Whoever invented some of the oven mitts out there clearly was not thinking of the average hand – especially the average cook’s hand, which I suspect is quite often female.  Considering that I am beyond a head taller than just about everyone in my German class, my hands are also longer.  Still.  My mitts are waaay too large.

My hands flop around in my oven mitts like fish.  And these little fish are getting burned all the time.  I can never manage.  So you know what that means…

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Simplicity is a journey.  It’s figuring out what you really need and challenging it with what you want and what society tells you you should want.  It’s not easy, is it?

My German class was discussing lost wallets and lost stuff today.  I always like these conversations because I’m hearing stories from people from Africa, South America, Russia, the Philippines… Today it was pretty obvious that no matter where we live, we’re all battling with the need for more & the struggle with what we have.

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I’m afraid the dinner menu at our house won’t be all that exciting over the next two weeks.  Spring is coming, and with it are all of the fresh, seasonal fruits and vegetables. (Wiping off drool.)  But before we can dive into all of the fresh produce, our freezer needs some serious attention.  It’s filled to the brim.  I realize the brim isn’t all that big around here.  Yet full is full, and we’re hardly touching the stuff in there.

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A recent discovery of this old photo got me wondering (that’s my aunt cutting my hair over 20 years ago while my grandma sat by):

where does your family go for haircuts?  Are you an at-home kind of family?  Or do you make an appointment at your favorite salon or walk in to your local “chop shop”?  Sometimes, the way we decorate and organize our homes defines simplicity.  But when you get right down to it, the habits we create (or get brave and attempt for the first time!) really define simplicity far more.  They’re the way we live.

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Reaching into the bag of emails today.  Here’s a question from Jess:

There is an age old trick to keeping your house uncluttered: every time you bring something in, take something else out.

It doesn’t work for me.

The idea sounds really good, and quite a few readers have mentioned how well it works for them.  I agree that every time you shop, it does help to think of what you can get rid of when you buy more because a funny thing happens – you quit buying so much!  For me, the problem is that it really takes the excitement out of something when you start thinking of what to get rid of back home.  You also start to hang onto junk items just so you have something to ditch when you buy something new.  Old hole-filled socks?  A picture frame you hate?  Plus one-in-one-out is tough when you’re starting a new home, especially in our case – we didn’t even have stuff to get rid of in our new country of Germany!

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When I biked home from German class every day, I really enjoyed how relaxing my journey was. I hesitated to ever say “my entire journey” because there was one spot where I never felt safe or comfortable. In fact, I would usually slow to a near stop in the bike lane.

Over Christmas break, Berlin was covered by blanket after blanket of snow, so I walked the entire way back from class today.  And at the exact same location, a car spun its wheels over the ice in attempt to cross the sidewalk before me.

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