Foster Simplicity One Day at a Time

365 Ways to Simplify, Organize, and Balance Your Life
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-1-62309-105-7
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 74 Seiten

'Simplicity One Day at a Time' offers 365 suggestions, tips, and creative ideas to help simplify, organize, and balance one's life. 'Ideas for the Everyday' sets goals of becoming more organized and in control. 'Your Home' and 'Your Family' chapters affirm these important and high priority areas of life. 'Time for You' includes ideas to help stay balanced and recognize one's passions. 'Your Workplace at Home or Away' recognizes how the workplace has changed in the past decades and suggests ways to keep pace. 'Community and the Environment reminds us that to simplify is to be a good steward of all we possess or care for. 'Holidays, Hospitality, and Gift-Giving' reinforces the ultimate reasons we give.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Foster, Gloria

Leseproben

IDEAS
FOR
YOUR
HOME
Women are the architects of society –
Harriet Beecher Stowe A Day in the Life of Grandmother I feel cheated not to have had long and close relationships with my grandmothers. One died before I was born, and the other lived several states away. I had friends in elementary school that I envied because they spent summers on the farm with grandparents. Other friends’ grandparents lived close enough to be a part of their daily lives. In order to know my grandparents better, I take a day now and then and steep myself in their individual histories. My father once told me that his mother, Zola, and I would have been best friends with her love of adventure, music, and writing. I treasure her short stories written in the 1930s and a few pieces of her piano music with covers that resemble Victorian works of art. She once played the piano, hidden behind the wings, for silent movies in Helena, Montana. Sadly, she was widowed when my father was three years old, losing the love of her life in a tragic train collision. My mother said that my blue eyes come from her mother, Margaret, caretaker of her own large family of ten children—and sometimes their eventual offspring—and a lifetime champion of those in need. Margaret sailed with her young husband, James, two sons, and my then four-month old mother from Liverpool, England, in 1910 to begin a new life in the American West. She played the organ, mostly church hymns. I share her zeal in capturing our ancestral history in books and albums. Zola and Margaret lived their younger years of motherhood in a day dramatically and almost unrecognizably different from ours, without the time-saving appliances that later generations came to not only enjoy but to inevitably take for granted. It is to them that I dedicate A Day in the Life of Grandmother, author unknown. “Grandmother, on a winter’s day, milked the cows and fed them hay. Slopped the hogs, saddled the mule, and got the children off to school. Did a washing, mopped the floors, washed the windows, and did some chores. Cooked a dish of home-dried fruit, pressed her husband’s Sunday suit. Swept the parlor, made the bed, baked a dozen loaves of bread. Split some firewood and lugged it in, enough to fill the kitchen bin. Cleaned the lamps and put in oil, stewed some apples she feared might spoil. Cooked a supper that was delicious, and afterwards washed up the dishes. Fed the cats and sprinkled the clothes, mended a basketful of hose. Then opened the organ and began to play, When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day.” Thanks to today’s technological help with my home tasks, I have time to work part-time in a library instead of peg several loads of laundry onto the clothesline, prepare an impromptu dinner for company instead of cook for two days in pots swung over the hearth, and change a light bulb rather than clean and refill the oil lamp. I don’t even have to iron my husband’s Sunday suit because of all the no-iron fabrics. In fact, I wouldn’t have to iron his suit regardless; he chooses not to own one. But I am an advocate of volunteer simplicity and bake my own bread, stitch a seam now and then, and hand wash many of our dishes since it is just the two of us at home. I minimize my use of water and energy as much as possible and have learned to precycle as well as recycle. However, I am sure that Zola and Margaret practiced simplicity and minimized waste long before it became the right thing to do. I wish I could ask them about their lives, what they had hoped for, and if their years were satisfying. What wisdom might they pass on to me? Perhaps I honor them best each time I play a tune on the piano, place a photograph in the family album, and craft an article to share with others. Whether I knew them or not, they are a part of who I am today as I live a day in the life of grandmother. Grandmother Zola
1904 Grandmother Margaret
My Mother Alice
1928 IDEAS FOR YOUR HOME
Creating a comfortable, beautiful, well-run home can be among our most satisfying accomplishments as well as an illuminating spiritual experience. Sarah Ban Breathnach General Organization 71. Plan tasks at most practical times. Do your gardening in the cool of the morning or evening. Iron before your feet get tired. Help youngsters with homework when neither of you is under stress. Cull drawers and cupboards just prior to Trash Pick-up Day. 72. Make sure you have everything you need before starting your project, including time available, whether the project is maintenance, refinishing, bookwork, baking, or cleaning. 73. When repairing or moving furniture and appliances, put all screws in small bags and tape them to the bottoms of the objects they are from. 74. Experiment with tabbed manila folders for filing and better organization. Make one for each child, special interests, and financial records. Instead of emptying drawers in search of needed paperwork, simply step to your files. Choose one tab style, i.e., left, center, or right. Keep an alphabetical list of where seldom-used or seasonal items are stored: Item Location Exactly where Christmas ornaments Hall cupboard Top shelf Snowsuits for kids Basement 3rd shelf under stairs Tax returns Basement Metal file, 2nd drawer 75. Make generous use of baskets. Small ones are perfect for toilet articles; large ones are great for toys. 76. Use transparent containers to keep yourself organized. Label them clearly by listing contents on 3x5 cards and taping the cards to the front onto the containers with the words showing outward. 77. Create a portable desk by placing these items in a shoebox or plastic container: envelopes and stamps, paper clips, stapler, pens, rubber bands, transparent tape, and scissors. 78. Purchase postage stamps in quantities. Consider buying stamps online. Or if your personal mailbox is secure, you can obtain an order form to leave for your mail delivery person. Just fill out the form, enclose a check, and leave it in your mailbox. 79. Purchase a computer bookkeeping program. Once you learn to use it, it will cut bookkeeping time for you. 80. Pay accounts online or set up automatic payments from your bank account. 81. Keep a log of long distance calls, listing date and person called. Check the charges against your phone bill. You can use phone cards for long distance and eliminate those charges on your bill. 82. Compile a written, photographic, or videotape inventory of furnishings, artwork, and valuables for insurance records. Record serial numbers where appropriate. 83. Be sure that your personal property insurance policy is based on replacement costs, not original costs. 84. Keep a health record on each family member. Include dates and information on immunizations, medications, x-rays, injuries, drug prescriptions, allergies, and surgeries. You will have it handy when needed for school enrollment, health benefits, and travel requirements. It’s never too late to begin this important project. 85. Designate one area on a table or chair near the front door where school books and other items for school and work can be placed the night before and not forgotten in the morning. 86. Get that spare set of keys made—today. 87. When you take a trip to the local hardware store to have the spare set of keys made, take along scissors and knives for sharpening. 88. Purchase a magnetic case, place an extra car key in it, and attach the case to the outside of the car in a hidden spot where you are sure it cannot be dislodged. You’ll never be locked out. 89. Mark due dates for library books and rental media on your calendar or post the library printout on your fridge. Set due dates to return your friends’ books. Be sure your name is in the books you lend—people do forget the lender now and then. 90. Write phone numbers next to scheduled appointments in your calendar. You won’t have to search for the number if you have to reschedule or cancel. 91. When you have several errands to run, tape an itinerary in large print to your dashboard. 92. Keep your momentum going by not running out of those items that would bring whatever project you...