Not long ago, we posted an interview with Sam Spurlin from thesimplerlife.net about his new book, Living the Simpler Life: 8 Essentials to Practice Everyday. Since then he has had some other great interviews, as well, at Grokkery, and just last week at RowdyKittens. We promised you that we would review the book soon, and here it is! We’re each going to share our thoughts, in a simplifi.de Siskel &  Ebert sort of way!

Barbara…

I always look forward to reading something that will help me on my journey to simplify. My hope is it will either give me a gentle nudge to do something I know I should be doing,(but haven’t) or give me a new idea I hadn’t thought of before. Sam Spurlin’s new eBook, Living the Simpler Life, gave me both.

I appreciated the reminder on how to cultivate “mindfulness.” In one of his tips, he challenges the reader of the value of focusing on one thing at a time rather than multi-tasking. Since I frequently switch between a management consulting and coaching business, a singer-songwriter career and posting on www.simplifi.de, I often feel “scattered.” I had realized I needed to chunk my time into single-focus blocks, and when I read Sam’s book, it just confirmed that this is something I needed to start today!

Sam has pulled together tons of tips and resource links so the book is filled with some very practical information that will benefit the reader. On the other hand, it contains so much information in so many areas that it can feel a little overwhelming to distill it down to manageable chunks that I could incorporate into my daily life. For me, this will be a book I will use as a reference guide and digest in bite-sized pieces as needed.

Luke…

Most of my growing up years, I had two siblings: my sister Andrea who is 5 years younger than I am, and KJ, who is 10 years younger than me. Now don’t misunderstand me, I love my brother dearly, but there were lots of times when we fought like cats and dogs (we’re better now). But while we had our moments, I always got along with Andrea well… there’s just something about being closer to the same age that makes things easier – we have more in common.

Interestingly enough, the same thing is true for blogging, as well. The time frames are a little different, and it’s certainly not that that I don’t get along with “older” blogs, it’s just a feeling of camaraderie with bloggers who started their website around the same time as you. And that’s the case with fellow simplicity blogger, Sam Spurlin. He started in October of last year and our first posts on simplifi.de were in December.

So it was with great anticipation that I read Sam’s new book, Living the Simpler Life: 8 Essentials to Practice Everyday. It’s a very practical book, filled with tips and thoughts for dealing mostly with the harder side of simplicity… the inside.

Like Sam said in his interview with us, he tried to go beyond the “low-hanging fruit” of decluttering in Living the Simpler Life. I appreciated that about the book; you could live in Thoreau’s cabin, but if you thoughts and inner person aren’t under control, then you are NOT living the simpler life.

The chapter that challenged me the most in Living the Simpler Life was Essential 3: The Willingness to Say No. It’s something that I know, but it’s easy to forget to put into practice on a regular basis. This sentence is the one that really caught my attention at the end of the chapter: “You owe it to yourself not to be swamped beneath a bevy of low-impact commitments when your big chance arrives.” I wonder how many times big chances have come and gone because I was toiling away on stuff that didn’t really matter. This chapter poked and prodded me in just the right places, so that I would be more aware before I accept new responsibilities.

So that’s how it helped me. No matter what stage of the simplicity journey you’re on, I’m sure there are things in it that will help you too. If you’re typically not a book reader, but you like to read blogs, then this is a good eBook for you to consider, because it reads more like an extra long series of blog posts.

So my final analysis: it’s a good overview of the critical components of simplicity, and a great first foray into the eBook world for Sam and thesimplerlife.net,

There is something special about being outside. It makes you feel alive. It’s the sunlight on the lake, sparkling like thousands of diamonds, or the sweet taste of a cold piece of watermelon on a hot summer night. It’s the overwhelming scent of honeysuckle growing in your backyard, the warm summer breeze on your face, and the sound of kids laughing and playing in the background.

When people use the phrase “simple pleasures”, this is what they’re talking about.

I could have written this post about all the reasons that being outdoors is good for humans. It’s good for us physically, providing fresh air, purified by the millions of living air filters we call plants. Exposure to sunlight regulates sleep, improves our mood, and lets our skin produce the Vitamin D that we need. Study after study has shown that being outdoors is great for our mental and emotional wellbeing. It’s also good for us spiritually, allowing us time to find peace and tranquility, to be still, to rest.

But, you’ve heard all that before, and even if you haven’t, we all know it intrinsically anyway. Like I said, there’s just something special about being outside. Our problem is not that we don’t know that we should go outside, it’s that we don’t do it! So here are four easy ways that you can spend more time outside, enjoying life.

• Exercise outside.

We have a problem with pride in the modern world; we think we’re more highly developed and smarter than anyone who has lived before us. But can you imagine what people who lived even 150 years ago would think of our actions these days? On a beautiful day we’ll come outside, get in our cars, burn fuel and money driving miles to another stuffy building where we pay the owner for the privilege of running on a spinning belt like a hamster on a wheel. Then we move to another part of the room and pick up heavy things, but not for any purpose, just to set them back down again! Exhausted, we climb back into our cars, drive home, go inside and lay down on the couch.

Admit it, it’s just weird. And not simple. Go outside and get your exercise there – walk, run, bike, rollerblade, do pushups, crunches, pullups, whatever. Save money, save the environment, and train your muscle groups for real life situations, not just isolated exercises. Do your workout… out.

• Take a walk outside, with family or friends.

Great conversations can happen in the house, no doubt, but there is something about taking a walk together that makes talking easier and more enjoyable. Be sure to walk slow enough that you can still talk to each other; this is walking for community, not conditioning. Take notice of the little things as you walk together… the aroma of fresh cut grass, the towering of the trees, the simple elegance of the flowers.

Be aware of the other people around you, too – are your neighbors out in the yard? Stop and talk to them – if you don’t know them, introduce yourselves. People are forever moaning and groaning about the breakdown of small communities in the modern world, but they don’t stop and talk to their neighbors, either. We should put our money where our mouth is, and just do it. We’ll be glad we did.

• Live outside

Okay, I know that you can’t live outside all the time, at least not comfortably and safely, but there is a exciting movement towards creating outdoor living spaces. Grilling is more popular than ever, and some people are even building full blown outdoor kitchens. Living room style areas with campfire pits or even fireplaces are becoming more popular. Creative use of your outdoor space is a cheap way to extend your house without actually adding on, and creates a relaxed atmosphere that is perfect for having friends over for dinner or enjoying a romantic outdoor dinner with your spouse or significant other.

• Work outside.

This is one that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it ought to. I love working outside, and I do it as much as I can. Inspiration comes easier when I’m outdoors – I’m relaxed and in a place where I can put my best creative thinking to work. Do I listen to music while I work? You bet: the symphony of the great outdoors. Birds singing, bugs flying around, woodpeckers pecking, squirrels scurrying around in the trees and bushes. When I talk outside, I’m just adding my voice to the eclectic ensemble gathered around me.

Unfortunately I’m not outside right now, but I positioned myself right next to some big bay windows looking over Boardman Lake, so as you can see in the picture on the left, I’m still benefiting from the nice view and the natural lighting.

•••

I like and respect the work of interior designers, especially those of the more minimalist persuasion. But have you ever noticed that as elaborate as houses are, no one is talking about “the great indoors”? There’s a reason for that. In the Biblical narrative, God placed our first parents in what, an airtight, enclosed space with central air-conditioning and heat, an iPad and a Wii? No… He put them in a garden. When we spend time outside, we’re connecting with the way it was, the way things were meant to be.

In 2004, June was named “Great Outdoors Month… so let’s celebrate it! We are blessed with the opportunity to experience so many amazing things, every single day. Next time you’re out, take a second and breathe as deeply as you can. Don’t be ashamed to dance in the rain. Build a campfire, invite some friends over, make some S’mores, and sit around telling stories. Just don’t waste the amazing, simple pleasures that we’ve been given. It will be GREAT, you just have to go OUT the DOOR.

So what do you do outside that’s not on the list? It’s that time of year when we all are looking for creative ways to spend time outdoors, so let’s learn from each other in the comments! And if you enjoyed the post, please  help us out and “Like “or retweet! Thanks!

Google gets simplicity. Hold your mouse still while on their homepage, and everything but the essentials fade away. Their simple mission statement: to organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. It’s no wonder that in the 11 years since they started in a friends garage, Google has come to dominate the world in searching… so much so that “google” was added as a verb to the Oxford English Dictionary last year.

The main reason Google has done so well is they have made searching for information simple and easy for the average person. And yet, their search so powerful that with the right tools you can find exactly what you want . Here are some of the tools that you can use to find what you’re looking for….

Read the rest of this entry »

At simplifi.de we always want to be pointing you to resources and people who we think could be a great help in your simplicity walk. We’re all in this simplicity journey together, and we’ll all learn more together than we would separately!

To that end, we wanted to post an interview we did with Sam Spurlin. Sam writes about simplicity, minimalism, and conscious living on his blog thesimplerlife.net, and he recently released his first eBook, Living the Simpler Life: 8 Essentials to Practice Every Day. Enjoy!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your simple journey, and thesimplerlife.net.

Well, I graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Education. I moved back home to southeast Michigan thinking I would find a full-time high school teaching job. However, that is not what happened. Believe it or not, but the economy is a bit slow in the Detroit area so I was unable to find full-time employment. I started substitute teaching on a part-time basis and in October 2009 I started thesimplerlife.net.

I’ve been passionate about personal development and living simply for awhile and I had even started other blogs. However, thesimplerlife.net was my first true attempt at making something that would last. After easily brainstorming 100 article topics and writing approximately 15 articles, I launched thesimplerlife.net on October 12, 2009.

At the same time, I also entered my first year of coaching as the head coach to the brand new University of Detroit Mercy hockey team. I suspected that I had a passion for coaching and that was quickly confirmed as I got into the season. I also began helping my old high school with their hockey team and although I was still very near unemployed, I suddenly found myself very busy.

Thesimplerlife.net is all about how I try to live as simple and conscious a life as possible.

2. What motivated you to write Living The Simpler Life?

Originally, the idea came to me as I was writing a series of posts for thesimplerlife.net called “The Essentials of Simplicity”. I wrote three different articles and I thought it’d be a fun project to take those three pieces I had already written, add a few more, and release a free ebook. Instead, I re-wrote nearly all of the original pieces and ended up writing much more than I thought I would.

I just tried to distill all the different areas and disciplines of my life that I’ve simplified into a few general “essentials”. I think that practicing the eight skills I lay out in the book lay the foundation for a simpler & “better” (whatever that means to you) life.

3. What are the biggest effects you’ve seen in your own from implementing the “8 Essentials”?

The biggest effects I have seen have definitely been in my own focus and mindfulness. I got the whole minimalist thing down awhile ago so I really don’t own a whole lot in terms of physical possessions right now. However, I think the greatest frontier for simplicity has to do with our mental processes. For me, that has been learning how to mono-task and focus completely on whatever task is at hand. I’m not particularly good at it right now, but I was much worse before writing this ebook :)

4. What are the biggest obstacles people will face in implementing the 8 essentials?

Well, trying to implement all of these, all of the time, everyday is going to be tough. I know the subtitle says “8 Essentials to Practice Everyday”, but I don’t mean every single one every single day :)

5. There have been a lot of great eBooks coming out on simplicity and minimalism. What makes this one unique?

I tried to go beyond what I consider to be the “low hanging fruit” of decluttering. I wrote one chapter about purging physical belongings and after that I didn’t discuss it. For a lot of people, that’s where simplicity and minimalism ends. For me, I think that is where it just starts to get interesting. I tried to tackle the more mental and emotional aspects of simplifying your life like cultivating gratitude, patience, values, developing a desire for less etc.

6. Simplicity is a very broad concept, applicable to all parts of life. What made you pick this particular topic of daily things to do?

I think the word “daily” came into play because I wanted to focus on the idea that living a life of simplicity is a journey. It’s not a one time event where you clean out your closet and say, “Welp, I’m living a simple life now!” It’s about the daily decisions, the daily interactions, and the daily events. Once you’re able to integrate these essentials into your everyday activities, without having to think about them all the time, you are much closer to living that “ideal” simple life.

7. Five years from now, how would you like Living The Simpler Life to be affecting people?

I hope it would continue getting people to think about what they have to do to live a life that is driven by their own values. What living a simple life really boils down to is making decisions (about commitments, what you consume, how you treat other people, etc.) that align with your values and not external and uncontrollable factors. If this ebook can still help people start their own journey toward a simpler life, I would be thrilled.

8. What would the ideal review of Living The Simpler Life look like to you?

Ideally, I would hope the reviewer found a couple pieces of insight from the book that spoke to them in some way. I realize that some of the information in this ebook is probably found on other blogs in this niche. I’ve been heavily influenced by many great writers and bloggers but I hope the reviewer would be able to tell that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff and maybe even came up with a unique thought or two :) I’m passionate about helping, teaching, and coaching (which are all the same, anyway) people so if the review said something about how this ebook helped them in some way I would be tickled pink.

9. What didn’t we ask about Living The Simpler Life, that you want people to know?

I just want to thank you for interviewing me and anybody who has read the ebook for allowing me to monopolize some of your precious time and money. I am deeply appreciative and I hope this is only the first foray into a long career of writing to help people.

Thanks, Sam, for taking the time to talk to us, and congratulations on the book release! We (Barbara and Luke) are reading our copies of the book right now, and we’ll be posting a review soon! All we’ll say right now is: it’s worth it! You can check out more about the book and purchase it here.

Complexity and simplicity are both timeless. Every generation has new challenges and complications; everyone struggles for less chaos and more life. We believe that we have much to learn from past simplicity proponents and movements. (For further reading, check out our previous post “Learn Simplicity from the Old Folks!“)

Today’s post is a great example of this – written anonymously, and published in The Southern Literary Messenger, January 1837. We know it’s a little long (written when people had longer attention spans) and uses some big words (the English language has changed!), but the message is as true today as it ever was – wealth has never, and will never, bring happiness.

Every man seems to think he has been placed in this world to promote the selfish views of himself – alone; and not to accomplish but one object – the acquisition of wealth. Wealth! this is the glorious prize for which all are striving. To obtain it, is the first duty of man; to possess it, is happiness. How foolishly do we neglect the certain means of happiness, and engage in the pursuit of a glittering phantom, which either eludes our grasp altogether, or if secured, entails lasting misery upon us.

Cannot experience teach men, that riches do not confer happiness? No – they cannot, will not. They toil for wealth, and yet dissatisfied with what they possess, they still continue to toil on through life, hoarding up immense treasures which the cannot enjoy, and which will, in all probability, prove a curse to their posterity.

Are there not other important, noble, and agreeable objects of pursuit? Does the improvement of the mind, and heart, and conduct, afford no pleasures? Do innocence, contentment, evenness of temper, and the domestic and social virtues, possess no charms? Is the practice of virtue, in promoting the welfare of our fellow men, an object unworthy of our attention? These things have little, very little influence upon the mass of mankind. All their motives, feelings, and principles, and subservient to the predominant, unconquerable love of money. All their thoughts and actions converge to one point – money. The universal cry is – money.

It is the duty of every man to provide for himself a competency. It is essential to happiness to be above want. It is a source of pleasure to enjoy “the glorious privilege of being independent.” These pre-suppose that a man is in the enjoyment of all the comforts and conveniences of life. If he have them, he is then in the possession of all the real good which money can afford. Wealth may, indeed, furnish luxuries; but they are hurtful. They enervate both mind and body: corrupt the heart and affections, and engender vicious inclinations and indulgences. Luxury is a rich soil, producing an exuberant growth of noxious, poisonous weeds.

Happiness shuns the abode of voluptuous wealth, as well as that of squalid poverty. She dwells, most frequently, with contented competency. Peace, cheerfulness, simplicity, and virtu, are the companions who attend upon her. She delights in serenity and calmness: in the quiet joys of innocence, contentment and benevolence. This is the golden medium of happiness!

Wealth, when honestly acquired and properly used, is not at all objectionable. It indeed may be, but often is not, honestly acquired: and properly to use it, requires a degree of disinterestedness, philosophy, and virtue, which few men possess.

It is insatiate avarice, and the arbitrary, extraordinary estimate placed upon wealth, which are to be deplored as a prolific source of evils.

They cause us to neglect the duties we over to ourselves, to our families, to the world, and to God. To ourselves – they divert our attention from those things which would secure real happiness. To our families – occupied by the all absorbing love of money, we neglect their moral, mental, and religious culture and improvement. To the world – the selfishness always attendant upon avarice renders us totally regardless and insensible of the rights, interests, and welfare of our fellow-men. To God – in the ardent pursuit of wealth, we have neither time, opportunity, nor inclination, to perform the sacred duties we owe Him.

They destroy the peace of individuals and families; are productive of discontent, disquietude, and misery – of injustices, vice, and crime. They mar the pleasures of social intercourse; and above all, produce that state of feeling, that course of conduct, which, when generally prevalent throughout a republic, are dangerous to liberty, and the sure precursors of the downfall of free institutions.

The love of money has been said by foreigners, and not without cause, to be a prominent feature in the character of Americans. We pay to wealth servile homage and adoration. Mammon is the god we worship. It would be well for us if we obeyed the scripture commandment, and worshiped no other gods but one. But we have a multitude of gods. We not only worship Mammon, but we worship also the priests of Mammon – those holy personages who enjoy his peculiar favor, and are distinguished by the golden decorations which adorn them. We worship men – we extend our veneration for wealth to the men who possess it. We are gross idolaters, and like the ancient Egyptians, worship calves, asses, and apes. The natural dignity of man, the noble independence of freemen, are sacrificed upon the polluted altar of idols…

This undue estimate of wealth would not be so injurious to society, if we did not, in overrating it, at the same time undervalue merit. But as our veneration for wealth increases, in the same degree does our regard for intrinsic merit decrease – in the same degree is diminished our respect for those who are so unfortunate as to be poor.

Superciliousness and injury on the part of the rich, create a spirit of resentment on the part of the poor, which combined, tend to mar the pleasures of social intercourse, bu preventing an interchange of friendly offices, and by producing personal animosities and family feuds.

On the other hand, the haughty pride and arrogance of the rich are met by many with the most spirited acquiescence, the mostn tame submission, the most servile sycophancy. The rich man who feeds them, of course thinks, speaks, and acts for them. Such men deserve to wear the yoke of slavery which disgrace them. But God forbid there should be many of this character in our country. They would barter their liberties for a mess of porridge.

It’s amazing how some things never change, isn’t it! So many good points, we had to post it. Thoughts?

Google is an amazing company – they have went from a startup in 1998 to the most visited website in the world… and they know about simplicity (just look at their homepage!)

But do you ever find yourself searching Google for the same thing, over and over and over again? Maybe it’s things related to your business, what people are saying about you, or your competitors. It could be a topic or hobby that you’re interested in. Or maybe you’re just ego-searching – it’s good to check every once in a while to see what the first results are if you Google your name (although this is irrelevant to me… for those of you who may have been confused, I am not Luke Wilson the movie star. Sorry to disappoint! ;-)

One of the basic ways to simplify a workflow is to automate what you were previously doing manually. And that’s all that this post is about, automating those searches that you do repetitively. And the tool is (drumroll, please…) Google Alerts!

The idea behind Google Alerts is that you put in your search terms the same way you always would, and Google will send you an email alert when the results of that search changes.

Here is one way I use Google Alerts that GREATLY simplifies my life: While I love connecting with people all around the world, I also like to keep track of the tweeps where I live, beautiful Traverse City, MI. Now I could manually search by town in Twitter if I was so inclined, but to keep up with new folks I would have to go back and do it on a regular basis. Instead, I search: “location*” site:twitter.com traverse city. And then I just set up a Google Alert to come into my inbox weekly with these results. When I get the email, I can scan through it and see who from Traverse City recently jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon! Simple, right?

If you prefer to keep the email to a minimum, but still want to use Google Alerts, it also allows you to create an RSS feed with results. (If you want to know more about RSS, check out this previous Tech Tip Tuesday article!)

The possibilities of using Google Alerts are really limited only by your creativity and searching skills. You can search for anything you want, and now you can keep up on what’s new without doing anything at all!

So that’s it for this edition of Tech Tip Tuesday – short and sweet. Please, enlighten us in the comments as to the creative ways that you use Google Alerts, or how you plan to!

NOTE: If you’re a Gmail power user, then this may not be breaking news for you, but I know it opened up tons of possibilities for me, so I thought I’d share it.

I read a lot of productivity blogs, and while they may contradict each other on some things, there is one thing that the vast majority agree on: Gmail is the best and most useful webmail service. It has tons of storage, tight security, and loads of features. You can install it on your own domain as well via Google Apps, like we have on simplifi.de (you can email me at luke@simplifi.de).

I signed up for Gmail in the wee hours of the morning on May 6^th, 2006 – I remember because I did so in the waiting room while my little sister was being born! I loved the simple design immediately and haven’t looked back since. Over the years I have gotten to be quicker and more efficient with it, and learned some tips and tricks along the way. Today’s tip is the most useful one I know for Gmail, or really all of email.

Typical productivity expert advice concerning email is to file or label it when you get it, and move it out of your inbox. The problem is that with more and more email coming in every day, manually labeling them can be time consuming, tedious, and frustrating. But there are some solutions – this one is my favorite:

The Tip

Here’s the foundation of today’s tip: Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe you’ve read the previous post I wrote on living “The Lean Life”, or maybe you’re just reading about this concept for the first time. In a previous post, I had listed eight areas of waste that companies are looking to eliminate when they want to become more “lean.” In these challenging economic times, both business owners and individuals wanting to pull in their belts a bit and simplify can protect valuable resources if they spend some time eliminating waste that is sucking time and energy away from critical areas of their personal life or business.

I want to focus on the first category of waste that I listed in the previous post: Overproduction.

First of all, why do businesses tend to overproduce product? Well, oftentimes, it’s because they’re trying to create a safety net for themselves in case they produce some scrap. In other words, they’re incurring the cost of overproducing instead of eliminating the root cause of why they’re producing bad parts. In the lean concept, business owners are encouraged to fix the system, not put in a bunch of costly measures to “work around them.”

Here’s an example I heard that I use a lot in my workshops. Let’s say you have a leaky faucet that is creating a big mess on the factory floor and also creating a safety hazard given that some people could slip and fall. You could put a bucket under it to keep catching the water and then you could hire someone to keep throwing it out. Or, you could spend the money once and fix the faucet! Fixing the faucet may cost you upfront, but in the long run, it will save you valuable time and money. So where in your business or your life are you “putting a bucket” under a problem, instead of “fixing the faucet?” This concept of finding what is wrong with your systems or processes and fixing the root cause is a principle behind eliminating each of the waste areas that are part of the lean concept.

Okay, back to overproduction. In addition to overproducing parts or products at work, another common area most of us can relate to is the overproduction of paper. You have an electronic copy of something, but you want to make a paper copy “just in case” something happens to your computer. Instead of making extra copies, how could you build a storage system that is more secure? Well, how about automatic daily backups or taking some time regularly to back up to an external hard drive? What about using a secure web-based storage system for your files? Another common area of paper waste is making copies of handouts at meetings for people to review. We’re not sure how many people are going to attend, so we make extra copies “just in case.” What about sending people electronic versions before the meetings and creating the expectation that they make their own copies and bring them to the meeting? If they forget one time and have to look on with someone else, chances are they won’t let that happen again.

How about an example from our personal lives? Food. Most of you reading this post live in the US where for most people, getting enough food to eat is not an issue. But let’s look at the stat’s regarding food waste. While it’s impossible to get exact numbers, Americans waste approximately 30% of food, an estimated $48.2 billion per year! How much food are you wasting each week because your producing (preparing) more food than you or your family can eat? How much food goes down the garbage disposal or in the trash each day because we “made too much?” How many of those leftovers in your refrigerator, never make it back out to your plate and get thrown away? Here’s another twist on this, maybe you’re feel bad about throwing food away so you eat more than you really need to and then you’re enlarging a different type of “waist!”

If you’re at work and see an area where you or your company are overproducing, find ways to eliminate that or at least recommend a solution. Unless your boss is Atilia the Hun, there is a good chance this will earn you some points. At home, find ways to stop overproducing, save yourself some money and experience the great feeling of being a good steward of the resources you’ve been given.

If you were to ask the average person what the simple life looks like,  one of the common images you would probably hear described is, “Curling up with a good book.” There’s a good reason for that!  Reading is a time when we stop all of our frenetic activities, sit down and just allow ourselves to absorb.

A few weeks ago, Barbara and I  found out March was reading month and started to talk about the books that had influenced us the most.    It was exciting to learn about good books we had not been aware of before and we thought “Hey, our blog readers might be interested in these as well!” Now, we obviously know that’s it’s April, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t read, or that we can’t celebrate the books that have made a big difference in our lives! So here’s our list including a specific category for (what else?!) books that started us on our journey to simplify.

Please don’t forget to comment at the bottom, and let us know what books have really made an impact on you! We’re always on the lookout for great books and we know all the other readers are too! So without further ado…

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, the Apple iPad has been in the store for 3 full days now, and it’s still dominating the technology news. I even heard about it on the financial news report this morning – after telling the world that they sold 300,000 iPads on Saturday alone, Apple’s stock went up over 1% Monday.

When there’s so much buzz about a product, it’s easy to fall into the trap of “I gotta have it!” It’s reminds me of  the kid’s book I grew up reading, when Brother and Sister Bear Get the Gimmies! The only difference is that now we are adults, and there is no Mama or Papa Bear to stop us from buying all the junk we don’t need.

So here are five questions that I ask myself when I’m getting ready to buy a new gadget… Read the rest of this entry »