Simplicity Relished

minimalism for the adventurous heart

Archives for November 2015

Our 2015 Thanksgiving Menu Inspiration

It’s that week again… when I’m wandering down the aisles of our local grocery store like a child in a candy shop. I just can’t wait for our family gathering on Thursday where we get to feast on delicious, seasonal dishes that I’m creating this week.

For the past month, I’ve been gearing up for our festivities with a Pinterest board focused on fall and Thanksgiving recipes. If you’ve taken a look at it, you’ll know that I have the hardest time deciding what to do about dessert. There are just too many delicious autumn-inspired treats!

Since I’ll be doing some shopping today, I thought I would share some recipe inspiration– especially for anyone who’s still looking to round out their menu. Here goes!

Our 2015 Thanksgiving Menu Inspiration

Crispy Prosciutto-Baked Brie Bites (Half Baked Harvest)

Thanksgiving Inspiration 1 …Continue Reading

When Authenticity Becomes A Recipe For Disaster

We are now a culture obsessed with authenticity.

We’ve donned a peevish perspective on social media, on networking, on new friendships– basically on anything that might not feel “real” enough to us. We expect everyone to divulge everything.

Authenticity is a good thing (at least, it used to be). The notion that I can be honest about my emotions, my progress, my struggles, and my opinions is a freedom I’ll continue to cherish.

But this trend of being authentic– of chasing some imaginary level of authenticity– is a tiresome game. I’m wary of its pushy nature, because it’s starting to look a lot like any other attention-mongering scheme. 

Authenticity has become what we expect; and what we expect is to be shocked. We love confessions. We love peering behind the curtain to see the “real deal.”

In other words, authenticity is no longer pure. It’s fraught with expectations, pressures, and a strangely insecure self-confidence that seems to be throwing wisdom to the winds.

when authenticity becomes the recipe for disaster …Continue Reading

7 Ways to Make Today Matter

In the wake of tragedy– whether personal or global– we find ourselves asking questions that often lie dormant when things are going “just fine.”

The challenge of living in this tension we call the human experience, where we fluctuate between exceeding joy and exceeding despair, is choosing to make meaningful the small slice of agency we have, the domain that is ours alone.

One of the reasons why I’ve become such a champion of courage (I even wrote a short ebook on it here) is that I believe it gives us the ability to live with conviction. We can proclaim anything we want, but courage makes those convictions concrete.

7 ways to make today matter …Continue Reading

Why Thanksgiving Gets So Little Marketing (and it’s the best thing ever)

The day after Halloween, I walked into a crafts store. According to their displays, Halloween was so yesterday and Christmas season had officially begun.

There were plastic trees on display, cheap ornaments in boxes, and ribbons of every color. Somehow they even transitioned the scent of the whole store from autumn spice to winter wonderland.

Someone remarked to me recently that Thanksgiving “gets no love”– and that November is just that awkward transitional season after Halloween when we start anticipating the biggest purchasing month of the year.

why thanksgiving is so hard to market- and that is a good thing …Continue Reading

The Life-Changing Magic of Finding Your Purpose

I’ve been championing simplicity on this blog for about a year now. It started last fall when I came across Courtney Carver’s Project 333— a capsule wardrobe challenge that has now become a near-mainstream trend– and I took it upon myself to find additional ways to simplify my life.

I’ll be honest. I did it in part because I was intrigued by the subject, and there was already a vibrant tribe of writers I could jump right into. It also helped me focus my blog on a specific topic while in the midst of moving across the country, getting married, and becoming (more) in charge of my resources.

Simple living has become a trend in this past year– the more I wrote about it, the more I realized that others were doing the same. And now that Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is a national bestseller, it seems everyone is on the simple living boat.

new yorker cartoon …Continue Reading

Celebrity Gossip: Why I Don’t Keep Up

I didn’t grow up in a family that watched much American television. In fact, my family didn’t watch any television– we owned a TV for years without actually knowing how to turn it on.

As far as I know, there were no truly strong moral objections to television. There was just always something better to do. My dad was a bookworm and my mom was always busy with something, so I rarely saw anyone watching a show or reading a magazine.

More importantly, my lack of exposure to TV– and all its nightly wonders–became a point of embarrassment. In middle school, I didn’t watch the shows that all my classmates were watching and talking about. I didn’t follow sports. I didn’t know who was in, who was out, who was hot, who was not, and who was the next best thing.

As I gained some independence and some Internet savvy, I decided it was time to learn all these names. Whether or not I had seen their movies or shows, I wanted to recognize these public icons that everyone seemed obsessed with. It was as though our lives would not be complete if we weren’t up-to-date on theirs. 

celebrity gossip- the surprising benefits of not keeping up …Continue Reading

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