The Homesteading Cottage: A Simple, Quiet Life

A simple, quiet life is what I crave. The last few years 1Thessalonians 4:11 has become the touchstone of that longing and the way I choose to order my days.

A simple, quiet life blocks out the complications. Less is actually more, there’s no drama, chaos is minimized and life has a natural ebb and flow.

Embracing the quiet means you’re listening more. In the silent zone you begin to really “hear” the heart of a friend, the beauty of nature and the call of your spirit.

I love that this verse prompts us to “mind your own business” because there isn’t enough of that going on these days, eh? By tending someone else’s garden, it means we’re neglecting our own and I don’t know about you, but taking care of one garden is all I can handle (;

To finish things off it mentions to “work with your hands” which totally speaks to this creative gal’s heart. Work is a good thing because it keeps our minds active, our bodies moving and means we’re contributing something to this world.

But did you notice how it’s the last part of the verse? Sometimes we confuse work and busy-ness with productivity. If we’re doing anything it means we’re living active and productive lives, right? Wrong….oh, so wrong.

If we master the art of getting quiet to hear that guiding inner voice and we mind our own business so we can focus on tending our own garden, then it frees us to embrace the calling (or work) for our lives.

Sometimes that work has to be given time to take root, grow and flourish. It may seem like nothing is happening, but much is going on behind the scenes. And so it is with this blog…

It’s been quite a while since our last post due to technical glitches (our posts were not showing up), but those many blog-free months offered a quiet space to clarify the vision of what I hope to accomplish here. The last few years have been an adventure in faith building and it’s helped to greatly hone that mantra of a simple, quiet life.

Our family has moved to a smaller footprint lifestyle as we wait for the next step in our journey and our homesteading goals are still in limbo. As a result, these things have helped to shape our planning for the months ahead.

These new plans will bring changes over the next few months as we begin to redesign how we do things at The Homesteading Cottage. Below are just a few of the new things to come…

Featured herb and essential oil each month
Steps to embrace the homesteading lifestyle no matter where you live
Recipes on how to cook from your stocked pantry and freezer
New subscription service to celebrate the seasons of life
Several new books coming out (more about that next week)
Series on being a blessing and ways to reach out to others
Free printables to help you simplify, organize, entertain and celebrate life
Frugal Fridays are coming back
Our new ecourse on creating a Home Haven to fit your spirit
And much more…

Things may seem a little rough around the edges as we transition into a new website and store, but that flow of blogging will return. Hopefully some of our older posts that "aren't showing" yet will soon be fixed, but right now we’re just excited to be back up and running after getting the kinks worked out (;

In Gratitude,