The Simple Joy of Blogging Simply

The thing with blogging is that, these days, there are so *many* blogs out there. And so many blogs out there about everything you could possibly imagine, from travel to writing, from parenting large families to 'what I'm wearing today' blogs.

It can be hard to find a niche, something fascinating that an audience will want to read about day in and day out. And how to write, with content rich blogs, easily searchable by Google, for higher rankings and what-not. And there was a time that those things were really important to me, when I read the books and learned all I could about creating content rich pieces, driving search engine optimization and reaching a larger audience.

Fun for some folks? Maybe! Fun for me? Not so much.

So now I blog much more simply. I write for fun, because I enjoy it, on things I want to share.

A much better fit for me and my simpler lifestyle!

Which is why you won't see posts from me everyday, or even every week. And why I don;t run give-aways and ad campaigns, links to eBooks and online groups. All great things ... but not for me.

And honestly, there is enough content out there; I do not need to be another of the voices here in internet land contributing to the daily in-box clutter of unread emails and blogs!

So, I'll just be over here, simply blogging at my own pace about things that I find interesting, simply!

Keeping it Real

That has always been a mission of mine on this blog, to keep it real!

So, in the spirit of telling it like it is, I have an update on yesterday's blog post, where I talked about making a schedule a simpler one (you can read that post here).

No sooner had saved that post, when my smoke detector went off.

Because the pizza I had in the oven had dripped all over the red hot element.

Because I was such a hurry that I forgot to put the pizza on a pan.

And why pizza? Because I was too busy to make 'real food'!

So there you go folks! Even those Simple Schedules can get thrown off sometimes (today by nearly sick kiddos, a tired mama, and an over ambitious to-do list).

Ah well ...


No pictures today I'm afraid; it just didn't occur to me to take photos of the fire in the oven! And don't worry, I was able to put the fire out without too much palaver. I'll take this incident as a reminder that even those best plans, to live simply and with intent, can be way laid sometimes :-)

A Simpler Schedule

The past couple of months here in the  Simply 'Burbs home, have seen some pretty significant changes. I talked a little about this in my last post (check that post out here).

So! -what did we do when we realized that life was getting too busy?

Well, this makes things sound very simplistic, but we just stopped.

And that is the very simplistic answer, but really that is about it.

I stopped scheduling so much during our week days, cut chores to the minimum, consolidated errands, and all round did less.

So, how does that look in our day to day lives?

~ We typically only have outside (drive somewhere in the car) trips for the Little Ones once or twice each week, rather than most days as we used to do.

~ We make every effort to consolidate all our errands on Saturdays, although we do often run these as family trips (time running errands together, is still time spent together!)

~ Sundays are kept as unscheduled as possible; they are family days. The last couple of week's Sundays have been spent listening to music, gardening in our yard, pottering around the house, reading ... we even (gasp) watched a movie together as a family a couple of weeks ago (something we so rarely do, it justifies mentioning!)

~ Although we still make most of our food from scratch, I'm keeping meals and snacks much simpler. Most meals are prepared with less than 15 minutes of hand's on time.

~ Rather than try to keep the house looking 'guest ready' all the time, we do a five o'clock sweep of the main living area. A five minute timer and some upbeat music, and off we go! Amazing what you can do in just five minutes. I aim to do a whole house sweep each week.

~ This last one is definitely a work in progress, but My Good Man and I are trying very hard to get more sleep, and be in bed by 10:30. This is probably the hardest aspect for me; it is just so hard to limit that little bit of down time that we have looked forward to all day.

Yard work with the Little Ones.

And the result of all this 'stopping'? We have more space and time in our days to just be;more reading, more crafting, more ... just hanging out. Stress levels have gone down for all of us, we're spending more time snuggling, playing and laughing, and less time driving around, rushing and clock watching.

Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't the ultimate cure all. And obviously, there is more to it than I could possibly cover in a single blog post. We still have full lives; with three young children, two working parents, and a home to maintain, life is never going to be dull, or empty. Some days are better, and simpler, than others.

But we're getting there!

Isn't the first step accepting there is a problem? We had a problem ... we're working our way towards a solution.


How is your schedule looking these days? Too busy? Too much rushing? Striving for balance? Feel free to share in the comments; I'd love to hear from you!

Simplicity by Default (aka When Everyone is Sick)

In the middle of the holiday celebrations, we suddenly had one, two, three Little Ones all come down with the nasty virus that has been going around. Then both of our house guests got sick, until it was just My Good Man and I who were still healthy and well. Not good.

Aside from the weepy children, the incessant hacking cough and the interrupted sleep though, there was a certain comfort to those days. We retreated from our schedule, and took to the couch with books and blankets. Simple meals and (gasp) a little television were the only distractions.

My Little Boy having a snuggle, with a Snuggie!

It was rather nice to have that snuggle in time; nothing to do and nowhere to go. It made me wonder if we shouldn't have those days more often!

I read a post by another blogger some time ago who called them Cocoon Days, those days of curling in, nesting and staying close and cozy.

So, here's to more Cocoon Days (hopefully, without the sickness next time though!)


Do you have a 'sick day' routine? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

Function Over Form

It's so interesting to see how our little home has changed over the past couple of years. Just over the past five years it has seen several incarnations, from the home of a young (-ish!) married couple, to parents to one, and now parents to three!

We have been on a bit of quest more recently to make our home as functional as possible, this small space that we live in. Some of that means taking a lot of 'stuff' out, which I talk about more here.

And part of this process has been about letting go of form and embracing function, accepting that our house won't necessarily look pretty right now, but it will certainly be more user friendly, and will make life just that little bit simpler!

And with two very mobile Little Ones, Baby Girl and My Little Boy, climbing on and pulling out all manner of things, this means that we have been doing some extreme child proofing ...

Attaching the trash and recycling cans in our kitchen with bungee cord.

like this!

Vacuum left permanently plugged in (with a safety cover!) in our dining room.

And this!

Definitely not pretty, but certainly functional!


What have you done in your home to bring in function over form? And is it helping to make your life simpler? Feel free to share in the comments below; I'd love to hear from you!

Living Simply

This blog used to be called Crunchy in the 'Burbs. When I first started writing this a couple of years ago, that was my main focus. It was really important for my family to live a 'crunchy' lifestyle (organic foods, to live with a light environmental step, as consciously as possible).

Which is wonderful ... but over the course of the past two years, life here in the CrunchyBurbs home has seen some significant changes, namely two new little ones, our twins Baby Girl and My Little Boy.

Life went from busy to just flat out crazed with occasional dips into merely hectic.

Our focus slowly, slowly went from living as organically as possible to just living.  And then, I found that for our little family, the key to our success was to live as Simply as possible.

For us that means letting go of stuff, both physical and emotional, slowing down, more love, less drama.

So, we turned off the television, gave away a lot of stuff (toys and clutter), we take more walks, and do more craft projects. We bake and cook more, and heat and eat less. We go to fewer kid's classes, but spend more time poking around in the garden.  We spend less time in the car, and more time just hanging out.

My days are still busy, but I'm more likely to be worn out from building playsilk forts than chasing little ones around the mall.

So here we are, Simply ... in the 'Burbs!

So much ...

If I had to list my roles I would have to start out with

1. mama, and
2. wife

Then there would be

3. work-at-home-mama
4. homemaker (cook, cleaner, bottle-washer!)

But, somewhere in my list of roles, I would have to add

8. Ridder-of-stuff

We live pretty frugally and I don't buy a lot of 'stuff'. Gone are the days when we would go to our local Target store just to see what was there, and invariably come home with bags of stuff that we never knew we needed!

These days we are a cozy family of five living in a pretty small house, and there are times that I feel we are just drowning in 'stuff'. Despite my best intentions, and the nearly constant flow of things leaving the house (whether it be through selling items, giving them away or freecycling), we just have so much 'stuff' left to live with.

I'm rather envious of friend's homes that are less cluttered than mine. Did they collect less? Give more away?

Or do they just have better storage than me?!

For now though, I'll just continue with my role, as the family's Ridder-of-stuff.

What are your favorite ways to find new homes for your no-longer-needed stuff?