Simplifying Our Life- Media & Online

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In this post I'd like to focus on what we've done to simplify the media in our life and general computer stuff.  While what we're doing may not appeal to everyone, we're really loving how things are going and I hope that this inspires or helps someone out there.  Basically, we've gone digital with just about everything, or are working our way towards going completely digital.

MEDIA

Books- As I said in my last post, we decided to take the plunge and buy Kindles.  It's something that I've been thinking about ever since they came out, but up until a few months ago, I didn't think that a Kindle could possibly be as good as an actual book.  Turns out that it's not as good as a book.  It's much better!  My only regret now is that I wish we would have gotten them much sooner.  We will not be buying actual paper books anymore, only e-books.   This has many benefits-

1.  It saves on resources.  Besides the actual paper, energy and materials used to make a book, there's also the energy used to haul books to stores or to have them sent to you if you purchase them online.  Then there's the gas and time you use to drive to the store or library to get books (if you don't have them delivered, that is).

2.  It's cheaper.  E-books cost quite a bit less than purchasing new books and Amazon offers all of the classics, as well as many others, for free.  You can also log into your local library and check out their e-books. 

3.  It saves on space.  We can store up to 1400 books on our Kindles and an unlimited amount of them in our cloud.  That's a ton of space and leaves us with a lot less to dust!  The cloud also serves as a back up source for our books, which gives us peace of mind.   

4.  We can sync to our computers and iPhones (when we get them in a few months, that is), so that we can read our books anywhere, whether we have our Kindles with us or not.

5.  It's much easier to carry & hold.  At 6.5" x 4.5" and weighing a mere 6 ounces, it's a breeze to carry in my purse and hold while reading.  One of the books I'm currently reading is over 1000 pages and I definitely prefer holding my Kindle to read it!  They'll also be nice to take on our road trips, which will save on space and having to lug several guide books in & out of the places we stay.   

Cookbooks- Over the last few years, we've gone from having somewhere around 50 of them to 3.  Even with those three, our plan is to go through them and eventually get rid of them.  Right now, I have every recipe that we kept out of every cookbook printed out and kept in a folder, but I'll be making documents for each one and putting them on our Kindles.  Depending on how that works, we may still be keeping the printed versions of them in the folder, so we'll see.

Magazines- I recently switched from the print version of the three subscriptions I had to the digital version or cancelled them all together.  You can also get magazines on Kindles or other devices like iPhones, but not every magazine has that option yet.

CD's- We have several hundred cd's that we'll be bringing to a shop that purchases used ones.  Whatever they don't buy will be donated.  From now on, all of our music will be purchased through iTunes and to back it all up, we use the iTunes Match, which puts everything in our cloud.  It's a great thing because we can sync to any computer and Apple device.  Plus, if something happens to our computer, we have it all backed up in our cloud.   

Movies & Video Games- We've never purchased movies, but until our local Blockbuster shut down, we always drove to the store to rent them.  Now we go through Blockbuster online for both movies and video games (I don't play them but Mike loves his PS3).   We may be switching to something like On Demand in the future, depending on costs and availability. 

Photos- There are about seven photo albums of non-digital photos that we have which we never look at.  Our Flickr albums, though, we look at a lot, so I'm going to be either scanning all of our non-digital photos or going through a scanning service to have them made into digital versions.  Flickr also serves as a back up source for our photos, just in case we lose them on our computer.  I like that you can organize them so much more than a physical album, too, by putting them in sets, collections and adding tags to them.   

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF  

Backing Up Files- As I said above, backing up our media is important and we have things in place for that.  I don't have many documents, but the ones I do have I back up with Dropbox.  It's easy and if you don't have a ton to back up, it's also free. 

Finances- We've gone paperless with all of our bills and bank statements.  That's really cut down tremendously on paper, checks, stamps and time.  It's also great to see up to date information on our accounts rather than waiting for a paper statement.

Does anyone have any tips to add?  I'd love to hear them!

Catching Up

I hope that everyone had a lovely holiday!  Since we celebrated with our family the weekend before last, we had a very quiet, relaxing weekend. 

Mike made Popeye Pasta from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan one night, omitting the olive oil but adding some pine nuts to it. The colors certainly went with the season! 

We also went out for lunch on Saturday at Beans & Barley in Milwaukee.  I had the TLT (tempeh, lettuce & tomato), which was supposed to be on whole wheat but ended up on rye.  I can't stand rye bread, but I still tried to eat it and ended up not being able to stomach it.  So, I basically took everything out of the bread and made a sort of salad with it.  Not too bad!  My sandwich also came with some sort of salad, but I didn't care for it.  I guess I can be a Miss Picky Pants at times.......   

Mike had the tofu burrito, which is a really good tofu scramble.  It came with chips, guac, spanish rice, hot green salsa and fresh fruit.  He got my pickle so I got some of his chips, guac, rice and salsa.  I believe I got the better end of that deal!

Tonight Mike made the Clamless Chowder from Vegan Soups & Stews for All Seasons, omitting the oil, as usual.  It's a soup we've had several times before and love. 

We don't exchange gifts anymore and don't really celebrate holidays that much, but we did decide to get something that's been on our wish list for a while now- Kindles!  We got the basic, cheapest, smallest ones and absolutely adore them.  I've already ransacked the free classics that Amazon offers as well as our local library's e-books.  Since I'll be carrying mine around in my purse when I go to work, I also treated myself to this gorgeous sleeve to protect it.  The bookworm in me is very happy indeed!   

Besides that, we really didn't get many gifts, which is fine by me since we're trying to reduce our possessions.  My in-laws got us a cooler that plugs in to our car's outlet, which will be super nice for road trips.  It has an adapter for wall outlets so that we can keep it cool in hotel rooms.  No more plastic bags of ice and messy, soaked food!  Plus, no more ice equals more room in the cooler for food.

Another three day weekend coming up.  I hope everyone is having a great week!   

Hotels & Lodgings With Fenced In Areas For Dogs

We've stayed at several places that had fenced in dog runs, which is such a nice thing to have when you're traveling with dogs.  I've also made several other guides for traveling and lodgings for dogs.  All of the below lodgings have a fenced in area for dogs to run off leash.

In addition to these places, I have a rather large list of campgrounds & RV resorts that have fenced in areas for dogs, listed by state.

La Quinta Inn in Moab, Utah

La Quinta Inn in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Midtown location)

La Quinta Inn in North Platte, Nebraska

Greer Lodge Resort cabins in Greer, Arizona

Sliding Rock Cabins in Northern Georgia

Russian River Getaways Cabins in Northern California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

Big Bear Getaway Cabins & Vacations Homes in Big Bear City, California (only some have fenced in areas for dogs)

San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara, California (the Warner cabin has a fenced in yard)

Project Vegan's Welcome To Paradise Guest Home in Tucson, Arizona

Ten Thousand Waves Resort in Santa Fe, New Mexico (several of their rooms have enclose courtyards)

Black Dog Inn in Estes Park, Colorado (the Mt. Olympus cabin only)

Cliffside Cottages In Estes Park, Colorado

Upper Skyline Cabin in Estes Park, Colorado

Acadia Acres in Bar Harbor, Maine (the Jordan Point house has a fenced in dog run)

Hicksville Trailer Palace in Joshua Tree, California

I'll be adding to this list as I find more.  If you have any you'd like me to add, please let me know!

From Sunset To Snow

The sun is setting at 4:15 lately, which allows us to see the sunset while we take our walk with the girls after work. Last night was especially pretty.

Much to our dismay, our snow-free streak ended when we woke up this morning.  Although, I must admit that it was very pretty while it lasted.  It was the sticky kind of snow that clung to everything, making our world into that so-called "winter wonderland" for a few hours.  

While Mike was taking pictures, the girls snuck out of the patio door and ran around in the snow naked.  Emma didn't think it was as fun as sunbathing naked, which she has also been known to do.   

I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow and since we already had our family gatherings we get to spend all three days with our girls.  It'll be quite relaxing!

Simplifying Our Life- The Plan

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Like many, I grew up in a decade and a family that valued consumerism, being told and believing that I should always want more, better or bigger things.  A more expensive car, a larger house, a huge wardrobe, fancy household stuff.  Accumulating all of this stuff was just expected, and sadly, still is.  

While it's taken me a long time, I'm finally at the point where I don't want so many things and am yearning for a simple material life.  In another four to five years, my stepsons will finish school and move out.  There's already empty space in this house that we have no desire to fill with stuff.  We easily have twice the amount of square footage in this house than we did in our last one, yet we have less stuff than we did when we moved in here 2 1/2 years ago.  We're really looking forward to the day when we can downsize and live in a smaller home.

We've been slowly downsizing our possessions over the last few years, but now we're getting more serious about it.  It's not just material things we want to downsize, either, but anything that takes away from what's important to us.

In future posts, I'll be keeping things pretty simple and making a lot of lists of specific things we're doing.  To start, I'd like to share why we're doing this- to maximize what's important to us-

• Reaching & fulfilling our dreams and goals
• Spending quality time with each other and our loved ones
• The Earth and all her inhabitants
• Spending time doing things we love

Our main goal isn't to simplify and minimize everything & anything.  If we love something and find it fulfilling, then spending time, money or effort on it is well worth it. 

To start, we'll be going through our house, section by section, deep cleaning & getting rid of a bunch of stuff.

There are several things we'll be doing with the things we decide that we don't want.  We're not too fond of just throwing something in the trash, so we'll be making every attempt at giving things a new home-

• A lot of our furniture and household items will be stored in the basement for my stepsons to help them get started with their own place.
• We've already donated many things to a local thrift shop and will continue to do so.  We've also donated certain things like blankets, beds and collars to the local shelter. 
• For things of significant value, we'll sell it- on ebay, Craigslist, a consignment shop or at my parent's yearly garage sale.
• We've given certain things to family, friends and co-workers if we no longer need it and they would like to have it, which is something we'll keep doing.
• For things that we can't do any of the above with, if they can be recycled, we'll take them to the local recycling center.  
• If all else fails, we've found that putting something at the end of our driveway with a "free" sign usually makes it disappear within a few hours.   

Of course, we'll still be purchasing things from time to time.  There's certain criteria we'll be using to determine if we really should purchase it, though-

• If it's not a necessity, we'll put it on our "wish" list and let it sit there for a while to ponder whether or not we should get it.   Many things will be taken into consideration, such as how much use we'll get out of it, if it'll enrich our lives and what kind of environmental impact it'll have. 
• If we decide to get it, we have to pay cash for it and will seek out the most eco-friendly option that we can afford.

So there you have it.  That's our basic plan!   Feel free to share anything you've done to simplify your life.  I'd love to hear them !

Reducing Posessions & Simplifying Our Life

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Mike and I have big plans to reduce our possessions & simplify our life.  As we go along, I'll be sharing our journey with that along with tips on how others can do the same if they so desire.  For now, I leave you with some inspirational quotes.  Enjoy and stay tuned!

You buy furniture, you tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. buy the sofa, then for a couple of years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled, then the right set of dishes, then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug.  Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things that you used to own, now they own you.
~excerpt from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
~Elise Boulding

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak
~Hans Hofmann

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
~Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.    
~Duane Elgin

Bringing simplicity into our lives requires that we discover the ways in which our consumption either supports or entangles our existence.
~Duane Elgin

Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.
~Sir Joshua Reynolds

The aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. The cultivation and expansion of needs, is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace...
~E.F. Schumacher

Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures.
~William Morris

Joy comes not through possession or ownership but through a wise and loving heart.
~Buddha

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Snow, Food & Deer

I'm feeling a bit quiet lately, but thought I'd post a little something. I've got a few ideas brewing and have been taking more time with them, which I'm excited about. We're also celebrating the holidays with our families this weekend, making things a little more hectic than usual, of course.  The next two weekends are three day weekends that we have all to ourselves, though!

It's been a very mild season so far, making us very happy indeed.  This morning we woke up to our first snow.  While it was only a light dusting that won't be sticking around, it still counts, right?

Rowan made the first paw prints in the snow. 

The other night we had a very delicious dish from the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook, Sweet and Sour Tempeh. 

A co-worker was very interested in the hot sauces I posted about several weeks ago, so we ordered a few of their hottest "mutt" bottles, made with ghost peppers.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they're made in Milwaukee from peppers that they grow themselves.  We're bringing it to my in-laws tonight for dinner, along with the Southwestern Corn Chowder that I originally heard about from Andrea.    

Three deer were roaming around in back of our house for a little while this morning.  I took a short video of them (sorry for the shakiness- I didn't have time to set up the tripod to steady it).  They're so cool!   

Chili Sweet Mango Noodles & Some Cuteness

We tried another new recipe from the Everyday Happy Herbivore cookbook tonight and we both loved it.  Chili Sweet Mango Noodles may sound all fancy pants, but like all of the recipes in that book it's designed to be whipped up in a short time with no added oils.  It also has one of my favorite combos when it comes to food- sweet & spicy.  Definitely something we'll be making again soon!

Now onto the cuteness.  Sophie doesn't get the fireplace bed to herself very often, so when she does, she sprawls out and enjoys herself to the fullest. 

Emma was pretty tired after taking two long walks on Sunday.  I love when they get all content and sleepy. 

Only a few days left until I announce the winner of the Crypton Throver.  If you haven't entered yet, please do!
I hope that everyone is having a great week so far!

Aistream Spotting & Painted Airstreams

We don't see many Airstreams around here, so when we do, we get more excited than we probably should.  There is one that we see in this storage area for trailers on our way to Milwaukee, which I've been wanting to stop and photograph for a while.  Today was the day.  It was very cold, but sunny and we had some extra time to kill, so we stopped.  I ended up going with black & white because it gave it a nice vintage feel.  

There are other Airstreams I've seen online that I would absolutely thrilled to see in person.  Other than a few collars and blankets for the pups, I don't have any Hello Kitty things, but I love her nonetheless.  This 30th anniversary one of a kind Airstream is as cute in the inside as it is on the outside.  You can see more pictures of it here.

The amazing Terrah of Driftwood Jones and The Road To Dog restored her Argosy, complete with this gorgeous paint job.  You can see more photos of it on her Flickr, along with the rest of her beautiful photography.   

"Big Red", owned by Chelsea Ann of Itty Bitty Birdy is quite the attention grabber!  Isn't it great?  You can see more pictures on her Flickr.   

Speaking of red Airstreams, this one was posted over on Wandering Airstream.  I bet it's even cuter when the awning is pulled out!   

Poochy Couture & Still No Snow

Emma & Rowan got new tags today! After much hemming & hawing, I went with these adorable flower designs from Poochy Couture, personalized with their nicknames on the front and their names & our phone numbers on the back. It's amazing how much could be fit on .75 inches! Service was fast & friendly. I highly recommend this shop.  The tags aren't flimsy at all, which I can't say about other ones I've seen.  These babies should last!

This picture was taken yesterday while I was at home on my lunch.  Still no snow and it doesn't look like it'll be coming anytime in the near future.  That's just fine by us!  We've even been treated to the sun for the past two days, which is kind of rare at this time of the year.  Emma & Rowan approve.   

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Recent Eats & Some Randomness

We've tried a few new recipes this week.  The first was Spicy Portuguese Kale soup from Vegan Fire & Spice.  It was really good, but I think the directions might have been off a bit.  Next time, we'll be cutting the cooking time in half because the potatoes were somewhat mushy.  We'll also be adding veggie broth to it to make it soupier because it turned out more like a very heart stew.  It reminded me of garlic mashed potatoes, only with some carrots, kale & kidney beans and spice added.

We made our first recipe from our new cookbook, Everyday Happy Herbivore, which was Cheater G-Nut Stew.  This will be made again very soon!  It was everything we like- an easy, quick meal made with healthy, whole foods.  It basically consisted of garbanzo beans, spinach, tomato sauce and a little peanut butter.  So simple but so, so delicious!   The only thing we'll be doing different next time is to double the batch. 

Tonight we had another recipe from the Everyday Happy Herbivore book, Pineapple Tempeh Teriyaki Stir Fry.  The picture does the meal absolutely no justice.  It's marinated tempeh that's stir fried with bell peppers & onions, served over rice and topped with crushed pineapple.  The marinade has pineapple juice in it, giving the dish a nice sweetness.   It's another keeper!  

The girls like to jump on & off of our bed a lot, which made us worry that one of them would eventually slip on the floor and get hurt.  To make things safer, we decided to get a rug, but wanted an eco-friendly one that wouldn't emit all kinds of chemicals.  The solution was this rug made from seagrass!  Emma & Rowan both seem to approve of it.   

Spooky Vegan posted this the other day and I fell in love with it.   

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week! 

The Tree Isn't Up, But The Stockings Are Hung. Plus, My Dad Is Crafty

While we haven't put up our tree yet (and aren't sure if we're going to), we did manage to get out some decorations this last weekend.  One of my favorite things to do is hang the stockings by the fireplace.  It's a gas fireplace, not a wood one, but it'll do.  As you can see, Emma is enjoying the fireplace, as usual.

On the mantel are several holiday decorations, including some of my favorite ones that my dad just happened to make.  He's a crafty guy and was into carving for a while.  Since my parents have far too many holiday decorations, they hand a lot down to me (which is where we got about 99% of our decorations from), including these carvings that my dad made. 

He was also into making stained glass things for a while.  This wreath was made in the 80's by him and has special meaning to me because he gave it to my grandmother for a present one year.  She had it hanging in a window of her sun porch all year round.  When she died, my dad took it and gave it to me.  The candle you see in the center of it is the best smelling candle ever- the Christmas Tree scent from Candles by Phebes.  I think it's our new favorite!  

He also made several taller snowmen made from wood.  This guy has sat on our front porch every year for over a decade.  We've had to repair the brim on his hat several times and now I see that I didn't quite get the decoration around it quite right..... 

If we ever get around to putting up our tree, it'll be topped by this angel, who my mom made, and adorned with a bunch of clothespin soldiers, who both of my parents made.  All of them were made in the 70's, so they're about as old as I am! 

Although they aren't a holiday thing, I have to share these birdhouses that my dad made because I think they're just so awesome.  I snatched them from my parents when they were going to sell them at a garage sale.  The bookshelf they're sitting on was also made by my dad!   

Has everyone else decorated for the holidays yet, or are you planning on doing it?  

Rowan's 3rd Birthday Weekend!

Today is Rowan's third birthday!  Although the weather hasn't been the best, we made the most out of her special weekend.  First, we slept in and snuggled, as always.  This morning, I made her birthday cake, which was a vegan cheesy sausage cake "frosted" with cheezy sauce.  I topped it off with her name made out of vegan sausage (which I baked in the oven for a while first) and three raw sweet potato "candles".  Both of the girls were extremely excited about the cake, but she was such a good girl while posing for me.  A bit bewildered that she couldn't have her cake yet, but patient!     

Then the time came to finally eat some!

Everything happened so fast that before I knew it, they had both licked their plates clean. 

Then it was time to sit around for a while and let that cake digest. 

We also played outside for a while, took a walk and will be watching Pitbulls and Parolees a little later.  All in all, it was a good weekend.  Happy birthday my sweet little thick necked wiggle butt!  Mama loves you so much!!  

Moso Bamboo Charcoal Air Purifier

While shopping at a small market this last weekend, we came across Moso air purifying bags and decided to get a small one for our laundry room.  They contain 100% bamboo charcoal, which is the most eco-friendly and economic air purifier there is.  It's supposed to take a few days to notice a difference in the room and sure enough, we did!  Our laundry room doesn't have the best ventilation, the litter box in is there and it's also a half bath, so it's got all kinds of odors going on at times.  I was a bit skeptical about it all, but the bag definitely has helped clean up the air in that room. 

Bamboo charcoal does all kinds of magical things.  It naturally helps to remove allergens, molds, bacteria, moisture and pollutants.  The activated charcoal and porous nature of it absorbs these things, then all you need to do to rejuvenate it is to leave it out in the sun for an hour once a month.  They last for about two years and after that, you can spread the charcoal in your garden or in a potted plant.   It's the ultimate in keeping the air healthy while being eco-friendly. 

We are certainly going to be getting more of these because like I've said before, we try to do whatever we can to keep our air clean.  With the mold allergies that Rowan and I have, every little bit helps!   Speaking of Rowan, the bags are also safe for animals.  If they should happen to eat it, bamboo charcoal will not harm them. 

One great use for these bags is in a new car or in a room where there's new furniture, carpeting or paint (unless if it's non-toxic, eco-friendly furniture, carpeting or paint, of course).  That "new" smell is chemicals being released and the bamboo charcoal will absorb them,  making the air much cleaner and safe.  Suffice it to say that I am sold on this! 

Really, is there nothing bamboo can't do?  It's such an amazing plant!