Rows of Neat & Tidy Spices

After leaving my job for a less stressful one and more time at home, I'm beginning to realize just how many things I've been neglecting. From self-care to home maintenance to cleaning, I've been saying manana to all of it for a couple of years now.

I believe that it's important to take care of even the simplest of our possessions so that we use them thoughtfully and reduce waste. It's not always easy to put this value into practice in daily life because, frankly, it's not glamorous and isn't always fun.

But we are trying to turn our patterns around bit by bit, mostly by cooking more at home, having a mini weekly conference to plan for the week and creating a chore list. These might seem like "duh" kind of things, but I'm not in a regular habit of taking care of the details of my life.

I decided to clean the fridge and organize the pantry this past weekend while listening to the Ueck cover a little Brewer play-off action. I disposed of ten jars of half-used, spoiled condiments and dug through layers of disorganized, flour-covered-junk in the pantry to see what we really had. These tasks took a damn long time and illustrated just how much we have and waste on a frequent basis.

I was amazed at how much wholesome real food we had in our pantry, especially after so many nights of looking in and saying "we don't have much, so let's just go out." Funny how tidying this small closet brought me a measure of peacefulness.


Rows of grains, legumes and other nummy whole foods.


Good thing we have so many empty jars because when you buy turmeric from the Indian store you are in for a commitment. But it's pretty to look at, so it's alright.


And since I've turned into some kind of totally psychotic cat lady, it's hard to resist a new pic of the feline. Plastic bag rug - a gift from my boss' 93-year-old mother. What a perfect combination of Silvio's two favorite things: rugs and plastic bags.