Voluntary Simplicity
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Northern Colorado Urban Homestead Tour
This weekend we went on the Northern Colorado Urban Homestead Tour. The tour was a fundraiser for The Gardens at Spring Creek in Fort Collins and featured three houses in Fort Collins and three houses in Loveland which opened up their backyards to visitors. Chris and I have been dreaming about the possibility of growing more…
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Screen-Free Sundays
It’s been nearly two months of Sundays since I decided to go screen-free every Sunday as part of my 30 Before 30 goals. Two months later, I am still in love with the idea of having a day where I don’t check email, Facebook or Instagram, and where my girls don’t have to wait for me to…
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A Month With No Car
Monday marked the end of our self-imposed carless month, and we celebrated with a drive to the landfill to take last month’s trash.I’m not sure that I’ve mentioned it before, but one of the happy side-effects of buying very little pre-made foods and using cloth diapers is that we generate very little trash – less…
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Apple Butter
Whenever I make apple butter, I always think of my brother Brandon. Growing up, I never really liked apple butter, but he loved it. Chris loves it too, and I’ve come around enough to eat my own apple butter, so it’s generally a fall tradition. The thing I like about canning apple butter is that…
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Thankfulness vs. Desire
It felt a little funny not to post yesterday about what I am thankful for. I very much enjoyed my 30 day thankfulness project and the fact that, even on less than easy or “bad” days (of which there were only two), I was still able to find things for which to be thankful. In…
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Voluntary Simplicity: An Overview and Environmental Argument for Adoption
As we consider the necessity of a car here on our little island, now ten days into our great experiment, I’ve been thinking a lot more about voluntary simplicity and living lightly upon the earth, not just for environmental reasons, but also for reasons of greater personal fulfillment and the pleasure of more time to enjoy life…
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The Great Experiment & 30 Days of Thanks
Today, Occupy Wall Street called on borrowers to stop repaying their student loans. The All Things Considered story that I heard this evening seemed so timely, as we just spent the entire weekend once again going over our budget with a fine-tooth comb, most specifically to discuss what to do about our student loans. I’ve…
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Catching Flies With Vinegar
Whoever said, “It’s easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar,” must have never heard of apple cider vinegar.Inevitably, this time of year, fruit flies take over my kitchen. My normally bug free home becomes a casualty of canning and bringing extraordinary amounts of farm fresh produce onto my kitchen counters and dining room table. I’ll pretend…
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Canning Tomatoes
Not-quite a recipe, but technique refined from a variety of sources See more recipes here Make sure you read the post on canning basics first! This isn’t so much of a recipe as it is a safe and easy first canning project. After a few years of making and canning tomato sauce, I’ve learned that it’s…
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Picking
I finally had a few moments to look through the pictures from Saturday’s pick-your-own at Bartlett’s. It was overcast and spitting rain drops off and on all day, but we couldn’t have had a better time. (And the gray weather was the perfect excuse for pulling out an adorable pair of overalls…I love itty-bitty, pink…
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Report Card
Quick Irene Report For our worried friends and relatives, we were much luckier than than many and didn’t see a single drop of rain. In fact, we woke up to bright and shiny skies that persisted through much of the day. Most of the concern on Nantucket were high speed winds, astronomically high tides, and very dangerous…
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To Sell or Not To Sell?
There’s no Wordless Wednesday today, because I need your advice! This is a three-days-before-the-yard-sale desperation post. We’re having a yard sale on Saturday and though I told myself I was going to downsize my closet, but I’m not sure that I can go through with it! So, I either need a pep talk to just…
