Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday of the year. I love love.

If you’re looking for a last minute fun project for your kids, or some goodies for their classrooms, give me an hour and I’ll give you some sweet marshmallow pops.

I got this idea from a book my mom got me for Christmas, Kids in the Holiday Kitchen. My mom loves holidays just as much as I do (probably more), and as a result she has a terrible habit of buying me holiday related items at the holiday. Which makes no sense to me whatsoever. Here I am looking at this adorable little book with all these fun cooking projects to do with the kids, and oh, wait! That holiday is TODAY. So, put that away until next year!

But! I saw the sugarplum lollies in that book, which inspired this idea for Valentine’s Day.

And look at me, just like my mom, I am throwing this at you at the last minute. But…if you have an hour to do this with your kids, even after dinner tonight, it’s a pretty quick project.

What you’ll need:

Double boiler, or two pots as a stand-in
Bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (feel free to get creative)
Pop sticks
Bag of big marshmallows
Miscellaneous holiday themed candies
Cookie sheet
Wax paper
Cellophane to wrap the pops in
Ribbon

What you’ll do:

Prep several plates of your valentine-themed candies. Plates work better than bowls, since you can hold the pop straight out, and simply roll in the candies. Set aside.

Cover your cookie sheet with wax paper. You’ll be putting your pops on the tray and then into the fridge to set, so you’ll want to make room in your refrigerator, as well. Set aside.

Add an inch of water in the bottom of the double boiler and simmer. Add chocolate chips to the top bowl and stir constantly until fully melted.

Meanwhile, prep your pops. Push the stick fully into, but not through, the marshmallow.

Dip and swirl into the chocolate. Let the chocolate drip from the marshmallow, and try to move it such that you have a relatively even coating of chocolate on the pop. Don’t over do it.

When decorating the pop you can either press only the top of the pop into the candies, so that it is primarily chocolate with like a little surprise candy hat; or you can roll the whole pop lightly in the candies, covering the whole thing. This is obviously the best role for the kids. Let them have at it!

As you finish decorating each pop, put it onto your wax-covered tray. When done, put the tray into the refrigerator in order to set. It sets pretty quickly, but give it at least 30 minutes before you take them out. If you want, you can wrap them in cellophane and tie with a decorative little ribbon.

Done!

Warning: This is the sweetest little jar of curd you ever did taste. It is highly addictive. Especially when a dollop is plopped atop a gingersnap.

SNAP! That’s some good curd! 

My good friend Valerie and I had planned a canning get together with our other good friends, Grace and Akemi. This was during the holiday season and we were planning on making gifts for teachers and friends. Valerie came up with the brilliant idea of canning cranberry curd. Now – I know what you’re thinking. IS THAT SAFE? Yes, it is. Please see explanation at bottom of post.

To begin, Valerie chose a recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson‘s How to Be a Domestic Goddess, as published in the Houston Chronicle way back in 2006.

We quickly modified the recipe based on our joint knowledge of food preservation guidelines. But the end result was so wickedly delicious I ended up making an even larger batch at home several weeks later, carefully documenting my changes to make this both delicious and safe.

A final quick note: cranberries are not local to the bay area. Gosh, I think it is one of the few things we DON’T grow! But I was able to score bags of fresh organic cranberries from Trader Joe’s for a pretty good price (I think $2.99, if my memory serves correct). Curd is rich and delicious and, therefore, I like to can it in small 4 ounce jars to ensure I don’t eat a whole cup at once. ‘Cuz I will. Besides, if you can them in 4 ounce jars, there are more to give!

If you have frozen cranberries that made it past Thanksgiving, here’s a wonderful way to get them out of the freezer and into the jar!

* If you’re making the full recipe, which is too much to can in one batch in a canner bath, you might consider using the oven for this project. In which case you need to preheat your oven to 250 degrees F. While it is pre-heating, simply put your jars into the oven, on a cookie sheet, to sterilize. They should be in there at least 20 minutes, but leaving them in the oven the entire time you are working on your recipe will be more than enough! When you’re ready to can the curd, take the cookie sheet out of the oven, fill the jars (follow regular canning instructions on filling) and put the lidded jars back into the oven for 15 minutes, more depending on altitude.

Why it’s safe: I know there are a bunch of people who are skeevy about canning a curd. And you should be! Good for you for not wanting to get botulism! If I hadn’t made it my New Year’s resolution to not swear, I’d put a little badge on this recipe that said “Don’t FU*& with this recipe!” But…I am trying not to swear. So I can’t do that. But please, don’t modify this recipe unless you know what you’re doing. You can safely halve the recipe. So…how am I confident this is safe? Here is the USDA’s recipe for safely canning lemon curd. A reminder that the biggest safety issue with a canning recipe has to do with the pH of a recipe. A recipe with a pH of 4.6 or lower can be canned safely in a canner bath. Lemons and cranberries are very acidic, and they are about the same pH (around 2.4). Very safe. In the case of a curd recipe, proteins are added (butter and egg) which will affect the pH of the end product. But you will note that in comparison to the USDA’s lemon curd recipe, I used more juice and more berries (meaning my recipe is even MORE acidic) and LESS butter and eggs, comparatively. Therefore…you have no reason to worry about the pH level being safe for canning purposes.

More pretty pictures!

squeezed orange juice

Press through a fine-meshed sieve

temper the eggs

make pretty swirls!

About this business:

For a while now I’ve been intending to dedicate some regular space on my blog to highlight local food businesses that I love. Of course it only make sense that I start with a business that focuses on preserves (right?!?). Kristen Cederquist, on of the co-owners of Serendipity Saucy Spreads, was one of the first people I befriended on Twitter. I admire her immensely as both a wonderful business person, as well as a friend. Kristen and Lynette are good people who make great jam!

From their website: “Serendipity Saucy Spreads is a collaborative effort of Kristen & Lynette Cederquist, two Santa Cruz artists with a passion for creating innovative twists on traditional family jam and preserve recipes.  Lynette began making jam with her grandmother many many years ago and can remember waking up on summer mornings to lug boxes of fruit that were delivered from family friends.  She and her grandmother and later on her mother would spend the morning preparing the fruit and then making delicious jams that they would share with their friends to enjoy for months to come.  The tradition was then passed to Kristen, whose first memories go back to picking the ripest plums for plum jam on summer mornings with her grandmother when she was about five or six years old.  For the past 15 years Kristen and Lynette have carried on the family tradition of making delicious jams, jellies, and marmalades.”

Why I love them:

I love the resurgence of local food businesses that have taken off in the Bay Area, particularly pickles and preserves. With such lovely weather and rich soil, we’re able to grow a variety of foods the rest of the world could only envy. Who needs Smuckers when you have the world at your fingertips? I do admit, though, to being annoyed by overly-clever preserves – the kinds that entail so many ingredients you get the feeling the main goal is to impress, rather than to impress upon the flavor. Serendipity gets that. They focus on bringing out the best flavors using quality ingredients and combinations resulting in a style of jam that is very fruit forward and usually very low in sugar. “Don’t screw with perfection” comes to mind! Not to say their jams are boring – on the contrary, they are anything but. My current favorite is their Comice pear and rosemary conserve. The sweetness of the rosemary brings out the best flavors in the Comice pear, giving it just enough complexity that it suddenly pairs equally well with a cheese platter as it does a atop a scone. I also use it to stuff pancakes! YUM! They have a spiced carrot jam that is reminiscent of a creamy pumpkin butter, and is wildly comforting during these cold-ish months (OK, it’s really been like spring time around here, lately. What is up with that?). My son is eagerly awaiting strawberry season again, for his favorite Serendipity flavor to reappear: strawberry preserves with balsamic.

Learn more about them:

Located in Santa Cruz, California

Visit their website to learn more about them (and check out what local flavors they currently have in-season!)

Fan them on Facebook

Follow them on Twitter

Support your favorite local small businesses! Without them, it would be a bland, bland world!

Happy New Year. May 2012 be filled with love and light.

Speaking of light…I LOVE this Rainbow Brite spiraling mason jar chandelier from BootsNGus Design on Etsy.

Here’s a great gift for the holidays. It gives pizazz to pork, adds a spicy kick to your ice cream, heck, you can happily spend an afternoon eating it straight from the jar. My kids do. Believe me. They do. I’m kinda pissed about that because I had to make a second, unexpected batch.

I pretty much got this recipe straight out of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, though I modified it slightly.

When working with apples, especially when you need to core, peel, and do all of that other time consuming prep, it’s good to first prep your “I need to prevent these apples from browning” station. When the flesh of the apple is exposed to oxygen, a reaction called oxidation occurs, causing them to brown. You can prevent this by soaking the fruit in an “antioxidant bath”. Mix 8 cups of water with 1/2 cup lemon juice and set your lemon bath aside. As you peel your apple slices, throw them in the bath until you’re ready to jar them. If you don’t have lemon juice, you can also use citric acid (follow manufacturer’s instructions).

Oh – and one last thing before we get to the sweet stuff…normally I am very crazy rules-based about food. For some reason, I decided this recipe didn’t apply. It’s a treat – it’s a gift – it’s special. And so out come the candies, corn syrup and food coloring.

Be warned!

You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients. – Julia Child

Lately I’ve been cooking up a storm. There was a brief period of time when I was working out of an office, that I swear to you, I could not get it together in terms of food. I am sure there are a million tips and tricks people would have offered me, and eventually I would have figured something out. But I had worked from home for the last seven years. I didn’t know how to manage taking my kids to school then commuting for an hour in traffic to work, or picking the kids up from two different locations then making it home after 6:30, only to have two hungry kids and a hungry husband starting back at me.  I think I worked a total of three months in an office, full-time, and I don’t know how many meals I was able to actually cook, maybe three. Honestly. What should have been the best part of my day, being able to be back with my family, eating and talking and laughing – was, instead, a stressful mess.

I decided to be easy on myself. So I bought a lot of “healthy convenience food.” It might be a ricotta stuffed chicken breast that still takes 45 minutes to cook, but at least I can call my husband from the cell phone and tell him to pop it in, so it’s ready when we the kids and I get home. That kind of convenience is expensive, it turns out.

I spent my entire first full day of not working, cooking everything I could get my hands on. I made the kids whole grain pancakes stuffed with Serendipity Pear and Rosemary Compote (so freaking good it hurts, that compote is!) for breakfast. I made a giant salad for lunch, topped with goat cheese, sliced apples, and pecans I candied with honey. For dinner – a butternut squash lasagna. I had everything I needed in my kitchen. I didn’t have to run out to the store. It turns out that home cooking can be a lot less expensive than we’ve been told. I haven’t stopped cooking, since, both for the cost-savings aspect, as well as the sheer joy of it. I missed cooking.

All of this got me to thinking about the supposed inconvenience and the expense of cooking real food. Here’s the food story that many people experience in our society, one that’s increasingly been fed to us (hahaha) via marketing probably since the 1960′s: Life is expensive, and the way you achieve the American Dream is to for both of you to get out there in the work force and work your little tails off so that you may reap the rewards. As a result, we become too busy to cook. Enter snacks and pre-made meals and such. “Look!” they say. “We are here to help you. You need us. We make your very busy life easier. We’ll make cereal. Just add milk. Here are some lunchables. The whole lunch? Already wrapped up and ready to go! We’ve got macaroni and cheese and frozen pizzas. Your kids will enjoy them. They’re quick to make and you won’t have to argue about dinner at the end of a long, exhausting day. You want healthy? We’ve pre-cut your broccoli into little florettes and sealed them up so they’re ready when you are!  You shouldn’t have to cut. You make, what, $45 an hour? $50 maybe? Is cutting broccoli a valuable use of your time? No, it is not. We will take care of that for you. You just enjoy.”

If you think about how that trend evolved over the last 5 decades, it’s amazing how much has changed. Life became more expensive to catch up with the fact that more money was able to be spent, causing costs to rise. We consolidated from many food businesses to probably 2-3 large companies that control the greatest amount of our food supply. We’re more sedentary, we eat more empty calories, and the list goes on. Suddenly, what used to be considered “practical, normal and healthy” (cooking our food from scratch, drinking raw milk, baking our own bread, growing and canning our food) has become kitschy. Though wonderfully all of this is catching on, now. Yeah!

In the meantime, real food has grown a reputation for being both too expensive and too inconvenient. That is true in a sense. There are a myriad of reasons for the expense including the ineffectiveness (from a health persepctive) of the farm bill and the economies of scale benefit that large food businesses experience, but there are equally good ways to keep the cost of “real food” down: shop at farmer’s markets, buy large quantities of a desired product with a group of friends, get a few people to go in on a grass-fed cow, limit what you eat, make food from scratch, shop locally and let the law of supply and demand do its thing. I really could go on. The point is: oftentimes the storyline determines the outcome. And we were sold a storyline that told us we all needed to work our asses off for the American Dream. The fact that real food became unattainable for a great portion of our society, was the outcome.

When both parents are forced to work because it’s the only way to afford “life” we’ve created a problem. Because the whole point of the women’s movement wasn’t that we all wanted to work – we just wanted to be treated equally. We wanted choice. Perhaps because I was born in Silicon Valley, I never thought there was a choice. Life is indeed expensive. But suddenly I am seeing that choice is all around me. I simply got swept up in doing what I thought I should do. Spend.

Simplifying your life can go a long way towards stretching a dollar. Pre-packaged food does cost a lot of money. Take a pizza, for example. Everyone pretty much has the ingredients to make pizza dough. A lot of people grow tomatoes. Many people even make and freeze or can their own sauce. If not, how many people don’t have tomato sauce in their pantries? Add cheese (usually something people have – and really – not as hard to make as you would think!) and whatever toppings. Voila!

So, yes, coming home and throwing a frozen pizza in the oven is easier. But making the pizza is more fun. And we both probably have everything right there, anyway. And if we started planning and making sure we had the right ingredients in our homes, we could even get to a place where we have the ingredients to make our own mozzarella (heck! You could have a goat in your backyard and make that mozzarella from goat’s milk! But read this first before you get too excited; I’ve decided against the goat), grow our own tomatoes, we’ve got our staples all there to make our pizza pie dough. We could even have a few pots of lettuce  and herbs growing in the kitchen! Now we’ve got ourselves a lovely little homegrown salad and a homemade tomato, basil and mozzarella pizza. And let’s throw in a glass of chianti – because.

Ahhhhh.

I’m feeling the joy of cooking, again, because I’m no longer rushing the process. What I’ve realized in the meantime is that eating well can be inexpensive as long as you have a good amount of basic staples, grow a little bit of your food, and give yourself a little time. I’ve noticed that I’m spending far less money on food because I am cooking from scratch. And I’m enjoying that time with myself, time being creative through cooking and canning, and being able to day dream again, because I have the time for such luxuries. I’m sure that will change at some point. But for now, I’m enjoying cooking up whatever comes to mind.

Except for the fact that I would be losing out on the SEO factor, I would have titled this post: Easy Peazy Apple Squeezy. Because that’s a way cuter title, right?

I used to be of the mind that there was really no need to can applesauce. Apples grow abundantly here in the Bay Area. My Trader Joe’s has 100% gravenstein applesauce for $1.99 for a 16 ounce jar. Gravenstein apples come from Sebastopol, which is only about an hour and a half drive from me. So, I am pretty sure the applesauce is sourced locally, and I know most of the larger gravenstein apple orchards in Sebastopol and I like them all. So I hedge my bets that it’s a good source. Besides, applesauce seems like a pain in the butt to make, what with all the skinning and coring. Who needs that?

But guess what? It turns out that applesauce is one of the easiest things in the world to make! And because you don’t need “pretty apples” you can often pick up some solid organic apples for $0.50 pound, making it more cost effective to can your own.

If you’ve never canned your own applesauce, be prepared to be amazed with the simplicity!

Canned Applesauce Tutorial – see bottom of post for user-friendly recipe!

Step 1: Sterilize your jars and lids

Step 2: Quarter apples, leaving cores and stems intact. See? EASY! Add quartered apples to a large stainless steel saucepan. Add enough water to prevent scorching. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Step 2

Step 3: Reduce heat to a simmer and boil gently, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Apples should be falling apart. Remove from heat and let cool.

Step 4: Working in batches, pass apples through a food mill to remove skin, seeds, stems and the like.

Step 4

Step 5: Return applesauce to pan and add lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to a simmer and ladle hot applesauce into jars, being sure to release the air bubbles, until there’s 1/2 inch headspace.

Step 5

Step 6: Wipe the rims and seal the jar. Process in a boiling water bath for twenty minutes.

Notes: 

You can choose any type of apple you want, to suit your taste. I like to use a mixture of tart and sweet apples. This year’s batch was made from pink ladies and golden delicious apples.

Leaving the stem and core intact when cooking the apples increases the pectin, speeding the process of achieving the preferred texture.

And here’s an easily printable recipe for you!

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to a blogger luncheon with Tiny Prints – which was fantastic because:

1) I love Tiny Prints stationary. (Both of my kids’ birth announcements were Tiny Prints!)

2) I got to spend time with a group of women I adore.

3) Free food. Yeah!

4) A chance to check out Tiny Prints new holiday line of cards (just in time for the holidays!)

How stoked am I? Well, let me just tell you: I am pretty darn stoked. I’m a big small business advocate, especially local businesses. And Tiny Prints is but a hop, skip and a jump from me. I love entrepreneurs who see a niche in the marketplace and go after it – and Tiny Prints really has the market on the super cute card thing, thanks to their recognition of the fact that we all love to show off our kids via adorably-designed photo cards!

While at the luncheon, I was able to view some of Tiny Prints newest products and designs.

Tiny Prints on display!

I was showing off some of the holiday cards to my girlfriend the next day, trying to decide which card I would settle on, and we got into an exisistential discussion around holiday card designs. She thought they were moving too far into the designer realm and was looking for more traditional (Tiny Prints has traditional, by the way). Personally, I was arguing for the fun and frivolous. I totally dig the rainbow line. What can I say? Sometimes I’m in a traditional mood and sometimes I’m in a rainbow bright sort of mood. this year = rainbow bright.

I could use some colorful fun to break up the winter blahs.

What are your plans for holiday cards this year? And psst….by the way, I just noticed as I was preparing this post that Tiny Prints holiday cards are reduced up to 20% through end of day tomorrow. So if you’ve been lagging in the card arena, it’s time to get a move on!

Disclosure Disclosure Blah Blah Blah

I was invited to a luncheon by Tiny Prints, to talk about their holiday line of cards. And I’m rally glad I was, because I fully intended to buy their cards. And thanks to this post, 50 of those holiday cards are gonna be free.  Woo to the hoo. So there’s my disclosure.

Because I’m tracking my budget for food during the month of November, I started the process of planning this week’s seasonal meal by first reviewing what I already had. I went through my cupboards/freezer/basement/etc. I had plenty to work with (how often do I waste simply by not starting here?). I settled on a butternut squash lasagna, mainly because I had two boxes of the Trader Joe’s no-boiling lasagna noodles as well as a butternut squash I had bought from the farm where we picked our pumpkins.

Can I just say that I love these Trader Joe’s no boiling noodles? They’re fantastic from a time-saving perspective!

The only thing I had to buy for this meal was the ricotta. The sage was from my garden. The butter and butternut squash were from local farms. I make my own veggie stock and freeze it in 1 cup quantities, so I had that on hand, and the rest were staples I had in my refrigerator or cupboards. Not bad! Oh, and the recipe? Divine!

Mix sage into butternut squash	Ricotta layer	Butternut squash layer

Note from me: I rarely talk about the really important, personal stuff on my blog. That was a choice I made a long time ago. I really just want this to be about my food notes, things I wanted to keep track of and share. But, I’ve also realized there’s a value to sharing ourselves and sharing with each other. And I’ve really enjoyed getting to know people, especially on my Facebook page, where I can attach little pictures to comments. It’s a fun experience to connect with people over common hobbies, interests and feelings about life. And I’ve recently found myself in a new space, at a crossroads, if you will. And I thought it was a good time to share a piece of my life with you, in hopes that we could discover new things about ourselves. Part of my journey will also entail down-sizing my life in a sense, or maybe right-sizing is the word. It will likely entail me continuing my efforts to learn how to better provide for myself and my family. I heart self-sufficiency. And I know that there are things I will learn from you, so please don’t hold back in offering your tips and bites of wisdom. I am going to be adding this new weekly musing on life. It will be categorized as “Go” and is short for my more colorful descriptor: How to get from where you are to where you want to be. 

How? Go.

How to Get From Where You Are To Where You Want to Be: Part I

-or-

How I Lost My Job and Gained My Sanity

Things they are a-changin! I’ve just found myself sans job – which I have to say is kind of exciting (don’t tell my husband – he doesn’t find me as humorous as I find myself). Let me bring you back a year, when I suddenly realized that things were not working out in my then-situation. Balancing life with a hi-tech marketing career had become more difficult once I had a family, then my second child came in March of 2009, and things were good for a while. Because I was on maternity leave. But then I had to go back to work.

And a hi-tech marketing career. Where everyone around you is getting laid off. For years on end. And you’re not. Which is not as wonderful a position to be in as people might think. Because suddenly you went from one job to six. Oh, and your pay gets cut. More to the point: EVERYONE’S pay gets cut. Because that’s what big companies do. They don’t need to do it. But, hey, folks, they didn’t get rich for nothin!

So you’re sitting there, beneath a pile of work you might suffocate beneath, and no one will know until the smell drifts into the hallway. And you’re being paid less and your boss (who’s most likely paranoid of getting laid off, as well, because, you know – middle management) is looking at you like you really need to get your shit together and be more productive. You really want to kick him in the face. Or her. Luckily I am a girl, so I can really kick anyone in the face and still have society be somewhat OK with that.

But I watched so many people get laid off around me – really good people. I watched really good people lose their savings, their homes. I’ve also seen really good people ban together, suck up their pride, rely on family and friends, find new careers, re-energize old careers. And all the while, every day I would get dressed and my clothes felt heavier and heavier. I felt like Jacob Marley’s ghost, ball and chain dragging behind my ankles, forcing my unwilling legs toward that ever-growing pile of work in my cubicle of hell.

You think I am about to get laid off, don’t you? Well, I didn’t. I took my life into my own hands. I found a job as a writer (yeah!) and left the confined comforts of the world of giant hi-tech company. I was actually able to do the impossible: go from being a hi-tech marketer in Silicon Valley to a higher-paid writer.

I should make a brief note at this moment in my story to say that my husband is a freelance film and TV cameraman and editor. So not only did I make a good salary, my job also provided all of the benefits. My husband, God bless him, is amazingly wonderful at supporting my need for a change, both literally and figuratively, though he also likes to stand over my shoulder and constantly remind me that failure is not an option.

We’re two creative people living in Silicon Valley and we intend to thrive here. This is our home.

So I left the world of hi-tech and jumped feet first into contracting as a writer. I was succeeding. I was exploring what it was like to go from numbing comfort to jarring discomfort – and I was enjoying it. I was learning again.  I went from spending my entire career at one of the world’s largest companies to joining a start-up company. Wow! What a difference that world was – in both good and bad ways.

In the beginning I was so excited to be a part of it. I felt like, “Wow! This is where I belong!” And then I began to feel like my purpose there had been accomplished, like I had over-stayed my welcome. Not from the company, but the universe. I remember that distinct feeling of “you don’t belong here” at my old company. And yet I stayed, for years on end. How many people do this? How many people hear a voice that says, “GO” and yet, choose to ignore it? Change is a frightening thing. But I can tell you from my experience of making that initial leap — change can be exhilarating. It can be just the thing you need to awaken your senses.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. – Anais Nin

I’m a firm believer that if you don’t listen to the voices, they get louder and louder in a Glenn Close “I will not be ignored” sort-of way. When I decided to leave my old company, after 12 years, it was like someone was constantly screaming in my ear.

After contracting as a writer/editor for six months, the start-up hired me. A piece of me felt ehh. It was as though I had just left a long relationship and I still kind-of wanted to date. But I found this really nice guy, and we enjoyed each other’s company and I thought, “Well, if I don’t say yes, maybe nothing better will come along.” So I said yes. We committed. But then he changed. He wanted me to change. He wanted me to be someone I wasn’t. Or he realized he had buyer’s remorse and he really was looking for someone else, as well. Sigh. We just weren’t really meant for each other. We quickly began to grow apart. Breaking up was inevitable.

1 week ago: But this time was different. It’s like the universe had no sympathy for my comforts or my timelines. And so, as often happens when you don’t have the courage to do the thing you must do, the universe makes that decision for you. I got laid off.

And so far, I can report to you that it’s the best thing that’s happened to me since I made that initial leap. Suddenly, instead of feeling sad for myself, I am better understanding what it is I have to offer this world – not from the perspective of  ”I am a hard worker, I have these skills, etc.” (that’s a fine perspective and everyone should value their skills and work hard – no matter what they do) but from the perspective of what I might be talented at. Dare I say: what I might be here to do. You know when you’re doing something and you suddenly feel like you belong there, or that life is somehow easier? Like you’re just going with the current, instead of constantly thrashing about, trying to swim sideways towards the shore…

I feel like I’m floating down a river, lying on my back, hands behind my head, cradling it. I’m wearing sunglasses, but closing my eyes, and I can feel the warmth of sun on my face as I let the river just pull me along…

Somehow I just know things are going to work out.

I’ve been spending time thinking about where I belong – what kind of business is going to be my best fit? Where can I be the most helpful? What am I passionate about? I don’t flatter myself that I have some grand purpose in the world. I am no Oprah. I’m not even Betty Crocker. But I do believe my purpose, and yours, are equally important to theirs. We all have a role to fill – and for far too long I’ve tried to force my role into a comfortable pair of shoes and a fluffy recliner. When maybe I’m more of a sparkly red heel and a chaise lounge kind of girl. Or a croc and a wooden rocking chair kind of girl. I’m not quite sure, yet. But I am sure that comfortable pair of shoes is giving me blisters, now.

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.” . ― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

So I’m making an effort to put myself on that road less traveled. This means serious financial cut-backs and sacrifice – and I am completely loving every minute of this experience! I’m discovering the joys of down-sizing. For every piece of clutter I remove from my life, it’s like a space opens up for me to recognize something I’ve missed, forgotten, or plain never noticed. I look forward to sharing some of my down-sizing and my experiences here, as I move along this journey. I would love you to share your journeys with me. Perhaps, together, we’ll learn something new about ourselves. And about our unique place in this world.