Wednesday, August 28, 2013

a glimpse into my [simple] summer kitchen


GF pasta with olive oil, butter, garlic & sea salt sauce topped with melty cheese. turkey meatballs & slices of ripe tomatoes from my daddy's garden.
chunks of melon & fresh juicy fruit of all kinds.
my daddy's tomatoes & veggies of all kinds. cool refrigerated hummus to dip them in.
i thawed out some brown rice & lentils i previously cooked & froze. topped it with cauliflower lightly sautéed in olive oil, curry powder & turmeric (quickly as to not over heat). 

lots of big salads topped together with anything cold & raw.
 
it is sooooo stinkin' hot here!
we are trying to re-acclimate ourselves to the heat we've been away from for the last 7 years. with no ocean breeze to blow away this awful heat...no one feels like cooking much around here. so we have been eating simple meals.
thankfully though we have moved back to the perfect climate for growing amazingly delish local fruits & veggies. 
 
bonus: i've located the kitchen boxes with my dishes & other kitchen necessities. once i figure out where everything fits (or does not fit), i will be back to good.
 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

urban country fix: DIY compost bin










there are a few things i just could not live with any longer in this house. the one that drove me the craziest was throwing perfectly good compost specimens in the trash bin (especially with my neighbors owning a farm stand!). we were used to throwing our compost directly on top of our compost piles on the ground at our other home.
but in this home we needed more of an urban country solution :)

my husband was heading to Home Depot today for some light bulbs or something & asked if I needed anything. YES...supplies to make my own compost bin. using this post as a guide i literally put this baby together just a few minutes ago. pretty much BY MYSELF (hubs carried the bag over for me). start to finish...20 minutes (including picture time) & only $23 in materials.

another thing i couldn't live with was having no garden. i miss my garden & my little container herb garden is temporarily doing the trick until I get the rest of my garden figured out.
 
*I added about less than half the bag of organic compost to add weight & a little boost to the bottom of the bin to get things going faster & to catch some of the goopy compost drip.   

Thursday, August 8, 2013

"be near family" life season



WE MOVED!!!

loooong story short: 

for the last couple of years my husband has been working & traveling like 90+ hours a week at least & the girls & i were home alone most of the time in this beautiful but isolated little country town with few friends, nothing exciting to do & very little conveniences. just me & the girlies in our huge house, on a huge lot with a huge yard, huge citrus/avocado grove, too many animals, too much driving all over to get to activities (let alone run errands & daily life stuff), no family support, etc...blah blah blah. for some people the country lifestyle is paradise but for us...not so much. i like a little more city in my country, i love small (house, car, yard...) & being mostly alone to care for everything all at once, the girls & i were quickly becoming completely overwhelmed & not enjoying it!

my husband & i decided a couple of months ago that it was finally time to downsize (hence the summer: becoming minimalist project 1 2). good thing i got started early because this decision set in motion a ton of huge lifestyle changing chain of events! all of which happened so fast & to which we are still trying to adjust. so fast in fact that i did not have time to get everything purged. we had to pack some unwanted items up & bring them with, but no worries, i'll be setting up a goodbye pile as i unpack boxes. 

one of the biggest events was rushing my daddy to the ER over a month ago & spending a week with him in the hospital. afterwards we decided we wanted to be here for his long recovery & it was quickly becoming clear to us that we are in the "be near family" life season (we were too far away for emergencies). my husband had a few job offers but the day after the initial news of my daddy's health issues (before the hospital stay) he got a job offer from back home & we accepted.
*(this job has turned into a true blessing for our little fam especially in the life season we are in with our girls ages & them growing up so quickly...no more insane hours for my husband & if/when he has to travel the girls & i have family near for support)

this is all very last minute & our heads are still spinning but here we are:
back where we started, in the "be near family" life season, life literally & figuratively purged, focusing on the "stuff" that really matters & waiting to see what God's plan is & why he brought us back home.

really hope you continue to join us for this new chapter in our sweet little fam's journey. it will be different. yes...exciting different! if we've learned anything in this little fam it is that change is constant, change is good & as long as we are together as a fam & focus on the positives we will adapt. 

the pic is from the house we will be in for the rest of this year at least. we went from a 3200 sq ft home in the country to a 1800 sq ft home in the city. i, the lover of things small & a little more city...am loving it! once we recover from the move i plan on making it cute cute cute! thanks for sticking around :)

Saturday, August 3, 2013

more & more good byes!


a summer becoming minimalist progress report: 
more & more good byes!!! (previous posts 1 2)
this was our amvets donation last Friday, felt so good to clear this extra stuff out of our house & give it to someone who may actually NEED it. (the black bags are filled with clothes & shoes of all sizes & seasons)
our life has been C R A Z Y since then^^^
happy weekend & be back with what's new!