Live With Purpose | Simple Mom

by Tsh on May 7, 2013 • 16 Comments Live With Purpose You

What potholders, tigers, and Ethiopia have in common

“Mom, I’d like to sell my potholders so that I can give the money away.” Tate, my 8-year-old said this rather nonchalantly as we were driving from school to gymnastics. She got one of those rite-of-passage potholder loop kits from the grandparents for Christmas, and she’s been a weaving machine this spring.

“I like that idea a lot, Tate. How much would you sell them for?” I asked. “Oh, something like twenty-five cents or maybe fifty cents or maybe a dollar,” she replied, quite the entrepreneur.

“What would you give the money to?”

She thought for a moment. “Well, I can’t decide between homeless people or tigers.” I tried not to laugh. “Tigers?” I asked.

“Yeah, there’s a certain type that’s endangered, and I’d like to give money to people who are helping stop that.” She’s always been an animal lover.

potholder

I loved her heart and her ideas, so I promised we would look in to how she could give her proceeds to organizations that helped both these efforts. And then I also remembered that we’re about to launch the second phase of fully-funding some work done in an Ethiopian village.

“Hey Tate, would you also be interested in giving some of your profits to work being done in a small village in Ethiopia? It helps lots of mamas with little babies, giving them supplies they need and teaching them how to take care of them.” One of our Compassion children lives in Ethiopia, so I knew she’d recognize the country.

“Ooh, yeah! I wanna do that, too.” Bless her.

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by Tsh on February 25, 2013 • 68 Comments Live With Purpose

What is “simple living,” anyway?

coffee table mess

In the process of overhauling Simple Mom, I’ve been perusing the years’ worth of archives. They’re mostly embarrassing, but I do like how they serve as a historical record of sorts for my personal life.

If you’ve heard me speak before, you know that I started the blog five years ago as a creative outlet to help alleviate my depression. I also wrote about simplifying my life as a way to catalog my ideas of how to make my new overseas life easier. And I also chose this topic—simpler living—because not much was being written about it on the Internet at the time. My, how times have changed.

The topic of “simple living” has come up a lot in my life lately—namely what, exactly, it is. It’s an old phrase, and it’s so broad that it invites as many definitions as there are people who want to live simpler.

And since some readers come to this site in expectation of exploring this phrase, I thought I’d restate what it means here, on Simple Mom. According to my archives, it’s been awhile since I brought it up.

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by Tsh on February 15, 2013 • 13 Comments Live With Purpose You

An update on our Ethiopian village

ethiopia map

Hi friends. So remember when I told you about a group of mamas and babies in Ethiopia that we’re going to bless? Well, we’re ALMOST there. Our first goal is almost reached.

And even cooler? We’ve got a grant in front of us—Great Day Farms will contribute the last $1,500 of our project (or if it gets fully funded elsewhere, they’ll put that $1,500 towards starting phase 2 of our project)! That’s amazing, you guys. Amazing!

CSP Ethiopia

So here’s the deal. We have 13 days left for Phase 1. I know we can do the remaining $2,000 dollars. Wouldn’t it be amazing if Great Day Farms could give their gift to start phase 2? I’d be psyched.

Either way, I know both you and this village will be blessed when you give. We’ve partnered with Pure Charity to handle our project—read more about them here (it’s amazing how they work!). Then, go ahead and help fund this project, if you can. You can give as little as $5. That’s a latte.

Head here, and click on that huge green button on the right that says “FUND THIS PROJECT.”

How we’re helping

Wanna know about how we’re loving on our Ethiopian sisters? You can read more about them, but here’s the ten peso version:

CSP Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, thousands of girls in poverty are growing up without good role models. As these girls grow up and have babies, they lack the basic skills and knowledge needed to raise a healthy baby.

Poverty is holding mothers back from the resources they need to be a successful parent. This is where Compassion’s Child Survival Program (CSP) steps in. The Fitche Evangelical Mekane Yesus Child Survival Program (CSP) is coming alongside mothers to help them deliver and raise healthy babies. Mothers in this CSP are trained how to:

• provide a healthy and safe environment for their child,

• improve on their self-esteem so that they can in turn create trust between their baby, allowing for a healthy attachment, and

• create activities for their baby which will promote closeness, growth and a loving environment.

This CSP needs $25,000 annually to operate. Totally doable.

I visited the Philippines with Compassion in 2011, and one of my favorite programs of theirs was this CSP. I absolutely love that they both meet the felt needs of mamas AND fill their minds with practical wisdom for taking care of their family long-term. Compassion is a stellar organization.

CSP Ethiopia

So, to sum up this post:

• We want to bless a little village in Ethiopia by fully-funding their Child Survival Program with Compassion.

• A CSP helps take care of mothers and babies—physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

•We’ve partnered with Pure Charity.

•We’ve almost fully-funded phase 1, which ends in 13 days.

• Great Day Farms is granting us $1,500, to either complete phase 1 or to start phase 2.

Won’t you join us? You can give this village your latte for one day. It’ll bless you and them.

Questions? Ask below. Oh, and you can get your friends and family to get excited, too—please spread the news! Let’s finish Phase 1 soon.

by Tsh on January 4, 2013 • 88 Comments Live With Purpose You

When January looks like the inside of a cave

Happy fresh start, everyone! Aside from the icy-cold weather and the somewhat depressing thought that the next three months involve a lot of gray and slush, January tends to be one of my favorite months.

I’m a big fan of clean slates, goal-setting, and dream-big sessions with my hubby. Stuff like that kindles an inner fire; it’s like I have permission to not be weird when I say, “So what does the next five years look like for us?” Kyle usually answers with his standard, “I don’t know,” being better skilled than I at living in the present, but I still like to ask those kinds of big-picture questions late at night when he’s about to nod off to sleep.

I also love that we’re getting back to a routine after a month of Adventing and making merry. There’s something soothing about packing lunch boxes and knowing that gymnastics is on Tuesdays.

So yes, my life is rerouting itself to our rhythm, except for one thing: I’ve got a book deadline in 28 days. TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS.

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by Sandy on December 19, 2012 • 30 Comments Live With Purpose You

Avoiding over-commitment and enjoying the week of Christmas

Written by contributor Sandy Coughlin of Reluctant Entertainer.

The families were coming, wagons drying off in the garages, gloves and hats laid out by the front door.

They had all responded to our invitation for our annual night of caroling through the neighborhood. Snow or rain, about 40 people – from big grown-ups down to the wee little babes – would pack into our tiny house for hot chocolate and sweets, and to practice up on our songs. Then out the door to the neighbors we’d go, with our harmonies, kids, and sometimes umbrellas.

But then, what once was a blessing turned into a burden. It wasn’t fun for us anymore. We were trying to pack too much into our schedule, and the stress of entertaining on this night didn’t feel right anymore.
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