Showing posts with label simplifying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simplifying. Show all posts

Monday, September 2, 2013

Beef Tongue - using more parts of the cow

Since my mast cells have flared up or whatever you want to call it, we have only found a handful of things i can eat without triggering anaphylaxis. The are pork, non grass fed beef, raw sugar, salt, and filtered water.

I have been trying to live simply and as sustainably as possible and reduce my footprint on the world, so previous to April had been reducing my meat intake. But now it is my primary source of nutrients. As such, I have tried to use as much of the animal as possible, animals from local, reputable farmers who can be trusted to tell me honestly what the cow ate too as I react to it if the cow ate grass, one of my true allergies.

Beef Tongue is a great way to use one of the lesser used parts of the animal which makes my local, awesome butcher happy. Simply put here is my simplest tongue recipe and it works with Amy type of animal.

Place the tongue and any connected meat into a large pot or crock pot with 2 cups water and if you can tolerate it, one teaspoon salt. My mother would like a bay leaf in there with it but I have not checked to see i f bay leafs trigger me. Simmer on low heat. We like to use the crock pot and cook it over night. In the morning slice along the side and remove then outer layer (skin) the meat shreds easily and practically melts in your mouth.

If you can tolerate rice, a tablespoon of rice flour mixed in with half a cup of the leftover liquid will make a lovely gravely. you can grind some rice in a cheap coffee grinder or a high powered blender, if you want to mill your own.

Some ways I like my beef tongue: Sliced thinly with an electric carving knife like my grandpa used to. 
Shredded like taco meat.
Small pieces in the left over liquid it was cooked in as stew.

For tacos if you can tolerate rice you can make your own "tortillas" after a fashion or small flat breads and eat your beef tongue on there.

As histamine is said to quickly develop on leftover meat, I split mine into serving sized portions, bag them and freeze immediately. One portion i chop into small pieces and serve immediately as soup or stew (if there is a flour you tolerate) by adding just a bit of freshly ground pink Himalayan salt.

These recipes are in memory of my German grandfather a Charles Carver who loved us very much and taught us sustainable cooking and gardening practices he learned in the depression. He lived by example even raising bees for honey and wax.

Sadly I am allergic to bees and can not tolerate honey either or I would add it to recipes as honey is said by some to help reduce histamine. Many sing its praises buy one tablespoon full of the stuff will triggered me even before April my hands and lips would swell and I would be covered in hives. These days I would probably go right into anaphylaxis.

Thankfully I can still eat delicious beef and pork, and I hope to eventually find even more foods I tolerate. For now I will be sharing some truly simple recipes here and with Jacob for his low histamine cook book.

Carlie loves me but not the feel of raw beef tongue. Thankfully she tolerated it and helped me prepare it.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Simple Pleasures

Sunlight Through Leaves
In this age of the internet so much conflicting information is out there, that sometimes it is difficult to know just what to believe. It can lead to stress and over thinking some decisions. Today I had a simple reminder from Carlie. As I stepped outside to speak to her, she said, "You should stand in the sun for a while."

I stood in the sun for less than a minute before I had to come inside due to the heat, hot pavement on my feet, and my body being weak and not able to stand very long. But it reminded me of the simple pleasure of feeling the sun on my face. Sometimes it's important to get back to the basics.

Our bodies are like the plants in my photograph in some ways. We are made of mostly water, and our cell membranes synthesize nutrients, in part, from exposure to the sun. Here is an interesting article about how to safely get vitamin D for our bodies, primarily from the sun: http://www.supernutritionacademy.com/vitamind-text1/

Friday, July 12, 2013

Health and Harmony

In some ways my quest to simplify has really been beneficial and has continued forward despite my health concerns. In others it has stalled. I suppose all of my attempts, whether they have been followed through to fruition or not have been beneficial in some way. For example, Project 333 helped me really cull through my clothes and make my closet more useful. It not only holds my clothes, but serves as a changing area. I scoffed when we moved in and someone said it was a walk in closet, but if used properly, it is in fact a tiny walk in closet. I haven't measured it, but I would guesstimate it is about 3 by 2.5 feet which allows one to hang plenty of clothes, so by simplifying my wardrobe I actually had room to move my 2 small dressers in there, and by putting a cushion on one I created a nice place to sit and change clothes without small animals underfoot. Much safer. If one were claustrophobic maybe it would be a problem, but it has worked out nicely for me.

Since I haven't been going out much other than to doctor's offices I haven't had many occasions to wear my dressier clothes. But yesterday I went ahead and wore some nice slacks with a shirt that used to be too tight to button closed, and which now apparently I fit in quite nicely. Sadly, I could only find one of my slip on shoes that matched the outfit and didn't feel up to putting on shoes I would need to bend over to tie, so I ended up wearing slip on vans which totally did not match the outfit. I only went to the lab for allergy blood tests and to pick up "homework" from the G.I. doc to make sure we got rid of the bacteria I'd been fighting off. And no one seemed to notice the garish toon covered vans next to the dress slacks LOL. Sort of a fun wardrobe mishap that made me chuckle but apparently slipped by anyone else's notice. I only mention it now because I'm thinking about project 333 and how I have or have not followed through and been enriched by trying it. I have not yet gotten a full length mirror in my tiny walk in closet, so I haven't managed to take pictures of the various outfits I come up with from the 33 clothing items, and I think a few pieces of clothing that I had put in the donation pile somehow snuck back into my closet. I have 2 people who help me wash and put away clothing, so sometimes that happens. I also chose too many warm clothes for this time of year. I started the project when it was still cool sometimes, and now it is 97 degrees at night. So I probably should have started the project when it was warmer. That way I would have chosen more shorts. As it is, I don't wear a large portion of my clothing (suits, dress slacks, dress shirts, a few long sleeved pull overs) and don't think my 3 pairs of shorts would be enough if I were going out of the house more often, but since I'm not it's working just fine.

My bedroom still needs work, but it is coming along as well. The large empty dresser which was collecting stuff has now been moved into Nick's room where he is making use of it. Really looks a bit empty right now as the only furniture is my alter, a phone/printer stand, and my hammock, but Patch asked what I wanted for my birthday and I said help finishing the organizing and setting up of my room. Hopefully she will go for that. I would like to build and set up shelves and a fold away desk along the wall which used to have the large dresser, and I plan to make some sort of decoration incorporating some shallow shelves and hiding a stable grab bar or two next to the hammock to help me safely get up and out.

So a bit of cleaning and organizing needed in the bedroom that I haven't been feeling up to doing, but hopefully as we figure out what is going on with my health I will get back to a place where I can do some tidying up on my own, and hopefully people will take me seriously when I say I want help finishing my bedroom mods for my birthday. Looks like I'll have to postpone the trip to California for my birthday tho. It's just over a week away and I'm definitely not in a place to be getting on an airplane. Plus my mom is rightfully worried that she would feed me something wrong and put me in the hospital or worse. Since I don't even know yet what I can safely eat or be around, how is she supposed to know?  Maybe in August I can escape some of the heat here and get time at a beach.

I had my upper endoscopy and spent a few days dragging and sore afterwards. My throat is still sore, but my gut was feeling a bit better. He said that he saw no signs of EoE but my stomach and the bit after my stomach were inflamed and he took biopsies of some particularly angry looking areas. He noted that there seemed to be an overproduction of acid in my stomach, and prescribed Prilosec. This means in the morning I take my thyroid medicine, then wait an hour, take Prilosec, then wait a half hour, take my allegra and I can eat. I've been eating mostly rice. Rice porridge in the morning and rice with a bit of pork butt or pork ribs later in the day.

I watched a beautiful. french movie called Romantics Anonymous which I recommend if you like subtitles and romantic awkwardness. I think there was something missing in the translation, literally. I suspect some of the English words used in the subtitles were not quite what it would have been had I been watching in it's native French, but the visuals were beautiful. Down side, it made me crave chocolate and I decided to eat some of the lovely dark chocolate I had in the cupboard. My stomach did not like that. I am not sure if it was an allergic reaction or just an upset stomach reaction, but lots of bloating, belching, and nausea ensued. I'm still paying for it today. So no chocolate for at least a month. I think I will give the rest of the dark chocolate to Patch, and find some gluten free friends who want some of my gluten free chocolate chips and other things I have in the house that I shouldn't be eating. I think chocolate is one of the most difficult things for me to give up.

Overall it has been easier than expected to avoid foods. The first couple weeks were a real challenge, but I have gotten used to mostly eating rice and pork with the occasional other thing thrown in to test it out. It's a very slow process, and I'm not even going as slow as I would be if waiting for the allergist to tell me specifically what to try. She would have me trying one thing a month. But since she told me it was OK to eat things I don't THINK trigger me, those are the things I am testing about once a week with time in between to recover. So far the only thing I think I've found which doesn't cause a reaction is olive oil. And I"m not 100% sure about that because I do notice some symptoms on days I use olive oil which it may be causing but they're things like acidic taste/feeling in my mouth which may not be allergies but could simply be acid re-flux for all I know. So for now, I've been avoiding olive oil while I recover from the upper endoscopy. I may try it again when my stomach settles down.

The new medicine schedule is a bit annoying and so far means I end up not eating breakfast till around noon since I get up at 9:30 and forget to take the prilosec an hour after the thyroid meds. By the time I've remembered and taken all the meds in the right order and apart from each other my stomach is sore and rumbling but all I can tolerate is some mild rice porridge. Luckily I have created a fast an easy way to make some by blending rice milk and rice from the fridge and then adding some salt and sometimes a bit of sugar after heating it in the microwave (we prepare a cup of rice or more in the rice cooker daily so there is some left over in the morning) I know it's not the healthiest thing to eat, but it's all my stomach seems able to handle in the morning and the only thing i can tolerate without allergies right now. Hopefully soon we will sort something more nutritious out. It turns out the nutrient replacement drink my allergist usually prescribes has coconut in it, which I'm mildly allergic to. She said I could try it, but I'm not so sure that is a good idea. Her office said there is no alternative which I know is not true. I definitely need to talk to a nutritionist because my current set of doctors seems to think it's perfectly fine to subsist on rice and pork forever. How this doesn't concern them is beyond us. I know people who have gotten scurvy from not enough vitamin C, so at the very least I know that I need to find a way to take Vitamin C that doesn't trigger my citrus allergies and I'm not even a doctor. How this isn't worrisome to them is beyond me and makes me question whether they actually have any interest in making their patients healthy. It has been very frustrating to say the least. Hopefully we will find some solutions soon.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Brown sugar and olive oil cookies

Due to allergies I am currently only allowed to eat very limited set of ingredients. So it's been a bit like playing a game of mystery box cooking. You are given a pig, several kinds of rice in all its forms, sugar, salt, olive oil and water. You don't have to use all of the ingredients but you may use nothing else; what would you make?

I made several things but for this post I just want to share these brown sugar and olive oil cookies. I was starting to feel pretty trapped and limited to simple rice and pork loin with a bit of salt or sugar now and then, so I started to get more creative. I was craving desert and something crunchy so I decided to try to make a cookie out of brown rice flour and this is what resulted.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Brown Rice Flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 quarter teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons cooked rice
1/3 cup olive oil of your preference

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Stir dry ingredients together: 1 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1 quarter teaspoon kosher salt. Place 3 tablespoons of your favorite cooked rice in 1/3 cup of hot water.

Allow the rice to soak in the hot water for a few minutes. In order to release the starches, stir and then mash with a fork, and stir again.

Add pt 1/3 cup of water and rice mixture and 1/3 cup of olive oil mix until all ingredients clump together into pea size or larger pieces.

Using your clean hands form the mixture into slightly flattened spheres of dough and place on the cookie sheet about an inch apart. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the bottom is golden brown.
Allow to cool on a cookie rack, and enjoy!

Also goes nicely with a salted caramel topping, tho I haven't quite perfected that recipe yet, so that will have to wait for another post. If you try these let me know what you think and what if anything you would do differently.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Preparing for Project 333


This weekend I started to prepare for Project 333 by washing all I own and starting to sort through it. We did not end up getting it all finished this weekend as planned. I suppose I will officially start Project 333 at the beginning of April, which will mean I'll need mostly spring clothing. I've been thinking of sticking to mostly browns and blues. Clothes I can wear with each other, that look good on me, and can layer if needed will be my main priority. I won't count underwear, socks,  pajamas or work out clothes. Although I also plan to reduce the amount of each of those down to 1 week's set. As it is, most of my clothes are too large. For now I will keep one over sized brown hoodie because it's my favorite, but eventually it will probably be so huge on me that I will eventually decide to get rid of it. Not in the next 3 months tho I would suspect.

So far I have set aside 5 pairs of size 44 shorts which are now too big for me, and given away a bunch of hoodies, and I have chosen to keep my dress boots, brown vans, leather converse high tops, work out sneakers (which technically don't count as part of the 33), 2 suits (one navy blue with grey pinstripes which is more formal and one grey with brown pinstripes which is more playful) which are both too large but will be, 3 long sleeve dress shirts, 3 short sleeve button up shirts, 3 ties, 1 pair of jeans (which are a bit too big so I will probably give them away when I buy a replacement pair) 2 pair of kaki pants, 3 belts, 2 hoodies (1 over sized brown, 1 burgundy and grey XL) 3 pairs of shorts, and I still need to sort through my tshirts and long sleeved undershirts. I plan to get rid of several tshirts, keeping the brown, blue and possibly green ones.

I suppose my "signature items" would be my hats and walking stick although using a walking stick is a need not an option, much like my wheelchair, I chose to have a nice looking one, not just utilitarian. Never have regretted either decision. After all, I use them the most of anything I own.

It's been good to go through my clothes and decide what to keep and what to give away. Some things I may put in storage for next winter. I've found a few local guys who wear size 44's and need clothes but can't afford them right now, so my old things will go to good use. Some things are harder to let go of than others, and for all I know, I may be making some choices to keep things I have no need of, like the suits. But i plan to get them resized, and occasionally I do really enjoy dressing up, so it would be nice to have them. Will post photos of my closet when I finish going through and narrowing down what I will keep and then reorganizing my closet. I plan to use the empty drawers for my loom knitting, crochet and art supplies.

Below is a quick start guide for people new to Project 333 and more information can be found on their website: http://theproject333.com/getting-started/

Quick Start Guides For Project 333

First Timers

This is for those of you new to Project 333. You may have just heard about it, or perhaps you have been quietly watching others live with less for the past three months and you are ready to jump in.
  1. Take inventory. I recommend the How to Make Space approach.
  2. Working with your “I Love” pile of clothing, start to build your wardrobe. It will help to make a list on paper.
  3. Consider signature items like a trench coat or pair of boots. Your signature item might be your sunglasses. You will find that having one well made version of something will be far  better than 10 of the knock-off.
  4. Once you start dressing with less, pay less attention to what you are wearing, or not wearing and more attention to something more important.
  5. You are welcome to incorporate some of the bonus rules listed below, but I highly recommend starting with The Basics – listed above.
  6. Get connected and ask questions. The Project 333 community is awesome! I’ve included a few important links below to help.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Starting Small is a Big Thing

Tiny Sad Face Statue (part of a larger piece)
This week I was feeling stressed as my health was not tip top.  I know that it is only a temporary downward trend and that I will continue to get better over time. However, I found myself worrying about many things. I started to feel a bit frustrated with myself and my recent planning about a future tiny home/mobile gallery. A couple of times I reminded myself about my personal commitments that I made last week, and a recent addition of eliminating beef from my diet. I have been doing pretty good, and it has forced me to be more mindful of what I eat. In my case what I eat is a big part of becoming more healthy.

Sometimes this week I have seriously wondered, is having a tiny home really simplifying my life if my whole family doesn't agree to the prospect? I won't go into that in more depth here. I don't see any point in worrying about the future when so much is unsure. No decisions have been or need to be made right now about any of that. For now, my personal commitments are about things I can change in THIS present moment. Not a year down the road, not a decade from now, but right now.

Tiny Clay Statue of Rock Pile
One of the commitments I made to myself last week was that I would blog here every Sunday.  I almost forgot today, but thinking about how I can simplify my life right now brought it back to mind, so here I am. Sunday is the day I take off from filling orders for Peace Full Creations, my home business in the making. So I like to do things on Sunday with Carlie, the animals, and still be creative but in more light hearted fun ways. After making some tiny statues out of a clay I can bake in the oven, I decided to make some time to read You Can Buy Happiness and It's Cheap by Tammy Strobel and then write in this blog while watching frivolous TV shows through the internet in an effort to decide if we are willing as a family to get rid of cable. Later I will take time in my hammock to read the last of the books my Aunt sent me (she sent me the whole Game of Thrones series) and then I will be choosing 6 things to give away since I recently acquired 3 new things. Which leads me to what I have been reading this afternoon, Tammy's book.

Meditation  Rock Monster
I have been reading this book in small chunks as I am trying to not just take it in intellectually, but to apply what I get out of it to my life. The current chapter I'm reading has so many gems in it, that I have only been reading one section of the chapter at a time. Today I read the part of chapter 5 which included Project 333. I have been considering taking this challenge on as I read about it elsewhere, and it seems like a good step in my journey as I simplify my life and reduce my possessions to a level where I feel I am not living in excess. I do think taking on Project 333 and simplifying what I wear down to 33 items for 3 months is a good next step. http://theproject333.com/ for me, it's all about taking things one step at a time. I believe that I would love living in a tiny home, but right now I am not. And worrying about how to do this or that for my tiny home is less productive than learning to live small where I am.

One thing I am making time for today is reading this article: http://thinksimplenow.com/clarity/life-lessons-from-buddha/ about 10 simple lessons from Buddha, and one in particular seems very appropriate at this moment:

"Its Okay to Start Small

“A jug fills drop by drop.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Every artist was once an amateur.”
We all start small, do not despise small beginnings. If you’re consistent, and if you’re patient, you will succeed! No one succeeds over night; success belongs to those who are willing to start small and patiently work until their jug is filled."
A Tiny Love Story (in process)

Thank you for the reminder Mr Self Development! I will focus on each tiny step. And in the spirit of starting small and simple, I posted some photos all through this blog entry of some tiny art which I made today as part of my fun time with clay. Because it's important to let my inner artist out on a regular basis with no limits, just fun creativity. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my week of bare simplicity, and the snapshots of today's tiny art. I really had fun making it. I am looking forward to seeing what comes of the various tiny pieces when I make tiny installation pieces out of them.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

One in, Two Out (and other simplifying decisions)

"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." -- Buddha

If you have read my blog before, you know that I am reading and enjoying a book by Tammy Strobel, "You Can Buy Happiness, And It's Cheap" Previous to reading this book I got involved with my local community through volunteering and helping to run facebook groups specific to Laveen, AZ. I also got myself an electric push motor and a recumbent trike in an effort to improve my health and independent mobility, got solar panels on our home, and moved into a smaller room to do a test run  for eventual tiny home living. I also have started learning aquaponics, built my first aquaponics system, and started eating healthier and learning where to get affordable healthy food in my area. More recently I started loom knitting, making green smoothies which I love, and working out to continue towards my goals of health, simplicity and peace full living.

I often think that the next step is tiny living, but really, there are still so many things I can do to improve my life and the way I interact with the world around me right now, in this place, in this moment. As I continue to read Tammy Strobel's book, I am inspired to take further steps in my current situation to make small, or sometimes more sweeping larger steps to change my current situation, and not just dream of living more sustainably some day. What are you doing today to live simply?

So I wrote down a list of commitments to myself. Some of these are new things I have already started, and some are brand new. Most are due to suggestions of "micro actions" in Tammy's book, which I am reading bit by bit, because I am applying the things that I take away from it, and sometimes need more time to work on something before I can move on in the book.

The list of commitments to myself boils down to this:
Make time in my schedule for things that bring me health, peace and joy
Eat healthy, whole foods
Use the one in, two out rule
Organize, Organize, Organize!
Change Consumption Practices

On that last one, I listed several questions to ask myself, which I feel will help me become less consumption oriented, and happier with my life. Here are the questions I plan to ask myself when I am wanting to buy something, and hopefully my loved ones will help me stick to my desire to simplify:
Is this a need, or a want? (sometimes fulfilling a desire is just as important as needs, but not usually)
Do I already have one that works? If so, do we really need to replace it?
Is buying this thing worth getting rid of 2 other things?
Is there another, cheaper, better, more sustainable way to fulfill this need or want?
Can I wait/put off buying this and add it to a gift list instead?
When people ask what I want for a gift, tell them useful things and/or experiential things such as concerts, shows I want to see, classes I want or need to take, gift subscriptions to food delivery clubs, and the like.

There are also things I am considering committing to such as giving myself a certain amount of time from the first impulse to buy something until I make a decision. (like 30 days, 2 weeks, or whatever) This would help me eliminate impulse buying, which I believe is a bit of a problem in my life. I have taken steps in the past to move away from impulse buying, but I still find it happening. For now, the above list of commitments is my definite plan, and as time moves on I am sure I will refine it.

Have you made similar commitments to yourself? If so, I would love to hear which ones have worked for you.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Finding my Joy, Simplifying my Life

Micro Action Happiness Brain Storm
For the last  several years I have put extra emphasis on my health,  and for the last year I have  had  the goal in  mind that I would  be more independent and self  sustaining. One way in which I have been doing this is learning to cook healthy foods, and more recently to garden. I'm getting pretty good with my composting and recently moved into Aquaponics and now worm farming. Also, I taught myself to knit on looms, and started making all sorts of knit Peace Full Creations along with my paintings, tiny sculptures, and the like. My art brings me joy.

In recent reading I took a couple micro actions proposed by Tammy Strobel in her book "You Can Buy Happiness and it's Cheaper than You Think."
Detail of Happiness Brain Storm/Rough Sketches

First she asked how I define happiness and that resulted in a brain storming session and some rough sketching of tiny home plans. as  you can see above and to the right.  During my brain storm session I broke it down into several main areas that bring me joy:
- Being as Healthy As Possible (Eating Healthy, Exercise, DeStress)
- Being Creative (Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Knitting, Cooking, Gardening, Trying New Things)
- Community (Friends, Family, Knitting it Forward, Animals/Fur Family, Workshops)
- Living Within My Means (Sustainability, Not over committing, not creating debt, learning useful skills)
- Time For Myself (Hammock Time, Reading, Meditation, Manifestation Journaling)
- Travel (Getting Out of the House, Seeing New Places/ Things, Meeting People)

Side and Top View Sketches

In some ways I am already doing these things such as focusing on my health, family, and becoming self sustaining, and then there are others I have been neglecting such as travel. All in all, the brain storm session was very empowering and I recommend anyone try it. I also noticed that every time I sketch a tiny home, my vision of my Tiny Home/Gallery/Art Studio/Community Center/Camera Obscura aka ObscurAbode becomes more clear and I feel that much closer to my dream.

Another micro action I completed recently was to write down how I can simplify my life. At first  it seemed a lot like my previous  brain storm, and  things I'm already working on like be healthy, spend time with loved ones, but then I started getting down to some specifics and things started falling into place:

ObscurAbode Sketch 03 Layout Plans




- Organize my stuff (Bedroom, Loom Knitting Supplies, Art, Books)
- Get my Peace Full Creations in order
- Clarify/Organize my Calendar (Simplify Schedule for Knitting Groups, Specific work days/times, One day off with Patch, one day off with Carlie, Specific morning routine)
- Plan trip to CA
- Make a specific tiny home plan (Finances, Supplies, Time Frame, IndieGogo or Kickstart Plan, etc.)

I got started on each of these to some extent. The loom and knitting supplies are better organized, Carlie and I decided that the profit from Peace Full Creations will go to the Tiny Home Fund, I decided which days/times will be work and which aren't, worked on my calendar, and worked on another more specific floor plan for ObscurAbode (Sketch 03, above left) so it already feels like I am heading towards my goals. More work is needed, but things are really coming together!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Induction Stovetop Has Arrived

I have been dreaming of a tiny home for years, and more recently began planning how that could become a reality when they sent me a kitty in a box! That's one of my kittens of course, Squeakers aka the Princess.  She seems to believe they shipped the boxes merely for her enjoyment.

Of course it was actually a box of Nuwave induction stoves and the free items which came with it. Included in the box were 2 NuWave Induction Cooktops, an induction cookbook/instruction manual, 2 nonstick metal pans, 1 multi-piece cookware which can be used in a variety of ways including as a steamer, and 1 cast iron skillet. Basically, my tiny home's kitchen in a box! Or at least, the items in the box set me in the right direction.Eventually I will also get a Blendtec blender and an induction oven.
So this weekend was exciting when planning turned into doing as our first small piece of our tiny home arrived. Although two actually came together because it was a buy one get one free deal, I will probably only be using one in my tiny home/galllery. Normally I would simply buy one if I only need one, but in this case Carlie and I decided to buy one that we are using now and one which we have set aside for my tiny home. It is exciting and I feel like the dream is finally becoming a reality even tho it is only one small piece of the puzzle.

We spent most of the weekend at the annual Front Yard Art Bazaar that Laurie Provost puts on, but tonight Carlie cooked up some of the veggies we got at Market on the Move and some sausage we needed to use up on one of the induction stove tops. She loved it, and especially enjoyed showing me how much less heat is wasted in using it, and how much safer it is to cook on. I will try using it this week myself.

I had set today aside to rest up after the busy weekend, so I finished reading the 2nd chapter of Tammy's book about simplifying. I am working through some of the micro actions, and will write about those in a future blog post, so stay tuned!