Sustainable & Creative Living
If you’re like me and most of the women I know, you’ve got a lot going on all the time! With so much going on, it isn’t always easy to focus on the task at hand, even with the best of intentions. Because of this, I’m always looking for tips and tricks to help me be more focused and, in turn, more productive. These 5 ways to increase the power of focus are simple practices that have helped me sharpen this skill.
It’s been almost a month since my husband and I started our van life adventure. It’s definitely been a whirlwind of change. Our whole world has been turned upside down and all the comforts of home have just been completely changed. We now find comfort in simpler things. Like a quiet place to sleep or a private place to shower.
After many months of planning, things are finally happening! A little less than a year ago, before we were married, my significant other, Nate and I decided that we were going to travel the country.
We’ve always been travelers, from the very first year of dating. So it kind of feels like everything we’ve done together has been in preparation for this trip. It started out as a small idea inspired in part by our first trip to Colorado. Another bit of inspiration came from when two of our best friends went to New Zealand for a year.
Last Christmas when I was shopping for gifts, I saw this adorable little trinket that said “follow your dreams” on it. It’s the kind of cute little thing I’m always buying for one of my girls. I picked it up, examined it, thought for a moment, and put it back down. I wasn’t in the mood to promote my kids following their dreams if they didn’t involve them living within a fairly close proximity to me or the rest of their family.
I’ve never really made a bucket list before. For me, I’ve just always done the things I wanted as they come along. If an opportunity comes up to visit a friend or do something fun, I take it without thinking I’m going to cross it off a list later. However, with my trip coming up, I thought it would be fun to start a bucket list (among my many other lists) to drum up ideas and get even more excited about our adventure.
I’m the kind of person who likes to have a plan. More importantly, I like things to go as planned! I imagine most people probably do too. Of course, I know this isn’t always reality. Owning and running a service business for almost 30 years—not to mention raising 3 kids—has definitely taught me this.
Still, every time I start my next big project I get a low-level gnawing feeling that maybe my plans won’t go as planned. I never let that feeling stop me from moving forward. I’d never get anywhere if I did, but I’m trying to be more comfortable these days with the uncertainty that comes with the unknown of new projects and new stages in life.
I’ve been taking the last few days, like a lot of other people, to think about goal setting for 2018 and beyond. But this year, goal setting is more of a struggle. Most of this is due to the fact that I’m going through a lot of transition and change in different areas of my life. There have been so many milestones in my life this past year—finally finishing my bachelor’s degree, my youngest graduating high school and then starting college, and of course Christina’s wedding and all the preceding festivities.
This last year has been insane. Last July I got engaged and almost everything since then in my life has been wedding or blog related. The wedding is now less than a month away and I’m just trying to make it there at this point.
Amidst all the crazy wedding stuff and getting ready for the holidays, it’s still so important to slow down and take a minute to think about and appreciate everything I am thankful.
And I certainly have a lot to be thankful for in my life.
Sometimes it’s just the little things in life that make things easier. These are some of those things – Life hacks to make your life easier.
We make so many decisions every day that it makes sense to have a set of guidelines to help us make them timely, confidently, and wisely.
Our decisions range from the small, seemingly inconsequential (what we’re going to wear, what we’re going to eat, where we’re going to stop for gas); to the ones that have lifelong implications (our choice of spouse or career); and those that fall in between. These days, decisions can be complicated even more because everywhere we turn there’s so much to choose from. It’s not just information or product overload…it’s everything overload! As a mom of three – (and grandmother) – and service business owner/operator for 25 years, life has been a continuum of decisions. These are some of the decision-making guidelines that help me keep my sanity:
