Today....

We're cleaning out nooks and crannies of every sort......which has been made much, much easier with the arrival of my mother.

Hooray for Family Day!

P.S. More to come on the minimizing.....and the (few) corners of our house that are now truly clutter-free (or, in Winnie's words, "neat as a pin").

An Awesome Book.

Awesome Book Tour from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

Watch this and be inspired to live your biggest, most awesome dreams.

Have an inspired weekend!

Valentine's Day.

I love this silly, commercial holiday for one reason: The Colors!

Who doesn't love pinks and reds (and maybe a bit of orange mixed in)?

This year our Valentine's Day craft was inspired by a Fortune Cookie I found in my bag (from when? where? I don't know....my bag is way too big).



We decided to make fortune cookies for all of Winnie's classmates, attach them to some homemade Valentine's with a little chocolate kiss, just because.

In the spirit of spending less and using what we have, I dug through the craft cupboard to find the materials we needed.

{Thankfully, I found a whole bag of materials from last Valentine's as I was minimizing the junk in another cupboard. Serendipity!}


First, we made Valentine's from Heavy White Paper, Stamps Made out of Sponge & Eraser, and some Old Paints:





Then we made Fortune Cookies from Felt (Thank you, once again, Martha Stewart!) and pipe clear we happened to have.
See all directions HERE.








We Wrote Little Love Notes for the Inside of the Fortune Cookies...





And we put it all together!






XO
Happy Valentine's Day, friends!

Good Things.

It's been a lazy New Year.

Free weekends stretched out in front of us (we don't know how it happened, but we plan to make this a January/February tradition!): family time, friend time, us time.

So many lovely things have come out of our slow moving Saturdays.
Here are a few Good Things from this weekend.....

Hugo by Brian Selznick
This book is absolute magic. Part novel, part picture book, it reads like a film.



Santa brought it for Winnie and I and it is, for sure, my favorite present of the year. Night after night we delve deeper into the world of Hugo Cabret and his life in 1930s Paris.




Winnie is obsessed. We tried to go to the (Oscar nominated) movie this weekend, but it was gone from the theatre. So, for now, Winnie will be left in her imaginary world where she is Isabelle (main character), Pippa is Hugo, and the cubby under the stairs is the train station in Paris.

{Admittedly, it's a nice change from Winnie declaring herself the Virgin Mary and Pippa her donkey.....}

Winter!
Welcome back, friend. Thank you for returning.
We're so happy you brought our backyard rink with you.....





Prepping for Pippa's FIRST Birthday.
What could be better than celebrating one full year with this cuddly/kissy little ball of love?




Making Valentine's.
The preparations have begun!





Making Project Plans.



We have a drawer full of knobs and hardware, found on sale, over the past few months. Now we just need to figure out what do with them all........I'm sure you'll see the results over at The Painted Pear in weeks to come!

Family Zumba.....
This has been the highlight of the winter. Seriously, I cannot describe the fun we have.....
Every Wednesday night, Winnie has a dance class at the YMCA. We discovered that, immediately following her class, there is a family Zumba class. A chance for the whole family to dance-ercise to LOUD, FUN music. And do we dance!



It's cracks me up. A room full of kids and parents trying to keep up with the teacher, Winnie taking it all very seriously, sipping from a water bottle between songs and declaring "Wow! My curls are SO sweaty"....

Grammie Ann and Pippa joined us last week and it was even better. We look forward to every Wednesday!

*Minimalist Mom Tip: With the kids $20 a month memberships, all of the activities at the YMCA are free! Swimming, dance, sportball and family Zumba. It's a steal!

Squeezing every last second out of Jamie's paternity leave....
Jamie went back to teaching this morning.



What am I going to do?

We All Deserve To Sparkle!

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same”

-Nelson Mandela


[pic]

It can be hard to take compliments. Hard to Shine.

I feel so upset when I see my three year old daughter shying away from compliments, feeling embarrassed by her awesome-ness.

Why can't she see how amazing she is?

But I find myself doing the same....

"Oh that fundraiser? It was nothing"
"The article I wrote? Anyone could have done that!"
"Oh, I'm terrible at that!"
"I'm the worst...."

It's funny and, somehow, more socially acceptable to hide our greatness, highlight our weaknesses.....lose graciously.

Twice in my office this week I had women say: "Oh I don't talk about my [insert amazing thing: birth story, career, relationship] because it's so amazing, I feel guilty!".

And then I found THIS article, entitled: Let Yourself Shine from the very fun blog, Shoppe Girls.

Give it a read.
We all deserve to sparkle!

“Quit apologizing for your greatness. If people can’t handle your light… Hand them a pair of shades.”

-Lisa Nichols

It's Just Dinner.

"There is a way of inviting friends over for dinner without hating them, yourself, the kitchen and the world.

Cooking isn't a performance art - or shouldn't be. Perhaps it's unrealistic to hope to be a model of serenity throughout, but if you can manage to relax, both the food and the evening will be better.

The answer is to cook in a way that doesn't involve huge amounts of effort and time. Ease yourself into a repertoire, make the food welcoming rather than fussy and remember that it's not a test of your worth and acceptability: it's just dinner".

- Nigella Lawson





The other night we had friends for dinner, as we often do. I was quite prepared.

I've gotten the whole *cooking for a crowd* thing pretty down-pat.......very little planning, an easy to make and assemble main course, a super simple appetizer, and most of the work (and clean up!) done before the guests arrive.

I genuinely like to just enjoy the time we have with friends and family and I really resent being stuck in the kitchen for any length of time.

But then there are those evenings, like the other night, when I just don't get it right.

The food was prepped: main course cooking, salad dressing made, salad assembled and two side dishes ready to go in the oven.

As we were sipping drinks and nibbling on appetizers, I was supposed to get those side dishes in the oven and ready to go....but I forgot.

Because I never stop talking.

And so they went in late and we were waiting and waiting and waiting until, finally, we couldn't keep the pregnant guest waiting any longer, and we decided to eat the meal in *shifts*.

Salad and main course first.....sides dishes to join later.

Shifts.

Not exactly the well-planned night I had envisioned.

I love Nigella's quote (above) because it so perfectly sums up the way I felt about the whole thing.....it's just dinner.

No big deal. No stress.

It's it SO bad to be having SO much fun with your guests that you forget dinner? I think not!

It was perfect.

The food was delicious, as it came out of the oven (oh so slowly), and we had an amazing catch-up.

Good food. Great company. All in all, a lovely night!

Healthy (Glowy!) Skin.

[pic]

When Jamie and I lived in England, we travelled to Caldea, a spa in Andorra for the most intense and amazing hydrotherapy treatments.

Jamie had been there before and was convinced it was "totally my thing".....which of course it was, because hydrotherapy is a really big part of naturopathic medicine.





Hydrotherapy: the use of water for pain-relief and treating illness.
[pics: Caldea]

It includes many treatments that focus on the alternation of hot and cold water (always ending with cold!), causing an increase in blood and lymphatic circulation, increased metabolism, improved immunity and the healing of tissues.

At Caldea, we floated in their mineral bath (think Dead Sea, very bizarre floaty feeling), we drifted from indoors to outdoors and back again. We spent time in hot tubs, followed by brief sponge baths made of ice shavings. We napped in eucalyptus steam rooms and then woke ourselves up, plunging into cold pools.

The result: complete exhaustion and gorgeous glowy skin.

You can pay big bucks for these treatments at spas (and it really is lovely....) OR you can take advantage of hydrotherapy in your home, daily, for free (sort of).

Some of these practices won't sound like a walk in the park, but they're not so bad.....FUN even!

And the results are amazing.

When I'm doing the alternating showers (below) my skin really is more rosy and clear and the effects on my metabolism keep me feeling warmer all winter long.


[pic]

Alternating Showers.
At the end of your regular shower, alternate hot water (as hot as you can bear) with cold water (as cold as you can bear) blasts. Do this is a 3:1 ratio (i.e. if you blast the hot for 30 seconds, blasts the cold for 10 seconds). Do this 3-4 times. Always end with cold. Then hop out and bundle yourself up nice and warm.

Warming Sock Treatments.
This is particularly helpful when you're feeling stuffy and congested. Soak white cotton athletic socks in cooooold water. Wring them out and put them on your feet (yes, you put them on wet), cover them with thick wool socks, make sure you're bundled up warm and go to bed. In the morning you'll find your socks are warm and dry and your head is less congested. **This may take 2-3 nights.


[pic]

For Kids.
For fever in kids, I change up the warming sock treatment, just a bit.

Instead of soaking the socks in really cold water, I soak it in very warm (almost hot!) water with added fresh lemon juice (1 lemon to 1 cup of hot water).

Wring them out, place on feet and cover with wool socks. Again, make sure your babe is dressed really warmly and tuck them into a warm bed for the night. The sock treatment will help bring a moderate fever down!


"Local" Hydrotherapy Spa: Le Nordique.

We spent time at Le Nordique a few years ago on New Year's Day.
It was snowy and cold and we spent the whole afternoon outside in the pools.
**Serendipitous finding: Hydrotherapy cures hangovers:)

Have a great weekend!