time flies when you are busy tending to two little ones, tending to a home, staying warm and wishing for warmer days. there is much more going on in our lives than i lend myself to see on a daily basis. i often wonder where my days have gone or why it always seems like i have something to do. then i remember a comment from a older fellow simple lifer, "simple livin' ain't so simple. it takes more work to live without than it does to have what others have."
that's it! why didn't i think of this sooner! she was so right on. i might mention that when i met this woman she was cooking tofu in her sweet little 1960's camper. our kind of lady if i must say so. we chatted about LIVING and what we don't aspire to have, the things that we do have that make our lives so unique, the importance of food and a vegetarian diet, feeding our children well and doing what you love to help enrich others lives. after all of that, that one comment imbedded in mind like a audio stamp. now i know where all of my time goes.
we work much like others do, but in addition to being occupied outside of our home, much of our hOMework is spent making sure that we have a clean, happy and healthy home along with healthy food for our fam. as the mama of the house i make sure that i keep up with all of the usual stuff, laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc because i am home all day with the little people. if you haven't picked up on this one yet, i'll let ya in on a little fam secret...food is super important to us. so, i do spend a lot of my free time whipping up goodies for the crew. keeping our food close to home serves many purposes. it allows us to eat well, keep our food bills down and enjoy foods that are made with love and good intentions. making things in batches allows us to store some our favs so we can enjoy them daily.
here is what we make on a daily, weekly and monthly basis
*granola (about one batch a week feeds three of us. it is quick and easy and we eat it for more
than breakfast.)
*veggie burgers (one batch a month, about 40 patties, keeps us going. top off salads, make
sandwiches or just dip them in veganaise and we are good to go.)
*yogurt (a batch every two weeks. we find that small amounts of this suites us well.)
*bread (every other day the peanut and i make up a loaf. keeping it whole grain and easy has
allowed us to totally get away from buying bread)
check out 'healthy bread in 5 minutes a day'
well, that sums up our food stash that we make on a bigger scale, but on top of that, we make sure that we home cook our meals daily, make enough soup to last a few days, cook up beans and freeze them for a myraid of meals and use what we have in house before we go out and buy more stuff. keeping a well stocked pantry and plenty of fresh and frozen fruit and veggies allows us to do 2 major grocery runs a month with some restocking in between for fresh fruit and veg. this in turn keeps us from buying too much and wasting.
in addition to food, there is so much more to this 'simple' life of ours...washing those cloth diapers, gardening in the summer, playing on the beach (this one is a biggie), spending as much time as we can as a family and living. we all find our groove and once you are really IN it, it is like a ride that you have been on a thousand times. eventually you come to expect the twists and turns, the bumps and smooth stretches, and hopefully it all ends well. nature lives with a rythmn and so can we. what may seem like work at first is actually a gift. once you learn to work with good intention what was once a chore becomes a good habit and it keeps on growing from there. so, really embrace what it means to tend to your home, feed your family and live without, because it isn't a fault, but rather a strength. i really feel blessed to have the ability to simplify. in times like these we are able to still live well and keep on keepin' on thanks to knowing how to go without.
"poverty is the gift of purification" -the XIVth dalai lama
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