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Welcome! Happy Simple Living's Easy Times newsletter helps busy people simplify with easy recipes and tips for creating a comfy home, organic gardening, saving money, living a simpler life, enjoying holidays, and having more fun!
Help, I Can't Get It All Done!
šāØ Hello! We have two precious weeks until Christmas Eve. I donāt know about you, but I feel like I just got the Halloween decorations put away! All week long Iāve talked to people who feel the same way I do: trying to figure out how to fit a monthās worth of holiday tasks into the tiny pocket of time between now and Christmas. I want to do All the Holiday Things, while still holding space for peace and joy. So I thought I'd say hello and share a few practical ideas, in case you're feeling...
February is for Shining Light in the Darkness
Hello friend, These past few weeks have felt heavy for a lot of us. Between the constant stream of difficult news and cold, icy weather across much of the country, it's easy to feel worn down. When the world feels dark, I find myself returning to the small, simple things that bring light into everyday life. The quiet, steady rhythms of nature: The birds gathered at the backyard feeder, the familiar sound of geese flying overhead, and the changing light throughout the day remind me that the...
š° I'm going on a money diet (Care to join me?)
āļø Hello, friends! Happy January, and I hope you had a nice holiday season. We enjoyed relaxing times at home, several gatherings with friends, and two family celebrations. Now that it's the start of a new year, I'm regrouping and setting some fresh goals for 2026. Nothing drastic. Just reasonable, intentional changes, like paying off my credit card balance and saving more money in the year ahead. Which brings me to something many of you have asked about over the yearsā¦ The January Money Diet...
Why I Put Black Xs on My Calendar, and Other Tales of December
Dear friends, Hello, and happy December! If you're in the U.S., I hope your Thanksgiving was very happy. Now the holiday season is officially upon us! I remember well a Christmas years ago when we squeezed three complete family celebrations into a single day. (I bet some of you have done this, too!) I prepared food for our own Christmas morning, the mid-day meal with my extended family, and the evening dinner with my husbandās extended family. Coolers, presents, and stocking stuffers were...
I'm Trying Something Different This Holiday Season - November Letter
Hello, and happy November! With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving before us, today marks the unofficial start to the holiday season. We may need to gird our collective loins, because we're about to be bombarded with ads and content urging us to buy more, do more, and be more. Just this week, Facebook shared an influencer in my feed who urged her audience to consider "a Christmas tree for every room in the house." I marveled at her festive photos, lingering over a mini tree perched on the...
Meet the Weirdest Neighbor on the Block, and Other Tales of October
Hello, and happy October! Autumn has arrived here in Colorado, the leaves are changing, and it's officially Wool Sweater in the Morning, Tank Top at 3 p.m. Season. If youāve ever moved to a new home as I recently did, you know exactly how it feels to be the new neighbor on the block. Modern homes donāt always encourage connections, do they? I thought about that each time I drove into the garage and pushed a button to close the door behind me. How was I ever going to meet anyone? The Push-Pull...
The Men I Tried to Hide From, and Other Tales of September
Hello, and happy September! I hope you had a nice, relaxing Labor Day weekend. As you may know, we moved to a new house last month. Unlike other moves, we did this one in two parts. Prior to listing our former house, we removed and stored about half of our stuff in two U-Haul U-Pack containers. (By the way, we had a GREAT experience using U-Haul's "pods." The cost was very reasonable, and every step of the delivery and pickup went flawlessly. This isn't a sponsored review -- just our...
Moving Nightmares and other tales of August
Hello, and happy August! So much has happened already this month. On Friday, a team of burly moving men loaded up all of our worldly belongingsāright down to the last mismatched sock behind the dryer. Iād anticipated The Big Move for months, never quite believing weād cross the finish line. Yet here we areādecluttering done, our house of 21 years sold, everything packed, and a successful move across town to a smaller house that's closer to family. But throughout the process, Iāve been hiding...
What lurked behind my fridge, and other tales of July
Hello, and happy July! May I share a confession? If you gave me a choice between getting a colonoscopy or a thorough home inspection, I'd have to flip a coin. But in mid-June I accepted a contract to sell our house, so I had no choice but to submit to the probing of alllll the nooks and crannies. The buyers' inspector soon presented a 56-page report detailing our sweet home's every fault and failing. Why I Need a Butler I thought I'd cleaned our Bosch dishwasher until it gleamed, but...
Why I Hid My Toothbrush, and Other Tales of June
Hello, and happy June! As I shared last month, our house is for sale and it's a rather strange time. At any given moment, my phone can chime with a showing request. I stuff our dog's giant, fluffy dog bed into its washing machine hiding place. It does not go down without a fight. My son hangs the white towels -- the ones he can't actually use -- in his bathroom. My toothbrush is banished to the back of a drawer, and I replace my bed pillows with two that have ironed pillowcases. (Ironed...
Welcome! Happy Simple Living's Easy Times newsletter helps busy people simplify with easy recipes and tips for creating a comfy home, organic gardening, saving money, living a simpler life, enjoying holidays, and having more fun!