Small steps

Today, for lunch, I brought clam chowder that my lovely upstairs neighbor (and landlord) made and offered generously. It was delicious.

Today, after lunch, I thought about just shoving the dirty tupperware into my lunch bag and going back to my office to read. But instead, I made the deliberate choice to simplify my life by washing the tupperware now. Why is this more simple? Because it SAVES TIME LATER, and because, for goodness' sake, I HAVE THE TIME NOW. I have way less to do at lunchtime at work than I do at home in the evening.

There, one thing checked off the to-do list. See how easy living simply is?

This, by the way, is an example of one of my goals, which is "pick up things as you use them."

Some thoughts on simple living

Living simply is not about simply living. Simply living is what everyone else is doing. Simply living is going through the motions without thought or meaning.

Living simply is living deliberately. It's about thinking things through. It's about making choices about your own life instead of having society choose for you.

Ironically, simply living involves doing a lot more, but living passively. Living deliberately is about doing less, but living actively.

Living deliberately is much more difficult because it involves questioning, being confused, going against social norms, and requires much more self-confidence. But like most things in life, things that require more effort are often much more rewarding.

Slow food: Pumpkin Roasting

I'm sure this exists elsewhere, but here in Vermont where all the tree-hugging hippies live, there's this concept called slow food. It's supposed to be an opposition to fast food, and includes several different facets, including organic food, localvore eating, farmer's markets, urban homesteading, farming, and generally just being in touch with where your food comes from. Want more info? Try this: Slow Food USA.

In any case, I imagine some people are thinking, "I don't have time for that." I totally get that. I'm a busy girl, too, and frankly, I love me some Pop Tarts and Campbell's Tomato Soup. Not necessarily together. Also, although I try not to eat it much, I also like good old traditional fast food. Taco Bell is my friend. That said, I appreciate the idea of, well, appreciating the origin of our food. I also appreciate that, in some cases, it's more economical to do things the slow food way (as long as you ignore the tenet that time is money). In that spirit, I present to you: The Homemade Pumpkin Roasting Extravaganza.

I love pumpkin. Seasonally, I do a pumpkin chocolate chip cranberry muffin for breakfast that is awesome. Pumpkin is so autumnal! And delicious! So last week, when I went to buy a can of pumpkin to do the muffin bake, I was horrified that it cost $2.50. Not that that's necessarily a lot, but for goodness sake, canned corn only costs $.50!

So I decided to use part of my afternoon off on Friday, and do the slow food thing. Pumpkin style.

Gettin' all cleaned up in the sink.

Prepped for surgery

Surgery

Pumpkin guts! All ready to scoop out the stringy bits and separate out the seeds.

Then, you just cover the top with foil, and pop it in the over at 375 for an hour or so (it was about an hour and a half for this guy, since he was hugenormous). There's enough water content in the pumpkin to generate steam under the foil, which softens the sucker right up. 

When the inside is the consistency of basked potato, it's time to SCOOP! I used a big metal serving spoon, and put all the soft mushy pumpkin insides into a bowl. These are the decimated shells.

Mmmm! Giant bowl of PUMPKIN!

Pumpkin carcass.

After a little blender puree action and some oven seed roasting, the total yield for this pumpkin was the equivalent of 4 cans of the store-bought stuff, and a delicious bowl of salty roasted pumpkin seeds. All for $6.00. Boo-yah! Slow food rules!

De-cluttering the Closet

I promised pictures of the newly decluttered closet, which I shall now deliver on:

Old

New!

 Look, only a SINGLE LAYER of clothing high!

 This actually looks about the same, but I've switched the sweaters 

onto the shelves for fall.

 My drawers are openable! And not stuffed to the gills! Hooray!

It's not minimalism by any stretch of the imagination...but it IS an improvement, and one I'm quite pleased with.