The hardest part of...anything...is letting go

I'd been thinking a lot, on and off, that I make life much more complex for myself than it needs to be - Dh reminds me that often too - like taking on an extra couple of blogs and extra hobbies.

But, I believe this recent identity theft incident, eating up my spare time and brain cells, may prove to be the impetus that gets me to really simply and de-stress my life.

Letting go will encompass several important areas:
1) home - this will include major de-cluttering; donating books, CD-ROMs, etc., to the library instead of trying to sell them on Half.com

2) mind - I need to forget old notions that just may not apply. For example, I caught myself thinking, "damn, I just wasted a whole weekend," and was starting to feel depressed, but I caught myself in time. I asked myself, "am I feeling happy? Did I get enough sleep? Have I cleaned bathrooms like I usually do?" The answers were "yes" all around. So, I've not really wasted the weekend if I'm still at peace with myself and I'm happy.

2) extraneous - no more picking up new hobbies and trying to pursue things that lead to dead ends.

Speaking of ends, we picked the last of the mache from the greenhouse. It made a beautiful salad (here it is, pre-washing).The meal itself was pretty darned tasty too...organic hotdogs on homemade buns. Dh made a cauliflower dish using Mark Bittman's Cauliflower with Garlic and Anchovies recipe in his How to Cook Everything book; it was delish.Letting go: it's a little sad, but it'll all lead to a lighter place: lighter home, lighter heart, lighter mind.

Do you have something you need to let go of? Old textbooks that you'll never use again? A grudge? Or an ugly something you inherited?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Good food, good spaces

I wish I could say that watching Julie & Julia inspired me to cook more, but, really, why would I when I have an amazing hubby* who, like a culinary MacGyver, can whip up a meal fit for a queen with just some salt, herbs, and duct tape. Well, ok, maybe not duct tape.

Last night, he picked some mache and lettuce from our greenhouse, and cooked up fried potatoes in duck fat, made a salad with the greens, and also a cold green bean salad with the beans we had canned. Simple, yes, but my taste buds were more than amused.This is partly why we've not been eating out much lately. Even the really good restaurants don't have fresh enough, or organic enough, veggies to suit our tastes.

I'm reading this book right now that makes me want to totally revamp my art/craft/sewing space. It's an easy read: lots of photos and very few words. I recommend it to all my crafty blog friends!

What are you reading this week?

*Hubby may be a superb chef, but he does pick the worst movies to watch.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Happy December!

Did you all hear the sonic boom of my November going by? But I did it! Cranked out 50,166 words in a month, and here's what I have to show for it:Doesn't pay the bills or clean the kitchen (really!), but I had so much fun with my NaNoWriMo buddies that I plan to do this again next year.

I'm cracking up here because I had planned on posting this yesterday, but the day got away from me (and it was *hands gesturing* THIS big!). I had uploaded all the photos and was going to finish doing the write-up today while at the library so I could post it, but the library wireless connection was having fits and so I couldn't do it for a while. Then, when I was finally able to get online, I accidentally deleted one of these photos, so had to wait to get home before I could upload the photo again before posting. I have a feeling the Blogging gods didn't want me to post anything. And, dear Allison (Under a Shady Tree) came over and gave me a big ol' nudge before I could finally crank this out. ;D

What else went on in November? Well, our mache grew very nicely, for one. In hand:and in salad:Ds#2 turned 12 - good grief, how did that happen? And dh attempted to make kimchi for the first time with our own napa cabbage:Here they are in the jars that JGTH gave us:And last, but not least, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with a couple of friends - lots of good food and laughter over playing Wii and ping pong together. In remembrance of a nice holiday, I dedicate our canned Tree of Life Organic Cranberry sauce to Brad (Bone in the Fan) and his Meatist column, Blonde Duck (A Duck in Her Pond) because she is also fan, and Grace, because she doesn't like this stuff. ;)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams