A Year of Books 2014

As you can see from above, I've been busy reading a lot this last year. My goal is 25 books for the year and I still have over a week to get in that last book. I'm fairly confident I can do it.

#RandomActsOfDecember 2014

Some of you may remember that last December I teamed up with my good friend Jen over at Peace, Love, and Life for a project we called Random Acts of December. Our intent was to do 100 random acts of kindness throughout the month to pay it forward and do something to positively change the lives of those around us. While we didn't make it to 100 last year, we had a lot of fun and made many people smile.

Because life happens in the course of a year, we will be in different places this year. While I'm sad we no longer live a short 15 minute drive from each other, I am excited that it means we get to spread happiness in multiple places!

And just to clarify, our acts aren't necessarily random meaning unplanned. Most have been planned out due to needing supplies or what have you and are random in who receives them.

If you want to see what we're up to, feel free to follow along using #RandomActsOfDecember on social media. If you're lucky enough to receive something from us, feel free to post about it using the same hashtag.

Social Media Links:
My Instagram
Jen's Instagram
My Facebook
Jen's Facebook

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Just what the title says. I've been thinking about ways to get back into blogging, because I know I've been MIA, and a friend suggested I kind of switch the direction of the blog. That's exactly what I'm going to do, but at this point in time I'm not sure exactly how that will change things here. It might just be an overhaul of the design and layout, or it might mean even more changes. I am setting a loose timeline of having things completed in January. Until then, and much like the last year or so, I'll be in an out.

Please feel free to let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions as well. While I probably can't take action on everything, I will do my best to take it all into consideration.

Foodie Friday - Keurig 2.0 Review

When I found out I was going to receive a Keurig 2.0 complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes I was super excited. Not long before I had mentioned to a friend that I really wanted a Keurig, but I wasn't sure I could justify the price at this time. The Influenster Gods must have had their ears open when I was talking.

100 Days without Pop??!!

At some point around the time of the Super Bowl in early February a friend mentioned that the Monday after the Super Bowl is as popular a time to start eating healthy as January 1. We were talking about small changes we could make to help us make better choices. It was never meant to be about making huge leaps from having candy, cookies and pop to suddenly having carrots, celery and water. It was about the small things. I decided that one thing I could do without was pop.

The first thing I did was try out a few apps that keep track of streaks. Most didn't work out, but this one was so simple to use and it reminded me every morning to check off the previous day. You can download Habit Streak Plan here if you have an Android phone.

Keep pushing

I'm trying a new daily quote app and this was the quote for today. It really hit home in so many ways.

Everyone has value. Everyone serves a role in the world, regardless of whether or not at any one particular moment they are embodying it. If we treat everyone as though they have something, and not just any something but something positive, to contribute to the world, maybe they can one day be capable of becoming a more positive force.

I've thought and thought, and then even thought some more, about what might be a good example of this and I'll do my best to put it into words that are coherent for others.

It's been a while.

I'd like to blame being busy or work or any other excuse I could possibly have for my absence from blogging, but none of that would quite be accurate. Truth is, I lost my motivation. Somewhere between the still warm breezes of fall and the first foot of snowfall I lost my motivation for just about everything. I didn't even make resolutions this year.

That's how far away my motivation ran.

I'm not going to promise great things are coming. I'm not going to promise to blog every day. I'm not even going to promise to blog every week. What I can promise, I hope, is to try to blog on whatever sort of schedule I can cobble together every now and again.

It's not for lack of ideas. I have TONS of ideas. I have TONS of things I'd love to share with the world. I just haven't been keen on actually sitting down to type it all out or remembering to take pictures of it before it's given away as a gift or eaten up, etc.

So there you have it.