#Minimalism

Have you ever bought a house that was twice the size of your previous one and thought it was all you ever wanted in life and within months realize that your entire family only lives in half the house happily because that is all you need.  We sure have!

When is enough, enough?

After reading multiple books, blogs, watching countless videos, and spending hundreds of hours discussing our future, my dear husband and I have latched on to the idea of minimalism.  In a nutshell it is the idea that you don't live beyond your means (instead, way under your means), with items you barely use, hate taking care of, or don't bring joy to your life, and you learn to be content with what you have, use, and love.



Moreover, you start to focus on what really brings happiness to your life, and start living simply in happiness rather than chasing some unattainable dream.  There is more to life than just earning a paycheck and buying all the things.  Abstract as that may sound, it was music to our ears, friends.  Life was getting heavy, expensive, hard to maintain, and just exhausting.  We wanted more time to concentrate on our daughters, traveling, making memories (which are priceless), and plain enjoying life instead of loathing Mondays, Sundays, and everyday in between.

So much of our life is spent chasing after a dream that some people never live to see.  Let that soak in.  That retirement package is going to be so great, they say, only to not live but a few years (if at all) past retirement age.  Yeah, no thanks.

What, you don't like the idea of retiring back into lower middle class?  Neither do we.

Maybe the status quo is incorrect and instead of buying into the idea of the original "American Dream", they should re-write the life thesis and name it the "American Dream: #Minimalized". You know, the dream without all the debt and regret.  The hashtag is for good measure and so that all generations feel included.

To some, this idea is going to be so far-fetched that it will seem as though we are just inconsistent in our life choices or can't make up our mind.  You may  be right, but you know what?  I would rather make a million wrong choices to find the right one, than to settle for what I think is right when this whole time many missed opportunities have occurred because we were so caught up in what we thought was the way to live.  So when is the right time to change? We asked ourselves this question for about a year and a half and we have decided now is good.

I am not sure what this will look like in the end, but DH and I are no longer scared of that thought.  In fact, we are so excited to do this we are going to tell our story publicly!

Areas we are downsizing:
*Housing
*Homeschooling
*Spending on things that don't bring joy to our lives (Read the book "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo or click here - it changed our lives!)
*Our person belongings
*Worry/Stress
*Tremendous amounts of regret in the form of crap we bought (see photo)

Our garage sale pile has definitely grown!  Can you believe we couldn't live without all this stuff???

Things we are upsizing:
*Traveling (we have family all over and it is time to see them!!)
*Camping (It gets its own category because it is amazing!)
*Family Time
*Savoring the moment (rather than continuing working towards goals constantly and missing the world around us - Facebook anyone?)
*Love for time not money
*The amount of knowledge we can attain from living more and spending less (a true treasure in our eyes)

More to come on our progress through this huge transition.


Remember: It is never too late to change your mind regarding your life path and by doing so you may just make the decision that leads to true happiness.  Never settle!

Peace

As I sit here this morning in the tranquility of our home, I am reminded how peaceful life can be. With some planning on my part (setting several alarms, asking my husband to wake me up before he leaves, and going to bed at a decent hour...hey it takes more effort for some people ;) I was able to take advantage of stillness and quiet I sometimes think are non-existent in a house with two young girls, two crazy dogs, and two busy parents.  This "quiet" thing is actually a thing!  I thought my girls singing in the bathroom while peeing at opera sound levels was something that would haunt my ears until forever but guess what...they are ASLEEP and not peeing (hopefully) and it is soundless before the sun comes up.  Who knew??!

Sometimes you have to sneak up on peace and tell it who's boss to make sure you can get your share. As adults, we sometimes feel guilty for taking time out for ourselves to recharge and just be.  STOP THAT!  Guilt needs to shut its ugly face in this case.  We cannot continue to take care of others if we are not properly taken care of first. So be a patriot for some peace in your life by waking up an extra half-hour early or stay up a little past when everyone else is in bed, grab a quiet spot wherever you are to just be: think, pray, meditate, write in your journal, craft, do whatever it is that brings peace to your mind and heart.  Your identity is important and reminding yourself who you are and your thoughts matter could be the difference between a kid getting grounded for having too many Shopkins in the living room (no...that never ever ever ever happens at our house - ok who am I trying to kid, yes it does!) and you being able to use your emotions for what really matters in this world - loving those closest to you, getting stuff done, and brushing off all the crap that comes our way. Find your peace so you can keep on brushing!

Well, I hear the delightful stir of children, so let the opera begin!!

"We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image from publicdomainpictures.net, by petr kratochvil. Thanks, Petr.

Crunchy Munchy Granola (CMG) Bars

Happy hump day ya'll!  Do you like the blog post name?  Our oldest daughter Julie was put up to the task of naming this post and I think she did pretty well!

I bet you right about now you are having a mid-day craving for something yummy that will hold you over until dinner. I have a recipe for you that will get you over the middle of the day munchies in a healthy way!  Let's talk granola bars.  These perfect snacks for hungry tummies are not always the best choice because of mystery ingredients.  My recipe for granola bars is not only super inexpensive and healthy, but it yields 45 bars!  Yes you heard right - 45!!!!  Not to mention that you probably have almost every ingredient in your pantry.  I love lists and bullet points so be prepared to see them a lot in our blog.  My first list will be words I want to describe these "CMG" Bars with:

*delicious

*fast

*healthy

*easy

*crunchy

*sustaining

*perfectly portable

*sweet and salty

One of the best things about this recipe is the time it takes to make it and utensils used.  I like to chop with a knife (mainly because I don't like washing our food processor parts), and I love recipes that only use limited utensils like this one!   Simplistic cooking is definitely my thing.

With school about to start back up, these would be a great Saturday morning recipe to whip up and store away to throw in the lunch boxes.  People, it is definitely a win-win, this recipe!  I do recommend using local and/or organic ingredients in all our recipes, but unless you're a millionaire that can't always happen, trust me, I get it.  Just try to use the best quality ingredients your budget will allow and your body will thank you later.  Let's get started!

Mix the oats, salt, and oil

Place on baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes

Rough chop almonds and set aside

                   Cook sugar and honey on medium heat for 5 minutes stirring constantly

Thanks Curtis Apiaries we love your local honey!

Add vanilla and cinnamon

Remove oats from oven and pour in bowl and add almonds

Oh my stars...

Add honey mixture to oats and pour onto parchment lined sheet

Use a bench scraper to press down oats evenly

After baking for 35-40 min at 300 degrees cool for 10 minutes

When crisp to the touch cut, 9 rows by 5 columns

You could also cut less rows for bigger bars

  

Enjoy!

Crunchy Granola Bars
Adapted from Delectably Mine, originally from America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

7 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup coconut oil (virgin unrefined)

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups almonds (optional)

3/4 cup honey

3/4 c packed brown sugar

1 T vanilla extract (get the good stuff - it makes a difference)

2 t ground cinnamon (optional)

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 375 degrees.  

In a large bowl combine the oats, melted coconut oil, and salt and place on a cookie sheet.  Place in oven to toast for 20-25 minutes, checking halfway and tossing the mixture around on the sheet.  The oats should be a toasted gold color.  While oats are toasting, course chop almonds with knife or food processor.  

Next, combine honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook on medium for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves.  Add cinnamon and vanilla to the honey mixture and mix thoroughly.  Remove oats from oven, reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees, and pour oats back into large mixing bowl.  Add almonds to the oats.  Pour honey mixture on oats and mix thoroughly.  

Place a sheet of parchment paper on baking sheet and pour oat mixture on parchment lined baking sheet.  Use a board scraper with coconut oil rubbed on it (or oiled hands) and press the mixture down flat and even.  Bake in the 300 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.  Take out and cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  

Gently use sharp knife or board scraper to cut 9 rows across and 5 columns up and down to make 45 delicious, salty sweet treats.  Enjoy the fruits of your labor and put some peanut butter on top of one to make your day even better!  These babies will store perfectly for 2 weeks in a covered container.

So there it is.  Try it out this weekend and let me know how it goes.  Comment below on any questions or suggestions you have and I will be sure to get back to you!

In Health and Happiness,

             Andrea 

Been a long time baby...

Boy has it been a long time since I've written. Guess what, life happened in a big way and I felt that I needed to take time to make sure I was available for life while it was happening.  After a
*back surgery (me)
*recovery
*PT
*house sale
*moving
*job change (David)
*loss of a job (me)
*adjusting to afternoon shift for both of us and the kiddos,
and a number of other things, our heads were spinning.  Homeschooling alone though all of the above may have been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  To be honest, there were more times than I can count on my fingers and toes that I wanted to just throw my hands up and quit, but then I think of not having the girls here with me everyday (which has been the biggest blessing I could ever imagine) and I start to calm down.  You are not alone if you have ever had big ideas and dreams and started them but then life got in the way.

This blog is going to be a mash-up of so many subjects, but I will make a point to be real with you about our life because who wants to read about how great everyone's perfect online life is all the time?  Not me!  I sometimes need to read about someone who isn't afraid to tell me their kid peed in their shoes today and said parent still had to go about their day and not lay in bed and cry, just so I know I'm not living on another planet.  I want to be the blog you can relate to in this "pin perfect" world.  Not all of my days are going to be edited for your reading pleasure, quite the contrary, they will probably contain too much information.  I will do this so you can remember that we all have terrible days (or years?!) and some recipes look like throw up even after you followed the recipe verbatim.   Let's live, laugh, love, and mess up together!

Happy Monday Friends,

Even if you aren't having the best Monday, hopefully this recipe will give you something to smile about.  Is it possible for chocolate, icing, cupcake, and healthy to be in the same sentence? Why yes! As promised, I wanted to share with you a recipe that I found on Pinterest and adapted to my own liking. Which brings me to my next revelation, how did I survive before Pinterest?  How did I cook, craft, breathe???  More on this later...

Since our whole foods journey began, I craved desserts that I could eat *mostly* guilt free. I also wanted to stay away from processed box mixes, shortening, and for the most part, anything destructive to our bodies. This vegan (not made with any animal products or bi-products) dessert was a test run on a cupcake that used to frequent my diet, the Hostess Chocolate cupcake with its signature curly-q swirl on top (queue reminiscent late night binge memories now). No more lists of words I can't pronounce going in my belly, I want real food!  

Here are the mini-cupcakes before the top icing was applied:

I decided to make a small batch of these in case they were awful so there was not much food going to waste, but I later wished I had made a double batch;)  I was even brave enough to take these to a friend's house as an after-dinner treat.  Even after joking about our almost-vegan lifestyle, they indulged themselves with these little beauties as well and gave them a thumbs-up.  D and the girls were in love and ate them up as well.  Here is the finished product ready to be tested:

There were three separate mixtures to create to make this cupcake happen, and I wasn't aware you could turn cashews into "icing", but it is true and I want to scream it to the world!  Here's the recipe.  I hope you give it a try and go outside your comfort zone.  You won't be sorry!  

Vegan Chocolate "Raw" Cupcakes with Vanilla Creme Filling

Cupcakes:
1 cup quick oats
1 cup dates
2 tablespoons cacao powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tbsp organic peanut butter (if nut allergy omit and use more water)
1-2 Tbsp almond milk or water (to make mixture bind)

Vanilla cream filling:
1 cup cashews 
Juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup water
1-2 tablespoons agave or coconut nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Chocolate frosting:
2 tablespoons melted coconut oil
1 tablespoon cacao powder
1 tablespoon agave or coconut nectar

Cupcakes: pulse the oats in a food processor until they become flour-like. Add the rest of the ingredients and process until it all sticks together. Press into mini cupcake tins and press fingerprint in each one.  Place in freezer until done with vanilla filling.

Vanilla Filling: Add all ingredients to blender on "ice cream" setting and blend. Spoon the creamy filling into each cupcake to fill the indentations.  Place cupcakes back in freezer.

Chocolate Frosting: In a bowl, whisk together all the ingredients until smooth. Let it re-solidify in room temperature so that you have a frosting consistency (I stuck mine in the fridge for 2 minutes to speed this process up). Frost the top of the cupcakes and then using a piping bag (or a ziplock with a hole cut in the corner) to decorate the tops of your cupcakes with the vanilla cream. Eat right away or within 1-2 weeks. You will probably eat right away!

So what are you waiting for?  Don't be afraid of dates.  They are delicious and worth a try.  Remember to take the pits out before processing.  They have a peanut buttery and sweet consistency. Happy clean eating!

Well here it is- our 1st blog post.  (Cricket, Cricket)  Yes I am pretty sure this post will be the one we look back on years from now and laugh at it for its poor content and composition.  So, to save us from the later humiliation, lets all take a moment and laugh at David and I now for this terribly written blog post, and for that matter, idea that we are interesting enough to even need a blog.  Go ahead, laugh it out.  We will wait...

Done?  Thanks a lot, friend!?!  Now that that is out of the way (side note: when I use "that that" in the same sentence I always think I am making a grammatical mistake) let us move on.  It is all uphill from here!!!

Hi, my name is Andrea and I am married to Superman (no - not Henry Cavill) and his name is David.  He has the work ethic of a resident surgeon, but, unfortunately, gets paid like a computer back-up support engineer.  Go figure!  Anyways, he and I decided after 10 years of marriage and more hurdles and changes than we can count, our life has ventured into territory we never EVER imagined.  I mean NEVER!  Let me explain:

Let's do categories since I am a nerd who makes lists:

THEN

NOW

Thought home schooled kids were weird            Ate anything including a diet composed  of Spicy Cheetos, Coke, & Cane's Chicken      Raised Protestant Christians Thought sewing was also for nerds      Thought desserts had to be bad for you           Didn't care what GMO stood for Never paid attention to chemicals in toothpaste, deodorant, detergents, etc. Didn't know who J.R.R. Tolkien was (possibly made fun of D for liking the movies) Never thought we would do a blog (and never thought David would want to) Thought money was more important than time with our kids (and we spent lots of money!!!) Thought we were done having kids

Yep, we HS our kids! Eat Organic, Whole, Local, Foods & are losing weight Converted Orthodox Christians + I love to sew and share! Creating ones that aren't bad Avoid ANY food possible that is GMO Removing all harmful chemicals from our house Joined the Tolkien Train and love the books and movies! Here we are! Decided to be a 1 income family so I could be home with our girls and it was a hard but rewarding decision (This alone could be a blog!) We would like to adopt one day :)

So that is us in a nutshell.  Homeschooling, Whole Foods eating, Orthodox, crafty, semi-"crunchy", Tolkien loving, blogging, financially thrifty, possibly adoptive parents, and might I say blessed beyond measure, Oklahomans!

Stay tuned for more posts from any of the above topics (and more I'm sure!).  If you have something you would like to read about, just leave it in the comments below and we will be happy to make it happen on here!  Thanks for stopping by.