Blissful Domesticity

I am going to preface this post by saying that I'm writing it after a blissfully relaxing weekend. With the exception of a short ballet Executive Board meeting this afternoon, we had nowhere we HAD to be (well, and Blaine had to be at the office yesterday, but that is par for the course at this time of year), Logan spent the night at Nana and Papa's last night, which allowed us to enjoy grown-up dinner and breakfast out on the town and a movie last night (Up in the Air, which is entertaining). So, if I seem to be gloating at my own organization skills, please know that I am doing just that....it feels good to have our life together for this fleeting moment.

As we begin the final week of January, I'll share a few things that we are doing differently this year. All of this stems back to my resolution (maybe commitment or focus is a better word) - to Live Simply. What does this mean? Your guess is as good as mine. Does it mean I won't be purchasing designer jeans this year? Nope, my friends, I can promise you I will still enjoy shopping for life's finer things, but with a bit more thriftiness and moderation. Does it mean we won't ever be eating junk? Again, no....my sweet tooth didn't fall out, but maybe I don't need ice cream every night!

I was inspired by several things, one being the realization of the accumulation of meaningless items in our lives - why do we need so much STUFF? Another being a goal of a few minor life changes our family is hoping for by the end of this year (this is vague, I know). Also, Blaine doesn't like that I will admit this, but the movie Food, Inc. also inspired me; if you haven't seen it, watch it. Immediately. It will make you think. And lastly, the tragedy in Haiti has reinforced this focus for our family. Having so much to be grateful for - we're not talking tangible things here - and watching the plight of these poor people makes me thank God every single day. And, while I can't adopt those children (I asked and got a resounding NO from Blaine), maybe we can live a bit differently in recognition of how much we have to be thankful for and how little so many others have.

So the goal is to be more simple in what we buy, how we live, what we eat....you get the general gist.

It is working so far. My mom and I have started one way of eliminating some waste, that is the waste of preparing too much meal for a small family. I love to cook, but at the end of each week, I detest throwing away all of the leftovers (which I also hate to eat). Since my mom is just cooking for her and dad, and since I'm just cooking for me, Blaine and Logan, we've started "sharing meals" for the week. It is pretty simple - I'm in charge of meal planning and prep for 2-3 nights and she handles the other 2 nights. We simply exchange the food at the same time I pick up Logan.

This is how our weekly meal plan looks. The planner is from The Polka Dot Press and is a great way to organize your week (I also include evening commitments for the week on the calendar so Blaine and I always have a good idea of what is coming up in the week). I typically plan/grocery shop on Sunday, but have decided to use Saturday mornings while Blaine is in the office for this time. It makes Sundays feel less like a "work day" getting ready for the week.

This week? After my meeting today, I prepared Zucchini Jacked Soup (from A Thyme to Celebrate), 7 Layer Salad and Sour Cream Biscuits - yummy dinner. Mom and Dad stopped by the house in the late afternoon to pick their meal up. I also prepared the dinner for tomorrow night - Southwestern Chicken Pizza (which is a recipe from Publix's Family Style newsletter that I have altered a bit). I made the Red Pepper Sauce, slow cooked the chicken in barbeque sauce and shredded it, chopped the green onions and tomatoes. I divided the pizza topping up and will send the meal with Logan in the morning. Tomorrow night, I will simply assemble the pizza and cook a side of corn. Sounds like I spent a lot of time in the kitchen...but from start-to-finish, it took about 1 1/2 hours to prepare both meals, eat dinner and clean up.

Mom will take care of dinner on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, I'm taking dinner to a friend and cookbook committee member that just had a precious baby boy, so I'll do Pot Roast Cabernet in the crockpot, Posh Squash (both from the JLT cookbook) and thought I would give this dessert a whirl (since all new mommies MUST have dessert). My parents typically eat dinner at their church on Wednesday nights, so this is an "off night" for us. Again, I will probably do most of the prep work on Tuesday evening. Most weeks, my mom would then handle the Thursday night dinner, but since we are heading out of town for the weekend, we thought we could just do leftovers on Thursday night...again, the whole point of this is to cut back on waste - wasted time preparing meals and wasted, uneaten food.

The process does take quite a bit of planning and preparation. Oh, and I also am shopping at two grocery stores now.....which is by no means simple, but it is to help with putting more simple foods in our bodies. I start with regular grocery shopping at Publix....buying what is available in either natural or organic, but there are obviously some exceptions to this. Then, I go to New Leaf (never there first or I would end up spending more on items there that I could get at Publix) for meats and some produce. All-in-all, we are loving this so far. I like spending a little extra time in the kitchen on Sunday afternoon, especially since I know that at least two nights this week will require NO effort on my part for dinner, yet we will still be enjoying a nice, homecooked, healthy meal. The best part is that I don't get to 5 pm on any given day and think, "ugh, what am I going to cook?" This keeps us from eating out more frequently than needed.

A few other ways we're living more simply? Increased recycling. I have been eyeing the specialized-type recycling bins at Williams-Sonoma, but the cost is rather prohibitive and my kitchen didn't really have the space for additional trash/recycling compartments. So, I purchased these at Target ($6.99 each during the early-January reorganization sale) and indicated on top what each bin is for. They are pretty large (the entire week's worth of recycling will fit), and they sit just by the door of the garage. I do make sure to rinse out the items to avoid rodents.

This one is a biggie....no more daily trips to Starbucks. That coffee pot right there? Programed to be ready for me in the morning. Guess what, this little change alone saves us over $1,200 a year. CRAZY!

Last simple tip/insight - I took Yenna's Shark Steam mop for a test 'drive' this week, LOVE it and plan to purchase myself one. No chemicals at all and the floor is so, so clean. Here is the back story to this - sometime in December I decided to clean the house on my own. I typically run the vaccum in the off-week of our bi-weekly cleanings, but in this case, I also decided to mop. I grabbed the Method mopping solution and started spraying it all over the floor. I failed to take note of the fact it was a concentrated cleaner (which is supposed to be heavily, heavily diluted with water) and needless to say, I basically stripped the floor. Every mopping since then has uncovered more and more cakey grim off the wood. GROSS. (Clearly, I should leave the cleaning to the professionals). If you have little ones crawling around and playing on the floor, this steam mop concept is for you.

And of course, I can't post without a pic of the princess.

Logan wanted to be a part of the pictures when I was snapping the three that appear above....and she also wanted Mickey present. This is the face I am getting when I say "smile." I also laugh as I post this, because I realize how many of our recent pictures have been taken in front of the kitchen set. She spends A LOT of time playing there.

Here's hoping for a blissfully simple week ahead!