23 February 2016

Within these walls, good things happen

Yesterday I received a small number of The Simple Home books that I'm happy to sign and send out around Australia.  The cost of the book is $45, postage in Australia is $15. I can't send them out before the publication date - 1 March so they'll be sent next Friday and delivered the following week. Delivery takes between 3 - 7 days. Seven days being the time needed for delivery to Tasmania and WA. Please send me an email if you'd like to order a book. I also have a small number of Down to Earth and am happy to sign them and post those out too. The price is the same as The Simple Home - $45 + $15 anywhere in Australia.

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Last week I started a thread on the forum asking the question: "Why do you live a simple life?" Some wonderful posts appeared there revealing mid-life changes, growing up without mod cons, finding happiness and contentment and discovering a feeling of security and control, all while living a simpler life. I love that thread, and the forum in general, because it provides the opportunity to not only live our practical lives, collect recipes and ideas and discuss what we need to learn, but to also think about why we do it and what we gain from it. Often when we're working at home or out in the world, we forget that thinking about life, and talking about it out loud or online, helps us understand it. Regular reflection helps us gather our thoughts, make plans, realise we're not alone, remember why we started living this way and be grateful for everything we get from it. In the longer term, that helps maintain your mindset.

Late summer raspberries in the backyard, as sweet as any raspberry dares to be.
There's not much growing in the garden except herbs, chillies, rosellas and all those raspberries.

As I read through that thread there was a common theme that stood out to me - control. Many people wrote about being caught up in mainstream life - in debt, busy and stressed, with a common feeling of dissatisfaction. That turned around simply by taking control, slowing down, focusing of self and family and working towarks a values-driven life instead of a materialistic one. It doesn't take much.


Control is one of the biggest benefits for me too. I doubt I'd make a good cleaner, waitress, seamstress, cook, soap maker, gardener or child minder if I did it for a living. However, when I do those things for the love of it, when I do it for my family and myself, I feel the control I have over my own life. I never felt that control when I worked for a living. I felt obliged then, inadequate, and sometimes out of control. I felt that happiness was always out of reach and that I would never earn enough money to buy what I needed. There was a lingering dissatisfaction with life that was difficult to understand or get rid of.
 

But now, within theses fences and walls, good things happen. We eat when we want to, plan things we want to do, enjoy our days, work and rest when we feel like it and we recreate this beautiful life every day. It doesn't take much, just the work to produce what we need and want and the mindset to keep going. We've developed frugal habits and we're steady and prudent, but occasionally we spontaneously combust with happiness when we learn something important or do something unusual. Days pass, people visit and phone us, meals are cooked, cups of tea are taken outside, clothes are mended, jars and bottles recycled and all the while I think about what I'm doing, and why. I wish I could bottle the day I decided to change my life and give it away as a free sample because no matter what day it is, I thank my lucky stars that I am where I am, doing what I love.

Why do you live your simple life?


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30 comments

  1. "I thank my lucky stars I am where I am doing what I love".... me too Rhonda, me too. Many thanks.

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  2. I so love to read your wise words - they never fail to calm me and remind me why I changed the way I lived. Through tough times, it can be all too easy to forget all the good things that have come from living a simpler life. Thank you :)

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  3. Why do we live our simple life?
    Exactly what you wrote in this last paragraph! I couldn't have written any better. It's spot on. Thanks for this great post. It reminds me what I'm trying to achieve everyday. Blessings...
    Mel

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  4. Hi Rhonda, I would love a signed copy of The Simple Life. Where would I find your email address? Kind Regards

    Julie Carr

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    1. Thanks so much Rhonda. Will send you an email when I get home from work. xx

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  5. Hi Rhonda --

    I was raised in a simple lifestyle -- gardening, canning, sewing, card and board games at family gatherings, playing outside during summer, sledding in winter. As a parent, I am enjoying passing on the joys of my own childhood to my daughter.

    Peace -- Ann

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  6. I aim to live a simple life but often get caught up in the whirlwind. I often find my outgoing personality is torn with my simple desiring personality. The two often collide.

    But to be honest I aim to live simple for peace, health, and restoration to my soul and mind. Even homemaking can bring a since of peace when done out of simple love.

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  7. Lovely post Rhonda. :) We live a simple life because it makes more sense financially, emotionally, educationally and health wise for us. I hated the fast paced, disjointed life that we used to live. We made a choice to bring our children home from the public schools years ago and homeschool them to meet their needs and have never regretted it. They are now all grown and doing so well. :) I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, so I have good energy days and not so good days. Being home and living a simpler life allows me to research things that have helped with my illness and to get things done around the house when I do have the energy to do them. I can tend to my garden, make healthy meals, bake, help with my grandchildren and even do some volunteer work in my community. Having me home has actually saved us more money than I made working part time when our kids were teenagers and after they all left home. My husband also enjoys having me home so that we can enjoy each other's company (he works the graveyard or third shift) when he is awake and I am able to get errands done during the day while he sleeps. This simple life is what works best for us.

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  8. Hi Rhonda,

    I met some people who were living simply just over 20 years ago. I was so inspired by them, and how they lived, that I started on the path myself. When I'm living simply I feel peaceful, and that life's worthwhile.

    When I let myself get too busy and caught up with anything mainstream, that sense of peace and purpose gets lost. So I come back to simple again and again. I'm currently trialling no dishwasher (the household consists of myself and two teens). My thinking is, if there's not enough time to wash up slowly by hand, things are out of balance somewhere!

    Madeleine.x

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  9. Rhonda, your joy is palpable. We live as simple a life as we can, with 2 teenage boys and a husband who works full time, but I think I am still on a journey. I love the encouragement I get from your blog and other on line who live a life that isn't about chasing things. It is nice to hear of others who enjoy the simple life too, because in real life my current circumstances have us living in a community where it seems everyone is chasing 'the dream'.

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  10. I wish I was at a point in my life where I could stop working away from home and dedicate my time to a simple and peaceful life at home. I'm not there yet but I feel that every little thing I do and learn and plant now is heading me in the direction I want to go. By the time I'm ready, I hope to have many more skills for living simply and frugally. Folks like you inspire me greatly - best of luck on your book tour!

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    1. You'll get there, you have things to learn along the way. It took me nearly 15 years to get to where we are today. Small steps, love.

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  11. I brought your new book. However I got the Kindle addition. So no signed book for me. I look forward to reading it. I have enjoyed your other 2 books.
    Our weather here has been above average. It got to 90 one day last week. We are in drought again. It's been 47 days without rain. (per our weather man) We are supposed to get a bit of rain tonight, I will wait and see. We sure do need it.
    Have got some plants ready to go into the ground. I am waiting till the last frost date is past before I put them into the ground.
    Hope you have a wonderful week.

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    1. I hope you get rain soon, Roxie. Good luck with your planting.

      Rhonda xx

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  12. There are so many reasons I live a simple life, but mostly it has enabled me to stay at home and be with my children, see them grow up, experience their firsts, I do work two days a week, but that is nothing compared to most people. I am so lucky to have the choice. You are right about control, especially in the cooking department, just today I made some tomato chilli sauce, no additives, no preservatives, just real ingredients!

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  13. I was raised to embrace all the simple values. The materialistic race made me unhappy and frustrated. Starting on a simpler path is like coming home, pieces of my life's puzzle falling into place somehow. More peace and contentment, a strong feeling of being connected with past and solid values. Values so worth surviving for the future. Pam in Norway

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  14. Simple life makes me feel connected to my grandparents, I grew up in a country side and we had cows, sheep, pigs and chickens for all our dairy and meat needs. We also had big garden full of veggies and fruits. Simple life is also just that - simple, less stress, more free time to spend with family and enjoy home cooking, baking and making what you need.

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  15. It seems like i can smell your raspberry through your photo. It smells perfect :) We should go through complicated things to understand and appreciate simple things deeper.

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  16. I was thinking about this post yesterday while I was mixing up muffin batter at the island bench in my kitchen. All the doors were open, the cross breeze was keeping things cool, the birds were chattering away outside and I was happy just to be where I was. There in my apron, in the quiet of my home, making food for my family. It felt good and right and simple.

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  17. Hi Rhonda, Can't wait for your new book - I have your first one and I am looking forward to having it's mate! I thought you might be interested at having a look at the facebook page at my local primary school. The school is Upper Ferntree Gully Primary, its a small school at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne's outer east. Yesterday we had our first market day for the year where students picked produce from our veggie garden then spent the afternoon baking yummy pizza, savoury muffins and more and sold their food and remaining produce to the school community at the end of the day.

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    1. Hi Brenda. What a great school. The kids with the vegies look happy.

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    2. Thank you for stopping by and having a look Rhonda - it is a great school and the kids love planting, watering, harvesting and cooking - sech important skills for them to learn

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  18. Rhonda just wondering if you will be selling your book on your tour?

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    1. Yes Janice. We'll have a small box with all three books in the car as we travel around.

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  19. For the fun and joy of it :) I enjoy being in my home despite having a very full life outside of it - as I apply for full-time work and finish up my PhD this is ever more obvious. I enjoy cooking for my family and friends, sewing and hand making gifts and the children's clothes. I don't love housework but I suspect I will find my way there one day...although I do love the laundry :) I really hope I can make it to one of your Brisbane venues, will keep an eye out and my book handy for your autograph!

    Ayesha

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  20. As always your simple words are powerful. Maybe that is why we enjoy a simple life, there is power in it too.

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  21. I agree with so much of what you have written here about why you live simply. I do so because it makes me a happier, more fulfilled person. My life is busy and full but it is a different kind of busy and full to when I was working full time. A time I am glad I had, that working full time part of my life allowed me to get where we are now, we still lived simply, just a different type of simple life. We saved as much of those earnings as we could and paid off our mortgage, this has enabled me to give up work completely to be at home with my two young children. I loved my life then and I love it now even though they were so different.

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  22. I love how you write about your simple life, my friend.. It is a good life.. xo

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  23. So beautifully put and spoke directly to my heart. Thank you, Rhonda. You have had a great influence on my life for quite a few years. Congratulations on all the wonderful things happening for you and Hanno:)

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