Strange twists of fate & life lessons...

Its funny the twists and turns that fate can take. Sometimes you know things are more than just a coinicidence. Sometimes you are blind-sided when things happen in such a strange timing that you know it can't be just an accident. I'm in the process of re-learning lessons about patience, trust and intuition that I thought I already knew. I know there is a greater plan and I have to learn to just go with it. There are certain times when fighting does nothing, and doing nothing is everything. This is one of those times for me. I've let fear and anxiety drown out the hope & joy that I should be feeling. I don't know how the next stretch of the road will turn out, but I'm going to just let it all happen as it will. It is a strange feeling for a control freak like me to give up my worries to the universe...

All I know right now is that I completely trust that in the end, everything will be fine. I don't know the "how" of what will happen, I just know that it will.

Still here, just quiet...

Its been a very long time since I posted anything here. My life has been busy but wonderful. I had some really traumatic stuff happen in early January but it was a good lesson for me to learn about. I truly learned about spending every day living it like it I really want to, rather than letting the days pass by waiting for the daily tasks to be completed (they never are). I realized that I want to on daily basis be present in the moment and work really hard at achieving my goals. I've spent lots of time learning about interesting things such as solar power systems, cob & strawbale building, wild edibles and many other subjects. I'm really enjoying this new lease on life!

We are very busy trying to fix up the home we currently live in so we can sell it next spring. Then we plan to either buy and remodel an old farmhouse or build a strawbale home. I'm considering taking a course at local university's organic agriculture extension on the basics of beekeeping in January. I love the idea of having our own bees and the honey & beeswax that goes along with it. I know that its another part of the big dream we have and its all slowly coming together. I'm also slowly releasing the items in my home and the negative emotions that go along with keeping more than you actually need. The last seven months have been an amazing journey and I'm so glad that the universe is providing me with all the tools I need! I'll try to post more often if I can!

Taking a break...

I'll be on a computer-free hiatus until the New Year. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

What type of Fae are you?

I don't want STUFF!

I went to my state's largest rummage sale on Saturday morning. It is held each year at a snooty prep school in their huge gymnasium as a fundraiser. Normally I would have jumped at the idea of lots of super cheap stuff especially since everything was Compact-friendly since its like a giant garage sale. I started out the sale with a big moving box that they gave me at the door to pile my "stuff" into and began looking through the huge pile of baby & toddler clothes. I put a few items in the box that were the right size/season for my kids but nothing really that great, and headed over to the women's sweaters. I already own 1 sweater plus a 3 cardigans so its not like I really *need* a sweater, but since it is cold out right now it seemed like a reasonable purchase. I felt like I was supposed to buying stuff since everyone around me was crazily rummaging through the tables. I did find a decent sweater in my size and threw it in the box. Then I added 2 like new My Little Ponies for my dd for Christmas, 2 nice books for my baby boy and a few other odds and ends. I put my box of "stuff" into the Hold area so I could go to this back room they call the "Best". I found stuff in this back room that actually made more sense for me to purchase, such as 2 almost new dresses by Ralph Lauren (!!!) that my toddler will actually wear with her sensory issues, a small stainless steel colander, a windchime which I have really wanted for our front deck, a kit to make a mosaic stone for our yard (a fun art project to do with my dd), and a metal magazine rack to organize my husband's car magazines. After paying for the nicer items, I got my items from the regular section out of hold and looked at them and then looked around at everyone madly shoving "stuff" into their boxes. I used to love to shop! I decided I didn't want to play anymore. I didn't want "stuff". I put my box of crap on the floor and left with the things I had already bought from the "Best" section. With the moment upon me, if I could have returned the items I had already purchased, I would have. I wanted to run out of that place!

P.S. The photo is of the cute little stainless steel strainer I got from the sale. I have a large one, but a small one will come in handy for washing smaller amounts of produce. ***sorry uploading not working, I'll try later***

flooding...

Ok, so I guess I'm not heading out to pick up our CSA share today. I got a call a little while ago saying that the farm is being evacuated due to the Puyallup river flooding(which is just across the street from them). I think it was a rather quick evacuation as the farm had told one of my friends just this morning that their parking lot was not flooded (as it sometimes does) and that they were ready for share pickups today. We've been having record rains and flooding and this could be a really big deal for this farm. My husband's coworker who lives in the Puyallup area was evacuated from her house last night. I'm thinking staying dry thoughts for them today :-(

http://http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/11/06/washington.flooding.ap/index.html

I can see the floor!

I'm completely caught up with giant pile of laundry.

This is such a huge accomplishment that I cannot even explain how happy it makes me! I even vacuumed by the washer and dryer because I could actually see the floor. With a busy family of 4, which include a husband that gets really dirty at work, 2 small children who go through at least 2 outfits a day, and a mama that frequently gets dirtied by the previously mentioned small children....well you can imagine how much laundry that can create! Not to mention we don't use things like paper towels and frequently have messes to clean up, so that really adds to the laundry pile. The laundry is actually even folded and put away! I should rephrase that, as all the kid laundry is actually neatly piled in a basket as I need to go through their dresser before I put the clean stuff back in. Another part of my decluttering process.

Now that everything is clean at the same time, I see we have more than we need. Its probably an "average" amount for a family of 4, but I think that if we have less clothes total then we can never have a Mount Laundry in our basement again! I'd like to have less "stuff" in general anyway. I'm thinking 8 days worth for each family member is a good amount, that way if I really wanted, I could wait an entire week to do laundry. I don't think 8 days worth amounts to 8 outfits for my kids though so maybe I should rethink the amount I'm keeping, LOL! I'm thinking I'll pare back our clothes to what I think is the minimum and keep what we think we *might* need in a bag in our basement. If we don't need anything in it in, let's say 2 months, I'll donate it without opening it to look inside. I'll take before and after pics tomorrow when I dig through everything.

Previous projects update: Those nursing scrubs I mentioned awhile back did go to their new home, but the cloth diapers to sell got put aside while we were sick. They are on my to do list as I'd really like to have them actually be being used by someone else and be able to buy new (used actually) diapers that are the next size up for my son. I also deep cleaned/reorganized my kitchen recently and ended up having to delete the reorganizing photos as I needed room for Halloween pics. I cleaned out the plastic container cupboard which now houses mostly glass canning jars which we use for leftovers, storing dry goods, etc instead of the mismatched rubbermaid/tupperware crap that was exploding out of there before. My spice cabinet is actually so organized I can find whatever spices I need and I now only have ONE bottle of cinnamon instead of 3! I cleared off some stuff off the counters, cleaned the vitamin/medicine/herb basket on top of the fridge and cleaned up under the sink too. It feels great every time I'm in there cooking now! The only hot spot left in there is the stack of papers by the phone, which I'm hoping to tackle today but that will have to wait until we get home from our CSA pickup.

Compacting Update

We have been "Compacting" our life for 23 days. I feel extremely empowered by my recent lack of shopping, although slightly dissappointed in my lack of decluttering efforts. After a finishing up with the chickenpox, I am ready to get back to the original plans of rehoming our unused possessions. So far I've only screwed up once at not buying anything new. At the last minute I realized I was not going to be able to finish my daughter's Halloween costume and had to purchase one at Target the night before. I got sucked into the shiny happy store and bought clothing for her also. I ended up leaving the store with not only a costume (which will be reused for dress-up) but also 2 long sleeved shirts and 2 pairs of warm pants, but of course I could have looked around and found them used elsewhere. She recently went through a growth spurt and now the majority of her clothing is way too short, so she really did *need* some clothing since the weather is cool out now. I just wish I had not been so easily swayed and stuck to my original plan of buying quality used clothing for my kids.

My purchases at Target were a symptom of something bigger than just a momentary mindlessness. They showed me how much going into a store like that feeds into the addictive consumeristic cycle. 2 nights after my shopping failure, I returned to Target with a group of friends after our knitting group that meets across the street, but managed to with only close-calls when it came to a clearance costume and a wooden farmset. I resisted the urge to purchase and by the time I got to my car I knew that I didn't *need* anything I thought I did in the store, that passing urge was gone. If I am going to continue the Compact (which I most definitely am!) I need to be more mindful of what places I go!

I did somewhat make up for my shopping screw up by spending part of Friday scouring the local kids consignment stores for the specific items I wanted to purchase and not getting sucked into whatever else they had. We came home with *only* the clothing that I really thought the kids needed, plus 1 sweater that I found at Goodwill for myself for only a dollar. It will be nice to be able to wear warmer clothes and turn down the heat a little!

Today's photo is courtesy of our trip to the "farm" at Terry's Berries last week. My 2 year old loves those chickens so much! I can't wait until we are able to have our own chickens and ducks!