In seasons where everything feels upside down a few tools can keep you going. Life can be exceptionally hard. There have been seasons full of days where I wake up and just focus on the next few hours. In my house there are interrupted schedules, strong emotions, unexpected setbacks, and lots of family. I am…
All posts tagged planning
Choose Your Own Adventure – Climbing Out of Overwhelm
There are many paths to take back to a less stressful lifestyle. How you get there depends on you and what is in your path. Do you remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books? That was the shelf of the school library that I always checked first. Each book was well-loved with pages worn and…
New Year, Same Old Me
The calendar change does not require an upending of my life, just encouragement to make small adjustments. Yesterday I sat in my quiet kitchen with gingerbread toast, a mug of English tea, and listened to a podcast that reminded me of a few of my foundational truths. “I want us all to have the foundational…
Mental Anchors: Why a Word of the Season Helps Find Focus
Feeling overwhelmed by life’s noise? A simple word can bring clarity, guiding you back to what’s essential and keeping your mind calm—no endless lists required! I sat at the kitchen table in the dim early morning light. The quiet curled around me with arms of comfort. I stared at the steam rising from my hot…
All is Calm & All is Bright – Making Christmas Enjoyable
Set the tone for a joyful holiday season by embracing calm, creating space, and preparing with these practical tips for navigating the busy Christmas season. Christmas is always a time of “extra things”. It is a level of busyness that is unmatched in any other part of the year. Multiple family gatherings, performances, school events,…
Planning – Academic Year vs. Calendar Year
My recent planning realization and why it works for me so much better than January goal setting. I attended public school as a student, then went to college for a teaching degree, and then became a public school teacher. Most of my formative life I spent thinking of each year in terms of what grade…
My New Digital Organization System
random thoughts on using Notion, digital organization, and layers of To-Do Lists from Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain:“Our minds are for having ideas, not holding them. A digital organizational system helps us offload information, freeing mental space for creativity and deeper thinking.”“When you externalize your thoughts into a digital system, you free your mind…
Build a Restful Weekend – 4 Questions for Ideas
Building a restful weekend can be tricky in a culture that moves too fast-paced and has little understanding of the desire to slow down. We have lost the art of building downtime on weekends that fill us up and bring us energy for the week ahead. When I began changing what my weekends looked like,…
Summer Reflection – What Worked & What Didn’t?
Each season of the year has challenges and changes. I want to apply those lessons learned, not repeat them endlessly. Reflection brings me valuable insight. I am inspired to do reflection by what Brené Brown calls Act 2 – The Messy Middle. Characters in a movie, book or any story get stuck in Act 2.…
Avoiding Buckets of Ice Water
The transition into Back to School Season can often feel harsh and abrupt. I plan to do things differently this season. [ + free PDFs ] 🌞 Our society treats transitions like a bucket of ice water dumped on our heads. Fast, cold, abrupt, and shocking to our systems. Then we wonder why we can’t…