Hello. My name is Kim and I'm addicted to Pinterst.

I love to organize. I love to throw parties. I love to help people throw parties. Pinterest helps me do all of this with ease. I could go on and on, but instead check out my boards (or subscribe to me on Pinterest) and you'll see how awesome we can be together.



So time has passed... the house still hasn't sold, but that's okay because we have enough flexibility to be able to make other plans. When our house listing comes up in January we've decided to take it off the market. And we're making an improvement that makes me so excited....

We getting six new windows! Yes, I know it is easy to make me happy, but I'm not the only one, and I found out today that; "My authentic happiness is the eternal source of happiness that we each hold within us." Check out this post by the Self Help Photographer to read about authentic happiness.

The Self Help Photographer is also holding a contest for the month of December with an awesome prize.

A full one on one photography coaching package.

This package includes:
*Six hours of skype coaching tailored to your specific needs. Weekly one hour coaching customized from a survey and a 1/2 hour skype call to allow us to get to know each other and discover exactly what you need.
*Unlimited email exchanges during the 6 week coaching period. To answer questions, keep you motivated and provide support in between coaching sessions.
*Weekly tasks to implement and build on the coaching sessions. These tasks will also be tailored for you.
*Review and feedback on the work produced from your tasks. So that you can learn from your work, and see how your work grows throughout the program.

At the end of the coaching sessions you will receive:
*A PDF you can refer back to with information and resources
*Audio copies of the skype sessions so you can re-listen to them at any time
*By the end of the 6 weeks you will be more confident and successful in your photography.

So make sure to go here and enter... and after you're done tell everyone you know who owns a camera.

Radiation sucks.

It's been awhile. A friend of mine found out she was pregnant (unfortunately had a miscarriage), so I was doing research into any and all help we could give her. And I was gearing up for the month of March which was a year ago when I found out I had cancer. Lots of stress (more then I realized). For me, March has always been a horrible month, so close to Spring, but not there yet. And then adding onto it finding out I had the big C. Blah, Blucky, Bluck!

I have decided to be fucking awesome. People, especially women, have a hard time telling people when they are being idiots because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm not in this life to hurt people, but I am in it to tell them to stop making stupid decisions, and then show them what to do to live a better life.

I promise if you ask me a question I will give you an honest answer.

The first thing I am going to tell you is that you are eating wrong. Do not compromise with your health. Do not eat food that is marketed for convenience. Those Lean Cuisines and Hot Pockets are bad for you and the waste they produce is bad for the Earth.

Cook from scratch.

There are so many recipes on the internet and in books that show you how. I don't care if you don't think you have the time, make it. Get your family and friends involved. Cook together and make extra to freeze for hectic days.
Better yet, roast some veggies with olive oil and a dash of spice. Put it over some easy to make rice, and you are in for a wonderful dish. (Where's the meat though I can hear some of you whine. Skip the meat. Do you know what cow farts are doing to the ozone?)

But my kids are starving and they can't wait an hour for the rice to cook. Well give them a carrot or a piece of celery with some peanut butter (natural), and either make them help you cook or send them to their room to read a book so the next generation isn't a bunch of ignorant people sucking the life out of my world. Harsh, maybe... True, yes.

Only you can begin to make this world a better place. There is nothing stopping you.

I will bring you more truth every Monday, and if I feel you've been good, you may occasionally get an extra post for the week.

Connections

A couple weeks ago we went to a work holiday party for a job that S. use to work.
So why would we go to a party for a place where he no longer worked? The same reason we went to a class reunion for a school I didn’t graduate from; it’s all about connections.

People need people. Such a cheesey sentence, but some of the most cheesey sayings are the most true.

I remember reading a study about babies that do not get physical contact, and how they do not develop properly or in some cases die. While trying to find the study I came across this article.

“We have to get a certain amount of pleasure and stimulation or rewards from our daily activities and what we put into our bodies. If we don't, then we create a pleasure deficit or what is known as "reward deficiency," and are subject to depression, anxiety and poor performance. Each day we have to stimulate our reward pathways adequately if we are to function well emotionally, mentally and physically.”
http://www.unlockyourlife.com/unlock/htm/ul2.html

So the question for today: Are the people in your inner circle stimulating your reward pathways in a good way? And for that matter, how are you treating the people around you?

Everyday we make connections.

When your children jump on the bed to wake you up, do you yell at them to stop, or grab them and start a tickle fight?
The customer who walks in while you’re reading your e-mail, do you look up right away and say, “Hello!” or do you keep on reading?
Your partner forgot to take out the trash again, do you nag at them or give them a kiss and ask what they did today?

That’s why we went to the holiday party and class reunion, because there were people there with whom we had made a positive connection. We wanted to see them again, to ask how their day/life was going, and if we could do anything to make it better.

Do You Believe in Magic?

I’ve always believed in magic. Recently I’ve also begun to believe in balance.

As a child I loved to read fairy tales with witches who stuffed annoying, thieving children into cages. Sirens that lived in the oceans and pulled men into their watery graves. Men who tried to save the sleeping damsel only to have their eyes poked out by thorns.

Did this make me a dark person. Sure, at times. But as with everything that is good and right and proper, it’s all about balance.

While I read tales about wicked creatures, I also read light, fluffy stories. A boy named Kim who tried to find good homes for kittens. A parrot that woke up his caregiver early on a Saturday, which made the man angry but he forgave the parrot when they helped stop a fire.

I loved to sit in the sun under a big tree (that we had buried beloved pets under) and read or play with my Strawberry Shortcake dolls (and not the anorexic ones they sell today).

Balance and magic go hand in hand. White or black magic. White and black sides of the ying-yang. If you want to receive something from magic, you must give something back. It’s about give and take.

But with anything it’s always better to give than to take. Some call it the Three Fold Law, others call it Karma. What you give comes back to you three times it’s strength. It may take awhile, but it will happen.

So what do I have to give? I have words. Words of encouragement. Stories to share. Thoughts and opinions you may or may not agree with, but hopefully they make you think, and most of all question.

Are all aspects of your life in balance? What do you really want to be doing with your life? What’s really stopping you from doing what you daydream about?

S. and I are getting closer to our perfect balance. Soon we will be putting the house up for sale. Taking a step can be scary, but it's also exhilarating.

So the question for today: What have you done that's exhilarating?

Sunny Days

I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma last March. I'm not going to say it was the best thing that every happened to me. Honestly it was the worst, but it did make me realize that I have so many things I want to do before I die.

S. and I have been moving slowly, but diligently for the last nine years or so, to the point we're at now. Getting cancer just increased this path traveling by about 100% over the last 10 months.

We started as college consumers having been wonderful students of society and the traditional norms. Then we began to wake up a bit after finishing college, buying a house and getting "real" jobs. I started to look into being frugal so we had extra money for the things we wanted.

But what I really wanted was to not work. We were still stuck in the mindset that you needed a large house, two cars and things. So while I didn't work a nine to five job for about two years (just ran our small DJ business) S. was out working two jobs most days and three on weekends we DJed.

We were moving along waiting for a woman to retire so S. could go full time at the post office. We knew we would have it made with a full time government job. Well we kept waiting, and waiting, and three years longer we were both at bursting points. I felt guilty for "not working" and S. was depressed and angry a lot for having to work so much. We had the house and cars. What we didn't have was any savings or balance.

So I called him at work one day and said, "Let's sell this 3,100 sq. foot home with two garages that can hold five cars and move to a house with about 900 sq. feet but still has two garages." (one that we eventually turned into a studio for S's photography)

We sold the house after less than a year since the housing market hadn't crashed yet. And moved to Biron, population 915. We'll have been here six years come the beginning of July.

Our frugalism continued and started turning towards environmentalism as well. I think the two just go together naturally. I firmly stand that we were not suckered in by consumerism again to buy lightbulbs and energy efficient appliances! Living here was better, but we both knew something was/is still missing.

Then, Wham, came the cancer diagnosis. Things were blurry for me, but S. began more self reflection while I managed day to day with the treatments. S. came across minimalist blogs and something inside of him clicked. It wasn't/isn't the key, but it has helped us move one step closer.

We started getting rid of stuff. Compared to most people I know I thought we didn't have a lot of things. I've never been a knick knack collector or a clothes horse. I love books but get them from the library like a good frugalist. But we have given so many things away (mainly to the Family Center or on Freecycle).
There are still a few things I want to get rid of but we're keeping them as part of the staging for selling the house. Even after purging so much I still think our home feels cozy and not sparse.

Minimalism is not The answer, it's a step. And if you don't continue to take steps you become inactive and then you die.... is that too harsh? I think if you stop moving (physically or by not continuing to learn and become a better person) then what is the point. You are taking up space and the Earth should not have to support you if you are doing nothing for her or the people who are really trying.

The next step in our journey is to sell this house and move into (hopefully a smaller) house in town so we can go down to one vehicle and walk to most of the places we need to go in town. By the end of the year we want S. to be able to quit. I may have to work for awhile (mainly for insurance.... damn you cancer!!!) But it all depends on how our plans keep progressing. If we find ways to secure an income (besides the traditional 9 to 5 route) then I may be able to retire before I'm 40 (like I've been planning since I was 20.)

We have also been looking into house sitting so we can travel around the U.S. and even the world. Since we do have three cats it could be a bit tricky, but we can always get someone to house sit for us if we're off house sitting in Maine.

So the moral of today's story: You don't have to be perfect, just be better than you are today.

Dominating the World

My previous post talks about World Peace, and now I want to dominate the world. My how things change in less than a month. Although I think if I (and like minded folks) were to dominate the world there would be world peace.

The past month hasn't been especially busy, just wanted to marinate the thoughts in my mind, hence no blog action. I've been reading various blogs on the net about minimalism and whatnot, and ran across a World Domination Summit that is being held in Portland, Oregon next June.
So S. and I signed up. It will be S's first airplane ride and only my second. We're looking forward to it, and lucky for us the site has a countdown on it so we know how many more days until we head to Oregon to meet some like-minded people.

We had put an offer on a $14,000 dollar house, but weren't quick enough. So we'll finish up the last few things to get our house ready for sale and probably put it up the end of January.
I've already found another house I want to buy (after ours sells, and as long as the other one is still for sale). It's in town, one mile in different directions to both of our works, and about a block from the grocery store, natural food store, S's workout place and the farmer's market. Perfect.

How to achieve World Peace

I have been looking at buying a new house for about four years. I do like our house a lot, but I knew there was something missing from it.

I realized the "it" was that I wanted to live in town, closer to our everyday destinations, so we could walk or bike. Even four years ago I was thinking that my health needed improving and that I wanted to help the environment too. I just didn't realize this was the reason our current house felt like it was lacking.

All the houses I had been looking at were in town. Every house I showed to S. was met with some reason why we couldn't/shouldn't move. The most common reasons not to was a second mortgage (who knows how fast this house would sell) and all the improvements we would need to make to the new house.

Yet here we are getting our house ready to sell, which means doing improvements on a house we will no longer own. There will most likely be improvements that need to be made on the next house we buy, but hopefully S. and I will have more time to do them (especially S. if he goes part-time or quits).

Currently, even though we both work full time, we already have more time then we did six months ago because we are minimizing our obligations and stuff. And still S. complains about having to do improvements, although once most of them are done they're done (Not like I'm going to ask him to put up new trim every five years.)

Men and woman are different. It's unfortunate that woman have to coax and word things just the right way so their male partner can realize that the idea is a good one, and if the woman is an expert she can even make the man believe it was his idea.

But it is tiring. And if the men would just do what we suggested instead of resisting so much I believe there would be World Peace. (Yes that's how strong I believe this.)