The Creative Mama is in the midst of the “A Day In The Life” series. Today, I am there writing about how my idea of the ideal homeschool day has changed. I’m realizing there is more to education than books. Our days and schedule reflect that. To read more about it, click HERE

I love sharing resources that will inspire you and help you get the busy out of your life. That is why I am super excited to share this with you. Corey from Simple Marriage and Mandi from Life…Your Way have brought together some of the top family life authors with 38 ebooks covering a variety of topics related to family life. It is a fabulous collection of resources!

When purchased separately, these ebooks are worth $375, but for four days only, you can purchase the entire collection for just $29! Gasp!!!

This collection is only available from 8 a.m. on April 16th to 8 a.m. on April 20th. There will be no late sales offered.

Click here to purchase your collection today!

When you purchase the Simplify Family Life collection, you get instant access to each of the 38 ebooks listed below:

Entrepreneurship & Blogging

Blogger Behave by Laura @ 10 Million Miles ($4.99)

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too by Mandi @ Life Your Way ($12.00)

Make Money Blogging by Tara @ Feels Like Home ($4.99)

Tap Into Your Unique Creativity and Self Expression Webinar by Lisa @ WellGrounded Life ($39.00)

Tell Your Time by Amy @ Blogging with Amy ($4.99)

Your Blogging Business: Tax Talk & Tips from a Bookkeeper Turned Blogger by Nikki @ Christian Mommy Blogger ($4.99)

Food & Cooking

Get Lean Recipe for Success by Nisha @ Healthy Mom’s Kitchen ($37.00)

Got Dinner? by Susan @ The Confident Mom ($4.00)

How To Cook For Yourself: A Complete Beginner’s Guide by Rachael @ Kitchen Courses ($35.00)

Plan It, Don’t Panic by Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home ($4.99)

Real Food Basics by Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama ($6.95)

Real Food, Real Easy by Erin @ The Humbled Homemaker ($9.95)

Smart Sweets by Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship ($9.95)

The Everything Beans Book by Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship ($9.95)

Homemaking

2012 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner by Susan @ The Confident Mom ($9.00)

Clean Start: Your Guide to Natural Home Cleaning by Michelle @ Open Eye Health ($4.95)

Complete Printables Download Pack by Mandi @ Life Your Way ($7.00)

Food on Your Face for Acne & Oily Skin by Leslie @ Crunchy Betty ($7.99)

From Debtor to Better by Barry @ Debtor to Better ($15.00)

My Buttered Life {Summer + Gift Giving Editions} by Renee @ MadeOn Hard Lotion ($10.00)

Not a DIY Diva by Melissa @ The Inspired Room ($3.99)

One Bite at a Time by Tsh @ Simple Mom ($5.00)

That Works for Me by Kristen @ We Are THAT Family ($8.00)

Marriage & Relationships

A Simple Marriage by Corey @ Simple Marriage ($4.99)

Buck Naked Marriage by Corey @ Simple Marriage ($2.99)

Entangled by Amy @ Permission to Peruse ($4.99)

The A to Z Guide: 26 Ways in 26 Days to a Happier, Healthier Marriage by The Dating Divas ($9.97)

Minimalism for Families

101 Ways to Simplify Your Life by Laura @ Journey to a Simple Life ($9.95)

321-Stop by Lori @ Loving Simple Living ($9.97)

Inside Out Simplicity by Joshua @ Becoming Minimalist ($11.99)

Simple Ways to Be More with Less by Courtney @ Be More with Less ($9.97)

The Minimalist Mom’s Guide to Baby’s First Year by Rachel @ The Minimalist Mom ($9.95)

Parenting & Kids

4 Moms of 35+ Kids Answer Your Parenting Questions by the Moms @ 4 Moms, 35+ Kids ($7.99)

Flourishing Spring by Michele @ Frugal Granola ($5.95)

Mindset for Moms by Jamie @ Steady Mom ($4.99)

Nurturing Creativity by Renee @ FIMBY ($3.00)

Parenting with Positive Guidance by Amanda @ Not Just Cute ($9.00)

Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda @ Impress Your Kids ($6.99)

The Simplify Your Family Life Sale is brought to you in part by Plan to Eat, an online meal planning app that makes eating at home simple. Receive an exclusive coupon code on a one-year membership with your purchase!

Click here to purchase your collection today!

The sale ends at 9 a.m. ET on April 20th, and there will be no late sales offered, so don’t wait.

***disclosure – I am an affiliate for the SYFL Sale. Which means I receive a small part of any sales generated through OvercomingBusy.com. It helps keeps the blog up and running!

Don’t you just love when you find a blog post with a great tip, recipe or life hack? Over the past few years, my main source of all things “aha!” has been Works For Me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.com. Each week, I look forward to perusing a few of the couple hundred blog posts that link up. I have found tips from everything from getting the kids to like veggies to making my own accessories to planning my own funeral (I kid you not.)

From time to time, I have found myself going back to previous Works For Me Wednesdays for posts I missed. That’s why I was so excited to learn that a “best of” WFMW was being turned into an ebook – That Works For Me!! This ebook contains links to over 800 tips and ideas over 24 categories, including 3 tips from Overcoming Busy. I was even more excited to learn that I was chosen as a Works For Me Woman! You can see Overcoming Busy highlighted in the “Time Management” section of the ebook.

Two of the great posts from the book that just caught my eye were about 10 fun ways to clean with kids from the “Cleaning” category and how to make a woven pin board out of burlap from the  ”Crafts” category. Some of the other 22 categories include baby, blogging, homeschool, recipes and parenting. They are all packed with so many ideas and tips that you can use everyday!

This is a must have resource for so many areas of a mom’s life! You can purchase it right now, or…..

YOU CAN WIN A COPY!!!! 

Just leave a comment telling me what area of your life you need some tips for and you’ll be entered to win! A winner will be drawn at random 9pm CST Thursday April 19th.

But wait! There’s more…..

Visit the That Works For Me site and submit your own tip and you could win house cleaning!!!! How awesome would that be?!

So excited to share That Works For Me with you!!

***disclosure – I was given a copy of this ebook for review purposes. However, the opinions stated here are honest and all mine! I am also a That Works For Me affiliate, so I get a small portion of any sale generated through the That Works For Me links. 

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GASP!!

Yep. Didn’t mop before company.

I was out of town last week and had just one day to cook and clean before Easter Sunday. I really needed to be efficient. I needed to decide what was really necessary. Mopping my floors to be clean when my friends opened the door wasn’t necessary. Don’t get me wrong. I did sweep the floor and I wipe up any spills or mud on the floors when they occur, so the floor wasn’t filthy. But, there was a time, when I would have cleaned every inch of my house before having company over. I would have stressed and worked my fingers to the bone. I have since come to my senses.

My good friends don’t come over to inspect my housecleaning. They have never asked when I mopped my floors last. They just hug me at the door and start chatting about how big all our kids are getting or our new hairstyles. When I told a friend at the end of the day that I hadn’t mopped, she actually cheered! It’s good to be around people who love you for who you are on the inside and not the outside facade and works.

Let go of trying to be it all and do it all. Just be.

Have you taken a technology break lately? Have you taken a break from checking facebook and email seven times a day? Have you actually looked a recipe up in a cookbook instead of googling it lately?

I wonder how much time that will free up? I wonder if I will have more meaningful conversations with my kids? Hmmm… I’ll let you know in a few days.

What would a technology break do for you?

When I started Overcoming Busy, I did it just to gather some resources and thoughts about keeping the busyness out of our lives for a few friends and myself. I never really thought people I didn’t know would read it. Then, one day, I had a comment from someone I didn’t even know. Then, another and another. Before I knew it, I was a blogger.

Three years, two blog designs, a blogging conference, a new blog, two twitter accounts and a couple facebook pages later, here I am. I’m still trying to overcome busy….and failing. My kids are older and into more things. (We are living at the ice rink – 4 or 5 days a week.) I am homeschooling. I launched a new homeschool science blog. My husband and I are branching out into new areas of service. All this and I am still trying to blog about ways to overcome busy most days of the week.

This crazy schedule is leaving my family and I in a time crunch and busy. I have been looking for things to cut out of the schedule. I am looking for those things that are making us busy. Our lives are full of good things, but I need more room for the best. 

One area that takes more time than I want to admit is blogging. I find myself squeezing time into come up with blog posts just for the sake of posting something. That pressure and time constraint hurts the quality of the posts. And, frankly, a lot of that time could be spent on something more important. So, I am cutting back. I’m not shutting down Overcoming Busy. I love it too much. I enjoy it – when it is not making me busy. For the most part, I am just cutting back on posting. I will post once or twice a week and I’ll use facebook and twitter to share great posts from other bloggers that will help you overcome busy. This will allow me to spend more time on what is really important and increase the quality of my posts. I don’t want to make you busy by serving you junk and wasting your precious time.

Still with me?? I just wanted to let you know what was on my heart. Thanks for joining me on this journey to overcome busy. I look forward to this next phase of the adventure!

• Anti-aging and acne treatments: Three months to a year.
• Body lotion: Two to three years, particularly if it’s in a pump container.
• Shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel: About three years.
• Bath oil: One year.
• Sunscreen: Check the package for an expiration date.
• Mascara and liquid eyeliner: Three to four months.
• Eye and lip pencils: Three to five years. Sharpen them before each use as a way to preserve them and keep them clean.
• Lipstick and lip gloss: Two to three years.
• Foundation: About two years.
• Perfume: About two years. To get more mileage out of a perfume, resist the temptation to display a pretty bottle on your vanity. Instead, stash it away in a cool, dark place.
• Nail polish: One year.
• Hairstyling products: Three to five years. Most are alcohol-based, which helps preserve the formula.
• Bar soap: Up to three years.
• Shaving cream: About two years.
• Deodorant: Up to two years.

Go ahead and use this chart when cleaning out your bathroom shelves and drawers. Tell me about the oldest product you found! I found some foundation that I think I remember wearing 3 houses ago!!

This week, I am working on the bathrooms. My bathroom surfaces are cleaned thoroughly each week,  but the insides of the cabinets are another story. It is time to clean out the shelves and drawers. I’m sure stuff has accumulated that I don’t even remember having and I’m positive there are some out-dated products that need to go!

As you are cleaning out your bathroom cabinets this week, ask yourself these questions:

• Is it outdated?
• Do I need it?
• Do I use it?
• Am I ever going to use those old towels on the top shelf?

Throughout the week, I’ll be emptying out, throwing away and re-organizing. I’m starting with the make-up drawer. Tomorrow, I’ll post some helpful tips on how long to keep your cosmetics. That is one area that you don’t want to forget!

To find some hope and encouragement for your busy days, visit me at Sisters In Bloom today.

When I read that line from the new ebook 3-2-1 Stop, I knew I was going to LOVE this book! The author, Lori Lippincott, was talking my language! Lori advocates and strives to live a simple life, free of the unnecessary distractions society is full of – a life free of busyness. She is after a life spent living, not organizing and rearranging stuff none of us even needs!

In 3-2-1 Stop, Lori walks us through the areas of our homes, our lives and our hearts to show where the clutter is and how to get rid of it. This is not a “how-to organize” or a “how-to-fit-it all-in-your-schedule” book. It is a “why do we need stuff” and a “we don’t need to do it all” book.  (If you are following the slow and steady spring cleaning series, there is a great section on decluttering your closets!)

I have had this ebook a couple weeks, and I already have it highlighted up. I have re-visited it often for tips on certain areas. This would be a great overcoming busy resource for you to get your hands on. In fact, 3 of you can get your hands on it this week!! Lori is making a 3-2-1 Stop ebook available to 3 blessed readers!! Just leave a comment and tell me why you want this book! I’ll choose 3 winners this Friday March 23rd.

Feel free to share this giveaway with friends on facebook and twitter! 

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