I got some of my to-do list done today, but due to the gorgeous weather Stu and I decided to go to the park. So, I'll be finishing up my list tomorrow. (I did get all my laundry done. Yay!)

I've just awakened from a nap, and so I'm rather groggy at the moment. I shouldn't have fallen asleep right after I had eaten dinner! We've been spending the evening attempting to cool off, since the cool week is over and it's quite hot and stuffy outside now. The AC can't cool off fast enough!

I'm trying to decide what to do this weekend, as I really need to put my nose to the grindstone and do some spring cleaning. The kitchen and bathroom are disaster areas, and the bedroom needs some serious cleaning and organizing before the baby comes. It just might take me that long to get it finished! I'm also hoping to work more on a sewing project for my sister (which I'll post about when I'm done) so I can begin working on some clothes for myself. With the farmers market and grocery shopping tomorrow and Hubby Dear's desire to see a movie, it's going to be a busy day!

I think if I can get up at 7 and have breakfast on the table at 7:30 that would be a great start to the day. I'm making homemade cinnamon rolls with a simple sugar icing. I made a batch a week ago and put the extras in the freezer. I'll transfer these to my refrigerator tonight, then set them on the counter to rise for a bit. These are so good with coffee!

At 8 I'll leave with a friend for the farmers market, and hope to be back by 9. Stu wants to see the 10 a.m. showing of Iron Man, so I think we'll do that. Then a quick sandwich or salad lunch. Afterwards I'll head to the grocery store and CVS, so by 3 I'm hoping to start cleaning the bathroom, and I'll throw a load in the laundry. If I can get the bathroom spotless tomorrow, I think that will be sufficient for the day. It's really messy. :-(

Then I'll start dinner (Roasted chicken and potatoes) I love to wind down in the evening with a good book or a sewing project, so I'll finish with some work on Julie's dress. Then a nice glass of iced tea (it's too hot for a warm mug) and some reading.

It sounds good on paper, but with the lethargy I've been experiencing lately, it just may not happen.

I'm certainly not the person to write a post about simplicity! I must confess, in the past few years I have departed from my missionary kid upbringing to embrace the consumerism of Americans. I have always been an impulse buyer, but it's become even more dangerous now that I bring home a substantial paycheck (substantial meaning more than my baby-sitting wages of high school). I have fallen into the trap of wanting things.

Then I got married. My husband is one of the most non-materialistic people you could meet. As we start our journey together, he is constantly pulling me back to earth, reminding me to place my values into heavenly treasures that will last forever. He's very good for me in that respect. As we look at our life and where we will be aiming to be in the next few years, I realize that a simple lifestyle will be better for us all the way around. But the challenge of getting over that first hump! Of letting go my desire for things, and focusing completely on God's desires! Oh, easier said than done.

As I said, I am definitely not the person to write a post on simplicity. I am the person to write a post on American materialism, its negative impact on my life and.... that's where I am right now. In between. Heading the right direction, but certainly not there yet! Perhaps in a year I'll be able to reflect more on simplicity, but for now this is where I am.

These thoughts are not out of the blue, but prompted by an excellent post by my friend Joanna, entitled Simple?. She links to some good websites, and talks about different areas to pursue simplicity.

Other bloggers have touched on this subject as well. One of my favorite blogs, Amy's Humble Musings, wrote about it recently in a post from this summer called Reduction Production. An excerpt:

One detail I’ve learned along the way is that a penny saved is much more than a penny earned. But what’s even better is to reduce your need for pennies in the first place. While working to produce a supplemental income is wise (especially if the plan is entrepreneurial in nature), one shouldn’t overlook the value of reducing expenses as a wise contribution as well.

Amy also talks about how children fit into our desire for a simpler life (not applicable to us right now, I know, but definitely fitting into our plan for the future) in her post Good Things.

Another of my favorite blogs, A Gracious Home, has also addressed this topic numerous times. I can tell it is near and dear to Sallie's heart as she and her husband try to seek simplicity in their own lives. Here are a few of her posts that I liked:

• The Road to Simplicity (Does it have a destination?) - a list of ways Sallie and her husband have simplified their lives over the years
• Simplicity and Frugality - The books that impacted me the most - a review of 4 different books
• Simplifying Choices - questions to ask when making decisions
• Freedom from clutter - "I believe getting rid of the clutter in my home is a key part of living peacefully." Ah she must be a friend of FLYLady! :-)
  

I hope these links will help you in your own life as you strive toward simplicity. I plan on sitting down with Paul sometime and talking about this seriously... after the holidays, though. ;-)

These past few weeks have been very difficult for me. On top of recurring headaches and the beginning of a cold, I have been very busy at work and just overall stressed and tired. I have practically crashed every evening without doing anything around the house, or even going grocery shopping.

Our small apartment is looking a little worse for the wear, as evidenced by my desire to lay down every evening instead of cleaning. My not-so-tidy husband isn't bothered by the mess as much as I am, but it drives me nuts. My perfectionist tendencies want my home to look like a picture from a magazine.

A few years ago, I was visiting my dear friend Beth at her old house before she and her husband moved to Texas. As I was walking through the house, I spotted a small inscription written in the dust on a small table: "I (heart) Stu". At the time, I thought it was so sweet and I wondered about the smile on her husband's face when he saw her little note.

But now, I see it in a different light. Perhaps Beth could have been a Super Wife and kept their house Super Clean all the time. However, there would be no dust to leave special little "I love you" messages. So perhaps some dust isn't all bad. Often the beauties of life are made up of the seemingly "imperfections".

Thank you, Beth, for the little dust message that you inadvertantly left with me. :-) And no one please misunderstand me about Beth's housecleaning abilities - she is a wonderful housekeeper, and her home is warm and inviting. And if you're like me - tired and frustrated about not achieving perfection, I challenge you to reevaluate what really is the important thing in life, and go from there! :-)

This past week, I wasn't feeling well. Among other things, I was having horrible cramps. As I was lying in bed bemoaning womanhood and all sorts of stuff, Paul asked me if there was anything he could do. When I mentioned a hot water bottle would be nice, but we didn't own a hot water bottle, he disappeared into the kitchen. Soon he came back with an ingenious creation: he poured uncooked rice into a clean sock and then put it into the microwave for about a minute. It was deliciously warm and heavy enough that it gave the perfect amount of pressure. When I was done with it, I just needed to wash the sock and Paul can wear it again! Paul said we could probably cook and eat the rice too, but I guess I don't trust the cleanliness of his socks. :-)

Be sure to go over to Crystal's blog and check out all of the other Frugal Friday posts!

Somehow, I made it to adult life with no cooking skills whatsoever. I am pretty good at toast, and brownies, and I can make a mean rice and tuna mix - but meals escape me. I pretty much lived on frozen dinners and Tuna Helper when I was on my own for a year and a half - and I ate out way too often. (I was fed occasional homecooked meals by dear friends, which I much appreciated.)

Enter husband, and suddenly I realize that he doesn't enjoy Lean Cuisine as much as I do! So I have set out to change my eating and cooking habits to benefit the entire family. Recently, we decided to split the tasks so that I would do the meal planning and shopping, and Paul does the cooking. This works out well because he gets off work at 3 (much earlier than me), and also he is less terrified of cooking than I am. Also, Paul works on Saturday mornings so I use that time to menu plan and then do my weekly shopping trip.

I recently discovered Allrecipes.com which has helped immensely in planning the menu! Previously, our meals had consisted of what we knew how to make: tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, hamburgers, and grilled chicken. However, now that I'm not doing the cooking and I have at my fingertips a quickly-searchable database of recipes, we are branching out with the meals we eat. I also like the feature of being able to do a shopping list based on the recipes I've selected. All I have to do is transfer the list to my PDA and off I am to the store! I must admit shopping for unfamiliar foods like this requires many phone calls to my mom. I am pretty ignorant about a lot of things - like what fresh parsley looks like, for example. Or that you can buy refrigerated pre-cooked noodles (who knew??). But in the end I'm able to get everything and we eat happy for a week.

This little story does have a point! Recently Crystal at Biblical Womanhood has featured a series of posts about Supermarket Savings. This series has been challenging me a lot about the amount of money I spend on food. To be honest, I just buy what looks good and don't worry about the price too much. But I know that is the wrong, wrong way to do it, especially if my goal is to pay our loans off early! I know that I can't get too ambitious with couponing, etc. because I just don't have the time with a full-time job, but it seems that there should be a happy medium of saving and still having evening time to spend with Hubby.

So I am curious how our other readers approach grocery shopping. Do you plan your menus first and then shop, or do you plan your menus based on the food that you have already bought? Do you plan your menus around sales? What's the most effective way for you to stay in budget when grocery shopping?

For further reading, I recommend Crystal's posts: part 1 (planning shopping trips), part 2 (example shopping trip), part 3 (meals), part 4 (tips), and part 5 (couponing for beginners).

Last night, while taking out the trash for my dear husband, I spotted them--4 beautiful picture frames, leaning against the side of the dumpster. I inspected them closely, not sure that someone would be willing to throw the beautiful frames away. But there they were, and in almost pristine condition. One was taken apart, but all the pieces were there, and the glass for it was all in one piece. I brought them home.

All 4 are the same style--very simple mahogany-colored wood, about 11"x13" in size. These would cost $30 dollars a piece at a home decor store. I think I can make a gorgeous arrangement with them above our couch, filling them with black and white pictures of my husband and me. I want to make our apartment a home, not just a place to sleep and keep our stuff.

I've not always been frugal--in fact, if you had talked to me a month ago, I would have been convinced that the best thing is to just go ahead and spend the money on stuff I "need," instead of being creative and finding cheap solutions for things that are really actually "wants." For me, this encompassed everything from clothes, to shoes, to home stuff, to the best and healthiest food. I was so focused on looking great, having a home that could grace the cover of Southern Living, and all the other "joys" that money can bring (meaning earthly joys that only satisfy for the present)--that I was neglecting my life with my heavenly Father. God has since convicted me that we should try to be more careful with the money He has given us. My husband has forever been encouraging me to focus less on the material and more on the eternal. I hope it's finally clicked. I've been so focused on money and what it can do for me, instead of focusing on the greatness of our Father.

I know in my heart that it will still be a struggle for me to focus on God and not money. I'm far from perfect, but I know that I'm a baby step closer to surrendering my all to Him.

"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." Ecclesiates 5:10