Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I'm loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I've collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! 🙂
Kaitlynn’s class hatched chicks this week — which was pretty exciting for everyone in the class! 🙂
I had fun going back to my roots and making some yummy recipe concoctions using what I had on hand and what I found marked down at the store.
We’re fulfilling a longtime dream of ours to have floor to ceiling bookshelves built in our library, complete with a ladder! I can’t wait to show you the finished shelves — they are supposed to be done this week!
Kaitlynn has been hard at work on her Science Fair project! She’s doing an experiment with growing spores. It’s quite fascinating and kind of gross! 🙂
I got lots of great deals at the store this past week and have had so much fun documenting them here and on Instagram Stories. I was especially excited that I stayed under my $70 grocery budget (I spent $68.22 total this week on all our groceries!)
Something I’ve Been Pondering
"If you hustle hard enough for long enough, you'll achieve what you're aiming for!"
I read these words recently online and wanted to reach through the screen and gently put my arm around the writer and ask, "Is it worth the cost?"
Not too many years ago, I was this writer. I could have won all sorts of awards for how driven and disciplined and diligent I was.
I basically never missed a day of blogging — I blogged when I was miserably sick, on weekends, on holidays, on vacations. I never took a maternity leave and I even live-blogged my second labor!
I often stayed up until 2 or 3 am — and this was during the years when my babies weren't sleeping through the night and I was waking up multiple times per night to nurse them!
I was perpetually exhausted, stressed, and anxious. And I didn't know how to stop or relax.
This took a huge toll on my health, my marriage, and my relationships. I had so little life outside of work and blogging.
But I kept pushing… because my worth and identity was wrapped up in how much I did, how successful my online work was. My worth was in my work.
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm a big fan of working hard, being diligent, setting goals, and following through. But as someone who completely burned herself out chasing after more — more traffic, more income, more followers, more opportunities, more media, more recognition, more impact — I'm here to tell you that more isn't all it's cracked up to be.
And the thing about chasing after more is that you rarely ever know when enough is enough. Because it usually never is.
These days, my life is a lot simpler… my blog traffic isn't as impressive, my income isn't skyrocketing like it once was, I'm not getting many calls to do national media, I'm not signing book deals, I'm rarely traveling for business, and I only work about 35-45 hours per week (instead of the 55 to 70 hours I used to work).
And I have a LIFE! I stopped chasing and hustling and racing through my days at breakneck speed, so now I have time to notice the beauty, reach out to a friend, get enough sleep, hang out with my husband, be more present with my kids, and embrace this amazing life right in front of me.
(Want to read more about this journey? Read my post on Why I Stopped Hustling and Why I Wish I’d Done it Sooner.)
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 19 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I'm using the Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 18 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 148 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.
Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: I've finished one book so far.
7. Take the kids to South Africa.
**Progress: We nailed down dates for our trip!
8. Go on a family road trip.
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: We’re getting ready to start finishing out the workout room this coming week!
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.
**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, and Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April.
