Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Week in Recap: Simple, Green N Frugal Family Life

Hello, Friends!
 
Father's Day
 
I know it's no longer Father's Day, but let me share with you some pictures of two beloved men of mine who dressed alike for Church for the past two weeks. Aren't they adorable? To me, at least. Haha!
 
On the first picture collage Hubby and Michael wore T-shirts that Mom got for them from Italy, embroidered with Italy map and cities in colorful threads.
On the second collage, both wore white and blue Indonesian traditional batik fabric shirts with little people prints. It's quite something for Hubby to wear anything but T-shirt and jeans to Church, and he even wore shoes (usually he wore sandals, nice ones, not flip flops!), so I was very happy about it! Hubby dislikes dressing up, but it's very important to me that he at least dress up for Church. Sometimes he complies, sometimes he doesn't. ^__^
 
 
 
Culinary tour around the neigborhood
 
Hubby and I are pretty much simple, family-oriented, home-loving people. Though we both lived a crazy, glamorous, care-free single lives before, after marriage we basically just love to stay home, eat homemade food, watch DVD, or just have a nice conversation, all within the walls of our own home. Sometimes we will get all glammed up for a "glam" date nights, but rarely. We have fallen into a very predictable yet comfortable routine:
 
Monday to Friday we stay at home after work for home-cooked dinner and playtime with our son, the bedtime.
Saturday morning is father and son bonding time, so Mommy can snooze a bit, then family time and home-cooked lunch. Sometimes we will go to the nearest mall. Evening is for Church, and sometimes, date night for Mommy and Daddy after Michael goes to bed. Sometimes we order takeouts for Saturday night dinner.
Sunday mornind is going to the park then having brunch. Sunday evening is dinner time at home with homemade cooking.
 
As you can see, we only eat out pretty much twice a week: Saturday evening and Sunday brunch. Sometimes we would order food more when we don't have time to cook, but not too often.
 
So we are trying something new this month, just to keep things fresh and not boring. We are playing tourist in our own neighborhood! Instead of heading downtown for datenights, we would try restaurants that we have not tried yet in our neighborhood.
 
For example, last Saturday after Church, we dropped Michael home then headed out to a steak restaurant just five minutes from our house. We had passed the restaurant hundreds of time, and always mentioned that we should give it a try, but we never did until last Saturday. It was a bit expensive. Well, beef is expensive, and steak is made of a big chunk of beef patty! We don't eat beef often, usually we eat just chicken, so it's a rare treat. A yummy, delicious, unhealthy treat. After steak we still had some space for dessert, so we went next door and bought one portion of sweet "martabak" - a pancake life cake with thick chocolate fillings inside, with lots of butter and condensed milk. Talk about clogging one's artery! We made sure to drink green tea afterward, as well as had meatless dinner the next day to compensate, as well as to assuage our guilt.
 
 
 
In our neighborhood, we have streets practically lined with restaurants, so we decided to try out one new restaurant every Sunday for brunch. We took Michael with us so he could be with Mommy and Daddy as well as trying out new food. Of course, he still had his own lunch after we got home, but at least he experience something new for his palate every week!
 
 
 
Michael is quite a suspicious little fellow. In order for him to try out new food, usually I will have to tell him, "Just taste a little bite. See if you like it, if you don't, you don't have to finish it all." From his expression on the second picture, I guess he liked the fried shrimp meatball that we gave him!
 
 
 
 
 
Lessen our household trash
 
Have you ever wondered where your family trash would finally end up? Most often, in the landfill or the ocean. I am the kind who brings my own bag when I go shopping and try to repurpose everything instead of buying new stuffs. Still, I want to do more for the environment and the future generation. Afterall, we only have one planet (currently) to live, so I don't want a trash-filled planet as my legacy for my children's children. We are the steward of this beautiful planet Earth given to us by God, and we should take a good care of it.
 
Some time ago, I watched a YouTube clip about Bea Johnson and her zero-waste family. She only buy things with no packaging, cook from scratch, and brings her own jars and cloth bags for grocery shopping. It's quite inspiring. I don't think I would ever reach her zero-waste level, especially since here in Indonesia, it's not possible yet to bring your own mason jar to buy meat at the supermarket. Here, donating and recycling is not as simple as dropping off loads of stuff to the nearest shelter or Goodwill or recyling facilities.
 
However, one day I stumbled upon the information on the internet that there's a huge recycling facility in a near neighborhood of mine. They are of reputable charity foundation, which is very important because there are many cases where some people would buy used plastic bottles from different brands, fill it up with random products and resell them! They also are willing to do a regular pick up to my neighborhood to collect recycleable trash like plastic, paper, etc.
 
So I took out a huge bin out of the garage, cleaned it out, and used it to store my dry trash pile, ready for pick up day. I tossed in Michael's formula cardboard boxes, softlens solution packaging, packaging of numerous products, used plastic bottles, etc.
 
I believe that reduce our consumption is the winner answer for environment problem. Recyling is number two. Still, at least we are doing what we can.
 
 
I'm linking up to these wonderful Ladies:

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4 comments:

aspiritofsimplicity said...

Your son and husband look very cute. I bring my own bags to the market and I recycle as well. I try to buy things in bulk and bring my own container but that isn't always possible. Often, I unwrap things at the store and leave what can't be recycled in their trash. I live on the beach and see so much trash washing up. Lots and lots of water bottles and "to go" containers. It's a shame because it is so easy to bring something from home.

June 23, 2015 at 6:28 PM
Bonnie Lyn Smith said...

It was lovely discovering your blog site for the first time and meeting your family. :) I enjoyed reading the part about recycling and reducing trash and the restaurants. Blessings to you from Espressos of Faith via #FellowshipFriday!

June 26, 2015 at 2:15 PM
Jas @ All that's Jas said...

That's just so adorable!Who says only moms and girls can dress alike? Thank you for sharing at Thursday Favorite Things!

June 27, 2015 at 10:44 PM
LV said...

What you wear to church is not as importing as going and worshiping.

June 28, 2015 at 12:09 AM

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