Letters from the Editor
The October 2020 Issue | Self-Control
I am so excited to offer you this month’s line-up of articles, particularly because of the current political and social climate in which we find ourselves. I hope you find some encouragement in the words shared this month!
Our feature article, which is a Q&A with pro-life apologist Stephanie Gray Connors, is particularly exciting to me because I believe Stephanie offers an approach to defending one’s beliefs that we can all learn from—whether we are pro-life, pro-choice, or find ourselves somewhere in the middle. I hope you enjoy this Q&A with Stephanie Gray Connors as much as I enjoyed writing it.
We’re also wrapping up our series on the fruit of the Spirit with Heidi Goehmann’s essay on self-control (The Fruitful Life: Self-Control). I think you will find her words not only a bit challenging but also encouraging. Because let’s be honest: self-control is probably something we could all use a little bit of help with.
I also share a few of my thoughts on two subjects near and dear to my heart: motherhood and the impact politics is having on relationships. I hope you will take some time to read When Mom Lets Go and Lets Dad Be Dad and Why Can’t We Be Friends?—and share your thoughts at the end of each article in the comments.
As always, I consider it a great blessing to have this opportunity to share the words of others as well as my own with you every month. I hope you enjoy the time you spend on Simquily and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
The September 2020 Issue | Gentleness
Dear Friends,
How are you doing? As we march on through 2020, I hope the articles shared on Simquily this month bring you a bit of encouragement. These past few months, life’s circumstances (totally unrelated to the virus) have not left enough hours in the day for me to continue on with the digital magazine or write as much as I would like. However, I am thrilled to bring you month’s this lineup of articles. And while my goal is to continue on with the magazine one day, for now, I hope you enjoy the website.
I want to thank Rev. Matthew Clark for sharing his words with us as we continue on with The Fruitful Life series on the fruit of the Spirit and focus on biblical gentleness (The Fruitful Life: Gentleness); and author Katie Faris, who shares a bit about motherhood and practical ways we can love our children biblically (Loving Our Children Biblically and Finding Joy in the Trenches of Motherhood). Whether you’re a parent, aunt, uncle, grandparent, godparent, or friend to a little one—I think you will find Katie’s words to be a huge encouragement! I also share a bit about my personal journey of rediscovering the power of prayer and some ideas for how to practice a more regular prayer life (Practicing a Life of Prayer).
I consider it a great blessing to have this opportunity to share the words of others as well as my own with you every month. As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend on Simquily and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
July & August 2020 | Goodness & Faithfulness
Whether life seems to slow down or speed up for you during the summer months, for me, life has sped up drastically, despite staying in and doing less. To that end, I have not written as much as I would have liked these two months. However, I am so thankful for our contributing writers, Lisa M. Clark and Rev. Matthew Clark, who have generously given of their time so we can continue on with our series on the fruit of the Spirit, The Fruitful Life.
I hope you will take a few minutes to read all about God’s goodness and faithfulness in our new articles, The Fruitful Life: Goodness and The Fruitful Life: Faithfulness.
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
June 2020 | Kindness
In this month’s feature article, The Fruitful Life: Kindness—The Act of Bothering, Heidi Goehmann writes this: “God bothers with us, because He loves us. We then, in turn, bother with those whom He created. … God wants to show all people kindness, and show it in technicolor, so He does that through you and me. We can wait for those moments of kindness to find us, or we can actively engage in them for Him.”
As you read through Heidi’s article and reflect on the daily Scripture passages of our June Bible reading plan, it is my prayer for you and I that we are encouraged and motivated to actively engage in acts of kindness for Him.
And speaking of acts of kindness, we’re revisiting an article we originally published last July that explores ways in which we can be a friend to a new American. I encourage you to check out our Q&A with Laura Brink, the Health and Wellness Coordinator for Christian Friends of New Americans, to learn about the work CFNA does and some practical ways in which we can befriend someone new to our country.
Last, but certainly not least, as June is the month in which we celebrate dads, I hope this month’s Editor’s Picks sparks an idea or two for the perfect gift for the special dad in your life! I also encourage you to check out these previously published articles: On Becoming a Dad, written by Steele Shippy, and Because of Who You Are—A Daughter’s Tribute to Her Dad.
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
May 2020 | Patience
This month, as we continue our year-long series on the fruit of the Spirit, we focus on patience. And could there be any better time than now to talk about patience? After weeks of disruption to life as it was, our patience might be running out while we wait. But what are we waiting for? Perhaps the better question to ask is this: What am I learning in the wait? Because whether we’re waiting during a global pandemic or waiting during “life as usual,” our lives are marked by moments of waiting—of moments in the “in-between.”
My prayer during this time of waiting is that I turn time and time again to Scripture to grow closer to Jesus. And that is my prayer for you as well. And so I encourage you to join me on a 31-day journey through Scripture (In the Word: Patience) as we focus on patience, waiting, taming our tongues, and accounts of God’s people who waited patiently on His timing. Our feature article The Fruitful Life: Patience, written by Lisa M. Clark, dives into what biblical patience is and the various facets of patience in Scripture. I also think you’ll find Stepping Confidently into Uncomfortable Obedience particularly encouraging, as Andrea Chatelain shares her and her family’s journey into the unknown, one step at a time.
As May is also the month in which we celebrate mothers, A Mother’s Reflections shares one woman’s thoughts on motherhood—from the perspective of a daughter, mother of eight, and grandmother of six. You might even discover a great Mother’s Day gift in this month’s Editor’s Picks. Not all the picks are perfect for mom, but perhaps they might spark an idea!
For those of us who perhaps picked up baking as a hobby during this time of self-isolation, Ashley Fondren, owner of Comfort Confections Bakery in Little Rock, Arkansas, offers us an incredible step-by-step guide to decorated sugar cookies. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to put on your apron and give these tasty and artistic treats a try!
Last, this month marks the one-year anniversary since I launched Simquily.com! In gratitude to all Simquily readers, contributing writers, and individuals who allowed me to interview them and share a bit of their lives with you, I’ve put together a list of the ten most-read articles on Simquily.com. If you come across an article you’ve never read as you scroll through the list, give it a read and leave a comment at the end! I always enjoy hearing from Simquily readers.
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
April 2020 | Peace
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).
In the growing wake of COVID-19, we might wonder what peace is, where we can find it, and how to recover peace once it seems lost. In that same verse, Jesus instructs us to not be afraid. But the reality is that many of us struggle with fear and with discord. But Jesus didn’t say that He will one day bring peace (though He will bring eternal peace when He returns), He said, “Peace I leave with you.” And that’s what this issue is about: the kind of peace Jesus offers and that is available to us in the here and now, despite our circumstances.
In our feature article, The Fruitful Life: Peace, Sharon Shearman, Director of Family Ministry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Missouri, reminds us where true, lasting peace originates. In The Peaceful Home, writer and speaker Andrea Chatelain offers her thoughts on finding solace in the chaos of everyday life. We’re also continuing our year in Scripture with the April reading plan (In the Word: Peace), and I share some of my favorite things for life at home in this month’s Editor’s Picks.
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
March 2020 | Joy
Happy almost spring! Every year I look forward to this season because after months of harsh winter weather and shorter days, spring brings with it the promise of warm weather, bright sunshine, longer days, and hope—hope of new life in nature all around us and hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ as we look forward to Holy Week and the celebration of Easter.
And because of Easter we have joy.
As we continue our year-long study of the fruit of the Spirit and explore the concept of joy this month, we are reminded that joy is not found in warm weather or even in the beauty of a tulip. Rather, joy is found in the One who is the source of all life—Jesus Christ.
I am so thankful for the many contributors to this issue: physical therapist and certified personal trainer Karen Schmidt offers her expertise on physical wellness (Core Strength, Balance, and Flexibility); Kim Underwood, the Afternoon Show co-host at Joy FM, the Christian radio station in St. Louis, Missouri, talks with us about the ways in which Joy FM listeners share joy in the St. Louis community and how we, too, can share joy with the world around us (Joy to the World); horticulturalist Beth Parker shares six ways we can prepare our gardens for planting seasons (Ready for Spring); Sharon Shearman, Director of Family Ministry at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Des Peres, Missouri, offers her thoughts on what true, biblical joy is (The Fruitful Life: Joy); and I had the pleasure of interviewing Sharon Agne about her experience working in hospice and talking about how she sees joy even in the midst of death (The Heart of Hospice).
We’re also continuing our year in Scripture with the March reading plan (In the Word: Joy), and I share some of my favorite things in this month’s Editor’s Picks.
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
February 2020 | Welcome to Simquily Magazine!
Welcome to Simquily Magazine! As I introduce you to this new publication, I feel a bit like a schoolgirl bursting through the back door of my childhood home and exclaiming, “Look what I did at school today!” I remember my parents used to have a refrigerator magnet that was a ruler, and on it was written that same phrase: Look what I did at school today. As a child, it was always great fun to post my latest art project or story on the refrigerator.
Well, I can’t post Simquily Magazine on the refrigerator, but I am so pleased to be able to offer this digital magazine—a downloadable format of the content you’ve come to expect each month on Simquily.com.
The launch of Simquily Magazine is exciting in many ways, but what I’m most thrilled about is how easy it now is to share each month’s issue in its entirety and to download all the content at once so you can flip through (so to speak) the pages as you have time. I hope you enjoy this magazine as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you.
As we welcome in February, I want to give special thanks to author Alexandra Kuykendall, Pastor Eric Gledhill, and plant pathologist John Headrick for their contributions to this issue. I think you will find their insights enlightening, encouraging, and perhaps even a bit challenging. The older I get the more I realize just how good it can be to force myself to step outside my comfort zone every once in a while—whether it’s trying my hand at indoor gardening (Going Green), introducing myself to a new neighbor or parent in my child’s class (Neighborly Love), or being vulnerable with my husband (Me, My Spouse, and God).
We’re also diving in to our year-long study of the fruit of the Spirit (The Fruitful Life: Love) and continuing our year in Scripture with February’s Bible reading plan (In the Word: Love). Last, I hope you will find something new you might enjoy as you check out a few of my favorite things, including my all-time favorite book (Editor’s Picks).
As always, I hope you enjoy the time you spend reading this issue and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
January 2020 | Spiritual, Physical, and Financial Wellness
Happy New Year! I don’t know about you, but I look forward to this time of year because there’s something exciting about new beginnings, whether it’s the beginning of a new year, a new decade, or something as simple as a new list.
This year, my husband and I are stealing a play from our friends’ marriage playbook and setting aside time to think through and write down our 2020 goals—for our family, for us as a couple, and for ourselves. I don’t know if this will be the case, but it seems like taking the time to think through and write down our goals makes them more than our usual fleeting New Year’s resolutions.
At Simquily, we’ve made a few resolutions as well—to make 2020 the year of wellness: spiritual health, physical wellness, and faithful stewardship of our time, talents, and treasures. And what I’m most excited about is our lineup of guest authors who will be guiding us on our wellness journey.
As we focus on spiritual wellness in 2020, we’re offering monthly Bible reading plans to encourage you to remain in God’s Word on a daily basis. Each month, our In the Word articles will feature a daily reading plan, a memory verse, and a downloadable bookmark with the reading plan on it. And starting in February, we will begin our in-depth study of the first fruit of the Spirit, love. I encourage you to check out The Fruitful Life, which is an introduction to our year-long study of Galatians 5.
This month, we’re also taking a look at what it means to be Wonderfully Made, lessons I learned while decluttering my home’s hidden spaces (Closet by Closet), and a few of my favorite things from the past year (Editor’s Picks).
Last, but certainly not least, I think you will enjoy Raising Smart Money Managers. I’m thankful to three empty nest couples who graciously shared ten things they did to raise their children to wisely manage their finances.
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life. We hope you enjoy this issue and that you have a wonderful start to the new year.
Welcome to Simquily!
December 2019 | It's All About Jesus
I absolutely love this time of year. The Christmas season is full of love, rejoicing, anticipation, and hope. It’s a season that our family celebrates with beautiful decorations, candlelit worship, presents, intentional time with family, and twinkly lights. We feast on special treats, and we make time to serve our neighbors in special ways.
But why do we do all this? Not because of tradition but because a tiny baby was born in Bethlehem more than two thousand years ago, and He was given the name Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
Like Christmas, this issue of Simquily is all about Jesus, from our Advent Reading Plan to our Favorite Things list, which features unique Christmas and Advent traditions as well as gift ideas and inspiration. We’re also taking a closer look at the man behind Christmas in our article What’s the Big Deal about Jesus?
Last, but certainly not least, we’re taking some time to make sure our homes are safe for the coming winter season. To help you think through ways to keep you, your family, and your home safe this winter, be sure to check out Winter Safety: 9 Tips to Keep You and Your Home Safe from Missouri Firefighter Adam Couch.
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life. We hope you enjoy this issue and that you have a blessed Christmas.
Welcome to Simquily!
November 2019 | Giving Thanks
I love November. It’s a special time of year when many of my favorite things collide: cool weather, changing leaves, football, extended family, our Thanksgiving Day worship service, my grandmother’s dumplings, pumpkin pie, and the anticipation of Christmas. It’s a beautiful time of year, especially when I pause to consider everything for which I have to be thankful.
This month, with Thanksgiving right around the corner, November 11 being Veterans Day, and the month of November being National Adoption Month, we have a lot to be thankful for this time of year. And so this issue of Simquily is centered around giving thanks, particularly for the men and women who have served our great nation (A Passion to Serve Those Who Have Served), for parents who have opened their homes and hearts to children in the foster care system (Giving Thanks for Open Homes & Hearts), for educators who have answered the call to teach (Thankful for Teachers: A Gift Guide for Teachers by Teachers), and for flight attendants who help make our holiday travels more enjoyable (22 Travel Tips from a Flight Attendant). We’re also giving thanks for Silver Dollar City—a family friendly amusement park in Branson, Missouri, that celebrates Jesus’ birth like no other park in America. Be sure to check out On the Map: A Silver Dollar City Christmas for a one-day itinerary to get the most out of your visit to this one-of-a-kind Christmas festival.
As many of us prepare to open our own homes and hearts to family and friends this holiday season, we’re revisiting an article we originally published back in May. I hope you find inspiration in our article Holiday Hosting, which shares several tips on how to make your guests feel at home during your Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities.
We also pause to acknowledge that in the midst of this beautiful season of Thanksgiving, there is suffering, sadness, and loss. Whatever circumstance you find yourself in this season, I hope you will check out our November Book of the Month, One Thousand Gifts, to discover how one woman embraced a lifestyle of gratitude despite profound pain and loss.
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life. We hope you enjoy this issue and that you have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Welcome to Simquily!
October 2019 | Faith in Everyday Life
Sweater weather. It’s finally here! Or, at least it was before a series of ninety-degree days decided to make an appearance! Nevertheless, in our home, we’re celebrating fall and all that it has to offer: new beginnings that often come with new seasons, beautiful foliage, pumpkins, roaring bonfires, and football. Lots of football. If a football game is in your future, I encourage you to give Tailgating 101 a quick read to get a few ideas on how to get the most out of your tailgating experience.
This month, with our theme of “faith in everyday life,” we’re looking at ways in which we as Christians can live out our faith in big ways and seemingly small ways. Whether it’s loving someone who is hard to love (Wise Words: Living a Quiet Life); a wife praying for her busy husband (The Lonely Wife: 13 Ways to Thrive During Seasons of Loneliness); a Christian citizen preparing to vote next month (When Christians and Politics Collide); or two friends disagreeing respectfully (Book of the Month: I Think You’re Wrong [But I’m Listening]), we have opportunities every day to live out our faith and share the love of Jesus Christ with the people in our lives. And while it’s that simple, the simple things in life are not always easy! It is my prayer these articles will encourage you and perhaps even inspire you in unexpected ways.
Last, I think you will find our travel piece this month to be especially endearing because we asked three siblings ranging in ages from 7 to 13 to play tour guide to Washington D. C. So if you’re looking to plan a family trip to our nation’s capital, check out our Kids’ Guide to Washington D. C.!
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily!
September 2019 | A Different Kind of Carpe Diem
During my junior year at the Missouri School of Journalism, I was taking a class led by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. (Talk about being intimidated when you submit your first draft for edits!) Among other assignments, each of us was to write a feature that would be published at the end of the semester. For months, we interviewed our chosen subjects, transcribed hours of interviews, wrote, edited, wrote some more, and interviewed some more. On Mother’s Day, my piece—“A ‘chance’ friendship—for 75 years”—was published. It was during that semester-long writing process when I fell in love with sharing people’s stories.
This month, I’d like to introduce you to two special individuals: Ms. Laura Smith and author C. F. E. Black. Like all of us, they have stories to tell, but I’d like to share with you their particular stories because they embody our theme of “carpe diem”—not in the traditional sense of being foolishly impulsive but rather in the sense of believing and obeying Jesus when He says, “Do not be anxious about your life” (Matthew 6:25). So, perhaps more than carpe diem, it’s really about faith and courage. I hope you enjoy From Budapest and Back, a story about Ms. Smith’s international journey of faith, and Mercies Not Wasted, a first-person account of how Ms. Black’s near-death experience spurred her on to realize a lifelong dream.
September also brings the beginning of my favorite season: fall. To celebrate the coming cooler weather, we’ve put together a list of some of our favorite things that excite us to welcome fall with open arms (Fall Favorites for Home & Wardrobe). In addition, our featured destination this month is my hometown of Saint Louis, Missouri. Known and loved (by me, at least) for Cardinal Baseball, frozen custard, Italian cuisine, the beautiful Forest Park, and many other attractions (several of which are free), Saint Louis is a wonderful destination for all types of travelers, especially families. Be sure to check out On the Map: Saint Louis, Missouri for our list of St. Louis favorites and family friendly destinations.
Last, but not least, we’re finishing up our two-part interview with Ashley Fondren, Owner of Comfort Confections in Little Rock, Arkansas. You won’t want to miss out on this interview because Ashley has generously shared with us two of her favorite dessert recipes (Baking with Ashley Fondren). I’m already looking forward to making her Brookie Cookies on September 23. That seems to be a great way to celebrate the beginning of a new season!
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily—and welcome fall! May you enjoy a new season filled with faith and courage.
August 2019 | Seasons
There are many things I love about living in the Midwest, but one of my favorites is our four very distinct seasons. While I don’t necessarily love the heat and humidity of summer nor the bitter cold of winter, I always look forward to the changing of the seasons, from spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter, winter to spring, and on it goes—the beauty of Creation on full display all year long.
This month, we’re exploring the concept of seasons, not only the seasons of the year, but also the seasons we experience in life. Sometimes, it seems like the crisp fall air might never arrive to provide relief from the blazing hot August temperatures or that the warmth of the summer won’t come soon enough as we near the end of a long, cold, dark winter. Similarly, in life, we might long for the end of a particularly difficult or busy season, and at other times we might pray that the beautiful season we’re in will never end.
In whatever season you find yourself in this moment, I pray that the content shared in this issue of Simquily.com will be a blessing to you, whether it’s through a gentle reminder that God loves you even when He answers your prayers with a “no” or “not yet” (When God Says No) or through personal reflection as you read our devotion on Ecclesiastes 3 (Your Story, by God: An Ecclesiastes 3 Devotion). And if you are able to carve out some time this month to settle in a comfy chair and pick up a book, I encourage you to check out our Book of the Month, Loving My Actual Life: An Experiment in Relishing What’s Right in Front of Me, by Alexandra Kuykendall.
Free time, especially time to read, is hard to come by with the start of school right around the corner. To help families not only save time but also money on meal prep, we spoke with Ashley Fondren of Comfort Confections in Little Rock, Arakansas, to get her ideas on how to make the task of planning for and preparing meals more time- and cost-effective (Meal Prep Made Easy: Q&A with Ashley Fondren). We also chatted with horticulturalist Beth Parker to get some tips on how to prepare and plan for fall plantings (Gardening 101 with Horticulturalist Beth Parker).
Our Wise Words article takes a bit of a different approach this month as they feature excerpts from each of the articles in the August issue. Last but certainly not least, I encourage you to check out our On the Map article, as we’re featuring the beautiful and eclectic city of Juneau, Alaska. In honor of the trip my husband and I took to Juneau seven years ago, this month, I share a few of our favorite places and experiences in Alaska’s capital city. Perhaps it might inspire your own Alaskan adventure!
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily—and may you and your loved ones find comfort and peace in God’s promises that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).
July 2019 | America the Beautiful
What makes America the beautiful country that it is? As we celebrate Independence Day this July, we’re taking some time to acknowledge a few of the things that make the United States, our homes, and our lives beautiful.
I’m especially pleased to offer you this issue of Simquily because it is jam-packed with expert contributors: a certified professional organizer on how we can make our homes and lives more organized (The Organized Life); two professional educators on how to keep our children’s academic skills sharp during the summer months and prepare them for the coming school year (30+ Ways to Avoid the Summer Slide); and the health and wellness coordinator for Christian Friends of New Americans on how we can be welcoming to those new to the United States (Being a Friend to a New American). Our feature article this month shares the stories of three individuals who share what being an American citizen means to them. I hope you enjoy reading their stories as much as I have in the article Proud to be an American.
Our July Book of the Month reminds us that a life built on the Rock—on Jesus Christ and His Word—is a truly beautiful life that is well prepared for the storms that come our way. Our Wise Words are on faith and freedom and feature quotes from Martin Luther to Rosa Parks to a pastor currently serving in Jefferson City, Missouri. May you find their words to be thought-provoking, encouraging, and enlightening. Last, but not least, I hope you enjoy a new article called “On the Map” as we briefly explore one of my family’s favorite summertime destinations.
As always, it is my hope that you enjoy your time on Simquily.com and that you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily—and may you and your loved ones enjoy a most wonderful and safe Fourth of July!
June 2019 | Adventure & Everyday Life
As we look forward to the beginning of summer and all that it brings, we often find ourselves anticipating adventure—big or small, expected or unexpected, extravagant or simple. Whether we’re looking forward to a big life change or simply making small changes to our home, adventure is something that can be both exciting and risky at the same time.
Whether it’s becoming a parent for the first time (On Becoming a Dad), taking a trip overseas (Paris Is Always a Good Idea), or starting a series of updates to your home (Updating This & That), embarking upon the unknown can be scary and intimidating. That being said, we’ll also explore some ways in which we can bless others at the start of their new adventures (Oh Happy Day!)
As June is also the month for celebrating dads, I encourage you to check out our Father’s Day Gift Guide, a special tribute to dad (Because of Who You Are), and a bit of fatherly wisdom that’s worth sharing (Wise Words: From Dad).
And to carry through our adventure theme, our Book of the Month is about one of the greatest adventures in history. I encourage you to give this short book a read!
As always, it is my hope that the time you spend on Simquily is well worth it and that along the way you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily—and may your adventures this summer be filled with joy!
May 2019 | Open Homes & Hearts
In the Midwest, the days are finally getting longer, and the weather is doing what it does best: keeping us on our toes. But Spring is here, and I love this time of year. Flowers are blooming, vibrant greens are replacing the grays and browns of winter, and the warmth of the sun invites us to open our windows and spend more time outdoors. Perhaps, the beauty of Spring invites us to open our individual worlds to the great big world around us.
In a way, Simquily.com is me opening my home and heart to you. My family and I enjoy our privacy, (we don’t venture much into the social media worlds), but Simquily.com has been a dream of mine for a long time, and several months ago my husband looked at me and said, “I think you need to just do it.” So, here we are—a website that’s all about living simply and living quietly. Much like my life, this site is a work in progress, but I hope you will come back and visit often. Some of the features of Simquily.com include monthly themes, various types of articles (including Q&As, how-to’s, profiles, narratives, and more), an editorial board called the Simquily Six, and (coming soon) contributing writers. I encourage you to check out the About page to learn more. I’m thrilled to be on this journey, and I hope you will join me!
This month, as we celebrate the launch of this dream project and the season of Spring, we’ll explore some ways in which we can open our homes—and our hearts—to others. I encourage you to start with the article What Is a Quiet Life?, which explains more about Simquily and what we mean by “Living Simply. Living Quietly.” We’ll also talk about hospitality (The Hospitable Home); reveal this month’s Book of the Month in Favorite Things; share five ways to host for less; and more. As May is also the month for celebrating moms, I encourage you to check out our Mother’s Day Gift Guide, which offers what I think is a pretty unique approach to gifting.
It is my hope that the time you spend on Simquily is well worth it and that along the way you find encouragement and inspiration for your daily life.
Welcome to Simquily—and happy Spring!