I’m not a Republican or Democrat. I do tend to vote for liberal policies and candidates, but I also want our money spent wisely and am fairly fiscally conservative. I consider myself a moderate and a realist. I’m almost always…
I’ve been writing in my journal for a couple years now. However, it used to be just a recap of the things I did during the day. Sometimes it was only a short bullet list recording events, sometimes a paragraph…
Happy Lunar New Year! 2020 is the year of the rat. I don’t traditionally celebrate the Chinese New Year or follow the Chinese Zodiac. But it turns out I’m a “rat” on their zodiac calendar. So this is my year!…
I made a commitment a couple years ago to read more. I did this for a few reasons. First, I had a lot of books I’d been wanting to read. Two, I spent (spend) way too much time online. Three,…
I’ve been trying to meditate more regularly. Boy howdy do I need it! Today’s guided meditation was a lesson on equanimity. e·qua·nim·i·ty /ˌekwəˈnimədē/ noun – mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation. The message that…
Note: in an effort to become a better writer, blog more often, and maybe grow readers, I’m posting this on Medium too. If you’re so inclined, I would love a clap or a share or whatever. Thx. Part of my morning…
And that’s a wrap! I did my “digital detox” for the 30 days of April. You can read the rules I setup on that link, but basically I removed most notifications from my phone/watch and committed to not checking most…
Yesterday marked two weeks of going through my “digital detox”. I followed Cal Newport’s direction for a 30 day digital detox from his book “Digital Minimalism.” I had been losing my interest in most social media platforms anyway and had…
This year has been a rough start for me. Between losing a month of pay with the government shutdown (contractors didn’t get backpay), my contract waiting to be awarded, our dog passing away, and more responsibilities in general, I feel…
It’s been a rough couple weeks for me since the government shutdown started. The first two weeks were pretty easy because the whole family was home for winter break. But now they’re all back in school and I’m just sort…
Last year I signed up for Goodreads‘ Reading Challenge. I purchased a used Kindle Paperwhite in December 2017 because I decided I needed to read more … especially more than just professional texts related to work. So I committed to reading…
Last year I tried to theme my year with three words rather than commit myself to resolutions that I knew I wouldn’t keep anyway. I first heard of the concept from Mike Vardy, who in turn took the concept from Chris…
The last several months have been super busy. I accepted the program manager role at work; but in doing that, I had to not only learn those tasks, but help my old team with their work load, and find and…
I can’t remember where I originally saw this graphic, but had it saved in my images folder. If you know, please let me know so I can credit the original! Such a great list though …
I’ve been struggling lately. Not struggling to be happy, I’m a pretty happy person … goddammit! No, I’m struggling to see the positive in things. Social Media and the fake news is really hitting me hard. I’m aware that the constant…
A week off of social media certainly helped make me feel better. I took the time to focus on getting some things done on my to-do list, take care of “me”, and decide how to proceed. Social Media is too…
I’m getting worn down by the political world again. I need a break. Too much hate, anger, accusations, finger pointing, and power struggles. I’m going to do my best to stay off social media for the remainder of the week.…
The wife found this tasty recipe over on Oh She Glows. Since she was working late, however, I had to make it. Fortunately, I love potatoes … so it wasn’t a hard sell at all. I’m blatantly stealing the image and…
Like many people, I never fully subscribed to New Year’s resolutions and only halfheartedly created them. Since I never really took them seriously, I pretty much doomed them to failure. Rather than continue something that didn’t work, I just stopped…
Baked apples are a Fall tradition in our house. Every year since the kids were little we’ve gone apple picking. When you’ve got bags and bags of apples, you have to figure out a way to use them all. Apple…
I made this vegan garlic Alfredo sauce tonight … and it was a hit! The recipe is from “The Vegan 8“, so it’s only eight ingredients. I found it took a little longer than the recipe suggests to make. It…
For the record, I don’t shop for organic foods because they’re healthier. I shop for them because they’re grown and/or produced without the use of (or with severely limited use of) pesticides. According to this article in The Telegraph the…
I’ve recently decided I need to practice more mindfulness. I’ve always been pretty carefree and not really too focused on the past or future. The problem is, I also tend to default to just “live” in the present. I have…