Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Simple Life

Sunday was a simple day. Just me and DH and our boat. That's it - quiet, peaceful, heat, sun and an endless ocean. Sure, we fish 4 rods plus fiddled with trying to keep a few baits in the water off of the kite rod. Sure, I brought some munchies and water. And definitely other boats rode past us, and one fished kinda near us. But at the end of the day, it was a simple day - just fishing. It also doesn't hurt that we at least caught one 9.2 lb dolphin (mahi mahi) that we kept.

What more could a perfect day entail?

Saturday, May 21, 2011

New Design for the blog!

In my efforts to reduce the clutter and now plastic in my life, I felt a more clean look was in store for the blog. Simplification to me means several things. First, life should be as easy as possible. For example, it's my DH's birthday today and he loves apple pie, so I thought I would make him one. I had this recipe for one from Alton Brown on the Food Network. We enjoy watching him because he teaches as he cooks. I dug out his recipe and it was way over my head. There were ingredients on his list that I had never even heard of! When we watched him make it, it looked easy and absolutely delicious. Not so much when you see the recipe!

I decided to whip out my 'go to it' recipe book, The Joy of Cooking, and make the pie, from scratch mind you, from that book. My MIL went through it with me at Thanksgiving and showed me how she made apple pie, so I plan to do the same. Now, you may argue that it would be easier to go buy a frozen one from the grocery store or go to my local bakery & buy one. And yes, that is the most simple way to do it. However, it is DH's birthday & I love him and want to make this for him. It's the simplest recipe I have for making one.

Simplification also means to live with the basics of life - nothing more and nothing less. I guess that's one post for another time......

Also, in my get rid of 5 things daily challenge: Friday, May 20th I decluttered a plastic flashing ice cube that you put in drinks, a pedometer I never used, a stainless steel, plastic-lined water bottle (no plastic!) a mini photo frame and one of those Easy buttons from Staples that someone gave me.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Dropped off at Hospice Today

What a relief to drop a bag of my former 'stuff' off to Hospice today where someone else can use it and Hospice makes a little money. I was pleasantly surprised to see alot of people shopping in there at lunch time today.

I left them the shirts I decluttered from last week, along with the bag of jewelry I didn't need. I also found 3 beanie babies in my trunk (from my former office) and I don't need those either.

While I was there, I bought a drinking glass for a whopping 50 cents plus tax. The reason is I'm also trying to get rid of plastic in my life and use more natural/organic products.

What did you get rid of today & where did it go?

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The last shuttle launch

I didn't purge anything at home today. Sure, I put some things in the recycle bin and read through the newspaper (one reason we still buy the paper is it's my DH's customer), but today was about relationships. See, sometimes there are more important things to handle in a day than 'doing stuff.' Sure, I could have gone through a drawer & found 5 more things to get rid of, but when I arrived home from work, my DH told me that his Mom is within a day of going to Heaven. Although we knew it was coming, the moment really takes your breath away and makes you realize just how short our time on Earth is. Today was about being with my DH.

It was the last launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor. We stood outside and watched the plume of smoke as it lifted off into the sky and then that magic moment occurred when you see the bright orange light of the capsule and the rocket boosters separating and then it fades out of sight. I took some pictures & will upload them. Good luck to our space crew on their final mission. God speed, my friends.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Shorts & t-shirts

What more can I need in life than shorts & t-shirts? I live in S. FL where 70% of the year (or more) I can get away with wearing shorts & t-shirts. However, in my decluttering challenge, I took a look at the t-shirt pile & decided I have too many.

This decluttering thing is hard. I looked at many of my t-shirts and found that my DH gave me lots of them! And, I can associate memories with them as well. I was running some 5k's back in '09, and have those t-shirts which I can't give up yet too! However, I did manage to find 4 of them to get rid of; 3 of which were volunteer t-shirts. These 4 t-shirts will go into the rag pile for use in the many projects my DH is involved in. I also threw away a workout shirt that I had from, sit down for this one, 1996!!!! Bye, bye - you've had your usefulness!

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is my scrapbooking room. I have sooooo much stuff in there and it's probably going to be the biggest challenge for me to declutter. So, I scrapped a quick layout today and I'm happy to use some of my 'stuff'!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

5 Things

As I'm re-evaluating my life, I have definitely decided there is too much 'stuff' in our house. We live in a 1100 square foot townhouse, and while we aren't hoarders or anything like that, we tend to accumulate 'stuff' and not let it go. I just finished reading 'The 100 Thing Challenge' and while I'm not ready to live with a specific amount of things, I'm ready to let go of a bunch of stuff.

I decided if I find 5 things each day to get rid of, I should start easing the amount of 'stuff' in the house. I'm not sure if I can get DH on board or not (he has A LOT of things), but I think if he sees me purging, it might spark something within him. To make myself accountable, I will post on here the 5 things I find each day to get rid of. I actually started this on Thursday, so I'll catch up with the past 2 days:

Thursday 5/12/11
An XXL large shirt DH bought for his Dad on a hunting trip in Idaho. It's too big for his Dad, and DH was going to 'return' it via mail for another size. That was October, 2009.
4 Shirts from my closet. These were things I haven't worn in years, so Ciao! Off with you!

Friday, 5/13/11
2 necklaces
1 pig pin
1 bracelet
1 set of fake silver earrings

So, you are probably wondering what I'm going to do with this stuff? Well, I really don't believe in clogging up our already overflowing landfills, so these are good quality items and will be donated to some thrift store (just haven't decided which one yet).

What 5 things can you get rid of?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

The first post of 2011!

Wow - I haven't blogged anything since 2010! Yikes - where does the time go? I'll tell you - sometimes it's spent on the things or stuff in life that aren't important. Those time wasters that we all fall into - watching TV, surfing the 'net, etc.

I turned 39 this year and have really been re-evaluating my life and what it is all about. 39 isn't a significant number, and I'm healthy as a horse so I shouldn't have any worries, right? I just feel like I'm not doing what I'm meant to do on this Earth. I heard a quote from a preacher who was being interviewed, and although I can't quote it exactly, it does something like this: we all complain about not having enough time. God has given us enough time to do what He wants us to do.

Think about that one.

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