fits and starts

we are getting spring here, in fits and starts. yesterday was sunny and 70's. but we're forecasted for more snow on tuesday. i'm loving the increased strength (and amount) of sunshine each day. i think most of us are very tired of this long, difficult winter. 

this is the last day of our spring break. we spent it mostly at home, i unfortunately contracted a mild case of food poisoning that had me more down than usual for the first few days. i got to realize how burned i was from work. it was good to focus on some things in my personal life again. i'm knitting a shawl for my MIL for mother's day which is already almost finished. i'm pleased with my commitment to it. 

also, i am currently focusing more on eating well and exercising more. i'm also going to start taking prenatal vitamins ;-) (not yet...just preparing). i'd like to lose 10-15 lbs. through summer. i don't think that's unreasonable. yesterday i swam 1/2 a mile. 

looks like i will be purchasing a new (to me) car this summer. when i hit the deer a few months back my insurance would not cover the damage and i don't think the car will pass inspection without me getting it fixed for a hefty cost. also i've been driving the same car for 13 years now, nearly. it's time. once we are settled i think i'll be able to save some money towards it. i am getting so excited about our move. i found an artisan butcher, pools to swim in, yoga centers, a yarn shop, at least three trader joe's and a whole foods. now all we need is a house to live in ;-)

i can't seem to keep myself from buying some new clothes (consignment/thrift "new") lately. this was not my intention at the new year. must be cabin fever. i am trying to rein it in but also be gentle on myself. i buy high quality clothes that last a long time. also i just sent a huge bag to an online consignment shop and i hope anything i make from that will go right into the savings toward our security deposit and first months' rent. also i really wanted to spend the other day so i played around with clothing in a "cart" for a while then deleted all of it and went over to my student loan website and "spent" the $ ... hee hee. i'm TRYING. it's hard. I'd still like to make my own laundry soap, it's one of the only cleaners (that and dish soap) I still buy. I make my own deodorant and all-purpose spray, and use baking soda and vinegar to clean tubs and toilets. I am guilty of using clorox wipes to clean the outer toilet parts, I don't really want to keep a sponge just for the toilet cleaning purposes kind of grosses me out but maybe I can figure out how to make my own wipes with old t-shirt pieces and then just wash them in hot water to reuse. we'll see. i do love saving money. 

we plan to join a CSA where we are next. 

i'm TRYING. you know, it's all a process ... an evolution. fits and starts, those happen for sure. 

next weekend i plan on another decluttering session. there might be things i can donate/sell on craigslist. like, my banjo. i realize i do love the banjo and i love bluegrass music but i'm not sure actually playing an instrument was something i actually meant to do. has that ever happened to you? i really would like to learn how to sew though, so the machine will stay. i'm sure i can find some classes where we're going. 

this morning i made breakfast sandwiches for the week. i plan on getting to work an hour before school starts each day and staying after for an hour most days. this will be my new schedule in june (7:30-4:30) so I figure it'd be good to get used to it now even though I'll be working more hours than what my salary (currently) allows. I feel frazzled without the professional development time that my new job is going to give me, so perhaps this will help. It has been a BUSY year. Montessori is not for the faint of heart though it's a VERY rewarding calling. Oh yeah, food. We will have orzo pasta salad for lunches this week. Menu plans have been simpler lately as I've been trying to save some money at the grocery store. 

Are you interested in our weekly menu plans? Here is this week's. 

Sunday (tonight) -- conchiglie pasta (from Jerusalem)

Monday -- leftovers/snacky dinner

Tuesday -- tacos (with veg meat)

Wednesday -- bacon-wrapped roasted chicken, broccoli, quinoa

Thursday -- cobb salads

Friday -- cheese pizza (homemade) with sliced red bell pepper on the side

Saturday -- grassfed burgers and broccoli/carrot slaw with toasted sunflower seeds

Sunday -- tunisian chickpea soup 

i have been trying to eliminate screen time an hour before bed each night. i find that when i spend the last hour of my day reading a book before turning out my light, i sleep much better. i've also been trying to take ginny sheller's advice and knit for at least an hour each day. i need to take REAL lunch breaks at work (i get an hour for this at my new job, eek!!), currently i work through them but if i adjust my schedule for the hour before and after school i think it would be good to take knitting along and actually sit to eat and breathe, and maybe leave work once a week to grab a coffee and some fresh air. i know i would feel happier and more balanced. you know, balance is so important to me!! 

if you've made it this far, thanks for tuning in. i'm sorry my blogging has been so spotty. a lot of it is that it's hard to upload pictures because of our unreliable internet. we will miss the quiet here but we are so ready to feel we are among the living once again. just two more months, hard to believe!! 

happy spring to you wherever you are ... let's hope this next bout of cold, snowy weather is the last of it!!

love and light,

k. ~ xo

still here ... with some big news!

Ok, no picture yet but ... it's been 3 weeks since I last posted. Yikes. I just haven't been too picture-happy lately is all.

Things here are good, and there's MAJOR news I am happy to announce :: I have found a NEW JOB! That's right, in just over three months from now we'll be moving out of the sticks and into the Washington, D.C. area (!!). I'll be working at a year-round Montessori school and DH has a good chance of getting a job there, too. This will be my first experience with year-round Montessori so I have mixed feelings but we are very, very happy to be getting off the Shore which has been a mixed bag (loved my job but hated a lot about this area, honestly) the last two years. This also means my job will start in June with not much time off in between but the school is very professional and well set-up with a lot of support. It's a beautiful school really. Of course there won't be a lag in pay between jobs which is really really great. We plan, if all goes well, to be in this area for quite a long time. I'm a bit nervous about green space, but I love being virtually ON the Amtrak path which can shoot me to New England and other greener points fairly quickly, there are also some major state parks to the west in VA and WVA about three hours or less away.

So that's the first major bit of news for us, post-marriage! We are so excited to have many personal, professional, and cultural opportunities to pursue. It will be a great area to raise a family in I think.

On the homefront, I'm just trying to take March to relax. February was quite a whirlwind of activity with traveling for job interviews, for the annual Montessori conference in Texas, not many weekends home for balance and I was more than a little out of sorts about that. Spent today doing some deep cleaning and I feel my home mojo is back :-) I made homemade deodorant, froze bananas for smoothies, and prepped breakfast sandwiches for the week ahead. We're also on solid menu plans again.

I would like to get my meals even simpler. I know this happens naturally moving toward spring and summer, when we live off smoothies and cold salads mostly it seems, and grilled stuff (thank you Staub grill pan wedding gift!). But the grocery spending ... oh my. I'm excited about possibly joining a CSA for the first time ever since we are finally settling in an area for a long while. Have I mentioned how excited i am to finally start settling somewhere? Yeah. We're ready for it.

I have some long-neglected knitting and knitting podcasts to get to, so ... I won't stay here too much longer today. Promise to post photos as I have them. I've realized that I can't be like the mama bloggers out there. I don't stay home (yet .... fingers crossed for someday....), and I can't cook every single night. I just can't. So those nights there might be pizza or Subway. I mean, I work FULL time. And the house can't always look perfect like some blogs out there make theirs out to be. I can do what I can do as far as homemaking stuff and working out and have to let the rest go. This is hard for me to accept because I'm "all about the self-improvement" as my DH puts it. If I can't let go sometimes, my personal hobbies suffer, my relationships suffer, my body suffers, and life just needs to feel fun and spontaneous sometimes. Yes, I'm working on it.

Have a lovely week!

K.

so much winter yet

homemade braided bread with fresh herbs and olive oil poured on top

before it was bread, on my recently-oiled cutting board

fresh sage and rosemary sprigs/garlic/grassfed butter

we finally got a snowstorm! almost two weeks off from school between two of them 

as you can see, road crews are uncommon in this part of va. this is our street looking away from our house

five or six inches on the bedroom balcony

crazy icicle outside my bedroom window!

peaceful snowy marsh

I've been trying to live as slowly and gently with as much time at home as possible. Some of it's been just given to me by the weather! I've entered the "dreamy" phase of winter as a result. Thinking and planning for the near future when things will rev up again and our lives are going to change once more. Ah. Life, it's change for sure. 

I've created a bucket list of sorts for the rest of winter, which for me lasts until the end of March. So much time yet. Trying to flow with it and when I feel a bit down I just take in more sleep/elderberry syrup/vitamin D/b complex/maca powder in smoothies. We have not been sick yet ... not even one cold. I credit exercise and amazingly healthy food (however I'm still keen on much reducing my portion sizes! Tell that to my hibernate-y body .... ). And loads of sleep though I do find myself playing catchup on weekends. Mostly from getting up before the sun. Very, very hard. 

anyway, here is my semi-composed bucket list: 

bake a great cake

crochet lesson

meditative art

felted bowls

dishcloths

finish 2 shawls

daily yoga stretches

dinner out to a NICE intimate cafe for john and i in march (our only dinner out)

more fresh air

make elderberry syrup from scratch (my elderberries from Mountain Rose Herbs just arrived!)

send tiny care packages to five best friends

make lavash wraps from scratch

make healing salve

make face cleansing oil

1-2 more all-day home retreats

every now and again, a hot towel scrub or dry brushing (both with lavender or tea tree oil) prior to a shower -- remove toxins and increase circulation

make more time to read books. feeling a bit of screen burnout again which is funny considering i'm really not online as much as most people (and just about 5 percent of my work involves the computer at present)

how's that? i don't think it's too much at all ... just enough to keep me busy for the next 6-7 weeks till spring comes 'round once more. I'm thankful for taking such a lovely, intimate online retreat with Heather (Hiberate). So many wonderful ideas, some of which have helped to form the list above. 

tonight i took about three hours and made a slow grassfed beef stew over rosemary sage mashed potatoes for john and i. last night i made grassfed beef chili with kidney beans and veg and took it to dinner with my knitting friends. it was a cozy, warm evening. wine has featured both nights! it's my favorite time of year for hearty, rustic, simple dishes that are filling and energizing. i have an easier time with eating mostly vegan in the late spring and summer (in fact i plan to live off my vitamix in a few months!! love that thing!! we've been enjoying many a blueberry-banana water-based smoothie with cashews for breakfast recently). that's probably what i'll do. for now, i find i'm doing well with good meat once a week or so in very small amounts. we buy only the best, budget be damned. it's so important that we eat unprocessed, whole foods. 

eat food. mostly plants. not too much. 

i think our only processed "sin" is the occasional bag of health food store potato chips/blue corn tortilla chips. john is haagen-daas (i don't like ice cream, only crave it once or twice a year, mostly in summer and i think that's nostalgia). we eat almost no dairy, but i recently found out sour cream is fermented so that's allowed for me again esp. as i just don't like yogurt plain, in a bowl (i do use it a ton in other things). trying to adhere to the adage "nibble cheese like a mouse" of course that goes out the window on homemade pizza night fridays ;-) 

whew enough rambles about my diet!! it's good, though. really, really good. i feel so blessed (although budgeting is a nightmare .... it basically just doesn't happen). 

i hope to update very soon with some exciting news. remember we have some major life projects in the works for this year? yeah. it's been moving along behind the scenes. 

if you are a knitter i'd love to meet on ravelry. i am karbear1103. 

i hope you are enjoying winter as much as i have. i'm pretty proud of myself though i do feel an undercurrent of impatience with it at present. this, too, shall pass.

have a happy week! I'm headed to TEXAS midweek (70 degree temps, oh my!!!) for an amazing montessori conference. 

blessings,

k. 

xxx

test post kindle fire edition

antique store find. for washing every knitted item i make including shawls!! it's huge. i LOVE enamelware. especially in cobalt blue!

another find, $10. to be used for making herbal this-and-that (non edibles, though many are made with foodsafe ingreds)). needs a baking soda scrub first. i'm in love with it. in very good condition aside from the lip.

dining room table. i try to almost always have fresh flowers on hand. john bought me the amber depression glass plate for christmas. i made the vase at one of those pottery places.

my recently-demolded cutting board. looks almost like new again!

just waiting for pastured eggs. we eat these throughout the week. the ham and cheese are from applegate farms. the butter is grassfed. the muffins from VT bread co.

living room arrangement. LOVE blue mason jars.

right now i'm knitting the honey cowl for a blog friend. it will be hard to part ways with this beauty.

sorry i had no idea how to rotate this. it's my new kindle fire cover from etsy. the sweet crafter made it custom for my kindle's larger size.

bedroom, with knitting basket. we're going to see if my landlord will let us keep the desk (it rolls down to reveal many compartments and drawers) when we leave here.

typical evening. those are vegan banh mi sandwiches with shitake mushrooms and homemade almond paste with siracha. i'm watching my favorite knitting podcast. i've just cast on for the honey cowl and that's probably YOGI peppermint tea. 

pecan-pumpkin bread for the freezer.

what menu planning typically looks like around here.

getting ready to make pizza dough. i do this about every two weeks. we usually eat homemade pizza on friday nights. i also make homemade sauce. it's very easy! i use Vegan With a Vengeance as a guide for both. That Kitchen Aid has been moved for the Vitamix!

i think i'm making a curry? can't remember. 

when she's not meowing, she's sleeping. Amelia.

making some homemade all-purpose spray with orange essential oil. i LOVE this spray. i love using it in the kitchen so there are no chemical residues around where food is prepped.

prepping lentils

yay!! i'm so happy my Kindle takes such beautiful photos. I'm still playing with it but I'm fairly sure this will be my stand-in until I can afford one of those fancypants DSLR ... ???'s you all tote along so beautifully. I love the quality, and the pics are also wide. 

hope you enjoyed the show. finally! 

enjoy your week, and stay warm!!

just ahead of the weekend (drip, drip)

this is part of the shawl i knit for christmas a while back. i still have no idea how to upload photos from my Kindle to this blog. When I do, there will probably be a massive picture post here. Thanks for your patience.

We've been having issues with dry air in the house. I wake up with my sinuses a mess. I looked at Rite Aid tonight at $30+ humidifiers, then realized I didn't want the expense OR the noise (I need absolute quiet to sleep). So, as usual, I took to the Internet and found some good, frugal home-grown ideas. 

hang wet laundry on a rack in your room.

place a bowl of water near a heat source in the room. 

place a pot of hot water with a few drops of eucalyptus or lavender oil in the room.

put a houseplant in the room (i have one that doesn't seem to do much but look pretty on the dresser). 

open the bathroom door during a hot shower (my room is right next to the bathroom).

Also, I'm going to experiment with ordering dried elderberries from Mountain Rose Herbs so I can make my own elderberry syrup. It really really works, but I'm almost out of the SUPER expensive Gaia bottle in my fridge and I was dreading re-ordering it. Thanks SO very much to Ginny for the idea. Also, please check out her blog. It's wonderful! (I particularly admire her knitting projects!)

I also have plans to make the foot salve or the oil face wash, or both, from Hibernate. Check out Heather's blog too. She's been another source of inspiration for me over the years! Thanks Heather! 

I guess those are my frugal tips for today :-) We enjoyed some homemade pizza tonight, which we usually do on Fridays. I just defrost the crust/sauce/leftover sausage, cut up some fresh mozzarella, tonight i added a handful of frozen (thawed under hot water in the sink and dried up well in dish towel first) broccoli. YUM. So easy. 

SO looking forward to a quiet weekend with date night thrown in tomorrow (Indian food!!). Also looking forward to a high of 42. that seems balmy lately!! We can stop dripping the damned kitchen faucet. 

Hope your weekend is simple, slow, and wonderful. My only plans aside from knitting and reading are getting out to the gym, and maybe prepping some homemade breakfast sandwiches on Sunday. 

Be well, and stay warm and healthy!! 

xo xo 

k.

warmth and unusual rest

it's my third day off from work this week! monday was a holiday, wednesday and today were due to weather (snow!). it's been a BLESSING especially because all these days were graced with plentiful sunshine despite the fact that we are dripping our kitchen faucets so they won't freeze up (one did anyway but we got it to thaw) and i've been knitting for literally HOURS on each of these bonus days. i currently have three projects on the needles -- two shawls and a cowl. On sunday i had worked to clean the house top to bottom which included dragging the christmas tree out to the porch and boxing up all the decorations for the year. the above photo is my bedroom, which i cleaned and dusted to make like a real sanctuary. it's so peaceful in there. it's part of the Hibernate workshop I've been so enjoying these past two weeks. I feel so very rested and balanced and I realize I could definitely stay home full-time. I'm so not ready for that yet, though. Must keep stashing away money at every opportunity. I'm putting myself out there to try a couple of yarn commissions this year. If you are interested do get in touch. (mskarenannfuller@gmail.com)

this is the honey cowl, a free pattern by Madeline Tosh on Ravelry. It's for a blog friend....

I've been enjoying the Simple Abundance book and have started a gratitude journal. Each night before bed I write down five things I was grateful for that day. It promises to transform my life. We'll see .... :-) 

I have a busy February coming up with a bunch of travel involved. Part of some behind-the-scenes things in motion here that I will be ready to talk about one day on here. I've been feeling grounded by the menu plans I'm creating while I am here at home. I think for the next one I'll focus on things like bean soup with roasted vegetables on the side. Simple, hearty/rustic meals that keep the budget low. Eating WELL can be so expensive. You'd probably fall over if you saw what I spend each month. So sometimes i try to remember that less is more so the more expensive stock-up type/try new recipe weeks are balanced by old favorites like tacos (we're currently loving TVP "meat"). Being frugal in this area is HARD. When we move again at some point we are inheriting my mother-in-law's stand-alone freezer. I can't wait. I rely on the freezer so much for semi "fast" food :-) Currently in there i have homemade Indian food, chickpea-spinach soup, pecan-pumpkin bread, cherry bars for special treats, and banana-chocolate-oat "healthy" cookies that work well as pre-workout or after-school snacks. I also stash homemade pizza dough and sauce and leftover meat/veggie sausages which we throw on top. And then there are bagels, frozen fruit and veg, well... you get the picture. That thing gets stuffed full!! 

I'm going to work on some laundry and e-mails and then I have a HUGE charles dickens novel to do some reading on!! Hope you are warm where you are .... 

blessings - 

k. 

directions

i made this shawl for my mom for christmas out of yarn i'd had on hand for a while. It was so soft and warm for an acrylic!

So, I have a bunch of pictures I took of recent happenings around here but they are on my new tablet -- yes, I got a Kindle Fire as requested for Christmas, mainly to be used as a knitters' tool, something very portable I can tuck into my basket. I even ordered a custom fabric cover on Etsy. Once I sit down and figure out how to upload those onto here you'll see a bit more of things.

With that said, it was a good, but LONG first week back at school. We had homecooked meals every night thanks to menu planning (love that!!). Now it's the weekend and I spent two and a half hours today deep cleaning the kitchen, putting most of the Christmas decorations away (we still have our lovely tree up in the living room!), and some other odds and ends that made the house feel more open, less cluttered, and definitely more cozy.

I'm currently working on a shawl project i started LAST january! it kept getting shunted aside for other things. But, I'm almost finished and I can't wait to wear it!

This weekend we are just mostly "lazing" about at home. It's kind of a weird rainy weekend. I took a two-mile walk outdoors because of some temporary mild weather we've been having. I plan to cook a curry tonight and spinach lasagna tomorrow night. We did try freezing homemade breakfast sandwiches this week and that worked really well reheated in the toaster oven but in the end we decided not to freeze them. We did go to the coffeeshop once but had a gift card so it was free! We'll definitely be doing the breakfast sandwich idea again. It was frugal, filling, healthier than a cafe-bought option, and delicious! We did not go out to dinner at all! This made me happy. I am going to try and budget $50/cash a month for going out to eat. I've also saved $3 so far on the 52-week money challenge.

I would love to blog about the frugal things I try to do if you would find them helpful. I make my own pizza dough and sauce, veggie burgers, deodorant, and all-purpose cleaning spray. We use cloth napkins and rags (but we do have paper towels as they are handy for pet messes). I re-use freezer bags if they can be washed out well enough. I'm going to start a garter stitch blanket out of leftover balls of worsted weight yarn. There are more projects on the horizon, including another massive declutter and getting our stuff really, really organized for when we move again (we will use REAL movers!). De-molding cutting boards with a homemade mixture. Etc.

I really strive to create a good balance between work outside the home/homemaking/rest and enjoyment of my hobbies and my husband/pets. I used to think I needed a four-day week to accomplish this, and would complain about it. But overall, I think I do pretty well. I do use a planner (pen and paper!), and paper wall calendars to help me achieve my goals in a reasonably relaxed manner. I like that my job keeps my mind happy, homemaking keeps me physically active and (the following benefits both myself and DH) mentally/emotionally comfortable, and I like that I make time for personal "just me" pursuits (yoga, the gym, knitting, reading books). It does take an effort. I've said this before. I live intentionally and mindfully as much as I can.

Please let me know if there are directions in which you'd like to see my blog expand and I'll be happy to consider them!!

A New Year

sand and sea shawlette, knitted for a favorite aunt for christmas. i purchased gift yarn when visiting boston to make another one for myself out of different colors. so delicate and beautiful. this was a real joy to knit. very special yarns make all the difference!

There is so much to say/reflect on ... where to begin?

Simply, I suppose.

I'm certainly hoping that 2014 will be a brighter year for the blog. Mainly in terms of taking better pictures. I thought it would take a camera but I have a new tablet that takes marvelous photos. I also feel like my blog posts should be more cohesive, more on-topic and less rambly. So if it's about menu planning, go into detail. Same for knitting projects. But then again I don't want it to feel forced. So we'll see. I want to go easy on myself, that's for sure.

I do think it would be nice to share my intentions with you. Some people come up with a word for the year. It doesn't work for me. I need specific goals. Mind you, not resolutions, just a directed sense of striving. Mindfulness. Hmm, maybe that's my word. But I feel like that's always my word.

chumley, my sleepy sweet beagle

Anyway ... here are some of the things, in no particular order, that I've been slowly ruminating on for the last several weeks as the old year comes to a close and the days slowly creep toward length and light.

~ reach goal weight (20 lbs) -- continue to follow a set exercise schedule and reduce portions of meals. I already cook from scratch with unprocessed foods and eat a 95 percent vegetarian diet, so not worried about the actual food itself

~ get a new-to-me car, and pay for it with cash

~ set a cash budget for eating out (currently $50/month, so if DH springs for one meal we can go out twice a month if not more depending what carries over from month to month)

~ no-spend challenge :: NO new clothes (other than underwear or shoes)/yarn (unless it's for a specific project, the md. sheep and wool festival in may being the one exception to this)/kitchen items/books for the year.

~ take the 52-week money challenge. Each week, save $1 more than the last week (starting at $1/week). At the end you'll have nearly $1,400 saved in cash.

~ reduce monthly food spending by smart menu planning. taking advantage of freezing, eating leftovers for lunch instead of making separate lunches, shop twice monthly instead of once monthly (this will make my gas and tolls go up, but i think the smart menu planning -- such as easy meals on hard days and having a good lentil soup stocked in the freezer -- will inhibit impulse/unhealthy takeout meals).

~ contribute monthly to my 403B plan starting in March (this fund has been inactive for a couple years....)

~ write more regularly to friends

~ take 1-2 knitting classes to sharpen skills

~ establish a good 8-hour sleep routine so I can have easier, calmer mornings and really come up with a good healthy breakfast menu rotation.

~ make homemade cleaners instead of buying them.

~ find a way to give the whole year round, perhaps by sponsoring a child or doing Kiva

~ continue to declutter and organize ahead of a move we plan to make this summer. i want our things very, very streamlined.

~ improve as a partner in marriage ... haven't thought this one through yet but I'm aware of my personal trouble spots.

There. There may be more to come. I'll add things in as I think of them.

doing the laundry is not one of my favorite jobs, so i try to do it while i'm enjoying my morning coffee on the weekend, or i follow it with a task i do like more. 

We have another big year coming up. I can't really talk about our plans yet but there are 2-3 major ones in the works. It's exciting but both of us need to feel grounded and balanced so as the unofficial "homemaker" I feel it is my job to have the pieces in place. A cozy home is no joke for the physical and mental benefits it provides. I've come to see my domestic duties as essential to all else that's tangential in our lives, to friendships, to family relationships, to success at work, etc. Yes, it takes an effort. It does not mean sitting on the couch day after day doing nothing. I do learn (mostly from my husband, who helps with anything when asked) to sit and do that sometimes, of course. But I think that when work needs doing and it's joyful work -- I mean, you can see folding laundry and keeping the dishes washed, plants watered, pets happy, food prepared as truly joyful to accomplish -- that's how I feel most fulfilled. It's instantly apparent to me, as I travel around and sometimes stay with other friends and family, that MY home is the center, the source, of the peace I feel. Not everyone's home feels like you could just STAY and just BE yourself without a care in the world (often it just feels like a quick stopping place, a place that's "okay" for a little but makes you restless quickly, that certain warmth is missing). But ours does. And yes, I'm proud of that. It takes good, honest, roll-your-sleeves-up work to make it happen. I may not have a choice for a while yet, or ever, to truly be a stay-at-home wife and mother, although I strive for it with every financial or work-related decision I make. But I can rest easy enough knowing I've more or less figured out the balance. Giving just more than half of myself over to home and family life seems to be the key, for me. After all, I certainly benefit too. Who doesn't benefit from giving, and this kind of giving really does bounce back to me.

I am grateful for my cozy home life with DH, a calling I care about, the healthy, gentle way we shop, prepare, and eat our food (more and more I tend to call my diet the "real food" way), good relationship with close family, and skills I can both utilize and enjoy, such as knitting, and good sleep nearly every night.

spinach lasagna is a favorite frugal meal in our house, as well as homemade pizza. we figured out that a homemade pizza is less than $4. If you eat one every week, that's $16. One takeaway pizza is way more than that! The lasagna stretches into lunches well and also freezes well in squares. 

You CAN live the simple life you want to live, but it requires mindfulness. and then, you have to be willing to work to make it happen. and the ability to sit back and be aware that you are nearly always enjoying it. to feel how that feels. and really, to me, that's what it's all about.

Happy New Year, make this one a blessed, full, and happy one for yourself and your loved ones. Take initiative and watch things bloom.

blessings and light,

karen

This season

Elving is in full swing here at the Fullers. We are striving for a simple unhurried Christmas this year. So far, so good. Today is sunny and warmish so we are heading across the bay to drink a good Starbucks wintry drink and watch the mall craziness. I am all done shopping. Spent most of yesterday wrapping and Christmas knitting. I am still not sure I'll get all the Christmas knitting done! Just a couple more gifts to wrap and a few cards to fill out. All I made this year in terms of baking were chocolate chip cookies (John's favorite) and I'll make a rum cake to take north on Friday. We'll pack the presents, the dog, wedding and honeymoon photos, and head north for a few days each in New Jersey and Connecticut. We will also have time on the back end to grocery shop and just relax at home before school starts up again.

It's been so long since I blogged. Part of the problem is I'm just not happy with my old point and shoot camera anymore. I'd like to get a new one but there are currently other things I'm saving for. Every good blogger seems also to be a professional photographer these days. It's daunting. Life's also been busy, I've been carving a lot of balance into my life. My job is fulfilling but FULL. I've made sure to stick to menu plans, gym schedules (currently walking 8 miles a week over 2 days to start), resting time (such as knitting for at least an hour each day, and once a week with a small local group). We had a nice Thanksgiving, just the two of us at home with a very filling homemade vegetarian meal.

I promise to make a post of holiday handknits when all the busyness subsides. Also sorry that this post will be short but I want to make us a healthy smoothie before we head south for the afternoon.

Merry Christmas if I don't get to say it again!!

we really aren't drinkers ....

i usually keep hershey's kisses in the sleigh, and reese's bells, etc.