Happy New Year! Looking back on 2010

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Minimalism: Is it really possible? Part 2

Last night I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned like a rotisserie for 3 hours. I had an idea for my dining room that I couldn't wait to put into place, so at 4:30am, as hubby was showering for work, I got started executing my plan. Here is what my dining room used to look like when I was gung ho on country style back in 2004.

Cute and homey, right? Eh. It's gone through a few transformations since this picture was taken, but the decorative fruit plates remained in the dish rack on the wall until this morning. Last year I bought a set of square white plates in my effort to de-countrify. I decided to put them in the plate rack instead. I took the punched tin wall sconces off the wall, made a few other changes, and this is what it looks like now:

When hubby came downstairs, I pushed him into the dining room to ask him his opinion. His response was, "I don't have any problem with that. It looks clean." Ok, that's one soldier on board! Next it was Megan's opinion. She woke up a few hours later and again, I pushed her into the room and reminded her that in Japanese culture (her passion), it's very common to decorate with simplicity. She took one look at it and said, "I like it." Breathing a sigh of relief, I realized that this minimalism idea might actually work, but there is still so much more to do. If you were to spin around and see the living room, you would not see such simplicity, but it's coming.

I simplified our bedroom a few years ago in an effort to make it feel like a nice comfy hotel room. Gone are the floral Eddie Bauer quilt and the eyelet ruffled valances and (cat fur lined) bedskirt. There has never been a TV in the bedroom, so we're ahead of the game on that one.

I bought that trunk when I was 17 and paid $7.00 for it. It was covered in dark green canvas. I spent an entire summer refinishing it. It's the only thing I brought with me into our marriage. If I had to keep only100 things, that trunk would be one of them.

I found this awesome big pot (left) at an estate sale and hubby cut, dried and stained some bamboo for me to put in it. (It grows in our backyard).

A very simple grouping.

On the right is our foyer. There used to be a table there covered in decorative items. It's gone, replaced only by this simple bench.

So, this is where I am in the journey of discovering what it's like to be happy with less. With each change, I can feel a huge sense of relief. Now that I know hubby and daughter are not going to freak out, I can continue.
I realize this is not for everyone and the first picture may be the most appealing to some people, but I have moved past that. I want to modernize, simplify, clean less and live more.

Minimalism: Is it really possible?

Megan made our fantasy in clay
as a Christmas gift to us this year.

So we keep downsizing, but how much do we need to get rid of to become minimalists? Have you heard of the The 100 Thing Challenge? That's a little extreme. I don't think we can realistically go quite that far, but it's intriguing. Our goal is to downsize enough to live comfortably in a smaller home in Florida a few years down the road. Hubby and I have had this ongoing fantasy of buying a little shack on a beach where we'd sell smoothies. We would only take enough things with us that would  fit in the shack. I wrote about it here in August.  Megan made us a little clay Shake Shack for Christmas complete with a satellite dish on the roof.
I am off work this whole week and every day I've been finding more things to throw away, put in the garage sale pile or donate. I have a bag full of old cancelled checks (remember those?) and I'm waiting for it to get warm enough so I can go outside and burn them. I even got dear daughter to part with some Barbie stuff. I organized it all into categories, photographed and listed it all on Ebay. I got bids already! This morning I filled up a giant bag with clothes and stuffed a big box with some miscellaneous items. Before I had any second thoughts, I got in the car and drove down to the Salvation Army Store and left it there. Seems other people were doing the same thing because there was a line of cars waiting to drop off loads of stuff.

Yesterday there was a marathon of Hoarders: Buried Alive on TLC. and I watched something like 6 episodes. I couldn't stop watching it for some strange reason. I am not a hoarder, by any means, but it made me realize even more that having stuff is not as important as living a good life, having great experiences, traveling, taking good care of one's self and one's family.

So the process continues....

Oh, the fur!

The Muffin loves this spot where the sun shines in.

A different Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has always been a time to stay in, eat, drink and hang out either at our own home or someone elses. Being a small family of 3 and not religious, we decided to try something totally different this year and go out. Our orignal plan was to do this on Christmas Day. We have a close friend who is Jewish and he told us how Jews usually go out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Day, but he lives in NY. Lots of Jews there. Northeast PA, not so much. I had a hard time finding a Chinese restaurant that planned on being open Christmas Day. I only found one, and it didn't look too appealing, so we decided to change our plans to Christmas Eve instead.

Hubby had to work until noon, so we planned for a 3:30 movie. It was fun going out and seeing all the people rushing around the shopping centers at the last minute. Traffic was fairly light as we headed to the big Cinemark theatre. We had a little time, so we stopped in Panera bread. There wasn't much left in the way of bread and pastry, but we got a loaf of sesame semolina and an apple pastry for Megan to eat the next morning. The poor people behind the counter looked so sad, so very sad, yet they managed to mumble a Merry Christmas to us as we left.

Onto the theatre! The parking lot had only a few cars and we were snickering at how cool that was because usually it's packed. The young people working there all had Santa hats on, but again, they looked sad, barely squeaking out a faint smile and a Merry Christmas. We got our popcorn and headed to the theatre. People were there! Who were they? Out on Christmas Eve? How curious! The movie was great. I was afraid all the special effects would make me sick, but it was very pleasing to the eye and quite thrilling. Hubby and daughter loved it too. As we were leaving, the young theatre employees stood along the wall, waiting to clean up. They looked so gloomy. They were probably thinking, "Please hurry up and get out of here so I can go home. It's Christmas Eve for goodness sakes. Out! Out!"

Now off to the restaurant! We decided on Japanese. We went to our favorite place and it was packed with people smiling and having fun! The hibachi tables were completely full! We got a booth and ordered lots of appetizers; gyoza, chicken maki, sushi and spring rolls. The hibachi chefs were really putting on a show and yelling "Sake! Sake! Sake!" and one chef kept singing "Ole, Ole! Ole, Ole!" The food was yummy and the atmosphere was energetic. How fun! How different! What I really found curious though was that the staff all wished us a Merry Christmas as we left. But we're (pretending to be) Jewish! What normal Christian would be eating at a Japanese restaurant on Christmas Eve? Megan, who is knowledgeable about Japanese culture, said that they just see us as Americans and, in their eyes, all Americans celebrate Christmas. Ok.

After that, we headed home, looking at all the Christmas lights along the way. Hubby opened a bottle of wine, we snacked on a few cookies and then we opened our gifts. It was a nice and new way to spend the evening. Today we'll be cooking up some bacon and pancakes for breakfast and hanging out in our jammies.

Too many cookies + not enough exercise =

5 pounds gained! OMG!

Howling at the moon! Lunar Eclipse.

Photo from CNN

I really wanted to see the lunar eclipse. I really did. I knew I would be awake and, thanks to my sleep disorder, here I am at 3am writing this. Alas, however, there is no red moon to be seen. Not even a star. It's too cloudy. It's not every lifetime that you get a chance to celebrate a solstice with a total eclipse of the moon. It hasn't happened for 372 years. Megan wanted me to wake her up to see it, but there's nothing to see. Bummer. I think I'll go and have a cookie.
Wait! Not so fast! I see it! The clouds broke apart and I can see it! It's so pretty! I woke up Megan and we were just on the front porch in the freezing cold saying "ooooh." It's high in the sky, full and light orange. I'm very happy now. I think I'll gaze at it for a while, make some tea and have another cookie to celebrate.  :)

Life is shorter up north.

Ok, I hate winter and technically it's not really winter yet. I'll be celebrating the winter solstice on the 22nd as it's the start of days getting a little longer. Not sure exactly how I'll be celebrating that yet.

                                                       I woke up this morning to this frigid outside temperature. Ugh.

Too cold to take a walk, too cold to run, too cold to do anything outside except get the newspaper and shut the door quickly to lock out the frigid air.

When I looked outside this morning, I saw a cold and colorless world. I always think that if I lived in a warmer climate, I would be getting so much more out of  life. More sunshine, more fresh air and more outdoor activities. If I want to take a walk around the block right now with my dog, I would spend 15 minutes putting on layers of clothes, heavy socks, a sweater, a scarf, gloves and a hat. Still it would not be enough.

I admit that I have no tolerance for the cold weather and I also suffer from seasonal affective disorder or S.A.D. as it's aptly shortened into. Even with the holiday approaching, it's hard for me to feel cheery, so today I stayed in and baked cookies for four hours. I will probably be eating them over the next 3 months as I wait for spring. Then I can start running again to work off the weight I will have gained. I'll be fatter, but at least I'll be able to go outside!

                                 

Recipe: Pistachio Raspberry Squares

This recipe has moved to its own page. See the "Recipe" tab at the top of my blog's home page.

Decluttering for life.

Ever start a collection that gets out of control? I remember when I was young, I liked rainbows. People bought me things with rainbows on them until one day I decided I was sick of them. About 20 years ago, when we got our first house, "country" was all the rage. With that came collections of antiques, crocks, baskets, tinware, you name it. All that is gone now as you'll read about shortly.

My latest thing has been elephants. Not just any elephants. I fancy the vintage ones made in Japan with the moriage designs. I buy them every time they come up on Ebay as if I have a need to posess every one that was ever made and in every color.

This is, (what I hope to be), my only weakness right now. Luckily they dont take up much space. Hubby's special things that he can't part with are his marionettes (although he did sell a few) and his paintball stuff. Our dear daughter has difficulty parting with anything but last year she let me sell ALL her Polly Pocket stuff in one batch on Ebay and we got over $100.00 for it all. She got to keep the proceeds which made it worth the sacrifice.

But hubby and I have made a serious effort to drastically pare down our possessions in the last couple of years in preparation for our relocation to Florida. There are no basements in Florida for junk. Here's a list of some things we've parted with recently by either selling, giving away, donating or throwing away:

A big train set, guns, a telescope, some furniture including 2 sofas, lots of clothes (since we lost weight), shoes, old electronics including big stereo components, tube TV's and VCRs (what are they?), all our movie videos, old computers, our lifetime collection of vinyl records (I know! sniff), 35mm cameras (again, what are they?), our entire tinware collection, an antique wagon, lots and lots of books, much of our Santa collection, lots of Star Trek collectibles, tons of knick knacks, curtains, quilts, dishes, baskets, Christmas decorations, and tons more.

Hubby has been working extra hard cleaning up the basement. He threw way a few car loads of stuff. We moved all our exercise stuff down there so the family room looks neater and we now have what looks like a home gym in the basement. I must admit, there is not one thing I have parted with that I have missed or gone looking for. It's amazing.

I found this article called  13 Ways to Enjoy Your Life Without Spending A Lot Of Money. Three of the activities are in or on a beach, hence the desire to relocate south. These are the kinds of  things I want to do with my life (except maybe surfing) that don't involve buying more stuff. Those days are over, except for maybe the occasional elephant?

Thank you brain!

As I write this, the temperature outside is 14.4 degrees. I can never express fully how much I hate winter. I don't care if it's the holiday season. I hate the cold and everything it brings with it; heating bills, coats, heavy socks, boots, gloves, snow, driving in snow, shoveling snow, dry skin, but mostly, I hate the feeling of being cold! Thankfully, I have a brain that works and it can take me to warm places. Photographs help to remember images, but my brain can remember the feelings that go with those images, especially the feeling of being warm! Sun on my skin! Humidity! Ahhhh!

Traditionally this is the week we have gone to Florida. Three times to be exact. Although it's cold there right now, the weather was always perfect when we went there the 2nd week of December. The best part was experiencing Christmastime in a warmer climate. The following are some photo memories of those trips.


Our first trip was in the year 2000. You can imagine our mouths agape as we entered the lobby of the Wilderness lodge, gazing upon this giant Christmas tree in this absolutely incredible lobby. Megan was only 5 years old, but she had lots of fun. She got to meet Pooh, Tigger and Ariel in the Magic Kingdom. We saw it snow on Main street and one night we rode the monorial and visited all the hotels on the line to see the Christmas trees in the lobby of each resort. They were all amazing! It was a perfect vacation in every way.



The next time we went was in 2004. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress and it was the most beautiful resort hotel we had ever seen. It was decorated for Christmas and the lobby was filled with real palm trees, pointsettia plants and talking parrots. I spent more time taking photos in and around the hotel than anywhere else.

This was our first time visiting Universal and Seaworld. Megan met Spiderman and got to touch dolphins.

We were so amazed by Seaworld. One of the best things about the trip was that early December is considered low season and we basically had the parks to ourselves. We had no wait on the lines for rides at Islands of Adventure, which we thought was the coolest place on earth and we decided that Disney was now old hat in comparison. It was another perfect vacation!

Our last trip was in 2007. This time we stayed on Universal property at the Royal Pacific Hotel. It was so beautiful with a polynesian flair. We had a room with a view of the Incredible Hulk coaster and the pool below. We walked to Citywalk everyday and enjoyed the parks with no crowds. Again, it was all decorated for Christmas and so beautiful! We also revisited Seaworld and this time I got to touch a dolphin! Another perfect vacation!

So maybe now you can understand our love affair with Florida. We have such nice memories. This past summer we went to Tampa to experience the summer heat of Florida and we didn't mind it as much as people said we would. We had a great time and it was the trip that made us finally decide that we want to relocate there. With the current temperatures here in PA, that day can't come soon enough!

How cold is it?

This is for you, SRQ!
The top # is the outside temperature.
I'm crying frozen tears!

The Bad Muffin, continued.

This mountain of fur (The Muffin) is always nearby, usually here in front of my computer. I just took this photo without flash to capture the ambience of the wee hour of the morning as well as the depth of her massive furriness. She is my constant companion and the reason I vacuum so much.

The Bad Muffin

We have 3 cats. One is very bad. She is "The Muffin".

 A furry beast that's gets into everything.  

We just put this unit together for our assorted TV peripherals,
and she couldn't wait to claim a space for herself.

 Here she is in the laundry room getting into trouble.

 

She also loves plastic, especially bubble wrap. She chews on it.

She sure is a beautiful cat, but I think she knows it. Look how she puts herself on display.

Megan chose this cat among hundreds that were up for adoption at our local SPCA. She picked a gem. Despite all the trouble she causes, we love her. We got our dog Coco at the SPCA also. I encourage everyone to adopt a pet from a shelter, make a donation or volunteer your time. It's a worthy cause.

I'm dreaming of a white...Thanksgiving?



Yes, folks! It's snowing on Thanksgiving up here
in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking back on this year, we're thankful for many things. We had lots of great experiences, most notably our memorable trip to Tampa in July and our participation in the Hershey Half Marathon in Oct. We attended three Anime conventions, including one in Pittsburgh, and we also had fun at Dorney Park and Hersheypark this summer.



Megan with voice actor
JohnnyYong Bosh at
Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh

Chris flew to Alabama in Oct to visit his parents who were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. He also got to spend quality time with his two brothers while he was there. Everyone is doing well, feeling healthy and happy. It's wonderful!

Chris's family reunited, a rare occasion!

We are fortunate and very thankful to have jobs in this economy, thankful for our home and for our four footed family members too (even the furry beast known as The Muffin.

 

The Muffin



Personally, I'm thankful for discovering that I can create something called a "blog." This is my soft place to fall and I enjoy blogging as almost a therapy of sorts. I also really love reading and sharing thoughts with fellow bloggers and I am thankful for them (you) as well.

As we give thanks for all that we have, we are also thinking of those who have lost loved ones. Our hearts and prayers are going out to a special friend of ours who lost both his parents over the last two weeks.


Today we are having Thanksgiving dinner with Megan's Japanese tutor and her family and we are looking forward to it very much. I'm bringing pie!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

My hubby is 53 today!
Happy Birthday Chris!

My Sleep Disorder

Yesterday I found out my co-workers got together over the weekend with their spouses for drinks and cards. I wasn't invited supposedly because I can't stay awake past 8:00. OK, so I have a sleep disorder. And it's getting worse. I awoke at 2am this morning. I couldn't stay in bed knowing I would never fall back to sleep, so I went down to the computer and turned on my radio to listen to Coast to Coast with George Norry. Any other fans out there? He talks about all kinds of paranormal stuff. People call in and talk about how they were abducted by a giant duck and he totally believes them.

I used the time this morning to get some work done. I do part time work that involves counting and packaging small parts. It's tedious work, but it's a living and I've been doing it for 25 years for my Dad's company. I can get a lot done at this time because there are no other distractions.

So by 9am, I'll be ready for lunch because I will have been awake for 7 hours already. No wonder I'm nodding off at 6pm! My circadian clock is way off and the recent "fall back" 1 hour has a lot to do with it. When everyone is moaning about turning the clocks ahead in the spring, I'm the only one who is happy because I can finally get back to an almost normal life. Almost.

Never Give up! Never Surrender!

Another day, another muscle group to torture. This morning we went for P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps and we did pretty well. We chose lighter weights this time around so as not to repeat the same crippling after affects of last weekend. We were feeling pretty chipper. Chris continued on with Ab Ripper and then we decided to try another run to prove to ourselves that we don't really suck, (like we did yesterday). We went up to the school where we usually run and it was deserted. Yay! I did just a short run of 2 miles and Chris did 3. It was cold, but sunny and clear and we were happy to have proved that we can still run without feeling like we're dying. Unfortunately, I developed a very sharp pain in my hip. Whenever I take a step forward now, it's really uncomfortable. So I took a couple of Advil which I washed down with some Ovaltine and took a long hot shower. Hopefully, I will be able to walk tomorrow.
We're going to check out the movie Unstoppable today and then stop at Sam's Club to get a rotisserie chicken for dinner. (the greatest way to spend $4.98 on planet earth!)
Hey, remember the pumpkin I carved on Halloween a few posts back? He's in the backyard now and looking pretty demonic. Check it out:

Bwah ha hah ha!

Running....on empty.

So it's been just a little over a month since we ran our relay in the Hershey Half Marathon. We only ran once since then and that was about 3weeks ago and we didn't do so well. We tried again today because it was sunny and 60 degrees. The school campus where we usually run was crowded with cars and people attending a football game, so we went to a park that has a dirt track. 4 1/2 times around was a mile. Ugh. Boy did we ever suck! I did 3 miles in like 45 minutes with lots of walking. Chris did 4 miles. Why is it that you lose it all in just a short amount of time?
Last Saturday morning we did P90X Plyometrics and half of Chest and Back. We were crippled with pain for 4 days! I guess we have to get back into a regular workout routine again. Oh this is hard!

Decisions, Decisions....

We have an opportunity to take a bus ride into NYC on a Saturday in December for $25 a person. The bus would leave at 7am and drop us off near Radio City Music Hall for the day. Then the bus would leave NYC at 7pm. I told hubby about it and we were both excited at the idea of taking our daughter to the big city to see the sites of Christmas in New York. Then we thought about it....and thought about it some more. Gave it a night to sleep on it. Family meeting again this morning.

First off, it would be $75.00 just for the bus. Getting dropped off approx 10am would leave us about 9 hours in the Big Apple. So, what would we do for all that time? First stop would be Nintendo world for Megan...an hour there for sure. Then we would check out the concourse and street shops at Rockefeller Center, watch the skaters and look at the tree..ok another hour, maybe a little more. Then it was a toss up between visiting the Museum of Modern Art ($20.00ea) or seeing a show at Radio City $80-$100.00 per ticket for a decent seat). We would of course have to have lunch and dinner, easily another $50-$60.00 at least.

One of my concerns, (aside from the fact that we would be exhausted and broke by 3:00), was that it gets dark now around 4-4:30. That would leave a few hours in NYC in the dark. Hmmm. Sooo....all of our Christmas shopping is done, I'm getting new tires for my car on Saturday ($600.00), I really, really, REALLY hate the cold. I was leaning toward not going for many reasons and hubby was thinking it might be better to go in the summer. But the tree! The skaters! The 3 hour bus ride....the crowds....the walking...the cold....the money. Ugh!

We decided to take the imaginary money we would spend on the bus trip and put it toward 3 tickets to here instead:

The beautful, warm, sunny, white beaches of Florida. Yessss! I like that idea much better!

Falling Back

This time change thing really screws me up. I'm an early riser, always have been. Last night we set all the clocks back 1 hour before we went to bed. Here I am now wide awake at 3am. I actually woke up at 2am, but stayed in bed trying to fall back to sleep.
I've had this problem for as long as I can remember. In the fall and winter, when it gets dark and cold, I cuddle up on the sofa with a blanket and fall asleep in front of the TV for a couple hours. Then I wake up, watch a little more TV, then go to bed. When 3am comes, I open my eyes and I'm wide awake. And here I am now, in front of the computer, writing this instead of sleeping.

Halloween Makeup & Crazy Lunch Ladies

Today was the day our school celebrated Halloween and I wanted to do something special. Since  I love skulls, I decided to do some cool face makeup. I gathered some online photos of examples of skull face painting and I took the features that I liked from different ones to create my own. It took me 2 hours.

First I took some eyeliner pencil and I outlined where I wanted everything to be. The I used some black powder eye makeup and went around the lids of my eyes because they don't recommend that you put the black face makeup close to your eyes.

Then I started putting the white on where I wanted it. I eventually ended up using a paintbrush to apply it and a small makeup sponge to dab it until it looked evenly applied. After the white was done, I started applying the black to the areas I had marked out. I used a paintbrush and it covered really well.

Then I added some details in red to give it some pop and I think it came out nice. I dug out a hat from one of Megan's old tap dancing costumes and taped some dollar store roses to it.

The kids at school loved it. I was afraid it would frighten them, but I don't think there's much that scares kids these days. They thought it was pretty neat. We played scary music, turned the lights out in the kitchen and just put the lights on over the food. They got a kick out of that. Our register lady was a clown, my fellow server was a hula girl and our camera-shy snack lady was a sumo wrestler. What a crew!

HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Easy Pie Crust

This recipe has moved to its own page. See the "Recipe" tab at the top of my blog's home page.