Dear Mr. Rawles,
I am a regular reader of Survivalblog.com, and recently saw your recommendation of the book The Simplicity Primer
by Patrice Lewis. I purchased the book on Amazon on it Book Bomb day as you suggested, and the book arrived today. When I purchased the book, I thought this would be a great educational tool for my family, so tonight I started what will be a one-year ritual with my wife and two children. Immediately after dinner, I read the first tip out loud to my family. Tonight’s tip is on “Attitude”. We talked about the advice, and each of us gave examples of where we have a good attitude and where we have an attitude we can improve. For myself, I told my kids that I feel it is my duty to talk to them and teach them things, but all too often I come home from work tired and spend time with myself rather than doing this, and allow them to go to their computer or television. I told them that what I am doing to correct this behavior is to spend the next year doing what we did tonight, along with some other things I have in mind. We then shared with each other something about the other’s attitude we thought was really great and how we felt it contributed to the family. At the end of the discussion, I summarized the importance of the tip and asked the kids if they liked doing this. Both of them said they enjoyed it and I think they are looking forward to it tomorrow.
It was nice spending this short time talking about an important topic with my wife and kids, I am looking forward to it too. I call this The Simplicity Challenge. Each evening after dinner, one member of the family reads a tip from the book and then the family discusses the tip for ten minutes. I think it promises to be a great new ritual added to our routine and will teach us all a lot, while bringing us closer together.
Warm Regards, – Ron in Florida
