Loving The Results

I started this blog as a fun way to document the changes we were making (or experimenting with) in our home. About two years ago I was introduced to the idea of minimalism. My brain about exploded with excitement.

THAT'S ME! 

THAT'S WHAT I WANT! 

I'M NOT WEIRD! 

IT'S A THING

Before minimalism entered my life, I would spend weekly trips at Target and bi-weekly trips at Goodwill donating the stuff I had spent our money on. I was constantly trying to declutter and never truly making any progress. I had joined in the partaking of shopping as a fun activity, but my brain couldn't handle the influx of stuff when I got home. Once I heard about minimal living, I knew it was my answer. I didn't have to join the masses at Target, I could move my life in a different direction, and I did.

Our Changes

I stepped in my kitchen and said - What do we need? I ended up getting rid of a lot of stuff. We kept half of our plates, bowls, coffee cups, water glasses and silverware. We got rid of all specialty appliances, keeping only the toaster, crockpot, and blender. We gave away all our specialty glassware (margarita, martini, beer, wine). We aren't big drinkers so this didn't mean much to us. We drink beer from a bottle and wine in our cups that double a stemless wine glasses. In the end, we eliminated the use of a bottom corner cabinet, and five upper cabinets. 

After the kitchen came a lot of other changes. We got rid of a full set of living room furniture, two TVs, and five dressers. We kept only our favorite clothes and favorite toys (a keyboard, barbies, legos, dress-up/make believe items, stuffed animals and dolls, and a few games). We got rid of our fake Christmas tree and replaced that with a norfolk pine that stays in our living room year round. Our girls named our tree Elsa!

Our minimalist journey has also led me to discover Zero Waste living. I am buying as much food as I can in bulk. I wear my hair with my God given waves instead of straightening it. I wear no make-up most days, we got a worm composter, and traded our 96 gallon trash and recycling containers for the small 36 gallon ones!

But Why????

This is the big question we get. Why are you doing this? This is a big question, but I have learned I don't have to defend our changes. My answer is simple.

I Enjoy Living With Less

I really do. It makes me happy. I am less focused on my material goods and keeping my home organized. I still have to to clean up and put things away, but I don't have to dedicate days to doing this anymore. With these changes I have found more free time to discover my passions.

Two years ago I was asked - What do you like to do? What are your hobbies? I didn't have anything. I couldn't think of a single thing. 

But today this is different. I love painting, not canvas, but homes. I have spent a lot of time this past year doing something I only wished I could do - paint our woodwork white and repaint our walls a light gray color. My husband gave me his support and I slowly and with some growing pains grew a talent for painting. I am so proud of my accomplishments - that's a good feeling. 

I also spend a lot more time reading. I wake up every day excited to make a cup of coffee and sit down with a good book. I usually get a chapter in before my girls are hungry and then in the afternoon I take time to relax on the couch and dive further into my book. I have read 62 books this year. My favorites include:

Favorite Series

Stephanie Plum Series: Janet Evanovich
Lizzy and Diesel Series: Janet Evanovich
Crossfire: Sylvia Day

Favorite Books

The Fringe Hours: Jessica Turner

Jesus Feminist: Sarah Bessey

The Power of Habit: Charles Duhigg

Zero Waste Home: Bea Johnson

Notes From A Blue Bike: Tsh Oxenreider

My Year With Eleanor: Nicole Hancock

The Marriage of Opposites: Alice Hoffman

Walkable City: Jeff Speck

The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up: Marie Kondo

The other thing I have found is freedom for family time. Freeing up our finances and time has led to a lot of adventures. We now go on a Family Summer Road Trip each year.  Two years ago we traveled to Arizona for my sisters wedding. We loved our special bonding time on the road so much that we decided to make this an annual thing. This past summer we road tripped to Florida and next year we plan to road trip to the West Coast. Our fun goal is to make it to all 50 states with our girls. And then, hello Europe! Creating these memories has been so fun and fills my heart with joy.

I simply enjoy living with less. I started with experiments - pull out half the dinnerware and see if we don't use it, empty a dresser and see if we miss it, etc. The idea of living with less sometimes seems weird, against the norm, or impossible; but I have found that starting with an experiment allows you to give it a try. To say - this is temporary and if it doesn't work we can go back to the way it was and try again at a later time.

Now that I have experimented and followed through on most experiments, I feel confident in our changes and have seen the blessings that have grown from minimalist living.  

I can't wait to continue this journey next year. While I spent most of this year documenting my experiments, I will be transitioning to sharing more fruits of our lifestyle next year. The things I am enjoying - my new hobbies and more fun family times - mixed in with experiments or changes in our minimalist and zero waste journey. I am loving the results of all my experiments and I'm looking forward to continuing this journey in 2016.

I invite you to follow our journey and to share your journey with me. I love hearing how others are embracing and enjoying minimalist living as well!

Our Minimalist Christmas Wish Letter

Our journey towards minimal living has involved going through all the rooms in our home and donating or selling the things we don't need or love. We knew Christmas could be a step in the opposite direction with an influx of gifts. How could we minimize this influx? We decided to open our hearts in an honest letter to our family members. Gifts are an important part of Christmas (especially for the kiddos) and we didn't want to take that away. Here is our letter:

Dear Family,

As October comes to a close and the holiday season approaches, we (Chris and Jaime) have started thinking about the celebration of Christmas. We are living a more minimalist lifestyle, encouraging our girls to be using their creativity, focusing on enjoying experiences and each others' company, and instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in their hearts.

With these values in mind, we would like to ask for your support in the presents you gift the girls.

With living minimally, we ask that each couple give no more than one gift to each of the girls. It may not seem like much, but add everyone together and times 3, our home easily fills up.

With encouraging our girls to use their creativity, we ask that any gifts given inspire their imaginations to grow. We have a few ideas on this and if you would like a suggestion or clarification, please ask.

With focusing on enjoying each other's company, we are excited to spend quality time with our loved ones during the holidays and throughout the year. Instead of focusing on the number of gifts, we are focusing on the gift of togetherness.

Along with that, instead of giving a toy to the girls we encourage you to give the gift of togetherness. This could be a fun planned day with the girls - examples: to a movie, to a theater show, to the children's museum, to the zoo. These could be individual events/outings with each girl or all 3 collectively. They could be grandma/grandpa/girlie(s) dates, nanee/papa/girlie(s) dates, auntie/uncle/girlie(s) dates. We know the girls would cherish this special gift of time with you all. And once again, feel free to ask if you have any questions regarding gifts of time.

With instilling the love of Jesus and generosity in our girls' hearts, we are each filling a shoe box with a special gift, hygiene items, and school supplies for children in need in other countries. Samaritan's Purse delivers these shoebox gifts and shares the love of Jesus with them. In lieu of gifts for us (Chris and Jaime), please consider giving a gift to Samaritan's Purse. If you are interested in this, you can find out more at www.samaritanspurse.org

We look forward to this holiday season, spending time with you all, and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

God Bless,

Chris and Jaime

Have you ever expressed a change in gift giving with loved ones? How did you go about expressing your desires with an open heart and honesty?

x

Our Minimalist Stay-at-Home Christmas

Part of our minimalist journey is saying NO so we can say YES.

The Christmas season has been ever evolving for us over the years. Before kids, we traveled to family. After our first baby we still traveled. Then we had twins, TWINS! And we traveled less, but still traveled. WHAT?!!! WHY!!! Our Christmas quickly became a busy day with a late night of cranky little ones. It was a bit miserable to say the least. We realized after that Christmas that we really wanted a Christmas that was enjoyable for our family, that didn't end in cranky little ones (and a cranky tired mama).

So we finally said NO to travel. It was hard. Super hard. Many family members didn't understand and were disappointed. And being a people pleaser, I had a hard time with that. That first Christmas I felt more guilt than joy even though I knew we made the right decision for our family.

Now, two years later, we were presented with the option of travel again. In so many ways it seemed nice - seeing family I haven't seen in a while, being with loved ones on a special day, and watching aunties, uncles, cousins, and my parents enjoy our girls. It sounds lovely, right? But it would come with 4 hours of travel in one day. I knew that wasn't how we wanted to spend our Christmas. While we would miss the time spent with our loved ones, my husband and I were craving a relaxing Christmas at home.

With recognizing our needs and desires for a stay-at-home Christmas, I also realized that other than a relaxing morning of opening gifts and eating a laid back breakfast in PJs, I didn't know what our Christmas would look like. We didn't have anything to look forward to. What would we do with our day? So I made a decision to make a general plan for our day that would bring us a day of joy together.

The first thing I did was ask my girls what they want to do on Christmas. Their answer:

Make Christmas Cookies and a Birthday Cake for Baby Jesus!

I'm not much of a cook or baker, but for my girls I could dedicate our afternoon to baking! Then we planned out our meals. Breakfast: Donuts and Orange Juice. For Lunch....Once again, not being a cook, we decided to look on Pinterest for Christmas themed lunch box ideas. From this we came up with Tortilla Roll Up Bites laid out on a tray in the shape of a Christmas Tree, star shaped pretzels, and red and green grapes. For dinner I found an easy Christmas Tree Pizza Recipe using frozen dinner rolls! Super easy and fun! 

I knew what I wanted to do to end our night. I have dreamed of a Living Room Sleepover Christmas Night for years. We would pop in a fun Christmas movie, have sleeping bags and popcorn, and just enjoy this throwback to childhood sleepover days. We don't have sleeping bags or air mattresses at the moment. So my husband said he would brings the girls' mattresses and blankets down to the living room and set it all up. SO AWESOME! And my husband and I will utilize the couch and share cuddles with our girlies! AND THE JOY I FEEL IN MY HEART IS OVERFLOWING JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS HAPPENING!

Saying NO to travel for family has been a tough journey. Saying NO isn't easy. But we knew that traveling on Christmas would lead to stress and resentment. Saying NO meant that we are saying YES to our stay-at-home Christmas and I am finally looking forward to creating a Christmas Day that our little family can fully remember enjoying. I'm sure it won't be perfect, I will have a messy kitchen, and there may be temper tantrums, but it will all be a messy kind of wonderful because we are following our hearts and remembering the birth our of Lord Jesus.

Are you saying NO to anything this holiday season and making room for the YES in your heart? 

Zero Waste Clothes Shopping

Patagonia

Walking through the mall I am always shocked at the number of clothing stores I walk past. The sheer number of clothing items for sale in a single mall is mind blowing to me. There are usually a handful of department stores providing clothing for all age groups. Then you walk into the main part of the mall only to find more of the same - different brands of course. Do we really need to be selling that many clothes? And if we don't need to be selling that many items of clothing - how much waste are we creating in producing such excess?! 

There is waste in materials, waste in energy usage, waste in pollution, waste in people's skills and talents who are making clothing not necessary for our fellow neighbors.

Coyuchi

With this in mind, I have decided to become very conscious of what clothing companies I support and the number of clothing items I have in my closet - because in the end - we don't really need that much!

I started looking for clothing companies that focus on eco-friendly clothes - organic cottons mostly. These companies also follow eco-friendly manufacturing of their products. I feel good about the quality of my clothes and supporting companies focusing on sustainability. I love my pajamas from Coyuchi. I love my sweatshirt from Patagonia.

Goodwill

To take zero waste to another level, we decided to start shopping resale as well. I took my 5 year old to a children's resale store for a winter jacket. She picked out a jacket she loves for $17! My husband needed new jeans (He's been wearing jeans with holes in the knees for over a month.) and got a pair at Goodwill for $8. Now, it was my turn to try out the resale market. I was in need of a sports bra and workout pants. I was able to get a sports bra for $2.29 and athletic pants for $4.29!

Buying resale saved us over $75. We didn't upset our budget and we have our clothing needs met. I feel so great about supporting the resale market, the impact it made on our budget, and ultimately supporting our zero waste lifestyle.

Less Monthly Menstrual Waste - Diva Cup

Ok. So when you really think about it, buying tampons and pads is like buying garbage. Literally, you are buying something that you are planning on throwing away! There has to be a better option for our money and the earth!

Then I heard about the Diva Cup. It comes in 2 sizes, can be worn for 12 hours straight, and washed and reused. Sounds awesome and I dove right in. 

Size 2 was for those who are 30 years old and/or who have ever had a baby - vaginally or via c-section. That fit my description and I tried it. I was able to insert the Diva Cup with little effort, but then the tricky part came. IT GOT STUCK! 

Literally, I couldn't get it out. I tried for 15 minutes to get it out on my own before I decided to get help. The suction was so tight and the cup had moved so far back that I wasn't able to get it out on my own.

After getting the size 2 Diva Cup removed, I decided that maybe it was the wrong size for me. Maybe I needed the smaller size. So I got the size 1 designed for those under 30 and who have never had a baby. I inserted it in the evening and an hour later was able to remove it no problem. So I decided to wear it over night (directions say you can). When I got up in the morning, IT WAS STUCK AGAIN! 

It was so far back and the suction was so tight that I couldn't get it out on my own. Deja Vu! Once again after 10 minutes of trying to get it out - which resulted in my feeling nauseous from all the pressure down there - I needed to get help again. 

Major bummer! I was so excited to try this method, but it seems it is not the right fit for my body. I will be getting some reusable organic cotton moon pads instead. 

Less Antibiotic Use - Urinary Tract Infection

When you end up with a Urinary Tract Infection, how do you fight it off?

I ended up with a UTI a few weeks ago. I've had them before, so I knew when I got that burning sensation when I peed that it might be the start of a UTI. I really hate calling the doctor and asking for the medication and I was bound to beat this infection on my own if I could. 

I knew that cranberry juice helped fight UTIs, but I hate the taste of all juices, especially cranberry. But I sucked it up, held my breath and downed a bunch of cranberry juice. It seemed to help on a temporary basis. I would drink 8-16 ounces, it would get better that day, but the next day I felt the burning again. I probably wasn't drinking enough cranberry juice, but I have limits.

My taste buds were hating me. Plus, I knew I was taking in a bunch of unnecessary calories in juice. I was drinking Ocean Spray brand that had added apple and pear juice (for the sugars). The other option was a straight up cranberry juice with a bunch of sugar added. Neither option seems great to me.

Still determined to fight this infection on my own, I found out, through another mom, there are cranberry pills designed to help with UTIs! I was fascinated with this concept. If it worked it would save my taste buds and my calorie intake. I went straight to Whole Foods and found an organic cranberry pill that supports a healthy urinary tract! Awesome!

I started taking one pill a day. I knew it would probably take time to work. I had the UTI on and off for over a week at this point. It was a Tuesday when I started taking the daily cranberry pill. By Friday I was peeing constantly (almost peeing my pants a few times running to the bathroom). By Saturday morning the burning was at it's worst since the beginning. 

I told myself that if by Monday morning I was still feeling crappy, I would give in and call my doctor. I had about 16 oz of cranberry juice left in the refrigerator that I drank throughout the day Saturday and continued my daily cranberry pill through the weekend. 

Monday morning came and I felt almost 100% better. I was amazed! It's now Wednesday and I fell 100% better. I am still taking the daily cranberry pill through this week to help make sure I'm completely cleared of my UTI.

I think it's normal to feel worse before you feel better. And the fact that I was peeing constantly was probably a sign that I was flushing the bad bacteria from my bladder. I am so pumped that I beat this UTI naturally! At the first sign of another UTI, will be be taking my cranberry pills again!

Less Waste at Preschool

The Preschool my oldest attended last year had snack time each day. The snack was always provided by the parents on a rotating weekly schedule. We were to bring a snack food and a snack drink, along with dixie cups for the kids to drink out of.

Now my twins are in Preschool and my mind is all about Zero Waste. I started thinking about snack time and how we provide all these dixie cups each week that end up in the trash - WHAT A WASTE!

With Zero Waste at the top of my brain, I thought, there has to be a solution to this! My oldest brings her own snack to 4K this year - which is a water bottle and almonds/crackers/pretzels, etc. And I thought - Boy, it would be so easy to send my twins with their water bottles too! SOLUTION!!!!

So I wrote an email to our Preschool teachers with my idea:

Hi (Teacher),

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend. My girls are so excited to start Preschool!

I am writing you today because I had a thought/suggestion in regards to snack time. Right now we are using dixie cups to supply drinks to the preschoolers. I understand that there is no time to wash 18 little cups (x2) if morning and afternoon classes are full. At the same time almost 36 cups are being thrown in the trash every day of preschool. That is an estimate of 3,240 dixie cups being tossed in the trash over the course of the school year. 

To help our preschool be a little more environmentally friendly, would you consider asking parents to send their kids to preschool with water in their own reusable water bottles each day (one that they would take back home each day)? This would save on trash and then parents would only be asked to supply the snack for the class.

I think this would be a great opportunity to talk about taking care of our earth with the kids. I would even be happy to come in and talk to the kids about ways we can help the earth stay healthy :)

Let me know your thoughts.
Thanks so much,
Jaime

The day school started one of the teachers approached me and told me she got my email and that they loved my idea. Not only would it save waste, but it would also solve sticky juice spills and multiple runs to the drinking fountain. She said that they are planning on sending a letter home with the parents with the change! HOW TOTALLY AWESOME IS THIS!!!!

Here is the letter they sent home to parents:

Dear Parents,

We have decided to try something new this year. Instead of having our Star of the Week bring a drink with disposable cups, we would like to have each child bring their own water bottle to school each day. The bottle would be available to your child throughout classtime, as well as during snack. One parent pointed out to us that during the course of one school year, we would be discarding 3,240 cups! This is a great opportunity to teach our children about our environment and the little things that we all can do to pitch in. Please be sure to bring the water bottle home with you each day and refill it for the next class day. Also, be sure that the bottle is labeled with your child's name in a place that is easily seen.

Thanks for your support!

Preschool

I am totally pumped about this. I spoke up about something I am truly passionate about and was actually met with a welcoming response! It just shows that sometimes all you have to do is speak up. So many cool things can happen when we stand up and share our passions with others. I have a passion for living healthy (for our bodies and our planet) and living minimally. And I am so excited to continue this journey and share my joy here on my blog and in my community!