A Family Again

Porter just finished training to be a CNA (certified nursing assistant). It should be a *lot* easier to find work now, since there is pretty much always a need for CNAs. Not too many people want to clean up after people who can't take themselves to the toilet.

So today started off kind of slow, at 7:30am, because Aftasie woke us up. Porter made breakfast and coffee, and then we got ready for the day and worked on some projects and then he took Aftasie out with him to do errands. I have so missed having time like this. We have been very privileged to have plenty of time as a family. I shouldn't say "privileged" as in it was just a random occurrence. We've chosen not to pursue jobs that would require us to be spending long hours at a job. We have chosen to live with a lot less than we could have. It is true that the no-work situation lately is not one I would have chosen, but it's worked out OK nonetheless. Also, we are in a unique time where I spend all of my time at a "job" that I don't get paid to do -- school, and of course lately Porter has been in school as well. It will be much easier to maintain a part-time working schedule and do OK financially when we can both contribute to the money-making.

I was musing on all of the things we already do simply. Porter is practically a minimalist. I have always been amazed at his small collection of possessions. Things I would have had a *really* hard time parting with he seems to be able to look at rationally. Case in point, when I got married he had a super-cool vacuum coffee maker. I complained about it once I started working early in the mornings because it takes a little longer than a drip pot. So he found a really nice drip coffee maker at the thrift store and he just got rid of the vacuum pot. Just GOT RID OF IT. I was so shocked. Even now I feel sentimental over it. It was such a neat way to brew coffee and, well, I still feel nostalgic for it and I hadn't even been acquainted with it as long as he had. But what were we going to do with two coffee makers, especially in our tiny studio? Sigh.

Another thing coffee related is that we own a Moka pot. It is a small pot that can be used to make a type of espresso-like coffee (the pressure is not near what a commercial machine could produce). I had gotten a biggish espresso maker at a yard sale for $4, which I was pretty proud of. But then I found the Moka pot at a thrift store, which I had been looking for for a long time, so I  snatched it up. It took a little while to realize that we didn't need both, and I decided on the Moka pot because I love them so much. One more thing I could add to the coffee collection is a milk steamer, but I don't know how I feel about that. I haven't really researched how big they are. But it would be very awesome to be able to froth/steam milk at home and make our own lattes. EDIT: I did some research and I think there might be ways to froth milk that don't involve a device, such as this method. I drank all of the coffee in the pot but I might have to make some more and try this!

But enough about coffee! Other things I feel are simple that we do is we have no debt other than my student debt (boohoo), we have no TV (and obviously no cable/satellite), no car payments, we make our own beer, cider, and some wine, and Porter makes marvelous bread. *Marvelous.* We have been planning on getting rid of the internet at home for a good long while now, but we've had a contract that would have been very expensive to break. It will be up in about a month and then it's going bye bye. It seems as though it'd be easier to get my homework done with internet access at home, except for the fact that I get a lot more done when I am focused. A distraction-free internet environment is available 2 blocks away at school. And there is no comparison when you compare the time I spend wasting online at home with the internet vs the time I could have been spending at school doing homework and getting things done.

I am feeling very optimistic about having to spend less time with my possessions during the school year. I just need to figure out a good system of keeping school stuff organized, both my papers and whatnot and also all of the tasks to do. I haven't missed any assignments yet but I tend to procrastinate when I can. I also tend to just be doing homework ALL of the time. I need to concentrate the homework time so I can just take time off and hang out with my family and not always be fretting about the paper I was supposed to have been working on all week.