Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 66
January 29, 2014
Sometimes You Just Have to Say It Out Loud
source: Mandi Ehman
Although I wouldn’t say I struggle with depression normally, I can clearly look back and see two times when I was dealing with depression: when living in my parent’s basement for a few months (without enough natural light) and after the birth of our third daughter.
I’ve shared a little about both of those experiences, and both times my depression manifested more as anger than sadness.
So when I found myself snapping at every little thing the girls said or did, perpetually angry with Sean, and annoyed by all. the. people. over the past few weeks — on top of feeling pretty overwhelmed and teary about trying to get any work done — it didn’t take me too long before I realized that there might be a bit of depression at play again.
After thinking it over for a day or so, I finally said to my husband, “I think I might be dealing with a bit of postpartum depression.” He replied — matter-of-factly, because he knows me well — “That would be my guess too.”
And you know what? It helped.
Just acknowledging the feelings — and the biological role that my crazy hormones play in it — has made a big difference.
Please know that I’m not at all minimizing depression, and I believe it is important to seek help if you’re struggling with depression, especially if you’re contemplating suicide or thinking of hurting your baby.
But simply acknowledging it is the first step. It’s made it easier for me to step back and evaluate the feelings of anger when they start to build irrationally. It’s helped my husband to react differently to me when I’m snappy. And it’s helped me to reprioritize eating right, since I know that plays a role in my hormones as well.
Whether your struggling with mild or severe depression, saying it out loud is the first step, and there are tons of resources out there to help you work through and overcome your depression.
Don’t suffer in silence: tell your husband or a friend and call your doctor today. It’s worth it!
Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Sometimes You Just Have to Say It Out Loud
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 28, 2014
Zubie: Peace of Mind, Personal Diagnostics and More!
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Zubie for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I mentioned last month that our family would be testing the Zubie as we kick of 2014! Because we tend to buy older, higher-mileage cars, we are especially excited about it’s ability to monitor the health of our vehicles and alert us to any problems early on.
The other benefit we hadn’t foreseen is the ability to check the location of the car from our iPhones. So when one of us is out with the kids, the other doesn’t have to wonder whether sending a “Where are you?” text could potentially cause an accident, because we can easily see where the car is. I’m pretty much in love with this feature for when our girls get their licenses, not for spying on them but because it will let me track their progress through our winding mountain roads when they don’t arrive home when I think they should!
But for those teen drivers, the Zubie does also let you monitors and track speeding, sudden acceleration, hard braking and more so that you can help your teens become safer drivers. I think it also provides a convenient defense against the peer pressure to speed or drive aggressively.
Have a Zubie New Year: order today with code SAVE20JANand SAVE 20% on one year of Zubie always-connected car service and a free Zubie Key. A great way to use your Best Buy and Amazon holiday gift cards! Offer good through 2/28/14. Shipping charges apply.
Be sure to follow Zubie on Facebook and on Twitter for the latest product news!
Zubie: Peace of Mind, Personal Diagnostics and More!
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 27, 2014
Free Printable Color-Me Valentines
The following post is from Jason & Jennifer Bruce of New Season Design :
Valentine’s Day is coming with all of its candy-flower-card-giving goodness!
While some kids beg for pre-printed cartoon character cards from the grocery store, our daughter prefers to add her creativity to her valentines. Sometimes we make our own with construction paper and glitter and glue. This year she’ll be coloring these cute color-me valentines. I love that she spends a little bit of time on each card, adding her special touch.
Click here to download or print the valentines.
Jason & Jennifer Bruce are the husband-and-wife design team behind New Season Design, where they work together to help clients put their best foot forward online. Jason is a pastor-turned-graphic designer, and Jennifer is a teacher-turned-blog designer who also blogs at The Simple Pen about life, learning and the things she loves.
Free Printable Color-Me Valentines
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
Get This Real Food Bundle Worth More Than $100 for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com}
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7-Day Real Food Challenge by Roxanne King
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Real Food for the Real Homemaker from Real Food Cookbooks
Real Food Hits the Road by Millie Copper
Eating Additive Free Cookbook & Shopping Guide by Christy Pooschke
Even if you’re not interested in this week’s bundle, be sure to sign up for the BundleoftheWeek.com weekly newsletter so you can be the first to know about the latest bundle:
Get This Real Food Bundle Worth More Than $100 for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com}
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 25, 2014
Weekend Reading: January 25, 2014
source: Mandi Ehman
I was a little sad that I wouldn’t get to buy baby girl clothes when we found out we were expecting a boy, but it turns out that baby boy clothes are pretty fun too! We’re buying more clothes with characters, pictures and words on them than we did for our girls, but I look forward to getting this little guy dressed every day, and I’m having a lot of fun with his clothes!
Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading and what I’m pinning to see the other posts that make me stop and think (or, you know, drool…). You’ll find new posts all week long!
Family {Time to Play}
Give childhood back to children | The Independent
The Importance of Free Play for Learning | MindShift
Reading Books Is Fundamental | NYTimes.com
Life {Be Intentional}
The Art of Presence | NYTimes.com
When your day is interrupted | The Art of Simple
What Makes a Person Memorable | Storyline
Olympics {Crafts & Activities}
Winter Olympic Activities for Kids | Toddler Approved!
The Winter Olympics Unit Study Resources | Mama’s Learning Corner
Free & Discounted Olympic Resources | Free Homeschool Deals
Have a great weekend!
Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Weekend Reading: January 25, 2014
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
CommentsI agree that boy clothes are pretty cute as I've discovered ... by KristenRelated StoriesWeekend Reading: January 18, 2014Weekend Reading: January 11, 2014Weekend Reading: January 4, 2014
January 24, 2014
A Day in the Life…Homeschooling & Working with a Baby
Since I get the question “How do you do it all?” often, I thought I would give you a glimpse into a normal day in our home. I say this not with false humility but in all seriousness: right now I don’t feel like I’m getting anything done, and that’s with my husband home full time and three really great helpers. I’m doing my best to be okay with that, but as an INTJ, I miss getting things checked off my list!
{7:15am} Still trying to get on a regular morning routine. Baby boy’s going through a growth spurt and woke up to nurse at 5:30 rather than his usual 7. I just couldn’t convince myself to get up, so I went back to sleep while he nursed and then we got some snuggles in before the sun came up!
By far, the hardest part of having a new baby for me is missing out on my early morning hours. I would happily get up at 4 or 5am every morning, but because I’m determined not to mess up the success we’ve had in “sleep training” (I say that loosely, because I’m mostly following his lead!), I spend a lot of the early morning hours retrieving Jackson’s paci for him. Because I know sleep is important for my sanity too, that means I’m sleeping in as long as he’ll let me, which is usually around 7am.
{8:00am} A friend invited me to join her group for this session of GoodMorningGirls.org, and I’m really excited about the accountability and format of this Bible study! {I didn’t get signed up until Monday night, so that’s why I’m already behind, lol!}
Although I almost said no to joining this study (because the last thing I need is one more thing on my to-do list!), I decided that the format was perfect for getting back into the habit of regular Bible study, and so I signed up on Monday. I’m committed to doing it first thing each morning during the week, and so far I’ve been able to wake up and pop Jackson’s paci in one last time while I do it. It takes me 20-30 minutes, which seems like a realistic amount of time to set aside each day during this season!
{8:15am} Little man woke up, so I got him changed and the nursed him again. In the meantime, the girls woke up and came downstairs to start working on crafts and Legos. Then the chorus of “Can I hold him?” began, so our oldest is holding him while I work on writing my to-do list for the day!
While we’re not on a strict schedule, our mornings do follow a fairly predictable routine. Either before or after he nurses (depending on whether it’s his first feeding or he’s already eaten), I get Jackson changed and ready for the day. This gets me off my butt and moving because otherwise I could become permanently attached to my seat on the couch. Baby boy is usually really happy during this part of the day, so it’s a great time for the girls to hold him, which gives me time to get something done as well!
{8:30am} Got a load of laundry folded while I waited for my tea kettle to whistle. The girls are using their 20 mins of Wii time while Sean makes breakfast, and I’m going to attempt to finish today’s post and answer a few emails!
While I used to be on top of the laundry, it’s pretty much out of control at this point. I do my best to get caught up at least once a week, but I’ve given up hope of staying on to of it! But folding laundry while my tea kettle heats up is a great way to at least make a little progress.
I also used to try really hard to have my first post of the day up at 8am sharp, but I’ve learned to be flexible with that time and just get it up at some point during the morning (as evidenced by this post, which still isn’t ready at 10am!).
Note, too, that I’m not even responsible for preparing most of our meals, a blessing I don’t take lightly. Normally I do dinner, but right now Sean’s even handling that meal so that I can focus on the baby, work and homeschooling.
After breakfast, the girls started on their schoolwork. This is a light week for us because my grandmother was visiting and our oldest had a friend spend the night on Sunday night, and we ended up calling Tuesday a snow day as well, but we’re still doing the basics since we took off quite a bit of time between Jackson’s birth and the holidays!
{10:15am} Time for language arts with the big girls {my favorite!} while our kindergartener does her math! The baby’s in the sling and the 4yo is Lego-ing.
Thankfully, I was able to get my post done and emails answered, but Jackson didn’t stay happy in the swing for long, so he ended up in the Boba Wrap. After I finished my post, I called the girls over for language arts. They do most of their schoolwork independently, but language arts is the one subject I love to teach.
{11:15am} Read alouds while I nurse the baby.
We read for about a half hour each day. Although I always imagined we’d read more than that, it’s hard for me to fit in much more in a regular day, but the girls listen to lots of audio stories as well.
{11:50am} My hubby and I are both doing the 7-Minute Workout. He’s been doing it for about 10 days and LOVES it (he does it twice in a row every day). I started yesterday and I’m SO sore, but I’m getting my 7 minutes in before my shower anyway!
I know they say that anyone can make time for exercise if they want to, but it’s just not a high enough priority for me to set aside another 30-60 minutes during the day. That said, I need to do something now that I’m in my 30s and my metabolism has given up, and Sean and I are both really excited about this 7-minute workout trend. I downloaded an iPhone app, and it literally takes me just 7 minutes to complete the workout before my shower. And I am so sore, so I’m feeling pretty good about this being a good exercise routine for me right now!
{12:30pm} Sippin’ an almond-banana smoothie and rocking this guy to sleep while my hubby makes lunch.
One thing I’m being really cautious about is not just passing off Jackson to willing hands when he’s not nursing because I know I will miss these snuggles, and I want to soak them up as much as I can. To be honest, this was the part of the day where my interrupted sleep over the past few nights caught up with me, and I was beyond grumpy and irritable, so the snuggle time was good for me too!
After they ate lunch, the girls headed to their rooms for afternoon quiet time. We’ve actually gotten pretty loose about the quiet time requirements, so they’ll often play in pairs as long as they’re getting along and playing quietly. And the 4yo plays best when she’s in the kitchen or family room with me (but without her sisters), so that’s where she ends up most days.
{4:45pm} Man…fussy baby, tired mama means we’ve just been cuddling. I did drink my afternoon tea, and Jackson’s now sleeping in his swing after nursing again, so let’s hope I can tackle some of this to-do list!
I hate getting back to work at the time of day when the workday should be ending, but it is what it is right now! I managed to get a few more things checked off my list, including some progress on the new Life Your Way site, so that felt good.
{6:15pm} Life is rough when you’re 3 months old.
Jackson ended up back in the sling again during dinner. Afterward, the girls watched a half hour of TV, while I got in some after-dinner work time.
Baby boy usually naps in his swing for one nap and in the sling twice. I’ll worry about transitioning him to naps in the crib at some point, but right now he needs to be upright because of his reflux anyway, and I enjoy having him close.
{7:00pm} We finally finished our Christmas thank you cards! Addressing them right now just so I can get *something* checked off my list!
After TV time, I had the girls finish signing their Christmas thank you cards while I addressed the envelopes so that we could finally get these sent.
They then headed off to brush their teeth, change into pajamas and then read or craft quietly in their beds until they fell asleep. Sean heads up to tuck the big girls while I snuggle with our 4yo in our bed. {He’ll carry her up to her bed once she’s asleep, but we find that this works better so that she gets the extra hour or so of sleep that she needs.}
{8:45pm} Okay, who taught my baby to make duck lips?!
Our evenings pretty much consist of nursing, playing and cuddling until about 11pm. Sean and I really enjoy this time with Jackson because he’s happy and alert and we don’t have to share him!
So there you have it…a pretty typical day in the Ehman household. I think I probably only got a fraction of my to-do list checked off (and I was fairly conservative with what I even put on the list!), and my only “chore” for the day was to fold a load of laundry.
I can’t remember how I got any work done when the other girls were babies, but I wasn’t homeschooling then, so I imagine that’s a big part of it!
What’s your best tip for getting things done with an infant in the house?
Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
A Day in the Life…Homeschooling & Working with a Baby
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 23, 2014
Free Homeschooling Checklist and Proofreading Marks Printable!
Earlier this month, I shared a screenshot of the checklist my girls have been using for their school work (as part of my “Homeschool Planning Made Easy” post), and a few people emailed to ask if it was available as a printable. So today it is!
Click here to download or print the homeschool checklist. You can print out the blank planner or fill it in and save it on your computer first.
I’ve also been wanting to put together a proofreading marks cheat sheet for my girls, and I’m really happy with how this one turned out.
A few months ago we were having trouble with the girls getting upset when I’d ask them to correct the mistakes in their daily copywork. I asked on Facebook, and quite a few people recommended using proofreading marks to mark the mistakes instead, and — amazingly — that worked! They now hand me their notebook, I add any marks to it and then hand it back, telling them how many I’ve made so they can search for them and make corrections.
Note: Because my goal is to help them find and correct their own mistakes rather than to do it for them, I have made a few adjustments to the traditional marks that are used by editors. Rather than inserting a period, for example, I just draw a circle for any missing punctuation so they can figure out what’s missing. Similarly, SP traditionally means “spell it out” and is used for abbreviations that should be spelled out, but we use it for spelling errors so that they can figure out the correct spelling for the word rather than me making the corrections for them!
Click here to download or print the proofreading marks cheat sheet.
Looking for other homeschooling printables? Here are some others in our collection:
Homeschool Rules
Language Mechanics (Punctuation & Capitalization)
To-Do Checklist for Kids
Homeschool Planner
Daily Tasks Checklist
Piano Practice Chart
Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Notebooking Pages
Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Free Homeschooling Checklist and Proofreading Marks Printable!
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 22, 2014
Tea Versus Coffee {for New Moms}
While I was on maternity leave, I made lists of the things I wanted to share with you about life with a newborn, and I’m excited to do that now through this series: Notes from the Newborn Daze. Because I know not all of our readers are at this stage or interested in reading baby tips, I’ll be sharing those just once a week over the next couple of months, with plenty of tips, stories and encouragement for other stages in between.
source: Mandi Ehman
I didn’t become a regular coffee drinker until our fourth daughter was three months old. I was working full time and — due to the downturn in the economy, which severely affected my husband’s sales business — responsible for paying the bills, and she was not even close to sleeping through the night.
The Keurig became my best friend, and I quickly learned to drink black coffee, drinking one cup mid-morning and another mid-afternoon to keep going through the day.
A daily cup of coffee has been my habit ever since, alternating between regular coffee and a tasty three-shot latte. However, I was worried that it had contributed some to our daughter’s colic, so (along with dairy) I gave up coffee the month before Jackson was born.
Around that time, I started drinking red raspberry leaf tea by the quart mason jar to prepare for labor, and when my mom spent two weeks here she introduced me to a variety of other flavored and herbal teas.
While tea had always meant the classic Lipton’s tea bag brewed for a cup of tea or pitcher of iced tea, this was different. This was tea.
I drank it solely for pleasure at first, but slowly I realized that the caffeine levels of tea provided a much better rhythm to my day than the ups and downs of coffee.
I started being more intentional about my tea choices – drinking 2-3 cups of black tea during the day and a cup of herbal tea in the evening, and it really did help me maintain consistent energy throughout the newborn stage, which happened to coincide with the busy holiday season.
One of the things I like best about tea is that the caffeine levels are low enough that I can drink a cup and still lay down for a nap if the opportunity presents itself. I rarely feel wired from it, and I don’t experience the same caffeine dependency symptoms — headaches and occasional heart palpitations — that I did with coffee.
And it’s easy to make and enjoy a wide variety of flavors, making it an easy, healthy treat that I look forward to throughout the day.
I’ll share more about my favorite brands and flavors and how I organize my tea stash next week, but first, a quick note about caffeine and nursing babies:
About Caffeine & Nursing Babies
Less than 1% off the caffeine you ingest passes to a baby in breastmilk, but because babies aren’t able to process and excrete that caffeine as well as adults, it can accumulate over time. Because of this, some sources recommend that you consume no more than 300mg per day, which is the amount found in (roughly) two 8-ounce cups of coffee.
On the other hand, tea has significantly less caffeine per cup — approximately 35-50mg per 8-ounce cup — so even 3 cups of black tea only results in 100-150mg for the day, a number I’m much more comfortable with. You’ll want to be sure to consider other sources of caffeine as well (soda, chocolate, etc.) when evaluating your caffeine consumption.
That said, babies who are especially sensitive to caffeine may become irritable or have trouble sleeping even on smaller amounts. However, we haven’t had any issues this time around!
Are you a tea drinker? Do you give up caffeine while pregnant or nursing?
Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Tea Versus Coffee {for New Moms}
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 21, 2014
5 Quick and Easy DIY Projects to Green Your Life
The following post is from Emily of Live Renewed:
source: Emily @ LiveRenewed.com
Some of my friends who are new to green and natural living tell me they’re unsure where to start. They say they get stuck trying to decide which changes to make first or which ones are the most important. I definitely understand, because starting to learn about natural living can be overwhelming. But, I always encourage them to start small, take baby steps, make small changes, and just start somewhere.
When moving forward on your journey toward greener and more natural living, it’s not so important which changes you make, or which order you make them in, but just that you are making changes. One small change leads to another, leads to another, leads to another – and before you know it, your life will look much different then the lifestyle you’re living today. It’s like the question of how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
And there are so many simple and easy changes you can make today! And these changes can make a big difference in your life and have a positive impact on your family and on the world around you! And the best part is, these are easy DIY projects you can do at home in as little as 20 minutes or less!
So if you’re ready to get started, here are five simple DIY projects that are easy changes to make and will help you live a greener, more natural and homemade lifestyle!
source: Emily @ LiveRenewed.com
1. Green and Natural Cleaning: Make a homemade multipurpose cleaner.
If you haven’t yet made the switch to green and natural cleaners around your home, I want to show you today how easy it can be. Once you’ve made this homemade multipurpose cleaner you will wonder why you waited so long!
Supplies:
Empty Spray Bottle
Liquid soap of some kind (you can use either natural dish soap or castile soap)
Essential Oils (Tea Tree Oil, lemon oil, or a thieves oil blend are all good ones for cleaning)
Fill your spray bottle almost full with water. Add several squirts of soap and about 10 – 15 drops of essential oils – mixing them for best results. Shake to mix together, and shake each time before using to distribute the oils.
Use this for cleaning all around your home: your kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, floors, kids toys, and more. Pretty much anything you need to clean, you can clean with this multipurpose cleaner!
2. Natural Personal Care Products: Make a homemade beauty product.
There are so many different personal care products that you can easily make yourself at home! The supplies you need will depend on what recipe you are making, but some basic supplies that are good to have on hand for making homemade beauty products are:
Coconut Oil
Olive Oil
Almond Oil
Beeswax
Essential Oils
You can make homemade deodorant, sugar scrub, lotion bars, or body lotion. Or check out my Homemade Beauty Pinterest board for even more ideas!
Making homemade beauty products can seem hard and overwhelming, but really, most recipes that I have made myself or come across really only take 10-20 minutes. Less then the amount of time it takes to make an average dinner meal. Once you’ve gathered your supplies, I’m sure you can find a small chunk of time to make your own personal care product! Just think how proud you’ll feel after you make something at home that you used to purchase at the store!
source: Emily @ LiveRenewed.com
3. Green Baby & Child Care: Make homemade baby wipes.
It’s important to get our babies and kids in on our green and natural living changes. Not ready to commit to cloth diapers yet? Make a smaller change to using cloth wipes and once you see how well they work, you won’t want to go back to the disposable ones!
Supplies:
Thin baby washcloths
Castile Soap or natural baby wash
Essential oils (try lavender for newborns and tea tree oil and geranium for babies over 2 months)
Water (filtered or distilled works best)
Empty baby wipes container
Place the washcloths into the baby wipes container, you can fold them nicely or just throw them in there, either way works! Use about a cup of water and add several squirts of castile soap or natural baby wash and around 5-10 drops of essential oils. Mix together with a fork ,and then pour the solution over the washcloths until they are saturated but not completely soaked.
These wipes are perfect to use for diaper changes. They make clean up so much easier then disposables wipes that often just smear the mess around more. Or you can add them to your diaper bag or purse to use as wet wipes to wipe messy hands and faces after eating, or even to clean and wipe down surfaces like shopping carts, high chairs, tables and more when you’re away from home.
4. Around the House: Make hankies to use instead of tissues.
It’s cold season and that can mean lots of nose blowing, especially if you have young kids at home. (Don’t their noses seem to run constantly this time of year?!) Make reusable hankies for your family to reduce the amount of waste you create, save money, and protect little noses from getting chapped from too much blowing.
Take an old t-shirt, flannel receiving blanket, or some other piece of scrap fabric and cut it into squares. Our family’s hankies are between 6″x6″ to 8″x8″. Use a small basket to hold your hankies in a spot where you usually keep your tissue box and encourage your family to use them. Their noses will thank you!
source: Emily @ Liverenewed.com
5. In the Marketplace: Make reusable bags out of t-shirts.
Another way to give new life to something old sitting around your house is to make an unused t-shirt into a reusable shopping bag.This is a super quick and easy sewing project, because if I can do it, you can do it!
Turn a knit t-shirt inside out, line up the bottom seams, and sew a straight line across the bottom Turn the t-shirt back right-side out and cut off the arms holes at the seam. Fold the shirt in half and cut the neck hole off to create handles that are even on both sides. Trim the seam and corners if necessary. Turn the bag right-side-out and use it for your next shopping trip!
These 5 areas of green and natural living are covered in depth in my new ebook Green Your Life: A Guide to Natural, Eco-Friendly Living. For more tips, ideas, advice and more DIY recipes you’ll want to check out this comprehensive 250+ page guide to help you live a greener and more natural life!
If you purchase the Green Your Life ebook through the end of January, you’ll also receive unlimited full access to the Green Your Life Challenge online e-course coming up in February. That’s a 60% discount! If you’re looking for resources to help you along on your green and natural living journey, then Green Your Life is the perfect book for you! Click here to get more information and grab your copy of the book!
How do you take baby steps, or make small changes, toward a greener and more natural lifestyle?
Emily McClements is passionate about caring for God’s creation while saving money at the same time. She is a blessed wife and mama to two young children, and blogs about her family’s journey toward natural and simple living at Live Renewed.
5 Quick and Easy DIY Projects to Green Your Life
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved
January 20, 2014
Tech Tips to Ring in 2014
The following post is from Lauren Rothlisberger of Get Me Geeky:
Here we are, half-way through January, how are your New Years Resolutions going? I am not really one to set resolutions, but instead put out new goals and challenges for myself in the new year. Mandi wrote about her method of doing this by choosing one word to focus on. She chose “LIVE”. Her in blog post really struck a chord with me. I think this idea of picking a word to rather than setting lofty goals allows for more success than failure.
In fact, I like it so much I am “borrowing” her idea and her word. I hate feeling as though I live in survival mode all the time. Last year was an incredibly full and inconsistent year. With two deployments, one new baby, three other kids to care for, and many other balls in the air it can be very difficult to just “live”. But having an infant around is a constant reminder of just how fast the kids grow and change. Much like Mandi I want to ensure that I am focusing on my personal goals, but not at the expense of the most important thing to me, time with my family.
The best way I know to make this happen is to live very intentionally. With so little time in the day I really need to set out with a plan and streamline my day as much as possible. And even more difficult, I need to do that while remaining flexible to the needs of my family, especially with baby Will.
Mandi put together a nice list of actions she is going to take to support her word, LIVE. I would like to take a look at a few techy tools that might help us out in our quest to simplify and live more intentionally in 2014. Hopefully whether you set goals, resolutions, chose a word, or don’t buy into this at all, you might find a handy tool below.
Plan & Organize
This past fall was a great reminder of just how important keeping with a daily plan is for me. I got way off track when the kids and myself all came down with the flu. That led right into the holidays. and I spent almost two months scrambling to keep up with everything. I personally keep a daily portfolio of all my tasks. This is nothing impressive, but my helpful tip is to do it the night before. That was you hit the ground running when you wake up.
For my daily portfolio I use Evernote to maintain a list broken down by category (work, home, school..).
Also take a look at Wunderlist . Wunderlist is the premier to-do list app. Sometimes you just want an app that does one thing really well, in this case lists.
Part of planning your day and remaining organized is keeping a calendar. Most of us have a lot of balls in the air, put the burden of tracking all that on the computer. There are a lot of calendar options, but I have become particularly fond of Fantastical. It integrates with iCal and takes your instruction to add events through your voice better than any other app. Just tell you phone the event and Fantastical gets it on there.
Health & Fitness
In order to LIVE, we must take care of ourselves and reduce stress. Exercise and eating are an important part of fueling our body so we can tackle the day in our best condition. If I wake up dragging I never seem to have the energy to get both what I need to do, and what I want to do, done. MapMyRun and FitBit are both very helpful in tracking your progress. There is no need to set lofty fitness goals. Just get moving and while your at it try and eat right. Meal planning is both a huge help in eating healthy and staying organized. Trying to figure out “what’s for dinner” at 5 wastes a lot of time. I know because I am guilty of it. Plan to Eat is an awesome meal planner, and True Food helps you make the right choice on what to eat.
Money
We also must reduce stress, and while there are many causes of this, money it at the top of the list. Take this new year to re-access your finances and perhaps give yourself a better pulse on the situation. You can keep it simple and write down your financial goals in an Evernote note, or keep a little more detailed and start using Mint to track your finances.
One Last Tip
My last tip is to “read it later”. We are constantly distracted by our computers and smartphones. Those things can easily get you off track from either getting your tasks done, or spending time with your loved ones. All a distraction from LIVING. While there are many apps out there that allow you to save it later, lately my favorite has been Safari’s reading list. You can easily add a link to the reading list from any device and it is right there.
I hope a few of these apps help you stay on track in the new year.
What app would you contribute to this list?
Lauren Rothlisberger blogs and consults over at Get Me Geeky. As a military wife and mom of three girls five years old and under, she loves focusing on technology and productivity and finding new ways to simplify her life. She recently started putting together MacMinis, which are easy to follow videos for Mac users, and also wrote an ebook, Evernote for Moms.
Tech Tips to Ring in 2014
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