author-image Patrice Lewis About | Email
Patrice Lewis is a freelance writer whose latest book is "The Simplicity Primer: 365 Ideas for Making Life more Livable." She is co-founder (with her husband) of a home woodcraft business. The Lewises live on 20 acres in north Idaho with their two homeschooled children, assorted livestock, and a shop that overflows into the house with depressing regularity. Visit her blog at www.rural-revolution.com.
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We're from the government …

by Patrice Lewis -- We have a friend named John who tends bar in a small club. His workplace is in a rural town of 2,500. Over the last few years, John more…

Keep your lamps lit

by Patrice Lewis -- Well, another miscalculated Day of Judgment has come and gone, and another false prophet who tried to predict Judgment Day is left with egg on his face. I'll more…

Economics for Dummies

by Patrice Lewis -- You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. more…

Seduced by the Dark Side of the Force

by Patrice Lewis -- I've been following the antics of the Wall Street protesters over the last few weeks with a combination of amusement, pity, tolerance and disgust. On one hand, their more…

Fools rush in

by Patrice Lewis -- I went into Winco yesterday. Winco is a regional chain of large, no-frills, warehouse-type grocery stores with excellent prices. Since my girls have music and gymnastics lessons once more…

A fuddy-duddy speaks on the generation gap

by Patrice Lewis -- A seemingly minor incident happened this week, which left me thoughtful. I was in the city with my younger daughter. We needed to swing into a post office more…

Too poor to be smart?

by Patrice Lewis -- Recently a liberal friend (I'll call her Jane) raised some concerns about the premise of my book "The Simplicity Primer" in which I argue that a simple life more…

A college degree? Not for my kid

by Patrice Lewis -- I am about to commit heresy, to question one of the holy grails of life. Our older daughter will soon turn 16, and like many teens her age more…

Farther from the insanity

by Patrice Lewis -- There isn't an adult alive who doesn't remember that evil day 10 years ago. Our girls were only 3 and 5 on that sunny morning; and the best more…

Like shooting fish in a barrel

by Patrice Lewis -- Sometimes it's hard to find a topic to write about in this column, but this week it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Before I go much more…