If you missed the first part of our leaving Alaska moving story, go read it here first: From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 1}.

From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2}

We had some rough days and prayed a lot. Tensions were high. We almost got hit by two different cars in two different incidents that were way too close not to ponder. I was driving to the grocery store to pick up some extra packing tape for the boxes and I was praying the whole way.

Above, a photo of a poster I had hanging in my office in Alaska.  It’s a replica of the poster Fox Mulder had hanging in his office in the television show The X Files.  The poster shows a UFO and says, “I Want to Believe”.

I asked God why things all seemed to be going wrong. I asked Him if we were really going to lose everything. I told Him that I trusted Him, but couldn’t see how any of this was going to work out because every part of our situation was broken. I prayed for an answer of where we were moving to. Where were we going? Was there going to be a job for my husband to go to? Would our house sell or go into foreclosure? Nothing which had seemed right had worked out so far. I questioned where things were headed with my family and my life.

And lastly, I asked God why both of those accidents which surely would have totaled our car and taken our lives happened and were prevented by Him in such close proximity to each other. Why did they happen and why now?

I felt low, helpless, and out of control, but I still waited on God’s time. I think He knows those moments when we feel anguish from every direction and need to hear Him.

I Want to Believe

I was still praying the final words of my prayer and pulling into the parking lot, when I got a strong feeling to change the radio station. I always listen to one of two Christian stations, KLove and Air1, so turning it to a non-Christian station was a big stretch for me. But I was obedient and changed the channel, and a song started right away called “Golden Years” by David Bowie. I parked and listened intently and knew immediately that this was not just a chance song on the radio. This was God answering me in the supernatural way that only He can!

The words:

Golden years, golden years
Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel
Come get up my baby
Look at that sky, life’s begun
Nights are warm and the days are young
Come get up my baby
There’s my baby, lost that’s all
Once I’m begging you save her little soul
Golden years, golden years

Come get up my baby
Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings, angel
Come get up my baby
In walked luck and you looked in time
Never look back, walk tall, act fine
Come get up my baby
I’ll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

Just when I realized that all the lyrics to the song were God answering my very questions from this prayer, I was so amazed and instantly felt tears on my cheeks. The next line was:

Don’t cry my sweet, don’t break my heart

That gave all new meaning to the phrase God’s timing is perfect! He even knew the exact second it would make me cry.

Doing all right, but you gotta get smart
Wish upon, wish upon, day upon day, I believe oh Lord
I believe all the way
Come get up my baby

I’ll stick with you baby for a thousand years
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

I realized that while I said I had patience on God, I wasn’t showing it.  While I said I believed He was in control, my worry didn’t show that I believed “all the way”.  The words in the song “I believe all the way” made me feel so foolish for not having the complete trust in God’s plans that I thought I had! 

Even more than that, God had answered my questions about what was going to happen.  “Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years,” He said.  Then, it all came true. 

Stay tuned for part 3 of From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska.

We’ve been gearing up for our minimalist move for months, now, and it’s finally complete!  We’re now at home in sunny Los Angeles, California, but the move was by no means quick or easy.  Luckily I’ve been taking notes and pictures throughout the whole process so I could share the story of our Escape From Alaska to California!

The first part of our story was the Minimalist Move, which was a transformational experience in itself.  The process was so emotional that my husband asked me to write about it so that we would remember the way it felt later.  If you missed any of the Minimalist Move story, start here:

• {Mobile Lifestyle} There’s No Place Like Home, But…
• Minimalist Move – Still Going Strong
• Minimalist Move: I’m in Agony As I Separate Myself From Stuff
• Minimalist Move Day 52: Happy Birthday to Me!
• Minimalist Move Day 58: The Final Load For Charity
• Minimalist Move Day 66: Digging Deep For More Donations
• Minimalist Move Day 68: The Mountain of Boxes of Papers

Our story of Leaving Alaska is really a huge testimony to how God’s plan for us all is so much more infinite and detailed than we could ever imagine, and how closely each part of it hinges on every other part.

We knew we had to sell our house months ago when my husband was laid off from his job of 11 years.  He started putting in applications all over the country and we went minimalist to get our house ready for sale and us ready to move out of Alaska (something we’d both wanted to do for a long time).

Every day we sold and donated more and more until almost nothing was left.  We enjoyed our last night in the nursery before the baby furniture was picked up by the buyers from Craigslist.  Seven and Prynne each got turns for a final rock with mommy before bedtime, and daddy taped a farewell video.

We had the final moving sale:

We put our house up for sale, sold our 2nd car, and waited.  The second day the house was for sale, we got a call from our realtor that she was going to show it to a prospective buyer.

A few showings came and went, a few job interviews came and went.  The job he was most excited about (not to mention any names, but their headquarters are in Redmond, WA) interviewed him,  offered him the job, and then before sending the contract by email, changed their mind!  Back to square one.

Next, my husband got a call to fly to Seattle for a 2nd interview with a different company for a tech job.  We knew we only had the budget for one face-to-face interview, since we had to pay for the trip ourselves, and we hoped this was the one!  We also had to pay for $2,000 of our house sale at closing, since we only owned the house for one year.  All the money considerations were tightly linked and had no room for variation from my moving budget.

The interviewer gave Michael the impression that this was the final meeting with the rest of the staff before they offered him the job.  He went, they said good things, and he flew back home.  We assumed we were moving to Seattle and started making plans.  Days went by.  No word.  More days went by.  Michael finally called them to follow up and found out that they just didn’t feel strongly enough about his interview and decided not to hire him!

Back to square one again, but this time there was an offer on our house.  No job or new home to move to, and the house offer couldn’t possibly work because it had us paying for all of their closing costs and many other expenses that we couldn’t afford.

On top of that we were waiting to hear back from our accountant about our tax return.  Would we owe $10,000 or $20?  Would we get money back?  Until we got that important phone call, we would have no idea what our financial situation for the move really was.

The direction our journey turned next was so unexpected that if it was written into a movie, no one would think it was believable!  Next, read From Frozen Years to Golden Years: Leaving Alaska {Part 2}.

If you collect Disney Movie Rewards points, there’s a deal that will score you up to 400 Disney reward points!  When you see the new DisneyNature movie, Chimpanzee, which opens tomorrow, April 20, 2012, make sure you save your ticket stubs.  You’ll get 100 points per ticket stub, up to 400 points maximum.

Here’s how to redeem your ticket stubs from Chimpanzee for Disney Movie Rewards points:

1. Save your ticket stubs from Chimpanzee.
2. Sign into your Disney Movie Rewards account.
3. Click on “redeem movie tickets”.
4. Choose your movie and number of tickets.

Hurry because the double points are only available for opening week and you must log in your tickets before 4/30/12 at midnight.

Photo credit: Screenshot disneymovierewards.go.com.  Love Deals? Subscribe so you don’t miss our money saving deals!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Pregnant moms will love these buy 1 get 1 free deals at Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, and Destination Maternity.  The BOGO applies to all clearance items!  Click the links below to grab these

• Buy One Get One Free on all clearance items at Motherhood Maternity!Valid April 16-18, 2012.
• Buy One Get One Free on all clearance items at A Pea in the Pod! Valid April 16-18, 2012.
• Buy One Get One Free on all clearance items at Destination Maternity! Valid April 16-18, 2012.

Love Deals? Subscribe so you don’t miss our money saving deals!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Welcome visitors from the Ultimate Blog Party 2012!  Bookmark this page now so you can come back later during the party.

Get our free RSS subscription or free email updates now so you never miss out on any tips on homemaking, saving money, frugal living, minimalist lifestyle, cooking,  and much more!  Please leave us a comment below to say hi before you leave.  Want to write for us? Submit your guest post here.

What is Home Ever After?

HomeEverAfter.com is an online magazine that strives to be the most comprehensive home and how-to resource online, filled with expert tips, tricks, life hacks, checklists, how-to articles, and personal development tools to help you along the way.  

Danelle Ice is a proud wife and work at home mom of 3 kids under age 4.  When she’s not blogging, she is a social media consultant, Christian minister, and frugal homemaker. She and her husband, Michael, live in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. 

Want a Tour?  Go to the Beginner’s Guide Now!

The Beginner’s Guide will show you what types of articles you’ll find here.  Or, see some popular articles below.

Food & Kitchen: 

• Top 8 Frugal Cooking Ingredients
• 22 unusual things you can wash in the dishwasher
• Stretch Ground Meat with Frugal Fillers

Frugal Living:

• How to Save Money by Getting Almost Everything for Free
• Top Things to Stop Paying For Now!
• Easy ways to Save on Groceries

Home & Housekeeping:

• Cleaning tasks that take less than 1 minute
• 13 Things You Haven’t Cleaned in 6 Months
• How to Set Up a Housekeeping Plan
• Printable Bathroom cleaning checklist and Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
• The Donation Station and The Return Station
• How to Organize a First Aid Box

Family & Kids:

• How to Get Things Done When You Have a Baby: A practical parent’s guide
• 11 free Family Bonding Activities to do in 30 minutes or less
• 17 Back to School supplies to use from last year

Mommy Style:

• Don’t Look Like a Tired Mom: 13 Quick Mini Makeovers
• 8 Quick Rules to Grow Up Your Wardrobe

Thanks for coming by!  Now it’s time to get back to the party and visit some other new friends.

What is Ultimate Blog Party?  The Ultimate Blog Party is an online blog party running from April 13-20, 2012. Check out other Mom websites participating in the blog party by visiting the 5 Minutes 4 Mom site. 

Pink photo taken by Hans Vink.

Frugalistas and super savers will love our magazine deals today.  We have 3 specials on Budget Travel, Whole Living, and Shape magazines.  Minimalists like me will love the discount on the Budget Travel magazine subscription, because with all that clutter gone, you’ll have more time to go on your dream vacations!

	$4.79 for 1 year:   Take an Additional 60% Off Budget Travel Magazine – Use Coupon Code BUDGET During Checkout
	$3.76 for 1 year: Take an Additional 20% Off Whole Living / Shape Magazine(s) – Use Coupon Code WKLYSPEC During Checkout

Magazine Subscription Coupon Codes

• Take An Additional 15% Off at Best Deal Magazines. Enter Coupon Code PXSS0429 During Checkout
• $5 off $30 at Best Deal Magazines. Enter Coupon Code MNDSS0429 During Checkout
• $7.50 off $40 at Best Deal Magazines. Enter Coupon Code MQQSS0429 During Checkout
• $10 off $50 at Best Deal Magazines. Enter Coupon Code MQPSS0429 During Checkout
• $15 off $70 at Best Deal Magazines. Enter Coupon Code MTKSS0429 During Checkout

Love Deals? Subscribe so you don’t miss our money saving deals!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Everyday Family has awesome baby freebies and coupons.  These are great baby free goodies for parents and expecting parents!  Maybe you even have a sister or granddaughter who is expecting a baby.  These freebies will definitely help out.

You can expect to get free formula samples, diaper coupons, baby magazines, deals on baby products, and more.  And best of all- it’s free to sign up for Everyday Family!

Click here to get your free baby stuff from Everyday Family.

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Home Ever After always has your fantastic savings for Macy’s Department Store, including Macy’s 1 Day Sales, Columbus Day sale, Macy’s Friends & Family sale coupons, Macy’s Mother’s Day sale, Macy’s Black Friday sale, and much more.

Macy’s Promo Codes: If you love getting easy discounts online, then we’ve got just the answer with out Macy’s deals and free shipping offers for you. It’s never too early to get a head start on holiday or birthday shopping by watching out for great sales and coupon codes to use for your toy shopping.

Macy’s Sale Coupons, Codes and Deals – Valid as of 4/13/12

• Save an Extra 20% or 15% Off at the Men’s Wardrobe Sale at macys.com! Offer valid 4/11-4/15
• Save on Faves – Extra 15% Off at macys.com! Offer valid 4/11-4/15
• Save 50% Off Martha Stewart Cookware at macys.com! Offer valid 4/20-4/22
• Buy 2 Bras, Get 1 Free + Extra 20% Off with Promo Code: BEST at the Lingerie Sale at macys.com! Offer valid 4/20-4/22
• $249.99 for the Keurig Vue Single-Use Serve Coffee Maker at macys.com! Offer valid 4/20-4/22
• Free Gift of philosophy amazing grace shower gel with $35 philosophy purchase at macys.com! Offer valid 4/16-4/22
• Save 20-35% at the Men’s Levi’s Sale! Get Levi’s 514 Jeans for $39.99 at macys.com! Offer valid 4/16-4/29
• 

Click the coupons below to print your Macy’s Wow!Pass savings pass coupons for the upcoming Macy’s sales.  The Macy’s  15% off Wow!Pass is below (only one coupon per customer).  This Macy’s Wow!Pass expires Sunday, April 15, 2012.

Upcoming Macy’s Sales

Macy’s Friends & Family Sale coupons: This great offer means they give the Macy’s employee discount to anyone using this special coupon! The coupon is redeemable in stores and online at Macys.com. We’ll post the Friends & Family coupons as soon as they’re available.

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Shoe deals are the best way to score high quality shoes for your family without going over your shopping budget.  We found a great deal from Rockport Shoes that will allow you to get 20% off your next purchase. 

All you have to do is join the Rockport family list (it’s free!) to get money saving offers and your 20% off coupon.   

Love Deals? Subscribe so you don’t miss our money saving deals!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

If you haven’t gotten your free sign up for Daily Worth before now, go now! 

Daily Worth is a free money saving email that helps women get a handle on spending, earning, and tips and tricks to turn you into a saver (which we love)!

Click here to get your free DailyWorth.

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

With tax day approaching quickly (April 17, 2012), we have 2 ways for you to get your federal taxes done for free.  You can file your taxes free with H&R Block or file your taxes free with TurboTax.

Click on the block below to choose H&R Block.  This free tax deal ends tonight (4/13) at midnight Central Time.  (Federal return is free, state is an additional fee.)

You could also choose to get your free tax return from TurboTax.   Click that link of the picture below to get started.  Hurry, because the TurboTax free tax deal also ends tonight (4/13) at midnight Central Time!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Redbox Free Movie Monday Promo Codes: Join the Redbox text club by clicking here and get a Redbox promo code for a free rental the 1st Monday of each month.

If you love getting things for free, especially free movie rentals, we’ve got some free Redbox DVD rental promo codes just for you! This is a perfect way to have a quality family movie night and still keep things easy on the budget. We’ve also got a list of the new releases at Redbox today.

When planning to use these free DVD rental Redbox promo codes, keep in mind that not all Redbox codes work all the time or at all Redbox machines.  As far as we know, these codes are working as of April 12, 2012.  If you have Redbox promo codes that we don’t have listed, please leave them in the comments section below and we’ll add them.

First time renting from Redbox? Click on this link and they’ll give you a free 1 night Redbox rental credit (plus they’ll give me a free rental too if you reserve your movie with my link – isn’t Redbox great?!).

Redbox Freebie: Get a free 1 night rental when you reserve your first DVD online.  Get details here.

Win a year of free Redbox movies by texting your entry! Details here.

Get $5 back on Redbox when you spend $5 or more (with American Express). Details here.

Redbox Promo Codes for Any Location – Valid as of 4/12/12

• REDBOX (new customers only)
• DVDONME
• BREAKROOM

Redbox Promo Codes for Specific Locations – Valid as of 4/12/12

• DVDATWAG (works at Walgreens only)

Possibly Expired Redbox Promo Codes

• DVDATWAL (Removed 4/12/12)
• DVDKROG
• DVDONUS
• DVDATKROGER
• DVDATWEG
• RENT225

Expired Redbox Codes

NVMCDBR, TWR73W5, REDBOXNOW, 12345, GKWZ4WH, W3V6X32, DF7E3OW

Redbox New Releases for February 10, 2012

Eager to use your free redbox codes for some free rentals for a movie night?  Here are some of the new release movies you’ll find in a Redbox machine right now on Blu-Ray and DVD.

• The descendants
• Iron lady
• The darkest hour
• Pastorela
• Caught inside
• Goobers
• Goodnight for justice
• The heir apparent: largo winch
• Recoil
• The Saints of Mt. Christopher
• Seeker and fetch
• Street poet
• The terror experiment
• Immortals
• War horse
• Extremely loud and incredibly close

Here are the new release games for Xbox, Wii and PS3 available at Redbox kiosks this month:

• Grease
• Club penguin: game day
• Disney universe
• Tiger Woods PGA tour

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when affiliate links are used.

Ever since they released their new product, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter cooking and baking sticks, a few years ago, the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons have been in high demand!

Don’t worry, we still have money saving I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter printable coupons for you to print and use!

High Value I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Printable Coupon

This I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupon for $1.25 off any I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter product is hot hot hot, so print it now before the coupon disappears! Click on the printable grocery coupon below to get yours now:

$1.25 off one ICBINB! product GET COUPON

If you know of links for any other I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons, please let us know in the comments and we’ll add them to our constantly updated full list of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons.

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Frugal parents like us love to save money on our baby essentials.  Here are a few Pampers coupons and Huggies coupons to get you started.

Below are fantastic printable baby coupons:  save $.75 off Pampers wipes coupon, save $3 off 2 Huggies little movers slip on diapers coupon, save $1.50 off Pampers Swaddlers diapers coupon, and save $1.50 off Pampers Cruisers or Baby Dry diapers coupon.  Click on each coupon below to print it. 

$0.75 off ONE Pampers Wipes 60 ct or larger GET COUPON

$3.00 off TWO HUGGIES Little Movers Slip-On GET COUPON

$1.50 off ONE Pampers Swaddlers Diapers GET COUPON

$1.50 off ONE Pampers Cruisers or Baby Dry Diapers GET COUPON

Love free stuff?  ~  All free samples & coupons  ~

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

We’re back with spring freebies for you!  These 4 hot freebies available from Freeflys won’t last long, so get yours fast!

Free sample of Sebamed® liquid face & body wash
Free sample of Seattle’s Best Coffee
Free sample of Zevia® All Natural Soda
Free Artisan Pizza from Domino’s

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons are one of our most requested coupon brands out of everything we share.  So, it’s my pleasure to have a high value I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter printable coupon for you!

Right now we have the following I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons:

• ($1.25) $1.50 off any I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter product

Printable Grocery Coupons for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter

Be sure to check back frequently to see if we’ve added any more I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons to the full list of Home Ever After coupons.

Click on the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupon below to print:

$1.25 off one ICBINB! product GET COUPON

From the time machine: We originally published our Printable Coupons: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter post on June 23, 2008, when the great folks at Unilever (makers of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter) contacted me with a special offer for our readers for the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter “Vote Spraychel” campaign.

The Spraychel 50 cents off printable grocery coupon for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter original spray product went like hot cakes!  4 years later, we still do our best to scour the internet to keep the I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons coming for you!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

The winner of the drawing for our Miracle Grow sample giveaway is…

#2 – Kim

Congratulations!  Thanks to everyone who entered this awesome giveaway to try the new Miracle Gro® Expand ‘n Gro ™ product. 

Part of my job as one of the 4 AMD Tech Moms is testing out the latest in affordable technology.  What these breakthroughs mean for us as moms is that we get to buy less expensive laptops and computers for our families that do more than ever before. 

This month I tried out the HP Pavilion dv6 A8 with an AMD quad core processor.  The Amazon price is $599.99, and for a new family laptop or even a media center for your TV and movie streaming, the HP Pavilion dv6 is a reasonably price machine with lots of bang for the buck.

Since it has Beats Audio, which is a premium sound system, I thought it would be perfect to test out the HP Pavilion dv6 as our media machine for watching Hulu and playing DVDs.  The sound quality is amazing!  If you’ve been watching TV on a regular laptop with built in speakers or even plugged in to a set of mini speakers, you’ll be in for a big surprise in the sound difference.  The speaker  bar which goes across the entire machine provides sound all the way across, not just from a few small points.  I had a great time streaming my favorite shows (like Grimm and Once Upon a Time) on this power-packed laptop!

HP Pavilion dv6: Tech Specs

Here are the hardware specifications for the HP Pavilion dv6-6c35dx with Beats Audio that I tested:

• Size -  1.4” high, 14.9” wide, 9.7” thick
• Weight – 6 pounds
• Processor - AMD A8-Series running at 1.6GHz (with Turbo CORE up to 2.5GHz).   Cache on CPU: 4MB.
• RAM - 6 GB in 2 banks.   Maximum RAM supported is 16GB. using a Corsair 16GB memory kit.   RAM type: DDR3 SDRAM 
• Display -  15.6” High-definition widescreen LED-backlit with BrightView technology (1366 x 768).  Video card: AMD Radeon HD 6620G discrete-class.   Video RAM: Maximum of 3061MB.
• Drives – 640GB hard drive &  DVD±RW/CD-RW
• Battery -  Up to 6 hours
• Networking - 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet (Wired) LAN,  Wireless Networking B/G/N
• Mouse - Touchpad with on/off button and illuminated LED border
• Cameras - Webcam on laptop display
• USB - 2 USB 3.0 ports, and 2 more USB 2.0
• HDMI - HDMI Output
• Digital Media Reader – Accepts SD, SDxC, SDHC, and MMC – you can easily add a 32GB SD card or even a 128 GB memory card.
• Sound - Beats Audio by Dr. Dre, 2 speakers at back of keyboard, then 2 more “beats” speakers on front panel (under keyboard), and dual headphone jacks.

We like to run our AMD powered laptops by our computer guy (my husband), tech blogger Michael Simmons from I Love PowerShell and Petri IT Knowledgebase.  No big surprise, he loved the Beats Audio too!  He also had some other input that might come in handy if you’re considering upgrading your family to an HP Pavilion dv6.

HP Pavilion dv6: The Good

Hardware:  Here are some of the hardware features that I really appreciated with this model.

• The fingerprint reader worked flawlessly. I have had fingerprint readers before that I had to swipe my finger over repeatedly before it worked. This reader never told me “too fast”, “too slow” or any other excuse.
• The keyboard is big enough to have a number pad that isn’t laid over the top of the letters.
• Beats audio – the sound is great coming out of the speakers, and the dual headphone jacks is really cool.
• Great screen – big enough display
• Expandability – 6GB of RAM is really good enough for what I’m doing most of the time. But I really like the ability to go to 16GB, and the SDxC card compatibility has cards available now that add 128GB of storage for a reasonable amount.

Software:  The software that comes with this HP Pavilion dv6 A8 was  typical of what you get on new computers.  Included were trial versions of Norton anti-virus, Office Starter (which is limited functionality and ad-supported), Skype, Acrobat Reader, and Evernote.

There was also several pieces of HP software that came with the HP dv6 with beats audio: HP Launch Box Manager, HP SimplePass, and HP MovieStore.

Evernote is very nice. It’s not OneNote, but it’s close. I can see why people that haven’t already become dependent on OneNote (as I am) take to it.

I also really liked the HP SafePass, which is the utility for saving passwords and fingerprint login information. It makes saving passwords really easy and still safe. I can now tell my browser to not save my password, because I can just swipe my fingers. It also includes password entries for about 50 different web services that you can assign to specific fingers. For instance, you can assign your Twitter login to your pinky, and your banking credentials to your index finger.

I also enjoyed the Beats Audio software, which adds a lot of control, including a graphic equalizer, and different settings based on whether you’re listening using the speakers or a headset.

HP Pavilion dv6: The Bad

Hardware:  There were a couple things that I think an entertainment computer needs. The stickers on it say “HP premier experience” and “Entertainment PC”. So if it’s the premier entertainment experience, it needs a couple more things:

• Blu-Ray player
• TV Tuner, even if it’s a USB TV Tuner
• Bluetooth 

Software:  There were some links in the HP Pavilion dv6 software that I didn’t find useful. There is a link to RaRa music, which gives you a free trial for 14 days, and then after which you subscribe to get unlimited streaming music on your PC or your Android device. But if you’re going to pay for a subscription, you should get spotify, which has mobile apps for every platform.

You could also get a Zune pass (especially if you’re a Windows Phone user) which lets you unlimited stream AND gives you 10 mp3 downloads/month that you always get to keep.  Otherwise, there’s plenty of free music streaming services – like grooveshark (unlimited streaming for free) and Pandora (internet radio).

I was excited to see a link to Zya music on the desktop.  Zya music is a platform for creating music. I was all set to sign up until I read the terms.  By signing up, you give the makers of Zya music a free, resellable license to any music you create.

You have to agree that you’re just making it for fun and that you will never make any money off of it. The bad part is that you also agree that you have no rights to the music you create, and they do. They can make money off of it, and they can sell it to anyone else.  So I didn’t try Zya music.

HP Pavilion dv6: Take It or Leave It

The hardware on this system is really solid. Of course there are more powerful laptops out there. Still, for a laptop that is around $600, and comes with a full warranty, this laptop is pretty amazing.

If you need a new laptop and one of your needs include listening to music, watching TV online or streaming movies, then the HP dv6 with beats audio is a really fun, well performing computer.

–

Disclaimer: This article has material connections. IS World Media (ISWM) received no fees for the writing or publication of this article. An HP Pavilion dv6 laptop was provided to ISWM at no cost by AMD to facilitate the review process.  Disclosure about my relationship with AMD is here. This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that ISWM receives compensation when my referral links are used.

It’s Minimalist Move day 68, and I’m on to the enormous step of digitizing paper.  The one thing that lasted through all of our previous trash / give away / donate rounds during the minimalist move is the mountain of boxes of papers. 

Tax records, receipts, kids’ artwork, scrapbook mementos, prize ribbons from the state fair…  you get the idea.  I gathered up all the paper and put it in banker boxes, neatly stacked into a mountain in my office for this fine photo:

It may not look like much in the photo, but keep in mind that there is over 300 pounds worth of just paper in these boxes, paper that we will have to pay to ship.  Not only that, but most of these papers we don’t even want!  The good news is that almost everything can be digitized by scanning or taking digital photos of the items.

There are still these items remaining:  11 banker boxes of papers, 1 storage bin of memorabilia, 2 sorting bins of papers, and 1 decorative box full of photos (portraits mostly).  The huge box of photos were already scanned and thrown away (a project that took me 2 days), so they’re not shown in the photo below.

Today, I’m starting the digitize step and my perfect-world estimate is that I can finish it today. Realistically, I know it may take 4-6 days to complete the scanning and sorting. 

Minimalist Paperwork & Photos Goals

I would like to have no more than 1 box of papers and photos left.

I am okay with having 2 boxes left.

Anything more than 2 boxes terrifies me.

This step takes longer than many other things because every piece of paper has to be handled, scanned or photographed, and then discarded.  The throw away phase is time consuming too, because some papers can go in the trash, while others have to be separated out for shredding because of financial, tax, or personal information on them.

Wish me luck in this process and I’ll give you a full update (including before and after pictures) when the paper has been digitized!

Can you get started on your minimalist journey with a mini digitizing project today?  How about scanning all of last year’s kid artwork and then letting it go gently to the trash can?  Let me know how you do in the comments!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

This giveaway is closed.  Stay tuned for the winner announcement!

I tried the new Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated planting mix to get revved up for spring gardening and it sure has me crossing my fingers for warmer weather to hurry up! We’re giving away a sample of the Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ so you can jumpstart your spring gardening. Read on to find out how to enter!

The Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ can be used inside or outside (I used mine inside since our outdoors is still covered in 3 feet of snow here in Alaska). Especially living in a state with a shorter growing season, I don’t know any gardening enthusiast who would want to use a planting mix that says it can change your soil into an ideal growing environment. The bigger crop will definitely be appreciated as you get more results from your investment of time!

It was fascinating to watch the Expand ‘n Gro™ absorb the water we added and then expand! Normally, you fill your pots with potting soil, then add water, which tends to compact your soil and shrink it. Instead of packing the soil down, the Expand ‘n Gro™ expanded the soil to 3 times its original size.

My husband and I tried the Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ out in indoor pots. It has the plant food already built in for 6 months. The texture and consistency is like dry sawdust that is very rooty (this must be due to the coconut coir that makes up its fibers). It’s super lightweight (which means no more lugging heavy bags of potting soil off the shelves and into your shopping cart at the store) and can be stored in less space since it will increase in size once water is added.

The coir also helps your plants to enough moisture and air and to prevent over watering or under watering your plants.

Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ also holds 50% more water than other potting soil, so that it’s natural fibers lock in moisture and save you from having to water your garden or potted plants as often.

You can try Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ for your spring garden this year by looking for it on your retailer’s shelves. You can find it at garden stores in the USA in these areas: Texas, Midwest states, Northeastern states. Or, if you primarily shop online like I do, you can purchase Expand ‘n Gro™ on Amazon. You can also enter to win a sample of this cutting edge planting mix below. Good luck!

Win Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix!

One lucky person will win a sample of Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix. This contest is open to USA shipping addresses only. By entering this contest, you agree to our Giveaway Terms and Conditions.

To Enter: Leave a comment on this post anytime between today and 4/2/12 at 11:59pm PST. Winner to be announced on April 3, 2012.

Disclaimer: This article has material connections. Miracle-Gro® provided a sample and a prize to facilitate the review and giveaway process.

Just when we thought there wasn’t anything left to declutter during our minimalist journey, we found we had to dig deep and pass along more stuff to our favorite charities and to the local reuse station.  It’s amazing how fast one can fill up a minivan when there’s “practically nothing” left in the house! 

Here are some pictures of the van full before I left to donate it all.  After the photos were taken, I filled up the vehicle even more!

As you know, my family and I have recently gone minimalist, and in the process we gave away most of our books and replaced them with digital copies of Kindle eBooks.  The next logical step was to have a tablet or reader so we weren’t always having to read books on our computers with Kindle for PC.

I was really happy to test out a new tablet for AMD because it came at just the right time in our minimalist conversion.  The Acer Iconia Tab w500 is like a hybrid between a tablet and a laptop, since it detaches from its keyboard!  So for tablet use, you can use the touch screen as a hand-held device, and for laptop use, you can hook them together and set it up on your desk.  Plus, it’s got an AMD C-50 dual core processor.  It’s the best of both worlds!

The Iconia Tab from Acer is a slick little tablet PC. It runs a full version of Windows 7, so it is more like a touch screen enabled notebook than a tablet. The screen has a bright display, a wide viewing angle, and is multi touch enabled.

Mom blogger:  For a blogger like myself, I was very happy with the fact that it has 2 webcams (forward facing and rear facing) so that you can record yourself more easily!  This has been a real roadblock for me on my handheld video cameras and Windows Phone video camera, because I had to ask someone else to video tape me covering events at conferences or for clients.  With 2 directional recording on the Acer Iconia Tab, I won’t have to worry about that anymore!

Kid use:  Am I going to let me kids use this tablet as a e-reader for their books? Not a chance! They’ll be using a less sophisticated (and less expensive) reader until they’re older and more responsible.  This new toy will be for mom and dad to use on the go.

As always, we ran all the tech specifications by our resident computer guy, tech blogger Michael Simmons from I Love PowerShell and Petri IT Knowledgebase to see if the Iconia Tab was a viable alternative to some of the older tablets that are on the market.

Iconia Tab w500: Tech Specs

The Iconia Tab W500 model I used was the BZ467 model. Here’s the specific hardware that it had:

• Size – 7.48” height, 10.83” width, 0.63” thick.
• Weight – 3.48 pounds.
• CPU – AMD C-50 Dual Core Processor. This processor has a 1 MB L2 cache, and has 2 cores running at 1GHz.
• RAM – 2GB RAM module, which is not user upgradeable.
• Video – Integrated AMD Radeon HD 6290.
• Hard Drive – 32GB Solid State drive.
• Screen – 10.1” multi-touch enabled screen.
• Keyboard – Keyboard dock comes with the tablet, plugging in with USB.
• Network – Wireless on tablet. Keyboard dock includes wired Ethernet.
• Microphones – Dual microphones for stereo recording on tablet.
• Cameras – Two webcams on tablet. One forward facing, and one rear facing.
• SIM Card – 3G SIM card slot available on back of tablet.
• USB – 2 USB slots available on the tablet. One is used by the keyboard dock, and the keyboard dock covers up the second USB on the tablet when docked. The keyboard also has 2 USB ports on it.
• HDMI – HDMI port on tablet.
• Card Reader – The card reader can read both Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC).

Iconia Tab w500: The Good

Hardware:  For hardware this small, the performance is really good. I think the biggest factors in the great performance are the solid state hard drive and the AMD C-50 processor. The C-50, which is a low-power processor designed to sacrifice some processing performance for battery life, is fast enough to do what I want to do with my tablet: web surfing, streaming video, and reading books on Kindle. The good side of having the lower powered processor is increased battery life. The Iconia Tab gets 5-6 hours of use on a single charge.

The screen is really clear. The screen also has multi-touch so you can scroll, pinch and zoom.

It’s really nice to have an Ethernet port for the cases when you need it. And I really like the ability to expand my options with adding an extra SD card or connecting to a 3G network with a 3G SIM card slot.

But the best hardware feature is the keyboard dock, which turns the tablet into a netbook. The Iconia Tab has magnets on both the tablet and the keyboard so that they stick together when placed face to face. Since the magnets are good but not enough to hold it together against much force, there’s also a latch on the keyboard dock to clip the tablet and dock together.

Lightweight:  You can easily carry this tablet around all day and not mind. It’s very lightweight at  3.48 pounds, even with the keyboard attached.

Software:  The Acer Iconia WD500-BZ467 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, and plenty of built in software came bundled with the tablet.

There is typical software that comes with most of the notebooks I’ve reviewed: Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition, antivirus software, and Adobe Reader and Skype came preloaded. There were also some Acer specific software pieces:

• SocialJogger is an Acer application that combines updates for Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr into one interface. Clear-fi is a media viewing and sharing application.
• Touch browser is a web browser with a more intuitive touch enabled interface.
• Acer Ring is a quick-access interface that pops up whenever you “grab” the touch screen with all five fingers. Once it pops up, you can navigate to all of the built in Acer applications.

It’s nice to have the control panel, Windows 7 networking, and the ability to easily print and connect to other computers in a Homegroup. It made transferring pictures, documents, and videos really easy.

Also notable:  The device control, which is a quick access utility that lets you adjust screen brightness, wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and power options.

Iconia Tab w500: The Bad

Hardware:  Overall, I had no problems with the hardware for doing functions on the Acer Iconia tablet. It was mostly responsive, and did not have “ramp up” problems that sometimes accompany less powerful processors used in tablets and netbooks. The one notable exception was just after booting up, when background programs were still loading. It was sometimes difficult to complete the login with the virtual keyboard during the first 30 seconds or so after the logon screen was presented.

Battery life and power consumption by the CPU are always a trade-off in notebooks. While the battery life is nice, it would also be nice to have more processing power. The processing power is great for being a tablet, but if the CPU was more powerful I could have used this system more like a main system. As it stands now, it isn’t a full time computer. It’s a really lightweight second computer.

Software:  The only real downside to using software on the system may be installing them from DVD. Since there is no DVD drive on the tablet or on the keyboard dock, you’ll need to get an external DVD drive if you need to either load software or burn DVDs.

Iconia Tab w500: Take It or Leave It

I really like using the Acer Iconia Tab W500-BZ467. It’s so lightweight that it’s really easy to take with you. And since it’s a full version of Microsoft Windows, there’s almost no learning curve to it. It was very easy to get on the network, share with other home computers, and get on the web without problems.

The battery life is very good, and while the hardware is not better than desktop systems or full-sized laptops, it’s not supposed to be. The hardware is just right for a tablet that wants to be a netbook half of the time.

I recommend the Acer Iconia Tab for travellers that do not need to connect to a Windows Active Directory domain for their work (there are other models that have Windows 7 Professional which can do that). The Iconia tablet is ideal for busy people that want to have one operating system for both their home computer and their travel notebook, and be able to easily share the documents, pictures, and videos between their computers.

–

Disclaimer: This article has material connections. IS World Media (ISWM) received no fees for the writing or publication of this article. An Acer Iconia Tab w500 tablet was provided to ISWM at no cost by AMD to facilitate the review process.  Disclosure about my relationship with AMD is here. This post contains affiliate links and readers may assume that HomeEverAfter.com receives compensation when my referral links are used.

Who wants to win more free food from our fantastic friends at Kraft Foods?  Kraft is providing us a terrific prize for this food giveaway: the New Year, New Products to Energize Your Day prize pack.  It includes not only great new foods to try, but also a fashionable new lunch tote as well as handy to-go lunch storage containers.

You can enter once PER DAY per person, so bookmark this page and enter every day!  The food prize pack is valued between $60 and $75 and includes the following:

• PLANTERS new Natural Peanut Butter – A nutrient-dense energy source and plant-based protein that builds on the heritage and quality of PLANTERS in a tasty and nutritious option for adults. This is the Natural Creamy No Need to Stir Peanut Butter!
• CRYSTAL LIGHT Energy On-the-Go Sticks in NEW Citrus – Helps you through the day with energy releasing B-vitamins and just enough caffeine. All for just five calories per serving. You’ll be able to try the NEW Citrus flavor that just launched, and the product is also available in Wild Strawberry, Grape and Peach Mango flavors. 
• New KRAFT MILKBITE Milk & Granola Bar (coupon for free product) – Combines real milk, calcium and granola in a convenient refrigerated bar, providing the calcium of an 8 oz. glass of milk.
• SNACKWELL’S new Peanut Butter Pretzels and new Cinnamon Crème Drizzled Caramel Popcorn – New flavors to fulfill sweet & salty tastes with unique, delicious permissible indulgences.
• New KRAFT FRESH TAKE (coupon for free product) – The perfect blend of Kraft Natural Cheese, unique spices, and breadcrumbs… all in one bag! Just mix, coat, and bake and you are on your way to a fresh and flavorful take on your favorite chicken, fish, pork, or beef recipes. Available in six flavor varieties, including Southwest Three Cheese and Italian Parmesan.
• New JET-PUFFED Mallow Bits – An innovative shaker makes adding Mallow Bits to your treats fun and playful. Currently available in Vanilla and Peppermint, Mallow Bits is sparking imaginations and creating new recipe uses across the country.
• Lunch Break Insulated Zebra-print Lunch Tote
• KLIP-IT by Sistema 14-piece Food-to-Go Storage Set

Win a Kraft Foods Energize Your Day Sampler!

You can enter once PER DAY, so enter every day! This contest is open to USA shipping addresses only. By entering this contest, you agree to our Giveaway Terms and Conditions.

To Enter: Get your daily entries in the Rafflecopter widget below between today 3/23/12 and 3/31/12 at 12:01am EST.  Winner to be announced on March 31, 2012.

Disclaimer:  This post has material connections.  IS World Media (ISWM)  is conducting this giveaway.  Kraft Foods is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to ISWM and has provided ISWM with a gift of equal value for review.  This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by ISWM.

With spring right around the corner, it’s time to get your PC, tech gear and computer workstation organized!  Join Michelle Geraty from Advanced Micro Devices, myself and the other AMD Tech Moms for a Twitter Happy Hour this Thursday (3/22/12). We’ll be discussing PC organization, tech cleaning tips and tricks and helping you choose the right laptop to kick off a new season! Join us for a chance to win a HP dv6 laptop as well as other prizes.

• What: AMD Spring Cleaning Twitter Happy Hour with AMD & AMD Tech Moms!
• When: Thursday, March 22 at 6 pm PST / 9 pm EST.
• Who: @AMDNotebook @TechSavvyMama @HomeEverAfter @LittleTechGirl @ScrappinMichele
• Where: On Twitter using the hashtag #AMDSpringClean
• Topic: Spring Cleaning and PC Organization

Prizes:

• Four $25 AMEX gift cards will be given throughout the #AMDSpringClean chat
• Grand prize: AMD-powered HP dv6 laptop

Rules to win:

• Must be following @AMDNotebook @TechSavvyMama @HomeEverAfter @LittleTechGirl @ScrappinMichele
• Gift card winners are chosen at random – each AMD Tech Mom will choose one gift card winner based on the #AMDSpringClean conversation.
• Join the #AMDSpringClean Twitter Happy Hour conversation and pay attention to @AMDNotebook tweets on March 22 to find out how to win the grand prize!

Disclosure about my relationship with AMD is here.  This article has material connections. This article is an informative public relations post written by Danelle Ice about AMD’s Twitter Happy Hour. IS World Media receives free products, compensation, and sponsorship from AMD.

Yesterday was our end of the minimalist journey moving sale.  We took all the remaining non-keeper items and filled up our living room.  We posted the sale of craigslist and watched our belongings fly out the door all day. 

Today, we stared at the remains of the moving sale and felt strangely detached from items that were so hard to give up just a few days ago!  I called my mom to come over and take whatever she wanted, which ended up only being 5 things.  She, too, is paring down, and while not going minimalist herself, she definitely understands our reasons.

My husband just loaded the final batch destined for our local charity and drove away.  I didn’t even feel any emotion as he left, I just wanted the stuff gone.  Today we will pack our remaining keep items and clean the house for the realtor to photograph tomorrow.  Take a deep breath, Danelle.  We’re almost free.

Yesterday was my birthday and it was the first minimalist birthday I’ve ever had.  I have to tell you that it was unusual to spend it all day packing, decluttering, minimalizing, and dropping off our belongings at Value Village and the reuse station.  I was giving everyone in Fairbanks presents for my birthday!

I am not done with the house yet and I feel strangely today as if I am at some kind of invisible impasse.  Maybe it’s my lack of coffee, maybe it’s my slowing down because I’ve been at this minimalist conversion so long. 

I wish I had known about Ryan and Joshua’s 21 days minimalist process before I started.  But I didn’t, and I had to muddle my way through figuring it out on my own, and I’m more than half way done.

How many items which you own did you not use today?  Or this month?  Or this year?  Can you bless a stranger by giving it to them?  Can you find a home for just 1 unused item with someone who will love it and use it all the time?  I bet you can. 

So as I take more carloads out of my house today, see if you can join me on a huge scale (going minimalist) or a small scale (decluttering a bag of items for charity) or even a tiny scale (donate 1 item).  Good luck!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Triad Retail Media. All opinions are 100% mine.

I recently got to try out the new Glade® Expressions^TM  products which have already started hitting store shelves for spring.  Plus, I’ve got a high-value $1.50 off Glade® coupon to share with you today!

I tried the new Glade® Expressions™ oil diffuser in the Pineapple & Mangosteen scent as well as the new Glade® Expressions™ fragrance mist in Cotton & Italian Mandarin.  They both are so stylish and neutral in their design that you can put them almost anywhere in your house and they fit in with your décor. 

I put the Fragrance Mist on my kitchen counter for a while, then moved it to the bathroom, where it fit nicely with my spring tulips pitcher:

I loved its modern look and scent (which was so fresh like laundry hanging on the line to dry on a warm sunny day), but would have preferred the dispenser to spray straight up into the air when squeezed instead of spraying forward.  I love that you can leave it sitting out in the house so when you walk by and happen to see it, you can just give it a little squeeze to spray.  You don’t have to pack it away the household cleaning supplies and go hunt for it when it’s time to freshen up.

Another great feature with the Fragrance Mist is that you only have to buy the dispenser once.  After it’s empty, you can purchase a refill of any Glade® Expressions^TM scent and refill it to have a little change with upcoming seasons or holidays.

The Glade® Expressions^TM Oil Diffuser has more of an Asian feel with its thin wood sides and curved walls.  Even so, the medium wood color blends with many color schemes.  We put the Oil Diffuser on the ledge in our foyer next to some potted pink spring tulips:

Some definite benefits with the Oil Diffuser are that it can’t be spilled if your kids accidentally knock it over and that it doesn’t require electricity or batteries but lasts for 30 days!  This is a great energy-saving alternative to other scent products, especially if you’re frugal with your energy consumption like I am. 

The Pineapple & Mangosteen wasn’t my favorite scent (although it was very tropical).  I think I’m probably more of a Fuji Apple & Cardamom Spice girl!

Glade® even has a fragrance satisfaction guarantee where they will refund your money if you aren’t happy with your experience.  You simply fill out this form, then mail in the UPC and original receipt within 30 days.

What are you waiting for?  Go try your new Glade® Expressions^TM now to freshen up your house for spring!  Remember to go print the  $1.50 off Glade® Expressions™ oil diffuser coupon or $1.50 off Glade® Expressions™ fragrance mist coupon (or both) before you head to Walmart to pick them up!

The picture above is a perfect capture of how I feel during my minimalist move process: Behind me is that light, airy minimalist ideal I am longing to create. It’s bright, beautiful, and has room to breathe.  Then in the way of that goal is me: dark, shadowy, and overcast with the attachment I have to these meaningless material things.

There’s no other way to say this, so I’m going to say it plainly: getting rid of your stuff is hard.  Being free of it is liberating, but getting rid of it is so painful, confusing, time consuming, difficult, and emotional that it can reduce a grown woman to a temper tantrum of sitting on the side of the bathtub, crying and praying in desperation.

It’s true.  I prayed and cried and got so angry as I begged God to help me sever my connections to all this stuff that I don’t need, don’t want, and don’t care about anyway.  I got so mad as I looked at the items in my tiny bathroom alone that totaled in the hundreds.  That’s right – I said hundreds.

You see, I’ve been purging all of my family of five’s belongings for over a month.  I started on January 21, to be exact, and have been decluttering every single day working towards a full minimalist lifestyle before we sell our house and move out of Alaska.   Yes, I’ve been taking carloads of items to charity, the reuse center, friends’ houses as gifts, etc., every single day for 46 days.

Let me restate that for dramatic effect:

I’ve been taking full CAR LOADS of items out of my house EVERY DAY for 46 days.

46 Days!

Before I started this project, I was already a minimalist in my mind working on reflecting that in my lifestyle.  My family lives pretty light for a house with 2 babies and a toddler and we’ve been paring down for a few years now.  I had no idea we still had so much stuff that it would take this long to get rid of it all.

On January 21, my husband and I decided I would take a month off from work to prepare us for the move, including going minimalist as much as possible with all non-essentials.  I would then pack the rest of our items so we could move out of our house and put it up for sale.

30 days seemed like a reasonable amount of time to me to declutter an already somewhat minimalist house.  My family has less clutter than anyone else I personally know.  I am embarrassed now to say that I actually thought I could finish this whole process in less than my 30 allotted days and roll back in to the office ahead of schedule, triumphant, and ready to relax with my new minimalist life free of the stuff and the clutter.

At 46 days in, as so disgustingly painted in the picture at the outset of this post, not only was I not done, I was not even close.  I was crying like a frustrated toddler that tries so hard to be big and accomplish “big people” things like writing their name perfectly for the first time.  I was a bawling baby in God’s hands begging Him to take me out of my agony and help me make these material possessions go away.

An Inventory is a Good Idea – No, A Great One

I had no inventory of starting items, so I don’t know how many things I started with.  I can safely estimate it was upwards of 500,000.  It could have been upwards of a million, there’s just no way in the realm of possibility to accurately guess. 

At this point, I could stop and do an inventory tonight (and I might), because the sheer amount of belongings has been reduced so much.  An inventory is a good idea – no, a great one – because it’s easier to make decisions on items listed on paper instead of tangible things you are holding in your hand that have memories attached to them.  Plus, with a before and after count, you can see how drastic of a change you’ve made.

The Minimalist Move Continues

Not only have I been out of work for 46 days (bad for me, bad for my company), but I’m running out of emotional fuel for the downsizing process.   I’ve taken pictures during the process which I’ll be able to post soon, which are shocking as I look back on them. 

I’m so ready for it to end and to be at that happy point where I walk from room to room and breathe a sigh of contentment at being able to be here with my family, not with my things.