We’re keeping things simple this season.
It’s December 15 and we haven’t yet finished decorating our house for Christmas. The tree is up and lit, as it has been for about two weeks, but no decorations. We’ve hung wreaths outdoors and in. Our year-round home decor is green, and with candles burning in the kitchen and family rooms, it feels festive.
Instead of pulling the boxes of decorations out of the attic, we’ve actually worked at decluttering. We have donated coats to a group that works with the unhoused community, and we have a large box of books to stock our local Little Free Library.
I wondered aloud this morning whether I missed the bulk of our decorations and, surprisingly, not really. Sure, I’d love to sip my coffee with eggnog from my Christmas mugs and our Dr. Seuss-ian green feather wreath hanging above the mantle always makes me smile. I asked Dave what, if anything, he was missing, and he couldn’t name a thing.
We’ll get there, maybe this weekend, but we’re in no rush. I strongly suspect we won’t pull out the full lot, just a few things. Keeping it simple feels right.
Sunday soups are another way we’ve been keeping things simple. By making a big pot of soup on Sundays, we start the week with lots of veggies and we have leftovers for lunches or an easy dinner on rushed evenings.
Recently I’ve made tortilla soup, cauliflower soup, and curried lentil soup. This week I made Vegan Richa’s Instant Pot Lasagna Soup (you can make it without an IP). Since the recipe is written for 3 servings, I always double it. Today I’ll finish up the leftovers for lunch.
My other tips for keeping this recipe simple:
- Stick with the recommendation to use a combination of peppers, carrots, and zucchini
- Use canned tomatoes with their juice and marinara sauce from a jar
- Definitely use veg broth, low sodium if you can find it
- Don’t skip the spinach (rough chop it first), and a squeeze of lemon juice over the pot is nice, but I generally skip the rest of the optional ingredients at the end of the recipe.
How are you simplifying in this season? Whatever December looks like for you, I wish you an abundance of hope, beauty, and joy!
Five Minute Friday prompt: SIMPLE
