Establishing Order is the First Step
This is going to be an on going conversation about my thoughts on simple living. Early on in our lives together my husband and I learned that it is the simple things in life that make it sweet. We have lived by this idea the majority of our lives together. We tied our lives to faith in God, to family, the land and to keeping as much control of our environment as possible. Much of our emphasis has been put on quality of life. We tried to create an environment to live in which sheltered us from the bombardment of the media, the rat race and materialism, and opened us up to spiritual growth, physical wellness, creativity and independent living. Our philosophy and life principles outline our daily life. I will share our basic principles with you not to say that our way should be your way, but so that you can see how we set the stage for our particular home environment to succeed.
1) God is at the head of our family. Our faith practices are an integral part of our lives. We are Torah Observant, keep the seventh day Sabbath and the biblical feasts. Our lives revolve around the principles taught in Torah.
2) We make family our number one priority.
We lived on one income so that I could be home and available to our kids.
When they got to be school age, we home schooled.
Everyone was to be at the table for dinner, if Dad was going to be late, I gave the kids a snack and we waited for him. We spent this time telling stories and sharing thoughts from our day.
No one was plugged in to an electronic devise, (Walkman, Gameboy and later cell phones), when the family was together. Electronic entertainment was limited to one hour a day.
Our plans 95% of the time included our children. We did not have babysitters and we visited grandparent as a family, we didn't drop them off to go do our thing.
As a policy my husband did not travel for work. If by some chance he had to go somewhere, we went with him, stayed at the hotel and did school and field trips from our hotel base of operations. (As a side note, this was our way of doing things, I am not suggesting that this would work for every family).The children were encouraged to plan activities that included their family. Peer specific activities were agreed to on a case by case basis. Most of the time their friends were at our house and were treated like part of the family.
Personal space was respected, but no closed doors for kids. Most of the time what ever activity was being done was done in the family area with everyone doing their "own thing" in the same area.
There was no such thing as being bored,(there was a to-do list for times when "I'm bored" became a problem), unless it was very incliment weather the majority of life was spent doing things outside.
3) We control what input comes into the house. We have no t.v. (let me clarify that we have a t.v. but it isn't possible to watch programs on it. It isn't hooked up to cable or to the box, it is used to watch movies). We listen to music as background not as "I'm plugged in I can't hear you." We do have internet, but when to kids were home, we have always had the policy that you could only be on the internet if you were supervised and then if it wasn't being used for school purposes, it was included in the 1 hour of electronic entertainment.. No computers in personal areas.
4) Everyone is expected to pitch in. Each family member has their own tasks and is expected to get them done. Also many hands make light work, we help each other to make sure everything gets done. Household and garden activities were not considered "chores" they were part of the ebb and flow of everyday life.
I know our ground rules may seem kind of "strict" but actually we found it to be very liberating, we created a protective bubble that made it possible to be and do our best. Everyone knew what was expected of them and we all worked for the good of all.. Our homestead was a safe, happy place where we worked and played and enjoyed the company of family and friends. The kids friends were always around, playing, helping, eating, learning. They appreciated being included and enjoyed being part of whatever was going on.
