I’m very lucky in that my husband and both work from home.  When our son was born, I cut back to only about three or four hours of work for our business each day – the rest of my time is devoted to our son and our household.  My husband has his office set up in our basement, and we keep the stairs blocked off so that our son stays on the main level with me during the day.  We have childproofed the kitchen/living room/dining room area, and put childproof covers on the doorknobs leading into the other rooms.  That way he’s always in the same area with me during the day.  When I go outside to water the garden or hang up laundry, he goes with me, and entertains himself by playing in the dirt, gathering stones, stacking flower pots… we have a 3/4 acre backyard, so there’s always plenty for him to do out there.

In the house, we keep it pretty simple, which means he gets ample time to use his imagination.  He loves to play with my pots and pans.  He will entertain himself for long stretches to time by taking every pan and lid out of the cupboard, and carrying them one by one into the living room, where he sets them on the coffee table.  Then he gathers whatever containers he can find, and pretends to pour or shake “ingredients” into the pans.  Then he gets some utensils (I let him have save ones like spatulas and wooden spoons) and stirs his imaginary soup.  I guess he’s spent plenty of time watching me cook!

We have a fairly large collection of board books, thanks to my friends at the library where I used to work (they had a book shower for me before our son was born).  He likes to climb up into the recliner and “read” his books.  He’s always thrilled if we join him, but he’s also happy to just flip the pages and look at the pictures.

Every day, unless the weather is really horrendous, I take our son and our dog for a walk, usually for about an hour.  Sometimes we use the stroller, sometimes the Moby Wrap.  Our son loves to point out cars and dogs and airplanes – pretty much anything that moves.  We also go to the playground if the weather is nice.

We keep a box of toys in the living room, and he likes to dump them out and make up games to play.  They are all simple toys, mostly gifts from his grandparents, and a few wooden toys that we’ve picked up at thrift stores.  We also made a play area down in the basement in my husband’s office, using one of those super long sectional baby gate/cage things (my husband found it in a dumpster, and it’s in perfect shape).  We keep another box of toys down there, and in the evenings while I do yoga, my husband takes our son down to his play area in the basement, and they hang out together.  They are both happy for long periods of time just tossing a ball back and forth, so they do that a lot.

We keep a third box of naptime toys in our son’s room, in the closet.  Every day, when I put him down for his nap, I put the naptime toys in the crib with him.  He plays with them for a few minutes before he falls asleep.  Since we started this trick a few months ago, we haven’t had any fuss at all during naptime (he used to cry or need to be nursed to sleep for his nap).  The naptime toys are just toys that I gathered up from his other boxes – nothing special, but because he doesn’t see them all day, he’s interested in them when he does see them.

Our son has never watched TV.  We had one until he was about 11 months old, but we never turned it on while he was awake, so as far as he knew, it was just a black box.  Now that we don’t have one at all, his days are automatically taken up with other things.   He’s never seen commercials, so there’s no desire on his part to have any new toys or gizmos. Nothing we have is fancy, but our son is happy pretty much all of the time.  Thus, we’re going on the “if it ain’t broke…” theory.

We don’t have our son enrolled in any sort of programs or structured activities.  We go to the library, but I haven’t enrolled him in story time yet, mainly because we go at different times every week, whenever I can fit it in around the rest of my schedule.  We see other kids at the playground, and I get together every now and then with a friend who has a toddler, for a playdate.  My honest opinion is that kids just need love, lots of laughter, toys that let them use their imagination (stuff from the recycle bin works just fine), and a secure environment.  I’m not a fan of structured activities for preschool age kids.  I also like to keep our life as low-stress as possible, and not trying to juggle a bunch of  outside commitments for a toddler helps to keep it that way.

That’s our life with our son.  It’s simple, very inexpensive (mostly free), low-stress, and lots of fun.  I often find myself on the floor, driving “cars” (blocks) around the carpet, making vroom-vroom sounds, and realizing that nothing could make me or my son any happier.

Most of that money was for food and home repair stuff, with a few other random things here and there.  Basically, we’re living well below our means, and loving it.

Last night, after dinner, we sat around the living room and my husband made funny noises at the cat.  Every time he did, she would open her eyes very wide, and stick her ears straight up.  I was laughing so hard that it hurt, and our son couldn’t stop laughing either.  And it hit me – this is what it’s all about.  Having fun, laughing, enjoying my family… we really don’t need anything else.  There is nothing that I could have bought that would have given me more pleasure than just laughing with my two favorite guys.  (Ok, so I guess we did buy the cat – the adoption fee was $85 at the animal shelter, and we do have to feed her.  But she’s obviously worth it.)

Lately, I’ve been noticing more and more that I am really happy, nearly all of the time.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that my happiness seems to have increased as we’ve been actively trying to simplify our life.  I have mentioned before that I don’t particularly like to clean.  As a result, our house was often chaotic and messy, but I brushed it off by telling myself that I was just a creative cook, or too busy to clean.  A couple months ago, I decided to change this aspect of myself.  I started by making the bed every morning.  For two months now, I’ve been making the bed as soon as we get up, every morning.  At this point, I can’t imagine not making the bed – even though I only used to make it once or twice a week.  After I got in the habit of making the bed, I decided to tackle the kitchen.  First, I decluttered in a big way.  Then I committed to cleaning up the kitchen after every meal.  I cook from scratch pretty much all the time, and used to only clean the kitchen after it got really messy.  But for the last month, I’ve been cleaning as I cook, and cleaning thoroughly after each meal.  I cannot even describe the difference this had made in the state of our kitchen, and in my own mental wellbeing.  I love walking through our house now, and seeing lots of wide open spaces and clean counters.  Just as with making the bed, I now cannot imagine leaving a mess in the kitchen after a meal.  Frugal Trenches, one of my favorite bloggers, keeps her house 5 minutes from ready.  We have a toddler, so I’m shooting for 15 minutes from ready – still a big improvement over what it used to be.

I know this post seems a bit disjointed, but I’m hoping to convey the feeling of peace and calm that I have nearly all of the time now.  We don’t even have to try to not spend money anymore, because we’ve just gotten in the habit of doing things that don’t cost money.  We don’t know what the future holds as far as our income, and by not spending the money we’re earning now, we’re giving ourselves a cushion against future lulls in our income.  And if that doesn’t happen?  Well, early retirement sounds good to me.  Living simply and frugally, combined with decluttering, organizing, and keeping our living space clean and simple has all contributed to greatly reducing the stress and worry that I used to carry around with me.

It only took me a few minutes to find exactly what I needed.  I found a pair of Stride Rite shoes (super cool, with little surf boards all over them – my husband said he’d like a pair in his size) and a pair of Lands End shoes, both size 6, and both with almost no wear at all (no toe imprints inside, no wear showing on the soles).  I also found a pair of size 6 winter boots – just in time, since we’re supposed to get a foot of snow over the next two days. 

As a bonus, I came across a miniature catcher’s mitt, which my husband thought was my best score of the day.  He got out his own glove and started playing a toddler version of catch with our son as soon as I got home.

All together, I spent $12.  For two pairs of shoes, boots, and a mitt.  I knew that Lands End and Stride Rite are good brands, but just out of curiosity I checked their websites to see what sort of a deal I got.  Most of the shoes on the Stride Rite site were in the $40 – $55 range, and the Lands End shoes were about $30.

In keeping with my mission to declutter our house, I dropped off a carload of donations at the thrift store.  The catcher’s mitt wasn’t on my list, but it was just too awesome to pass up.

If you’re not already shopping in thrift stores, you gotta start!

For some time, we’ve been on a mission to reduce the amount of disposable stuff we use.  It’s cheaper and far more environmentally sound to go with reusable products, and we’ve found that it’s a lot easier than it seems.  Our son has been in homemade cloth diapers since he was born, and I barely even notice the extra loads of laundry.  Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess has a challenge on her site about ditching disposables – check it out if you’re looking for inspiration.

Anyway, I started thinking…  Why not make myself cloth wipes that I can use instead of toilet paper when I pee?  I wash diapers all the time – how hard would it be to toss in some little squares of cloth along with the diapers?  So I got out my sewing stuff and my recycled fabric.  Remember the flannel sheets that I got at a thrift store before our son was born?  Those sheets have definitely earned their keep around here.  Diapers, a sling, more diapers, and they’re still going strong.

I cut little rectangles of fabric from one of the sheets, about eight inches by four inches.  Then I folded them in half and sewed around the open edges, leaving a little space to turn them inside out.  Then I stitched up the open space… done and done.  It took me about 45 minutes to cut out and sew 20 little squares.  Now I have nice soft flannel double-thick squares of fabric, instead of toilet paper.  And I’m the only girl in the house, so they’re all mine.  I toss them in the diaper pail, and they use no extra resources at all, since I’m running the washing machine anyway, with or without them.  By the way, I’m a very well-hydrated girl, so those 20 squares last me two days – I was going through a lot of toilet paper.

(I should note that this is not an original idea.  My parents did this when I was a kid, long before “green” was the buzz word of the decade.)

That got me on a roll, and I started thinking again about all the tampons I’ve thrown away over the years.  I checked out some of the websites that sell cloth pads, and considered buying some.  But then I thought about what an awesome sense of satisfaction I get from making stuff myself.  And even though my sewing skills are nothing to brag about, I figured that if I could manage to make diapers, I could make a pad.  I read through the directions on the Tiny Birds Organic website (I got that link from Alissa, who sews beautifully and makes amazing-looking pads and diapers and all sorts of other stuff), and then I sat down to give it a try.  I’ve found that with diapers, I prefer pockets and inserts rather than having the soaker layer built into the diaper.  So I skipped the extra layer, and just cut out the front and back of the pad (the back is made of two overlapping pieces).  Other than that, I followed all the steps listed.  Then I made an insert using a layer of flannel from the sheet, a middle layer cut from an old towel, and a backing layer made from an old fleece sweatshirt that I had been using to make diaper liners.  The fleece provides some waterproofing, but you can also use wool.  I’m thrilled with how well it turned out, given that it’s my first try.  Here’s a picture of the pad and the liner:

And a picture of everything all put together, with the wings folded underneath:

I still need to figure out a snap.  I’m going into town tomorrow, so I’ll browse around at the craft store and see what they have in the way of snaps.  This project took me about 30 minutes, from start to finish.  My sewing machine is quite old and before I started making diapers last year, my previous sewing experience was limited to home ec class in 1990.  So trust me, if I can do this, anyone can.

There’s a Goodwill right next to my favorite grocery store, so I combined the two trips.  Within a few minutes in the Goodwill, I found a perfect set of shelves.  They are homemade, solid, and heavy, made of real wood.  Exactly what I was looking for, and for the bargain price of five bucks.  Since I found the shelves so quickly, I decided to browse around a bit.  I soon stumbled upon a great carry-on bag.  It was solid and well-made, with a retractable handle and wheels to roll it along miles of concourse.  It had tons of interior and exterior pockets, and was just a handsome bag overall.  I wanted it.  Up until a short time ago, I’d have bought it, simply because I wanted it.

But my new clutter-purging self decided to pass on the bag, for lots of reasons.  I already have a great backpack that works just fine as a carry-on.  It also works for hikes and day trips, which can’t really be said for the wheel-about carry-on.  I’m trying to eliminate uni-tasking objects from my life as much as possible, and a purpose-made carry-on bag isn’t really good for much else besides air travel.  If I were a frequent flier, I might have made a different decision.  But the last time I flew anywhere was in 2007.  We have a toddler now, and flying doesn’t sound so appealing anymore.  In fact, traveling in any form doesn’t really seem like as much fun as just hanging out at home with my husband and son.  In addition, my understanding of how my actions impact the planet has increased dramatically over the last several years, and these days the idea of flying just conjures up images of greenhouse gasses rather than exotic destinations.

So I put the bag back on the shelf for someone else to find, and left the store with the small set of shelves.  The corner by our back door is now neat and tidy, and I don’t have to find room in the basement for a bag that might come out of storage once every couple years.

All is good.

In addition, I’ve been going through the house and really looking at our stuff.  Asking myself if we’ve used it lately, or if we could do without it.  The back of my car is full again with stuff to drop off at the thrift store next time I go to town, and it feels great.

Yesterday, I tackled a set of kitchen cabinets.  The cabinets where we store tea, coffee, some spices, baking stuff, random kitchen gadgets that rarely get used… sort of the catch-all cabinets.  I took everything out, and tossed the stuff that I never use.  There were spices that were more preservatives than spice – and that I knew I would never use again – but were somehow still lurking in the back of my cabinet.  There was a beautiful glass pitcher that we got as a wedding gift from friends of my in-laws and have used one time.  One time, and we’ve been married since 2003.  Regardless of how pretty the pitcher was, in our kitchen, it was taking up space.  Now it’s in my car to donate, and will hopefully end up in a home where it gets used often.  By the time I had finished, I had a large stack for the thrift store, and an equally large stack for the trash.  And my cabinet looks and feels SO much better.  I can find everything.  I know that everything in there is stuff that we regularly use.

A while ago, I started saving plain glass jars when they were empty, instead of putting them in the recycle bin.  Yesterday I cleaned off all of the labels, and transferred all of the stuff that was in plastic bags in my cabinet to the jars.  Cocoa, dried coconut, spices… all of the stuff that our health food store sells in bulk bags.  Now it’s all in pretty jars instead.  I made labels out of scrap paper and black ink and glued them to the jars.  I love how it looks with all the different jars, and it’s easy to tell if I’m running low on something.  And with the cabinet all cleaned out, I can see all of the jars at a glance.

Ah, kitchen decluttering.  Perfect activity for a cold, snowy weekend.  And it’s free, which is always a bonus in my book.

While I was browsing Kristina’s blog, I found this recipe that she shared for spinach burgers.  I didn’t have any cheese (we’re mostly vegan these days) so I made cashew cheese by blending cashews, water, garlic salt, apple cider vinegar, and some spices.  It turned out creamy and wonderful, and I added it to the spinach mixture in place of cheese.  The dish was fantastic, and smelled great while it was baking.  I didn’t have bread either, so I whipped up a batch of tortillas, and we had spinach burritos.  Very yummy – thanks for the inspiration Kristina!

I also came across this article last week, with 100 ways to recycle a t-shirt.  My favorite?  The diaper, of course!

My husband is hard at work in the backyard right now, building two more mini-greenhouses to put over our other garden beds.  We’ve had to cover them with tarps for the last couple nights, as it’s been below freezing.  So it will be nice to have them covered now as we head into the cold season.  He’s using a lot of scrap lumber that we got for free from a lumber yard (check around, if there’s one in your area, they might let you come in and pick up offcuts).  We had to buy several long 2×4s, but all of the shorter pieces were free.

We’re starting to wrap up our list of outdoor chores.  I’ve been moving gravel in the front yard for the last few weeks, and finally finished this week.  We have a huge front yard, and it was all grass when we got here (well, sort of – it hadn’t been watered or mowed in a very long time… but it was supposed to be grass).  We didn’t want to be watering and maintaining all of that grass, and decided to xeriscape a chunk of the yard instead.  The previous owners had purchased gravel to go along the driveway and between the street and the sidewalk.  They had also put gravel back by the fence, and had apparently over-ordered.  The excess was in the area by the fence, which was over a foot deep in places.  So I got out the wheelbarrow and shovel, and started moving gravel.  We bought weedblocker to put down under the gravel, and I’ve filled in roughly 400 square feet of yard with xeriscaping.  We planted a few low-water plants and grasses, and I put in a wavy edge along the gravel using some old bricks that the previous owners left.  Even the plants were mostly free – a neighbor didn’t want them any more, and offered them to us if we’d come over and dig them out of her yard.  I love our new front yard.  It’s still mostly grass, but not as much as it was before, and we paid almost nothing for the new landscaping.  I also got lots of good workouts by shoveling gravel, which was an extra bonus.

Hope you’re all having a good weekend!

When we moved, we had to cut it in half, and we just got it put back together this week.  Here it is in our new yard, protecting one of our garden beds:

See why we had to move?

That green patch around the patio is a lawn that my husband planted from seed a month ago.  He rented a tiller ($36) and spent about $20 on grass seed.  The rest of the yard is really nasty weeds, and he wanted a little area off of the patio where our son could play without getting poked by gnarly weeds.  So now we have a little patch of lawn.  It’s only taking up a small area of our yard – it looks bigger in the picture than it really is.  Most of our yard is devoted to fruit trees and berry bushes, but the area that you can see beyond the grass in the picture will eventually be filled in with garden beds.  For now, there are only three, but there are many more to come!

It’s hard to see all of the trees, because they are still pretty small.  Check back in a few years and it should be a more impressive sight!  In all, we have 14 fruit trees in our orchard.  We’re expecting a bit of trial and error with this process.  We’re only going to let about half the trees fruit next year, leaving the other half to focus on growing strong roots.  The following year we’ll switch it up, and let the ones that already fruited work on their roots.  Getting fruit will depend on when we get our last frost too, so I expect that some years will be better than others.  But we’re really excited about having fruit trees – it’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.

I also wanted to share a picture of the pepper plants we’re growing on our patio in a container my husband built:

And, better late than never… check out the Festival of Frugality that Green Panda Treehouse hosted last week.  I had an article in the FOF, and enjoyed many of the other articles too.