Simple Living is Simply Living

Welcome to the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Continue your reading read on at the bottom of this post by clicking the links to the other participants’ posts.

Simple Living is an increasingly popular term in recent years, and like many popular terms, there is no set definition of the phrase. For some people, simple living means living on as little money as possible. For others, simple living means outsourcing tasks so that they have more time to do the things they enjoy. You will find as many definitions of simple living as there are people practicing it. Regardless of how one defines simple living, we can find individuals practicing their own versions of this lifestyle across all groups in our society. There is no limiting factor as to who can practice simple living. The only limitations are the ones we allow.

For our family, simple living means simply, living. It can’t get more basic than that. How that looks to outsiders changes a bit based on where we are in our lives, experiences, and needs, but our main focus point is to remember those things which are important to us.

We aren’t extreme in our version of simple living. Our home neither resembles a monastery nor a cluttered mess. We limit purchases, but when we do purchase an item, we try to purchase a quality item which will last us. We strive to find a balance in life, trying new things and experiences while maintaining the down time required by a family of six introverts. By simply living, we hope to show our children the importance of focusing on what is important to us rather than on what someone else believes to be important. Through simple living, we can know ourselves.

• The Moments In Between – Amber from Heart Wanderings takes her yoga practice off the mat to focus on the ordinary moments which make mothering magical.
• Simple living – what it looks like to me – Does simple living mean we have to be selfish? And what does selfish mean anyway? Mrs Green from Little Green Blog ponders in search of a more simple life…
• A Simple Life is a Peaceful Life, For Me – Destany at They Are All of Me writes how simplicity is a very necessary part of her daily function and crucial for coping with Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.
• Getting Back to the Basics – Minimalism was the first step toward living simply for Momma Jorje. Now she’s got big plans on getting back to the basics of living in order to live a simple, healthy, family-focused lifestyle.
• Simplicity – What living simply means to sustainablemum and how it is woven into the fabric of daily life.
• Simply Living – Sophelia of Sophelia’s Adventures in Japan writes about her reluctance to tighten her budget after years of living in poverty, but also her anticipation of the pleasures of simplifying her daily life as she and her husband prepare to adopt a child in Japan.
• The Simple Life: A Work in Progress – Joella at Fine and Fair ponders her idealized vision of simple living and discusses the steps she’s taking to get closer to it.
• Simple Living is Simply Living – At Living Peacefully with Children, Bart and Mandy hope to help their children focus on what is truly important by simply living.
• Happiness, not Greatness – Lauren at Hobo Mama discovered that ambitions got in the way of simply being.
• Shifting to Simplicity – At Authentic Parenting, Laura shares a couple of ways in which she tries to simplify her life.