Friday, March 9, 2012

Embracing the Unconventional

Photo credit

Another book I had hoped to get through but ended up skimming is Kim Barnouin's new book Skinny B*tch: Home, Beauty, & Style. In this book she highlights the gross gunk we encounter everyday that goes without our noticing. She gave some super helpful {and applicable} advice on minimizing the effect of toxins in our environment, cosmetics, and even the clothes we wear!


I had heard most of it from my mom here and there already, and honestly don't have the time or dinero to follow much of the advice given where I am now, but something to keep in mind when we are future apartment shopping, eventually start looking for a house of our own, and/or start talking babies {someday}.

It was overwhelming to read about all of the chemicals we encounter in our everyday lives, and if I were to obsess about it, would be able to worry all of the fun out of anything and everything, but it is definitely something to keep in mind when considering home goods purchses {and will definitely be vacuuming more often!}

All of this brings me to the picture above, with the beautiful, natural, lived in kitchen... and then I have to wake myself up and get back to reality. Life is wonderful right now, and I don't want to let myself wish our penny pinching, lovey-dovey low key weekends, or my reckless late night cramming sessions away for an instant!

We are making memories right where the Lord has us, and I wouldn't trade that for any amount of organic cotton sheets or butcher block counter tops :)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

It's Spring Break! {and I'm Loving It!}

We were able to take a long weekend to St Augustine to visit my grandparents and see my sister and cousin while down there, such a good time all around! :)
We were SO thankful that DJ's sister was willing to add Peyton to her crew for the few days we were out of town {even if he is the most needy dog on the planet now, we can tell he was very loved on}.
{as you can see, we are making great headway on the laundry!}
Yesterday, I got caught up on errands galore, which made me feel super accomplished and on top of things, yet completely miss when I used to get paid to run other people's errands :P
And on top of those errands, I made it home in time to make my first meal/recipe using Quinoa!
I was pretty proud of myself because I am pretty good about trying new veggies and such, but those bulk bins at Earthfare always intimidated me. I usually go, get my flax seed, and wonder what all the rest of it is used for.
Anyways, I had this preconceived idea that buying dry grains or beans would make the whole cooking process much more time demanding, but with Quinoa, that was not the case.
I got home around 5 and by 7 had this delicious chili on our table!
I am back to eating vegan after I read The Kind Diet while in St Augustine, and am hoping to stick to my guns with it this time, no more back and forth wishy-washy-ness anymore!
Topped my bowl off with a dollup of vegan sour cream and we had a nice relaxing low key night at home :)