simply wrapping up

A short review of my simplicity goals I (attempted to) tackle during August and September:

Simplify my living space: Despite my efforts to print off checklists (I love checklists), break tasks down into smaller steps, and commit to just 20 minutes a day, I did not make much progress with my intended simplifying. I never made a charity run, nor did I follow the "one in, one out" rule (I love my clothes way too much). I did, however, get in the habit of doing a quick and dirty clean up every night before bed. My husband even suggested the clean up three nights a week...wahoo! Over the course of the past two months, I came to realize that I wasn't looking for a simpler living space as far as decluttering and getting rid of things, I was searching for a simpler way to maintain. Decluttering didn't become a priority, keeping my organization simple did. I'd write this one off as a success!

Simplify my work space: Done, done, and done! I honestly cannot focus on my work if my office is not tidy, tidy, tidy. Luckily, the state gave us a few extra prep days before the students came back to school so I had more than enough time to get my room just right. And my calendar and To Do list are essential to my success at work, so those were simple to create and maintain. Easy peasy!

Simplify my lifestyle: I have a busy schedule. I know it, I live it, and I love it. My intention was to commit only to those events and tasks that I truly wanted to do. As is typical with adulthood, sometimes I had to buck up and deal with whatever came my way (ahem...parent-teacher conferences). But more often than not, I was able to put on my brave face and decline invitations or requests if I did not feel I had the energy, brain power, or gusto to fully commit. I feel more in control of my schedule and life, and I love feeling that way. I've learned it's okay to say "no", and that most people will understand. I continued with my nightly runs (usually with zit cream on my face) and used that as my meditation time. I'd write this goal off as a success, too.

I know I promised book reviews and all that jazz, but let's be honest--I didn't finish one of them! (Tells you how much I truly cared about decluttering and simplifying my living space...) Below is a list of books I started, but never finished:

::The Joy of Less by Francine Jay
::The Simple Living Handbook: Discover the Joy of a Decluttered Life by Lorilee Lippincott
::Organizing for Life: Declutter Your Mind to Declutter Your World by Sandra Felton

Like I've said, I had great intentions but very poor follow through.

Next post will be about...drum roll please...authenticity!! (So maybe not finishing those books was really a good way to transition to authenticity??) Still working on reigning in my goals, but they're gonna be great!

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almost done with simplicity!

Simplifying is much harder than I ever expected it to be. You'd think it'd be, well, simple. But in my case, that's not the word I would pick to describe these last two months.


I'd like to blame my packed schedule and constantly-cluttered home on working two jobs, trying to support the husband through his final semester of undergrad work while applying to grad school, family changes, and church responsibilities. BUT the fact of the matter is that I think my life will always be this way--packed to the brim. As crazy at it makes me sometimes, I enjoy feeling busy, needed, useful, and like I am growing outside of my comfort zone.


I've still been focusing on only committing to what I actually want to do, but as an adult (or someone who's trying to be one) sometimes you have to buck up and do things you don't necessarily want. Some weeks I would love to stay home from work to catch up on other things, but then the bills wouldn't get paid and we'd be SOL. Other times I would love to ignore my church responsibilities and pretend like I don't know anyone, but that's just not very mature of me.


I've come to realize through this process that having an absolutely simplified lifestyle (specifically speaking of cluttered vs. uncluttered) doesn't matter as much to me as I thought. Living simply is such a new trend that I think I was trying to fit in rather than do what suits me. Don't get me wrong, I still love a clean and organized home, but I simply don't care enough to take the time to declutter, pare things down, and follow through with getting rid of what I've pared down. I'd rather spend my spare hour with my husband watching Castle, eating dinner, and catching up on our days.


So I guess that leads me to our next topic of focus: authenticity. Brooke is a little timid (okay, maybe more than a little timid) to tackle authenticity, but I can't be more excited. I'm still working on my goals, so I'll share those next week, but know that I can't wait to figure out how to be more true to myself. It'll be an adventure!

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Updates lately

Life has been so chaotic this past week. I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to write. Here's a quick update....

I was doing really good implementing Kat's 20 minutes of cleaning a day rule. I found that after the first few days of having to force myself to do it, I realized that it was pretty painless and actually made a huge difference. It didn't always happen at the same time everyday but it did happen at some point which is the part that matters. That went well for a week or so, then I started cat sitting for some friends and have been staying at their apartment. Since I'm there most of the time, I only drop home to grab stuff I need for the next few days and drop off a few things too, so once again my room is becoming a clutter zone. I'm leaving town this weekend to go visit a friend and plan on getting all organized in both my spaces before I leave so I don't have to come home to a cluttered mess at either apartment. Because lets face it, there's nothing better than coming home after a long trip to a clean space.

Life-wise, I feel like I'm almost doing TOO good a job at taking time for myself lately. I have said no to almost everything and find that it's now bordering on anti-social. Do I care? of course not. I thrive by myself, but I probably shouldn't give in to my hermit like tendencies quite yet, I mean I'm only 26.  At what age though does it become ok to be the old cat lady (but minus the cats)?

I can't remember my 3rd goal right now, which means I'm probably not doing so well on it. OOOH wait, I remember...money. I'm not doing horrible but I'm not doing as good as I could be. I've been focusing lately on only eating out when I'm going out with friends, and not grabbing food on my way home or going out to eat alone just because I don't want to cook. That has been going better, but I still just need to work on mindful purchasing.

That's all the updates I have for you today folks.

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decluttering tips and tricks

Disclaimer: I am, by no means whatsoever, a decluttering/simplicity/whatever expert. These tips and tricks I will be sharing are strictly things I have tried and found helpful for me. Feel free to try them out yourself and please let me know what you think by commenting below!

I love it when major projects are broken down into smaller, simpler steps. I'm definitely the type that gets overwhelmed by the big picture. I've been researching this decluttering concept for a while now, so I feel that I have a nice, comfy stash of resources to help me achieve some sort of progress. Most of the links below I originally found through Pinterest (link to my Blossoming Intentionally board here), but I've linked the sites the pins lead to so you don't have to click a bajillion times. You're welcome.

First, I love this 30-day breakdown of decluttering from PopSugar. It gives me smaller areas to focus on for one day rather than trying to figure it out myself. Plus, there are some areas on the list that don't apply to me (thank you, rental apartment) so I can either have a day off or spend more time on an area that is larger than most (no thank you, giant-closet-that-I-love-to-fill-with-expensive-things).

Next, when I'm having a hard time deciding what I should do with an item (think superhero t-shirts, unused smelly lotion that I can't even smell, gifts that I have absolutely no use for), I mentally go through this checklist on Auto Straddle (and further from lifeyourway.net) to give me direction. I even printed one off so I can have it handy! It's a great way for me to breakdown why I am wanting to save something, and if that reason is legit.

Third, I read up on quite a few simplicity and/or minimalist blogs to give me motivation to keep getting rid of things. Some of my favorites are...
:: The Art of Simple
:: Becoming Minimalist
:: The Minimalists
:: The Everyday Minimalist
:: Miss Minimalist (she even has a book!!)
Seriously, you can't wrong with any of these sites. They give great ideas on how to get the simplifying process started, what minimalism means (which, of course, varies from person to person anyway), why they lead minimalist lives, and easy steps to take each day rather than trying to change your entire world in a day.

Finally, I hunker down and do the work. Brooke posted before about us setting the reminder on our phones and spending our decluttering time "together". While this doesn't happen every day, it happens often enough that it's part of my natural routine to start decluttering something at 8:30 p.m. Seriously, having someone on your team, even if they're a bajillion miles away, can make all the difference.

Well, my friends, I hope you find these resources helpful and useful! Let us know how your simplifying journey is going!

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My brain is still on holiday so I have no great titles for this blog....

Does anyone else feel like they need another day off just to recover from the 3 day weekend? Because I do. Goodness it was hard to wake up this morning! Onto the topic at hand, goal domination did not happen this weekend. I was telling Kat last night that I think my room is more cluttered than when the week began.  I just have too much stuff. I really think the key to it is to get rid of stuff, but for whatever reasons I am really struggling with that.

I'm not sure if any of you have ever read the blog The Minimalists, but they are great.  One of them talks about his journey to minimalism and how he started it by putting everything into boxes except his essentials and then if he needed something he could go pull it out but whatever he didnt' use after a certain period of time he got rid of. So I"m thinking of doing that with my clothes. Since I'm not ready to part with them I'm just going to box them all up and whatever I don't use in the next month (obviously keeping in mind that I probably won't use my winter clothes so I'm not going to chuck those) will get chucked or donated. So the goal for this week is to do that by Friday.

As for my other goals, I'm making some progress on keeping my schedule simple, and budget wise, I'm not sure how much better I'm doing with it but I'm definitely a lot more aware of the money I'm spending.  I find myself often calculating in my head how much money I'll have left in my bank account if I buy this or spend money on this and how if I didn't spend it on those things how much I could put into my savings account. It's beginning to be like a game, I think I might like this budgeting thing.

One last thought for the day. I just became part of a Facebook group called SENSATIONAL September and the whole focus of it is to become more mindful. Now I know mindfulness can be used in a lot of ways but as I've been thinking about that and these goals that I'm working on I've realized that a lot of progress could be made from the simple act of just being more mindful. I think first thing with that would be to be more mindful of my actions. I think I often respond or act without even thinking about it but if I could learn to just take a moment to really think about the decision I'm making then I think that would be helpful. Also learning to be mindful of the moment and be in the now. I often put things off till tomorrow, and even with these goals I've noticed that I'll go to buy something or say no to something, but it's something I really want, so i'll tell myself that I'll just work harder on these goals...tomorrow. But that never happens. So I think being mindful that TODAY is the day to work on myself, not tomorrow. So hopefully as I practice mindfulness with the Facebook group this month, these goals of mine will start to come together a bit more.

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simple progress

September has officially begun and I’m finally feeling like I’ve made some progress with my simplicity goals!!

Simplifying my living space: I wrote a week or so ago that I would focus more on this in September, which is still the plan. BUT yesterday I cleaned out, decluttered, simplified, and organized my dresser (yes, I get the whole dresser to myself…lucky me!)!! There were t-shirts in there I’d forgotten all about that I absolutely love! There were also plenty of my husband’s running shirts (oops), a pair of my dad’s pajamas bottoms (long story, also a size XL in men’s which means they didn't even fit), one of my mom’s t-shirts (again, long story), and more unmentionables. I enjoyed taking inventory of all the workout clothes, pajamas, undies, socks, etc. I got rid of plenty and still have more than enough to be comfortable.

Simplifying my work space: I really hit this one hard before school started up, so I haven’t had much to do this past week. I cleaned out another drawer that was full of old programs/units another SLP in the building used to use. Those things were so far off the mark from how I do my therapy that most of it ended up in the trash. I think I have my caseload figured out, and I’m all prepared to start seeing groups tomorrow. Overall, I’m feeling organized, simplified, and ready to take on a new year!

Simplifying my lifestyle: Oh bother, this is the one I continue to struggle with, at times. I’m such a people-pleaser that when I feel like I let one person down, the rest of my day (and even week) is ruined. But I’ve been sticking to my guns and saying ‘no’ if I feel the need to. My personal To Do list continues to grow (e.g. just for today, I need to buy some school supplies, clean the house, do the laundry, take the car in to get registered since it was due last month, stop by my second job at the hospital for some training, and grocery shopping…all before a family barbecue at 5:30) but it’s also manageable. I’ve really had to pull the husband in for some back-up since I am the one working weekends now (we’ve switched roles in that respect, and I don’t think he realized how much I did while he was working weekends). He’s been a good support and much more assertive about things than I expected, which is a huge help! I’ve continued my nightly runs, making them longer if I am especially stressed or overwhelmed. I cannot begin to explain how good these make me feel! An hour or so of just being outside with nothing to listen to but my own thoughts has done wonders for me! If I am struggling with a particular problem, this hour is all it takes for me to assess the problem, work out a solution, and feel like a weight has been lifted. Basically, if you don’t have some sort of time for you to just think, make time for it…I promise you wonderful things will come from it!

Now I’m really going to tackle my living space! If I’m being honest, I don’t think I will get it totally done this month, but Imma try! I’ve been researching this concept for some time now, and read quite a few books. In the next few posts I’ll share my tools (aka checklists) for how I’m going about simplifying my living space, as well as some book reviews. Stay tuned!

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Goal Domination

It's a holiday weekend, and for the first time in how many weekends, I don't have a single spec of plans. I kid you not. At first I was freaking out a bit, thinking I was going to let a glorious 3 day weekend go to waste without even going camping or on a short road trip somewhere and then I remembered I have goals and this is the perfect weekend to work on those. And by staying home this weekend I'm making headway on all three of them...woot woot!!! Talk about total goal domination.

Goal #1: Simplify budget: Helloooo! If I'm not going anywhere I won't end up spending money on things like snacks and gas for my car.

Goal #2: Simplify my closet: I keep putting it off because I wanted a big chunk of time to just sit and tackle it all at once and I haven't had any large chunks of time. I think a 3 day weekend counts as a large enough chunk of time though. If I can't get it done in 3 days, something is wrong.

Goal #3: Simplify my life: Saying no to adventures like camping and roadtrips is hard for me. BUT...by doing so I will have the time to stay home and organize and catch up on the rest of life which often gets overlooked and stresses me out from time to time.

Also lately I've fallen in love with the blog Apartment Therapy. They just have so many great ideas and I could (already have) spent hours scrolling through their articles. One I came across recently had some great ideas though on getting rid of stuff. If the clutter monster has gotten to you, click here to go read it, you won't be sorry!

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so maybe i have anxiety

Pretty sure I should be diagnosed with anxiety. Or something. How does this relate to simplifying, you might ask? Well, let me enlighten you.

I've written before that I am an organization freak. I can't sleep at night if I know that there is something left out on the counter, the dishes aren't put away, or the sheets aren't perfectly straight and wrinkle-free. It's been a problem at times--my husband gets frustrated if I ask him to put something away that he isn't finished with or when I ask if we can fix the sheets for the fourth time that night. I don't blame him! The same can be said about less-tangible things. I lost hours of sleep a night for nearly 2 months last February because I felt that I had too much on my plate. If I don't know where things are at with our budget for the month I go bonkers until I review every receipt and calculate the income vs. expenses five or six times. Guys, it's ridiculous.

That was part of my hope for these few months targeting simplicity. I'd hoped to find ways to cope better when things aren't *perfect* (Remember how I hate that word? Now you know why...) and to simplify my life in general so I wouldn't have much to stress over. So far, I haven't had much luck. Just ask Brooke. I think she gets texts at least every other day discussing how stressed I am and how I just don't know how to deal. I realize that some things I have to deal with and can't simplify, like my husband's grad school applications/fees/traveling for interviews/whatever. Some of these things are a necessary part of life, and will bring good things with them! It's just in the moment, I can't see the long-term benefits, I can only see the short-term stress.

Long story short, if you have any ways that you deal with stress, help a sister out! It's something I've not been coping with for long enough, and it's time to figure out a way to lessen it. My current coping style is to either avoid (by taking naps), eat lots of junk (which just adds to other stresses I have), or simply stress to the point that I can't function. It's absolutely debilitating. Any and every recommendation will be welcome!

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first day of school: simplified

Guys.

I survived my first day of school.That's one for the record books. Sort of.

The day started out with a meeting. What's new, right? 7:45 a.m. Waaaay before school even starts. BUT it was productive! And I kept it simple! Granted, I added plenty to my work "to do" list, and another meeting at noon added even more, but I stream-lined it all into one master list. And I accomplished so much more! It's amazing what writing down small, simple steps can do. Sure, my list may *look* longer, but I feel it's more manageable and I feel much less stressed than in "to do" lists past.

That's pretty much my entire update. I'm sticking to my guns for not over-committing, and it continues to make a world of difference. I've saved an hour or two each day to relax and unwind from the day's events. I find that the less I schedule, the more I can cross off my lists, and the better I feel about the progress I make, no matter how small. I also get to spend more time with the husband, which helps us figure out how to do this marriage thing. So here's to a short update. Now let me eat my string cheese and veg!!

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And we now have a 3rd...

One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to try to simplify my life is because I figure if I have less stuff, then there's less stuff to make things messy with. Ahh...see that genius thought process?? That being said, my room is a complete disaster zone right now. I would post pictures, but I'm slightly embarrassed at just how messy it is. Plus I'm afraid my Mom might see and then I'd feel bad because she taught me better than that. (She doesn't even know this blog exists yet though, so that excuse is a total cop-out). Back to the point I'm trying to make- I've been in and out of town a bunch over the past month and a half and with every trip it seems like things get piled higher and higher and I keep thinking that if I could just have a few hours I could get it all under control easy....toss out a few things, organize the rest of it and voila, simplified!....But every week I find myself with zero time, which has me thinking it's time to make a 3rd goal in the simplifying category. Simplify my life.

Simplifying my life may sound broad but let me explain. By "life" I mean my social life, the amount of errands that I run and the appointments that take over my calendar. I'm pretty busy, and I like it that way. I'm home usually just long enough to shower, fall into bed and then wake up and do it all over again the next day. I thrive on being busy, it's my way of distracting myself from the things in life I don't want to do--namely clean my room, fold my laundry, etc. If I'm home I can't stand it so I just end up doing whatever chore it is that needs to be done. So basically I need to spend less time out doing things and more time at home. This will be hard because I'm a yes person. You ask me to do something and I will typically say Yes!! I have a hard time saying no to people. But it's time for me to learn to use the word no. Ever seen the movie "Yes Man"? It's about a guy who takes a vow to go around saying yes to everything and it totally changes his life because he use to be boring and say no to everything. Well, I'm going to do the opposite and be the No Woman! I mean I probably won't say No to everything, because that'd just be sad, but at least for the new few weeks I'm going to hunker down and work on organizing a bit. (That'll have to start after this weekend though because I already have fun plans!). This goal of being less busy and staying home more will not only help me with getting myself all organized at home, but it'll help with the simplifying my budget goal too. The less I go out, the less moolah (correct spelling?) I spend, and if I go off the grid for a bit people will be SO excited when I come back. Win, win, win!!!!

Those are all my thoughts for today folks, if you have any great ideas about  a process for going through and getting rid of clothes, please let me know. I'm the worst at that game.

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a simple epiphany of sorts

In my last post, I talked about some frustrations I was having regarding simplifying and my serious lack of progress. While I still have a ways to go, I'm beginning to realize I've made more progress than I originally thought.

Only one stack of "I-no-longer-want-or-use-this" items has physically left my house (it ended up in my trunk...), but moving that pile out felt so good! I can't believe how much more open my little corner kitchen feels simply because I emptied a space next to the table. I actually want to eat there! Now if I could just get that donation pile out the door too.

My office remains decorated and organized, but not very simplified yet. I bought a bin to store my student data tracking folders (among other things, such as incentives or end-of-session questions) right next to my table so I don't have to cross the room to my filing cabinet. I also got a kidney table!! This will simplify my work style in that I will no longer have to ask students to move around the table so I can work with them...they'll be within arm's reach! I think I will be more efficient and effective with this one little change. It's the simple things, I tell you. I also picked up a teacher planner from the main office and am already filling it up with appointments and such. The excitement of the first day of school is building!

I'm continuing to work on my lifestyle simplification. I still haven't meditated. At all. I get frustrated when I realize this, but then I think that maybe I don't need to set aside specific meditation time. I tend to take nearly an hour to fall asleep, so I get a lot of relaxing/feeling/processing time at the end of my day and that seems to be enough. I've also continued to run every evening, which does a lot for my stress levels. I am loving my personal planner--it's cute and I'm staying on top of my commitments. I've given in to some activities I don't necessarily want to attend or participate in, but I feel that I need to support the people who are organizing them (I'm such a people pleaser). Plus, it's good for me to get pushed out of my comfort zone every once in a while.

Alright, I know I promised to elaborate on some tools I am using that help me succeed in accomplishing these goals. First and foremost is my bestie, Brooke. We keep in pretty much constant contact, despite the hundreds of miles between us. Even though we have very different goals for simplicity, I think we have been a good support to each other and provided motivation when needed. Also, our blog has helped tons! Even though I don't post every day, or even every other day, I know that I have committed to updating my progress regularly and that plays in my mind constantly. I also get these little reminders from an app called Lift (available in the app store), which allows users to set goals (either personal goals the user creates or form goals that multiple users are working on) and then sends reminders to follow up on those goals. You can set the notifications to come whenever you want and the frequency of the goal. For example, I want to unclutter four days per week. Lift tracks when I've marked that goal as "completed" for the day and then sends me notifications as I prefer. It also tracks your frequency and when you've hit milestones, such as ten times in a row. You even get to "high five" the phone sometimes! And, of course, I use my personal planner to remind myself of certain things too...like creating a post for the blog. I just love my pen and paper too much! Really, any reminder system will do!

Long story short, I'm getting there. Part of my hope for this simplicity focus was to get down to the nitty gritty and really figure out what matters to me. I feel like I am getting there. While meditation isn't as important as I thought it would be, staying on top of my commitments is and I've created  "to do" lists and planner systems to help me achieve that objective. For the rest of August, I'd like to really focus in on my organization and simplifying my thought processes. In September, I'd like to hit decluttering and simplifying my physical spaces big time. Any words of advice you have are welcome! And feel free to join us on our journey of Blossoming Intentionally!

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Michael Scott Jeans

I am failing miserably at simplifying my spending habits.

My favorite pair of jeans, the ones I wear like a solid 80% of the time, are getting to that stage where I know I'm going to have to replace them in the next few months and I HATE shopping for jeans, so I figured I'd just start and get it out of the way now instead of feeling pressured when my favorite jeans finally give up the ghost. Thing is, I made the mistake of trying on this really expensive pair of jeans and holy hell did they look good. I don't know if any one out there use to ever watch The Office but there's this episode where it talks about Michael Scott's jeans and how he think he just looks so good in them and it shows him doing this little jig in the office. Well, that's how I feel in these jeans. My butt in these jeans, is something everyone should be jealous of. No joke. So I bought them. For a lot of money. They were on sale though, so at least there's that.

Moral of the story, I need to get on making a budget pronto so that I have some actual guidelines to follow instead of just talking about spending less money. So my goal by tomorrow (since tomorrow is payday) is to make a budget and follow it until my next payday.

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Shopping Trip

I thought that I'd have nothing to blog about until my vacation ended tomorrow, but boy was I wrong. You know what is a really easy thing to do on vacation? Spend money. When I found myself at the Park City Outlets one afternoon with a really cute sweatshirt in hand I realized that there was no better time than the present to work on simplifying my spending habits or else there was a good chance I'd end the afternoon with a car full of new things and spending amnesia.

I was out in Utah for my cousins wedding. I was a bridesmaid and told to wear a brown skirt, a cream shirt, and brown or red shoes. I had ordered the skirt previously, but I found myself in Utah 3 days before the wedding without shoes or a shirt still. The fix? Head to the outlets of course, so that afternoon my brother and I trekked up to Park City where we thought for sure it'd be a simple task to find a cream colored shirt and shoes. It proved to be a much more difficult task than we thought it would, which made it so we had to go into several stores than we planned. Stores filled with delightful sales and beautiful things. 

It's a funny thing because I honestly don't even really like to shop.  I get too impatient having to walk around the store and having to comb through each rack. And even more than that I hate trying clothes on. So typically I walk into a store, do a once over and wait for something to catch my eye. And if it does, I buy it. Depending on the price of course. But I'm a really great justifier so not many things go unsought. I usually figure that I go shopping so little that it's ok to go a little overboard when I do take a shopping trip.

Long story short, despite many cute things that caught my eye and several amazing sales, I walked away with just one thing....a cream colored shirt. Oh, I lied...and a pair of really cute earrings. All in all, I'd say that was a success! For all you who are wondering if I ever found shoes....because I know you're on the edge of your seat with curiosity, I took the smart route and borrowed some cute red flats from my partner in crime Kat. Pays to have a best friend with similar size feet as you.

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work space: simplified!!

Simplifying my living space: Yup, I have yet to do any actual simplifying in my home. I feel like I am constantly chasing down clutter that just moves from place to place rather than getting rid of anything. Does anyone else ever feel that way? I guess I will have to be more intentional with my time; maybe leave some of the things that are out of their place alone to get down to the nitty gritty to finally trash some things? I dunno. I guess that's what I'll have to try next week.

Simplifying my work space: Holy cow, my room is coming together! It's not quite there but I've made so much progress this week. When it's all together, I'll post some pictures that document the changes as well as how I've organized some of my therapy supplies to simplify the process of using them. My "to do" list continues to grow, but so does the number of things I'm crossing off. I continue to wait for a calendar to start marking all of my appointments, but for now Outlook will have to do. **Epiphany: Maybe I should get paid to simplify my living space. I'm convinced that some of my issue in not getting any simplifying done in my living space is due to the fact that it's unpaid.**

Simplifying my lifestyle: Man, oh, man is my life chaotic! Between the fact that I'm working the next three weekends in a row then transitioning to every other weekend and the realization that school starts full-time next week, my head is going to explode! The husband and I are trying to squeeze in a weekend at my family cabin, but we both have multiple items on our lists that aren't completed. Plus, I have a manicure set up tomorrow mid-day with my sister-in-law so that's cutting into our vacation time as well. Here is where I could use a boost to either cancel or reschedule the appointment, but I would feel terrible backing out this late in the game. I guess I will have to buck up next week and really think about where my priorities are (Note: Nails or husband? This time, nails won, unfortunately.)

Basically, I'm not feeling too great about my progress the last couple of days, but luckily I have another 6 weeks to tackle simplicity. I'm so grateful to know that although I'm not seeing the progress I would like, there is always room for improvement. Next time I'll let you in on some strategies I'm going to try in hopes that my efforts to simplify my living space and lifestyle are successful.

Signing off to spend some cuddle time with the husband!

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simplicity isn't as simple as i thought

As stated in my last post (read it here), I suck at making things simple. It's like picking out clothes for Brooke--it takes far too long for me to figure out how to be simple. Isn't that a little counter-intuitive?

The past three days have been a whirlwind at work (the school job, not the hospital job). My cute little kiddos don't even come back until August 25(!!), but already I'm spending long days at school trying to put out fires before they've even begun. It has taken a serious toll on my decluttering, simplifying, and meditating efforts. I'm nearly 100% positive that I've spent only 15 minutes decluttering and absolutely 0 minutes meditating. I haven't acquired a planner for the new school year, but my to do list is coming along quite nicely *insert sarcasm--it's already 2 pages long*. I'm hoping to get some good decluttering and decorating done tomorrow in my speech office. Does decorating count as decluttering?

In regards to simplifying my lifestyle, I'm feeling pretty good. I've yet to take a few minutes to do the sitting-and-breathing kind of meditating, but I've gone running every day which is kind of like meditation right? I said 'no' to my mom when she asked me to cover her when watching my nieces because I already had dinner plans with a friend...and that took some serious guts! (Don't get me wrong, I love my nieces to pieces but I needed a break from responsibility for a night.) I'm quite attached to my planner and "to do" list system, largely because I love my Backstreet Boys notebook where I jot down all of my notes and lists. Once it runs out of blank pages, I'm sure I will easily find a way to incorporate my lists into my already very full and very organized yet simple planner. (And yes, I still use a paper planner. Too much satisfaction from crossing things off the pages!)

So long story short, I haven't made as much progress as I hoped but I've made some. I have to keep reminding myself of our mantra: that the tedium of blossoming is where the building of character happens. As long as I'm working towards a goal, I'm making progress and that is what this whole project is about. See you next time!!

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Hello from Brooke

If you've ever questioned the validity of the phrase "opposites attract", Kat and I are proof that it's true. More and more evidence of that will come to light as you get to know us better. One example of that is while Kat is organized almost to a fault, as she mentioned in her last post, I am pure chaos. We have been talking about this blog and planning for it for awhile now, and our plan was to both unveil our Simplicity goals on Monday and say a hello. Kat succeeded, and here I am a few days later still struggling what to figure out to write.

The thing is, my life is already pretty simple. I don't like to complicate things, because complicated things just stress me out and I don't like to be stressed, I like to be happy. So as I've been trying to think of ways to "simplify" my life I've been coming up a little short. I don't need to work on organizing my desk because I only have like 2 things on my desk at work. And I don't need to simplify my planner or calendar because I don't have either of those things. I just sort of take things as they come. I've never been good at planning things and I like it that way. As I came to think about it more and more though I realized I do have things that stress me out and maybe working some simplicity magic on them could help. Thus I came up with 2 goals to start off with.

The first one is to simplify my closet. I hate getting dressed in the morning. It honestly is usually the most stressful part of my day. I have a lot of clothes and a very tiny closet, so either I end up feeling overwhelmed by all the choices OR I can't find the outfit that I actually want to wear because it's such a mess. So maybe I figure out a way to organize my closet better or maybe I get rid of some of my clothes. I'm not quite sure yet, but I'm going to figure out a way to make the process simpler.

The second one is to simplify my spending habits. I'm a spender by nature, I swipe my card and don't even think about it and then a week later when I look at the balance on my bank account I wonder where all my money went.  I also think that I "need" that really cute shirt, or I "deserve" that dinner out because I had a rough/great/lazy/whatever day. I want to work on making a simple budget and becoming a more conscientious spender. I want to learn to spend only on the things that are absolutely necessary and come to know the joy of getting to splurge on something after months and months of really hard saving.

So those are my two overall goals right now. "Overall" being the key word. Next post I'll start to dive a bit deeper into some of the smaller steps I plan on taking and come up with a solid endpoint for each so that I can declare success at somepoint and not feel like a rat on a wheel. I'm on vacation this week though so I'll start working on that next week. So really, it's ok that I didn't post when I was suppose to because I'm not even starting to better myself until next week. But regardless, here are my goals and welcome to our blog, I hope you come back :)

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Welcome!!

Hey there! Kat speaking, or writing, I guess. I would like to welcome you to Blossoming Intentionally. You can reference our About the Blog page if you'd like to know what our blog is about, or you can reference our About the Authors page if you'd like to get know Brooke and I better. Or you can contact us if you have any riveting questions. Feel free to join us on our journey of learning to live intentionally and blossoming along the way!

Tomorrow I start my intentional journey of living more simply. As a neat freak who needs to have everything in order to feel comfortable and secure, I find that I typically make things far more complicated than they need to be in the name of organization. Some people would admire my organizational skills and I've had several friends and acquaintances inquire regarding them, but really, it can wreak havoc on my mentality! *Insert comment about my 3 planners, 4 "to do" lists, and color coding my food* I am so excited to learn about living more simply. I am hoping that I can create a lifestyle that aligns with my goals to slow down, enjoy the moment, and not get caught up in the chaos of life. If you'd like to peruse my simplicity goals, check them out here. Look back later this week for an update on my progress!

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