Moving Day

Well, today was the day. It was moving day. The weather forecast was for 39 degrees. So we started early. A lot of it had been done already. Which was good. And we really did well today. We had 3 AMAZING friends come to help us. And by 11.20am, the truck and the cars were unloaded. Of course, nothing was unpacked, but we were out of the sun and inside.

This is the current state of the dining room. This is from the doorway.


And the kitchen...



So far we have unpacked - The food, the TV, the computer, and set up the bed. The essentials in life....

One thing this move has done is shown us just how much crap we have. I am actually embarrassed by how much we own. We have filled the new unit, have things stored at 4 - yes 4 - peoples houses, and we threw away/gave away a mountain. It makes me feel greedy that I have so much. We have already done a lot of culling of belongings, but I can assure you the next 3 months before we move again (sigh...) will be spent doing some very serious culling. For 2 non-materialistic people, we seem to be very materialistic. Hopefully the next move is a lot easier.

xox

Five Rules for Life

I stumbled upon this amazing blog a few weeks ago. It is basically a collection of peoples own "Five Rules for Life". I started thinking about my own rules for life. Everyone lives by their own "code" or beliefs, but how many of us actually put it into words. So I started to write down the things that are most important to me and that I try to live by, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. I decided to share my final list with you.

Kylie's Five Rules for Life (in no particular order)

Laugh daily
I spent many years living in a loveless and laughless home. One thing I have learned is that no matter what life throws at you, being able to laugh is on of the keys to happiness and a sense of overall wellness. Learning to laugh at the little things has been key to being able to move forward in my life.

Love openly and honestly
Ahhh…. Such a hard one to learn. If you don’t love with honesty you are living a half life. Tell those you care about how you feel. Love with your whole heart. Don’t hold back. And in return you will allow that same love to be reciprocated.

Respect
Treat other with the same respect that you would like to be treated with. From your nearest and dearest, to the check out chick at Coles. Everyone is a human with feelings and deserves respect. I have found that if you give respect, you then get respect.

Own your actions
This is about accepting responsibility for your own actions, whether they are actions you are proud of or actions you are ashamed of. I spent many years blaming other people for all the problems and dramas in my life, but when I started to take some responsibility and own my actions, my life became less drama-filled. From the smallest action of the day (eg, what time you get out of bed, what you put into your mouth) to what words come out of your mouth, to the biggest of decisions – own your actions. If you are ashamed of them, learn from it and don’t repeat it – but still own it.

Believe in Karma
I believe that what you put out to the universe is what you will get back from it in return. Therefore it is important to live your life in a way that honors this. If you don’t want an action or attitude directed at you, don’t direct it at others.

xox

Moving Update - 50 Things Project

Well, we are getting closer to the "official" moving day. We move on Saturday. We got the keys to the unit last Friday and have already moved quite a bit over there. We have moved some of the smaller furniture, as well as quite of lot of "stuff". Half the kitchen things are over there, about 2/3 of our clothes are there. Our books, my crafts stuff, games, and just general bits & pieces are over there.

What astounds me though, is how much is left. We have put SO much into storage. We have moved so much. We have thrown away so much. We have given away quite a bit. Yet there is still so much here.

The good news is that Ross has finally realised that his hoarding and collecting ways are not necessarily good, and has helped me get rid of so much. He has voluntarily let go of things I didn't expect him to get rid of without a fight. And he is starting to realise that even all the crap we are putting into storage could possibly be given away as well.

I want to re-balance our money karma. We have been struggling financially for a couple of years. And to do this I think we need to be generous with what we have. Instead of being takers and buyers, we need to be givers. The local Lions who have a weekly "Garage Sale" for charity in a local hall have been called and are hopefully coming by soon to collect quite a bit. The things that are already in storage we will slowly go through. We are going to get a couple of boxes from storage at a time and go through them. Hopefully about 3/4 of what is there will go. Eventually, but it will go.

I have wanted to de-clutter for so long, but when your partner is a hoarder it is quite difficult. This is why I am so excited that Ross is finally agreeing to all this.

Time for an update on the 50 Things Project... (Ross has joined in)

Already on the list:
1) Brown cabinet (old TV cabinet) -hard rubbish
2) Old clothes that are too big/don't wear anymore - Goodwill
3) Old craft magazines that have been stored and not used in over 10 years - bin
4) Dried and half used paints - bin
5) Textas/crayons from when I was at TAFE - going to R's friend who has an intellectually disabled daughter who loves to colour in
6) Left over miscellaneous craft things from Garage sale - bin
7) Kids books - will give to friends who have kids
8) Old posters/wall hangings that have been in storage since I moved to SA - bin
9) White cupboard that is falling apart - Hard rubbish
10) White wardrobe no longer use - back to Mum's
11) Metal computer table - Lions
12) Unused craft stuff (things I haven't used in over 5 years) - bin
13) Taped videos - bin (I no longer own a video player so no point keeping these)

New things to add to the list:
14) Excess sheets/towels - Goodwill
15) Excess coffee mugs, dinner plates - Lions
16) Spare TV cabinet - Lions
17) Spare wooden desk - Lions
18) Futon - Lions
19) Spare wooden drawers - hard rubbish
20) Fabric - Sent to Mums to add to her stash
21) Spare computer monitors and cases - hard rubbish
22) Old Uni assignments (have held on to for nearly 20 years) - bin
23) Books no longer want - Lions
24) Grey carpet mat - Hard rubbish
25) Radio Gramophone - Lions
26) Old tent - hard rubbish
26) Pappasans - hard rubbish or to my MIL's
27) Spare computer chair - Lions
28) Old costumes (mostly falling apart) - bin
29) Bits & pieces I used to use in my previous volunteer work - bin
30) Plastic hall runners - hard rubbish
31) Exercise bike - to be sold
32) 2nd fridge - to be sold
33) Plastic outdoor chairs (broken ones) - hard rubbish
34) Small (stained) outdoor table - hard rubbish

I think there are a few more things, but that is all I can think of right now. Overall, I am really pleased with the progress we are making. We still have a way to go, but we are over halfway there. And that makes me happy.

xox

Meal in 10 minutes - now that's fast food...

Until a very short time ago, after a day like I had today, when I am so incredibly tired both physically and mentally, my idea of a quick and easy dinner would have been to have something like this...

Or this...

However now that I am trying to eat meat-free, and make generally healthier choices, these are no longer options. I still needed something quick and easy. My day started at 7 am with cleaning the kitchen, then packing most of it up, then moving it all to the new place, then home to pack up the bedroom and dining room, then borrow the MIL's car and trailer, load up some of the smaller furniture, over to the new place, unload, home, next room... Get the idea. And of course, I twisted my ankle this morning so have done all of this while limping around.

So what do I have that is quick and easy? We had hot chips last night (I know, not healthy) so that was not an option. Wandering around the IGA I found this...

And

Cooks in 6 minutes. I added a bag of frozen steam fresh veg, a handful of mushrooms, some cheese, with a side serve of bean salad from the chip shop, and you get...

It was so yummy and SO filling. I'll be honest, the bean salad only got nibbled on. The pasta with all the veg mixed in was more than enough for a meal. Guess what we are having for lunch tomorrow. But now I have no excuses. I know that I can prepare a vegetarian, filling, healthy-ish meal in around 10 minutes. You can't get much quicker or easier than that!

xox

Cycle for Life

It arrived! My copy of Nicole Cooke's Cycle for Life arrived by mail today. I have been looking for this book for months, and finally found it at Fishpond. I had a flick through it at lunch time and it looks great. It is designed for the beginner right through to the serious cyclist and covers everything from purchasing the bike, to bike maintenance, to getting started, to serious training programs.

.

I can't wait to have the time to sit down and read it properly. I sense a new cycling challenge on the horizon!

.

xox

4 Days & Counting

I have now gone 4 days meat free. I guess I am doing this... :o) Last night Ross made me a fritatta with mushroom and spring onion with fresh coriander & Chili flakes. Yummo!


Tonight I made a pasta bake. I had the Dolmio Mushroom Pasta Bake sauce in the cupboard. The jar said to mix it in with noodles and chicken. Instead of the chicken I added a can of red kidney beans, half a can of corn (left over from the other night) and a handful of mushrooms, plus a dash of dried oregano. I was so worried that it wouldn't work out, but it turned out great!



It came out of the oven smelling absolutely Divine.

And the good news is that it tasted as good as it smelled. This is the first time I have ever had kidney beans. I wasn't real sure at first what I thought of it, as it was quite different. And the texture of the beans was odd. I am a big one for textures. If the texture is off I won't eat the food. But after a few mouthfuls I decided that I really did like it. And Ross went back for seconds, so I guess he did too!


Tomorrow night we are starting to move things to storage for the big move, so it will be leftovers. There is a bit of the corn & avocado salad left, plus the rest of the pasta bake. I need to find something new for Thursday though. Can't wait to see what we have!


xox

Meat Free Weekend

Well, I have just completed my first conscious meat free weekend. The plan was always to have today as a meat free day, but part way through yesterday I decided to aim for the whole weekend. Yesterday morning started off with left over vegetarian pizza. The other pizza we had is the Dominos 70's pizza, which I love reheated the next day, but I was strong and stuck with the vege one. Then peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.

Last night was tough. My Girl Guides had a sleepover at the Guide Hall, and the dinner provided was meat patties, sausages, baked potato, salad, and bread rolls. I decided to see how I went just having the potato, salad, and rolls. I made sure I did not go there hungry as I knew that would make it easier. I filled my plate with salad, added a potato and a bread roll and walked past the meat tray. I was still peckish after so I went back into the kitchen. The meat had started to cool, and I have to say, it looked gross. Problem solved, I grabbed another bread roll.

Tonight I picked a few recipes from the Taste website, and had a cook up. We had pasta with Arrabiata Sauce. It was a really yummy pasta sauce that had a huge amount of flavour. It was also super easy to cook up, and now that we have the spices in the cupboard, will also be super cheap.


Avocado & Corn Salad which was absolutely delicious. The recipe says to use a firm avocado, however we discovered it also needs to be quite ripe. It was really tasty though and I was surprised at how the flavour of the coriander came through.



And Cajun Mushrooms. These were fantastic. I didn't make up a huge amount as we were having the 3 dishes, but you could easily use this as the main part of your main meal.


My plating skills wouldn't get me onto Masterchef, but who cares. The dishes looked great together.

We loved each of the dishes, but felt that the pasta and the mushrooms didn't really go together. Both had extremely strong flavours, and they didn't really blend. Both went well with the salad though. Next time I would do the pasta with either this salad or a green leafy salad, and I would do the mushrooms with rice and either this salad or a green leafy salad. But all the dishes will definitely be made again.

xox