Our Sunflower finally bloomed. It is probably about 7 or 8 feet tall. I didn’t think it was going to make it, but I gave it a kiss for good luck last week, and it bloomed! Super pumped about that!

I am starting to think about Christmas presents… and feeling a little overwhelmed. It is silly that even when we are not buying, I am thinking about what I HAVE to make and then it kinda takes the joy out of making. I guess I really don’t have to make anything. But, I will. I finished a cape today for a little one. I can’t show you though, cause it is a suprise for Christmas. It is a princess superhero cape. The first of it’s kind in the Mulhern house. I am hoping the recipient enjoys it as much as Noah loves his not-so-princess, very manly superhero cape that he happens to be wearing at this moment.

As a youth pastor I am often in charge of running silly and ridiculous games that are a lot of fun. Last night our youth group played a game called Bigger and Better where you start with a paper clip and trade up from that. You walk around the neighborhood seeing what people can trade that is bigger or better then the item you are offering.

Here is how the trading went: paper clip –> magazine –> banana and newspaper –>  brand new 2 person tent –> fairly new color printer –> 15×15 section of brand new carpet

We kept the carpet because we have been looking to find some carpet to cover our bare concrete floors. We continued the trading and ended up trading a pair of skis and a broken chair for another printer and a desk. One team got offered a dog and a motor-home, but ended up with a mattress at the end. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet some of our neighbors.

I stuffed the carpet into my car and drove home after a fun night of games. The carpet took up the entire car so every bump I hit turned off the radio or made the windshield wipers run. We unloaded the carpet this morning and put it down on the floor and it is amazing carpet. It is so nice and soft on our feet. Noah is laying on it reading books as I type. Definitely some high quality free carpet. Another amazing free item that we have received during this experiencement. It will be nice to not freeze our little toes off this winter - hurray for new carpet.

We also have a news crew coming to film us on Monday about ourcompactlife. They read our article in the newspaper and were intrigued by what we were doing and want to feature us on a new news program they are producing. We will blog about it after and give details how you can watch us on tv. I am sure that I will say nothing profound in it because I often utter the most ridiculous things when I am being interviewed by the media (not that it happens all the time). I will post the “amazing” things that slip out next week!

I am pretty happy with the way things turned out in our little painting renovation. It was a lot of work and we are still recovering from the long process! We are not sure what to do about the floors. Winter is coming and cement floors may just freeze our feet off… you never know. I am wondering what happens to all the perfectly good carpet that gets ripped out of homes to be replaced by hard wood, and also wondering how I could get my hands on some of that.

In other news, while we were painting and everything was unplugged on our computer, magically our computer destroyed itself. It would not turn on and that was that. This, very unexpected loss made me think that a LOT of things have broken in the Mulhern house this year. So I thought I would make a list (because that is what I do) of all the things that have broken so far on our year of the compact and what we have done (if anything) to replace it.

Computer Monitor- Our good friends gave us one from their basement. We recycled our old one

Blender- bought a new one from MCC thrift store for $8 - and it works better than my other one ever did! We recycled the old one.

Mix master- still use it with just one beater.

Computer tower- bought a refurbished laptop. We recycled all the parts.

TV antenna- got another one for free and are using that one in addition to our broken one (I don’t understand why either)

Iron-have somewhat mastered the art of filling it up with enough water so that it sprays but does not leak all over the clothing I am attempting to press.

electric tooth brush charger- it is a bit finicky. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I should be using my non-electric one anyway.

Mattress cover zipper- I tried to just drape the cover over the mattress for a while, but I gave up and now there is no cover on the memory foam and it piles all over the place.

many many glass cups, dishes and bowls in my quest to get rid of plastic dishware for a three year old- I have been able to find more at the thrift store. I got some little Corelle dishes and they are fabulous and do not break! I recycled the glass bits.

bread maker- yes, it is not working properly anymore. So I have been making bread in the oven. I am going to recycle it at our depot in Cochrane. We have a fabulous recycling place that accepts appliances and such.

I personally think that is a ridiculous amount of broken items. It is not like we are careless with our things either. Most of these things just conked out. I was really reminded of the concept of planned obsolescence discussed in The Story of Stuff. They just don’t make things like they used to. The amount of waste that is produced from these appliances makes me really grumpy.

Ok, so maybe I am being a little melodramatic, but after living in our basement suite for almost a year, the wood paneling was graining on me (ha- graining). So, I painted the walls. Well, we are in the midst of painting the walls. What I am trying to say is, I bought white paint. So, technically, we never said anything about not buying paint, but it wasn’t a necessity. I am happy to report that I bought used outlet covers though- now, that is something to be proud of.

I will show you the before picture now of the living room area of our basement home, and you can decide for yourself if it was an emergency or not:

There you have it. I will upload the new improved pics when we are finished.

I find that this year I have a deep pull inside myself to take something and renew it. I am very happy where we live, but it is not super trendy and beautiful to look at. It looks like a reject from 1972. We have made a decision to be content with less, not strive for more and more. But at the same time, I don’t think that means that you can’t take something that you already have and renew it. I find a lot of joy in that process. I think that Christ has that same kind of joy when he can take our out of date, delapitated life, and make it beautiful and new.

I have been making some bread lately. Some friends of ours heard what we were doing and thought they would give us some of their stuff they don’t use anymore(smile). One awesome thing in the pile was a bread maker. I thought at first it was too huge to keep (b/c I have all of two cupboards in my kitchen) but once I used it I was hooked. It is so easy and wonderful to use and the results are fabulous. Even though I don’t eat bread, the boys really enjoy it and the smell is enough for me. I also feel a lot better giving my family food that I know exactly what is in it, because I put everything in it!

Here is the bounty from our garden today:

Man I love living in the country!

In other news, I have been cleaning and purging like nobody’s business. We have this area in our living space that is all of our storage covered by a curtain. I loath that area. I hate not having storage. But, it got me to thinking today, what is the point of having a whole bunch of stuff piled up in a corner that you just don’t use? I mean, there are some things that I use occasionally, but most was just sitting there collecting dust. It drives me nutters. So, I purged. Tom hates it when I do this, but he has become used to it in the five years that we have been married! So, not only am I buying nothing, I am also giving stuff away! Happy day.

We got back from holidays in Colorado and I got a little more than I bargained for as far as the garden is concerned. It looks good now, but when I first got back, dill had overtaken everything! There were no little rows, it was just a mass of green, two feet tall at least. So, I guess it doesn’t work so well to leave a garden unattended for three weeks.  After a couple hours with my Mom, Tom and I weeding, it is looking fabulous if I do say so myself!

We picked some baby carrots today for a little snack. I am attempting to thin out the mass of carrots, and pretty much everything that I planted. I planted everything really close together. My radishes didn’t turn out too well b/c they needed more room to grow, I guess. Live and learn. It was so fun today to sit outside and eat some carrots that we planted and God grew in our very own little garden! Super cool!

We are more then half way through our year long experiencement of not shopping and I am very proud of how far we have come in the past year. Even though there have been times when we have been very tempted to buy new (a dress Malora found in a Nepali import store) we have held off. We have not cheated too much and I feel like the desire to consume is growing fainter with each month. That desire is still there though. It has just changed.

Even though we are not shopping any more there is still a growing desire within us to keep up with the people around us. It seems like everyone we know owns their own home, has more then one car, and has a bunch of kids. We are renting the basement suite we live in, our car has a rusty bum and sputters out on us, and we only have one amazing son. There is a constant pressure for us to keep up with the people around us. We often put this pressure on ourselves, but many times it is put on us by well meaning people - with well meaning questions:

“When are you guys going to move into a bigger house?”

“You guys should really have more kids”

“I can’t believe you only have one car…wow. How do you do it?”

I think everyone feels the pressure to keep up with the Jones Family (whoever that is), and once you start it is a non stop spiral of wanting more and more. We want the freedom to be unencumbered by debt or possessions. We are living that reality now and if we can continue that for the rest of our lives that would be amazing. To live a life that is not about consuming and paying off debt and instead is about living with the freedom to respond to the needs around you.

I think that true wealth has to do with having the freedom to be generous to the needs of the people around you. A debt free life is one step in that direction. So, we made the decision to stop worrying and thinking about all of the maybes. Maybe we will get a house, maybe we should get a new car, maybe we should have a bunch more kids, and instead to allow life to happen and enjoy it in the process. Focusing on enjoying life in the present is essential to living a truly rewarding life.

We are on a much needed vacation in Colorado. Visiting family, lighting off firecrackers for the 4th of July with my brother, and relaxing. I even got to go tubing on a lake and flew 4 feet in the air when I hit a wave the sent me flying. It has been really relaxing and I am so glad that we came.

However, the desire to shop is so much worse when you are on vacation. You are going to new places and the common thing to do is commemorate these experiences by buying something to remember your pleasant time there. A cheezy shirt with a place name on it, a little plaster molding, a teeny little spoon the a crest at the end, or any other touristy thing. I once bought a beaver in a can because I couldn’t find anything else (the beaver was a stuffed animal).

It makes me wonder how much money we waste on trinkets that we eventually give to thrift stores because we have no use for them. Instead of shopping for souvenirs on vacation maybe we should learn to enjoy relaxation without consuming useless junk. It is hard not to shop when you are away from home and all the rules, but we wont fall for Rocky Mountain snow globe.

bonus: We saw an earthship in Ft. Collins, Colorado. We are going to try to visit it somehow.

I have been doing not so good on the “not buying”. I have been doing really good at the “buying only second hand”. As far as not consuming goes,  I have such a weakness with clothing. Spring is here and I have bought some new cute springy things. I am very impressed with what I have found at thrift stores, but that is not the point. I didn’t need all that I bought.

It has become second nature to look for things that we need second hand. Tom’s razor broke (that is how he gives himself “haircuts” - let’s be honest buzz cuts). So he found one used on kijiji.com. We don’t even really think about buying new things anymore, but the thrift store has become so inviting and thrilling.

 I think I need to get a bit more of a life.

I get so excited about the things I get and the prices I get for them. then I go about telling others about the amazing deal I found and how the item looks as though it has never been used. Although that is thrilling, I am still consuming. I am still being consumed by consuming.

I think we are all consumed with something. It is so easy to lose focus and bend the rules with this compact. yikes.

My garden is starting to sprout. This is the start of little radishes! We have had a lot of rain mixed with warm weather. I guess I picked a pretty good year to become a gardener. Soon I will not even have to buy food! I will never have to go to the grocery store again! (ha ha, just jokes).

Speaking of being self sufficient. Tom and I watched a documentary called “Garbage Warrior”

It was really, really fabulous and interesting! It is about this guy who makes these awesome houses called earthships. They are made from recycled materials (old tires and bottles, ect.) They are totally off the grid (there is no electricity going into them, no sewer, no heat) They are powered by solar and wind energy. Plants and food grow in the house. It is just the coolest thing. I really reccomend watching the documentary. You can learn more about it here.