Hodgepodge

I'm busy working lots and lots of overtime these days, so not much time for blogging. Which is ok, because I’m not doing much worth blogging about, unless anyone wants to hear about bicycling to the train station every morning and freezing my hands now that the weather is getting cooler.

The garden’s doing well. I just picked some lettuce, peppers, eggplants, and radishes the other day. I don’t have time for weeding or planting more seeds, or harvesting the lima beans (that are so not worth it).

We’re having houseguests – Loris’ Uncle Sergio, friends (and pseudo-cousins) Stefano and Edoardo, and friend Lollo are coming from Italy to stay with us for a few days. We’ve spent a lot of time cleaning, some of it experimenting with green cleaning methods, such as using vinegar. That’s a whole other post. I also switched to a non-clay, flushable kitty litter, Swheat Scoop, which I’m liking so far (and more importantly, so is Cricket). More about that later, too, I hope.

We’ve bought seafood and veggies from our farmer’s market, tried to declutter our house, baked bread from scratch, and just in general have been trying really hard to get things together before our guests arrive.

Speaking of decluttering, this is probably the segment of my life which I find the absolute hardest. Right now, our apartment looks great (except the carpet), but a lot of that was accomplished by putting things in closets. Even my mosaic class has somehow created a huge amount of random crap, which is just was I was hoping to avoid.

I’m hoping to talk about more things in this blog, like the title implies. I’d like to talk about everyday life, my cat, my family, my garden, my apartment, and all the things I do to simplify, even when it seems like I’m actually complicating matters. I know that getting rid of stuff, decluttering, is the basis of simplification for me, despite being my huge Achilles heel. So that will hopefully be a prominent feature as well. I may even come up with a challenge for myself, and anyone else who wants to join in.

Even my writing is cluttered! See?