Book Review: Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living

Creative and Practical Ways to Simplify, Downshift and Live Frugally

Aug 11, 2008

Jackie Wellwood, a homeschooling mother of six, has written a informative gem of a book for those starting to think about simplifying and decluttering their lives.

The Busy Mom’s Guide to Simple Living: Creative Ideas and Practical Ways for Making the Most of What You Have [Crossway Books, 1997] is a friendly, practical book that offers both ideas and resources for downscaling and living a more simple life.

Lifestyle Change and Simplification

Previously a mortgage loan officer, Jackie discovered that being an educated professional had not prepared her for being a homemaker and mom. But with determination and a new found faith in Christ, she persevered. She undertook new endeavors, tried new skills, and worked to learn how to live life outside of the corporate sphere.

Drawing on her own experiences in moving from full-time employee to homeschooling mom, Jackie seeks to encourage others in their own transition. She offers an overview of lifestyle simplification based on the following principles:

Friendly Christian Perspective

Although written from a Christian perspective, the book is not preachy. In fact, Jackie is quite open and offers a glimpse into her family’s daily life. She readily shares both their successes and failures. She describes many of their routines in detail in order to help busy moms think through what might work best in their own situations. Throughout the book, Jackie is honest in describing the ideal goal that she is working toward and the current reality of where they are in the process. She is realistic in offering suggestions. For example, she suggests that working moms hire cleaning help since they cannot do it all and their children need them. She also acknowledges there is no way she can know which of her ideas will help the reader's family, but that each person must prayerfully consider the changes they should make.

Jackie addresses areas such as chores, holidays and gift giving, household management, and healthy living. She also discusses topics not often seen in simplicity books such as equipment and where to invest your money while simplifying. She offers some helpful insights in the areas of homeschooling and home business, especially the unique blessings and stresses of working at home.

Inspiring Handbook

Because this book was published in 1997, it predates most widespread use of the internet and certainly the explosion of blogs devoted to women and topics such as simple living and frugality. But although many of these topics can be found in abundance today online, this is still a great little book to own and read from time to time when looking for fresh inspiration. For further inspiration, also check out Saving Money with The Complete Tightwad Gazette and "Back to Basics" Teaches Old-Fashioned Skills.

The copyright of the article Book Review: Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living in Personal Growth Books is owned by Sallie Schaaf Borrink. Permission to republish Book Review: Busy Mom's Guide to Simple Living in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.