Giving myself grace
You may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging. For the first time in 16 years of writing this blog, more than a month has passed since I last posted. I’m trying not to beat myself up about that.
You may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging. For the first time in 16 years of writing this blog, more than a month has passed since I last posted. I’m trying not to beat myself up about that.
I jumped aboard the adult coloring book craze last June. I loved coloring as a kid and I love it now. It’s so wonderful that so many interesting types of coloring books are available. And the coloring supplies! When I was a kid, I used Crayola crayons. Now, I use pencils, pens, markers…it feels like the sky’s the limit.
Tagged with: coloring, crafts, happiness, organizing products, organizing systems, relaxation, self-care, self care, worth repeating
This summer, I’m especially busy with organizing clients and travel and trying to keep up with that blogging schedule has been stressing me out a little. So I’ve decided to relieve the pressure and commit to blogging just once a week through the rest of the summer. I’m not even going to commit to a particular day, but you can expect to see a new post once a week.
I find the question of what’s important carries through to every aspect of my life. It’s become a touchstone of sorts for me.
Tagged with: family, priorities, self care, stress, task management, time management
I originally wrote this post several years ago and when I came across it today, I smiled at the advice. Do yourself a favor and create a kudos file you can look at it when you need a pick me up!
What do you do with nice little notes you receive from people?
Tagged with: self-care, self care, worth repeating
Today, April 9, all Missourians 16 years and older are eligible for a vaccination. Earlier this week, I became fully vaccinated when I hit the two-week mark after my second Pfizer shot. I lucked into a leftover dose back in February and was absolutely thrilled I didn’t have to wait until all Missourians were eligible, since I didn’t qualify in any other tier.
Tagged with: coronavirus, covid-19, optimism, self care
A couple of months ago, my husband, Barry, surprised me by suggesting I take a course on mindfulness. At the time, we were discussing my propensity to stumble and sometimes fall when I was walking our dog, Bix. (We have loads of uneven sidewalks in our historic neighborhood.) He said that when I’m out on a walk I’m too much in my head and not watching where I put my feet. He wasn’t wrong.
Tagged with: books, giveaway, mindfulness, reviews, self-care, self care, self knowledge
Every year for the past decade or so, I take a day this time of year to reflect on the past year and plan the coming year. I call it my personal retreat. (Here’s the post I wrote in 2017 about my retreat). Before this year, I would go from place to place around town (coffee shops, the library, the botanical garden, the floatation tank) for various of my planning. It was solitary and it was fabulous.
Tagged with: self care, time management
It’s hard to articulate all the feelings I’m having as I stay at home during this COVID-19 crisis. I try to push away the fear of the health and economic repercussions of the pandemic. I try to keep a positive attitude. And, most of all, I try to practice gratitude. Even though things are falling apart around us, I have so much to be thankful for.
Tagged with: adriene mishler, covid-19, gratitude, self care, yoga, yoga with adriene
Then this morning, I awoke to a text from a friend alerting me to a second episode of Some Good News. And this one absolutely made my day. I don’t want to give too much away, in the event you don’t know what I’m talking about, but if you, like me, are a fan of the musical Hamilton, you’re going to want to watch this all the way to the end. If you’re not (yet) a fan of Hamilton, I encourage you to watch it all the way to the end anyway. Enjoy.
Tagged with: hamilton, john krasinski, self care
In these strange times of COVID-19, gratitude feels important now more than ever. For me, the stay-at-home order means that I cannot work in clients’ homes. And I have lots of time to do the stuff I’ve been waiting to do when I have time. But actually getting myself to do that stuff is another matter.
Tagged with: coronavirus, covid-19, productivity, self care, social distancing, yarn
I’ve come up with some suggestions for making the most your spare time at home while you’re practicing social distancing to try to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. (If you’re now an at-home worker, my advice is to keep up your regular work schedule, then do the stuff below after work.)
Tagged with: coronavirus, covid-19, self care, social distancing
I wrote this post 5.5 years ago when I was dealing with some health challenges for family members. It came to mind recently, because my oldest brother has taken ill and has been hospitalized in southeastern Washington state for the past three weeks. I was trying to maintain my work schedule in St. Louis while checking in on him but decided about two weeks into his illness that I needed to travel to Washington to be there for him and be his advocate. In rereading the post, I felt like it had a great message. Scott is recovering from his bouts with severe pneumonia and I know I’ll keep these strategies in mind as I go back home to St. Louis and try to support him from afar.
Tagged with: kirby, self care, stress, task management, time management, worth repeating
I love doing genealogy research. (If you’d like to know more about that, check out my blog Organize Your Family History.) I’ve actually created a habit of doing research every day, first thing in the morning. I haven’t missed a day since August 1—which especially pleases me because I took a week-long trip during that time.
I wrote this post in 2014 and I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to make doing genealogy research part of my morning routine so I’ve succeeded in finding time to feed my soul. If there’s something beneficial you’d like to start doing regularly, this post might help you find a way to find time.
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
But I don’t actually research as often as I’d like. And that’s a shame, because researching my family history feeds my soul.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management, worth repeating
I love Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. She’s a fantastic communicator with amazing ideas. I’ve heard her speak and I love the positivity of her message.
When I learned that she was creating a coloring book, The Happiness Project Mini Posters: A Coloring Book rushed to pre-order on Amazon. Then I forgot about it. What a joy it was to receive it in the mail last week!
Tagged with: coloring, crafts, gretchen rubin, relaxation, self care
I typically avoid buying appliances or gadgets that serve only one purpose. The wonderful blog Unclutterer calls those Unitaskers and features them on Unitasker Wednesdays.
But last month I made an exception to that rule and purchased the Breville BTM800XL One-Touch Tea Maker. It’s an electric tea kettle and brewer. Two of my friends and colleagues, Amanda Rickers and Sheila DeHart each had one and raved about it. I found it irresistible.
Tagged with: kitchen, self care, tea, unclutterer
This Monday is February 29. I love leap year because we get a whole extra day in the year. What a gift!
Tagged with: leap year, self care, time management
Several weeks ago, I blogged about organizing my coloring supplies. I enjoy coloring in coloring books intended for grown ups and I use colored pencils and Sharpies primarily.
In that blog post, I showed how I organize my dozens of colored pencils. (I use Prismacolor Premier pencils.) And I mentioned that I had yet to figure out a good way to organize my colored Sharpies. At the time, they were laying flat in a box all mixed together.
Tagged with: coloring, crafts, happiness, organizing products, organizing systems, relaxation, self-care, self care
I jumped aboard the adult coloring book craze last June. I loved coloring as a kid and I love it now. It’s so wonderful that so many interesting types of coloring books are available. And the coloring supplies! When I was a kid, I used Crayola crayons. Now, I use pencils, pens, markers…it feels like the sky’s the limit.
Tagged with: coloring, crafts, happiness, organizing products, organizing systems, relaxation, self-care, self care
I think regular rest and relaxation is very, very important. It’s so easy to get caught up in work and chores and family and never take time for yourself. That’s particularly true, I think, when you struggle with disorganization and feel like you should spend all your spare time “getting organized.” (That’s a fallacy, of course.)
Tagged with: coloring, crafts, happiness, relaxation, self-care, self care
I love doing genealogy research. It’s a fairly big part of my life—I blog twice weekly (most weeks) at my genealogy blog, Organize Your Family History, so I actually think about my family research quite a lot.
Tagged with: empowerment, genealogy, relaxation, self-care, self care, time management
Since my schedule lightened up a couple of years ago, I’ve lived with relatively little stress. I work hard, which is occasionally stressful, but it’s good stress, since I love my clients and my work. Everything else has been on a pretty even keel. I know that I’m very fortunate.
Tagged with: kirby, self care, stress, task management, time management
Today I had occasion to choose a card at random from a deck of Pause cards. Created by a Inspired Mastery, a coaching company, each Pause Card in the deck has a potent message for the mindful leader.
Tagged with: pause cards, self care