Happy Halloween

Serious pumpkin carving takes concentration.

The kids got pumpkin cookies from our neighbor this morning.

More pictures to come!

Fun at the Zoo!

We went to the zoo with Grandpa last Friday. The kids loved it!
Grandpa and I had a pretty good time, too!
Thanks, Grandpa!

Learning to live more simply

"As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will be simpler."
- Thoreau

"Simple living is about living deliberately. Simple living is not about austerity, or frugality, or income level. It's about being fully aware of why you are living your particular life, and knowing that life is one you have chosen thoughtfully. Simple living is about designing our lives to coincide with our ideals." -Janet Luhrs, The Simple Living Guide

I loved The Simple Living Guide and I feel that it has changed our lives. Some changes we have made to live more in line with our values:

1) Reduce: Live with less, buy less. Choose consciously.

2) We are not eating out: now this is a big one when you grow up in a family supported by the restaurant industry. I feel like we would eat out (or get take-out) a few times a week while we were growing up. And so that's what continued on for us. I would buy the kids lunch at least once a week while we were out running errands and we would eat dinner out at least once, if not more. It felt normal to me to eat out so often and I felt like I deserved it for working hard all day! Now my sense of entitlement is not so out of control and I realize a huge value of mine is family meals and I think it's better done at home!

3) No malls: I don't want to be an accumulator of stuff. My wants are a lot less if I avoid the shopping centers. I am trying to better identify my needs and wants. I want to consciously think about every purchase and whether I really need it. This has been relatively easy to implement since Mr. Innkeeper quit his job. Every dollar we spend is a dollar we no longer have. Hopefully I can continue my frugal ways once we have a regular income again!

4) Car Free Days: Last week we scheduled a day on the calendar where we would not use the car. We planned around it and enjoyed some time at home.

5) More service: I feel that the best way that I can become less self-centered and more aware of the world around me and the needs of the people in it is to serve more.

Does anyone share my desire for a simpler life? How do you find simplicity?

What did you say?

I was motivated by a couple of other recent posts about the crazy things that kids say and do found here and here.

In order to understand Joshua's comment you need to know a little about Halifax, Nova Scotia and our sewage. There are lots of glorious things about Halifax and we are green in lots of ways, but this isn't one of them. Halifax Harbour receives 181,000,000 liters of untreated raw sewage everyday. It should be fixed by 2008 with a massive harbour solutions clean-up project.

So a while ago we were playing at a park near the harbour and I felt Joshua was getting a little too close to the water. I told him that we can't touch the harbour water because the water is not very clean and about why the water is not very clean.

Recently I walked in on Joshua when he was flushing the toilet and overheard, "Bye, bye, poop. Gone to the ocean".

Plum Upside Down Cake

We had missionaries over for dinner on Thursday night. We have six missionaries assigned to our ward and try to have them for dinner about once a week. I made homemade chicken nuggets (as requested by Joshua), pasta, and salad with a Plum upside down cake from CuisineNie for dessert. I was checking her website for new recipes (none yet) and decided this one looked good. It was delicious and it looked so pretty I had to take a picture!

No Impact Man

Are you familiar with No Impact Man? I check his blog regularly and I find it inspiring and also a little frustrating (because I feel like I'm not doing enough). Anyways, I loved this post and started my gratitude journal last night. I hope he inspires you, too!

Drawing the Line

So, I have a little problem. I may be a tad too accommodating. A couple of our guests are trying to avoid sugar and white flour. We have options: fruit, eggs, yogurt. But I don't want them to feel like they're missing out on the great baked goods. So I whip a batch of granola minus the brown sugar. Mr. Innkeeper is putting on a loaf of bread with just wheat flour (that I ground by hand - we have whole wheat flour in the cupboard, but I figure if they're trying to avoid white flour they're probably not big on preservatives, either) and we will have some special whole wheat pecan muffins flavored with maple syrup tomorrow morning. I am crazy.


Delia got some bangs a few weeks ago, and I think she's too cute!