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Kristen Helmstetter

(Brisa Starr)

Uncategorized

Going Down the Rabbit Hole Calmed My Anxiety About Selling Our Car

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Prius

As you allllllllllll know, we’re selling it all and moving abroad.

This includes selling our car.

There’s a “thing” though… a glitch? A bump in the process?

We want to sell our car and we also want to use it until the end of February when we leave. I kept thinking that we should just put it for sale sometime in February and hope for the best that we’ll get just the right buyer at the right time. I mean, after all, I’ve been experiencing some major flow, where things are lining up just as they should, optimally, while we prepare to move. It’s truly awesome… I’m a believer that the universe DOES conspire to help you, if you’re open to it.

Case in point: my friend Cindy.

She came over last week and we were chatting about the car situation. She had a simple idea. She said, “Put it up for sale now and tell people in the ad that you need the car until the end of February.”

“Huh. OMG, yes, why not?”

So, I did that. And, it wasn’t even February.

And, guess what?

Someone came to look at it yesterday, the first people.

And, guess what?

It sold.

Awesome… We worked out a deal to have use of the car until the end of February -> Perfect!

They left, I enjoyed the success for three minutes before anxiety decided it wanted to creep in.

[Read more…] about Going Down the Rabbit Hole Calmed My Anxiety About Selling Our Car

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Meditation and Taoism Helped Me Not Lose My Shit When My Global Entry Card Went Missing

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Excuse Me picture

We’re currently sending all mail to mom’s house since we’ll be moving abroad.

One of our fun and exciting tasks before moving was to get Global Entry cards. What is Global Entry? It’s basically pre-approval from the United States government that we’re safe, low-risk travelers, who can come back into our country with less scrutiny cuz we’ve already been scrutinized via the Global Entry application system. It allows us a faster entry so we’re not always standing in hour-long lines when coming home.

I was really happy when our application was approved and waited patiently for our cards to come in the mail. Well, as I mentioned, mail is going to my mom’s address because that’s usually where we can be found.

After some text messaging last night it turned out that perhaps mom had lost my card as I hadn’t been over there yet to pick it up. I think that image above could have been how I reacted and at some level I did until…

Mindfulness to the rescue.

Hmmm… I immediately felt a bit of anxiety creeping in, however I was mindful of it. I was able to step outside myself and look at the situation from the 30,000 ft view. By noticing that I was feeling a bit stressed physically I was able to reduce the actual amount of physical stress being felt. It’s like it capped it. Thank you, Dan Harris, author of 10% Happier, for this tip. (Awesome book as is his follow up, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics.)

Team Toaism is up next.

Then, I integrated some Taoism in my head about how “it’s neither good nor bad” which comes from the story about the man with the horse and the son and the war. Things happening in the farmer’s life (I think he was a farmer) could have been judged as bad luck but quickly turned into good luck… because in the end, everything just “is” —- things are neither good or bad.

It reminds me of how traumatic a divorce can “seem” (and should for the most part, I suppose, as I don’t mean to say they can’t be shitty), but when I look back on some divorces I’ve known, years later it seems that everything is better or great. So, was the divorce actually bad or perhaps it wasn’t.

So, back to the missing Global Entry card, I said to myself, “It’s neither good or bad, it just is.” Truly. Try applying that thought process to everything in life and watch the dramatic shift to calmness take over.

My favorite book for Taoism is The Tao of Daily Life. I can’t recommend this book enough.

Then, I asked what’s the worst that could happen.

I realized that the worst that could happen is that I try to figure out how to get another one. I’m sure people have lost these or had them stolen. My situation cannot be unique. There must be a solution. And, even though I will have to add this to my to-do list, I will learn something in the process, namely, what to do when a Global Entry card is lost or stolen.

I quickly projected forward to the future.

I knew that in 6 months or a year, I wouldn’t think twice of this incident so why make a big deal of it now?

Gratitude as a slap in the face.

Then, gratitude slapped me in the face. I took a moment to cherish the fact that I don’t have cancer (or any illnesses is the point). I saw how truly small the challenge of losing a Global Entry card is in the scheme of things. I mean, really, it’s a blip on the radar and should be treated as such. No need to lose my shit.

And, I didn’t.

In the words of Kamea, “Mom, you were like Pete the Cat when his shoes kept changing colors.”

*This image at the top of this post was taken from my iPhone in that part where you can add gifs to text messages. I have no idea who to credit.

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We’re Moving Abroad In 6 weeks!

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Global Entry Passes - Check!

In the words of Bridget Jones, “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.”

Are we really doing this?

YES.

My family has been “selling it all” for the past year in preparation for this epic world travel adventure.

I’ve written about it from time to time (it all started with that book, Global Student, when I realized that, YES, we CAN do this – people DO do this), and the time has come.

We’re in the final stretch.

We have less furniture and fewer appliances. Truth be told, my minimalist passion loves this and would keep it this way from now on. I don’t need three different ways to boil water.

The countdown is on and we have a big calendar for it.

Countdown calendar

My mom isn’t thrilled about it and we will miss her very much, 🙁 but we can’t stay around to make her happy. We prefer not to sacrifice our adventure, Kamea’s opportunities, our passions because she will be upset. It’s a hard pill to swallow and there are moments I feel bad. She’s my mom, after all! 🧡

But, there is a choice… a trade-off.

We can stay here in Arizona to make other people happy (and miss out on world travel), or we can go and mom will be sad for a while (and we live out our dreams). I don’t want to seem callous, but we need to live our lives for us, as we’re all responsible for our own happiness. As Kamea piped up about my mom one day when talking about this, “Nana is resilient.”

There’s no complete win, as there never is in life. “It is neither good nor bad.” (<- Taoism)

And, hey, when the time is right for others, like our moms, they can come visit us.

We want to go. We want to explore.

We want to show Kamea that there is life outside of the United States. We want to take on this challenge as a family which will help us grow and bond like never before.

In the supporting words of my doctor, “Yes, it’s awesome what you’re showing Kamea. You’re showing her that there are other ways to do things. It will be so mind-opening, and you will learn so much yourselves.”

[Read more…] about We’re Moving Abroad In 6 weeks!

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Here’s How I Make The Best Sourdough Bread Ever

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Sourdough Bread

I’ve written about my passionate obsession with sourdough bread.

True sourdough bread, for me, must be delicious … and fortifying (I’m using that word a lot since watching “Anne with an E”) … and it must be made without commercial yeast.

I’m talking:

  • Organic flour
  • Filtered water
  • Sea salt

For a couple of years I was enjoying a fairly local bakery who made it just perfectly. I tried making it myself and it was a disaster. I hung up my apron and accepted defeat. The bakery was just too damn good and I had limited bandwidth.

However, in my newly frugal life, my mind was changed.

Inspired by Mr. Money Mustache and a seemingly-ridiculously-easy recipe from Cooks Illustrated, I was ready to dust off my apron and give ‘er a go again.

Sliced Sourdough BreadSuccess. Major Success.

I’m not afraid to say that I make amazing sourdough bread now, rivaling the best of them.

It was a steep learning curve though.

Perseverance. Tenacity. All words I used to use to amp up my resume, when applying for jobs, boldly coursed through my veins.

I followed Cooks Illustrated’s recipe and created what looked to be a very strong sourdough starter. (You need sourdough starter to make those beautiful loaves sans yeast, so that is the very first step: make a sourdough starter that you can and will use forever and ever and pass down for generations, provided you don’t kill it.)

Stored sourdough starter - safe and sound

How do you avoid killing your precious sourdough starter?

  1. Don’t forget to feed it. Just like your kids – you can even name your sourdough starter – mine is dubbed Cosmos. (That’s an easy task and I feed mine twice a day while baking.)
  2. Store it in the fridge, when you’re not using it (for up to a month!). This makes sourdough bread making flexible in case you suddenly find yourself on a carnivore diet. (Did I just write that? Maybe a hint of things to come. 😳)
  3. When making bread with it, don’t forget to set some aside for future loaves. In other words, don’t use all of your starter in one loaf. My paranoid ass always keeps a stash in the fridge for fear I might accidentally do what I just said not to do.

[Read more…] about Here’s How I Make The Best Sourdough Bread Ever

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs

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Inspired by any recipe using minimal ingredients, I was massively intrigued by the 2-ingredient Nutella Brownies I saw online: Nutella + Eggs.

We don’t eat Nutella, so I figured I’d make my own version, requiring 3 ingredients instead.

  • Organic peanut butter
  • Organic chocolate bar
  • Eggs

I didn’t do much in the way of measuring other than an estimate of about a cup total between the peanut butter and chocolate (warmed on stove to make liquid-ish) plus 4 eggs.

The eggs get the crap beaten out of them to increase their volume and supposedly make less egg-tasting but… more on that in a bit.

Mix the warmed chocolate mixture with the eggs and bake in a greased baking dish for about 20 minutes (350 degrees or thereabouts).

It looks impressive.

It tastes less so.

In spite of beating my eggs a lot, I thought it tasted like chocolate peanut butter eggs instead of brownies.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad… just need to create expectations.

It needed to be sweeter so we drizzled maple syrup on one serving and tried another with strawberry jelly. (My chocolate bar was the organic dark chocolate from Trader Joe’s with pecans and raisins in the light blue wrapper – so not super dark chocolate.)

Sort of tasty (and interesting, to be sure). Just not brownies.

Kamea and Greg enjoyed them well enough that’d I’d probably make again. Maybe… now that I know what to expect.

A fun experiment to be sure. 🙌🏼

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French Fries with Olive Oil

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I’ve been reading about and researching (i.e., trying) a lot of true, quality olive oils. I’m drawn to olive oil like a moth to a flame 🔥 and quite happy about it.

As a result, I’ve reached out to some companies to taste their olive oils. Today, I’m featuring Gaea because they sent me some bottles and this tasty looking recipe.

In the past, I didn’t cook with olive oil, but this post details that we can indeed! 💃🏻🙌🏼

From the PR peeps for Gaea olive oil…

“Did you know August is National Olive Oil Month? Celebrate the liquid gold with Gaea, the leading Greek food company specializing in authentic Mediterranean Extra Virgin Olive Oils.”

Recipe:

FRENCH FRIES MADE IN THE OVEN

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

  • 4½ cups organic potatoes
  • ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil by GAEA
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Fresh pepper
  • 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven at 220°C /450 F.

Scrub the potatoes clean and cut them into slices approximately 1 cm thick.

Place them in a bowl filled with water and leave them for approximately 15 minutes.

EXECUTION

Drain the potatoes, season them with salt and pepper and place them on a baking dish. Top them off with Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Roast in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.

Season with paprika.

Reduce the temperature to 200°C / 400°F and bake for 10 more minutes or until they get a nice golden color.

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