Wishing you a wonderful Christmas.

christmas-snoopy

It’s incredible how fast this year has gone by! I can’t believe we are right back in the middle of Christmas 🙂

This years Christmas celebration is being spent with my mum in England, and happily we get to celebrate it the “Norwegian” way, with our Christmas starting on the 24th. I explained it all in my post last year.

Our suitcase (as always around Christmas time) was filled with our regular Norwegian christmas dinner, jams, chocolate and a bunch of other little goodies. No “minimalist packing” this time around, with the exceptions of clothing, as there wasn’t room for much outside of food 😉

I’m sure some of you have found yourself in similar situations, dragging food “across the oceans”, for family members for special occasions, like maybe even Christmas 😉

We’re planning on enjoying ourselves with good company, great food, a few drink and loads laughs. And this is my wish for you….

I wish you a wonderful holiday, with family and friends, great food and a drink or two, days filled with laughter and hugs, loads and loads of hugs 🙂 

Happy holiday everyone!

 

I’m two!!!

“Woohoo! I’m two. I’m two. Today I’m two.. . Wake up, wake up. I’m two.. you gotta wake up!!!”

What on earth? I’m slowly trying to crawl out of sleep land. What is all this ruckus about? There is this blaring coming from my phone, computer and Ipad all at the same time. What’s going on?

“I’m two, I’m two.. common I’m two..  waaaaake uuuup… ” It’s like having a small kid tugging at my arms all antsy to get my attention.

I’m desperately trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes, getting dressed and fumbling my way downstairs to the living room. And there I see it, my computer positively vibrating, it’s that excited!

I open the lid and Minimalist Sometimes jumps right at me, shouting “It’s my birthday, I’m two, it’s my birthday, woohoo!!!”

“Oh gosh, it that what all this is about? I get it, you are all excited, but you gotta slow down. I’m not even awake yet”
“But it’s my birthday, you gotta waaaaaaaake up” I’m starting to see a small vibration in the lips…
“Hang on, just let me have a cup of coffee,and I’ll be good to go, OK?”  Ahh.. there we are, back to all smiles again.

“When is the partyyyyy?”
“Party?”
“My birthday party! We are having a party aren’t we?” Dang, there is that quivering lips again.
“Yes, off course” I’m sweating a little “Off course, we are having a party” Minimalist Sometimes is running around like a toonaloon, jumping up and down all excited. Crap! How on earth am I to hold a party? How do you host a party for a website? I’m at a loss for words here.

“Goodie, goodie. I want balloons, I want blue balloons, oh and some red balloons. Oh and cake, can I have a birthday cake? I want chocolate cake, big chocolate cake. They are so yummy 🙂 And pressies. I will get pressies don’t you think?” The kid is looking up at me with shiny eyes.

“Uhu, I’m sure we can find a way to get you balloons and cake” I’m silently hoping we can forget about the gifts, how on earth do you give gifts to a website?

“I want everybody”
“Everybody? What do you mean by everybody?”
“Everybody in the whole wide world”
“Hey, listen kid, we live in a 807 square feet house, we can’t fit everyone in the whole wide world into our house”
“Yes, we can”
“No we can’t”
“Yes, we can.. ”
“Now, hold on a minute…”
“We can.. we can, we can…” The two year old is jumping up and down tugging at my arm… “I’m on the interweb, we can invite as many as we want…”

Well, yes, that is a good point, kinda smart for a two year old I must say. Even so, I’m thinking we need to narrow it down somewhat.

“I think everybody is a bit much. What about picking just a few friends?

“Yeah, but that is not fair. All the people that have visited me, should be able to come!”
“Sweetheart, you’ve had 10,897 views, and 3,885 visitors these two years, which is wonderful. But you know it’s a lot of the same people that have visited you over and over again, and it’s impossible for me to separate them. What about just picking some of the people you hang out with the most? Just a few of your 289 followers? ”

“But I have so many friends, and their all my besties! Like Heather and Nancy and Melinda, oh and Wendy, she’s always soo funny, and SimpleLivingover50, and Jessica, and Therese, and Bun and AllRoundBetterMe and..and, and Jillian, and.. there is just too many..” I’m starting to see a very determined look in my two year old. “I don’t want to choose. It’s not fair.” There is some stomping of feet going on over here “I don’t care what you say, I’m inviting them ALL!”

Oh boy, I’m starting to see that my two year old is winning this discussion. I guess we’ll just have to find the space somehow. I have to admit, the thought of inviting everyone is kinda growing on me, what a party that will be 🙂

“OK, kid! Everyone is invited, are you happy now?”
“Ohhh, goodie, goodie…” Big smiles going on over here.

“Why don’t you go a make an invitation for them?”
“What should I say?”
“I think you should write – You are invited to my birthday party – I think they would like that”
“Okidok, I can do that.. ” My two year old runs off grabbing some paper and pens. Phew, finally quiet, now maybe I can grab that morning coffee 😉

“I’m done…”

“You’re done? Let me have a look” Hmm, ok, not the best paper.. but then again, it’s a two year old.. so.. I think we will let this one fly… “This is great, I love your balloons and cakes. Why don’t I take a picture of it and put it out there for you. Is that ok?”

“Goodie.. I can’t wait for the party to start” My two year old are all smiles, jumping up and down, all excited.

So there you have it folks! We are holding an open door birthday party. Everyone is invited! Friends and friends of friends.

It’s you that have made this possible. It’s you that have cheered us on, made us laugh, held us accountable and given us some great days here on the “interweb”. We can’t imagine celebrating our two year anniversary without you. 

So if you happen to be in the neighbourhood, feel free to stop by and say hello. I’m sure my two year old will get a kick out of that.

Happy Birthday, Minimalist Sometimes!

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CD galore!

While I was going through my living room during my “pseudo packing party” earlier this year, my music collection was one of those things that jumped out at me as being a separate tiny project for a later date.

Well the later date have come and gone, and its time to do something about the amount of music CD’s I have lurking around.

Once every blue moon, I go through all my music CD’s and clear out the ones I don’t want anymore. I tend to rip all my music to my computer first, so that I can keep the music I love, but I don’t necessarily need to keep the physical disks.

My rule is! Rip them all, but save only as many as will go into one CD case! Now that is not as restrictive as it might sound, as my CD case will take 80.

Why do I keep any CD’s at all? Well in the early days I used to play them at home as most of us did. Nowadays I stream my music through Wimp (similar to Spotify) at home, but I still have an old fashion CD player in my car. So if I want anything other than radio music, CD it is 😉

And since I’m one of the crazy people, who loves driving with the top down on the car, “singing” at the top of my lungs along with the music, you see why I just have to keep some of my favourites around 😉

For the time being I’m keeping around 50 albums, I’m sure some of these won’t make it through the next cut, but for now I’m good with that. Fortunately there are a few more going out the door… 79 CD’s to be exact…

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There is stuff…

…finally going out-the-door! Long overdue, I know 😉

About a week ago, I mentioned that Heather over at Simply Save was inspiring me, to get back into decluttering with her minsgame.  Now, my original plan wasn’t really playing the minsgame, I just wanted to get back into decluttering. To finish off my goal of 365 item out-the-door for 2015.

But I was thinking today, that maybe it could be fun to play part of the minsgame anyways, kind of a minsgame light 😉

As we all know Christmas is a big part of this month, and that holiday is a time to spend with family and friends (not decluttering), so come Christmas time I won’t be around the house much.

My plan is to play the minsgame until and including December 20th. After that, my holiday starts with me leaving for a few days to hang out with family.

That means (if my calculations are correct) that 210 items should be leaving the house this month. Now, I know a lot of people that play the minsgame, get rid of the number of items that follow the date. Something that Moving Forward is doing, right now. But me! I’ve never been good at following rules 😉 so I figure that as long as 210 items leave the house before the 20th, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 or 77 at a time.

So here it is, my first installment of 69 items out-the-door!

Clothing – 44

  • 1 windproof fleece jacket
  • 6 t-shirts
  • 1 pair of sweatpants
  • 1 nike nylon sports pants
  • 2 thin fleece tops
  • 1 medium thick sweater
  • 1 thin cotton long sleeved top
  • 1 knitted jacket
  • 1 high neck sweater
  • 1 pair of jogging shoes
  • 5 pair of jeans
  • 1 pair of office pants
  • 6 bras
  • 15 undies
  • 1 bicycle shirts

Other stuff – 25

  • 2 drinking bottles
  • 4 egg holders
  • 2 “Pc covers”
  • 1 exercise ball
  • 1 exercise ball DVD
  • 1 pc backpack
  • 2 flower pots
  • 1 cup
  • 7 small plastic containe
  • 1 network cable
  • 2 CD disk cases
  • 1 pc cover

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November in a nutshell!

Oh my gosh, it’s almost like I can’t believe it, I’m actually managing to get my monthly sum-up out there on a proper date. Who knew it would take me this long to “catch up” 😉

Well, I wouldn’t quite believe that if I were you, I’m not really caught up, as you will see in future posts to come.

But let me get back to my November sum-up!

Activities and exercise
I’m still in the middle of my somewhat intensive treatment program (average 2,5 times a week), add a cold/flu to that and I have done zilch zippidy duda when it comes to being out and about 😦 

The one thing I have been doing, is the extremely strenuous sofa sitting, tv watching activity. And let me tell you, that stuff will wear you out 😉

Declutter
So you are wondering did anything make it out of the house this month, besides heaps and heaps of snotty tissues? Nope! I’m afraid not!

My decluttering efforts this month pretty much consisted of the aforementioned TV series watching. Unfortunately my Dark Angel marathon resulted in the series kinda growing on me (again), and I’m wondering if maybe I should rip the series to my computer, before I get rid of the DVD’s..?  Which means, yes, you’ve guessed it, that the series aren’t making it out of the house quite yet 😦

But hey, today is December 1’st and hopefully I will have the series riped in time to leave the house before Christmas 😉

Only buying necessities
Eating out – I think I have given up on this completely. I might as well just realize that if there is one thing we will always be good at, it’s eating out 😉

Buying non essentials – For some reason it seems like it’s fleece buying time these days. Last month I got one I can use for a more dressed up occasion. This time I got a bright blue regular one, to replace a sweater that is about to fall to pieces.

Financial goals
Let’s see… I got paid some stock dividends this month, I believe I will put those towards my yearly mortgage payment in January, which should bring my mortgage down even quicker than originally planned 😉

Garden
We have had our first frost which absolutely killed off all my hydrangea and other plants that was still blooming and I just hate how sad my garden is looking right now 😦 Unfortunately due to the weather being totally bismol, I have not been able to “pack away” my garden for the winter.

I’m hoping for a clear day or two so I at least can cover my furniture, remove dead plants and get some bulbs into the ground. Looking at the weather forecast doesn’t give me high hopes for that happening anytime soon though… but here is to hoping 🙂

That’s it! Not very exciting I know… guess it’s like that, this time a year!

 

Focus…

I can’t believe it’s almost December. One more month and 2015 is over. Where the heck did the time fly off to? Just a short month left (yes, it’s a short month, with Christmas and all, interfering with normal routines 😉 ) to finish up my goals for the year.

I know there are a couple of goals that I will fail at, but there is one goal in particular that it’s time to snap back into.

For some reason I’ve been finding it hard to keep the focus up on my decluttering goal! Last year I was all for it, but this year it’s almost like I’ve lost a step and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I feel I have my home under control (no, not really), or maybe it’s because I’ve already been decluttering for years and I’m getting down to the “nitty gritties” and it’s much harder, or maybe my heart just haven’t been in it?

Whatever reason, the fact is that there aren’t much stuff going out-the-door! Now, fortunately there haven’t been much coming in either, as I don’t buy much, so I’m not cluttering it back up 🙂

But it’s time, it’s time to focus. It’s time to get at least some of my decluttering goals out of the way.

Heather over at Simply Save, has spent November playing the minsgame. So I figure I could take a cue from her, focusing on my decluttering goal for a minute 🙂 There is no way I’m going to be able to shed 465 items like Heather have been working on. But that’s not really the point. The point is just to get back with it, to get the stuff out of the door, to finish my goal for the year, of 365 items out-the-door.

So there you have it… over the next few weeks. The focus is… decluttering! And yes, please hold me accountable.. because it is sooooo easy to slip…

 

Sniffles and tv…

Lately I’ve been struggling with a bit of a cold/flu/chest infection.. or whatever the heck it is… all I know is that it entails a lot of sniffles, headaches, coughs, fever and no energy. Oh yeah.. and no voice! What’s up with that! 😉

The one redeeming factor? It’s a perfect excuse to do nothing but hang out in front of the telly 😉

In the beginning of the year I posted about how one of my goals for the year was to attack my movies/series collection. My goal was to get rid off 100 Movies (half of my collection) and cut my physical DVD series collection by 30% (which is quite a bit as I have a few series).

I figured that, as I’m sitting here like a zombie anyway, this is as perfect time as any, to attack that particular goal 😉

So guess what? The last few days I’ve been hanging out, in front of the telly, with my hot beverages and blankets, all tucked in, having a Dark Angel series marathon 🙂

I’m already through season 1, and depending on how things goes the next few days, I should be done with season 2 soon.. which means that, by the end of the week, there might be 12 DVD’s leaving the premises.

A bit sad to let them go.. but I’ve seen the series a bundle of times, and I need to cut down somewhere, so it’s decided, I’m no longer keeping the Dark Angel series as part of my collection.

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October in a nutshell!

Last month I promised I would do better at getting the monthly sum-up out in a timely matter. I’m not exactly doing stellar at that promise, but at least we are not quite half way into the month like I was last time 😉

Activities and exercise
I’ve started a new treatment in addition to the osteopath treatments I’m already doing. It’s been a bit busy with an average of close to 2 treatments a week (hopefully that will slow down soon). Some of the treatments wear me out a bit, and don’t leave me much energy for regular activities and exercise. Which means I’m still squeaking by, at an average of only 1,5 times a week. 

As my current schedule will continue a while longer, I think my yearly goal of average of 6 times a week by the end of the year, will be a big fail. Next year maybe?

Declutter
Weirdly enough, a couple of items did make it out-the-door in October. But I never posted about them. So here it is, my decluttering effort of October;

  • 1 Logitech computer speaker set
  • 7 plastic compression bags
  • 2 Natural Cotton/PEVA Storage Bags
  • 1 grey storage bag
  • 1 Tigger cup

That’s 12 items out-the-door, pictured below.

Still not much I know, but hey.. one item here, one item there.. it still racks up.

I will, I will get a few more items out-the-door in November… I’m sure 😉

Only buying necessities
Eating out – We are back to our usual poor performance 😦 Yep! You heard me right. We are back to eating out, a lot! I’m sure that doesn’t come as a big surprise now, does it!

My fault entirely, and I “blame” it all on the treatments (gotta blame it on something, right?) as I’m worn out afterwards and just want an easy meal.

I’m sure.. that will change when I get into a more regular treatment schedule again… Well… I can hope, can’t I 😉

Buying non essentials – I’ve been looking for a nice looking “fleeze”/indoor jacket for quite some time, and I finally found a black one I like.  As I quite often do, I ended up having to buy from the men’s department, the woman’s versions just don’t seem to have long enough arms .. go figure? But it will explain why the link is to the men’s department 😉

Financial goals
I’m still putting away every cent I can towards my yearly down payment, and I’m happy to announce that I’m already there and then some, 2 months early 🙂

Projects
No projects this month. My friend (who moved this summer) is working away at sewing stuff for some christmas markets that are coming up, which means that any of the leftover tasks in her house have been put on hold until the markets are over.

That’s it for October sum-up.

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Darn that car…

It’s November, and the days seems to just run away from me (what else is new, right?)  🙂

I had this idea that November would be the month I would get into a posting schedule again.

Well,  that was until my right hand (index and middle finger) had a very close encounter with my car door. So much so that the door completely closed shut on my index finger..  NOT a very pleasant experience.. ouch 😦

I was parking over at the shopping mall when a gust of wind got hold of the door before my hand was completely clear. It took a second where I looked at my finger in shock, before I managed to unlock the door.

I grabbed my hurting hand and ran into the mall, rushed over to the one place I knew they just had to have ice… the sushi place. It was quite funny, I’m sure, watching this “old” lady running like a toonaloon through the mall (ok.. really just a couple shops into the mall) “yelling” at the staff

“I need ice”…

They were the sweetest guys on earth, finding loads of ice for me to cool down my fingers in hope that the swelling wouldn’t be to sever. They were all concerned about me having to have it checked out.

“It could be broken you know”

“Pffft, I’m sure it will be alright”.

Well guess what, after a somewhat sleepless night…

“Hey, doctor..!!”

You’d be happy to know, the doctor think I’ll live..

Me on the other hand….  It hurts like heck, and I’m sure my arm is going to fall off from the shock of it…

So guess what… until my fingers are in good enough shape that I can actually touch the darn things without feeling like my hand is exploding, I won’t be shaking anyones hand, or go a round with a prize winning boxing champion or for that sake, type 😉

 

What touched my heart – the aftermath of hallows eve!

It’s November 1st, the day after that day where kids roam the streets, looking for candy.

I hope you all had a great Halloween last night. The kids here in Norway have embraced the US tradition of going trick and treat, so I prepared myself for an invasion. I was right to be prepared, because by the time the night was over, 50 kids had visited me, and I only had one very very tiny bag of candy left.

In this day and age, where a lot of people mostly look out for themselves, we are no stranger to the kids following suit. And part of my evening was filled with a bunch of kids who showed up in one “horrible” costume after another, with blood pouring, heads chopped off, almost “running” me down for some candy 🙂

But… there was a moment, that profoundly touched my heart. A moment that showed me that there are compassion among kids, that they care for each other, and want the best for each other!

Riiing… the doorbell rang, and I opened up to a pile (8 or 9 of them) of young “men”, most likely in the age group of 9-11 (a bit hard to tell considering they were wearing masks). Who very politely took turns to get their bag of candy handed to them. They thank me nicely and I closed the door.

Riiing… I opened again and I look into the blood dripping face of one of the kids that I just closed the door on. He asked if he could get one more candy bag for a friend and he pointed to a kid with a yellow reflex vest standing a bit in the shadows. “Yes off course, just tell him to come over and I’ll get him one..” Mr. Yellow vest was at that time turned and slowly walking away..

“He doesn’t want to, he’s afraid, because he has no costume”, I feel my heart breaking as I hand the candy over to one of the other kids who run over to Mr. Yellow vest with it, and I ask Mr. Blood dripping face if they want a small bag for Mr. Yellow vest to collect his candy in. “Yes please, that would be grand”

Then I suddenly hear “He is crying” and I look up and the kid that handed the candy to Mr. Yellow vest is beckoning the group. My heart drops and I rush to give the plastic bag to Mr. Blood dripping face and he hurries over together with the rest of the group to comfort Mr. Yellow vest.

I felt so sorry for Mr. Yellow vest, and I just wanted to go over and give him the biggest hug ever..  But his group was already taking care of him and the only thing I could do was “shout” (ok not really shouting but a raised voice since they were a few feet away) over to them that a costume didn’t matter, that the candies are for everyone and that people wouldn’t care if he was wearing costume or not…

After a moment Mr. Blood dripping face turns towards me and waves at me saying that “He is ok now” and they start to move slowly down the street.

This group of young men have stayed with me since last night. In the middle of times where bullying is a real problem, it is heartening to see that there are kids out there that care, that care to stay by their own, to rally around a sad kid and help him out. It would be so easy for a group to “jump all over” a kid that sticks out and beat him while he is down. But this group choose to include and help and do anything they could to cheer him up and make him feel better.

These young men will forever stay with me, for they truly touched my heart.