My parents raised us kids in rural Arizona with the Mother Earth lifestyle. I loved it, and now I’m trying to incorporate as much of that as I can into our family. It’s a challenge, since we love in the city!

My husband can fix anything and does. This is mostly a blessing but sometimes I get into a place where I start wishing for unrepairable breakdowns. Sledgehammer style, just kidding about that, almost. For my last birthday, actually in the days preceding it, in the dark dreary waste after Christmas but before spring, I thought I might nearly die of laundry. So In January 30 (our anniversary) I told him of my woes. Told him that for my birthday on February 2 (three days later), I wanted a new washer and dryer. So he stayed home from work that Monday and made it happen. By evening they were whirring away in my laundry room. True love…him for me, between the two of us, but most of all that day by me for the washer and dryer.

I think that advances are blessings. My Grandma who studied Chemistry when no other girl she knew went to college let alone studied the sciences said that we have no idea how much Chemistry has blessed and improved our lives. One tiny for instance life with out modern surfactants and detergents is something that we as women would never like to experience. There is plenty “modern excess” out of sheer annoyance that I would happily do without, but the ones I love, I can’t imagine going without them.

One thing that necessitates washers and dryers is the abundance of clothing. She said she had three dresses. Two for school one for church. She one to wear one to wash one to wear one to wash… and on and on it goes. I think if we practiced that we might have less need for fancy washers and dryers. My Grandma loves beautiful things and certainly has more than two everyday dresses now.

This longing and appreciation for something lost in our modern world is not new. One more Grandma story. When she went away to college to the big city she brought a homemade sweater, the only one she owned. The girls just raved and raved about it. They voted it the best sweater (who knew they had sweater contests?), it was a nice sweater for sure but she just though to herself, “this old homespun thing.”

It often seems like if there is a hard way to do something, we try and find that hard way. I haven’t figured out why we do that to ourselves yet, but I’ve been enjoying trying to find the easy way for a lot more things lately.

“If our conveniences give us more time, maybe what we’ll be accountable is how we use that time, not whether or not we use the convenience.”

I also think that it can depend on how we use the conveniences, too. For example, see how the church uses the internet for good (indexing, missionary work). We can do the same. Or we can waste time, or worse, engage in blatant, sinful behavior.

Lots to think about.

Living simply helps me to feel content, but my simple and your simple are probably not the same things. The things I choose to help keep my life simple – no cell phone because I like being unavailable, not signing my kids up for many classes/teams, baking my own bread, growing a garden etc. – are the exact opposite of the things that many women I know choose to keep their lives more simple for them!

I think that simplicity really boils down to realizing when enough is enough. That threshold is different for all of us, but once you cross it, chaos and stress always seem to be waiting on the other side.

When we first moved to our new home, we didn’t have a drier. Dh strung a line in our backyard, I bought clothes pins, and we did it my grandmother’s way. I loved it. Until November. Then I was very grateful to get a drier. I haven’t considered drying outside in the warmer weather since we then. It’s not a bad idea.

The modern conviences bring with them free time, what do we do with that time? Work more to earn more to buy more. Is that really what will give us quality of life? Our expected standard of living has risen to a level that is out of reach for most Americans without going into debt, thus the debt crisis our country is in. We need to learn to live with less, so we can have more quality to our lives.

IMHO the original post is not condemning all modern advances, but is asking us to slow down and consider our opportunities and choices, not just follow the thundering herds to buy a banana-flavored energy bar.

i really apreciate the tip!