the bowls even though I had used cooking spray like Bakerella advised.  I had to use tweezers.  But we prevailed and got the pudding in the little bowls and the kids applied sprinkles liberally.  We invited my in-laws over to help us consume this feast of chocolatey goodness.

Annnnnd this is the face of a child who has consumed a LOT of sugar!!!!

Related posts:

1. Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate
2. China for Kids?
3. Nectar and Ambrosia

It is possible for a person to have an overwhelming number of things to do and still function productively with a clear head and a positive sense of relaxed control.

Sign me up.

In Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen lays out a simple but proven way to get control of all the open loops of half thought out projects and tasks and slips of paper and vague goals and plans and actually get things accomplished in your life.  Allen is one of those life coach/organizer people and his clients include CEOs of major corporations so it seems he knows of what he speaks.

I found the book to be tremendously helpful.  Allen’s system is not very complex, but it is exceptionally thorough.  His premise is that as long as you have loose thoughts and tasks running around in your brain or spilling all over your workspace, you will spend so much time trying to remember your commitments and keep track of your details that you won’t have time to really be your best creative and most effective self.  I think he has a real point there.  I spend an awful lot of brain power trying to keep track of miscellany.  I’d rather not.

The plan, then, begins with capturing everything in your physical and mental “in box” – all in one place at one time – and examining each item in light of what it means, what your role is, and what the next action step is.

Defining your in box and deciding on the next action step are the two pillars of the system, which then branches out into ways to define and organize your projects, keep track of your life, get your commitments under control, and establish your life plan at various levels.

I like that the system is easy to understand and implement and that it is comprehensive.  I took a lot of notes and look forward to setting up some of the processes Allen advocates.  As he says, even if you just do one or two of the things he suggests you will be a ton more productive and organized than most people.

Unless you’re already bizarrely organized and on top of your life from the ground level to the birds eye view, I would absolutely recommend you read this book.  Even if you only take a few ideas from it, I think you’d find it quite helpful.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Related posts:

1. Keeping Track of What I Read
2. In Which I Return, Somewhat Improved
3. Fast Free Redecorating

But.

The mess, dear readers, overwhelmed us.  You see, because I am using books for our preschool subjects, I had the kids books organized by subject.  It made perfect sense to me when I was putting the books away (Bible, ABCs, Mother Goose, Poetry, Art, Music, Manners, Math, Science, History, Folk Tales, Social Studies, Literature) but I was the only one who could put the books away.  The kids didn’t get the system so they couldn’t help.  They would stack the books up at the end of the day, but I would wind up reshelving.  We have roughly four jillion books.  It was not working.

Thus, I decided to move to a new system.  Most of the kids toys are organized in baskets and boxes and stored on another shelf so that they can only get out one mess at a time and more easily pick it up before starting the next mess.  I decided to transfer that idea to books.  I used a gift card I earned from taking a survey a long time ago to purchase six plastic boxes.  Using those and one wicker basket I divvied up all of the books into seven boxes, with a few from each category in each box.  Now each day we can get out a new box and at the end of the day all of the books go back in that box.

It almost worked.  Except the boxes were too small (I believe I mentioned the four jillion number…).  So I put a small bookshelf in Hannah’s closet and another basket in Jack’s room and filled each of those up with books that they can look at during afternoon rest time.  With one additional box for books related to the country we’re learning about currently, we are set.  The freed up space on the playroom bookshelf holds toys.  It’s SO much easier to clean up now!

So much better!

Out of curiosity, how do you store your kids books?  Who does the picking up?

Related posts:

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3. My Top Three Thanksgiving Books for Kids

From Clutter to Clarity: Simplifying Life from the Inside Out is a very helpful book because it expands the definition of clutter beyond what lurks in your cabinets to include clutter in your thoughts and on your calendar and in your heart.  The book also digs more deeply to help the reader discern the root causes of physical and scheduling clutter – why do you have 50 tubes of toothpaste under your sink? Why do you have the two foot high stack of papers on your desk? What causes you to say yes to everything so you’re always running around without time to focus?

Any time you want to change a habit and have it really stick, you need to understand it well enough to be able to replace it with something better.  I think this idea really comes through in From Clutter to Clarity and I’m looking forward to discussing it with the book club!

Speaking of which, I really am serious: you’re more than welcome to join us Monday night!  If you can’t make it this time, our book for April will be What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage (link is to my review), another fantastic and thought-provoking book. Now you can’t say you don’t have time. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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The section on jams and jellies and conserves is extensive and not just basic “strawberry jam” type recipes.  Plum Jam with Walnut Brittle sounds particularly tasty to me!  The preserves section also includes recipes for flavored oils and vinegars and marinated and pickled things like Marinated Cheese with Herbs and mixes like Blended Spice Tea.

I also enjoyed the section on truffles and chocolates – the pictures show you step by step how to achieve professional results with various types of chocolates and candies, which make a very impressive looking gift to judge by the pictures!

The part of the book I found most interesting was the bath products section.  I had never read such detailed instructions for how to do herb infusions and use essential oils.  The section includes instructions for bath foam, baby shampoo, soap, hair rinse, shampoo, moisturizer, hand cream, lip balm, and more.  If you’re interested in all natural and organic body products, I don’t doubt that you could save money by making them yourself.  The instructions in the book are so detailed that I think it would be easy to try it, and I can also see how you could build up a small business with products like this if you were so inclined.

Throughout the book the instructions are detailed and accompanied by several pictures per recipe, which I think would make trying the recipes quite simple.  I think this is a helpful little book and I’m looking forward to trying out some of the suggestions it contains.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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1. Bread Again, Week in Books #21
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The book is a combination memoir and cookbook, with each short section composed of a short story from the author’s life and a recipe that reminds her of that story.  I enjoyed reading about the author and her family, and following the story of how she coped with loss and change and learned to love Paris.

Usually when I read a cookbook I come across a handful of recipes I want to try, but as I read A Homemade Life I found myself wanting to make nearly every recipe.  The author uses whole foods and generally seasonal ingredients, and she gives great tips for how to get better results for even basic recipes like pancakes.  A few of the many recipes I bookmarked include:

• Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger
• Red Cabbage Salad with Lemon and Black Pepper
• Butternut Soup with Pear, Cider, and Vanilla Bean
• Chana Masala
• Fennel Salad with Asian Pear and Parmesan
• Carmelized Cauliflower with Salsa Verde
• Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots
• Pickled Grapes with Cinnamon and Pepper

If you enjoy reading food blogs, you might want to check out this author’s food blog, Orangette.  I haven’t followed it before, but it looks good.  Now if I could figure out how to make it show up in full post form rather than digest on my feed reader, I could keep up with it!  But in any case, I highly recommend the book!

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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Unclutter Your Life in One Week is actually a helpful book about getting your home organized and not taking months to do it.  Just so you know, it will not be humanly possible for you to actually accomplish what is outlined in the book in one week.  For example, on Monday you are to empty your closet, paint and repair your closet system, sort your clothes, clean and categorize and organize what is left, and then re-populate the closet with your new organizational system.  That is a good thing to do .  Except then you’re supposed to go to work!  So unless you stayed up all night on Sunday accomplishing the closet task, I don’t see how you’re going to get that done before you leave for the office at 8:15 Monday morning.  I think it’s probably better to think of the time frame as something to help you keep up your momentum so you can work hard and get your house organized quickly.

Once you make peace with the fact that you aren’t actually going to get this all done in a week, however, the tips in the book are quite helpful.  As with many organizational books, the tips are probably things you’ve heard or thought of before, but it’s nice to have them all in one place to remind you of things you ought to be doing or have done and to give you permission to throw things away.

The author of this book has a helpful blog, Unclutterer, which might also provide good insights and inspiration for you if you need to get things in order.

I’m not sure why Have a New You by Friday: How to Accept Yourself, Boost Your Confidence & Change Your Life in 5 Days was organized around the week model other than the fact that the catchy title probably moves books.  Again, I’m OK with that.  I’m not sure if you will really change your life in five days after reading this book, although I guess it’s possible if you don’t already know anything about personality, birth order, love languages, and things like that, and if that lack of knowledge was holding you back in small ways.

Leman uses a four part breakdown for personality types (the phlegmatic, choleric, melancholic, sanguine distinction) rather than a more nuanced sixteen part framework like the Myers-Briggs set.  Personally I don’t find the four part system helpful.  Not very many people fit into one of the four types exactly, and so the whole point of personality typing, which is to discover what your strengths and weaknesses are and how to leverage them, is lost.  I think the Myers-Briggs framework is much more helpful.  To make matters more confusing, Leman assigns dog types to each of the four types he uses so throughout the book you’re not only trying to remember the difference between a phlegmatic and a choleric, but you’re also trying to keep Standard Poodles and Great Danes straight.  Whatever.

Where Leman really brings value to the discussion is in his section on birth order.  I think I may have read another of his books on the subject, and if you’re really interested in birth order you’d do well to read a longer book.  The section in Have a New You by Friday is short and not very deep.  That said, it might jog your memory if you’ve read about birth order before or vaguely remember it from Psych 101.

The book also touches on the love languages (better and more helpfully described in The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman), which is good but again I think you’d do better to read about the concept in more depth elsewhere.

I honestly don’t mean to pan this book.  I think it has helpful points, and is a good overview of several topics that would be helpful and life changing for many people especially if you don’t have time to read other books.  I do think the change might be more lasting and have more impact if you were to really take time to understand and think through how your personality, upbringing, and way of relating to others is helping or hurting you and how you might want to change.  Overall, while I don’t disagree with this book, I can’t really recommend it because I think the topics deserve more space and depth and I don’t really believe you could deal with them all in five days unless you’re basically perfect already.

The “change in a week” idea is kind of interesting from a sociological standpoint. I guess people want change fast, but I wonder if it anything you can change in one week would really stick?  I’ve always thought that replacing a bad habit with a good habit (which is essentially what we’re talking about here, whether it’s the bad habit of being disorganized or the bad habit of self-defeating thinking) successfully required at least a couple of weeks of concerted effort, with more time required for tougher changes.  What do you think?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Related posts:

1. “How to Change Things When Change is Hard”
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3. Dealing with Change: Three Things to Help You Navigate

If you have $6.80 lying around, I can’t think of many things you could better spend it on than Poor Girl Gourmet: Eat in Style on a Bare-Bones Budget.  I love the concept of this book – the author set out to find ways to eat well and healthfully on a budget and came up with some really helpful suggestions and great recipes.  I was especially interested to see how she managed to shop on a budget at Whole Foods, which is a grocery store I love but that I tend to think of as too expensive.  If you are into natural/organic/healthy eating and on a budget I can’t recommend this book highly enough.  Some of the recipes that I’m putting into our rotation from this book include Ribollita, Honey Balsamic Chicken, and Sweet Italian Sausage with Apple and Fennel.

When I’m searching out new recipes I look for things that are healthy and quick, but I also look for foods that sound flavorful, interesting, and like they could also work for entertaining.  One of my resolutions for 2011 is to have people over for dinner more often, and so Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers really appealed to me.  What I love about this book is how the author grouped recipes together for entertaining – an hors d’euvres, main dish, and dessert that all go together and can be fixed quickly and presented nicely.  I am so excited about this cookbook, especially recipes like Salsa Verde Chicken with Herbed Cornmeal Dumplings, Coq au Vin Blanc, Pork Stew with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes, and Indian Six Layer Dip (which is not actually Indian, but loosely based on Indian flavors).

If you change your menus this time of year, what sort of dishes do you add or subtract from your usual fare?

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Related posts:

1. The Week in Books 2009, No. 41
2. The Week In Books, No. 19
3. Bread Again, Week in Books #21

At the risk of sounding like Scrooge, I have to admit that I’m feeling a little all-done-pig about seasonal decorating this year.  I love Christmas and celebrating the birth of Jesus, but y’all I am just not feeling the bedazzling right now.  I put up our little Jesse Tree so we could do our Advent devotions (you can read more about what we do for that here) and I decorated the mantel with our stockings, garland, lights, ribbon, and my perennial favorite beaded pears, but the thought of getting an actual Christmas tree does not appeal to me at the moment.  I know the kids would love it and so forth, but we’ll be out of town for Christmas and it’s so prickly to string the lights and so time consuming to decorate and undecorate when I know there will be a nice tree waiting for us in Virginia…Would it be more acceptable to forgo a Christmas tree if I cloaked my reluctance in deep and admirable phrases like “right now I’m really craving simplicity” or “we’re really working to foster contentment this Christmas” rather than looking listlessly into the big red plastic ornament bins and mumbling “all done, pig”?

Yeah, you’re right, I probably just need to put on my team jersey and get a tree already instead of going hog wild with my complaints. 

Photo note: The pig picture came from Flickr and the picture of the mantel is my house.

Topical note: I like Christmas, and I appreciate the reason for the season, so please don’t misconstrue my curmudgeonliness and use of Sarah’s catch phrase as indicative of any lack of reverence!

Related posts:

1. New Jesse Tree Blog
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