My New Year's Intentions

• Give up mascara forever (It makes my eyes so uncomfortable! It's never worth the extra "prettiness," and I have thrown out three tubes this year after forgetting that).
• Continue to let my hair grow long?? 
• To only wear things that make me happy & comfortable.
• Attend church on a more regular basis and stop making excuses.
• Joyfully attend to my chores at home & continue to make our home a cozy haven.
• Play with my children daily, even if it means neglecting my chores.
• Recover from my fears and go outside more often. 
• To treat my husband as a true friend. 
• Find a way to make the community I so badly need as I cannot find it already in existence near me.
• To continue to make time for my crafts & hopefully to not have to frog any knitting this year!
• Learn more about local plants and nature. Maybe herbalism, although I am not sure I feel called to that specific study. 
• Keep up with my daily planner, my spiritual notebook, and my meal planning diary, as well as this blog.
• Write the book/zine that has been weighing on my heart for months now--to get it out there no matter if it does anything for anyone but me.
• Stretch/do yoga poses in some amount daily.
• Stay hydrated and continue to stay away from soda pop.
• "Give love" (i.e. hugs and kisses) multiple times a day to my family. 
• Make a more concrete sleep routine and boundaries.
• Use post-it notes to my advantage (Bathroom mirror reminders & mantras).
• Offer something of my unique gifts to the world without shame.
• Release things that aren't helping me...Facebook friends who post things that ramp up my anxiety...news and websites I don't need to be dwelling on..."coaches," guides, and authors who don't really speak to or inspire me...unfollow them all....to release these things with love & just realize they don't work for me. 
• Daily prayer/daily gratitude
• Go to Ludington and listen to the wind blow through the trees at the house.
• Give more/lose lack mentality/recognize my privileges
• Read to my children daily...even as a book lover sometimes it is hard to get this done.
• Accept the next stage. That life is for the living and we have to keep on...no, not that we "have" to keep on...that we GET to keep on and that it is a gift. 

What do you have planned for 2017? Can we help each other or can I encourage you on your journey? 

Favorite Things to Make with Common Leftovers

Image from: Rachel Levit

Reducing food waste is a really crucial step in managing a grocery budget and helping to better care for our resources and planet. Below, I've listed some recipes and ways we use common leftovers up in our house. Thanks to Stephanie for the post idea :)



Spaghetti- Store leftover spaghetti or noodles in a separate container from any leftover sauce. Sauce can be used for english muffin pizzas for lunch, regular pizza for dinner, or an easy dish of eggs baked in tomato sauce for breakfast or a quick lunch. Use leftover noodles/spaghetti to make a  delicious pasta fritatta. The best thing about a fritatta is that it is the perfect vehicle for using up really any small bit of ingredients--feel free to add leftover cheese bits, chopped veggies, or meat.

Rice- I personally try not to keep leftover rice in the fridge for more than a night, as I once read somewhere it is a food that spoils quickly...so usually, the next day after having rice, I make one of two things. If we didn't have the rice with an Asian themed dish the night before, either Mike or I will make fried rice. If fried rice doesn't sound good or was too close to the previous meal, I'll usually add the rice to a soup OR I will make crispy rice cakes. Somehow, I always think the kids will like these for lunch. Somehow, I always end up eating tons of rice cakes that they won't touch. A kid friendly thing my mom used to serve us was leftover rice heated up with a bunch of shredded cheese stirred in. Comforting and easy.

Fruit (especially bruised or slightly mushy fruits)- I freeze bananas after peeling them for use in smoothies. Same with other fruit after it is washed and cut, like berries or nectarines/peaches. I also like to take imperfect fruit and use it to make a simple sauce to put over pancakes or waffles. You can hide bruised fruit in muffins or a cobbler/crisp as well.

Herbs- use leftover herbs to make a green sauce, add to a marinade for meat, use in your juicer (parsley especially), or blend them with olive oil and freeze in ice cube trays. Once they are frozen you can pop them out and store in a Ziploc for later use in meals. Also, don't forget, with lots of herbs, the stems are perfectly edible! Don't waste them!!

Leftover Chicken- I absolutely love roasting chicken and if I need some shredded chicken quick for a recipe, I'll buy a whole rotisserie chicken instead of chicken parts (it is cheaper around here). This always results in leftover chicken. Some of my favorite things to do with leftover chicken are: make chicken salad, chicken packets (an old Once a Month Cooking Meal my mom used to make...so you can freeze them! And kids love them! We never used croutons on them growing up, but I have made them that way, as well as using crushed Ritz crackers instead. Both were tasty), making soup in the winter, and throwing it into quick chicken quesadillas.

If this was helpful at all, I'd be more than happy to write up a "Round Two" with some more common leftover ingredients. These were just the top items that came into my head as things we are good about re-purposing.



Oh...and before I sign off:

An AMAZING book that talks about using what you have to make delicious meals & figure out what to do with "scraps" is An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler. I would highly recommend buying or renting a copy. The book isn't your typical cookbook, but more of a helpful navigation tool and is beautifully written (the link here is NOT an affiliate link. I don't have any idea how to even do those).

My Personal Style of Minimalism

 (illustration by Rebecca Green)

I think a lot of confusion has been happening here on the blog when I use terms like "minimalism" or "simple living." Of course, these phrases mean different things to different people, but judging by some of the comments I receive, I think people might mostly be assuming that my goal is just to cut out tons of things from my life because it is what I am being told to do by minimalist websites, books, or other proponents of the lifestyle and not of my own personal conviction.

I see what brings me peace and calm personally and I pursue it. It's that simple. Currently being a homemaker and mother means I spend a lot of time in my home as compared to an office or other work space and I try to treat this area with the same respect and criteria that I would if I was decorating a cubicle or spending time in another professional environment. I personally do not feel comfortable in a cluttered area (and what "cluttered" is to me may be drastically different than what it is for you) and so I dived into the world of minimalism in order to help quell that uncomfortable feeling within myself when faced with chaotic environments.

For example:

I personally am okay with not owning a physical copy of every book I love because the feeling of having too many books I am not using would overwhelm me. I admit I am easily overwhelmed.

I personally am okay with not having throw pillows or multiple pieces of furniture in every room, as long as everyone has a comfortable spot and comfortable sleeping pillow (because those double fine as couch pillows).

I personally do not mind wearing the same thing on a regular basis if I am comfortable (although this is terribly difficult as a pregnant person and I cannot wait to pair down my wardrobe when I am done with this pregnancy).



The point I want to make, is I don't feel like I am living in lack! Even if my house seems sparsely decorated compared to some or if my kids seem to have less toys than yours (It's NOT true! I just rotate them most days...and some days this place really does look like Toys R Us exploded in here. I promise), we don't live a deprived existence.

I hope that my previous posts are not viewed in the light of me being too hard on myself or that I would ever ask anyone else to hold themselves to the requirements I personally have for my own belongings. My "minimalism" is a form of self-care and honoring my mental well being. Less options and less things mean less worry, less stress over where I put something, and more appreciation for what I do have...As Gretchen Rubin says, "Outer order contributes to inner calm."

Everybody Wants to Know About: Books!!

One of the most common and polarizing topics that inevitably comes up when discussing minimalism or simplifying one's space is the topic of books. Specifically, should we hang onto them after we've read them? Should we even buy them or just borrow them exclusively? Should we go 100% digital with our collections?

All these methods work with differing amounts of success for different people, unsurprisingly.

My personal method is cobbled together from all three.

We will start with a little talk about my Kindle.

Between seven to eight years ago, Mike and I were living in Ohio. He had decided to try attending services at a church maybe thirty minutes from our house. I was not in a spiritually minded place at the time and really didn't enjoy going, but went along with it for support and especially because we fell into a very nice after church ritual of lox bagels at Einstein Bagel (which, WHY are there none of these chains around here? Big Apple Bagel is a joke and after getting sick the same day as eating at Good Earth, I am fresh out of bagel options in the Holland area...but I digress) and then hitting up the Boarders Bookstore across the parking lot. It made me so happy and giddy to have these weekly bookstore trips, but we were spending at least $40 a week on books!

So, for Christmas that year, Mike took action and bought me my first Kindle (and Boarders went out of business, so we had a huge spending spree at that sale and then it was bagels only, poor me). I was slightly resistant at first, but warmed up to the device quickly. In fact, I now have a Kindle Paperwhite, and Mike has inherited my original Kindle. I love seeing how it has inspired him to become a more prolific reader (he takes it on all his international trips) and my Kindle has become invaluable to me, especially during the days/nights of seemingly endless breastfeeding. Much easier to hold a Kindle than even a paperback while supporting a baby. I also use the Kindle for night time reading and for travel. I would say 60% of what I read is through my Kindle. Even though the experience is different, it is not to be discounted, especially for a busy young parent.

The Kindle can be expensive though, because unlike buying used books through Amazon, local thrift store, book sale, etc, you usually need to pay around $10 for the average book in the Kindle store. I don't read Kindle singles or many small self-published books....just not my style/I haven't been impressed with the quality of those I've tried, but they are more reasonable priced ($2.99 ish). I do ask for Kindle gift cards for holidays, make small amounts of money that gets put in my Amazon account through Crowdtap, and utilize my library's free ebook sharing site (I have about 20 books on my "wish list" that I download from whenever I want something new). There are other various ways to acquire ebooks for free, but the legality is maybe in a grey area so I won't discuss that. Also, someone with a Kindle can loan you books from theirs, so that's one more option as well.

Moving onward, this is the current state of my bookshelf. 

I just did a "deep clean" of the book shelf this Spring and it was looking pretty sparse, but I recently allowed myself to add quite a few books to the current selection by attending the yearly book sale at our library. Over two separate trips, I spent $30 and gained three bags of books. Most of what I choose to add to my collection falls into a few distinct categories: Spiritual/Self-Help, Parenting, Cooking/Food Memoirs. My most-loved cookbooks are on the third shelf in the picture, left hand side. I usually purchase 2 new cookbooks a year (or "new to me") and only after careful consideration--since I love to spend time in the kitchen, these become well-used and loved. Eventually I hope they will have their own home in my kitchen area. On the right side of the same shelf are Mike's piano music books.  

Some of the books I own are also titles I have on my Kindle! An example of this is the book Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I read it on the Kindle soon after it was released, but a like-new copy appeared at the library sale and I snatched it up quickly. This way, I can share it with someone in the future (because it is a great read) or go back and read it slowly with a highlighter in hand. There is just something about highlighting in some of my more beloved books that the Kindle function cannot compare to. I'm sorry if the highlighting thing seems abominable, but I promise I don't fold the corners of the pages in my books!

One of the major reasons I added so many books back to the collection soon after paring it down quite a bit was because of the fact that I am currently raising very small children. It just isn't feasible for me to get us to the library as often as I would like and, honestly, when I do take us all to the library, it is a major endeavor with a two year old who wants to run the whole place and an almost four year old who somehow learned that they sell cookies in the library basement, plus a pregnant mama who has to lug at least one huge bag of books out to the car because she has no restraint in a library... This way, I have many new books on hand that I am interested in and can pick up leisurely from my own personal "mini library." No hassle of inter-library loans to deal with either. 

When I am done reading a book, if it isn't one I will be coming back to, my usual course of action is to either donate it to the Little Free Library down our street (which isn't a financial loss of any real concern because of the fact that I acquired 90% of my books used--Oh, local tip: The Salvation Army in Holland has a great book selection & sells them for a quarter apiece) or pass it on to a family member or friend.  

The top shelf in the picture is a few more cookbooks that aren't in regular rotation but are still used, reference books, a few precious magazine issues (Taproot and old Mary Jane's Farm from my mom), and children's books my kids are still too young for. Oh, and on the right hand side of the top shelf is where I currently stuff all my old journals...

To give you an idea of a better perspective of this space in my house, here is another photo:

There is a matching built-in shelf on the other side of the fire place, but it hold only one row of Mike's books and half a row of children's chapter books (such as a box set of Roald Dahl). The other shelves hold Mike's video games, our small DVD collection, our "paper collection" area, and office supplies that need to be kept away from small children. 

Lastly, kid's books! This is the area I have the most trouble with. I definitely want them to have a wide selection of books available, but I do feel like there is such a thing as too many books (especially because they all get pulled out, stepped on, and scattered around the house too often). 

Recently, we consolidated most of the kid's books to a small impromptu "reading nook" in the living room. I do have a system of swapping out some of their books for the different seasons and holidays, but mostly the collection just grows and grows...We do have talks about treating books nicely and I finally have a good system for keeping tabs on library books (which, thank goodness for library books, because another thing about owning kid's books is that I am SO SICK of reading most of them)! I just can't bring myself to sort through their books with the same sense of discrimination that I can with my own personal reading material. 

I do get this nice warm feeling when I walk in the room and see them snuggled up with a (let's face it) mess of books all around them and looking at one intently...so the inevitable mess and lack of minimalism in this area is worth it to me personally :) 

Thanks for joining me for a look into my not-so-minimal but definitely mindful way of handling our collection of reading materials in our house! I look forward to hearing from you in the comments (and if you are a fellow book enthusiast, please feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads)!

Information Overload

(unrelated picture of the sunset on the summer solstice) 

On Sunday evening, I listened to a podcast on my drive home from my parent's house. Nothing unusual there, but I was struck by something the woman being interviewed was discussing. She brought up the interesting and uncomfortable idea that we can get so over saturated with information--from online sources to books, podcasts, teachers/coaches/church, even social media--that it can be easy for some of our own natural intuition/inner voice and sense of self to slip away in the process of absorbing.

It's a scary revelation for me to dig into because I do try to keep a steady source of constant information running throughout most of my days, especially when I am home during the work week.

 I am very good about ignoring/consciously selecting what "real news" I allow into my life because I have had lots of experience with the spirals of hopelessness and sadness that come over me after browsing CNN or the terrible anxious feeling of turning the radio off suddenly during a horrible news story that the kids might overhear. I'm pretty good about protecting us from that stuff regularly, but I love having podcasts on during the day, because I have always liked to learn and it helps break up my day as a stay-at-home parent. I read a lot too, but not as much as I used to because: kids. Some of you might have seen my huge haul from the recent local library book sale on Instagram. I make no apologies for that (and I was thinking about how those books fit into my proposed minimalist lifestyle, but that is a different post).  

I feel like I have learned and soaked in so much useful information that has revived my soul in the past year from so many new sources. My relationship with myself, my understanding of god, and my entire outlook on life has shifted positively due to my exploration and new avenues of information I have let into my life. 

So, I feel that even though I understand what the woman in the podcast was saying, and I have that tug of conviction (I hate the connotations of that word) towards it from inside of me, that to take a pause in taking in new things constantly would leave me feeling adrift. What would I fill my time with? It's so easy to make something like emptying the dishwasher or folding the never ending laundry piles easier if I can just listen to the new episode of On Being or reward myself with a few chapters of a book at nap time! 

I have this same information overload problem with the internet and just browsing. I read quickly, so I can go through thirty tabs with ease and be relaxed by all the different things I am taking in. Luckily, this problem is tempered by the fact that my life doesn't allow for much unstructured internet time (except this window in the morning while I drink coffee). But the example points to my information addiction. 

Maybe there are uncomfortable unanswered questions for me to explore by "turning down the noise" so to speak. I am afraid of the days seeming even longer than they already do. I am afraid of missing out on something interesting. I am afraid of my brain turning to mush if the only media I am in taking is geared towards preschoolers. 

Then again, what if calming the noise opened more time for activities like taking walks or doing the morning yoga I always tell myself I will do until the second cup of coffee is in me? What if instead of merely taking in things I start producing my own content? What if I wrote more here or committed to my journaling like I aspire to? Should I take a sabbatical from consumer in order to move more towards the creatrix side of myself? Commit myself to prayer and meditation instead of listening to lectures and sermons? Does it all come down to "is this helpful or harmful to me right now"? And how am I to learn moderation? Gretchen Rubin talks about how there are two kinds of people-- moderators and abstainers. I know when it comes down to it, I am way happier and better at being an abstainer. It's just so damn hard for me to commit to a change. This particularly would be hard as an introverted INFP. 

So, Maybe this is a area that I need to be more mindful of. I feel I should make up some set guidelines for myself and try to implement them because I do feel myself burning out from all the constant input. My body has a physical reaction to the idea of slowing down and listening to myself more. I can still pick up on that cue, so maybe it is not too late to stop living in my head and make the change to giving my brain a much needed vacation :) 

Please let me know if you have any issues in this area or wise comments to add, especially if you are a person who is very good about staying happy and content without constant streams of information in your life!