I cannot believe that 2020 is only half over. Sounds strange, right? Aren’t we always musing about the speed at which we fly through time? But so much is different this year, and we’re ALL feeling it. The COVID19 pandemic is keeping many of us mostly at home so we can avoid spreading a barely-understood virus to our friends, family and neighbours. As a result, the economy has tanked and people are finding themselves out of work. While my family hasn’t personally been impacted by that, thank goodness, uncertainty and instability is something I’m very sensitive to. I feel it…

I know I haven’t published a blog post in between Lil’ Buddy’s 8 month update and now, but I feel like I have a good excuse this time. In the past month, seemingly EVERYTHING has slowed to a crawl due to COVID-19. Businesses have closed, services have stopped and you’d THINK that would translate to me having MORE time and energy to blog. Well, you’d be wrong. The truth is, I’ve been super protective of my family, time, energy and self-care this past month. My town experienced a major flood at the end of April and while my home thankfully…

Well, wasn’t January just the longest year ever? I’ve seen that meme everywhere on social media, and I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels that way. Isn’t it interesting how some months seem to just fly by (like, where did the first week of February go?), and some months just seem to drag on? I’ve been meaning to write a concluding update for my January no-spend challenge, but we’ve been dealing with some issues with the baby’s health and weight gain, and that’s zapped pretty much all my mental energy for the last two weeks (don’t worry, everything…

Since I left my job in 2018 and became a stay-at-home mom, it’s been a long process of developing mindfulness in regard to my spending. When I was employed outside the home, I made a good salary and I often bought things without really thinking about whether or not I needed them. In fact, I often bought things knowing full well that they were wants instead of needs. I was still putting money away in savings, I was still covering all my bills, so the rest of it was just mine to spend. And truth be told, something was missing…

As I begin to build this blog back up, you’ll notice that I write a lot about minimalism, cutting down and bringing less stuff into my home. Part of that is because we just have way too much stuff, but also because I want my home to feel more peaceful, and I want my children to be grateful for the things they have.  Regrettably the holiday season in our culture, I feel, has become the exact opposite of that. There’s a reason why we keep seeing articles and blog posts encouraging people to “simplify the holidays”. As it turns out,…