Simplifying: Finding a Win-Win Solution

I met with some other homeschool Moms the other night. Support and companionship is essential in the homeschool world. On this particular night, the topic of discussion was organization.

I realized in that exchange, doing the dishes and feeding the family is quite a job when you are home all day. At times, the hump of my day has been lunch. In the past, I've overcome it by occasionally buying paper plates to assist with the lunch clean up.

Suddenly a light bulb went on. My daughter likes to wash up the dishes. It's more of a play activity for her. Why have I not developed this interest into a solution?

For some reason I never think to ask her to help with the dishes. She's old enough. Yesterday, I asked her if she would like a new job - washing the dishes up after lunch! She readily agreed although she was a little disappointed that she just had to rinse them and put them in the dishwasher. She was hoping to handwash them all and spend a lot of time with the water. =)
Delegation is an important part of simplifying life. I just had not realized my children were old enough to take on that responsibility. Delegating the dishes from lunch clean up was a win-win solution for both of us. I think I heard her humming as she was rinsing!

Shopping with the Kids

Simplifying my life has for the most part saved me money. That was an added bonus....or maybe the two work together hand in hand. When I first started simplifying, my children were young and we were on one income. I decided to stay home and raise my children. I evolved to become a Work at Home Mom and a Home Manager!

When my children were really young, we did not go out a lot. I hear other Moms talk about taking the kids out shopping. Shopping really never "worked" for us, at least not on a regular basis. Every once in a while I would meet my Mom halfway with my baby or later with my kids. We'd have lunch and have an errand to run at a store afterwards. That's about it.

So staying out of the stores or malls has saved us money. If I'm not there, the kids can't ask for it and I can't spend any money. Tip I heard long ago, if you are trying to save money, stay out of the stores!

At this point in time, we go shopping once a week. We food shop and pick up any other things we may need at that same store. Is this saving me money? It is for me. It's saving me money and time; it's definitely simplifying things for me. I rarely comparison shop though now. So I may be losing money there. I think in the long run you have to look at what is best for you. Simplifying and saving time are priorities for me