Sunday ToDo List & Check-in

Well - here's my update.
I went to yoga first thing Saturday AM - got there for an 8:30 class that actually started at 8AM. That ended that endeavour, so since I had my cabinet doors and shelves in the car to take to the glass cutting place to get door inserts and glass shelves, I did just that... Went to ACE Hardware.

The man there was so amazing, he was so helpful, and he cut me beautifully fitting glass inserts for my cabinets, and 2 perfect shelves.

Whilst I was out that way, I decided to go the the BMW dealership to see about an oil change for my car. That was a super productive trip, as I discovered my car only needs oil changes ever 15,000 miles (yes - you read that right,) this is a great car, and the BMW dealership is the picture of professionalism. I adore dealing with those people. I suppose I'd have known this detail (about oil changes) had I read my owner's manual. Note to self - read owner's manual.

At home I proceeded to put my new kitchen cabinets together, this was not on my Saturday list because I'd felt it was too ambitious, but I DID IT... The cabinets are set. I did break one insert, so tomorrow I am back to my glass cutting friend for a new piece.

I did make the shrimp for girl's dinner, it was delicious - served with brown basmati cilantro rice. The girls loved it. One of these days I'll post the recipe here.

Sunday - today, I studied Italian (feel good about the material) yeah... Then I cleaned my kitchen, cooked a couple of simple things for lunches. Finally went to my sister's place for dinner, then back home for a bubble bath.

All in all I feel OK about my accomplishments. I could have been a lot more productive.  For instance I made no progress in setting up my creative studio or my sewing area. This evening whilst in the tub soaking, I had a number of ideas for creative projects. Once this much needed room is up and functioning, it should get a lot of mileage.

OH DID I MENTION THAT I BROKE A TOE JUST BEFORE LEAVING TO MY GIRLFRIEND'S PLACE SAT. NIGHT?  I DID. IT IS ALL BLACK AND BLUE. There will be little to no yoga for a few days.

Tuesday next I have another Italian test, and this one I feel very good about. Happy to report that.

I need to become better at squeezing bits of productivity out of a few minutes here and there, be it organizing - house work - creative endeavours, I need to learn this skill.

---------------------------------------------------------------

• Up at 7AM
• coffee
• harvard
• assemble glass shelving in cupboards
• add cupboard doors with glasss
• stock shelves with glassware
• ace hardware
• finish setting up creative studio space
• laundry
• yoga
• make lunches for week & dinner for class nights (not sure what yet)
• wash down counters
• vacuum & wash kitchen floor
• gather all taxes "stuff"
• study Italian
• bubble bath & relax
• read a good book
• visit with family in evening

My Goals for this Week End

Since I had such success with my level of productivity by posting my action plan last week end, I wanted to continue a good trend, and post my plan again this week end.

The thought of reporting back failure on Sunday night with no acceptable excuse, frankly sort of scares me. Hey - whatever it takes. This blog has to serve me - right?

Saturday Plan:
1- Up 7AM- start laundry
2 - Café laté -study Italian
3 - Pickup - make beds & surface cleaning -30mins.
4 - Yoga class
5 - Grocery Shopping & put away
6 - Cook Shrimp Mozambique for girl's dinner
7 - Start arranging creative space in guest bedroom
8 - Recover sewing box from garage
9 - Shower and head out to girl's dinner

**not to stay out too late because I have big plans for Sunday too.
Stay tuned...

Food Waste Friday

As you can see this week there was a ton of food wasted at our house. I will not list all the details, as a picture is worth a 1000 words or more. Saddest of all, home made sauce, and home made chicken stock, home made soup. The Greek yogurt ended up way at the back behind mayonaise, and I'd obviously missed it for weeks. I don't have much to say, other than that this week I have obviously failed.

My Walls

I have lived in my home for 12 years, it is a rather lovely home and I am grateful to have it. All of my walls, every single one, is antique linen white. I am sure you can see this sad reality from prior posts.

I plan to change this - finally. I am inspired by all the blogs I read. I will eventually put a list of them (blogs that inspire me) here. It's true, they have inspired me - no end.

My goal is by spring to have painted at least 3 spaces. Now I must meditate on my color choices. I have tremendous difficluty making such choices, I am a mathematician, and wall color choices are not my thing - I guess. This being said, I am also a painter of canvas. some still life and some abstract, so go figure what exactly makes me tick.

I think I just have an aversion to the permanence of paint, what if I do not like it? Well at this stage I downright hate antique linen white.

I will change, I will read and educate myself, and I will even attempt to paint at least one space myself. I love the feeling I get from the satisfaction of DIY.

I have so many projects in mind for my home, all of them frugal, creative, and potentially enjoyable to do. I am starting small by organizing. I need to be patient with myself.

Rome was not built in a day, and I have a job to also give my time to.

Buon Giorno

Tonight is my first Italian test this semester. I am not well prepared, I never feel well prepared. I am happy to get a B+ or A- to be truthful. Below that might be disgraceful, an A would be great, as there are no A+, 100% is still an A. Anyhow, this is probably more boring info than you really wanted to read - sorry.

At any rate here are some nice tulips at the Via Borghese. They are a nice reminder of what's to come soon...very soon... spring!

Wish me luck, I think I spent all of 1 hour studying, and did none of the homework.
Definitely wish me luck.

Absolute Essentials in my Pantry

Some items I simply cannot live without in my pantry. Many are canned or dried and therefore keep long, some are fresh and must be used accodingly. Always having these things on hand allows me those lazy times when I simply neglect to plan, or get off my organized trolley. No matter how busy things get, we can still have a delicious frugal meal because my pantry allows me to skip grocery shopping for a week.

Soon I plan to start a weekly series of recipes that are straight from my pantry. You'd be surprised the myriad ways to recombine these pantry staples into absolutely fabulous meals on the fly and without planning. I keep a  list of quick easy meals taped to the insde of my pantry door in case I'm also short on creativity and ideas.

• Dried beans (various kinds)
• Dried lentils (a bean I suppose)
• Canned beans
• Marinated artichokes
• Crushed tomato canned
• Anchovies packed in oil
• Italian tuna packed in olive oil
• Canned wild salmon
• Whole wheat capellini
• Sobe noodles
• Olives
• Pickled onions
• Dried musrooms
• Flaked coconut
• Coconut milk
• Olive oil
• Vinegar
• Sea salt
• Spices
• Garlic
• Onions
• Soy sauce

Freezer

• Shrimp
• Spinach
• Peas
• Limes
• Whole wheat nan
• Ginger root
• Canned Italian tuna packed in olive oil
• chopped cilantro
• chopped parsley

Stay tuned for my pantry recipes series.

Today Update

This is an update on my mission for the day, the following were my goals this AM as I set out with little to no motivation:
1 - Clean my home - surface cleaning/ no decluttering/ no nooks & crannies
2 - Cook (for class nights & lunches for work)
2 - Do 1.5 hours of hot yoga at the studio - to bring me back to my center
3 - Come home - wrap up my cleaning
4 - All followed by an evening of self care - roots touchup/ face mask/ O.O. treatment/ pedicure/ bubble bath with a good book  

I am happily reporting that I've completed all the work, actually I've done more than planned. As an unexpected bonus, I decluttered my dining room which had been filled with boxes of kitchen cupboard "stuff" while some small kitcen sprucing up project has been under way. The kitchen project is not 100% completed yet, but is far along enough that I could reclaim my cupboards. Yeah!

The moisturizing mask is on my face. Roots are touched up. My master bath is sparkling. I attended a hot yoga class and it was one of the best ever. I was in good, even excellent form. Hey, I even made 4 whole wheat Nan pizzas,  and this was not one of my ToDos.

Pretty good for a girl who completely lacked motivation this morning at 9:30, no?

Here is a nice photo of my sparkling bathroom as it awaits me for my bubble bath which I will take just as soon as I'm done with this lovely post.

The Lesson
 In my declutering missions, I'd let the surface cleaning go just a bit for my taste. As I purge and declutter, I must keep up with my surface cleaning, otherwise my home feels mighty unpleasant. An unpleasant home is NOT a frugal pleasure at all, is it?.

This is a very important lesson for this decluttering season/ phase. It cost me a bit of stress as I saw my dining room looking like it did here.  I think it demotivated me from keeping up the all around home caring. Not good.

Here it is now.  Presentable, what a relief. I have big plans to make over this dining room, but for now I am very happily settling for neat and uncluttered.

Creative Space or Guest Haven?

I am participating in Our Suburban Cottage Organizing for LUFFs Party.
">

The tiniest bedroom in our home was my studio for creativity projects. Here is what it looked like before I repurposed it as a guest bedroom, and soon to be closet studio.

Not a very desirable space to create was it? In fact I'd not created there in over 18 months. Sorry to say.

Introducing my guest bedroom.

 I absolutely love what I've done here because it prevents me turning it into a catch all for "stuff." All my "creativity stuff" is neatly packed in rolling tuff containers by category. Eventually, this room will serve both as guest bedroom and creative space.

For now I am still working on this room - my goal is to transform the closet into a sewing, craft, art studio, office. Stay tuned.

I used to think that a permanently set up "creative studio" was the only way to be creative. I am sure this is true for many creative people. For me at this time, with the spaces I have available, a permanent studio did not seem to work.  That space became a messy catch-all for putting junk. Eventually my creative studio simply became a space I avoided. It was used for nothing, least of all creativity.

My creative juices flow much better in order and tidiness.  Now I  have created order and tidiness for myself. Soon it will also be my "crative space" as well as my guest bedroom.



What about you? What is your ideal creative space?

Today

Today I plan to spend my day caring for my home. Basic caring, not anything that delves into nooks and crannies. I need to cook a couple of things to eat during the week and take to work for lunches. Last week I ended up eating in the work cafe a couple of times, and this is against the guidelines of my frugality plan.

I will cook and clean most of the day, at 4PM, I will break for a much needed yoga class, then I will return home to wrap things up. I'll pack some lunches, put finishing touches on my cleaning, and make my ToDo list for the week.

The remainder of the evening will be spent in a "self caring" routine, perhaps touch up my roots, a nice face mask and olive oil treatment, a long bubble bath with some relaxing music in my tidy and sparkling bathroom.

Menu for this week:

Monday:  Pork with eggplant server with brown basmati cilantro rice

Tuesday: Leftovers - this is class night

Wednesday:Whole wheat angel hair with garlic shrimp & sauteed spinach

Thursday: Leftovers - this is class night

Friday: Whole Wheat Nan Pizzas with cucumber yogurt salade

Saturday: Chicken enchilada with tomatillo sauce

Sunday: Pork Roast with home made fries and green salade


So I think I'll report back at the end of today on my exact progress. I feel a certain lack of motivation, and the idea of posting a failure may be just what it takes to keep me focused and on track. Lack of motivation is a difficult space to reside in.

I have to remind myself to just get started and focus completely on the task at hand, on what my hands are doing, then the mission will take on a life of its own.
Wish me luck.

To Overwhelm or Not

Sometimes we need to make decisions, to choose, we simply cannot do it all and have it all. I am taking my Intensive Italian & Intensive French classes, so I decided that since I am at the campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays already, why not take a couple of other classes that seem interesting.

I am thinking of taking an Ethics class, and a History class. Both of these are intensive writing classes, and each had about 7-8 books of required reading. I will think about this option during this week end. I definitely love the 2 classes while I am sitting in them, however, the amount of work will be overwhelming at best.

I will need to weigh the pros and cons, and I will have to make s decision about these classes by February 7th. If I decide to take these classes, I will need to become extremely efficient in all that I do, and I will need to simply pare back all that I do.

I am tempted by the challenge. Sometimes I hate when I get this way, all ambitious, and curious, and eager.  Taking on too much is the kiss of death for a happy life. Then I am doing a lot, but doing absolutely nothing with any degree of relative consciousness, or percision.

On the other hand, sometimes being over jammed with "must do" things to do, and deadlines, makes me much more efficient, and completely eliminates procrastination. For me procrastination is sometimes a derivative of a certain degree of boredom, and unfocused "spare time." I create overwhelm, by putting off to tomorrow what I should do today.

There is a fine line between a rich and full life, where I feel engaged,challenged, and thriving, and a life of the crazies lived in constant overwhelm mode.

By the way, how is taking these classes even come close to being "frugal?" Good question. Well, I am lucky that my work offers a very generous education package, they pay 100% for the classes. So at least while I am in class and in the subsequent writing, reading, and thinking frenzie, I'll not be spending money.

Food Waste Friday

Last night I gathered for my food waste, and all I really had were some shriveled apples. How do apples go mushy in a house of people who love apples? I'd relocated the fruit bowl due to a small kitchen renovation, and think folks sort of forgot about these.

So I decided to make the best of the waste, this in no way excuses the wasted apples. But it does give them one final purpose, and brought my family olfactory pleasure, and water in the mouth (as the Brazilians say)  this morning.

Here's what I did:

Mushy apples
2 cups water
3 cinnamon sticks
Crockpot on low

This AM I woke up to the most delicious smelling house...Yummmm!

Tomorrow they will be compost.
By the way - I love that Kristen at Frugal Girl keeps me on my toes when it comes to wasting food.

Ha - Now I just need somebody to whip me into decluttering my night stand drawer, better managing my time, and, well, the list goes on. Little by little, as long as I don't go backward, I'm getting there. It's a process.

Doing Many Things - Persuing a Rich Life

Right now I am doing a lot, some might say, too much. But I thrive on it all. One thing I do NOT do is watch TV.

Let's see, I have my family and home to care for, which at minimum means cooking, grocery shopping, and some basic cleaning. Everbody picks up after themselves, so I am not cleaning up after others, just general cleaning. This is a blessing. Presently no tiny children, but I'd love one soon, and hope God blesses me with a little one.

I also have my career, and it is a career, not a job per se. I've mastered this front though, once I leave the office, it all stays behind, however, while I'm there, I'm 100% turned onto it. I love my work, it is intellectually challenging, creatively engaging, and emotionally rewarding. It is also financially rewarding, which cannot be overlooked.

I practice yoga pretty passionately, it brings so so much to me for the time I dedicate to it. This is very much time I dedicate to me, to my essence. Yoga is one of the sources for my essence, for the building and maintaining of the essential me.

This is the kicker though, I think. I'm also presently signed up for 2 classes, Intensive French, and Intensive Italian. Yes, both at the same time. I already do speak both, so these are higher level classes to perfect grammar and intensive conversational, and translation. Why am I doing this you ask? Good question, because I do get a wee bit stressed when there is a test in both all on the same night. uhrrr....

The short answer is that I love both of these languages, I feel a little bit of a high when I am in class, it just feels good to be there learning. I have a long range goal, just for my own intellectual pursuits, not for my career. My goal is to study comparative literature, centered around the middle ages. So there you have it.

At the very top of my list though, is spending quality, intentional connected time with my beloved, this is "a must." Neither of us is needy, but both of us recognize the importance of prioritizing our "love gathering time." and remaining connected.

So there you have it, those are the "must dos," then there are my many artistic endeavours, my ongoing decluttering goals, my "12th year house sprucing" projects, and time with friends and extended family.

I feel a deep deep gratitude that I am fully awake and alive and able to pursue all that my soul presently feels a need to pursue. I am grateful that my beloved is 100% supportive of all my endeavours. I feel so so grateful for my health, and for my enthusiasm, which to my mind is a key facet of health.

A Beautiful and Appreciated Woman

Are you a woman? Do you feel like a torn and tattered dish rag or a beautiful fluffy wash cloth?

A long, very long time ago I personally used to feel like a dish rag, but I became a soft fluffy monogrammed wash cloth. How? One day I decided to dedicate a day each week to simply taking care of myself, putting my self first. After a good 4 months of my weekly self first ritual, I started to assess my love relationship to see if it was supportive of dish rag territory or fluffy wash cloth land. It was the rag world, my relationship was not supporting my inner beauty, it was not supporting or appreciating my outer beauty. I concluded that it needed to either change, or go. But he was such a good man, a quality man, top quality. How could I ever send away such a good man?


Love, romantic love, any love really, it needs to support us, our essence, our beauty. Romantic love certainly has this task as one of its primary duties, no?


I am a woman, and I need a man who loves and encourages my woman-ness. Sad as the reality was, my relationship, it had to end so that I might thrive inside, as a woman. As I said, he was a good man, a top quality man, and I love him to this day. But my essence was systematically battered and diminished waiting to be appreciated, waiting to be really wanted, I suppose in that little tiny nuanced way that he simply did not have in him.

I am not at all a needy woman, quite independent indeed, but there is a baseline that can only come from our deep connection to our romantic mate. The universe provides us with our mate precisely so that we can reach that higher plane that we'd not reach alone. When romantic love cannot be shifted, improved to make this level a possibility, then eventually romantic love needs to go in exchange for our essence.

Once I was alone and past the pain of the loss, I bloomed, I stood up straighter, I breathed deeper, I started to care more for myself, appreciate myself, take care of my physical, emotional, spiritual needs. I will never again be with a mate that, despite his kind and gentle nature, and through no fault of his own, leaves me neglected and feeling like a dish rag instead of a soft fluffy monogrammed wash cloth.

Today I am with a mate that appreciates me as a baseline. It is very low maintenance love affair, but that depth of appreciation is understood and felt by my essence, by my cells. Today I thrive as the soft and fluffy wash cloth that I am meant to be, and love being.

This is frugality and best use of my spirit, emotions, energy, and my sense of wellbeing.

Frumpiness Patrol

Even if I am on vacation this week, just hanging around town, but still vacating from the office, I  am reminded that I still need to look presentable. Being home is no reason to dress like I am going to be cleaning the garage. Make sure my hair looks fluffy, and for heaven's sake curl my eyelashes.


Eyelash curling takes 35 seconds, and it gives us a day of beautiful eyes. I will not wear any makeup, but if my eyelashes are curled, and my hair is shiny and fluffy, I look fabulous. A nice pair of stylish jeans, comfy properly fitting sweater, and I'm good to go.


Oh, and no sneakers please. Those, contrary to popular belief in this country, are for sports. In Italy you will not catch one single person wearing sneakers around town. I have plenty of attractive shoes/ boots that also feel rather comfy. Save the sneakers for jogging and tennis. Just hanging around the house and doing errands, is no reason to become a frump.

Essentials of Home Keeping

Let's see - what is on my mind today?

  I've been thinking about housekeeping and what my best options are. A very reasonable and simple rule of thumb that makes a gigantic difference is to always make sure all surfaces are clear, by simply assigning each and every item in our world a home. A place where it belongs (not on a visible flat surface.)

Then keep items exactly where they belong with very short and focused daily upkeep. I set a timer for evening tidying up. The timer seems to do the trick of motivating me to just do it, get it done.

Here are some of my daily tasks:

• Daily clean up w' a basket - moving items to their home 
  
• Kitchen swept daily 
  
• Leave sink clean nightly 
  
• Make bed each and every morning  
  
• Place clothes back on hangers/ hamper when undressing  
  
• Launch the morning the night before

Organizing and perfecting of closets, drawers, etc. is then left for when there is time or for a scheduled routine. Keeping all surfaces clear of clutter and clean, is the first level of feeling like I live in a clean tidy home. Perfecting the hidden places is the next level.

I do not need to stress out if my bathroom vanity is not perfectly organized, that can be on hidden places schedule. The open visible surfaces on the other hand cannot be on a schedule, these need picking up daily.

How do you approach home keeping?

Projects - Stuck in the Planning

Did you ever feel stuck in the planning?

I am afraid that is exactly what is happening to me. As has already been established in earlier posts, the epicenter of my clutter is garage and attic. Inside my home it's rather tidy actually, but for some drawers and closets which I want brought into perfection as a starting point.

It is a bit too cold to properly tackle the garage and attic, but perfect to reorganize my master bath closet, it needs it. It's true nobody sees my master bath closet, but I do, and its messiness causes me distress.

My kitchen is undergoing a tiny renovation (sprucing up). It's still not 100% completed, but since one side is done, I need to start pulling it together by refilling the cabinets.

Well for the kitchen -
Here is a short list of the ToDo items that quickly come to mind:

• Get glass fronts & shelves for cabinets
• Dig out formal glassware from hall closet
• Dishwash all stemware
• Set up new glass shelves
• Sort through all boxed items previously in cabinets
• Trash/ donate/ pantry
• Figure out where the new location for microwave 
• Finalize with carpenter all the cabinet drawers

Do you ever get stuck in the planning, especially when one particular item  doesn't seem to have an easy answer?  For my Kitchen project, the microwave is still an orphan. I cannot figure out where its new location should be. I really do not like counter top as a home for microwave.

This one open item seems to be keeping me from completing the things I can complete. I'll post some shots of the landscape later today, maybe someone will have a brilliant idea of where that microwave can go. In the meantime, I may need to suck it up and live with it on the counter for a week or two. 

I definitely need help moving this project along to completion.

Did you ever get stuck in the planning?

When plans go Bad

My chicken dinner at Josh's ended up having to wait till Sunday night. By the time I made it to his place, it was too late to cook, we had plans to meet up with other friends in town, and dinner had to be taken en restaurant. I had a most delicious Pad Thai, actually much better than usual, super tangy, Josh had a Vietnamese pork and veggies. Later at the venue where we went to listen to music, we shared a rich yet fluffy cheese cake. Josh paid for everything so I have not blown my spending plan.


Sunday I ended up making my chicken dinner, and since I forgot a couple of the ingredients, I completely improvised with what was on hand. In place of white wine I used tequila and skipped the onions all together. I swear  it was even better than the original recipe.  Next time I make it I will take photos and post the recipe here. Quick, easy, and tastes like it was complex and involved.


Today my plan had been to make 3 meals for the week, and do some needed de-cluttering and organizing. I woke to friends unexpectedly knocking on my door, so instead of cooking, I opted to hang out and be a hostess. Hopefully I will not succumb to eating in the cafe at work.


Ok - here's my anti-cafe  Plan for this week's lunches:

• tuna sandwiches
• ham sandwiches
• fried egg sandwiches
• oranges/ bananas/ greek yogurt/ kefir

Sandwiches are not my ideal lunch, but they are an acceptable go to when my schedule does not permit making fork and knife dishes.


For our dinners this week I've selected all quick fix meals. I need to use some of my after work time to catch up on the organizing and decluttering. Each meal takes no more than 1/2 hour, some take less than 15 minutes to prepare. I LOVE having an arsenal of easy go to meals for busy or general under the weather weeks, or for when the best laid plans redesign themselves.


Here is my plan:

• Monday - left over soup
• Tuesday - shrimp mozambique w' brown rice and sauteed spinach
• Wednesday - salmon patties w' cucumber and Greek yogurt side
• Thursday - flat bread pizza
• Friday - pork empanadas w' marinated avocado and tomatoes
• Saturday - lobster served with sweet potato fries & bearnaise sauce
• Sunday - Portuguese boiled dinner

Later tonight, if I feel the inclination, I will throw some dried peas into the crock pot along with a couple of bratwurst. Then at least I'll have a soup to go with my dry sandwiches the rest of the week for lunch. I will not succumb to the cafe.

Groceries & Dinner

Just returned from market where I spent $103, I hope these groceries last 2 weeks. I believe they will. I may have to cook form the pantry 2-3 times, but that's just fine. Sometimes I cook from the pantry just because I am in the mood for a simple pasta.

Tonight I am going to my friend Josh's place for dinner, I will bring most of the ingredients, since I will be cooking. I cannot host him at my place because our kitchen is being worked on, and it is all too out of sorts to host guests.

We will have chicken breast sauteed in a sauce of bacon onion and wine, it is finished with a tad of fresh cream. It will be served with whole wheat cappellini smothered with sauteed shredded zucchini, lots of garlic, and a bit of lime juice. This is a delicious meal, quick and super easy.

For dessert I will make a super super easy decadent chocolate budino. Milk, heavy cream, vanilla, bit of espresso, and 60% cacao chocolate chips all melted and cooled in fridge, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream on top. Creamy and decadent to be sure. Small but delectable portions :)

Haiti and Us

Yesterday the Haiti situation had me a bit tied up in knots. The devastaion and death is of course surreal. Then I started to focus on the poverty. The sheer level of poverty. I've lived for a good chunk of time in a third world county in poor conditions, not abject poverty, but meager, a very modest existence living off the land. There was no electricity or hot water, if I wanted a bath I had to heat up a huge cauldron of water.


It occured to me today that those were the most pleasurable bubble baths of my life. Baths taken by kerosene light, my body ached from a day of physical work, that water felt so good. There were times I'd fall asleep in the little tub, and still today I adore the scent of kerosene lamp.


It was such a pleasure to pick ripe fruit from the fruit trees, all that juicy sweetness, and subsequent stickiness. Oh and those little evening sing-alongs that the villagers hosted every night,  remember no electricity, no TV, no TV people gather and talk and sing and tell stories,  laugh and connect, all the time.


I found myself longing for that time. Then I realized that my reaction of yesterday, essentially wanting to sweep all the material "stufff" from my life in one sweep, was really a dishonoring of the source that has provided all this "stuff" that is in my life. Fact is all this "stuff"/ clutter I am longing to rid myself of, it is abundance. It is abundance that I sometimes squander in my quest for simplification. I realized I need to stop and appreciate all that I have, really appreciate and give deep deep thanks for all the blessings in my life. Our health, our love, and yes, our stuff too.


It does not mean that I should not simplify and streamline, I want to, and I will continue to do it. I feel a deep need to do it. I do think I will be more careful what I send to trash, I will attempt to give more away.

I will try to consciously honor all the material things in my life as I pass them on to someone who can make renewed good use of them. I no longer want to "declutter" in an aggressive "get rid of" way. Now I long to gently pass along, and give new life to all the things that are asking to be loved elsewhere by someone new.

Food Wasted

I've decided to participate in Frugal Girl's Food Waste Friday's. Seems to me I do waste food, and this will be an excellent way, if nothing else, to potentially shame me into using up what I have before it goes to compost.

This week it's pretty bad really,  red pepper, and cabbage. Cabbage takes eons to become unusable, so this means it's been in my fridge for more than eons. Perhaps I should give the fridge a good emptying and major scrubbing.
 Oh and it all could have easily been cut  up into a zip lock baggie for the freezer, say, a week ago. Shame indeed.