simplify. part 4. {a blogging break}

I've talked about different parts of my life--from online life to quotes to other forms of media-- that I'm simplifying over the last week or so; and now its time to talk about this blog and the other blog I created to track my journey to living healthy (Jen Lives Healthy). 

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The first time I wrote this post, it was something along the lines of the fact that I was just going to get 'back to the basics', and talk about list updates here and basic updates on where my weight loss is over at the other blog.  Maybe just a few posts total each week.

But as the past week went on, and I found myself busy with life--good life moments--I decided that it might be time for a break from blogging here.

For those of you that know me in a space other than this blogging space, and want to stay caught up on our world, I am going to be updating our family blog more {I promise!  And I don't break promises}.  And that is actually one of the reasons I want to take this break.

I want to make sure that I am capturing all of the beautiful, once in a lifetime moments that we are experiencing right now for my children, my husband and myself.

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Last Wednesday was one of those moments days.  A soul filling, beautiful, random afternoon and evening in Edinburgh.  We played at Edinburgh Castle--which is usually full of tourists--on a sunny and mild day, and felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Which is something we don't mind in the least.

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And yes, I have a little idea in mind of something else I'll be working on at the computer, if time allows and my brain cooperates.  {wink}

During the months of March and April, if something real exciting comes up, I may pop back in--so don't go away! Keep me in your reader or however you happen to read these posts.  Once those two months roll on by, I'll check back in and see how life is going. See if I'm feeling a pull to write here or if something else is pulling me somewhere.

Also, (at least for now) I'll still be over at Instagram, so feel free to follow me there (jenlives). I will write monthly updates over at Jen Lives Healthy, so I can keep a good record of the 'action'.

AND if you want to still follow along with our family, and haven't gotten our family blog URL, please comment, email me or comment on Facebook, and I'll get you the URL.  I'm keeping it a bit on the private side, as I use all of our real names and such, but I'm willing to share it with my friends here in the blog world.  {smile}

So until May... may your spring be bright, beautiful and full of joy.

Ciao for now.

simplify. part 3. {about media}

I'm on a mission to simplify.  To focus on completing what needs to be done, I need to focus less on items that don't need or shouldn't require my attention. I'm going to take a few posts to talk about the steps I'm taking to simplify; and then move on to the task of doing. 

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Covered so far:  quotes and online media

Today?  Other kinds of media.  

1. television:  I've already severely cut this back just by not watching it during nap/quiet time.  I watch a bit after the kids go to bed, so its pretty limited.  This has been working brilliantly. 
2. game playing on my phone/iPad: Much like Facebook, this is a way for me to stay in touch with people.  I mostly only play games like Words with Friends, Dice with Buddies or Ruzzle that are played against/with people.  And those people are just about always with family or friends. So I won't change much of anything here.  I've tried to cut down the number of times I play throughout the day; but a lot of that just depends on what the day brings us.  Sometimes  its a nice time filler when I'm watching the kiddos play happily without me.  
3. reading:  through Lent I've committed myself to reading some 'self-help'-ish type books.  Once Lent is over?  That's done.  Its back to the list of 100 books recommended by the BBC I want to read (its on my bucket list).  Or any other fantastic book I've heard about from someone else. If a must read self-help book falls on the list, so be it.  But along the lines of my post about quotes; I'm darn good enough already.  I need to take a break from 'self helping' myself.  

Just one more post about my plans for this blog and Jen Lives Healthy, and then I'll be done.  Whew. Who knew simplifying could take so much time?  

Monday Missions {Week 7}

So, uh, yeah. Didn't finish last week's mission, to get our family blog updated. But I did get a good start...I got all the way through November!

Might not sound like much, but we had a ten day trip to Minnesota in November, and it included Thanksgiving, a first haircut for J#4 and a first dentist appointment for J#3' among other things.

But that just means this week's Monday Mission is easy to figure out...hopefully I can get all the way caught up with the family blog.

With it taking so long to get caught up with that, it's really helping me make some decisions as I 've been simplifying. So you can probably expect a sort of 'announcement' of sorts later this week.

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So tell me..how have you been doing on you Monday Missions?

simplify. part 2. {about online life}

I'm on a mission to simplify.  To focus on completing what needs to be done, I need to focus less on items that don't need or shouldn't require my attention. I'm going to take a few posts to talk about the steps I'm taking to simplify; and then move on to the task of doing. 

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Alright. Imagine this.  You sat down at the computer and caught up on high school and college friends on Facebook.  You checked email, returned a note back to your Mom or best friend, maybe checked out movie times.  

Simple? Yes.  A time in the past?  Yes.  Probably about four years ago. 

Now a sit down at the computer takes upwards of a few hours at times.  I can literally sit down at 1:15, when I get J#3 off to nursery school and J#4 down for her nap, and keep myself busy until 3:15 when its time for me to wake up J#4 and go pick J#3 up.  TWO solid hours on the internet.  

And you know what?  A good solid hour or more of that time is taken up reading about people I don't even know.  Through their blogs or on Instagram.  People I've never met and likely will never have a chance of meeting.  

I LOVE blogging and the community of it, don't get me wrong.  There are some fabulous ladies that I communicate with pretty regularly here and on Instagram. And I plan on continuing to do that.  

BUT there are folks that I'm not even sure why I started following; and there are some that constantly make me feel like I should be comparing myself to them {not their fault, of course...just the way my mind works}, which doesn't lead to anything good.  

So, here is my plan. 

1. Instagram: I've limited the people I follow to {keep in mind this is still a large group, but feels a bit more manageable}:
• people I know personally, 
• bloggers and other online friends that I communicate with quite a bit, 
• of course a few celebrities, {because I MUST know what color nail polish Kim Kardashian is wearing. bahaha.}
• and some of my favorite 'popular' bloggers like Kelle Hampton.
2. Blogs: I got a bit more cutthroat on the blogs.  I've subscribed via email to some of my favorite favorites.  {Note to any blogger reading: please add this as an option to your blog!} And the few that don't have the option that I want to keep up with will still be available in my reader.  BUT I except my blog reading to be cut down by 50% at least.  Maybe even more.  
3. Twitter: I've deleted twitter from my phone and iPad, so if I want to check it I have to do it on my desktop computer.  Which means-it won't happen often and I'll likely just check in with the few people that I really want to keep up with {again mostly people that I have met}.  Honestly, I've never caught on very well with Twitter.  I'm sort of 'on and off' with it, so there is a good chance it'll find its way back, but for now its just on the computer. 
4. Facebook:  Ah, Facebook.  I'm trying to cut down the number of times I go on it.  That's all I can do there.  That IS mostly people I know, and have known for quite a while. Its my link to 'home' for now.  

What is this really all about?  Limiting my time with media.  Increasing time focusing on my family and my passions, like writing.  And writing more than just a status update.  

simplify. part 1. {about quotes}

I'm on a mission to simplify.  To focus on completing what needs to be done, I need to focus less on items that don't need or shouldn't require my attention. I'm going to take a few posts to talk about the steps I'm taking to simplify; and then move on to the task of doing. 

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If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you might have noticed that I have a thing for quotes. You know, the ones that are all pretty with nice backgrounds and big ideas?   They have been all over the place, in posts--some have even served as the inspiration for a post.

(shared by this lovely lady on Instagram)

I LOVE quotes.  I probably had about 300 + (or more?) saved on pinterest.

Now?  I have less than twenty.

Here is the issue.  While I thought I was using them as motivation; I think they were making me feel like I needed to improve. ALL the time. Which isn't true.

As I said at the start of the year, I am enough. And having a constant "motivation" saved as the wallpaper on my phone or iPad, or even on my computer desktop, I think probably subconsciously was making me think that I wasn't enough.

Of course, striving to be better is a part of life, but it can be done without the motivation of quotes.

They were taking up a bunch of my head.  Seriously. Enough to garner an entire post on their own? Yes, embarrassing as it is, yes.

I'm ready to simplify life.

Step one? Delete quotes.  Everywhere.  If they are really that awesome, and are something I really need to remember-they will find their way back into my sphere of influence at some point.

Monday Missions {week 6}

What is Monday Missions?  It is a weekly event, taking place on, well...Mondays.  The idea is to decide on one thing that you will get done during the week, so that you have a reason to look forward to next Monday. Share your Monday Missions on the Living a Listful{l} Life Facebook page or in the comments; or if you blog feel free to write a post and share the link in the comments. If we spread the word enough and get a bunch of bloggers involved, I'll create a link-up too.

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Another Monday?  Why yes it is.

Time for our Monday Missions.  How did you do?  Get it done? Or do you get to make it your mission again this week? No worries, life happens and having to push out the mission another week is bound to occur.

Last week, I gave myself three things to do.  Geez louise, what was I thinking?  Actually they were smaller things; but items that I couldn't procrastinate on any longer.
1. Make pediatrician appointments for kiddos during our April Minnesota visit. 
2. Make cardiologist appointment for me during our April Minnesota visit. 
3. Research possible trip to Isle of Skye (Scottish Highlands) over Easter. 

Check, check and check!  Completed all three.  The Isle of Skye?  I researched that for two and a half hours Saturday during nap time, PLUS some more time after everyone was up and finally found the place we'll stay at after about four hours of research.  I guess good things really do come to those who wait.  

Here's a map of the Isle of Skye.  I'm just a little {read: VERY} excited about our trip.  I'll be sure to share about it after we get back. And The White Heather, where we are staying?  BEST hotel website ever.  Plus, they have a family room-so how could we go wrong? 

Source: whiteheatherhotel.co.uk via Jenny on Pinterest

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So, this week.

This week I've had a hard time deciding what to choose as my Monday Mission, because there is a ton of stuff I want to catch up on during the month of March {which starts on Friday?!? I can't even believe it}.

But I think I've decided to get caught up on our family blog.  I have barely updated it since...um...last Fall?  {blushes and looks away}

I'm guessing you'll see the fruits of my labor here, because a few of the topics fall into the category of bucket list items, like our trip to Rome last December.

Off I go now, I think there are about ten to fifteen posts for me to write over there.

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Alright...your turn.  What's your Monday Mission?  Big or small, it doesn't matter, just share so you are committed to it!

unexpected friendship

If you asked me to define a person  who would make a 'good' expatriate (if there is such a thing) my words would probably sound something like:  "the opposite of my husband and me".

While we are are both open to change and not adverse to taking risks, we both tend towards the introverted and reserved side of the spectrum.  Our thoughts lean more towards the quality of our friendships rather than the quantity of our friendships.  Not exactly the traits of people that will have an easy time of 'putting themselves out there' in foreign countries and making the first move to develop a friendship.  

Knowing that, I fully expected to move back to the United States with the same friends that we had had when we left Minnesota.  And perhaps we'd add to the list in the Netherlands (the only place we thought we'd live) because it would have clearly been hard to go three years just talking to each other.  Plus, now in Scotland, just about seven months before we leave this country, I find myself growing closer to women who come October will likely never share a continent with me again. 

Sigh.  But that's not the point of my writing today.

What I didn't expect to happen over the last three years was to create and foster friendships with people who are there.

In the United States.

While I'm over here in another part of the world.

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We sat around a table at Caribou Coffee on a Sunday morning last November.  Some of us had been communicating daily for a large part of the last ten months and this was the first time we would meet face to face.  We were missing a few essential parts of our group, but they were there in spirit. It was a day for the my record books.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd be part of a group that has now stuck together for over a year on a tight knit, private group on Facebook. We offer each other support, advice and a few barbs (for competition's sake) here and there.

Its thanks to this group that I gained the love for exercise that I have in the last year.

And its thanks to a few of these ladies {perhaps a few that aren't even playing anymore} that I truly feel understood and cared for as I continue to try and figure out how to live a healthy lifestyle on an ongoing basis.

It was out of the blue that I found people that I can now call friends {and will be friends in person after I move} when I am thousands of miles away.

Seriously, a few of these people could have quite literally been sitting at a table across the aisle from me three years ago, and I would have never known.  And now, instead of being across the aisle, they'll be at my table.

I'm one lucky girl.

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Joining Kristen at Chasing Blue Skies for Out of the Blue again this week.  Take a quick second and find your way over there; it iss clear to me that you never know who you could find via the internet.