Less meat.

Both Peter and I have been convicted that we don't need nearly as much meat as we're consuming. The American lifestyle is telling us we need meat at every meal-- or at least with dinner. Right? Wrong.

Fact is, there is so much protein in other things, even in veggies! A new favorite is to saute vegetables -- the other night we used tomatoes, kalamata olives, garlic, white onion, and red and green peppers-- in EVOO and toss it with a special type of gourmet pasta.

Before I would have thought I needed to saute chicken or steak with this as well. More protein, you know? Yeah, every once in a while, sure. But not every day, or even every other day.

Thankfully we were having dinner with friends who are vegetarian; they made a variation of this (spinach, garlic, basil, peppers, mushrooms, tomato, etc.) and Peter and I both devoured it and felt so satisfied afterwards. And so our eyes were opened to our new favorite dish.

red, green peppers, tomato, kalamata olives

onion, minced garlic.

Le Not-Gourmet Chefs.

I guess we ate it too fast to snap a picture of the finished product. It was good, trust me.
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I've been busy these past few weeks arranging, rearranging and re-rearranging our rooms and furniture.

Half the problem here is that I am just not a photographer. And I will not pretend to be.

Sitting room. (yes, I know the painting is not centered)

Living room.

Living room from behind the couch.

As much as I love interior design/decorating, I am by far, no pro. I've been struggling with this living room since I moved in. It's long, and narrow. There's a fire place at one end and a piano window at the other. I knew it needed to be broken up into "two" rooms, but I wasn't sure how to do it, especially using only what we had.

I'm finally content with the way it is now. I like that the TV is downstairs. I like the "sitting room" and the adjoining "living room". I like that the fire place is exposed, available, open, whatever, especially now that it's starting to get cold; it'll encourage us to use it.


I've simplified our bedroom as well (after moving it to and from nearly every bedroom in the house). I've had a hard time with the rooms because I'm fussy and knew I wanted atleast one guest room, but I wanted the "nursery" to also be a guest room until we actually need a nursery. Yet, we were in need of an office or study space, nook, anything!, a space for Peter. So, I've settled with sticking Peter's desk and books in a guest room and leaving the nursery as Joyce's room and a small guest room. The attic has become a good place for dry storage (though I've begun to hate storing anything. Knick knacks? Ribbons from swim team 5 years ago? Hair from Peter's first haircut? No thanks).

Back to our room. It's simplified. I love it. Peter's promised to paint the artwork for the entire house, starting with our bedroom. (Thus, the walls are bare).

I plan to change the curtains in the near future. I also want to get a mirror to hang above my dresser so it can double as a vanity/dresser. I need to create somewhere else for my scarves and hats to hang (kind of an eye sore), but I've yet to take on that project. And one day, I'm going to sand and paint my dresser. I appreciate the aged, vintage look is has, but the top is really shot.

Our custom-designed Amish-made bed.
 We always say it's the comfiest bed ever.
It could just be that it's ours.
:)

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That's it. I need to wake Joyce up, though I hate doing that. She's been sleeping for 3 hours. I have no idea how she does it. Though, in her defense (and mine) she really needed this and rarely does she sleep all afternoon. Plus, I promised her we'd make cookies before she left.

:)


-A.H.