relaxation

It’s not about the “Number”

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It’s really not about the final number, but about how we feel after reaching a particular number or looking around our home.

The average home (2014) has about 300,000 items (LA Times article link here).  Since our house is 1300 sq ft, we probably average about 230 items per square foot.  How scary is that?!?!  This is just for a “typical” house.  What about those of us who really need to declutter??

Decluttering isn’t about the number of items leaving the house.  But counting allows us to have a concrete goal.  Vague goals prevent follow through.  Decluttering is something we need to ensure we stay on top of.  Counting the items leaving our home has definitely kept us on track.  When we first started decluttering, we didn’t count and it was hard to see the progress.  Knowing a certain number of items left was encouraging when the progress was less obvious.  Even today, counting reminds us that stuff (really us) has a habit of becoming clutter.

Since we began seriously decluttering in the fall of 2014, we have removed 14,013 items from our home.  How does it make us feel??

  • We have more time for other activities now that we aren’t moving the stuff all around to get to other stuff.
  • We have a sense of accomplishment when we reach our number goal.
  • We are more relaxed in our own home.
  • Household chores take less time!  We joked the other day that the house is decluttered enough to get a housekeeper (but we aren’t – we can manage it now ourselves!)
  • We don’t worry about someone dropping by on the “wrong” day.
  • We feel more welcoming!
  • We have a sense of contentment.

How about you?  What have you noticed?

Yummy Margarita!

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We tried a new Margarita recipe from the Food Network this afternoon for “cocktail hour” at home.  It has a subtle spiced undertone and is WONDERFUL!!

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Here’s the recipe:

Harvest Margarita

Total Time: 1 hr 15 min
Prep: 10 min
Inactive: 1 hr
Cook: 5 min

Yield:1 serving
Level:Easy

Ingredients:
2 ounces tequila, such as Patron reposado tequila  (we used Patron)
1 1/2 ounces chilled Spiced Simple Syrup, recipe follows
1/2 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
Few dashes bitters
Ice
Lime wedge, for garnish (we didn’t do this)

Spiced Simple Syrup:
1 cup sugar
8 whole allspice berries
8 whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 -inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

Directions:
Combine the tequila, simple syrup, lime juice, bitters and ice in a cocktail shaker and shake for 10 seconds. Serve straight up or on the rocks with a lime wedge for garnish.

Spiced Simple Syrup:
Combine the sugar, 1 cup water, allspice, cloves, cinnamon and ginger in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until the sugar is completely melted. Remove from the heat and let steep for 1 hour. Strain into a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until cold.

Recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay
© 2016 Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/harvest-margarita-recipe.print.html?oc=linkback

Back to Work

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Vacation is officially over. Both of us are back to work and exhausted!  We need a vacation to recoup from vacation!

It’s amazing to us how you can be busy all day long while on vacation but a week of work leaves you so tired.

Our stress levels were definitely reduced for an extended period giving our bodies time to mend what needed mending.  Do our brains mend while we are destressing?  Seems like we werent’t as forgetful during vacation.

Guess the days of simple living while on vacation help more than we realize.