HeatherKatsoulis.com

I am lucky, blessed, really.

Each day I

• wake up to the sweetest alarm: my almost 4 year old daughter
• enjoy a calm, un-rushed healthy breakfast with my whole family at the dining room table
• work from home on my dream career: children’s photographer
• am grateful for free part-time childcare from my parents and mother-in-law
• eat a natural, whole foods, vegetarian dinner with my whole family at the dining room table
• relax in my cozy home
• read stories and snuggle with my daughter
• go to sleep next to the love of my life in an always cozy bed

In addition, each Wednesday is family day with Jim and Syna.

Each Friday night is date night with my husband. (We’ve been together for 19 years.)

Each Saturday is family date night with Jim and Syna.

Each Sunday is family breakfast with my dad’s family (whoever decides to show – 4-15 people)

I have nothing to complain about. Truly. And I worry about others. Most of the world doesn’t have it nearly as good as I do. I feel extravagant, even when I appreciate what I have and do what I can to minimize my impact on the planet.

We’ve downsized to 1 car, we got rid of cable television, we compost our food waste (and it’s most of it since we’re vegetarian) and recycle to the extent that our family of 3 “throws out” 1 grocery bag of trash per week, we telecommute, we used cloth diapers for our daughter, we bring our own reusable bags to stores and purchase items with limited packaging, we switched our heating system to a high efficiency solution, we shower every other day… We’re conscious of many of our decisions.

And yet we use so much. We have so much. We are never even uncomfortable. We have heat in the winter, air conditioning in the summer, food available 24/7, constant electricity, transportation, money, instant communication devices, we’re safe. Even on the coldest/hottest days, if I travel, I walk 30′ outdoors to my garage protected car, start it up, turn on the heat/air and I’m comfortably on my way.

It has long been my belief that to truly help others I must start with myself.

To put the world in order, we must put the nation in order.
To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order.
To put the family in order, we must nurture our personal life.
To cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.
- Confucius

But it doesn’t seem like enough when I have so much. And, really, it’s all by luck I ended up being born into my situation.

“There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

How do I stay happy when I am aware of so much suffering?

In the states, the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. This year, take it easy; spend time at home relaxing with family and friends. Read more about the international campaign to curb consumption, Buy Nothing Day.

Also check out ☃ Simplify the Holidays for more ideas to help create a fun, festive, relaxed winter holiday season.

And if you’re looking for thoughtful personalized gifts to share with your loved ones, try some Homemade Gifts.

Then wrap them responsibly with Reusable Bags/Cloth Wraps. Each year billions of plastic bags end up as litter; reusable bags, such as furoshiki can help reduce the impact to our environment. Its versatility allows you to wrap almost anything regardless of its shape or size.

Have a wonderful winter!

So, this week has really been full of insight from a number or resources.

I first watched What Would Jesus Buy, a serious docu-comedy about the commercialization of Christmas.

Then, I read The City that Ended Hunger, an article about a city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger.

excerpt
‘“I knew we had so much hunger in the world,” Adriana said. “But what is so upsetting, what I didn’t know when I started this, is it’s so easy. It’s so easy to end it.”

Adriana’s words have stayed with me. They will forever. They hold perhaps Belo’s greatest lesson: that it is easy to end hunger if we are willing to break free of limiting frames and to see with new eyes—if we trust our hard-wired fellow feeling and act, no longer as mere voters or protesters, for or against government, but as problem-solving partners with government accountable to us.’

And today, I came across this video,

I am so into the slow food movement, new organic Victory Gardens, and just plain old slowing down in this culture.

Now, how can I make this my life’s work?

This weekend was exceptional. Friday is date night, so my husband and I went to Northampton for a soak in a hot tub, some oysters and a beer, then sushi. Since we’ve been having regular date nights, Valentine’s Day isn’t such a big deal; I don’t have to look forward to special holidays – I look forward to every Friday. We had a great night.

Saturday morning, Syna got herself out of bed and came to cuddle with us. Then we made a special Valentine’s Day breakfast:

After that, we made cupcakes:

We cheated a bit and used Cherrybrook Kitchen’s (all natural) Chocolate Cake Mix for the cupcakes. This is a great standby mix – moist, natural ingredients, chocolaty… Instead of corn syrup in the glaze, we used Lyle’s Golden Syrup; we used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, too.

Syna truly enjoyed them:

Then Syna and daddy made Valentines:

Syna also got her own bed. Saturday was her first night in it. She loves it. Well, she loves getting in and out of it on her own. :)

Sunday, we met some old friends with their new baby for brunch.

I don’t post expecting people to read this blog; it’s more of a place for me to track some of my favorite things. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was tagged with this thoughtful award in a friend’s blog the other day:

And now I’d like to spread the love to my other blogosphere friends:

Jim, my husband, with Change Happens, Addictive Happiness & The New Thin Me

My Dad with New England Waterfalls. Hopefully he’ll begin posting soon…

Matt with Beyond Conventional Wisdom – Thinking deeply about spirituality, suffering & contentment.

Tony with Acceptable and Proper

Sarah with her photos

And, of course, Emila for creating the award – thanks! It seems to making the rounds. Well done.

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Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass the rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme. You can just copy the award and paste it in your editor box or you can download it into your computer and later upload in your blog.

The participation rules are simple:
1. If you get tagged (and want to play along), write a post with links to blogs that you love,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
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