First blooms

We went to see our woods for the first time in months. It was a cloudy and a little rainy day.
I found this peculiar blooming bush with the most delicate little flowers. I don't know what it is - none of the blooming trees and bushes I know are yet blooming.

I haven't posted anything in a while. I feel like I am starting to sound like a broken record. I feel like I shouldn't post unless I feel like I actually have something to say. I don't want to waste your time reading forced posts, which I wrote just to have something to post.

But the idea of simplicity is timeless. The idea that we shouldn't be greedy and hoard more than we need will never get old. The recent tragedy in Bangladesh, where a large clothing factory providing underpaid labor for many clothing brands, collapsed because it was not properly maintained and security checked, killing hundreds of workers, was another reminder that should really sting us deeply.

Do we know where the things we consumer are made?
Do we know how they are made, and what the real costs are?
Do we honestly think that other human beings should pay with their own lives so that we can have cheap clothing?
If not, why are we refusing to acknowledge the facts, why are we still continuing to support the brands using what is no better than slave labor? Is it because they are so far away from us, we can almost pretend they are not there?

I have been reading lots and lots. It's good, it reduces my time spent on the computer!

Honestly, lately I have been dwelling on spiritual matters much more than simplicity and minimalism. Simplicity makes room for this, obviously, as my mind isn't busy thinking about STUFF -or lack thereof- all the time.

I want to share this drawing of angels that Indiana made recently, and with this I wish you all a blessed spring time!

Simple food

A couple of you asked for some recipes of healthy treats I make, smoothies and stuff.
The problem is that I hardly ever follow any recipes, so I don't have specific amounts of anything. I tend to just wing it, whether I'm cooking or knitting or whatever.

But I can write a little bit about how we eat and give you recipes of sorts -or at least explanations on a couple of things we frequently make.

I'm a really lazy cook. On my own I would never ever eat two warm meals a day, some days I would eat none. We almost always have one-bowl meals. It's usually rice or pasta with some sauce with it.  Bolognese sauce, and fresh avocado with fresh basil, leaf parsley and parmesan cheese (flavor with salt, lime juice and fresh red chili pepper) are among favorites. The avocado recipe is super easy, you just mix everything in a big bowl and add the cooked pasta.

I can't imagine spending two hours in the kitchen preparing dinner.
What also makes it "simple food" is that I don't offer many different dishes at once. We may eat baked potatoes with cheese and just have some raw veggie bits with them. Often I "deal" with the veggies by peeling carrots and giving them to eat while the hungry ones are waiting for dinner.
We don't have a lot of food waste, because I make sure we eat left-over before making new food, and I think also because of creative cooking - if there is something in the fridge that needs to be used, I use it in a dish where I would normally not use that ingredient. I also sometimes create new dishes from leftovers, by adding stuff to them.

We really love salads, and when I make a salad I make a big one that we can eat for two or three days. Because I'm lazy, and it's a lot of work to wash and peel and chop all the ingredients, and it feels like less work to do more at once ;) Indiana doesn't eat salads, so I will just give her the usual carrot sticks and bell pepper slices and some fruit, and she will eat those with some frozen food like veggies patties or falafel, or if we are also having salmon or something, she will have that with her veggies. If she is still hungry she can have some bread as well.

I'm not above letting her eat toast or cereal for lunch sometimes. She may eat goat cheese straight from the container.

I do use convenience foods. I don't feel too guilty about skipping a meal because we had too many snacks. I love it when we eat out and I can skip cooking for the day.

It's all food, and it's still much more varied than most people in the world have, even if it's not always the healthiest possible option.

And now for the delicious treats our kids and husbands will devour and  get a bunch of healthy stuff at the same time :) They are also super easy to make.

Smoothies:

-Frozen fruit or berries. We use strawberries the most because they are Indiana's favorites, but also blueberries and raspberries and currants and even lingonberries (tart). I also buy frozen mango, because that happens to be found at the store and those are good to use in  yellow smoothies :) You can mix any combination of course.

-Any juice. We also sometimes use coconut milk or almond milk or rice milk or soy cream.You just add enough liquid to cover the frozen stuff and add more if it seems too thick.

-Honey to sweeten

-I usually put in a  couple of raw free range eggs for super healthy protein, but you can skip them if you don't like the idea. I can tell that I have been doing this for 9 years and nobody ever got sick. I learned to use raw eggs like this in Cambodia.

-I almost always add banana for the thick consistency. I may add other fresh fruit too.

- I often add frozen or fresh spinach or some other green stuff. If you don't put too much nobody will say a word :) You can of course put in other veggies too, like carrots.

Good combinations include: Strawberry-coconut, Mango-orange juice-banana, Blueberry-raspberry-spinach.. but the variations are endless.

Tofu pudding:

-A block of soft tofu

-Maple syrup (or honey) to sweeten

-Vanilla (we use vanilla sugar)

-A heaping tablespoon of almond butter

-Dash of cream or soy cream (you can even skip it but it makes for a milder taste)

Blend everything until the tofu is smooth. This is the basic recipe, but the last time I made this I also added in the left overs from a chocolate spread (that my husband likes to eat with rye bread).

For variations, your imagination is the limit. You can add some frozen or fresh fruit, berries or other nut butters. You can sweeten with brown sugar.


I think most people know this one, but I will still tell you about one other favorite,

Banana Ice cream:

-Bananas, sliced and frozen (flat, so they don't clump together). Blend until the consistency is like soft serve ice cream. You can add frozen strawberries(or other frozen berries) but really the only thing you need is bananas!


For me, simple eating is about not making a big fuss, not getting stressed about it, not having strict rules. I'm so glad I no longer react to gluten, and that Indiana is not quite as sensitive to dairy anymore. Her mild milk allergy is the only restriction right now. We eat when we are hungry, not at a specific time. This gives our life flexibility. If I don't have to have a strict schedule, I won't impose one on myself, though I do realize some people rely on them for their life to run smoothly!

Do you have any favorite simple foods or recipes to share? I'm always glad to get new ideas!

The Gift of Easter

On this day, nearly two thousand years ago, Mary of Magdalene and some other women went to the grave of Jesus Christ, only to find it empty. There were two angels, and they said: "He is not here".

That moment it was the only place in the world, where He wasn't.
He wasn't in the grave.
So He IS.

This Easter I realize the extent of those words. I am just beginning to grasp what it means to walk in Christ.
Life is not boring as a Christian. Oh no, strange and wonderful things happen.
I was into all kinds of New Age stuff and Eastern religions for ten years, longing to feel something holy, searching for a higher meaning, something that would make sense, something to fill that gaping void inside me. And what I found is that all of the supposed secrets and powers and exotic diets and  mind alteration pale in comparison to the fantastic Grace and incredible mystery that happens when you give your life over to Christ. And the best part is, that it is FREELY ON OFFER TO ANYONE WHO WILL ACCEPT IT.  You don't have to earn it or work for it. You don't have to change to get it. But when you accept the offer, it starts a process of transformation.  I  feel the guidance. I ask that my sins be pointed at me clearly so I can repent (because I don't trust myself to realize when I'm sinning), and oh, they are pointed. And of course, I sin again. But it only makes it all the more clear that I am nothing without Him, but a sinner. With Him, I'm still a sinner, but one who is redeemed. Without Him, I would not even have my faith.  I wish I could one day say as well: "I no longer live, but He lives in me". That is my true quest - to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that my own ego has no space left. That my sinful soul be a servant to the Spirit.

Happy Easter!

Making do with what you already have

We have a kitchen table. Alas, no chairs yet! (I know, feet on a table, ick ;) We are gonna get the chairs.. eventually..)

We found this second hand pine table that was just the right size and located in our city so easy to pick up.  I'm glad I resisted getting a new one from Ikea. This was cheaper too at 50 euros, despite apparently having been designed by a famous Finnish designer Ilmari Tapiovaara. His designs from the 50's are very popular now, but  this table was designed in the 60's   - and pine wood has not been popular in a while.

Sooooo... we used to make smoothies all the time. Then the motor in our blender gave out and we never replaced the blender. We missed making smoothies, and I missed the opportunity to easily get berries, fruit and even veggies and greens into my child (and ourselves). We were planning on buying a blender. We already chose the one we'd get. But I was still reluctant. Because right now I'm pretty reluctant to buy anything much, really. So suddenly I just thought about the old Bamix stick blender I took with me from the house - and it's OLD, seriously I think it's older than me - and I decided to try making smoothies in a big jar. And it worked beautifully!  A blender is great for making smoothies, but a stick blender we use to make hummus, desserts (like the tofu pudding in the pictures), frozen banana "ice cream", soups, and so on. It's much smaller, and this little piece of equipment has lasted decades, while blenders tend to last a few years at best. At least I never had a blender last very long. I would not dare crush ice in this old glass jar though, I'm afraid it might shatter.

We did buy a toaster, and we did have to get a laundry rack, but I think we can do without a blender! No need to buy a gadget when you already have something that does the same job.

Toys, clothes, and other kid stuff

A post about the ubiquitous kid stuff, as requested by one of my lovely readers! :)

Keeping kid stuff under control can be tricky. It's not your stuff, but yet small children can't be fully responsible for the things they have. You can slowly teach them to be responsible, but it doesn't come naturally to them.


Of course I have the very limited experience of a mother of one, but my personal experience tells me that kids don't need a lot of stuff, and children prefer experiences, creating, reading and hearing stories to having a lot of stuff. Each child is unique and some are minimalists naturally while others are collectors very early on,   and I would encourage everyone to give the little ones some slack with their crap :)
Yet I still think there is no child who prefers stuff over companionship, love, attention, imagination  and adventure.


For example Indiana loves to craft and we quite often make anything she fancies ourselves. Sometimes it's temporary like the magician's cape (her bath towel), sometimes something I put some time and effort into, like her stick horse and fairy wings, but quite often it is something made out of paper and cardboard (like her magician's hat and the bunny's wings). The latter stuff is the stuff that I have to keep under control. If I see something lying about for a long time without her playing with it, I put it in an upper shelf in a cupboard. I clean it out periodically. If she asks about anything that is in there, I can still rescue it for her. Usually she never remembers anything, she is too busy in her new creative endeavors. But if she accidentally sees something she may want it back. So I admit to being a little sneaky here, but otherwise we would be inundated with her craft. And we have been, when I didn't clear thing out for a while when I was sick. You could hardly see the floor.

I have  a love-hate relationship with CRAFTS. I love the creativity and making things yourself, being resourceful and not just automatically thinking that you must go buy something. We always first think if we can and want to make it ourselves. But of boy, do I abhor the clutter that crafting creates. So to keep my sanity and some sort of balance, I resort to cleaning it out on my own. I do involve Indiana too, and she often  does help, but sometimes when I really just want things neat and organized I do it my way.

With toys and clothes we have the policy of not keeping stuff that she doesn't play with or wear. We will give away even really pretty clothes, because if she refuses to wear them, there is no point in having them crowd the closet. Indiana tends to like to wear the same things over and over, and if she doesn't spill something on herself she can wear the same clothes for a couple of days. Basically as long as they look and smell clean! :) Then I sometimes have to fight her to put them into laundry! But at least it keeps our amount of laundry down. I am surprised at how little she actually needs. I feel like we constantly have clothes in her closet that she isn't wearing, although she doesn't have much! I know by now quite well what she likes, and that's comfy jersey clothing, leggings, sweatpants, tops, and a couple of dresses. If she has more than two or three dresses they never get worn. To be honest, she currently has more clothes than she wears. If she has 7 pairs of pants and 7 tops, that's clothes for two weeks or so, but as we do laundry much more often her favorites are in rotation and much of the clothing goes unworn. She actually has ten tops right now which is double of the amounts she actually needs. As she grows out of them, I'll try to not replace all of them. I will put away the clothes that will not fit her after summer, and  re-assess her needs in the fall. She may not go through 7 sets of clothes each week, but I'd still feel weird not having that much, you know? And of course it's good to have some extras in case of accidents. The amount you need depends on the age of the children, how messy they are, where you live, whether they go to daycare, how often and how big loads of laundry you do, and so on.

I also try not to buy the next size up until she needs them, but I do have a few larger clothes waiting, that I got from my sister. Cute children's clothes will always be available in shops, there is no need to buy in advance. Some people like to buy in advance from sales, but I generally feel like I buy so little that I can just wait and buy what I need when I need it, and I may find it on sale, or I may pay full price. Sometimes if you buy a lot in advance, they may not fit at a proper time of year, you may forget you have them, you may be gifted similar items and end up with too many, and so on.

Here are her clothes just now. The upper shelf is pajamas, socks and undies, the middle shelf is tops and bottoms (some of the pants are in laundry right now), and the bottom is her wool pants and cardigan, two hoodies, two dresses and one skirt. In addition to this she has her summer clothes, which is just one small pile. Some of the clothes, like leggings and thin long sleeved tops, work well most of the summer too in our climate.

I wish she didn't have any opinions about clothes and would wear whatever I made her wear, but I've given up on that. When she hadn't even born I had this idea that she would wear dresses every day, ha! I've felt frustrated when she refused to wear something really nice I'd bought her. But I decided to get over myself and my wish to control the way she dresses. I CAN influence it, but I don't think it's worth a fight and bad feelings to try to force her.

When we moved here she was allowed to pick what she wanted and leave what she wanted. She didn't want to take the doll house, for example, even though she sometimes played with it.

Toys are not a problem with her, and I've talked about it before how little she wants. Last weekend we were at a Horse Fair (the real reason we went there was that they had a lot of activity for stick horse enthusiasts, like "training" and  such :) ) and the police also had a booth there, and they had collectible cards for the kids of the police horses and dogs. You could take as many of the cards as you wanted, but Indiana only wanted to take one. She is frequently like that, which does make my life easier!

Sometimes it's US who have a hard time giving away kid stuff, isn't it? Whether it's toys we think are really cool or cute despite the fact that our child completely overlooks them, or clothing we chose because it hit all the right buttons with us and which we keep around in the hopes that the scratchy zipper will stop bothering our child in a few months. Sometimes we keep stuff because it was expensive. Sometimes we think the child will change her mind about it.

If we honestly look at our child's stuff, and whether it's being used and appreciated by the CHILD, it will help clear out a lot of stuff, I dare say. And at least over here, second hand children's clothes and toys and books are really sought after and flea markets specifically for kid stuff are really popular, so you know the thing you are donating or selling will be very welcome in another home.


One last thing:
In a study published last year titled “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century,” researchers at U.C.L.A. observed 32 middle-class Los Angeles families and found that all of the mothers’ stress hormones spiked during the time they spent dealing with their belongings. 


I like this study, because it makes my reactions to clutter feel less weird or neurotic!
And really, it makes sense. Everyone knows how stressed moving makes them because they have to deal with ALL of their stuff. Cleaning house is just the same but on a smaller scale. And boy, did I used to be in a foul mood when cleaning, back when we had too much stuff.

I'll leave you with that but you are welcome to ask questions and I'll try to answer, and maybe you can give each other some tips in the comments too, as I in no way claim to be an expert on the subject! This is just an example of how we deal with kid stuff while living simply.

Simplicity as a small glimpse of Grace

I just read an old post by Dave Bruno (yes, the 100 Thing Challenge Guy) and it prompted me to write this post, as it resonated with me.

It talked about the expectations on us, striving to meet ideals and goals, with little hope of success. 

It talked about why so many people these days are drawn to simplicity : "After years of believing the expectations and putting in the effort only to fail to measure up over and again, simplicity is like rest. Simplicity changes the rules. What an amazing possibility. "

And finally, he talks about how simplicity is not an end of itself, it will not make you have true peace, it can only give you an idea, a glimpse, of peace. It can and will make your life easier, it will lighten your load in many ways. But it can never solve all your problems, answer your questions, nor make you completely free. 

He writes:

"But I must caution (I understand this point will not be received by everyone) that simplicity is only like an amazing possibility. Simplicity is like this. Imagine huge, really big and thick and unbreakable, glass doors that open onto the most magnificent outdoor scene your mind can comprehend. If you like forests, it is a forest scene. If you like the ocean, it is a beach scene. If you like mountains, it is a mountain scene. Whatever it is, if you were out there then you would be happy as can be. But you are behind the glass doors, and they are filthy and curtains are drawn across them. Simplicity is only like pulling the curtains and cleaning the glass. And there is much benefit in doing so. You have let the light in. You will receive pleasure looking outside. By looking out you will come to learn something more about beauty. Probably you will enjoy your time inside more knowing something so wonderful exists out there. That is what simplicity is like. Grace is like someone unlocking the glass doors and welcoming you outside."

Read the whole post here.

We just moved -our new place

It's official - we moved and we feel good about it :) We are renting our friends' apartment. It's a 52 m2 /560 square foot one-bedroom apartment in our old neighborhood.

Want to take  a peek?

We are still  missing a kitchen table and chairs, we have been eating sitting on the floor (and a few meals at restaurants too..)

The entrance:

Living room:

The art still needs to be hung up..

There is actually a walk-in closet, which we use as storage space and for some of the outer wear and shoes:

The bedroom - we got a new 2x2 meter futon mattress, so that we can all sleep on it without "someone" starting to kick the other two in the middle of the night...

Bathroom is small, but will fit a washing machine:

Kitchen is small too, it will barely fit three people to sit down:

Another view of the living room, where you can see the balcony door:

Packing and moving were so easy.. This was the easiest move ever, and I felt a lightness - being able to move just by ourselves, bringing only the things we really use, fitting everything in the smallest van - it felt like one kind of freedom. The kind that minimalists gush about.  I gladly left behind the excess dishes and nick knacks and books and furniture and table cloths, which the house came with. I left behind "nice things" I could have taken, but didn't need. I was glad to start with a blank canvas, adding just the essentials we have felt necessary enough to acquire during these past 10 months since having to start over.

After being so free of stuff during our trip, feeling so light with just one suitcase for the three of us, I realized that I had been bogged down by excess in the house, even if it wasn't my excess. I still had to look at it and clean around it. And if we removed  most of it, we would just have had to deal with tons of empty space, not to mention trying to fit all the stuff into storage (we couldn't just give it away as it wasn't ours).

This apartment is just the right size for us! The bedroom will fit a large mattress (which is arriving tonight, we borrowed a couple of foam mattresses from my dad's house until then) and it already has closets. We don't need any storage furniture, we have plenty of storage space here as it is. The living room will be Indiana's play space as well, just like in our old apartment. The kitchen is tiny and barely fits a table that seats us three. My friend, the owner, thinks the kitchen is horrible, with yellowish wooden cabinets, and should have been torn out. I think they are just fine!
If everything were spanking new and shiny white, we'd have to be really careful, now it's already lived-in. So we really don't mind.

Each time I move I dislike stuff even more. There is nothing like having to touch and pack and unpack every single little thing you own, every opened bag of cookies, every half-used shampoo bottle, every book, every piece of paper lying around and so on, to make me acutely aware of why I love minimalism, and make me even more resolved to stay clutter-free and on top of the random crap that accumulates unless you keep up with it.

I involved Indiana in packing her own things, and she first picked her most important things and put them in a box. There is some stuff that came with the house that we didn't take with us, and some stuff she just said she didn't need. For example she didn't want to take the doll house.

Since we have no table and chairs yet, and we sleep on the floor on a mattress, it feels like we are camping. Luxury camping with a hot shower and a kitchen!