I love a meal that doesn’t require much planning. If it just so happens to be delicious that’s even better. One of our favorite meals around these parts is this simple and flexible pasta dish. It works with almost any vegetable and any kind of meat, so it’s a great dish for those days when you aren’t sure how the odds and ends in your pantry are going to make a meal.
Blogs are great. They are full of ideas and tips and inspiration. But keeping up on all of your favorite ones can be quite a chore sometimes. How do you know when one is updated? How can you keep from missing anything important? How can you make sure you never miss another post from Little Place Called Home? (I know that is of utmost importance to all of you.) Well, it turns out there are a lot of options.
White space is a concept familiar to graphic designers. While some may see it as empty or wasted space, the good designer knows that white space can be used to get the eyes to rest on what is most important. It helps clarify and organize the message. It gives the brain room to process.
I’m learning that white space is not just a concept for design. It can be a concept for life. I’m trying to find places where more white space would be beneficial – such as on my calendar, in my home, in my writing. I want to have space to focus on what’s most important.
I was inspired to make this post by [Emily at Chatting at the Sky](http://www.chattingatthesky.com/2013/06/28/lets-share-the-things-we-learned-in-june/). Each month she does a little recap of the things she’s learned. They may be small and silly or big and profound, but I thought a similar post might be a nice way for me to remember all the random snippets of thought I have throughout the month.
## So here are five things I learned in July.
I didn’t post last week because we were on a short trip, and quite frankly my brain has been feeling rather fried lately. But because I really need more to do in my life, my sisters and I just launched a new blog!
But really, one of the things I love most about my sisters is how they fuel my creativity. We love working on art projects and crafts together, and this new blog is just another way for us to encourage each other to move forward on our ideas. The blog is [mysistersays.co](http://www.mysistersays.co) and we hope to explore each of our different perspectives on life as we go through different life stages.
[So take a look!](http://www.mysistersays.co) We’ll be rotating who posts each week. I posted first with my thoughts on rearranging a room and how it can bring new life to a space. This week my youngest sister Carly shared some stories about the garden she’s been growing this summer, and next week Erin will be sharing an art project she’s been working on. We have some fun things planned for the future, and I think mostly we’re just excited about working together!
Contrary to popular opinion, not all women like to shop. I am one of those weirdos. Maybe it has something to do with my aversion to crowded places. Or my indecisive nature. Or the fact that things hardly ever look as good on me as they do on the hanger. If I could go into a very quiet and sparsely populated store that only had clothes that fit me and that encouraged me to take as much time as I needed to stare at myself and consider my options in the fitting room then I might enjoy shopping a little more. I haven’t found that store, but I have found Stitch Fix!
I’ve been working on simplifying our meals to make cooking at home easier, and therefore more frequent. One of the meals that has found a regular place on our table recently has been Parmesan Tilapia. It’s super quick, super easy, and super tasty.
It’s one of those recipes that’s so simple I don’t even use a recipe or measuring cups anymore. I just throw stuff in a bowl and call it a day. When you’re basically covering a piece of fish in Parmesan cheese there’s not much you can do wrong.
I try to get Charlie outside to play pretty regularly—partly because he needs his vitamin D, and partly because tends to be happier outside so it’s actually a lot easier for me. Most of the time he plays with sticks and rocks and dirt, not because I don’t provide him with toys, but just because he’s a boy and he likes sticks and rocks and dirt.
Every now and then I try to be a bit more creative with our play time though. Today we had the water table out, which is fairly normal for a hot sunny day. We also had some bubbles and balls and shovels. But Charlie was starting to get tired of the same old thing. The best idea he could come up with was to take control of the bubble solution bottle. And probably drink some of it. I was not really OK with that idea. I needed to come up with something fun and distracting.
Every now and then a strange spirit overtakes me. There’s no way to predict when this will happen. It’s a rare cosmic occurance that only happens when my energy level, my schedule, the weather, and a build up of annoyance at the clutter in my house all align at just the right moment. When this happens I suddenly become possessed with the intense desire to do some major cleaning/purging/organizing. There’s no holding it back. This week the stars aligned and the cleaning spirit descended on the garage.
Since moving in to this house almost a year ago, the garage has been the place to stick everything we don’t have the time to deal with.
“Are we going to hang up these curtains?” “Eh…not today, just stick in them in the garage for now.”
“Where do you want to put these leftover decorations from the party?” “I don’t know. Just throw them in the garage.”
“Do we need to do something special to dispose of these toxic cleaning chemicals?” “Probably, just put them in the garage until we figure it out.”
You get the idea. Despite the fact that we have only been here a year and we never had more than a closet for extra storage space at our earlier apartments, we had managed to fill an entire garage. We couldn’t move around or find anything we needed. It was a problem.
This weekend I made some progress on my kitchen. When we moved into this house I decided I wanted a cheery red and turquoise kitchen. I got my inspiration from these images.
Aren’t they cute?
But other than some red canisters and a turquoise soffit, I wasn’t really getting the same feel from my kitchen.
