Chicken and rice bowl

Got a cranky baby, zero time to cook, or just zero motivation? Here's a mostly guilt-free dinner on a budget that's quick (yeah, 10 minutes? I can do that), easy, light, and nutritious! It made enough to feed my 18 month old and myself dinner, and we have enough leftover for Daddy when he gets home.

Cook 1 c rice (this takes the 10 minutes)
Open 1 can chicken, drain
Cut up 1/2 head of broccoli, add to bowl with 2T water, cover with plate, microwave 2-6 minutes, then drain.
Mix it all together. Add cheese, butter, seasoning (Nature's Own or Mrs. Dash are good), and sea salt. YUM.

Maximizing a Minimal Toy Stash

A huge part of my "making do" is one I am honestly a little ashamed of sometimes. I hate whining about having very little space, when in reality, I live in a 2-bedroom apartment. It's the presence of work surfaces, crafting surfaces, clothes, books, hubby's video game collection, and other STUFF that informs our existence but also takes up our space. The reason for my twinge of guilt is that I know and I've seen how the rest of the world lives. Two bedrooms in rural Africa? Opulence. But even owning the hundredth part of what we own would be opulence there as well. However, I do have to be sensitive to the culture in which I live; and according to our culture's norms, we live a pretty simple life, relatively free of the bonds of our things. And I want badly to continue in that direction. Giving away, throwing away, and selling all are regular parts of our efforts to pare down and remove unnecessary junk from our small home. And the more we do that, the more breathable space is available, the more we can fill our home with what really matters, the more we can create an environment that is uncluttered and inviting.

Then there's the challenge of passing on that gift to our children. Much of the environment of the home is situated around Raiden's needs. He's almost 18 months old, so he can reach everything up to my rib cage, but doesn't yet have the control to be trusted with things like houseplants and crystal. That means I have to keep things in different places for both our sakes. He also requires stimulation through play, both with household items and his own toys. This is really where this post comes in. How do you make do with little space, few toys, and keep a sense of organization and plenty of opportunity at every turn for fun? This is what has worked well for me:

I love the concept of stations. Brightly-colored objects en masse are quickly overwhelming. A toy box begs to be dumped with no concern for any of the individual items. Besides, where would I put one? But if I set aside some small spaces and place a few toys there, then he has options all over the room that call for his agency and creativity.

SO, I'm going to show you ALL of my little boy's toys and how they're arranged on the rare occasion that they are in their places of belonging. Everything else he plays with is house-related.

This is where most of his toys are. Behind him is a pull toy and a popping push toy.The box has several small toys in it and the table has a xylophone, a soft toy, and two different stacking toys on it. The push toy is the only thing we have right now that is electronic. Everything else only makes noise if you make the noise yourself. 

Under the coffee table is where the mega blocks and the hot wheels go. He can pull them out and put them back at will. You can see that the "broom brooms" have already seen some action this morning.

I cleaned out one shelf and had some space in front of the books. The top shelf has two puzzles and the bottom one has about 18 different books. One is electronic, one is soft, and two or three are touch-oriented. 

This is his bedroom. There is one box of shapes and cutouts, a bowl of stacking toys turned into balls, and two exercise balls that double as toys. In the crib are two soft puppies that he sleeps between while under his puppy blanket.

And that's it. That's all we've got out for him. For rotation purposes, I keep a box of things hidden away in the closet, and every 3 months or so will trade out unused toys for new ones.

Making Crispy Hair Amazing on a Making-Do Budget

Yick! Every winter, it's the same story. My hair goes from glowing with health to crispy, breaking, and with split ends everywhere. After trim and trim again, I'm left feeling like all the work I've put into length has been lost.

What is the culprit? Well, I looked up some possible ones, and ranked myself on how mean I was being to my hair:

Hot air dryer (blow dryer): Nope. I use it once or twice a year. Air dry for me.
Curling/straightening irons: Again, super rarely. Not enough to explain this.
Shampoo with alcohol in it: Probably. It's cheap stuff, but I only shampoo the roots.
Shampooing daily: Nope. Two-three times a week, and again, only the roots.
Not conditioning enough: Haha, no. I condition (often deep condition) every time I wash.

Not trimming: Probably not enough. I trim every few months or so... when it gets scraggly.

Hot showers: Um, yes. I wash my hair in really warm, kinda hot showers. Not changing that.

Another thing not mentioned that I think might bear some weight: Pregnancy. My body oils are being re-routed as fat blobs on a certain tiny creature growing inside me. I'm not complaining, but probably should take some fish oil. Catholics and Lent means no wild-caught fish on sale for me.

SO, what's an amazing solution on a making-do budget?

Apparently, hair masks are easy, cheap, and quick to make yourself. Got any of these lying around?

Honey

Apple cider vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil

Almond oil or coconut oil

Avocado

Egg yolk

All these things are great mask ingredients! I used what I had on hand (avocado, honey, and olive oil) and made a thick goop to put on my hair. I clipped it up (not easy when hands and hair are covered in goop) and left it for at least an hour, then rinsed the worst out, braided it, and washed it the next morning.

The result: I still have split ends. Nothing will make them heal back, but my hair is no longer dry, crispy, or threatening to break off. It feels soft, thick, and healthy again. A trim will finish off the breaks that already are there, but this should stave off the new ones and allow the hair to keep growing through the last of this winter.  

OCTOBER DECLUTTER FEST!!!

Yup, it's about that time. Time for Christmas and all the stuff that comes in the house for it. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a nice, quiet month before Thanksgiving craziness set in? Oh, wait! There is! It's called October, and it is upon us!

SO, in addition to being essentially gluten free again (since I liked it so much), this month I will be following the plan from Rachel of Intentionally Simple and doing a nice little cleaning/decluttering challenge.

I'll be finally getting to do it with her. I wanted so badly to do this last year, but at this time last year, I was 1 week postpartum with my first baby and there was, to put it mildly, a snowball's chance in the center of the sun that I was going to be cleaning anything. Oh, and did I mention that we were only half moved into our apartment? Yeah.

So, this year, I'm happy to dive in! If you're with us, here's the link to all the days:

http://intentionallysimple.com/31-days-to-living-intentionally-simple/

I have each thing jotted down on my calendar. I'll probably be mixing up the days a little because of David's and my staycation and the company we'll be having that week, so I'm going to cross off each item on my calendar as I do it, instead of doing the days in the order they come.

Also, though I had forgotten that this was coming up, last week I  cleaned out the baby's closet (Day 18 and 19) and gave away the things I didn't need that were lying around there. I also got rid of the unneeded clothes in our closet, but didn't get to the storage above the clothes, so Day 6 will be a little more stuff focused and less clothes-focused.

I really feel like being neat and decluttered is part of how you make space for amazing to happen in your life. If you hold on to all the junk, then there's no room to make things that you really love a priority. Last month, that meant releasing some junk I'd been eating so that I could ingest more good stuff, and it payed off big time. Though I've already prioritized this process somewhat, it's nice to intentionally attack it in your home.

SO, look forward to my weekly posts, likely to happen on each of the 4 Sundays in the month, as well as an update on how we saved a boatload of money by not going to the beach this upcoming week (sniff sniff) but still (hopefully) will have an amazing week off.

Halfway There (oh OH...)

Well, the 15th has come and gone faster than I expected. Before I get my lazy carcass up off the couch to measure, I'll add a few notes:

I feel great. I have a little indigestion today, but that's because I had a stomach bug yesterday. It only lasted about 12 hours, but they weren't fun hours. This is here because it may also affect my size a little. Maybe not, but it's worth noting. 

People who know me well have noted that I look slimmer. This may be due to reduction in midsection bloat, but my MIL even said I look like I did when David and I were dating. I don't think I'm quite there yet, but it's nice to hear the compliment. 

The one difference I've noticed is a stark drop in appetite. I've gone from grazing a lot to eating small, snack-sized meals 4-5 times a day. Half a bowl of soup here, piece of fruit there, that kind of thing. I'm quite satisfied with the food I'm eating and am loving some of the GF bread mixes I've found and what they accomplish for me. Read: I ate pizza for dinner last night! Also, Chik-fil-a has a GF menu. This was a source of delight for me.

This brings me to the point I have reached. Really, if you have the time and resources to make it happen, there's really not much you can't eat. Cakes, pies, pizza, hamburgers, cookies--you may have to modify your favorite recipes, but if it exists, there is probably a GF version. In these 2 weeks, I really don't feel that I've given much up at all. I've made different choices, but I haven't gone hungry nor wanting. Though, I will say, I'd give the $5 I was unwilling to drop earlier for a box of GF mac and cheese right now. I'm kinda kicking myself for not buying rice pasta when I had the chance. 

Hip: 39 inches

Waist: 32 inches

Bicep: 13 inches

Sweet! I've gone down about an inch in the hip (the measurement I hated most, and about 1/2 inch elsewhere! For anyone's reference, I'm about 5 foot 7 in height and weighed 155 last week. 

We'll see if anything changes in the next two weeks. I'm pretty stoked to keep up exercising and eating healthy, wheat-free foods. I don't think this is a miracle diet or anything like that, but I am liking what I'm seeing and the choices I'm making with this new boundary. 

ONE WEEK DOWN, 3 to go!

Day 7                     Sunny Saturday, Chattanooga trip and chilling with my husband

Today was a great day to be gluten free! We went to Earth Fare and got some tasty GF foods—some cookies to dip in my tea (which were ok, but far too sweet) and some crackers, which were delicious! I can have my cheese and cracker platter for breakfast now!

Breakfast: Slept through…hooray!

Lunch: Chicken salad and California roll sushi

Dinner: More chicken salad, a plum, some crackers and cheese

Snacks/beverages: Hot tea, Moroccan mint green iced tea, water

Day 6 and We're Almost to One Week!

Day 6                     Sunny Friday, Groceries and evening at Ama’s!

Quiet day and almost one week into it! Though I’m still not eating much (really hot weather lately), I’m enjoying everything I’m eating. There are so many great foods out there that don’t involve gluten that it would take a long time for me to exhaust the list. In other news, my salad gave me a cold, miffed stare when I opened the fridge. I wasn’t there for it, anyway. So there.

Brunch: Leftover Banh pho with lots of avocado, green onions, and a fried egg in it. MMmmm

Dinner: Stir fry with kale, spinach, rice, and tatziki sauce

Snacks/beverages: Hot tea, dried figs, a chocolate, a couple of chips, a few bites of watermelon