New Year, New Us!

Last week we checked in with ourselves to see how well we had accomplished our New Years resolutions. And overall we did a great job! This week we are sharing some of our goals for 2015; small resolutions just to remind us to keep up the good work!

Here were last years’ resolutions and our grades:

Be more energy efficient at home, and learn more about how to conserve energy around the house. 

B-

While I haven’t improved our bills (eek!), saving energy and resources is much more top of mind, and we’ve made some energy-saving home improvements around the house, like new double-paned windows and more efficient dishwasher.

Give experiential gifts for birthdays and holidays instead of “stuff.”

B+

For my daughter, we have become much more conscious about giving experiential gifts that provide opportunities for tactile creativity. We have, however, continued to give the “stuff” to family members, so we hope to tone that down in the coming year.

Implement a daily 10minute meditation practice, even if it has to be under my desk at work.

F

AAA this is always one to work on everyday of every year!

Explore more podcasts for my daily commute. Hearing creative people do whatever they do best is and invigorating way to start the day! 

A+

I have become totally addicted to Fresh Air, Here’s the Thing, and I am currently listening to season 2 of Serial! Listening to these in the solitude of my commute have been an inspiriting and reflective way to grab some “me time.”

Stand up straighter and improve my posture every day.

B+

While I did manage to improve my posture through mindfulness and working out, I also realized how poor my posture is while sitting at work, so I want to work on that.

Quit my multi-vitamin and make sure I get all my vitamins and minerals from real fruits and vegetables.

B+

I nailed this for 9 or 10 months this year, but have fallen off the wagon in the past few months and reverted back to vitamins. Getting back into the habit of making my lunch will help me restore the balance in the new year

Spend an hour each week being more introspective and taking the time to check in with myself.

A

I’ve really enjoyed this one, and it has definitely become a pretty seamless part of my life.

Tackle 3 big recipes I’ve bookmarked that have been intimidating me for ages.

C

While I baked my first-ever cheesecake this year, I didn’t exactly tackle any of the super intense multi-day type of intimidating recipes I thought I would. But I realize that maybe that’s ok, and I used my free time to do other things and make quicker meals with friends in order to enjoy their company in the moment.

And here are a few of our 2016 resolutions. Wish us luck!

1)Rush less. This is a big one!

2)Cook in cast iron more often. I have some great cast iron skillets that haven’t gotten much use over the years, that will hopefully change in 2016

3) Be softer on myself is a biggy this year.

4)Have weekly tea time with my tot. She loves to drink herbal tea with me. 

5) putting afternoon medications back on our 2016 list

Keep it Clean

This January we made some "keep up the good work" resolutions and we're happy to say that we're sticking with them.

One thing that has been so easy to stick to was our resolution of taking ten minutes every night before bed to tidy up.  It's become part of our nighttime routine: we pack lunch for the next day, pick up for ten minutes, brush teeth, wash face, etc.  This has not only improved our mornings but it's also made our weekends better as our usual major weekend clean up has  become a simple clean up, dust off sort of thing as opposed to picking up major messes all over the house from the week.  This resolution was inspired by Gretchen Rubin's, The Happiness Project which is a fabulous read and we highly recommend the book and the blog and found that it really did help us find simple ways to add joy to our lives. 

The idea behind the "evening tidy up" is that you take 10 minutes to pick up around your house. This doesn't include any big projects like organizing cupboards or vacuuming, it's a simple nighttime routine of putting things back where they go.  We encourage you to get your kiddos involved as getting them to pick up a few things in the evening is probably a lot easier then the dreaded "clean your whole room" demand.  

An evening tidy up can make your kitchen go from this:

To this in less then 10 minutes: 

We have a feeling that an evening tidy up will give you some Peas of Mind!

New Year, New Kitchen

January is the month of new beginnings! It’s a new year, a new you and we’re here to encourage you to get a NEW KITCHEN.  Now, we’re not saying it’s time for a full on kitchen remodel, no, no, no. We think it’s time for some major kitchen organization, with the intention of keeping things neat and tidy, but most importantly, with the resolution to healthily (yep, we just made up a word) your kitchen.  We laid out five simple steps to give your kitchen a new year make over and we promise that a few hours of out with the old, in with the healthy, you’ll feel like you’re in a new kitchen.

1) Make a mess.  We’re big believers that it’s important to make a bigger mess before everything actually gets clean.  Make sure you have LOTS of free table and counter space and COMPLTELEY empty your refrigerator, pantry and cupboard.  Divide everything into four categories:

1. The expiration date has passed and it's time to compost it.
2.  Too many ingredients you can’t pronounce and not something you feel good about eating.
3.   Even though it’s open, it hasn’t expired and still looks good.
4.  Yummy, I’d eat this tonight!

2) Compost, recycle and throw away everything from category one and two.  Wipe off, organize and repackage everything from category three and four. (Here at Peas of Mind we love storing our grains, beans and baked goods in mason jars…it looks so cute and makes the ingredients last longer). 

3) This is where the spring “cleaning” really comes into play.  Now that everything is empty, wipe off every surface, wash each vegetable drawer and really get into all the nooks and crannies of every corner, crevice and crack.  If your freezer is like ours and it needs a good makeover too; a quick way to defrost and wipe everything down without unplugging the whole fridge is to place a pot of boiling water in the freezer and let sit for 20 minutes.  After this time, you should be able to chip away the ice and wipe your freezer until it sparkles. 

4) Put everything from categories three and four into the appropriate storage space, admiring your new adorable jars, dust-free surfaces and all the free shelf space. 

5) Fill the free space with items from our Pantry Staples that will give you Peas of Mind blog post. Also stock your squeaky clean vegetable drawers with winter produce like kale and other wintergreens.  Put out a fruit bowl with winter fruit like oranges, tangerines, grapefruits and apples. You want this bowl to be easily accessible to everyone so that your whole family can easily enjoy winter’s natural candy!

"Keep up the good work" resolutions

Happy New Year from the Peas Perspective!  Our New Years Resolution for the New Year was to NOT make any New Years resolutions.  We realized that in the past we've made difficult to accomplish goals that usually make us feel bad about ourselves and never seem to pan out.

In 2014, we're doing things differently. We decided to make some "keep up the good work" resolutions in which we focus on great things we started doing last year and want to keep it up.  It's like starting off the New Year with a pat on your back.  Here's a list of our top "keep up the good work" resolutions:

Cut my caffeine intake in half by brewing 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf in one pot.
Always choose stairs over elevators and escalators.
Drink two big camel bak's of water per day.
Listen to NPR on my commute. Stay informed and enjoy the great stories.
Cut out technology an hour before bed (that means no Office reruns while I drift off to sleep).
Take one day per month to focus on myself. Have a ME party a la the muppets movie!
Bring a healthy lunch to work at least 3 days per week.
Keep monthly and weekly to do lists on my phone so that I can stay on top of my housework, dinners and errands.
Take 10 minutes every night before bed to tidy up (instead of leaving 5 days of minor mess for the weekend).

We encourage you to take five minutes and think back on last year and what little things you started to do to improv you and your families life, write them down, pat yourself on the back and keep up the good work!

Spa state of mind

I hope everyone is having a healthy and happy 2013 thus far!  I must admit that one of my favorite parts of the New Year is that the Holidays are over; no more presents to wrap, the cookies are finally gone and the stockings are hung back in the attic where they belong.  January is a time for new beginnings and I’m a firm believer that in order to start the year off right it’s important to take some time to recharge and rejuvenate.   But with your busy schedule, your kid’s extra-circular activates and that 2 mile walk you made it your resolution to do three times per-week, how on earth are you ever going to find time to relax? Two words: spa night!  Now we’re not telling you to go spend a few hundred dollars at a spa; the idea is to get yourself in the spa state of mind and bring the luxuries of the spa to your home.

Five simple steps to spa night:

1)       You’re going to need an hour to yourself so put a Peas of Pie in the oven and a movie in the DVD player. You get a Spa night and your kids get a movie night!

2)       Let your troubles float away.  Did you know that soaking in warm water lowers blood pressure, lifts toxins from your skin and relaxes muscles?  Add some Epsom salts, lavender oil or your favorite bubble bath to get the full spa experience.

3)      This is no ordinary bath so don’t forget to light some candles and bring something yummy to drink. Why not something seasonal like a cranberry spritzer (just mix cranberry juice and carbonated water) or our Winter Ginger Sipper (http://www.peasofmind.com/recipes/recipes.htm)?

4)      This is a great time to treat your tresses to the spa experience.  Mix your conditioner with a few teaspoons of olive oil, rub into the ends of your hair and put on a shower cap.  Leave this concoction in for at least five minutes.

5)      Enjoy the quiet.  Read that book you’ve been meaning to finish, indulge in your favorite guilty pleasure magazine or just let your mind wander.

When you emerge from the bath you will feel relaxed and invigorated - ready to start the New Year with a skip in your step.  Here’s to spa night bringing you peas and harmony in 2013!

Eat for a Low-Stress 2011

One of our New Year's resolutions is to reduce stress in our lives... through what we eat! We thought this would be a great blog entry for the whole family!

A stressed person's body will hold onto less calcium, magnesium and potassium. Prolonged stress can lead to deficiencies of these minerals as well as B vitamins and electrolytes while experiencing increased production of free radicals which stresses the body further, leaving us more susceptible to illness and slower to heal. Although we'll be preemptively reducing stresses in our lives, when faced with unavoidable stresses, we'll count on certain foods to help our body fight the physical effects of stress.

Here's the list of soothing, stress-relieving foods that we'll be eating more of in 2011 and hope that you will too:

Other recommendations include:

• a diet that's 50% raw fruits and vegetables
• minimize dairy consumption
• limit caffeine intake
• supplement vitamin D to aid calcium absorption
• regular exercise
• "tense and release"progressive relaxation. Tense a muscle group for a count of ten and then release.
• solid night's sleep. For mild, natural assistance, try camomile tea and/or melatonin.

Wishing you a happy New Year!