An Irish Blessing, Irish stew, Irish Soda bread and Apple Sauce Cake

 
 
Stepping away from de-cluttering for a moment to celebrate the up and coming St. Patrick's Day. My Dad's mom, Flossie, was born in Canada to Irish Immigrants. They had left Ireland to find new opportunities for themselves and their children. The Kilfoyle family, raised 6 children in their new land and I'm here, their great granddaughter, a century later to remember them and my heritage.

I'm singing in the kitchen because David came home from his trip out of town late last night and one of the first things he did for me today was to repair my dryer. Yeah! I couldn't be happier. Isn't it funny how things you normally take for granted, all of a sudden become a big deal when you don't have them any longer? I've missed my dryer AND my husband this week.

Hanging our laundry on our deck and on our standing drying rack all week, really took me back to a simpler time. A time when laundry was hard work. I certainly felt a connection to my great grandmother Kilfoyle, who with 6 children must have done her fair share of laundry.

So as I'm humming happily this afternoon, I'm gathering the ingredients for my version of Irish Stew, some Irish soda bread, and for "bessert," (little Victoria's term for a treat) I'm making apple sauce cake from an old recipe that I have. It compliments the meal nicely.

 The day is blustery and the lake is filled with white caps. As the little ones play outside this afternoon, (it's Spring Break) please join me in making a delicious Irish Stew.

 Okay, let's start chopping for that is the most consuming thing about making Irish Stew. Do you want a cup of tea? ....now I'm using beef and not a lot today as you know I'm on the road to being a vegetarian but also a minimalist, ha. The traditional Irish stew would use lamb and I understand from my daughter Alyssa, who is in the U.K. teaching, that there are sheep everywhere. For this Canadian, beef is more readily available and besides I just couldn't eat lamb anyway. (no judgement for lamb eaters out there)

Hope's Irish Stew

Ingredients

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 pounds of beef..(I used a sirloin cut...add more if you want it really meaty)
2 medium white onions
2 stalks of celery
4 large carrots, chop into round bites
1/2 of a large turnip chopped into bite size pieces
10 medium sized potatoes..chopped into nice chunks
2 cups of stewed tomatoes
4 ounces of tomato paste
1/2 cup flour
4 cups of beef broth
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp of worcestershire sauce (I use Lea and Perrins)
1 tbsp rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic
fresh parsley for garnish...it's just starting to grow in the garden now

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium heat in a large stockpot. Add beef chunks and cook until brown. Season with salt and pepper. 

2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a saucepan, add onions, celery and garlic. Cut until translucent. Add flour and mix well. 

3. Add tomatoes to the browned beef, along with all seasoning and worcestershire sauce. Finally, add.the onion, celery, garlic and flour mixture.

4. Add beef broth and tomato paste to the above

5. Add potatoes

6. Add carrots and turnips

7. Bring to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer on low for 2 hours or until the veggies are cooked

8. Serve hot with a sprig of fresh parsley on top.

While the stew is cooking, you can make the Apple Sauce cake and the Irish Soda bread.

Start the Apple Sauce cake first, since it takes 45 minutes to 1 hour to cook and it needs to cool before icing. That is, if you choose to ice it, as it's very moist and lovely plain.

Apple Sauce Cake

This recipe came from my Robin Hood flour (no sift) baking book that is falling apart since I use it all the time. It's packed with great recipes. This recipe book was given to me by my mom.....thanks MOM!

Ingredients

1-1/4  cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 cup chopped walnuts (can also use raisins which I would love but my kids would not enjoy as much as nuts...your choice...what does your family prefer?)
1/2 cup soft margarine...part butter
3/4 cup brown sugar...use 1 cup if making your own homemade applesauce
1 egg
1 cup applesauce (it takes about 3 medium apples to make 1 cup of applesauce)


Directions

1. Grease and flour an 8" inch square pan
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F...or 325 if using a glass pan
3. Measure and stir thoroughly all dry ingredients. Add nuts or raisins
4. Cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar gradually. Beating well after each addition. Add egg and beat well.
5. Add the dry ingredients alternatively with the applesauce until well combined.
6. Turn into prepared cake pan, spread evenly
7. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the your toothpick comes clean. This can vary depending on the moisture in your applesauce. Cool really well and serve plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or whipping cream or you can ice it with a butter icing. 

I iced the cake and replaced some of the milk and the vanilla extract with Baily's Irish Cream liquor (we buy little bottles for just this occasion)...yummy and perfect for St. Paddy's Day

While the cake is cooking, make the Irish Soda Bread.

Remembering the Kilfoyle's,  Irish Soda Bread

This bread goes really fast in my house as it's has a lovely texture. Consider making two loaves.

Ingredients for one loaf

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp  white sugar
4 tbsp unsalted cold butter
1-1/2 cups buttermilk....if you don't have buttermilk, here's how to make it at home
1 large egg

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour an 81/2 round cake pan
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
3. Cut the butter into the flour very gently until it resembles oatmeal
4. In a small bowl, gently beat the egg and then add the buttermilk, stir to combine thoroughly
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and then pour in the buttermilk-egg mixture. Combine the two mixtures, stirring very gently with a wooden spoon until it forms into dough. It will be wet and sticky. 
6. Turn dough onto a well-floured surface and generously dust it with flour...you may want to have a cup of flour close by to dust your hands and slowly work it in to this dough. Very gently form the dough into a ball and then transfer it into the prepared cake pan.
7. Lightly press the dough so that it spreads to the edges of the pan. With a sharp knife, cut an "X"  into the top of the dough. 
Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven when the toothpick comes out clean
Enjoy warm with a bowl of Irish Stew

 It's DINNER!

Mad rush to the kitchen as everyone has worked up a great appetite today. Thanks for joining me this afternoon.

 And here is what it looks when it's all pulled together.

The photo is of my great grandparents, The Kilfoyle's and their 6 children

 And it wouldn't be a great Irish meal without a glass of ale...sorry no Guinness here but we do have a good glass of stout beer....

"Slainte Chugat!" which is cheers and good health wishes from my husband David to you. He really needs a good strong ale since he he has been working 12 hour days for a week now and yesterday he put in a whopping 17 hours as he worked all day and then drove home from up north, Just in time to fix our dryer, declutter his dresser and closet (that is what he was doing when I was cooking today) |and now when I'm writing my blog, he is putting the little people to bed. Do I love this man!

What are you going to do on St. Patrick's Day! Wear green, (so you don't get pinched) and maybe you will make a big pot of Irish Stew. Irish blessings and......
 

 And before I close, I thought I would share a great you tube video I found of some very talented fiddlers. You know I have a soft spot for strings. My son Clark said he's going to play some Irish fiddler tunes for me on St. Paddy's day . but until then, I hope you enjoy this video. If you can't click on the video below....click on this hyperlink. Traditional Irish Music, Lilla Akademien's violin ensemble

 Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope













                              

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle...the three R's

Three's.... a Magic Number!

Three isn't just a magic number when it comes to children (although, I like the number 8 too) but it's also the magic number when it comes to the three R's. The R's that stand for, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

With earth day only a month away on April 22, 2015, I'm really thinking how important these three little words are for our environment. Ever since I was little, it was always important to me to keep the earth clean but it wasn't until we added these last three children to the world that I really started to realize the impact each one of us has on our planet. Also, how much of a difference, each of us can do to heal it as well. We are powerful.

I've been talking a lot about de-cluttering lately on my blog but I forgot to mention that there is a specific intent with regards to this action. And that brings me to the thought of intention.

Intention is the starting point for any action. If we aren't clear about where we are going, how we want our lives to look, how in the heck will we ever accomplish our goal. I suppose I'm taking a few steps backwards but after writing an email to my sister this morning, it occurred to me that I hadn't been clear about sharing the idea that the first tip towards Minimalism, is INTENTION.

You have to decide what you want before you can move forward and it's the thing that will keep you going on your darkest days. I know this from my years of trying to conceive these last three beautiful children . I knew that if they were to manifest in my life, that I had to become clear on what I wanted. What was most important to me and have laser focus with that regard.

Everything I did in the 5-7 years it took to bring these little people to "being," moved in the direction of my intended result. And voila...although it wasn't as easy as ever saying that lovely, easy french word for, TA DA! they are with me at last.

Just as is my desire to make this world a better place. For me to heal my part of the planet by taking care of the earth. Taking care of my family and ensuring they are nourished, loved and raised connected to nature. That is a BIG goal, I know, that is my intention... but the baby steps to get there are to attend to the three R's.

And that is where reduce comes in this month. I'm reducing our footprint like crazy. Putting anything that we don't LOVE, and we aren't USING, out into our garage. I've already started to make piles of things that we will sell and anything that doesn't sell, we will donate. That ensures others can reuse what we deem not necessary in our lives any longer.

The second big pile that is accumulating, is my recycling pile. Things like an old computer keyboard, a computer monitor, glass jars, cardboard boxes that we have been storing things, that we never look at in,....well you get the picture. These items can be recycled and turned into new products for others to enjoy.

These are the steps I'm taking and the long term vision is becoming clearer and clearer as I remove needless belongings from my sight lines. How does one downsize when you have a large family? As I wrote to my sister this morning, you can't  downsize the kids, although since our family ranges in age from 24 down to 3 year old twins, I can see that in a short amount of time our family will be a lot smaller. Already our oldest is out of the nest and living and working overseas. Our oldest son is on his last legs studying Environmental Science and our third oldest, is starting his out of the nest venture with his first year of University almost under his wings.

In time, we will have a smaller family living under our roof on a day to day basis so there is still time for me to create a simpler family life. Do we need 3000 square feet of space, plus our Hobbit's hollow (developed crawlspace) any longer? I'm leaning in the direction of No being the answer.  I want our life to have a sustainable back bone, supporting  creativity, where more peace and fulfilment flourishes. I've set a goal of completing our de-cluttering project by the end of  March. I know kind of  optimistic of me, but hey, it's spring break for the next 2 weeks and that means no driving kids everywhere., and gee, maybe do you think they can assist me?  By the time earth day is upon us, I will have accomplished my three R's with regards to our earthly possessions.

And then WHAT? My intention is to use another R word. The fourth R stands for the word, RENOVATE the Reynolds family. I want to renovate my life. Changing and reworking where we live, how we spend our time, what we eat, who we share our life with and what we think......or not...as that is also my intention.

Do you want a RICHER life too? Do you think the seeds for that are in living with less? Have you joined me on the road to minimalism? Of course, that could look very different to you. It could mean that you are selling your beach house or your second car. It could mean that you are reducing the hours that you are working each week, or even if you are able, dropping down to a one income family. You could be choosing to buy all your kid's spring and summer clothes at the local thrift shop, instead of at the mall this year, choosing to reuse instead of purchasing new.  There are so many ways that we can live the three R's to live rich. I hope to talk about that more in the weeks to come as these insights appear.


If you are starting to revamp your life and doing the three R dance, please share in the comments below....or supply any inspiring words to support me on my path.

Before I say goodbye,  I wanted to share this great You tube video that will get you up and dancing. The little girls and I put our "Jack Johnson CD " this morning (we found it when we were decluttering our CD's and DVD's yesterday and we LOVE IT)  as I was airing the laundry out to dry. Did I tell you that my dryer broke down? Yes, again. They don't make appliances like they used to and I'm ready to chuck my fancy red LG set, except that for 4 months of the year it's snowy and cold here. Today though, it's  a nice, breezy, spring day and doing the three R dance feels GOOD!  Knowing that I'm helping the earth just a bit today by letting my clothes air dry makes me happy....and the earth is helping me too. There is lots to dance about isn't there!

If you can't see the above, click on this hyperlink, Jack Johnson's The three R song"The 3 R's"

Three it's a magic number
Yes it is, it's a magic number
Because two times three is six
And three times six is eighteen
And the eighteenth letter in the alphabet is R
We've got three R's we're going to talk about today
We've got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
If you're going to the market to buy some juice
You've got to bring your own bags and you learn to reduce your waste
And if your brother or your sister's got some cool clothes
You could try them on before you buy some more of those
Reuse, we've got to learn to reuse
And if the first two R's don't work out
And if you've got to make some trash
Don't throw it out
Recycle, we've got to learn to recycle,
We've got to learn to
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Because three it's a magic number
Yes it is, it's a magic number
3, 3, 3
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36
33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, and
3, it's a magic number




And dance around your living room, singing with your kids, your dog, or just grooving on your own two feet.



Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

Keeping it Simple Amongst Chaos and a Strawberry Mango Smoothie Recipe

   Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always, sings.”
                                                                                                                ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~




Have you ever noticed that when you are on a certain path all sorts of affirmations meet you at the exact time that you need inspiration.

Well, I have been receiving messages almost daily and not surprisingly, they are ALL directed towards walking a simple path. They are inspiring me to keep going even though some days it feels like I'm moving through mud.

The first one that I received, was during my book club meeting at the end of February. It was early days into starting my path towards a minimalistic life. After a stimulating discussion of Hermann Hesse's book, "Siddhartha," I passed around my little green affirmation cards to my sacred sisters. I held mine quietly, not even peeking at the message within, until each of my sisters had had a moment to relay what was on her card and how it spoke to her. When it came my turn to read my card, I was rather stunned at how significant the message was. It read;

                  "Keep it simple. Simplicity is the key to Brilliance."

Wow!

Since I had just started the journey, it was like a signal that I was on the right road. I have found in my life, that when I need some direction, the Universe never fails to send me a symbol or sign that I'm on the right road and here it was in a sweet message.

Last week, I was finding it really hard to make time in my day to tackle a specific area to de-clutter. Something always came up or someone needed to be picked up or taken some where, which broke the rhythm in my days. It was difficult enough to get my regular work done, not to mention any de-cluttering projects handled. You know, cleaning the kitchen from breakfast, making the beds, picking up the laundry and throwing loads in the washer, moving it to the dryer and then folding it and putting it back in everyone's rooms, sigh! seemed to be all that I could manage. Forget, trying to accomplish anything.

Then I remembered the message on my card and I decided that the only way I was going to get anything done was to tackle the smallest projects at a time. And that is what I did. Although, I had basically done most of the kitchen, there was one drawer that I hadn't touched. It's the drawer with the most memories for me in the kitchen. It's the drawer where I keep all of my cookie cutters, my cake decorating items. and my canning accessories.

As I opened the drawer, memories of Christmas's past flooded my mind, as I recalled making sugar cookies with my mom as a young teen for the first time. She basically gave me the dough and said, "go to town." That Christmas, I made my first Christmas trees, hearts, candy canes, angels, and oh my, nothing tasted so good as those chewy, soft, sugar cookies with a hint of nutmeg and topped with mint flavoured icing.

As I looked lovingly at the various shaped cutters, I thought of the first Christmas I let my own daughter, Alyssa handle the sugar cookie project. That was a big deal since I had been making them for 30 years without any help. Then there was the time that we invited her friends over for a sugar cookie icing party. Images of those giggling pre-teens with braces and pony tails made me smile. Those same girls would all be turning 25 years old soon. Where had the time gone?

The drawer I had been resisting de-cluttering as it holds so many memories

 As I looked at this drawer though, I realized it represented the chaos in my life and if I was ever to create and capture more of these moments, I had to quit holding onto the past and move forward with dreams for the future. I still had Grace, Will, Kathryn and Victoria to make cookie memories with. If I continued to keep the extra clutter in this drawer, it would take precious moments away from me spending time with our younger children. If left alone, this single drawer would suck time from my life, as I dug around looking for the special cookie cutters for any future project. With that thought in mind, I quickly was able to toss more than 50% of the drawers contents.

These are a few things that I got rid of...some I took to the little girl's preschool for their Playdoh station and their teacher was happy to have a Shamrock cookie cutter to add to this month's special occasions. 

Goodbye needless clutter

And here is the drawer now. In the tin to the right are my beloved cookie cutters. Now, it's a breeze to see exactly what I have and where it is which will enable me more time to gather my sugar cookie cutters and make memories with our kids...and maybe someday, our grandchildren.

Hello new memories

 
If you are on this minimalism path with me, you may have discovered this already but if not, I'd like to share some de-cluttering wisdom. Start small. If you don't have a lot of time in your day then break down what you can do in say, 15 minutes. Tackle one drawer at a time, one closet, one counter top. Also, try to start with a spot that doesn't hold a lot of emotional attachments. Our memories cling to our belongings and the energy lingers heavily which makes it hard to hear the music amongst the mud and scum of things. It's liberating to clear the space and hear and feel the harmony.

After finishing this last drawer in the kitchen, I moved onto the kid's craft closet and gee, I wished I had taken a picture of it before I cleared it out. There were games stacked on top of other games. Had our children tried to take something out they would have been seriously hurt if something had fallen on top of them. In addition, when I went to clear out the paint, crayon and felt pen supplies, I realized we had a lot of duplicates and that was wasteful.

Another message that I was walking the right path came when I found a basket of polished rocks hidden in the craft closet. Wrapped around each rock was a little piece of paper. I remembered now taking quotes from the book, "The Alchemist," by Paulo Coelho and giving a rock to my sacred sisters during the last time I hosted our book club meeting. I decided for fun to unwrap one of the messages and guess what was within?

"It's the Simple Things in life that are the most extra-ordinary, only wise men are able to understand them." ~excerpt from Coelho's book, "The Alchemist."


I had to sit down after reading this message. I held the rock, rubbing it's smooth surface and thought about all the guidance I had been receiving with regards to creating a simpler life for myself and our family. I whispered, "thank you God." I knew that I was on the right path even though little fearful thoughts had been creeping in as I cleared away our stuff. Thankfully, that voice was growing more distant as I grew stronger in my resolve to let go.

So that brings me to another point in this whole process, and that is really the nuts and bolts about clearing out clutter. I really should have addressed it before now but as I was doing this all myself I realized that one needs a place to put all the stuff that you are accumulating. A staging area if you will. Also, it really helps if you pull out everything in your closet, or drawer, whatever you are sorting through, so you can see what you have to work with. It will quickly be apparent what you do or don't want to keep. Eliminate the easy stuff first.

Then put back only what you use and what you love. The Minimalist guys say that another method is packing up absolutely everything in your home and then pulling only the things you need out of the boxes. After 3 months, or 6 months, whatever you decide is the time frame for you, whatever you haven't used, you get rid of. That's too extreme for me and too hard with 6 kids living in our house at the moment. It would be chaos while we were getting ready in the morning for instance.

If you are doing a big de-clutter as I am, (our whole house...all 3000 square feet of it...more if you count our Hobbit's hollow, aka the crawl space), you probably need a large place to put all the stuff you are parting with. Also, I have read that some minimalists set up boxes labelled, "donate," "sell," "not sure," and "garbage/recycle" but I have found it easiest just to have a garbage bag/recycle bag as I move from place to place. I put all the stuff that doesn't fit into that category, out to my staging place, which happens to be our garage. It would be most efficient not to have to touch the stuff more than once but in my case, I think whatever we don't throw out or recycle, will go into a garage sale to be held in April. THE MONTH..of the beginning of garage sales in our little town.

I'll let our little kids make and sell popcorn and lemonade. I'll have our older ones help sell our discarded items, and anything left at that point will be donated to our local thrift stores.

In the meantime, I'm (we're) going to be living amongst this clutter and chaos for at least several more weeks. My husband is out of town this week and I will be trying to make some headway while maintaining our daily family commitments.

I have also enlisted the help of our children. The little ones helped me go through their drawers and the belongings they keep in their bedrooms this weekend. It was very productive and fun as they had a little fashion show and tried on all sorts of clothes. As we made decisions about what fit and what didn't, what toys were played with and what weren't beloved any longer, we talked about children all over the world and I reminded them of a saying a very wise man shared with the world, 

        “Live Simply So Others May Simply Live,” Gandhi

 

I knew I was planting little seeds of generosity, love and peace as we cleared out their rooms.

Hey, and another wonderful side benefit to this was how fast Will and the little girls were able to pick out their outfit for today. It was easy and pain free. And the best part was that it saved time so we had more time to have some fun. 

Above are the two drawers the little girls share. Most of their clothes are matching which makes it easier for me to buy and plan their outfits. I stack them one on top of each other so when they pull out one top, they hand their sister the other top. Most of their outfits are the same but they do have some in different colours and they are very definite about who gets what colour. From the time they were really little they had distinct preferences. Kate is the pink girl and Tori is the blue girl. Makes it really simple....and as you know I'm all about that.

I try not to read too much about twin literature and probably dressing them alike will end once they start school but they seem to really enjoy wearing the same style of clothes although Tori really LOVES her leggins and Kate likes the days when she wears jeans. They both love their dresses and skirts. Anyway, like usual, I got sidetracked....the point was that getting the little people involved is helping them to see that less is more in so many ways and by consuming less, we have more resources to help others.

Here's a picture of Grace helping de-clutter our Playmobile collection. Do we REALLY need 100 pirates and castle people?  Harrison passed by the Den as Grace and I talked about downsizing the people and he remarked that having lots of people was the fun part about playing Playmobile. Hmmmm....do you think he thinks this about our large family too?

It's these little comments though that makes me pause and wonder what is really fun for our children. Clearly, we have too many toy/people when you have to sort for 5-10 minutes to find your fav pirate/king/queen. The one you really want to play with, that's too long in my books. 

Here's the quote I wrote on our black board this week. When I got stuck in all the mud and scum, it helped me remember whey I'm doing this.

For the people who are important to me in my life. My children, my husband, my sisters and their families and the friends who I never seem to have even time to have tea with lately, (sorry B...we will get together soon) 

And before I close I just wanted to share my Strawberry/Mango Fruit Smoothie Recipe with you. As we de-clutter our lives with our stuff, we need to make sure we are staying energized and remembering that clearing the toxins from our body is just as important. Little steps will take us eventually to the destination of a healthy body and home.

Remembering that while we are on the road to less, we are still living fully. It would be very easy to get caught up in the whole process of de-cluttering, after all who are we kidding, we live on earth and there is all sorts of clutter and chaos here. It's easy to let even the act of de-cluttering prevent us from living fully.

As long as we don't lose sight of why we are clearing and reducing the stuff in our life. Let's continue to consciously clear what isn't working in our lives and fill the spaces with more beauty, love and peace. That's my wish for everyone on earth. We are all deserving of this.

Okay, here's my Smoothie recipe...share a cup with your beloved or take it out in nature and drink it in..... Spring is almost here.

Hope's Strawberry and Mango Smoothie recipe

2 big people servings...or enough for one big person and three little people

1/2 grapefruit

1 orange

1 banana

10 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup frozen mango or yellow fruit of your choice...pineapples are yummy for instance

1/2 cup of crushed ice cubes

I had mostly fresh fruit but I used frozen mango and pineapple too

Here's the tough part....peel the grapefruit/orange and banana...place in a blender with the other ingredients and blend. Pour into glasses for your beloved and In JOY!

Before I go I wanted to share a book that I have been reading called, "The Simple Living Handbook," ....discover the joy of a de-cluttered life....by Lorilee Lippincott

It's a refreshingly simple and delightful book so if you are interesting in moving in this direction, I would highly recommend reading it. It may be the sign or symbol that you are on the right path and she certainly inspired me. Her web site is great too.

Here's a You tube video interview with Lorilee on the Midway Simplicity show...love this guy. (click on the hyperlink if you can't see the video below)

As I embark on another week towards minimalism, join me in listening to one of my fav cello pieces. I thought this was an appropriate ending as I started my post with a stunning picture of a woman playing cello amongst the clutter of life.

My son Mitchell plays this piece on his cello, beautifully and EVERY time I hear it, I always think how J.S. Bach was the supreme musical guru in simplicity. Please join me in listening to the "Unaccompanied Bach, prelude in G Major" played my Yo Yo Ma........love this (click on the hyperlink if you can't see the video below)

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt~

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope 
 

' Tis the Gift to be Simple....Matrimonial Cake

               

'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free,
'tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be,
and when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained
to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,
to turn, turn, will be our delight
till by turning, turning we come round right.

---

Words: Shaker song, eighteenth century  

   Hellooo!

I'm emerging from the depths of decluttering, to say Hi and to share a few thoughts. First, de-cluttering is hard. At least, that's what it feels like as I move room to room, paring down our stuff, while humming the above Shaker song and also continuing to keep all the balls of normal life up in the air. Continuing to be there for our kids; feeding them, keeping them in clean clothes, making sure they are on top of their homework and all the upcoming events that are in line, from a swimming competition this weekend to yet another basketball tournament, an upcoming piano and voice festival and finally a music exam.

Tonight when my 12 year old daughter asked, "Mom, when are you going to change my sheets?...it's been like 3 weeks!" Well, first it hasn't been three weeks, two at the most and I replied, "don't you go to bed clean every night after your nightly bath?" Just saying. It's hard keeping the train rolling, while taking time to chuck off certain items to lighten our load.

I'm happy to say, that this week I took a car load of "stuff" to our local charity organization and another load to the dump, While 90% of the dump load was garden waste from debris I couldn't cram into my compost bins, it was still letting go of stuff. Believe me, I had thoughts of hoarding those wonderful bags of leaves and garden waste, etc. but one can only keep so many bags of decomposing debris without neighbours starting to look at your stock pile with wonder. Besides, our district chips up all the garden waste and turns it into mulch, so that trip made me feel okay. Still, there are heaps of things to go through and spring is flying by.  I just came in from outside and noticed that there are little buds on the forsythia tree and that is the first sign of spring in our area.

Spring is here when the forsythia tree next to our House blooms...it will be early this year

Another thing that has been preoccupying my time this week is finishing reading, or rather re-reading the book, "Siddhartha," by Hermann Hesse. It's my turn to host our sacred circle book club this month. To be precise tomorrow night.  I have already read this sweet, little classic book that was written decades ago about the life of Siddhartha, aka, Buddha but I wanted to go over it one more time since it was my selection.

 




I'm so proud that this month, I found an e book AND an audio book on line, so I didn't have to purchase a new book and then decide what to do with it. Even though this is a great read, it's one that I don't think I would want to own and I certainly don't need another book to sort through. Being frugal, sustainable, and with a minimalistic mindset makes me so thrilled. It's these little steps I'm taking, that keep me believing it's possible for us to downsize, enjoying more life with less stuff.

I thought the message from the book was also timely, as the story of Buddha's life reinforces my minimalistic path and the belief that everything we need to be happy is within us at all times. Part of the suffering we experience on this earth has to do with material possessions, wanting to own them, taking care of them, letting go of them, etc. Why do we put ourselves through that?
 


 When I think about how diverse this blog post already is it makes me laugh. First, I start my post with a picture of a farm house which to me says, "peaceful times." Anyone that has a tire swing in their yard knows how to enjoy the sweetness of just swinging through life. Then I have the lyrics to the Shaker's little hymnal, "Tis a Gift to be Simple." Finally, I bring in thoughts about Buddha. But you know what? All life is tied together. Everything is connected. We have fought wars on this earth because of differences in beliefs, opinions and the ludicrously is, we are all talking the same truth but get caught up in semantics.

But that is a philosophical discussion for another time, however some of the ideas that Buddha presented, is certainly appropriate for my minimalistic mindset towards simplicity. As you know, I've been talking about de-cluttering and I have to tell you how my husband and I are approaching the task is totally different. It's interesting really, since he is a very focused, get one job at a time done person and I am used to multi-tasking. Wars have not been fought thankfully because, we are after all moving in the same direction but we have had to discuss how that is going to look.

For instance, my husband wants to go into a room and get rid all the superfluous items. He feels that would be the most efficient approach. HOWEVER, I want to go into a room and sort through our stuff, while cleaning the items that are to be kept, along with doing any repairs to the room itself. ie; paint inside the cupboards in our family room before putting the toys, CD's back (although I'm still debating on whether we even need CD's any longer now that we have our i Pods and download any music we want) but you get the idea.

What we have decided to do for now is divide and conquer.  He has tackled the garage and the den so far and I have done our laundry room and kitchen....well, I'm still working in the kitchen. I was listening to the audio book of Siddhartha while I was cleaning the drawers last night. Did you know you could listen to a piece of classic literature or even learn a whole new language while cleaning and de-cluttering. Amazing!

 It can be done!

We are making some headway though and a few thoughts have come to light which I wanted to share with you if you are starting on this journey too. It's one thing to get down to sifting through the stuff and deciding what is going to be kept, donated, recycled or thrown away...but it's the stuff with emotions where it really gets hard.

If you have a partner, discuss how de-cluttering looks to them. How do they want to tackle the task and what is the time frame they see as being appropriate for such a feat. You have to set limits and really limits are what minimalism is all about isn't it? In all aspects of our life, how much stuff you need around you, how many commitments you are willing to take on, how much food you want to eat, how much exercise. Well, it's all a decision of what feels right for you so that you can maximize your enjoyment of life.

Some compromises may be required.

This takes me back to a story my mom used to lament over. It was a time when my Dad took a load of stuff to the dump without her consideration. There were things he threw out that bothered her for a long time.

One, was a beautiful wicker, antique doll buggy. She loved it and sadly Dad didn't think of it as special or antique. He just saw it as clutter and old when he took it to the dump. (now since I wasn't ever able to check that out with my dad that is just an assumption from what my mother relayed to me)

In my childhood memory banks, I recall fondly wearing long dresses and cast off, high heeled shoes and pushing my babies around the yard in this buggy. Maybe, since I was her youngest, holding onto this buggy represented holding onto having babies and young children.

This story touched me so deeply that when our oldest daughter was little, I started looking for a wicker buggy to give her. I finally found one and sewed bedding for the buggy and found the perfect baby doll to put inside. The Christmas that Alyssa was 2 3/4 years old, not only did she receive this new buggy and baby doll, but 5 days before Christmas her new baby brother, Clark arrived. When he was newborn we used to put him in the wicker buggy and push him around.

Here's the wicker doll buggy that I bought for Alyssa's Christmas present 22 years ago. She was also a new big sister that Christmas to her baby brother, Clark. We were shocked when we heard, "It's a Boy." (in those days they didn't tell you the gender before birth) and we had to scramble for a bit to find a perfect name for our new son. He carries my maiden name, "Clark"...since my Dad had passed away and had had only daughters. (as if that isn't enough but in those days carrying a name forward was important...in some cultures it may still be that way.) We thought it would be a tribute to give our first son, my Dad's surname. ANYWAY....the name we had chosen for our planned second daughter was given to Alyssa's doll, who is still in the buggy to this day...."Chelsea Anne."

Guess what? 22 years later, we still have this buggy...but now I have to decide what to do with it. Do I keep it for Alyssa who has assured me that children are not in her future. She never was the baby doll type of person anyway and although she liked her brother just fine, she really wasn't impressed with his baby years...or the 6 other siblings that followed afterwards. The little girls are currently playing with the buggy and love to push Chelsea Anne around but there will come a time when we have to decide...."what do we do with the buggy?"

Anyway,  I digress AGAIN, the point is, I now understand why Dad took that old buggy to the dump and I'm sure it wasn't in the kind of condition that our wicker buggy is currently in. It takes a lot of energy to decide what to do with our belongings, when we do decide to let them go....maybe the dump wasn't the best place for that old buggy, but Dad didn't have tons of time to carefully weigh the options and in those days there weren't the places there are today to recycle and appreciate old things. Everyone in those days had old stuff. He did what he needed to do to create more space in our small home so that we could live a richer life. Thanks Dad for teaching me that lesson by example.

It wasn't long after this, that my Dad was killed in a truck accident and a year after he passed away, my mom moved us out of our hometown of Hope, leaving my 2 oldest sisters to stay in our home until it sold. (One sister had graduated and had started working at the local bank and the other sister was left to finish high school in the town she had grown up in) I was too young to remember how mom moved us but she had to deal with all our stuff somehow. She remained a bit of a collector all her life, although I won't say she was a hoarder because she kept everything looking very nice but in some circles, they would say she had problems with letting go of  material things. I think that was quite common when you came from the depression era though. Books were one since she loved to read. Sentimental items were another. Tough stuff.

I know how I view our belongings is shadowed by how my parents dealt with their stuff. With this in mind, I was VERY conscious of how I approached my twin daughters the other day when I asked them to come and look at a basket, over flowing with stuffed animals. I talked to them about how they had so many lovies in the basket that you couldn't even see them all. We talked about how they didn't play with most of them and I told them about other children in the world, who didn't have any lovies at all. I asked them if they felt they could part with any of them. "Which ones are your absolute favourites?" I asked.

Of course, since they are three, four in May, every single lovie was special. I was very careful in helping them choose their favourites. We took time to eliminate the ones they didn't have a connection with.  I asked them if they thought they could say good bye to the ones that weren't as special and we could give them to other children to love. They nodded their heads solemnly. We kept the bunnies, since the girls were born in the year of the rabbit (Chinese zodiac) and bunnies happen to not only be a favourite of their's but I know if my mom were alive, she would have said, "oh keep the bunnies."

And that brings me to another story from my mother's childhood. She was a child during the depression but her family was fortunate to live on a farm and they had chickens and rabbits. She loved the bunnies and for a long time, didn't make the connection that often after having a delicious Sunday dinner of "chicken," one of her bunnies would coincidentally go missing. I think one of her older brothers finally clued her in...boys!

So we kept the bunnies in the basket but several other non-describt lovies made it to the give a way box. After a final farewell, I moved them quickly out to the garage since I knew if the girls saw them again, they would suddenly feel they would HAVE to sleep with one or all of them that night.

So with another week almost behind me on my minimalism journey, I have a few more tips to share.

Be considerate with your spouse regarding how they are letting go of their possessions. We all have a past and it's good to be gentle and give others space to let go in their own time. That the truth for them is the same truth for you, but it may just look different. Compromise with compassion. (this from Buddha's teachings...the compassion part and a reminder that we are all connected....and perfect just as we are)

And if you have children, get them involved and help them to see that letting go isn't painful but can be enlightening. Can be filled with joy. Hopefully, they can carry some wonderful childhood memories down the road to pass on to their children and it will look like this; People, not things are important. Happiness is within, memories are not in our belongings. They are in our hearts.

Well, I will close but I wanted to share my recipe for Date Squares before I say good night....for yes, it is now evening.

This is  my mom's recipe. I have tried to make it exactly how she did over the years but it never tastes exactly the same. I don't know what she did differently...maybe it was just the love she put into each pan. You know how things always taste better when they are made just for you? Maybe it was in the actual tin pan that she cooked her squares in (old, dark and well used) and I use a glass pan? Maybe the quality of ingredients is different but it's still an amazing recipe.

So Mom and Dad, this is for you. "I'm laying up my treasures in heaven" and all that but until then, I'm making date squares and remembering you both with love. 

Ethel's Date Squares
or what she liked to call her Matrimonial Cake


Ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour...for a great texture use 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon (this is my addition...my mom didn't use this)
pinch of salt

Filling
1 pound of dates
2 cups of water
1/2 cup of orange juice....or do what I do and juice a whole orange
pinch of salt
orange rind...about 1 tbsp

Directions

Put all the filling ingredients into a medium saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes and then take a potato masher and break the dates so the mixture is smooth and thick. Turn off the heat and let the filling thicken while you are making the bottom and top layer.

In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients. Add cut up butter (best if the butter is cold) then with a pastry mixer or two knives, continue to cut the butter into the mixture until it's all well combined.

Press 1/2 of the flour/butter mixture into a 13x9 lightly greased pan. Add and spread all of the filling mixture and finally top it with the other 1/2 of the flour/butter mixture. Pat with a fork.

Bake in an oven 325 degrees if using a glass pan or 350 degrees if using a metal pan. Bake for 30 minutes until the edge is lightly brown.

Let it cool and set and then cut into squares. I usually put 1/2 of these squares into the freezer or they will be gone within the day.....they are really great for book club night meetings too.

For instance, I made this today for my book club meeting and it's almost gone....but oh so good. If you love dates, I hope you will try this recipe and think of my mom who loved bunnies, babies, books, her family...and my Dad. This coming Saturday, will be the 3rd anniversary since Mom passed away. Another reminder how fleeting this earth journey is, and how stuff just isn't important.

My mom and Dad and my Dad's fav squares.....served on my mom's Forget Me Not china

What do you do with old recipes written out in your mother's writing? As you can see, I've loved this recipe for years but the recipe card is not my mom...she is in my heart and every time I make this recipe she is telling me the story of how much my Dad loved these squares......they are delicious!

So as I leave you, with maybe a recipe to try out, or an inspiration to clear out the clutter in your kitchen, (do you really need five spring form pans, as my dear friend K just mentioned she discovered in her kitchen recently?) maybe you can set up your computer in your kitchen and listen to the audio version of the book, "Siddhartha," by Hermann Hesse. Here's the link, if you are interested in listening and remembering that what you think, you become. We all have the seeds of Buddha inside of us. We are all perfect, even as we sit amongst all our stuff. It is a good way to practise the art of letting go gracefully.

I wrote this quote on our chalk board for our Siddhartha meeting tomorrow night...."what we think, we become."

If you can't see the link to the Siddhartha audio book below, click this hyperlink.

 Wish you could join me during our sacred circle book club tomorrow night but maybe you can listen to the story and tell me what you think of this classic little book about Buddha's life.

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope

A final youtube video....the song, "Tis a gift to be simple" by Yo Yo Ma and Alison Krause.....love, LOVE the cello and Alison's voice is beautiful.........good night dear blog friends

Starting the Minimalist Journey, TIP # 1 & 2, and Spicy Bran Muffins

                   

Thanks for popping in as I'm excited to share a few tips I have discovered on my early "moments" towards minimalism. The first one became very apparent to me yesterday when I woke up bleary eyed from a brief four hours of sleep the night before.  (I had been writing my first blog about minimalism and finally posted it at 3 am)

Some people have asked me where I find time to write with our busy life with currently 6 kids in our home and two others that I try to stay connected to outside the home. Well.....

Like anything that is important, I find the time. I love to write and although for most of my life as a mom, I have put my needs at the bottom of the list, over the last decade I have learned that this doesn't have to be the case.In fact, having this mindset is actually detrimental to our family as I get crabby when my needs haven't been met. I've put myself last for so long however that even a tiny bit of "me time" can fill my bucket to over flowing.

I have found time over the years to go to my yoga classes, take a few evening courses, and even have the occasional long walk all alone.  On days when the kids and house needed more attention, even doing a few yoga poses or sun salutations perked me up. My writing though is something that I really have to make a concerted effort to create time for daily/weekly, in order to release all the ideas and thoughts ready to erupt from my brain.

I paid the price yesterday though when I was surviving, yes that is an appropriate word for yesterday on only four hours of sleep. And like any day around here, it was jam packed and I needed to really be in the game.

Have you ever noticed that when you don't get enough sleep, nothing seems to go right for you. Life is full of obstacles and shadowed with difficult moments, almost like the fog that clouds your brain. Things that you normally find solutions to in milli-seconds takes minutes, or longer.

Therefore, my TIP # 1 for beginning a minimalist journey is to NOT be minimal with regards to your sleep. This is one area that you need a huge amount. A bit ironic, that on the path to being a minimalist, you NEED something big in your life. But yes, sleep is one of them.

As I whipped through the house while the girls were at preschool and perhaps "whipped" isn't the best verb to describe the way I cleaned the house yesterday morning, I took a large basket with me so I could gather up things on my path that I knew for SURE we didn't need any longer. I noticed that my decisions for those things were slower than I believe I could have been, had I been well rested. Plus, my pace was definitely slower than my usual speedy, efficient self.

As a previous, fitness instructor, I have a mind set that my house cleaning can be a form of work out. As I bend down to reach for something, I do a squat, as I travel up the stairs, I run, sometimes taking two steps to really work my legs and give me a burst of cardio. When I'm making beds, I lift the sheets way up high, shaking them to air them out but also working my arms and shoulders. Okay, you get the idea and often people have said to me, after hearing I have 8 kids, "wow, you're in great shape." I don't really know what they expect a mom with many kids to look like, but I often reply with a laugh, "my kids are my personal trainers and having a large family requires more work so that may explain why I may appear fit."

I digress, the point is, that optimum sleep is paramount, if one is to be an efficient minimalist.

The other thing I also noticed was that I wasn't eating the best. The morning started with me just grabbing an apple as I headed out the door taking Clark to the University bus, then back home to gather up the others, taking Harrison to high school and then Grace and Will to elementary school (yes, I know not very environmentally conscious/green, all that driving, but Grace was downhill skiing with her class yesterday and she had a lot of gear to take to school) and finally I had to take the little two to preschool. Upon returning home, AT LAST, since I was moving slower than usual, I didn't stop for a good breakfast but plowed right into the work. Cleaning the kitchen, gathering up laundry, making beds. Yes, not eating... is not the best idea.

Since Will had invited a friend over after school, I made special oatmeal cookies, loaded with trail mix type filling. I also made a large snack plate to be brought out of the fridge when they arrived home later in the day. It had cut up veggies and fruit, some crackers and cheese and of course several of these large cookies on the plate. It was close to 11 am so I raced back to preschool.

After collecting the little girls, we went to the recycling center to drop off all the bottles we had accumulated and then the library where many of the books on minimalism were on on hold for me.  Can I say enough about our library? I LOVE IT!....and although I love books, I can see that as long as I'm close to a library, I can let go of my books.

Here's what I picked up;



Yeah!.. the book above will be an easy read and down below is a link to one of this author's youtube videos.



The book above was written by the two guys I wrote about in my last post....although they don't share the same lifestyle that I have (with a large family) I really like them. They remind me of my nephew, E, who lives in Vancouver in Yale town and enjoys a lovely very urban lifestyle. (he also has a minimalistic approach since he has a studio apartment. 


The book above is written by a woman who is a mom like me....I listened to an interview she gave on the web and she had such a down to earth manner that I really resonated with....I'm looking forward to reading her book....

and because I knew that part of my quest for minimalism had to do with my diet, I also picked up these books as well.
  AND
 
I love Deepak....as you know I participate in all the group meditations that he and Oprah put on....there is one coming up again in March and the focus will be on "success." Check out the Chopra's center to sign up.


After lunch (I fed the little girls but didn't stop to eat) we went to pick up our University son and brought him home as he was going to greet Will and his friend V, after school, while I picked up Harrison from high school, collect Grace and all her ski stuff and then take her to her swim club session. To keep me going, as I was in and out of the house driving kids around, I grabbed a few of the cookies I made and a little bowl of fruit and veggies.

When I finally came home, as I was making dinner, I ate another cookies, okay, maybe two. Then, since I was still starving, I basically inhaled dinner not really "aware" of what was going in my mouth as I chewed and as we all hurriedly talked about  the things each of us had on our plate for the evening.

 After dinner as I was cleaning up, I knew I still had a full evening ahead with bathing the little kids, telling stories, working with Will on his reading, checking in with Grace on her homework, tucking in little people, making lunches, you get the picture and since I was running out of steam, I opened the box of chocolates that D had given me for Valentines as I was cleaning up the kitchen....I ate one chocolate and then two and finally three!!!

I said goodbye to Harrison, with a mouthful of chocolate. He was off to play another basketball game and since I had attended the one the night before, I let David see last night's game. Then after the game, Harrison had asked if he could go to the February Valentine's dance at school. Thank heavens I didn't have to get him to those activities but since my number one helper, "my husband" was out for the evening, it was up to me to pick up the slack. So to keep going, my body ate another chocolate as I yelled for Will to start the bath water running.

That brings me to TIP #2 beginning the minimalism journey. After reading everything I just wrote, you probably are thinking tip #2should be ridding ourselves of activities....but no...that will have to be something we consider down the road. In these early days, my tip # 2 is, prepare healthy meals, eat slowly, savour your food and even if you have a busy day like I had yesterday, be mindful of the moments when you are eating.

On this journey, I want minimalism to create fuller, richer moments in every aspect of my life and getting sufficient sleep and eating consciously, with joy for I do love food, these must be the foundation for my life to flourish.

 No matter your lifestyle, I would think this would be the base for a good life but in addition to North Americans having a lot of stuff cluttering up their homes, I think it's safe to say that we as a society don't get enough sleep. We certainly don't have the best eating habits. (what do you think?)

After I put the little ones to bed, I quickly performed all the evening chores I needed to do in order to allow our morning to flow smoother. Then exhausted, I went to bed. Even though I was very tired, I started reading the new book I had picked up from the library, "Clutterfree with Kids," by Joshua Becker. While it was very interesting, by 9:15 my eyes were really heavy. I set the book down, sprayed some lavender mist on my pillow that my sister C had given me, put some peppermint drops from Saje that my other sister B had given to me (because I used to be addicted to Vicks under my nose at bedtime....a story for another day about clearing up our addictions) and I dropped off to a blissful, deep sleep. Oh sweet dreams.

 

I woke up this morning refreshed and ready and excited to start a new day. The first thing I did today was take my green powder drink, make some oatmeal/quinoa cereal and I brewed a pot of Mother's Helper tea from David's Tea and while I sipped my first cup, I made some bran muffins. The cookie jar is still packed with the cookies I made yesterday but today, I 'm going to have a good bran muffin as a conscious, well deserved snack before we do the piano and voice lessons, the basketball practise etc. (yes we do have to do something about the activities)

As I write this blog, it's later in the morning, I've done my morning chores and while the girls play with their dollhouse, I thought I would pass on these two tips to you.

      Get enough sleep and eat healthy meals and snacks

Well I'm off to do some deeper cleaning with a large basket under my arm. My intention is to start my deep cleaning with the thought, "do I need this and do I love it?" foremost in my brain. Wish me luck!




Hey and before I close I thought I would share the bran muffin recipe I have been using for years. It was the first muffin recipe that I ever made as a newly married woman. I hope you like it too and in a way, it's kind of appropriate for the minimalism path since it clears out your colon REALLY well. Nothing like the feeling of cleaned out inside too right?...okay maybe too much information but hey.....when we start talking about paring down, shouldn't we also be thinking of what is inside us as well?




Hope's Minimalism Bran Muffins

11/4 cup of flour....I use 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of white flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 baking soda
1/4 salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 ground nutmeg
1/4 all spice
11/4 cup milk.....almond, rice, cow...whatever you prefer...I like almond
1/4 vegetable oil....or coconut is great too
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
1/2 raisins
11/2 cup of a bran type cereal......I have used All Bran and that is I believe where I got this recipe years ago....of the cereal box


1. Mix all the dry ingredients together

2. In a large bowl, combine cereal and milk. Let stand 4 minutes or until cereal is softened. Add oil, molasses and egg. Beat well. Stir in raisins.

3. Add flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Portion batter evenly into 12 lightly greased muffin-pan cups.

4. Bake at 400°F about 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean

 

These muffins will help keep things moving.....I also like to sprinkle some ground flax on top of the muffins before they go into the oven and that really helps me stay regular. 

Oh....and one final tip as it goes with helping things in your colon get flushed out....drink water~as you are working through your stuff. In fact, often during the clean up, you may reach for food as a distraction, but instead, drink a full glass of water, nice and slow and appreciate how far you have already come. Be SIMPLY GRATEFUL.

If you want some more minimalist inspiration, check out this youtube video by Joshua Becker (more joy on owning less) who wrote the book that I'm currently reading, "Clutterfree with Kids". He has a typical American family with 2 kids and is now a minimalist. (Note: he does talk about his spirituality in the longer video above...click on the hyperlink above to see it. When he references God etc, it may be interesting to watch your reaction. For me.....I think the road to minimalism can create more time for us to contemplate our connection to Source and our soul's journey....unless you don't want to that is....as my older son says.....becoming minimalist can allow more time for no reflection at all.....just being)

Well, I'm off to tackle my spice cupboard....what are you working on?

 

Until we meet again, may you be well, happy and peaceful.

Blessings from Hope