Simple, Passionate Living: Archive

Acceptance

Today has been a series of ups and downs, in more ways than one. As was this weekend. I wish I had eloquence for the moment, but I am currently beyond that. As such I will simply bullet my experience. Missed my five year reunion due to financial difficulties. Truly felt like I missed a huge piece of my community by doing so. Started my journey as a birth worker. Such a huge movement in a...

May 22nd

1 tag

2-50ish of 200

I divested so many things, I can’t even remember. What I do remember is…’it was cathartic, I now have room to move around my house, and so much more’. Phew.

May 14th

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved...”

– Maurice Sendak (via bobulate)

May 8th

6,300 notes

3 tags

Skill of the month(s): February, March, April,...

Woah. I have been horrendous about this all year. On the upside, at least I am doing well with keeping up to snuff (more or less) on my goals! In February I learned a number of new things including how to make Yogurt, how to make bread with Quinoa, and much more. March was skill-less, as too was April. But MAY, and I am only 7 days in…My skill is event planning. I have never...

May 7th

1 tag

Book 8, 9, 10, and 11

Finished the Hunger Games series (Catching Fire and Mockingjay). Read Microfinance and its Discontents,which was a marvelous account of microfinance in Bangladesh. It really explicated clearly the realities that microcredit is credit, and the systems it creates (specifically Grameen Bank and BRAC) cause the same issues that credit in the United States causes, just on a different scale. At Large...

Apr 28th

1 note

Mar 19th

Mar 14th

1 tag

Book 7 of 52

I am now officially behind! Drat! What Works in Development: Thinking Big and Thinking Small It is a collection of essays on development, economics, and some responses. I wasn’t a fan, in fact it made me a bit angry. But hey, it is literature in my field.

Mar 14th

2 tags

Mar 14th

radical positivity

When I started this experiment I was looking for a sense of peace in my surroundings. A sense of calm amid the storm that I find myself caught up in. But then I realized that, yes simplicity does matter, but that isn’t the panacea to my current dilemma. The answer to my current malaise is positivity. Now wait a minute before you scoff, call it pedantic, or say its trite. I’m...

Feb 29th

6,095 notes

hey amber rae: Announcing The Bold Academy →

heyamberrae: Three weeks ago, I announced a vision for an unconventional school that I hoped to make a reality this summer in Boulder. Since then, I’ve been thinking big and making plans. And I’m happy to say that Nathaniel Koloc, my partner-in-crime and the co-founder of ReWork, will be joining… THIS is going to be awesome.

Feb 24th

40 notes

my days

My days are blurring together. I’m waiting. What for I am uncertain. But all my cards are on the table. Applications are submitted. Fellowships are left in professors’ hands, waiting for their owners. Days crawl by as I count the minutes. Some days the seconds. I bake. I cook. I breathe. I write. tick tock. tick tock.

Feb 15th

2 tags

Updated goals

I updated my goals today. I’m no longer striving to bake 52 loaves of bread. To be frank, that is simply too much. Considering that half this experiment is taking on a no-waste lifestyle, baking that much bread was a waste. With my diet changes and my fiancée being deployed, I am just not consuming enough bread to make it worth it.

Feb 15th

2 tags

Feb 14th

1 tag

Feb 14th

4 notes

Feb 14th

121 notes

3 tags

Turmoil in Simplicity

Truth be told, living simply is not as easy as it sounds. This is not to say that I haven’t enjoyed my quest, its just that the experiment is occurring during a time of grand turmoil in my life at the moment. I am currently living in a new place, attempting to create a career in a city that isn’t exactly ripe with options for someone with my background. I’m attempting, to the...

Feb 6th

1 tag

Skill of the month, January 2012: Learn to Felt

Well I was meagerly successful at learning to bake bread, but not to the extent that I would like in order for it to be considered a “success” or a “new skill”. As such, I have instead decided that this past months skill was learning to felt. I made felted boots.

Jan 31st

1 tag

Jan 25th

76 notes

3 tags

Package in the Mail

Ani Difranco’s new album “Which Side are You On Now?” on vinyl. And an Ani T-shirt. #thisiswhatalesbianlooklike?

Jan 23rd

1 tag

1 of 200: Divesting

A penguin toy that does flips.

Jan 14th

2 notes

Bread #2 and 3

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/quinoa-bread-recipe.htm and a Sage, Thyme, Rosemary loaf. They were both delicious. Quinoa was my first knead it bread. Its good for sandwiches, but not great. Still working on that.

Jan 11th

Bread Loaf number 1!!

Successfully made loaf of bread number one. I just sufficed with the no-knead bread variety. But I added rosemary and lavender. It is delicious but certainly doesn’t meet my future requirements of learning bread baking. Bread 1 of 52

Jan 7th

2 tags

the spirit catches you

Book 4 of 52 for 2012 The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman Man, I love Anne Fadiman. There are not enough words to explicate how much I love her writing. This piece of literature is at once illuminating, depressing, historical, and deeply emotional. The story of Lia Lee and her Hmong family paired with the medical anthropology infighting of culturally unqualified...

Jan 4th

1 note

1 tag

Jan 3rd

4 tags

Jan 2nd

77 notes

3 tags

New Years Eves of Yore

So I never forget…. 2005: The beginning of a habit. Traveling NYE’s. This year I spent the New Year drinking bucket cocktails on the streets of Bangkok. Ate pad thai, and watched the throngs of tourists returning from tsunami ridden areas of Thailand. I was with my friend Lillian, and we embarked on a great adventure to Cambodia the next day. 2006: I was lucky enough to attend...

Jan 1st

2 tags

Jan 1st

4 tags

Must not forget...

I will be in Kenya twice a year into the foreseeable future. I often forget to write down the ways in which Muhuru Bay touches me. It stirs my heart and tugs at my soul strings, calls me back time and again. -Mama’s hug. Her rough hands. How beautiful she looks when she smiles at me. -Gray shoved fistfulls of ripe mangoes in his pockets today. He smiled gleefully from treetops as he...

Dec 31st

1 note

2 tags

Dec 30th

1 note

2 tags

Skill of the month, January 2012: Learning to...

I know how to make one type of bread. The easy, no-knead, let rise and bake bread. That is not sufficient to make 52 loaves. I would get bored. Desperately bored. So January 2012’s goal is to learn how to bake rustic loaves, sandwich bread, and maybe a french bread too.

Dec 30th

2012

My tumblr is going to be changing directions in 2012. I call it my experiment in passionate living. I’ve noticed since graduating from Smith in 2007, that my life has lacked a certain luster I used to really admire about myself. I felt that I had a lust for life, a passionate understanding of who I was, and so much more. As such I am attempting to recreate myself in 2012. Focus on what...

Dec 29th

today I am appreciating the little things. clean well-polished floors. my adjunct job. clean water to drink . freshly made whoopie pies. and football at chilis.

Sep 25th

8 tags