Because Everyone Needs More Internet Blogs and Articles to Read

I just have to interject with some of my favorites lately:

THIS blog post just knocked the breath right out of me. If you don't want to read the whole thing, start with the paragraph: "The most radical discipline for me right now is to live in the love of Christ. To abide there, not just in the quiet of my bedroom before the day begins (though, oh how I love that) or in the stillness before bed, but in each moment" and read through to the end.

Someone either needs to stop me from making this or come over, preferably with some brie cheese in tow, and make it together with me (we could make homemade crackers to go with it! I'm odd like that)!

It sure sounds like Amanda Watters over at Homesong blog has a healthy grasp on the balance of providing herself with some valuable learning time during her busy days as a parent. I could definitely learn from this model (see: three blog posts ago).

I'm a Kondo fan, but I definitely admit that it can seem like she lives in a fantasy world at times. This New York Times article was a thoughtful look at the women who brought the "spark joy" mantra to the organizing/de-cluttering scene.

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)!

Little Things

1.   Actually not a "little thing," but we purchased new bedroom furniture for the boys with some tax refund money. They both have twin beds now that have under-bed storage, guard rails on the beds, and new sheets and blankets (which they love, despite not fitting my personal aesthetic choice...must let kids be kids, I suppose).
They moved into Otto's old nursery, because before he was born we painted, put in a new light fixture, took the popcorn ceiling texture off, and had the carpet replaced. Now we are hoping to do the same to Orion's old room before the new baby arrives. However, Otto is still sleeping in the crib and so it is like we've just done a room swap at the moment.
Orion LOVES his new bed and has adjusted very well. I hope that Otto will adjust to sleeping outside of the crib soon. I tried to get him to take his nap in the toddler bed in the other room yesterday, but it didn't work. Place him in the crib, however, and he is down like a sack of potatoes. Long way to go!

2. We have a book called The Children's Baking Book (or close to it) that was in my family when I was a child. All the recipes are illustrated and Orion loves to read it as a bedtime story (yes! Taking after mama! Nothing like a good cookbook). So this weekend, we decided to actually make a recipe from the book together. We made choux pastry and used it to make cream puff spiders! The boys had lots of fun and the results were very tasty. Orion has already decided he wants us to make the chocolate dinosaur cake from the book for his birthday. It is a great book because he can read the ingredients for us (two eggs = photo of two eggs, etc). Both the boys love helping us in the kitchen :)

3. Otto is such a stubborn child, yet the most adorable goofball in our family. He is a constant climber and lately loves to cling to me. He would sit on my lap all day if I let him (and last week we had a "couch day" when I was pretty ill where we mostly did that). His stubbornness streak comes out especially in regards to his speech. He has said lots of words and he always knows what you are saying, but he refuses to repeat words on command! Lots of head shaking "no" these days and he also gives a great cold shoulder if he is set in his ways about not wanting to do something. Diaper changes are getting harder. But, he is always smiling and silly with us and a good sport with his brother (but not above pushing if Orion is in his space). I love seeing his unique personality develop. He likes to growl and roar too! 

3. The screencap below illustrates one of my major flaws. I communicate my frustrations using the words "everything," "all of it," "nothing," "anything." etc far too often. When I saw this it made me laugh so much that I had to send it to Mike. At least someone else gets it.

4. I hate shopping at Mejier and I've mostly given up. I've even ventured into Wal-mart twice in the past month because I am avoiding Mejier! That is more times than I have been to Wal-mart in the past two years already. Usually, Sam's Club, Aldi, and Family Fare do--but I was out on errands and ended up at Mejier. I had to bring home pizza sauce. One thing. OF COURSE, they were out of every single brand of pizza sauce. Usually they are just out of my favorite (Mejier Natural) and I go for the DeLallo can, but on this day they were out of EVERYTHING, even the yucky squeeze bottle sauce. I had to buy pasta sauce. I wish I could just make my own pizza sauce, but after my canning failure this past summer, I am scared to try it quite yet, since tomato sauce is more complicated than jam (which I botched).

5. I just purchased myself a new headcovering today! I absolutely love keeping my hair up and out of my face + wearing a head cover. It's very comfortable to me. This style is exactly what I was looking for and in my favorite shade--grey! It is from Rosi's Boutique on Etsy. I'm excited to try her designs after following on Instagram for awhile. Last time I indulged in purchasing headcovers/headbands, I bought them from Garlands of Grace and while they were beautiful, they were not thick enough fabric in my opinion to hold my hair the way I was hoping. 

Thank you all for the comments on my last entry! I am going to try to post at least once weekly here, even if it is mundane entries like the one today. 

Amazing Thrifting Finds! 1/9/16

Second only to libraries, thrift shops are my favorite places to go and lose myself. Sometimes even just trying on five dresses that I'll never buy will turn my mood around. However, I found three dresses I loved while browsing on Saturday. All of them fit! And one was on sale for .69 cents! From L.L. Bean and while most these days might not find it stylish, it is comfortable, well-made, and I look pretty good in it, if I say so myself...

While my dress was a steal, the really amazing find was something I wasn't even looking for, but definitely needed. I popped into the secondhand shop next to our small local grocery when I realized I had forgotten potatoes for the night's dinner at Aldi. Imagine my surprise when, after picking up a pair of pants for Orion, I found a perfect winter jacket for $5! It is Columbia brand, which is an expensive and well-made coat which is perfect for the intense winters here & will keep me warm during all the snowblowing in my near future. Online I see the Interchange Jacket (which is very similar to the one I found) retails for $175 new! There are no rips and hardly any wear on the jacket, save for some dirt stains on the cuffs, which washed out. I am very pleased and warm now! :)

(Sorry this photo came out so blurry...I don't have time to retake one right now).

I'm very lucky to have amazing places to shop secondhand here. It definitely helps our budget and is a gratifying activity because I quite enjoy the "hunt."