Embrace Life

Hitting Delete :: Reader Clean Up

I don't know about you, but I've been suffering from information overload. Our lives are so full and I'm constantly running here-there-everywhere. Lately, every time I sign into my Google Reader I'm met with over 1,000 unread entries! So much wonderful stuff, but something had to give.

Since I signed up for Google Reader - October 29, 2008 - I've read close to 120,000 articles. Late last week I was subscribed to 342 blogs. Some of which - Scott Kelby, PetaPixel and Pioneer Woman - are quite prolific with multiple entries each day. After my first pass, I managed to whittle my subscriptions down almost in half, to 174 blogs. Now after a week of continued focus, I am now no longer subscribed to 242 blogs, which leaves me with my new limit of 100.

I suprised myself with some of my deletes, I suprised myself even more with some of my keeps!

Things in my life are changing and I am no longer looking for the latest and greatest in scrapbooking ideas and trends from every source available, I've found my style. I continue looking for healthy eating and moving more ideas. I am always looking for inspiration, reinforcing my commitment to positivity, and many of those wonderful blogs stayed.

My top inspirational blogs are:

Brene Brown

Carolyn Rubenstein

Postitively Present

Under the Sycamore

Cathy Zielske

Ali Edwards

The Creative Mama

Wish Studio

Jamie Ridler

Centsational Girl

What are yours? Link me up in the comments ...

 

Secret Word: Minimal

For the last couple of years, I have been fascinated with the idea of "minimal".

Funny how that happens. It is in such contrast with my full to bursting life. When I was in boarding school, and then in university residence, I had personal space that was often less than 100 square feet and I just wanted more. More = Better. What can I say? I am a product of the 80s, the era of "go big or go home".

Now I find "more" to be suffocating. It is wasteful. It is rude.

In late 2010 when I was searching for my guiding word for 2011, I settled on "DO" and it has been wonderful! Secretly, in the back of my head, I wanted the word "LESS" but it has such negative connotations - after all, how can "less" be good? So, my mid-year, mini-word is:

minimal

Inspired by ideas like The Shed Project at Bindu Wiles; the incomparable Leo Babauta and his brilliant e-book; posts like this on Castles in the Air; the one that pretty much started it all; and more recently ...

I am determined to reduce.

I want to be more responsible. More accountable.

The hard part? I live in a house with other occupants! I don't know that I want to impose my new found minimalist urges on them. Certainly, I know the hoarder husband is not amenable to the concept of less. Proof? I just have to open the garage doors and see all of the c.r.a.p.

Can I get down to 100 items? 47 items? 33 items? I don't know. What I do know is I can make my life function in a way that makes me feel better. A life where I can find things. A life where everything has it's place.

Over the next few weeks I will (in order of preference):

• Donate

• Recycle

• Toss

• Sell

Why is sell last? It's not that I'm not interested in recouping my investment, it just means things hang around until I get organized enough to put together a box for Ebay. (NEVER will I ever conduct another garage sale - ever.) I think in order to embrace minimal I should also embrace myself well enough to know what I am able and willing to do. Maybe when there is less, I'll be more organized!

I also know, in order to be effective, I need to have a plan. Not a micromanaged rigid plan, but a more fluid and effective one. In the next weeks, between now and the end of the school year, I will be donating, recycling, tossing and selling from the following rooms:

• Living Room, Dining Room, Family Room, Den

• Kitchen

• Laundry Room, Pantry, Furnace Room

• Studio

• Master Bedroom, Master Closet

I'm happy to have fully participated in the Project: Simplify in March. It will really make this process far more quick and managable. Anything I was unsure of the first time around should be easier to keep or toss or donate. And BONUS? If this should be contagious, perhaps someone (cough) might find himself in the garage with a blue box or garbage bag. Do you think it's possible?

There is a certain elegance in restraint.

It doesn't mean I give up my beautiful silk pillows in my living room, I just do not buy more!

BONUS, I found a wonderful quote: “Today I am stuck paying for a yesterday that I didn’t even need” which pretty much sums up why this whole minimal thing is so appealing. To what end do I need all this stuff? The answer? I don't.

I found this over on Be More With Less:

25 Reasons You Might be a Minimalist

1. If you have an empty attic or storage shed, you might be a minimalist. I do, or at least, it's empty of my stuff.

2. If you are debt-free or paying off debt with gazelle intensity, you might be a minimalist. Working on it.

3. If walking through Target or Walmart makes you really uncomfortable, you might be a minimalist. Certainly Walmart makes me squeemish, but Target? I'm able to walk through it with restraint.

4. If your children are mad at you because you canceled the cable, you might be a minimalist. I don't think they'd care about cable, but cancelling the data plan? They'd freak - and so would I!

5. If you can’t stop giving stuff away, and your dog is worried that he’s next, you might be a minimalist. The dog is already gone.

6. If a friend asks you to go shopping, and you would rather go to the dentist, you might be a minimalist. Definitely the dentist would be preferable.

7. If you don’t want your parents to stop by your yard sale, because you are selling their stuff too, you might be a minimalist. Ha!

8. If you don’t have a junk drawer, you might be a minimalist. Working on everything in it's place and if it has no place, it isn't kept.

9. If you have more free time than ever before, you might be a minimalist. Though it's more a fuction of the kids getting older, I definitely have more free time!

10. If you have ever used a car share service, you might be a minimalist. I don't know if they have that here in the burbs. Even if they did, four kids and sport equipment make that only a dream. Now.

11. If you are curious about living with less than 100 things, you might be a minimalist. Definitely curious and once I'm at a manageable size it may be a manageable project.

12. If clutter makes you crazy, you might be a minimalist. Ding. Ding. Ding.

13. If you follow less than 100 people on twitter, or 100 friends on Facebook, you might be a minimalist. This I'd love to do, but I don't. I'm at the 300 mark. If I were at a hundred I might as well be at zero. I'd give it up completely - and that has been considered.

14. If you vote with your dollars, you might be a minimalist. Absolutely.

15. If people who can fit all of their belongings in a backpack inspire you, you might be a minimalist. I'm definitely a fan - though it would take at least a backpack to accommodate just my laptop and camera gear!

16. If you schedule time for nothing, you might be a minimalist. I don't actually schedule it, but it happens more often than not these days.

17. If you nap, you might be a minimalist. If I didn't wake up like a bear, I'd consider it.

18. If you read a book, and then give it away, you might be a minimalist. The books are hard to give away as most of the new ones are on my iPad.

19. If Everett Bogue pissed you off, you might be a minimalist. I don't know who this is, and after visiting the link I still don't. That pissed me off.

20. If words like trinket and souvenir make you cringe, you might be a minimalist. Cringing just reading the sentence. The other word? Tchotchke. Shiver.

21. If you’ve thought about living in a tiny house, you might be a minimalist. I have, I have! It's completely unrealistic, but it would be lovely.

22. If there are less than 33 things in your closet, you might be a minimalist. Can I tell you how wonderful this will be when I'm at one size? A smaller one size? First order of business will be to reduce to only the clothes I wear. Really.

23. If you spend more time thinking of ways to reduce your overhead than ways to make money, you might be a minimalist. Sadly, I do this. Daily.

24. If you have more resources (time, talent, treasure) to give, you might be a minimalist. I do this, but I must do it more.

Last, but not least….

25. If you would rather spend a day with Leo Babauta instead of Oprah Winfrey, you might be a minimalist. Um. As much as I admire Leo, clearly I have to rethink this minimalist thing. I can't give up my Oprah!

Do you have a secret word? Or perhaps a word that would represent where you are headed better than the word you chose? Or maybe it's your next word trying to be heard? What is it? Share!

2011 | Spiritual DO | 01 enough already

 

Less is more.

I become more convinced with the more I experience. The more I read. The more I am.

As many of us do, I live in a highly competitive, A-type community where nothing is ever enough. How disheartening to be surrounded by a constant feeling of dissatisfaction. While I was reading the multitude of blog posts and www entries and facebook status updates reflecting on the onset of the new year, I was overwhelmed with the constant theme of more, more, more.

I spent the better part of 2010 embracing less, less, less.

I stumbled upon one post that made me sigh with relief.

It is with this post in mind that I reflect:

A MAN NEVER EARNS ENOUGH. One who is able to provide for his family earns plenty. I know that "earns" takes on many forms, but a roof overhead, food on the table, clothes on backs, health care provisions and an education should be the simple, criteria. If a man does not earn that, the bare basics, then there is legitimate cause for dissatisfaction.
A WOMAN IS NEVER BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH. Beauty is one of those things that is truly in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I've gone through plenty of transitions. I've had the highs of being a paid model earning plenty to get by to being an overweight mama. I'm still the same person. Beautiful? Absolutely. It all depends on the standard by which you are measuring.
CLOTHES ARE NEVER FASHIONABLE ENOUGH. Fashion. Hmm. As a child of the '80s it takes on a whole different perspective. Anything is better than that! Mind you, I'm about simple. My wardrobe? Even if I were a fashionable size would still consist of black, white, camel and red. Simple pieces. Simple looks. Classic is good.
CARS ARE NEVER NICE ENOUGH. I've always been pretty practical about my vehicles only because the maintenance and repairs of expensive cars are enough to finance a small property! You'd think when you shell out a bundle that would be the end of it, but I've found (vicariously) that there is not often value for the dollar based on the initial outlay. I live in a Mercedes town and drive a Toyota. I'm a rebel :)
GADGET ARE NEVER MODERN ENOUGH. My temptation is always the $1,200 lens - but the challenge is rocking the $300 one I own. And I do. By chance or by design. It is the gadgets that get me. I think it's time to embrace (more) the analogue.
HOUSES ARE NEVER FURNISHED ENOUGH. I used to believe that, but really, as long as it's clean, easily maintained and happy, who cares? Which is my constant dilemma with my house.
FOOD IS NEVER FANCY ENOUGH. Hello, have you met my hips? Food can be too fancy! I spent all of 2010 changing the way my family eats. No more processed food. No more restaurants. No more take out. No more fancy. Fancy means calories, fancy means $$, fancy means time cooking, fancy means bigger hips. As long as it fills you up, meets the nutritional demands of the food groups, it doesn't need to be fancy.  It needs to be nutritional, filling and tasty.
RELATIONSHIPS ARE NEVER ROMANTIC ENOUGH. Romance always scared me. It was as stable as ether. I was happy to settle for stable. Less chance of disappointment. Every relationship comes with a price. At least my price was not as far from reality as romance.
LIFE IS NEVER FULL ENOUGH. Full? Full I have in abundance. 

My guiding word for 2011 is DO. I have every intention of DOing, but I will with the guiding principal that less is more and I have enough already. Cost does not mean value. More does not mean better. More is just clutter.

Less is more.

Do more. Embrace less.

My spirtual mantra for 2011.

Wellness Wednesday: Minimalist Cooking

Pictured above: preparing Jamie Chicken

Sounds like an oxymoron, eh?

As it turns out, it is really appealing, and tasty.

Mid way through 2010, I decided to cut out all processed and almost all prepared foods in our diets. No more pizza ordered on Friday or Chinese Take Out on the occasional Saturday, no emergency run to McDonalds to feed starving hockey players, we even cut out the occasional donut at Tim Horton's. As much as I loathe cooking, and I do loathe cooking, I decided for the health of my family, I would make good, healthy, mostly-made-from-scratch food. I became the ultimate perimeter shopper.

[Actually, I became the ultimate perimeter list maker since I do not do the grocery shopping. After 20+ years in the retail food industry, I find it to be a frustrating experience so I make the list and Louis, who enjoys the process, does the shopping.]

Mid-year, I discovered Stone Soup and downloaded her 97-page e-book: [5 ingredients | 10 minutes] In it I found oodles of good stuff to supplement my meagre (read: boring) offerings. Go check it out! Of the seven reasons she lists why her book will help:

1. less time in the kitchen

2. less time shopping

3. eating more fresh, healthy food

4. more pleasure & enjoyment

5. save money

6. less stress

7. more kitchen confidence

the most appealing to me is the less stress. With four kids going in four directions on a regular basis, it's important to feed them well and quickly. I'm all about the less stress!

Over the holidays she came out with another e-book: [5 ingredients | simple baking] which has some fantastic ideas packed into 73 pages. My kids have folded over or starred just about every recipe in the book! I'd give you a favourite, but there are too many.

Anyway, if you are like me and have limited time and a full calendar of activities but want to give the best food options available to your family, download these recipe books. Let me know how the recipes work for you! 

I think there's something to this minimalist thing!

Now, on those occasions when I'm going a bit less minimalist, I head on over to Baked Bree. Delicious! And, of course, since the Jamie Oliver invasion of our house, some of his creations have become staples around here. The favourite? Jamie Chicken. Yum.

Oh no! I think I'm enjoying this cooking thing. * gasp *