Season 38 (2022)
BOOKSHELF + COMMUNITY
This month I’m meeting with our neighborhood book club to discuss The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles. The library patrons (or subscribers as they are called in the story) and employees of the American Library in Paris in the book stole my heart. Any book that is centered around the love of books, a strong female protagonist, and includes historical events threaded into an inspiring story will get my vote for a book worth reading. Have you had a chance to read The Paris Library? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Share in the comments below this post.
This season is a mixture of searching for suspenseful thrillers, mysteries, dark academia themes, and transitioning into winter with some cozy novels and winter-themed stories rich with atmospheric elements. I’ve curated a list of some of the books I’m looking forward to reading this season. What books are you looking forward to this fall and winter? Share in the comments below this post.
HOME + TRAVEL
Fall meals require creativity and flexibility in the kitchen. Our schedule is packed with school events and changing schedules. While I have the opportunity to take my time on weekends, the reality is that during the week I just can’t plan for complicated (or new!) recipes.
I could relate to The Lazy Genius podcast episode with Kendra Adachi #279 How to Fix Dinner When You’re Never Home when it comes to feeling like we’re never home to actually prepare our dinners!
The hours between 3 pm and 8 pm at our house are usually filled with sports and school activities which leaves dinnertime sometime between 6-8 pm depending on the day. We sit down to eat together most every night, which I love. The tricky part is making sure the I can get dinner on the table for our hungry family when we arrive home.
I’ve had to become skilled in the use of our slow cooker and rice cooker as well as using what ingredients we have on hand. Even accomplishing one or two steps of a recipe in advance saves me time when we get back home. Creating a recipe from “found” ingredients in the fridge is our backup plan for busy nights, but most nights I have a meal plan that is put into practice and saves me from decision overload.
Having several recipes on rotation (what The Lazy Genius calls her “dinner queue”) saves time in making decisions when I’m planning meals for the week (and my grocery list) on Sundays. However, I also need variety. So, I’m constantly adapting our repeated recipes with seasonal ingredients and having fun with a few new-to-me recipes on the weekends.
Below you’ll find recipes that have made their way into our weekends, and ones I want to try this season. Do you have any recipes you’ve enjoyed lately? Share them with us in the comments below this week’s blog post.
On a recent Instagram post, Christine Platt, author of The Afrominimalist’s Guide to Living with Less, mentioned savory oats. I was intrigued and I found this recipe and these recipes to try.
Beet and chickpea tacos - a nice vegan taco recipe for Meatless Mondays
Hamimommy posts her recipes each week on her YouTube channel videos. I’ve got my eye on the cider pickles and onion kimchi (*link has sound), seaweed soup, and kimchi jjigae (*link has sound). Here’s an additional recipe for pork belly kimchi stew.
I’m also inspired to try some bulgogi recipes (*link has sound) after our recent trip to Oseyo here in Austin, Texas.
We love sushi, and I’ve been eager to make use of our seasonal veggies in vegetarian sushi rolls for school lunches and at-home lunches during the week. Curious to know the difference between kimbap or gimbap (Korea) and sushi (Japan), I researched and found this article explaining the difference.
Pad Thai is a quick mid-week meal if you put chicken thighs in the slow cooker and prep the veggies to throw together when you get home. I love this local brand for my Pad Thai sauces.
I discovered this excellent online organic foods shop called Chef’s Shop (a woman-owned business) where I found organic mirin and my favorite yuzu sesame blend. (I’m kind of obsessed with yuzu these days after having crispy Brussels sprouts with pomegranate seeds and yuzu dressing while on vacation this summer.)
Even as a stay-at-home mom, I establish a distinct time to take a break mid-day. I use the time to nourish myself (sometimes with leftovers or a simple lunch), step outside and plant a few seeds in the garden, and watch our dog roll around in the grass and run free in the backyard. It’s the perfect balance to time spent on the computer or doing household chores. How to Pack Lunch for Work
GARDEN + NATURE
This summer I put a few sprigs of basil in my row of vases behind the kitchen sink. The VERY hot weather meant that nothing was flowering, and I needed to add a touch of life inside the house to brighten my spirts. To my surprise, the small basil cuttings grew roots!
I took them to my herb container on the porch (which was reduced to only basil plants because of the heat!) and planted the new transplants along with the other survivors! I loved the process so much that I’ve been repeating it every week. Now I have a little jungle of basil growing on our porch. Houseplants and aloe vera can also be cultivated using cuttings and would look lovely in these propagation stations on Etsy.
Planting seeds during a full moon is helpful gardener’s trick. I planted a whole handful of seeds this past weekend in hopes the pull of the moon will encourage them to grow. Be sure to check out my blog post on lunar gardening in Season 43 (2021).
I’m not a runner, but I love to hike, bike, and spend time on the water. Watching this video on kayaking makes me want to get out on the water again soon!
WELLNESS + CREATIVITY
“I felt like the little donkey when his burden is finally lifted. Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for one, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing - the reason they can fly.”
-an excerpt from Mary Oliver’s Poem “Storage”
in her Devotions poetry collection
Fall is a great time for clearing out the closet, noticing what you didn’t wear over the summer months, and creating a capsule wardrobe for the season. I might be a maximalist when it comes to the garden, but I’m enjoying minimalism in my closet.
Over the last few years, I’ve been slowly paring down the clothes I own. I find that fewer decisions about what to wear gives me more time for the activities and people I love. I focus on choosing higher quality items made with sustainable and ethical manufacturing practices. On the recommendation from friends, I also want to try one of the formal attire rental companies for times when I need something a little dressier to wear.
If you’ve been curious about creating a capsule wardrobe, check out these resources to create a closet of favorites that you love.
The Ten-Item Wardrobe with Jennifer L. Scott (*link has sound)
I Got Rid of 90% of My Clothes and it Changed My Life by Madisun Gray (*link has sound)
How to Build Your Perfect Your Perfect Capsule Wardrobe-Minimalist Fashion on the Malama Life YouTube Channel (*link has sound)
Weekends feel like a sanctuary that I’m constantly trying to protect. While I would love for our weekends to feel simple, our weekends are often full of activity that is both meaningful to us AND leaves us feeling like we need a weekend to wind down after our weekend! Many weekends include a sports practice or sporting event for our son and getting together with family or friends, or catching up on house projects.
Protecting downtime in-between these weekend activities for reading books, gardening, cooking, riding bikes, walking our dog, or even taking a nap helps us to slow down and recharge with hobbies that fill our heart and energy tanks. What are you doing this weekend to recharge? Share in the comments below.
“Live simply so that others may simply live.”
“I think luxury is a matter not of all the things you have, but of all the things you can afford to do without.”
“I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day … So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.”
I love these videos on venturing into the unknown without the need to arrive at a destination and how minimalism may create space in your life for more of what you love.
Enjoy your weekend!
What’s my simple joy this week?
Observing how light changes in the transitions between seasons.
I’d love to hear about your simple joys in life right now and what you’d like to see in future blog posts. Please share in the comments below this post.
I read once that if there is something that you want to do, but you're not sure how to get there, just begin.
Writing blog posts for 52 Seasons is a creative journey into the expressions that come from my heart: writing, photography, tending a garden, immersing myself in nature, reading stories from voices that need to be heard and sharing them with others, keeping a home, being an advocate for education and basic human rights, and sharing resources with others.
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