Simple on Purpose | Intentional Living and Parenting

Tips to simplify the gift-giving and ways to give more thoughtful gifts Today I'm sharing two posts on gift giving: Simplify the gift giving (make sure to read the post as I don't cover all the tips in the podcast) Gift giving is such a focal point of the holidays but it doesn't have to overwhelm us. We don't have to buy for everyone and we don't have to stick to convention. Nine Ways to Make Your Gifts More Thoughtful I KNOW that Jesus is the reason for the season, but it is also a chance for us to spoil and love on our people. I've had some gifts in my life that made me feel like my family or friends really had no clue about me. It stings, and it has pushed me away from making gifts a 'thing'. Then I have had some very amazing gifts that were spot on. They made me reclaim that gifts can be an amazing thing we share at the holidays. I love gifts, they make me feel seen. It can be quite powerful to give something meaningful to someone that fills a gap in their life or lets them know you know them well. Also mentioned:  How to Bullet Journal    GET YOUR SIMPLE CHRISTMAS PLANNER  

a simple Christmas series part 1: finding your simple Christmas and 5 tips to help you make it simpler Welcome to a special episode of Simple Saturdays, part 1 in the Simple Christmas series A Simple Christmas is a series I have had on the blog for a few years and I wanted to offer it in podcast form as well. It is about a dozen posts all about ways to make your Christmas more simple, from the practical to the mental preparations.   In this episode I share: Finding Your Simple Christmas - writing these two lists, paying attention to what they tell you and building it into a personal Christmas motto 5 Tips to Make Christmas Simpler - tips to make any event more simple in terms of mentally preparing for what you want to happen, how to show up and how to just enjoy the Christmas that IS instead of stressing over the Christmas ideals that aren't happening.   GET YOUR SIMPLE CHRISTMAS PLANNER HERE   -- Make sure to subscribe to Simple Saturdays below!

We declutter our kids' toys a few times a year, getting prepped to have a Simple Christmas, easy ham sliders for a crowd and a reminder that you are enough, you have enough, you do enough! Welcome to another bi-weekly Simple Saturday, an email newsletter also available in podcast form. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter (at the end of this post) so you can get Simple Saturday, full notes and photos in your inbox!   ++ links++ Optimal Living Daily Relationships Episode 394 " I Stopped Calling Myself a Lazy Mom" See all Optimal Living Daily Episodes    ++ simple home ++ In the emails, I like to share with you what we are working on decluttering (because you know it is an ongoing process!). This past week we decluttered our kids' toys. What are strategy was for decluttering, and why we prefer to declutter their toys without them. [Why We Declutter Our Kids' Toys Without Them]   ++ simple life ++ I have started Christmas shopping, I'm not an over-achiever, I just want my future self to have a more peaceful and organized entrance into the season. The Simple Christmas series has been around for a couple years and this year I will also release some of the top posts in podcast form. Look out for those bonus episodes coming shortly!   ++ simple food ++ There is a simple dish that I have made for a crowd and now include it in our family meals. Also, can anyone really say Worcestershire sauce? Sometimes I am just better in the written form, please have mercy on my word-fails. Ham Sliders Pizza Sliders Zucchini Sliders   >> GET THE SIMPLE CHRISTMAS PLANNER <<   Thanks for joining in this week! If you liked this podcast please make sure to subscribe and leave a rating in your podcast player!    

Declutter your mind and time with a brain dump, keep track of all the seasonal kid's clothes and handmedowns, change your habits using minimum baseline. Welcome to another Simple Saturday! This is a bi-weekly email newsletter that has been running for 2 years! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FRIENDS!! Thank you for being along with me on this journey and giving me a space in your inbox!   In this Simple Saturday we are talking about: ++ simple life ++ If you’ve been around Simple Saturdays for a while you know that I will often recommend doing a brain dump.  A brain dump is a list of all the stuff in your brain. It helps you to get all those thoughts and tasks swirling in your mind out onto paper. Then you can use this list to set yourself some priorities for the day. Check out the post here for how I use Brain Dumps and how they help you do life better   ++ simple family ++ If you have kids you know that there are parts of your home designated as holding pens for stuff coming and going.  I thought I was solving this problem by labelling the bags and bins in the closet, but then I would never go in there and check. Mostly because all the bins and bags are in a huge pile that has to be all pulled out to get to the bottom (yes, we need shelves in there!). So, I realized I needed a better way to track what is in there.  I can’t believe it took me over 7 years to figure this out. Keeping track of the inventory in my notes app! Check out my solution here   ++ simple wellness ++ You guys know I’m a big habit nerd. I think habits are what change your life more than anything (for good or for bad). [This Simple Hack Will Help You Change Your Habits] A couple of years back I decided to challenge myself to change some habits. I called it #onesmallhabit and made the habits so simple that they wouldn’t take a lot of energy or thought to do them. I share with you a couple of the habits I worked on shifting. As I continually look for ways to shift to healthier habits I am finding success with something called MINIMUM BASELINE. I think I was missing this when I tried the #onesmallhabit. Because this is even simpler than that - it is the bare minimum. It is so dang low impact that you can’t NOT do it when you are challenged with it. How I used minimum baseline Here’s an example from my life:  I wanted to start getting the dishes tackled twice a day but I had a lot of more fun things to do instead. So I set a minimum baseline for myself: one dish. I can do one dish. I would put a cup away. Then I would laugh at myself and put another dish away. Then I would do the dishes. As I went through this process I was learning that I had some limiting mindsets that actually stopped me from getting my dishes done (that’s a whole other post!). Starting with this minimum baseline helped me to capture these thoughts that I subconsciously had that were keeping me from doing this simple daily chore. Now I do the dishes twice a day, for the most part. If I don’t feel like it then I challenge myself with a minimum baseline. How you can start with minimum baseline The minimum baseline can apply to anything you want to bring into your life.

In this Simple Saturday we are talking about: * SIMPLE HOME * decluttering the kitchen to make space for a planning station * SIMPLE FOOD * how to make a DIY meal planning book that will save you effort planning what to eat for the week * SIMPLE STYLE * a fabulous episode from Sorta Awesome about setting up your capsule wardrobe * THE CURRENTLY LIST * heated socks (by Flambeau) * By the Book podcast, * decluttering old clothes, * and Daughter of Fortune Simple Saturdays is a bi-weekly email newsletter full of tips, insights, and encouragement to help you declutter and live your life on purpose.  The podcast is another way to get your dose of Simple Saturday. Subscribe for Simple Saturdays below to make sure you don't miss it and get all the links discussed.

Simple Saturdays is a bi-weekly email newsletter that many of you lovely readers subscribe to. It is full of little tips, encouragement and insights into making minimalism and purposeful living work for you. Now I am offering the Simple Saturday newsletter in podcast form as well because I'm nerdy like that. In this first episode, I share with you how I got started blogging, my journey into minimalism, how it brought me to 'life on purpose' and what that looks like on a daily basis for me. Things mentioned in this episode: My C-Section story The Joy of Less by Francine Jay Growing up with clutter Things that hold us back from letting go of our stuff On realizing how complacent I've been, living on auto-pilot Tricking my husband into a vision setting session The email with the values worksheet   If you want to stick around the podcast, I suggest you subscribe to the podcast (so the podcast player knows I exist for people) Simple Saturdays newsletter below so you don't miss any episodes and keep all the show links handy