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I am in the process of moving my blog to a new URL www.marthacarlin.com. In doing so, I am going back through my old blog posts and moving some of them to this new location. It struck me as really funny that I wrote this blog entry on clutter in 2007 and now 4 years later (yesterday) I wrote a blog on having too much stuff. Clearly this is still an issue for me.
This Post was title - SPRING CLEANING
Clutter drives me nuts. If you came to my house you would not realize it. There is clutter everywhere. Piles of old mail waiting for something - I'm not sure what. Piles of the kids things on the stairs, waiting in vane to be carried up the stairs and put away. Piles of cookbooks I've had out and can't find room for in the cookbook self. Piles of old school papers, clothes in the closet, magazines that must be years old. Why do we hang on to all these things? Does it really only bother me? Nobody else seems to notice or care. I go to the neighbors and they don't have these piles. I go to friends houses and they don't have this clutter. So why us?
How can we solve this problem? I am looking for some help. From the experts, from my family, from anybody. I joined the freecycle yahoo group in my town. You can list things there that you want to give away. The kids are thinking about having a garage sale but they never do. So this week while I have a few days off I think I will try to work on just one room and remove some of the clutter. I started in the bathroom this afternoon and emptied out two drawers and the cabinet. I threw out old vitamins, prescriptions, lotions, broken hair clips and makeup samples that must be at least two years old. Why am I compelled to take these samples at the stores? I NEVER use them.
I bought a book on cleaning up the clutter. It is now cluttering up the floor of my bathroom. It says you should go one room at a time. This month's Real Simple has an article about lightening up. It says to start by throwing out the physical stuff. Go through drawers, wallet, purse, etc and toss anything that depresses or diminishes you. What does that mean? How can stuff in your purse diminish you? I am afraid I am not going to be able to figure that one out. I got on this purse kick last summer and now instead of one purse I have about 10. They are now adding to the clutter. I guess if I have to go through them all I can probably find some stuff to throw out. Oh yeah, and you are supposed to make a list of the things you are throwing away. That seems like extra work. Its hard enough to do the throwing out part without having to make a list.
Anyway, I am going to get up early tomorrow and unclutter something in my house. I am not sure what yet but something. I think it will make me feel better - at least temporarily. Until.........well you know. The clutter builds up again.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Remembering Africa - More than a Mountain - Book
It has been a little more than a month since we made our 7 day trek up and down Mount Kilimanjaro. Since returning we've all continued to share our passion for the trip but we've also been sharing the many personal insights we learned from the challenge.
Our group of 28 - 10 with Multiple Sclerosis, 4 with Parkinson's Disease and 14 companions has decided to put together a book about our experiences. We will be working over the next several months to compile each person's story in the hope that we can inspire others to go beyond their perceived limits in some way. When we publish the book all sales after costs of publication will go to charity. We will be working as a group to decide which MS and PD charities we'll be donating to. I hope when the time comes that you'll buy the book and read the stories of my amazing companions on the mountain. Each person has a truly inspiring story to tell.
Resisting IKEA aka Thinking about a New Economy
I met my daughter, Lindsay, at IKEA today to get her the kitchen table she wanted for her birthday. This was my first trip to the massive retail store. IKEA is a Swedish based company. This strikes me as really being out of whack since the Swedish are not mass consumers. I think I wrote about the Swedish concept of "lagom" meaning "enough" or "just the right amount". The store is huge and full of furniture and household goods as well as a restaurant and daycare so you can shop longer. This seems to me to be a totally un-Swedish concept. Its a totally American type shopping experience designed to keep you shopping as long as possible, complete with impulse buying stations along the way.
My daughter was surprised when I seemed nonplussed by the store. She couldn't understand why. I told her that I was past the accumulation of stuff phase in a my life so I wasn't as drawn to all the stuff. She and her friend, Sydney, who had come along, were still in their accumulation of stuff phase. Early in the phase I might add since they both just graduated from college.
This got me thinking about when a person crosses over from the accumulation of stuff to wanting to lighten up? I don't think there is any magic line in the sand. Some people never come to the realization that they have enough or maybe even too much and they just keep on buying. Others, like me, may have been jolted in to the realization by this economic cycle. So I wondered if a larger number of people had decided they have enough in this economic downturn and will never return to their previous consumption levels. What will this do to the economic recovery? Will we have to reinvent our economy in to something completely different that doesn't rely on massive consumerism?
I have been moving along the line toward thinking I have too much stuff ever since my husband's and my mother both died in early 2006. We each brought home a truck load of things on top of all the stuff we already have of our own. Just 15 years ago we lived in a tiny 900 square foot house and all our stuff fit just fine. Now we have multiples of that space and we have boxes and stacks of stuff all over the place. Over the past five years I have gradually gotten to a state where I can begin to let go of the things that were my mothers. Do I really need her 3 sets of dishes and 25 cake pans? How about 8 different colored napkins and matching placemats? Do I need 5 vegetable peelers? 30 framed prints that I will never hang on my walls because they don't fit my taste? What about all the tools in the garage that were my Dads. Wouldn't I be just fine with two screw drivers and one hammer and a hand drill? I think so. As I move along this spectrum I am starting to set aside items for my MEGA garage sale that I am going to have in September. It should be interesting. I've had garage sales before but its been a while. I used to find myself taking things back in to the house during the sale when I felt a pang of attachment. I have vowed not to do that this time. I am really going to down size. I've got about 4 weeks to go room by room and really whittle things down.
The trick after that will be not to reacquire more goods. I wonder if I can be successful at this. Today at IKEA I bought a tray, some boxes and some tupperware type containers. Did I really need them?
Where will the economy go if we all suddenly realize we are a lot happier without having all this stuff we have to move around, dust, watch over and care about? Can we have an economic engine driven by something else? If so what would that be? I read the book "The Great Reset - How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity" a few months back. It goes in depth in to how the economy is being shaken up by this. It talks about how the economy is changing now like it did during the industrial revolution and this is going to create great upheaval in the demographics of our cities and how we all live. I am not sure I agree with it all but I did find it interesting.
What do you think?
My daughter was surprised when I seemed nonplussed by the store. She couldn't understand why. I told her that I was past the accumulation of stuff phase in a my life so I wasn't as drawn to all the stuff. She and her friend, Sydney, who had come along, were still in their accumulation of stuff phase. Early in the phase I might add since they both just graduated from college.
This got me thinking about when a person crosses over from the accumulation of stuff to wanting to lighten up? I don't think there is any magic line in the sand. Some people never come to the realization that they have enough or maybe even too much and they just keep on buying. Others, like me, may have been jolted in to the realization by this economic cycle. So I wondered if a larger number of people had decided they have enough in this economic downturn and will never return to their previous consumption levels. What will this do to the economic recovery? Will we have to reinvent our economy in to something completely different that doesn't rely on massive consumerism?
I have been moving along the line toward thinking I have too much stuff ever since my husband's and my mother both died in early 2006. We each brought home a truck load of things on top of all the stuff we already have of our own. Just 15 years ago we lived in a tiny 900 square foot house and all our stuff fit just fine. Now we have multiples of that space and we have boxes and stacks of stuff all over the place. Over the past five years I have gradually gotten to a state where I can begin to let go of the things that were my mothers. Do I really need her 3 sets of dishes and 25 cake pans? How about 8 different colored napkins and matching placemats? Do I need 5 vegetable peelers? 30 framed prints that I will never hang on my walls because they don't fit my taste? What about all the tools in the garage that were my Dads. Wouldn't I be just fine with two screw drivers and one hammer and a hand drill? I think so. As I move along this spectrum I am starting to set aside items for my MEGA garage sale that I am going to have in September. It should be interesting. I've had garage sales before but its been a while. I used to find myself taking things back in to the house during the sale when I felt a pang of attachment. I have vowed not to do that this time. I am really going to down size. I've got about 4 weeks to go room by room and really whittle things down.
The trick after that will be not to reacquire more goods. I wonder if I can be successful at this. Today at IKEA I bought a tray, some boxes and some tupperware type containers. Did I really need them?
Where will the economy go if we all suddenly realize we are a lot happier without having all this stuff we have to move around, dust, watch over and care about? Can we have an economic engine driven by something else? If so what would that be? I read the book "The Great Reset - How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity" a few months back. It goes in depth in to how the economy is being shaken up by this. It talks about how the economy is changing now like it did during the industrial revolution and this is going to create great upheaval in the demographics of our cities and how we all live. I am not sure I agree with it all but I did find it interesting.
What do you think?
Monday, August 22, 2011
Peaches, nectar of the Gods
I love peaches. Not the one's you get in the grocery store. The peaches you buy at a roadside farm stand or at the farmer's market. If you leave in Colorado, its a Western slope/Palisade peach that's the one I am talking about. If you leave in Georgia or South Carolina, I imagine they are similar. I was riding home the other night when this story came on the radio on NPR. This guy has the best job in the world tasting peaches! Just listen to him talk about it. He rolls on the ground in joy over some of these peaches. Links are working but paste this in your browser and see how much this guy loves peaches!
www.npr.org/2011/08/18/139755064/sweet-lessons-from-a-south-carolina-peach-professor
Well that's pretty much the way I feel when its peach season in Colorado. We go through about a box a week. The kids will eat a half dozen or more a day. This season they are perfect, juicy, sweet and just ripe with no tartness from being picked to soon. I think the weather was better this year and I haven't seen many split pits. Most of the peaches that arrive at the grocery store have been picked green. As a result they don't develop that wonderful peach scent, the juicy texture or the sweet flavor. Apparently its pretty difficult to get a peach to market without picking it to soon.
One of my favorite books is "Four Seasons in Five Senses" by David Mas Masumoto. He's a peach farmer in California. Its a wonderful book about the magnificent peach and all that goes in to growing them. In reading his descriptions of the farm, the trees, the peaches, the scents, the flavors I can immediately feel, smell and taste what he is writing about. He has several books including "Wisdom of the Last Farmer" and "Epitaph for a Peach". If you love peaches and beautiful words that can make your mouth water pick up one of his books and read it.
Last year I made peach chutney from the food network and tried to make peach jam. Well I guess jam is a little bit harder to get right than I thought. If you over cook it, which I did, it will basically turn to rock in your jelly jars. Its not very spreadable in that consistency. I am going to try again this weekend. I have 2 boxes of peaches arriving on Friday from the high school fund raiser. I think I should invite someone who knows what they are doing to come teach me.
You know the best things in life aren't learned from a book. They are experienced. Its much easier to learn how to make something if you are cooking with a friend who has done it before. Same goes for learning how to grow things, fix things, run things etc. Find somebody who knows and ask them to share their knowledge. And maybe a nice juicy peach or two while they are at it.
Food Network - Peach Chutney Recipe:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
2 shallots finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 pounds fresh peaches, blanched and diced
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
Directions
Melt butter, add garlic, shallot and jalapeno and sweat for 1 to 2 minutes, add diced peaches. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, add sugar, deglaze with brandy and vinegar and allow to cook on low heat until peaches are soft. Season with salt and pepper.
* Restaurant Recipe
This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. Food Network Kitchens have not tested this recipe in the proportions indicated and therefore cannot make representation as to the results.
www.npr.org/2011/08/18/139755064/sweet-lessons-from-a-south-carolina-peach-professor
Well that's pretty much the way I feel when its peach season in Colorado. We go through about a box a week. The kids will eat a half dozen or more a day. This season they are perfect, juicy, sweet and just ripe with no tartness from being picked to soon. I think the weather was better this year and I haven't seen many split pits. Most of the peaches that arrive at the grocery store have been picked green. As a result they don't develop that wonderful peach scent, the juicy texture or the sweet flavor. Apparently its pretty difficult to get a peach to market without picking it to soon.
One of my favorite books is "Four Seasons in Five Senses" by David Mas Masumoto. He's a peach farmer in California. Its a wonderful book about the magnificent peach and all that goes in to growing them. In reading his descriptions of the farm, the trees, the peaches, the scents, the flavors I can immediately feel, smell and taste what he is writing about. He has several books including "Wisdom of the Last Farmer" and "Epitaph for a Peach". If you love peaches and beautiful words that can make your mouth water pick up one of his books and read it.
Last year I made peach chutney from the food network and tried to make peach jam. Well I guess jam is a little bit harder to get right than I thought. If you over cook it, which I did, it will basically turn to rock in your jelly jars. Its not very spreadable in that consistency. I am going to try again this weekend. I have 2 boxes of peaches arriving on Friday from the high school fund raiser. I think I should invite someone who knows what they are doing to come teach me.
You know the best things in life aren't learned from a book. They are experienced. Its much easier to learn how to make something if you are cooking with a friend who has done it before. Same goes for learning how to grow things, fix things, run things etc. Find somebody who knows and ask them to share their knowledge. And maybe a nice juicy peach or two while they are at it.
Food Network - Peach Chutney Recipe:
Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
2 shallots finely diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1 1/2 pounds fresh peaches, blanched and diced
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup cider vinegar
Salt and pepper
Directions
Melt butter, add garlic, shallot and jalapeno and sweat for 1 to 2 minutes, add diced peaches. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, add sugar, deglaze with brandy and vinegar and allow to cook on low heat until peaches are soft. Season with salt and pepper.
* Restaurant Recipe
This recipe was provided by professional chefs and has been scaled down from a bulk recipe provided by a restaurant. Food Network Kitchens have not tested this recipe in the proportions indicated and therefore cannot make representation as to the results.
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