Play, Work, or a Little of Both…..

May 29, 2016September 17, 2016 ~ Tomi ~ Leave a comment

It’s hard for me to pace myself sometimes. You know the saying, “It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey.” Honestly, I don’t always feel that way. I like the destination most of the time. For example, if I am decluttering something I will probably think the project is tedious. I just want the finished product. If I am traveling, I just want to get to where I’m going.

I am creating a new online course for the college I work for. It’s hard. Really hard. It’s a subject I have not taught before and it’s using technology that I have never dealt with. It’s challenging, exciting, and even fun at times.

I know I can do it. I just have to keep at it. I work a minimum of one hour a day, Monday through Friday. I have six months to complete it; however, I want to be done in half that time. It’s a process. The other day I broke my own rule. I set the timer but kept getting up and doing other things. I would always come back to my work, but I realized the day was getting away from me. Before I knew it, it was evening. I just couldn’t quit working on it. Finally, I realized it was getting late and although I had made some progress, I still had a long way to go.

Today is Sunday and I don’t usually work on my class on Sunday. I would like today to be relaxing, fun, and easy. So far, I haven’t done that good of a job. As soon as I post this, though, I am headed outside to relax and read a bit. Then I plan to find something else fun to do. I’ll work tomorrow.

Things to Think About

May 22, 2016 ~ Tomi ~ Leave a comment

I love this. I think these are important questions for us to ask ourselves. I don’t think we are ever too grownup or old to stop questioning or searching.

School is out where I live and will soon be out depending on where you live (different parts of the countries have different schedules), summer is right around the corner, and most people like ice cream. AFAR offers The 7 Best Ice Cream Cities in the U.S.

I found a great article to help motivate you if you feel a little stuck in your life: How to get unstuck in life by simply making a next move – any next move.

From edutopia I found an interesting article titled Rest: The Antidote for Discouragement. If you have time, check it out and see what you think. I believe some interesting points are made in this piece.

Now, this will give you something to think about….

Have a wonderful week, do some soul searching, and don’t forget to grab some fun moments when you can and always be grateful!

Book Review of The More of Less

May 16, 2016September 17, 2016 ~ Tomi ~ Leave a comment

Joshua Becker is the creator of BecomingMinimalist.com . I enjoy reading his posts and I believe in his philosophy of living a more abundant life by owning less.

Becker’s newest book, The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own, is a good read. Although I have been simplifying my life for several years now, I still found good points throughout the book.

It states in the book, “There is more joy to be found in owning less than can ever be found in pursuing more. ” The author claims that if we practice the principles of minimalism taught in this book, we can experience: more time and energy, more money, more generosity, more freedom, less stress, less distraction, less environmental impact, higher-quality belongings, a better example for our kids, less work for someone else, less comparison, and more contentment.

There are personal stories shared throughout the book, but the book primarily offers advice on how to become a minimalist on one’s own terms and the numerous benefits that come from making this change in our lives.

I also appreciated the last part of the book where the author talks about how we can give to others once we reach the stage in our lives where we have more time, energy, and money due to our new lifestyle.

More info.

Author Bio.

*I received this advance reading copy from Blogging for Books for this review.

The Benefits of Taking a Break

May 9, 2016 ~ Tomi ~ Leave a comment

It had been a long day. Nothing was really wrong; it just seemed like there was too much to do and not enough time, energy, and wherewithal to deal with it all.

We had a good dinner; however, I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. I just felt like I had too many things on my mind. After dinner, I went to my desk and looked at my “to do” list. Ugh. That’s how I felt looking at it. Ugh. I tore the sheet off the pad. I looked at the list, did what I could that wouldn’t take too long, scratched off what didn’t really need to be done, and made a short list on a new pad. Then, I went outside.

I armed myself with my old, worn, lightly dirty gardening gloves and two small trash bags. I headed to one of my favorite spots in the yard. And there, with just me, myself, and I, I found myself slowing unwinding. At first, my mind was still mulling over things – thoughts darting from one place to another. But pretty soon, I felt a calmness come over me: physically and mentally. It was a beautiful evening. Everything around me was green. I noticed in my absence my flowers and rose bushes were taking off. Like Leo the Late Bloomer, when I wasn’t watching, they were blossoming.

My mood and being completely changed. It was just what I needed.

Pushing Forward When You Really Don’t Want To

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 ~ Tomi ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes it’s hard to know if you should go forward or just let it go. Several months ago my daughter received a postcard in the mail inviting her to a Super Saturday event at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. It was a cool postcard about being a hero and making a difference and how education can accomplish that for you.

I asked her if she wanted to go, and she was pretty ambivalent about it. I noticed the post card said all 6-8 graders were invited. I thought maybe we would take our son as well. He is in 6th grader and our daughter is in 8th. Neither seemed to care either way if we went or not. I decided to go ahead and register them both.

Well, the day came to leave and none of us really wanted to go. It had been raining all day long. It was the end of a busy week. It just seemed easier to stay home than to pack a bag and head out for a 3-4 hour drive. I simply said, “No one really wants to go, but we are going.” I felt it was right to follow through. I did worry that maybe this was a waste of time. The easy thing would definitely be to stay at home.

However, I have learned in life that sometimes I need to go forward. I think it’s important to grow. We don’t grow if we don’t have new experiences. We were all pretty grumpy the first half of the drive. No one really talked. I drove, my husband slept some, and the kids read books.

Finally, about an hour or so from our destination everyone started to perk up. By the time we got to the city we were staying in, everyone was hungry and happy to be there. We ate a nice dinner and relaxed before our next day’s events.

That Saturday was terrific! We were able to tour different parts of KU and the kids did some hands on activities: from building and flying paper airplanes in the Engineering Building, to sorting through over 200 cards that had majors on them, it was a terrific time. We ate at Mrs. E’s cafeteria and it was a blast. It was like Golden Coral but cleaner, nicer, and with a bunch of college kids. After lunch, our kids went with their cousin to visit her sorority and my husband and I went to a workshop about how to prepare your kids for college. It was informative and wasn’t just trying to sell us on KU.

After the Super Saturday concluded, we went window shopping and people watching on Mass. Street. We spent time with my niece and got some frozen yogurt. Soon we knew we had better hit the road to head back home. (I might mention that there was rain in the forecast, but we had sunshine our whole day and trip back home.)

All the way home we talked about KU, and colleges, and life, and all kinds of topics. We laughed, my husband gave us a 7 minute time frame to see if we could make it in and out of the truck stop we stopped at. It was a big place that had fuel, a Starbucks, restrooms, all kinds of drinks and snacks. It was fun and we were only 29 seconds over the time. Ha!!

Anyway, I’m so glad we went when the temptation was so strong to just not make the effort. I am aware we could have had a lousy time; however, you never know if you don’t go forward and try.

*Have a great week!! Thanks for stopping by and reading and sharing your time.