Simplify for the Good Life

Outdoor Activities

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Outdoor activities are key when living minimally with kids. Our living square footage is so tiny and I have 3 active young kids who need to get out all their energy, we spend a lot of time outside. We try to spend an average of 2 hours a day outside getting fresh air and away from the screens and out of our house. Here is a list of 6 of my kids favorite things to do that don’t require money and that help de-stress and engage your children in the world around them. I know a lot of these activities aren’t new reinvent the wheel ideas but think of these ideas in a new way. Hopefully these spark ideas of outdoor activities that benefit your children’s growth and burn their energy.

1. Go for a walk

This sounds obvious, but some of the best conversations I have ever had with my kids have happened outside just walking. When we put the electronics away and breath the fresh air in, magic happens. The kids seem to relax and take the weight of all the pressure from school and life off their shoulders. It is honestly one of my favorite things to do with my kids. I also love going on walks alone or with friends. When alone, I force myself to slow down, take deep breaths, regroup, and lots of prayer. The quiet time forces us to start to listen to the voice inside us that we are temporarily covering by all the noise, by constantly staying busy, but the truth is, we are allowing fear to have the control. Use this time to look inward and reflect and start healing.

2. Go to the playground

Bike riding is an easy way for the whole family to get some fresh air as well as exercise. It will help a child with balance and coordination. It also helps build their leg muscles. Bike riding is a difficult task for a child to learn. I remember when my daughter was learning to ride a bike, she would get so upset when she struggled to stay balanced. But that moment she figured it out, the smile on her face was incredible to see and she told everyone she saw for weeks that she knew how to ride. So, conquering a difficult task like this could really boost your child’s confidence to try another difficult task again, I certainly know it did for my daughter.

3. Take a bike ride

Let’s face it, kids love to go to the park! Call a friend up who has kids and meet at the park for a play date. You get a friend to chat with and your kids get to burn a lot of that energy out. Make sure you go even if none of your friends are able to. Just getting the kids out in some fresh air after being in school or stuck in the house will do wonders. It’s another free activity that doesn’t involve being in your tiny home.

4. Study nature

I feel that it is so important for each of us to learn about nature. I remember a few years back when our family just moved to North Carolina and my kids found these pine cones that were bigger than theirs heads. It was super fascinating to all of us. This lead us to take a trip to the library (another amazing free activity) ad get books about pinecones and trees. Its been 2 1/2 years since then and we still have those pine cones sitting on their dressers. Another example happened last week, my son saw a bird and asked me what kind of bird it was. I had no idea so we spent time looking it up as well as other birds that reside around our home. This lead to a fun conversation about their colors, size, nest making habits, & what they eat. We spent the next 4 days making different paper birds.  My kids are always asking about certain trees, leaves, bugs, fruit trees, why there are fire ants in the south and not when we lived up north or why the grass is so different here in North Carolina then their cousin’s grass in Indiana.  The possibilities about nature knowledge is endless and such a great tool for anyone to learn. 

 5.  Toy made obstacle course

This is one of my kids favorite. This activity can be played at the park or in your backyard. It’s essentially a kids ninja warrior course made of things you have laying around. Get creative, add counting and direction following and add a little incentive for at the end. It burns a lot of energy, it teaches them new skills, and it shows them how to use the toys they play with all the time, in a new way. I also use this activity for some healthy competition, learning how to cheer on others, and how not to be sore loser. Have fun! Get creative. There is no wrong way to create an obstacle course.

 6.  Scavenger Hunt

This type of activity can go many different ways depending on what you have and where you are at. Make sure the location is safe and try to come up with creative ways to write down what you are looking without having a large waste footprint. Examples of the type or themes of scavenger hunts that my family does are color, shapes, objects, animals, and even smells. I make sure we do it as a group because it helps teach them to work together to solve clues, complete tasks and overcome challenges and make sure everyone gets a turn to voice their opinion. These are import skills to learn that most people will use on a daily basis, especially in the work place as adults.

I hope this list sparked something in you to turn off the tv, get outside and enjoy nature!

No Spending Month

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I did a no spending month on anything extra and this is what I learned. I spent no money on things other than main bills such as rent/mortgage, phone, insurance, car, gas, utilities, and food only if we desperately needed it (and I mean desperately needed the food). I forced myself to get creative and not give up.

To Much Food

I owned WAY more food than I thought. I was able to feed my family of 4 on what we already owned and didn’t spend any money that whole 30 days. It blew my mind and forever changed the way I spend money on groceries. I used to throw food away on a regular basis. I just envisioned my kids eating way more fresh fruit and veggies than what reality is. Before this experiment, I would make larger meals and plan on my family eating all the extras but what was actually happening is we hardly ever ate it and all that food went in the trash. I started making much smaller meals that fed us for one meal and if there was extras, force myself to make our family eat them and now I hardly ever throw food away. However, I do have to grocery shop more often and we don’t have a ton of variety but I cut our grocery spending down by a few hundred dollars every month. I also learned that I need to be better at weekly meal planning. If I plan ahead and only buy what is needed, then we don’t have extra items that could possibly get wasted. I am serious when I say, this lesson alone was worth the whole experiment. 

To Much Product

I owned more product than a family of 4 needed or could possibly use on a regular basis. This 30 day experiment sent me on a journey of refusing to buy another product for my house or family till every single one of that particular item was used. If we think about it, most of us have multiple bottles of shampoo in our shower alone, let alone the pile under the sink. I even forced my family to use every single travel size bottle I had in our house. I did this with body wash, conditioner, vitamins, cleaners, candles, perfume, chapstick, hand soap, deodorant, tooth paste, and much more. Before, I had an overflowing linen closet full of stuff that I bought in bulk as well as each cupboard in every bathroom full. It took us over a year to use most of these products up. I also had a problem with buying way to much toilet paper. It looked like I was prepping for the end of the world by the amount of toilet paper we owned. It took us many months to use it all up. This part of the experiment blew my mind as well. I immediately got rid of my subscription to that certain store where you can buy everything in bulk and realized how much money and my precious space I was wasting. At some point in my life, I was lead to believe that we needed multiple of everything because we might run out. It’s an unhealthy way to go about it. Stop giving in to the buy, buy, buy mentality and truly evaluate what you and your family use and need. It will save you so much money and you will have a lot more space in your house. The goal is every item has a home.

I Am Resourceful 

It came as a shock to me on how many clever ways I could come up with to not spend money. I made a game out of it and almost got addicted to the results. In fact, I sold a lot of items around our home that month & made money. I was able to pay a pesky bill with the money from the sold items and what we saved. Some of our meals were not usual and we definitely ate a few made up recipes from the random ingredients I had around the house but the kids hardly noticed and the benefits way out weighed the changes being made.

Free Activities

I found so many activities to do with my kids that didn’t require money. It did required me to think outside the box, get creative, and ask friends for advise. We made play dough from a few ingredients we had in the house, we learned of a few local businesses that do a free craft one time a month. We also found a few museums and parks that have a free admission day each month. We even went to a free concert and loved every second of it. Look in your area and if its anything life my town, there are loads of free things to do.

Change Bad Habits

I saved so much money that month by not spending on mindless things. Many of my bad spending habits were revealed and I was able to put plans in place to start changing them. I loved the results so much that I challenged myself to keep going on many of the items till my house had only the essentials. Most daily needs are at our finger tips so bulk supply isn’t a necessity to me any more. I also started changing the way I think about household/furniture items that we stored for years because of that irritating “might need it one day” mindset just isn’t helpful these days. Many years ago when items weren’t readily available it made sense to store and keep items, but today you can sell an item at a garage sale or on an online sale site and buy it again in a year for the same price if you find you need it again. During that year, you didn’t have to store it & take up precious space in your life. There are very few items I feel are worth storing and most of those are family heirlooms. Get serious about your priorities and start changing your bad habits to align.

Our Legacy

I realized how many bad habits I was passing on to my children. I was not leading by example. Yes I was keeping our house clean but I was hardly ever getting rid of things, I was buying and buying even though we hadn’t used what we already owned, and I wasn’t appreciating the items we did have because I was overwhelmed by it all. I observed my kids and would see the signs of my bad habits. They had a mindset of always needing more, wanting more and once they had it, they hardly paid any attention to it. I want to live a life of gratitude and I want my children to as well. Tackling our bad habits head on changes future generations. What legacy are you leaving behind to your children and grandchildren?

I finally yanked the tooth

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 I took a bite and a pain pulsed through my body like I had never felt before and I knew right then that I could no longer neglect myself and I had to handle this no matter the cost. I checked my bank account balance and started to cry uncontrollably because there was just no money. Let’s take a trip to the beginning….. it was my senior year in high school and I got a cavity that my parents paid to have fixed. Fast forward a year later and the cavity fell out and back to the dentist I go, to find out that they would only fix the cavity after I paid the $420 on updated pictures and cleaning (no insurance) for my teeth. Of course this broke college student didn’t have that kind of money so it got pushed off, fast forward about 6 months and that wonderful tooth cracked. ugh… I still had no money and still no dental insurance so once again I pushed my needs to the side and focused on the more important things in my life. Once again we fast forward a few years and I now have a baby, husband, just starting my career and that very painful tooth that bothered me every day. I bear through each day by taking lots of over the counter pain pills and numbing it as much as possible with Orajel. Then one day this all comes crashing in my lap when I start having incredible pain in my stomach and learn I have stomach ulcers due to an allergic reaction to aspirin from all those pain pills. I still have no health or dental insurance because I was a freelance designer. But it had finally gotten to the point where I could no longer ignore my needs and I head to the dentist to fix that tooth, to get off the pain pills and heal the ulcers. I get a root canal done and a cap put on and for the first time since freshman year of college, I start having some relief from teeth pain. Unfortunately it was all short lived when the cap fell off and another chunk of the tooth broke off. We had just spent thousands of dollars on my teeth and it was pretty much all for nothing. The conversations about me spending thousands more did not go over well so I did what I do best and threw my needs to the side and focused on everyone else and began the 5 year journey of not eating on an entire side of mouth so that I didn’t cause fights or come across as to needy.

And here we are back to the beginning of the story when I told you that the pain got crazy worse because guess what, that gross black tooth broke once again and this time it was under my gums and a sharp part of my tooth was stabbing my gums. I borrow some money and head to the cheapest place I could find to get what was left of the tooth removed. Which of course they took one look at that and refused to help me and sent me to an oral surgeon. I tried to go a week with ignoring the pain because I knew what an oral surgeon without dental insurance would cost. But the pain was to much to bear and I reluctantly made the appointment. Due to no insurance the entire procedure had to be paid for upfront before they would take it out. Over the next few months, I sold as many of my belongings as I could, worked lots of extra hours and came up with the few thousand dollars to have the tooth and 2 others removed.

I tell you this crazy story because this tooth has taught me more than I can truly explain. I would always blame something for neglecting ME, having no money, no insurance, or my husband upset about needing to spend thousands more on me. But the truth is, I believed I wasn’t worthy enough to deserve thousands of dollars spent on me. I believed that I was being a selfless person by neglecting my needs and putting others needs above my own. YOU ARE WORTH THE MONEY!!!! If we are truly honest with ourselves, many of us throw our needs on the back burner. Maybe not to this extreme but I truly believe a large majority of us are recovering people pleasers and at some point in our life, we were made to believe and told that we were being to needy when we asked for things, especially if they cost a lot of money. Maybe you aren’t at a place where you struggle with money but I am a broke single mom that struggles each and every month to provide basic things for my children. But the difference is now after this long very painful journey I put myself through, I decided to change my thinking. Instead of saying, we don’t have the money. I change my mind set to how am I going to get the money. I don’t want my children to ever believe that they have to suffer in pain because I don’t have the money. We are worth the inconvenience and the money. What are you neglecting in your life? Are you putting yourself last and suffering? Its time to put your needs first and yank your neglected “tooth” out.

10 Indoor Activities to help your family bond

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Keeping kids active during the cold months or on a rainy day when you live in a small space can be difficult. Here are a few of our family favorites that will not only help with your child’s development but grow your bond as a family. Activities can provide so much more than just “time filler” for your children, they can help build fine motor skills, follow directions, take turns, and learn to play together.

Card Games

Depending on your child’s age, card games might be difficult. But most kids from the age of 3-4 and up can play a handful of basic card games. In an age of technology, sometimes we need to get back to basics and stop overthinking entertainment. My kids and I bond so much when I sit on the floor and play a simple game of “go fish”. A few of my family’s favorites are Go Fish, War, Old Maid, Animal Rummy, Spoons and of course Uno. So many of my favorite childhood memories involve playing games with my family. It is where some of the best conversations happened and these experiences will create a tight family bond as well as some healthy competition.

Hang Man

Laugh all you want but my kids and I play Hang Man on a white board a few nights a week and it is a blast. The white board is not very large and doesn’t take up much space and the dry erase markers are left over from my daughters school supplies from last year. Not expensive and not much space. My kids ages are 10, 5, & 4 and each one is in different stages of learning but it’s a simple activity the whole family can enjoy. Hang Man helps my children learn their letters, spell words, take turns, and again doesn’t involve electronics or toys that take up lots of space. 

Charades

We play this a few different ways. Either we act it out for the rest of the family to guess or we pull out that white board I was just telling you about and we draw it. The person to guess the most wins. This game involves lots of laughs and lots of creativity. 

Scavenger Hunt

An indoor scavenger hunt is so much fun. This one can require planning ahead but is just as easy in a small space as it is in a large space. My house is very small but still has lots of spaces. Hide clues around the house that will keep your little ones busy solving riddles and working together as a team. At the end they find the prize or treat. It creates a sense of accomplishment that builds confidence and they start to navigate that hard world of solving problems together. 

Book Making

A few white pieces of paper folded together and stapled and then let their imagination run wild. At the end, let them each take their turn to read their book out loud to the family. This is a common activity in my home. Now my 4 yr old’s book is mostly filled with pictures while my 10 yr old’s book is incredible; filled with details, a great plot and has sparked in her a love for creating books. She is currently on the third draft of her book which she hopes to publish one day.

Get in the Kitchen

The kitchen is a great place to create memories and bond as a family. The earlier you teach your kids cooking and baking basics, the better. I can’t say this loud enough, Let your kids in the kitchen with you! I don’t care if its making a basic pb&j or a 5 course meal. Start letting them help and at least teach them the basics. 

Play dough

Play dough can be found in every classroom or daycare and for a good reason. There is no wrong way to play with play dough. It’s not a competition and children often feel success about their creations. Playing with play dough has so many benefits including building their finger and hand muscles, creativity, work on their concentration, and can be a great calming activity. You could also make your own play dough with a few ingredients you most likely already have at home. This activity can help your child learn to measure, follow simple directions, have a sense of accomplishment and have a great activity to share with friends and family. 

Arts & Crafts

I know what you are thinking, what in the world does this have to do with minimalist living. Isn’t this bringing more stuff in our home? Yes and No, hear me out. Let’s get the benefits of making a craft and instead of keeping it, give it away. There are lots of articles about the benefits of art for children, but there is also great benefit in giving and thinking of others. I love spending the time with my kids making the crafts but our house just doesn’t have the space to keep them. Just have the conversation with your kids before you start that we are going to do a craft and afterward we are going to go to the local nursing home and hand them out to put a smile on someone else’s face. You could also take them to a children’s hospital or send them to a grand parent. The point is, don’t let being a minimalist deter you from the incredible experience making art with your kids. One spring, my 3 kids and I painted around 30 easter pictures on construction paper. It took us a few days to complete them and after I wrote on each picture the name of the child who painted it and what their age was. On Easter Sunday, I drove my kids to the local assisted living facility to hand them out to people who had no where to go on this holiday. I am not sure which were more excited, my kids or the residents. It boosted moral in the facility and my kids beemed with pride. Since this, we have made it a point to do something for others, especially around the holidays for those who are alone.

Family Jenga

This is a made up game that I read about a few years ago but has become more of a family favorite as my kids get older. This would be a great game if you have older children or just a group of adults. You take a regular wood Jenga set and write one question on every piece and then set the tower up as usual. The player pulls the piece out, reads the question out loud and answers it before putting it at the top of the tower. You learn a lot about each other and create a better bond as well as have fun. 

Build a Fort

This one is a blast but can be a bit tricky in a small space. Yes it makes a big mess but it takes up hours of the day and creates lot of laughs. Everyone has to work together and everyone gets a turn to express what they want in the fort. In the evening we turn the fort into a pretend tent for a sleepover/movie night or we build a pretend camp fire out of our toys, bring our star machine out and shine it on the ceiling and pretend we are sleeping under the stars. Let your imagination run wild and have fun. Trusts me, it will all be worth having to clean up the mess.