I hope you all had a great weekend!  Our was spent working on the rough wiring in our basement, with a lot of help from my parents.  I have a circuit map that I’ve been drawing onto a blank floor plan, adding x’s and o’s for all the outlets and lights.  The whole basement map is now covered in x’s and o’s, which is pretty awesome to see.  We still have to run the wires to the lights, but all of the outlets and switches are wired.  We’ll probably be able to finish our rough wiring next weekend, which means we’re getting very close to being able to call for our next inspection.  Moving right along on that basement!

We’re also making good progress on the garden.  We decided to cover some of our raised garden beds with black plastic this year in an effort to fight weeds before they start.  Last fall we were wandering around in a tomato field grown by a huge organic farm in our area.  We noticed that all of the rows were raised and covered in black plastic, with just a small hole for each tomato plant.  We figured if it’s working for the largest organic farm in the state (and they’ve been an organic farm since the 70s, so they’ve had a few years of practice), it will probably work for us.  So we went to the farm supply store a few weeks ago and bought a roll of black plastic for $15.  We’re covering five of our ten raised beds (the other five all have seeds planted in them already – we’re using the black plastic on beds where we’re going to plant seedlings that we’ve grown in the house this spring).  So far, we’ve covered three of the beds, and the other two will be getting covered today.  I cut holes in one of the beds and planted seedlings a few days ago.  It’s a lot more time consuming to plant seedlings that way, but I’m reminding myself of how awesome it will be in July when I’m spending my time doing anything else but weeding!  Have any of you tried black plastic as weed prevention in your garden?  Please let me know how it’s worked for you.

I found a few good articles recently that I wanted to share with you.  Hope you like them too!

From Mr Money Mustache, Food Rules – A Shortcut To Better Health.  I agree with the whole thing, so I’ll just let you go check it out and read what he has to say.  Eat real food!

15 Wonderful Ways To Use Coconut.  I love this.  We’re going to walk over to the grocery store today to get some Dixie cups so that we can make popsicles out of frozen berries and coconut milk.  I am a big fan of coconut.  I have a gallon bucket of coconut oil that I got when Nutiva was running a great sale.  I use coconut oil as a moisturizer and it’s also my favorite cooking oil.  I buy organic shredded coconut quite frequently and add it to all sorts of stuff.  My current favorite thing to add it to is frosty granola bars - we love these things!  I’ve been making them for the last several weeks, every time I have a few very ripe bananas.  They take five minutes, and are great to have in the freezer for a quick snack or dessert.  I’ve tweaked them a bit:  I add protein powder, use chopped nuts instead of cereal, and omit the maple syrup.  I sometimes use Justin’s chocolate almond butter instead of plain almond butter.  I always add coconut.  And lately, I’ve been adding a teaspoon of coffee extract and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  Also, I’ve found that you don’t need to use muffin papers.  Just drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a plate and stick the plate in the freezer for half an hour.  Then pop the almost-frozen treats off the plate, dump them into a bag or other freezer storage container, and put them back in the freezer so that you can grab one whenever you need it.  Quick, easy, delicious!

Minimalist Mom has a great post about Pinterest, Facebook and how comparing ourselves with others isn’t a recipe for happiness.  I love the last part where she writes about how you might not be the parent who bakes three dozen fancy cupcakes for your kid’s birthday… you might instead be the parent who leads a bunch of four-year-olds in the Hokie Pokie.  We recently had a birthday party for our four-year-old.  It was at a park with a great playground.  I made several of his favorite snacks (which everyone loved – proof that birthday party food doesn’t have to mean junk food and tons of sugar) and the kids had a blast.  They played on the playground and in the sand, and everyone stayed well past lunchtime.  We didn’t do goody bags or organize any activities (put a bunch of kids in a park and they will come up with their own activities – I promise!).  I spent maybe an hour the night before, making snacks.  Easy, stress-free, and tons of fun.  The next day, our son asked me if we could have his birthday party exactly like that, every single year.

Hearth And Soul Blog Hop recipe round-up over at Penniless Parenting is a great resource.  The edition I’ve linked to has almost a hundred recipes in it – all made of simple, whole food ingredients.

This one is from last year, but in case you missed it the first time around, it’s a great post from Simple Mom about how awesome it is to be debt-free.  A little inspiration for all of us who are somewhere on the road to being debt-free.  For us, the only debt left is our mortgage, but we’re making steady progress on that.

Have a great week!

Remember a few months ago when I wrote about the brilliant idea of freezer-to-crockpot cooking that I discovered thanks to Stephanie at Mama And Baby Love?  It’s become a mainstay in my kitchen, and I can’t imagine not having bags of crockpot-ready food in the freezer.  Every few weeks I prep several bags of our favorite lentil soup and Stephanie’s BBQ veggies (you can add chicken or not – it works either way).  Then I can pull them out of the freezer and dump them into the crock pot on days when I know I’m going to be extra busy.  It’s especially great on days when I’m running errands and not home during the day – I love walking in to a house that smells like a yummy dinner, and I especially love that all I have to do in the morning – when I’m busy getting ready for the day ahead – is dump a bag into the crock pot and  add some water if it’s a soup.  Hard to beat that.

Anyway, Stephanie has created a cookbook of 20 of those genius freezer-to-crockpot meals!  She’s got vegetarian meals and meals that include meat, although I’ve found that some of the meat-based meals work well if I leave out the meat and then add chopped tempeh or Field Roast sausages near the end of the cooking time.  As an aside, I’ve also been adding some meat back into my own diet.  My husband and sons have always eaten meat, but I had stopped eating it for a few years.  It’s still pretty scarce around here, but I do eat it sometimes.  I love that Stephanie’s meals are a great way to include a little meat in a meal that is mostly vegetable-based (I tend to go heavier on the veggies and lighter on the meat when I make any meat-and-vegetable recipe).

Stephanie’s Slow Cooker Freezer Recipes includes shopping lists, nutritional info, and cute little labels that you can print out to stick on your freezer bags.  And the whole thing is only $5.99!  I love having these freezer-to-crockpot meals on hand for my own family, and they’re also a great way to take food to someone else, like a family that has just had a baby or is dealing with an illness.  The recipient doesn’t have to worry about keeping track of a casserole dish and getting it back to you, and if you squish the contents out a bit in your bag and lay it flat to freeze, it will make a nice flat brick that will be easy to fit into anyone’s freezer.

I’ve been making our favorite lentil soup and a couple of Stephanie’s previously-available recipes for several months now, and I’m definitely a big believer in the benefits of freezer-to-crockpot cooking.  So I’m especially thrilled to have Stephanie’s new e-book in hand (which she graciously sent to me so that I could check it out) so that I can add some new meals to our freezer stash.  I love how simple everything is.  No-frills cooking at it’s best.  There are no exotic or hard-to-find ingredients.  Stephanie reminds me of myself when it comes to her approach to food:  it should be nutritious, with no mystery ingredients.  She explains how she goes about prepping the meals and answers some FAQs at the beginning of the book (yes, she freezes potatoes raw and they turn out just fine).  This cookbook isn’t the one you’d turn to if you’re making Thanksgiving dinner for a group of foodies.  But for everyday meals – when you’re busy, tired, and stretched in several directions at once – they are perfect.

If your current fallback plan is pizza delivery on busy days, think how much money your could save – how much better your diet will be – if you spend a few hours a month chopping ingredients and stashing bags in your freezer.  Batch cooking lots of meals at one time and freezing them is a popular time saver in the kitchen.  But prepping for the slow cooker is even easier, since you don’t have to cook anything on your prep day – you just chop the ingredients and put them in the freezer bags.  I hope you enjoy Stephanie’s recipes as much as we do!

Over the last couple years, I’ve participated in getting the word out about Only72 sales (they last for 72 hours – hence the name) run by Adam Baker and Karol Gadja.  There have been a few other similar sales in that time (like the one about simplifying your family life earlier this month), but Baker and Karol tend to focus on subjects like building your own business (specifically something online), publishing, freelancing, technology, blogging, and increasing income.  Twice per year, they gather a whole bunch of resources from well-known and respected bloggers, authors, business owners, etc., and offer them in a package deal for 90% off retail.

In order to be included in the sale, the books, courses and resources have to actually sell at their retail price when the sale isn’t going on – no price inflation to make the sale seem like more of a deal than it actually is.  In the past, all of the resources sold with the Only72 sales were digital.  But this time around, they’re including a physical copy of Chris Guillebeau’s new book, The $100 Startup.  They’ll ship the book anywhere in the world, and it’s included in the $100 price tag for this sale (no additional shipping charges).  The current sale is on now, and lasts until Thursday morning.

All told, this sale includes $1000 worth of information on how to start or enhance an online business – everything from successful blogging to freelancing to ethical (and successful) sales practices.  They’ve got resources on improving ad income, structuring your small business systems, getting paid to create art, and turning your passion into your career.

If you’re interested in working for yourself in an online business, this resource package will be an excellent start.  Of course, it will only help if you devote the time required to study the contents and implement the ideas…. if you put it on your Discover and then just daydream about starting a business, you’ll just be $100 poorer.

I’ve blogged many times about how thankful I am that my husband and I started our own business ten years ago, and then took it online as soon as realistically possible (around 2003).  Working online has given us more flexibility than we ever could have dreamed of.  Right now, it’s 11 am on a Monday and my husband is at the park with our boys – he just decided to take a break from work for an hour and walk to the park with them.  Our business keeps us very busy, but it also allows us a flexibility that would never happen if we were working for someone else.

The one downside to how we started our business was the start-up expenses combined with the fact that we had very little income for the first year or two.  Although we learned a lot as we went along (and this was a decade ago, before a lot of the current online resources were available), we spent quite a bit of money getting our business up and running.  We paid for pay-per-click advertising and other marketing opportunities before we learned about SEO and how to make it work for our business.  I would say that the main benefit to the resources offered in the Only72 package is that they show you how to create and/or grow an online business without spending a ton of money in the process.  The physical book you’ll get (along with all of the digital books and courses) sums it up:  The $100 Startup.  People like to say “you have to spend money to make money” and in some industries, that’s true.  But the internet has changed a lot of aspects of business, and there are avenues to making an income online without getting yourself in over your head in debt right out of the gates.  The Only72 packages are designed to show you how.

Anyway, if you’ve been looking for something new career wise, or if you’re between jobs, or if you want the flexibility of working for yourself from anywhere you choose, the latest Only72 package might be just what you need.  If you’re perfectly happy with your current job and income, I’ll be back soon with more regular posts

In the spirit of self-employment and income generation, here are a couple of links that might be helpful – and they’re free!  In case you missed it the first time around, a reader asked me last fall for ideas on how a stay-at-home parent could earn an extra $500 a month to contribute to the family income.  Here’s my reply, and be sure to check out the comments, as other readers added more ideas.  And I also want to share with you an excellent article by Tiffany Washko (one of my all time favorite bloggers) on how to make a good living as a blogger.  If you’re interested in earning money from a blog, Tiffany has a ton of great tips – and she’s living proof that it can turn into a lucrative career.

Every once in a while, numerous authors band together to offer a large collection of e-books at a steeply discounted price.  Today marks the start of an awesome new e-book sale put together by Corey from Simple Marriage and Mandy from Life Your Way.  It’s a collection of 38 e-books covering all sorts of family-related topics (food, cooking, homemaking, marriage, minimalism for families, simple living, parenting, entrepreneurship, etc.).  Purchased separately, the books would cost $375.  But this week only – now through 8am eastern time on Friday April 20th – the whole collection is only $29.

Lots of great reading material, no paper clutter (e-books are awesome like that!).  Plenty of motivation, ideas and inspiration to help you simplify your life, focus on what’s important, and enjoy the family life you’re creating.  Several of these e-books are written by some of my favorite bloggers, and I’m excited to dig into them.  You guys know that marriage, family, and simplicity are all high on my list of important things.  I know that’s the case for a lot of you too, and I think quite a few of my readers will love this e-book collection.  The price is lower than the Simplify Your Family Life sale last year (it was $47 in 2011), and almost all of the e-books this year are different (33 new ones, in case you purchased the collection from last year and are wondering about duplicates).

Here’s a link to the sale and here are the details on what you get for your $29:

Parenting & Kids

4 Moms of 35+ Kids Answer Your Parenting Questions by the Moms at 4 Moms, 35+ Kids ( retail price $7.99)

Flourishing Spring by Michele from Frugal Granola (retail price $5.95)

Mindset for Moms by Jamie at Steady Mom (retail price $4.99)

Nurturing Creativity by Renee from FIMBY (retail price $3.00)

Parenting with Positive Guidance by Amanda from Not Just Cute (retail price $9.00)

Truth in the Tinsel by Amanda from Impress Your Kids (retail price $6.99)

Minimalism for Families

101 Ways to Simplify Your Life by Laura at Journey to a Simple Life (retail price $9.95)

321-Stop by Lori at Loving Simple Living (retail price $9.97)

Inside Out Simplicity by Joshua from Becoming Minimalist (retail price $11.99)

Simple Ways to Be More with Less by Courtney from Be More with Less (retail price $9.97)

The Minimalist Mom’s Guide to Baby’s First Year by Rachel at The Minimalist Mom(retail price $9.95) I even have a short guest chapter in this one!

Food & Cooking

Get Lean Recipe for Success by Nisha at Healthy Mom’s Kitchen (retail price $37.00)

Got Dinner? by Susan from The Confident Mom (retail price $4.00)

How To Cook For Yourself: A Complete Beginner’s Guide by Rachael at Kitchen Courses (retail price $35.00)

Plan It, Don’t Panic by Stephanie from Keeper of the Home (retail price $4.99)

Real Food Basics by Kate at Modern Alternative Mama (retail price $6.95)

Real Food, Real Easy by Erin from The Humbled Homemaker (retail price $9.95)

Smart Sweets by Katie at Kitchen Stewardship (retail price $9.95)

The Everything Beans Book by Katie at Kitchen Stewardship (retail price $9.95)

Homemaking

2012 Confident Mom Weekly Household Planner by Susan at The Confident Mom(retail price $9.00)

Clean Start: Your Guide to Natural Home Cleaning by Michelle from Open Eye Health(retail price $4.95)

Complete Printables Download Pack by Mandi from Life Your Way (retail price $7.00)

Food on Your Face for Acne & Oily Skin by Leslie at Crunchy Betty (retail price $7.99)

From Debtor to Better by Barry from Debtor to Better (retail price $15.00)

My Buttered Life {Summer + Gift Giving Editions} by Renee from MadeOn Hard Lotion(retail price $10.00)

Not a DIY Diva by Melissa from The Inspired Room (retail price $3.99)

One Bite at a Time by Tsh at Simple Mom (retail price $5.00)

That Works for Me by Kristen at We Are THAT Family (retail price $8.00)

Marriage & Relationships

A Simple Marriage by Corey at Simple Marriage (retail price $4.99)

Buck Naked Marriage by Corey at Simple Marriage (retail price $2.99)

Entangled by Amy from Permission to Peruse (retail price $4.99)

The A to Z Guide: 26 Ways in 26 Days to a Happier, Healthier Marriage by The Dating Divas (retail price $9.97)

Entrepreneurship & Blogging

Blogger Behave by Laura at 10 Million Miles (retail price $4.99)

How to Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too by Mandi from Life Your Way (retail price $12.00)

Make Money Blogging by Tara at Feels Like Home (retail price $4.99)

Tap Into Your Unique Creativity and Self Expression Webinar by Lisa @ WellGrounded Life (retail price $39.00)

Tell Your Time by Amy at Blogging with Amy (retail price $4.99)

Your Blogging Business: Tax Talk & Tips from a Bookkeeper Turned Blogger by Nikki @ Christian Mommy Blogger (retail price $4.99)

The Simplify Your Family Life Sale is brought to you in part by Plan to Eat, and online meal planner that helps to simplify eating at home.  When you purchase the e-book collection, you’ll get a coupon code for a one year Plan to Eat membership!

I hope you love this collection of e-books! Pick up yours sometime between now and Friday – sale ends at 8am eastern time on Friday.

A few days ago I saw an article about people who had retired early, with a few details about each person’s situation.  The retirement age of the people profiled in the article ranged from 33 (Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme – who isn’t actually retired anymore) to 52, and most of them have been retired for several years.  If you’ve ever read blogs written by people who have retired early or are working towards that goal (or any other sort of financial independence goal), there was nothing particularly new or exciting in the article.  For me, the most interesting part of it was the comment section (yes, I should know better than to ever scroll through the comments on news stories, but I couldn’t help it).  I only looked at the first couple pages of comments.  Although there were a few supportive comments, I saw a lot more that were critical and/or said something along the lines of “well, good for them but that would never work for me because I have… (kids to put through college, student loans, health insurance premiums, barely any money to put towards retirement each month, etc.)”

If you’ve spent any sort of time in the frugal blog world (and especially if you’ve paid attention to blogs devoted to early financial independence), you’ve seen lots of similar comments.  They always strike me as odd.

First, everybody’s situation is different.  I think that should be understood as a given.  Nobody is going to be able to exactly duplicate someone else’s life (nor should they want to!)  We all have different backgrounds, different responsibilities, different earning potentials, and different hopes and dreams.  A person who wants to travel the world would be ill advised to emulate the life of someone who wants to devote their time to a self-sufficient farm (definitely an exciting adventure, but one that requires a person to pretty much stay in one place).

So now that we have that out of the way, I’m perplexed by the comments that people make about how they could never retire early (or achieve financial independence) because their own situation is different.  Maybe the person being profiled had no children and you have three.  Yes, that’s a different situation for sure.  But it’s important to remember that we all have – or had – the option of not having children.  Most of us eventually choose to have children (and once we do, we can’t imagine our lives without them).  But it always strikes me as odd when people who have made the choice to have children make negative comments that sound like they resent people who have no children and have retired early.

Most of the other arguments that people make for why they could never possibly achieve early financial independence (I use that term because “early retirement” generates so much controversy with people who nitpick every aspect of whether the person is still bringing in any cash at all from sources like a blog or a rental property, and therefore doesn’t qualify as “retired”) are similarly negative and perplexing.  Yes, of course we all have different income levels and different opportunities.  Some people inherit money.  Some people have awful health problems that cause them to lose their job and with it, their health insurance.  Some people have parents who pay for their college education, some work full time throughout college to pay for school, and some end up with boatloads of student loans.

Life isn’t fair.  We know that.  Things are not equitably divided.  Some people get ahead with more luck than effort, and others fall behind despite large amounts of effort.

But the more we focus on the negatives and the reasons why “I can’t…”, the harder it will be for us to see the path that leads to “I can…”

Some people don’t like the idea of early retirement.  They might want to work forever, especially if they love theirjob.  But I think most of us like the idea of at least some degree of financial independence (another reason I prefer that terminology).  I would guess that most of the people who leave negative comments on articles about early retirement/financial independence also like the idea of being financially independent.  But rather than focusing on what they can do in order to make that happen, they focus on the reasons they can’t make it happen.  So they don’t make any changes, and their financial life stays pretty much the same – and definitely not on track towards financial independence.

Here’s the thing about financial independence.  Assuming you don’t inherit a bucket of money or win the lottery, nobody is saying that it’s easy to achieve.  There’s no magic bullet or secret weapon that will make it happen overnight.  You have to spend less than you earn (and depending on the loftiness of your goals, maybe a lot less) for a long time.  Unless your income is very high, you’ll probably have to have plenty of frugal habits.  For some people, that involves a lot of changes.  And for a lot of people, change can be scary (even if it’s exciting and putting you on the path towards something you want).  Things that are scary tend to make us feel defensive.  And I think that explains a lot of the negativity and defensiveness that we see in the comments sections of articles and blogs about early retirement and people who have achieved financial independence.

On the flip side, there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to pursue that sort of lifestyle.  If you’d rather spend most of what you earn, go for it (I don’t condone spending more than you earn, because that’s a recipe for bad things no matter how you look at it).  But if you’d like to achieve some level of financial independence, the first step is to focus on the things you can control and the steps you can take to make it happen.  If you dwell on the fact that it would be so much easier if you earned $80,000 a year instead of $40,000, you might find yourself so mired in negativity that you never start making steps in the right direction.  If you focus on the fact that you have kids to put through college and thus have no realistic way to retire early, you might miss out on all of the opportunities for your kids to apply for scholarships, save their babysitting money during high school, spend the first two years at the local community college before transferring to a four year university, or apply for work-study programs during college (just examples off the top of my head – there are tons of ways to avoid crippling student loan debt.  But again, nobody said it’s easy).

I would love to see a little less negativity in the comments section on articles about early retirement, frugality, and financial independence.  We can all agree that none of those things are particularly easy.  But that’s ok.  Most things that are worthwhile aren’t easy.  Making significant changes can be particularly hard.  But focusing on the reasons why a certain change was easier for someone else or why it would never work in your situation is definitely not a productive habit.

So let’s make a commitment to focus on productive habits.  To think about on the ways we can rather than the reasons we can’t.  To be optimistic rather than pessimistic.  To be happy for the good fortune of others instead of feeling jealous or bitter.  We might not reach all of our goals, but we’ll be a lot happier along the way.

My little blog got a facelift today, thanks to my awesome husband.  It was time for a change, and I love the clean new look.  Both the boys are in bed and my husband is down in his basement office working late tonight, so I’ve had some time to just browse around online.  Well, and mop the kitchen and dining room floors.  For the first time since January.  Ahem.

So anyway, I found all sorts of great articles to share with you – I hope you enjoy my internet wanderings as much as I did!

I’m a week late to the party on this one, but Mr. Money Mustache has issued the Maximum Mustache March challenge.  If you’re looking for motivation and a group of other people all focused on making positive financial changes this month, head over and check it out.

I love this great homemade toy from Penny at Penniless Parenting!  It reminds me of similar toys that we made when I was a kid, although we just used yarn and string – I love the idea of using elastic hair ties to wrap around the nails.  Our son loves writing and spelling and he’s starting to really get interested in reading.  I think he would love this, and I’m thinking it will be a perfect project to do with him tomorrow.

This post at Simple Bites has a ton of recipes for making your own food from scratch.  Not just regular meal recipes, but recipes that tell you how to make staples like condiments that most people – even people who tend to cook all their meals from scratch – buy in a jar.

Another excellent homemade toy idea, this one comes from Budgeting With The Bushman’s.  Two tin cans and some string are all you need to make a pair of tin can stilts.  I can see our little guy having so much fun with this.  We don’t really buy any food in cans though, so I might need to raid the neighbors’ recycling bins first.  My dad made lots of stilts for us when we were little, and he would amuse us endlessly by making giant stilts for himself and walking all around the yard on them.  He just used long pieces of wood with little pieces of wood attached to the inside as a place to put your feet.

I love this DIY post about making blackout shades for your bedroom.  Monica and her husband spent just a few dollars to make their own blackout shades to go behind their bedroom curtains.  Looks like a relatively simple DIY project, and definitely less expensive than buying them already made.

Spring is coming… don’t throw your plastic containers in the recycling bin – plant something in them instead!  Here’s a great post about making your own mini greenhouse for seedlings out of clear plastic containers.  I’ve got a collection of small plastic containers right now that I’ll be using to start seedlings in the next week or so.  My parents start seedlings in clear plastic containers every year and they always end up with the most amazing garden.

Brave New Life is about a family’s journey towards early retirement.  It’s written by Mr. Brave New Life, but this post is written by his wife, giving her perspective on the whole adventure.  Although she was always the “spender” in the relationship and he was the “saver”, her post details how much she appreciates their downsized life and how much she’s looking forward to her husband’s early retirement.

Have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!

EDIT – just discovered the fitness and food sections on Pinterest.  I might have to up my time limit from five minutes to fifteen.

I have been purposely avoiding Pinterest for quite some time.  From what I had heard, I knew that it could be the sort of site that could suck me in and turn into a major time waster, so I just avoiding going there in the first place.  I don’t remember what convinced me to finally go check it out a few weeks ago, but I did.  And sure enough, half an hour later I was still browsing around.  Damn you, Pinterest.

I loved looking at wide-open, clutter-free rooms and clean kitchen counters.  I got some good ideas for food storage, toy storage and garage organization.  And seeing all of those neat spaces inspired me to get up and clean my own kitchen.  So I did.  After half an hour on Pinterest, I spent the next half hour making my kitchen sparkle and (sort of) look like the immaculate, minimalist kitchens that I had been eyeballing online.

But the next time I went to Pinterest, I found myself looking at all sorts of other stuff – crafty things like altered t-shirt dresses and refinished furniture and handmade birthday wall hangings.  They all looked cute and crafty, but – yikes!  I was over-inspired.  If that’s not already a word, I’m coining it now.  Inspiration is a great thing – if we put it to use and it makes our life (or someone else’s) better.  But over-inspiration seems like it could just lead to… nothing at all except more browsing around online once our crafty DIY to-do list gets too long and becomes paralyzing.

Simplicity is awesome.  But sometimes we tackle a DIY project in the name of simplicity and it ends up being way more complicated, time-consuming, and expensive (and maybe not as enjoyable) as we had planned.  If it’s something you truly love doing, then by all means – do it.  But if you’re forcing yourself to do crafty things because you think you should or because your friends are doing it, or because (fill in the blank)… you might want to ask whether you’d be better off without it in the first place, or looking on Craigslist or at a thrift store to see if you can find a used version of whatever it is.  If you love quilting, make a quilt.  If you just think you want to love quilting but actually hate it, go buy a quilt at a garage sale – if you actually need a quilt (that post is worth reading no matter what you think about quilts – and it’s funny!).  Otherwise, carry on without a quilt.

I’ve been back to Pinterest a few times since then.  I set a five minute time limit for myself, which keeps me from browsing around for ages (Why is it that time goes by so fast when we’re online?  Why does it not go by that fast when we’re stuck in traffic?  Questions to ponder…).  And I focus on areas that can help me organize and simplify the life I already have/want.  For example, I’m looking for good ways to organize toys in our playroom.  We don’t have any furniture or shelving in there, so everything is on the floor.  There has to be a better way.  And of course, knowing me, it will have to be something I can buy used that won’t cost a lot of money.

But the problem with browsing around and looking at toy storage ideas is that it can easily lead to browsing around and looking at all sorts of other home improvements.  Which can lead to jealousy or a desire to upgrade things that really don’t need to be upgraded.  As an example – my kitchen is fine.  It’s clean and orderly (and no longer contains a yeast packet that expired 8 years ago).  My counters are clear (well, most of the time anyway) and I have ample space to work.  My counters are laminate and my cabinets are plain light-colored wood.  My stove has metal coil burners, and while I prefered the glass-top stove that we put in our old house, the one I have now works just fine.  Nothing in my kitchen is fancy, but I’m able to cook all sorts of awesome food there, and everything works just the way it should.  I could spend a ton of money making my kitchen look like something from a magazine.  Or I could spend a ton of hours replacing the fronts of my cabinet doors with old barn wood and painting our dining room table to give it a crafty “distressed” look.  But I’m not going to.  Because I would rather spend that money and time doing something else.

So while I think it’s awesome to see all the crafty, amazing things people have done on sites like Pinterest and BetterAfter, I think it’s just as important to remind ourselves to be grateful for what we have and to allow ourselves to stop improving when everything is fine the way it is.  So instead of browsing Craigslist to find a dresser that I can turn into a craft storage area, I’ll read this post and remind myself that my house feels much better with less furniture in it – even if it’s impossibly cute, crafty furniture.  And I’ll keep getting rid of clutter instead of trying to organize it. And I’ll find some second-hand shelves that will work just fine to store toys in the playroom.  They probably won’t be amazing or worthy of being featured on a home-improvement website, but they will get the toys up off the floor, and that’s really all that I’m looking for.

I know a lot of my readers are big DIYers and into crafty stuff.  So tell me.  Do sites like Pinterest inspire you?  Or do they just make you look around at your own stuff and feel like you need to change/upgrade everything in sight?

As an aside, I found this cookie recipe yesterday on Pinterest.  They are amazing.  They took five minutes.  And our son loved squishing them with a fork to make the lines on them.  I subbed walnuts instead of peanuts and used sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter, because that’s what we had on hand.  They turned out fantastic.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve done a lot of decluttering over the past couple years.  I’ve taken numerous carloads of stuff to Goodwill, and have (except for last month when I was on a mission to find stuff for our son’s play kitchen) mostly stopped going in to shop when I drop stuff off.  I got rid of about half of my craft supplies, and I’ve cleared out closets and cupboards all through the house, tossing or recycling or donating stuff that we didn’t need anymore. 

I had already made one pass through the kitchen a year or so ago, getting rid of stuff that we weren’t using.  But I mostly focused on gadgets and excess glassware rather than food.  Last night, I was browsing around online and I came across this awesome blog written by a lady who has managed to get rid of 10,000 things by purging 100 items at a time!  Pretty inspiring if you’re thinking about getting rid of clutter.  Christine’s writing had me laughing out loud, and then it got me up off my butt and into the kitchen to do something about our too-full cupboards. 

I love to cook.  And to shop for groceries.  We eat all of our meals at home (and I do mean all… we took a friend out for his 90th birthday last month and he chose Olive Garden.  But before that, we hadn’t eaten out since September).  That’s how I justify our full pantry, freezer, and cupboards.  But I had noticed lately that there was stuff at the back of the cupboards that I was never using, and it was just serving to make the cupboards a little less useful than they would otherwise be.

So at about 11pm, I was standing in the kitchen surrounded by boxes and jars and bags of stuff that I didn’t need.  Some of it was a wee tad bit expired and went in the trash:

Yes, we moved to a new house in 2009.  I vaguely remember being in a big hurry to clean out the old house and I think I tossed everything from the fridge and pantry into a cooler and boxes without paying much attention.  But you would think that I would have noticed this when I unpacked.  Or at any time during the past 2.5 years.  Anyway.  Moving on. 

In addition to a couple of seriously expired things, I also found a few duplicates.  Two bags of dill seed (that’s going to take a while to use up…), three containers of cardamom, two bags of ground ginger.  Good thing I like to cook from scratch and use a lot of spices. 

By the time I finished consolidating, purging and cleaning, I had quite a pile on the kitchen table.  All of this stuff will either be donated to family or friends who will use it, or trashed if it’s expired, or recycled if it’s an empty container (I was able to consolidate a lot of stuff so that it takes up less cabinet space.  Three honey jars are now combined into one, for example):

I also found a few more gadgets and dishes that I didn’t need.  Three baby food grinders?  I think we’re fine with one. 

I came across a few nearly empty jars of cocoa butter and coconut oil that I had used a while back to make lotion.  So I dumped them into a saucepan, melted them down, and filled a container with my newly-minted lotion.  That meant I was able to recycle three containers that had been taking up space in my pantry.

I ended up getting rid of everything in that picture plus about half that much again by the time I was finished.  So much better.  I don’t have to root around in the cupboard to find what I’m looking for.  And everything in the cupboards is stuff that I use on a regular basis.  And none of it expired when I was in my 20s. 

Anyway, I hope Christine’s blog inspires you and makes you laugh.  And if you have anything in your kitchen that expired in 2004, please tell me about it to make me feel better!

Over the last several years – ever since my husband and I decided to have children – I’ve read lots of books and articles about the idea of giving up the supermom ideal and getting over the fact that we can’t “do it all” if we want to do any of it well.   The Minimalist Mom recently wrote about rejecting the supermom ideal and I think her post will resonate with a lot of people.  Basically, it’s all about prioritizing, and doing the things that are truly important to each of us, rather than trying to do it all.  It’s an excellent reminder to focus on what matters and well worth reading.

I’m fully on board with that idea, but I see it as the way to truly be a “supermom” rather than feeling like I’m giving up on the idea of being “supermom”.  The way I look at it, being “supermom” has nothing to do with juggling 75 different hats.  To me, it means focusing my energies on the things that will make my life and my family’s life as great as possible.  That has nothing to with carting my boys off to lots of different activities, scheduled play dates, or advanced early learning preschools.  It has nothing to do with having a spotless house every second of the day (although I do like to keep it reasonably clean).  It has nothing to do with keeping myself so busy that I never have time to read to my boys or build snowmen with them.  It has nothing to do with trips to Disneyland or themed birthday parties or working extra hours to be able to afford the newest toys and the best professional photographer to take pictures of my little guys.  The list goes on and on here, and will be different for each of us.  I may not give a hoot about themed birthday parties, but another mom might love them.  Go for it.  Just make sure you’re focusing your time and energy on stuff that actually makes you and your family happy, rather than what you think is supposed to make you happy, or what you see other people doing.  Trust me, it might not be making them happy either.

Instead of saying that we’re rejecting the ideal of being a supermom (ostensibly, the mom who “does it all” – a career, a family, a perfect house, PTA meetings, lessons for every activity under the sun, etc.), why don’t we just focus on the fact that there’s really nothing “super” at all about that sort of life, for the vast majority of people.  True, there may be some people – I imagine they are few and far between – who truly thrive on constant stress and are actually able to devote themselves 100% to numerous different aspects of a fully-packed schedule.  But I think that most of us – if we’re honest about what really matters and what really contributes to our enjoyment of life – feel better when we don’t try to do too much.  When we have a little downtime in our days.  When we don’t fall into bed each night completely exhausted and dreading the alarm clock, but also already running through the next day’s to-do list.

We all have to earn a living.  We can adapt our lifestyles to fit a lower income if we prefer to work less, although that’s not appealing to everyone. Some families choose to have one parent work full time and the other focus on the house and children full time.  Some have both work full time and share the household duties.  Some mix it up with part time work for both parents.  Some are single parents who have to do it all.  In our house, my husband works full time at our business; I work very part-time at our business and spend most of my time taking care of the children and the household chores.  It works for us.  If we choose to have children, we have to figure out the best way to go about raising them – it won’t be the same for everybody, nor should it.  Life is not all fun and games, and it would probably get old pretty fast if it were.  But once we pare down to the basics and get those covered, we have options in terms of where we focus our time and energy.  Saying no to some of the activities and expenses (that are sometimes initially seen as necessary) might be just the thing we need.  Less is more when it comes to filling up our days.  Instead of a several hours at the mall shopping for the perfect Christmas gifts for everybody you know, spend a those hours reading books with your children or playing tag with them at a local park.  Catch up via phone or skype or email with the people for whom you would have been buying gifts.  Instead of feeling exhausted at the end of the day, you’ll feel great.  And you won’t have to work as much to earn money to pay for all the gifts.

So instead of saying that we’re giving up on being supermom (which makes it sound a bit like we’re throwing in the towel), let’s say instead that we’re focusing on what really matters.  We’re giving up the extraneous stuff that was just draining our energy, wasting time, and making us feel badly about ourselves because of the constant comparisons with other moms.  And that leaves us free to truly be supermoms.  Or superdads.  Or superfriends.  Or super-whatever-is-most-important-to-us.

I just came across a blog post that has me wishing that I still lived just around the corner from a big thrift store.  I rarely go browsing around the thrift store anymore.  In an effort to keep from cluttering up our house, these days I try to just stop at the donation door, drop stuff off, and keep going!  But I think I’m going to have to go in and check out the artwork next time I’m in town.  Check this out.  And this one.  I’m feeling very inspired.  The big Goodwill where I shop has half price day every other Saturday, and I will definitely be on the lookout for giant artwork.  I know that large frames are very expensive if purchased new, as are canvases.  If I come across a piece with a decent frame (or even a large wrapped canvas that doesn’t need a frame), I’ll bring it home and see what our son can do with a few jars of paint and a brush.  Have any of you done anything like this?  If you have a blog where you posted pictures, please include a link in the comments so that we can see your finished product and get even more inspired!

Cooler weather is here and our son has outgrown all of his long pants from last winter – so it’s time for a trip to Goodwill anyway.  Now I just have an extra reason to go.