it ain't easy

I always thought that if I wasn't working, I'd finally have all the time I needed to get everything done. I would stop feeling like I was barely keeping afloat each day and actually make progress.

Instead, I pretty much feel like I'm sinking everyday. Somehow there seems to be less time in everyday. Of course, I do happen to have a certain beautiful baby boy taking up a fair amount of my time.

                                                        sporting some new mama made pants




 I still haven't quite embraced the art of letting go (of just a few things, each day). I'm starting to have faith that I'll get there though. I'm beginning to believe that it's simply an adjustment period and I'll get just where I want to be.

I'm not home just to keep a clean house, though that is certainly part of it. My goal in being home is to enrich our lives in non-monetary ways. To snuggle with babies who grow impossibly fast, to finally play that game of Stratego promised to an 8 year old (a year ago!), to guide a moody, confused, in-between childhood and adulthood teenager. To grow and preserve and cook food, because it's important to me. To create beautiful and useful things for our home and for our family.  To, yes, keep a neat house - but more-so a happy, comfortable, cozy home. A home that we want to be in and that we look forward to coming back to.




I think as long as I can keep those end goals in mind, everything will be just fine.


Don't forget today is the last day to enter the giveaway - you have until mid-night tonight, and you can enter up to six times!

43 to go

Off to a very slow start on my 47 bags project.

It's a bit overwhelming, honestly. This week I started on very small projects and cleared most of the paper clutter out of the house. Two brown bags full of paper, and two bags of books.

I've been feeling very crabby and I really don't know if it's the clutter, or the removal of the clutter that's making me cranky.

I'm stuck in a spot of being sentimental, of liking things - even those I have no use for. But I also get anxious around a lot of clutter and I definitely get cranky when I'm picking up the same things over and over and over - or washing clothes I know haven't been worn. That's absolutely a sign of too.much.stuff.

For the record, other peoples clutter rarely makes me cranky. I don't judge other peoples homes or their clutter usually. It's just the kind that I have to look at everyday that makes my eye twitchy.

You'd think that I'd feel refreshed after the weekend. I spent several hours out at a concert Friday evening, for the first time since the baby was born. I took some time to sew yesterday. I should be feeling relaxed and ready for the week.

But I'm not.

Part of me feels like I need to stay in today. To bag up more stuff. Clearly it's getting to me and I should push through it and be done with it and feel better, yeah?

I don't think I'm going to do that though. Because, following my attempt at being more mindful of how I'm living, I think what I really need is to get out of the house. To step out, step away and recharge some more. I'm pretty sure, if I'm being honest with myself and paying attention to what my body is telling me, spending a day inside cleaning is only going to make this cranky attitude worse.

I'm off to visit a friend for coffee. I'll do a little grocery shopping and I'm thinking I just might stop by a favorite used bookstore with a cup of coffee. Just for browsing, of course!

Are you following along on 47 bags? Working on your own piles of clutter? How are you doing? How does it make you feel?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway  - just one more day to enter!

mindfulness

After yesterdays post - the ideas of balance and rhythm were bouncing around my head for the rest of the day. I was thinking of ways to best find these things  - like a list of several things to do each day: fresh air, clean, etc . .  .and while the thoughts tumbled around my head I realized that the more I tried to simplify these ideas, the more complicated they became. Should I have a day for meal planning? For mopping? I know at the very least I want to make the beds every day. If there is nothing else I get done, the beds should get made every morning because then no matter what the rest of the day brings, there will be an inviting, comforting, cozy place to retreat to at the end of the day.

Lots of great thoughts. Lots of great ideas. But that's the problem. Lots.

Maybe it's more simple than that. Maybe all I need to do is simply be mindful of how I want to live my life. Just spend a few minutes once a day, or twice, or as many times as needed - paying attention to how I'm living my life and how I want to be living my life. Are those two things in harmony?

Maybe if I just keep in mind the life I want, eventually that will be the life I have, as I slowly and naturally make the changes to get there.

I think that for everyone, it's easy to lose sight of the little everyday moments that make up a fulfilling life. I know for me, time online steals time from other areas of my life on a daily basis. If I'm really being mindful of how I want to spend my moments, my days, my life - online time will naturally be cut significantly. I'll spend less time cleaning if I simply stay mindful of unnecessary clutter in my life - get rid of the things we don't need or don't love and take the same approach to bringing things into our home.

So, instead of many tiny goals - I'm going to try and keep it simple and see if things won't balance out sort of on their own.








Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

And the winner is . . .

 I used the very new and very high tech method of  writing all the names down, putting them in a bowl and having my six year old pick one.

And the winner of The Farmer and the Grill by Shannon Hayes is  . . .


 . . .


 . . .


. . .

Sara over at The Handy Hooker!



Sara, please e-mail me at gardenofsimple.gos@gmail.com with your address!


I'm already thinking I'll do another give-away when Shannons second Grassfed Gourmet book is released, so keep an eye out for that one!

Shannon Hayes and a give-away!

I've been wanting to get around to writing a little bit about Shannon Hayes for a while now. I own all of her books and firmly believe they are necessary readings for anyone interested in grassfed cooking and foods/homestead type living.

I forget exactly when I first bought Grassfed Gourmet (I'm just seeing now, while linking this, that there is a second edition coming out - yes!) It was last summer or the summer before.

I had been eying the copies that Wendy from Sweetgrass Farms had out at her stand each week. I was still transitioning to grassfed eating, and admittedly had some trouble preparing the meats just right (still do, honestly). Every week I put off buying a copy of the book, because the price (maybe 18 dollars?) was way out of the range I normally spend on books (I'm a used book kinda gal, and when I need something new or specific - I amazon.com it). One week, I happened to have some extra money and decided I'd buy it. Lucky for me, it was the last copy, and the edges were slightly dirty - so I got it at the discount price of $11.00. It has really been an indispensable guide in my transition to local, grassfed cooking.


I worked at Wegmans (a fantastic grocery chain, based locally for me) for 5 years and so USDA temperatures for foods and meats has been drilled into my brain for food safety. Plus, for a long time raw meat made me very squeamish. I handled it often, even at home, with gloves on.

I am just now (like, in the last couple of months) getting used to eating steaks a little pink. And I have to admit I do like them better cooked that way, once I get past the fact it's not well done browned/charred.

Several weeks ago, while browsing amazon.com I came across a new book that had just been released, Radical Homemakers . That caught my eye, because of the premise of the book, but I also recognized the author, Shannon Hayes. While adding that to my cart, I saw yet another new Shannon Hayes book, The Farmer and the Grill. I ordered Radical Homemakers, and waited until the grilling season to order The Farmer and the Grill.

Radical Homemakers had me nodding my head and saying yes! out loud the whole time I was reading it. It's what I've been thinking and saying for years - only in a much more through, yet concise sort of way. Shannon interviewed several "Radical Homemakers" for the book, and it was neat to get the different levels and perspectives of them all.

Side note: While visiting an organic farm a few weeks ago just 6 or so miles down the road from me, I met the farmer. She had all of Shannon Hayes's books for sale and we got talking about them. Come to find out - she was featured as one of the Radical Homemakers! Imagine that, a radical homemaker as my neighbor!


One thing about the book, that of course put me on the defensive and had me grumbling just the slightest bit - were the comments like "we decided we wanted to raise our own children". You all know how I feel about things like that.

But, I also understand where those comments come from, and aside from that I loved every single thing about this book. Loved it.

The Farmer and the Grill came into our house a few weeks ago, and I've already tested a couple of the recipes. The steak I made came out very, very rare following the method outlined. I mean 140 degrees rare. It's so hard for me. The Husband said it was perfect. The kids loved it. I put mine in a frying pan for just a minute - still pink, but eased those instinctive food safety worries! I'll get there, because the truth is - that steak was delicious. And I bet it would have been that much better if I had left mine as it was. I'm learning.

I read the Farmer and the Grill cover to cover (as I do many cookbooks) but this one was wonderful. A lot of side notes on cooking techniques and their histories - on why grassfed is more expensive - or is it?!


I've decided to do my first give-away with one of Shannons books, because I really think they are wonderful. I would love to do a package give away, and do all 3, but I can't. It took me a little while to decide which one to do. In the spirit of the approaching Summer, I've decided to do The Farmer and the Grill.

All you have to do to enter is comment on this post and I'll pick a winner one week from today, Tuesday the 2nd. Yay!