682 - Italy Was Cancelled. My Staycation With My Husband
Organize 365: Productivity Tips for Home and Life Organization
Release Date: 10/31/2025
Organize 365: Productivity Tips for Home and Life Organization
I left you hangin’ in the last episode as to what the mindset shift is that you must have so that you can be a productive person. It’s Discipline. And discipline is my word for this year. "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment" - Jim Rohn What is the definition? -Some of you may have a negative knee jerk reaction to the word discipline. Ready for me to reframe discipline in you mind? It is… -The act of gaining control with obedience and order (like holding yourself accountable to picking up after yourself.) -Having behavior in accordance with rules (like the Sunday...
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Who remembers defragging your computer to make it run more efficiently? I’m talking about defragging time confetti into time blocks today. “What is time confetti?” Yes, thank you for asking…it’s all those little 2 or 5 minutes that are free and sprinkled throughout your day. How can you most effectively use your confetti time to conquer the never ending, always evolving list of essential time blocks that you must complete as the mom, wife, and/or household manager? 4 Essential Time Blocks Let’s start with what demands our time. We have some mandatory tasks (time blocks) that...
info_outlineOrganize 365: Productivity Tips for Home and Life Organization
Looking to be more purposeful, more planned, more organized and you don’t know where to begin? Good news! Join me for the Piles to Productivity Webinar on Monday Jan. 19th @ 8AM ET!! Click the link below and get registered because there will be a replay sent to those who register (if you can’t make it live.) EPISODE RESOURCES: Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag when you share on social media.
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Ok, it’s another peek into my brain. I’m sharing the things I want to follow me into the new year and things that I’m leaving in 2025. I thought it would be beneficial for you to hear my thoughts behind these decisions and get you thinking about how you want 2026 to look for you. Planning provides a lens of calm. Somehow when a plan is in place, even if it changes, it is not as jarring as when you have to react to change with “emergency energy.” What will be joining me As I think about 2026 approaching, there are some significant changes happening in my life. Abby will have...
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Happy New Year! Which resolution did you choose; to lose weight, get outta debt, or get organized? Those are the three most common resolutions. But with any good goal you must have a way to execute an action plan otherwise you will have the same environment just different desires. Tame the Toddler Sometimes it feels like there is a toddler running around in our brain, right? It is constantly reminding us of future things you need to do. You are just trying to do a task like write an email but your brain is constantly bombarded with things you want to do as you look around your...
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You made it! All the holiday stuff is done. It’s the day after Christmas and you are finally coming up for air. You finally have a minute to think about what you need on this bonus day as your family is entertained with their new stuff. Well I have a couple of treats for you. I know on Black Friday, you were shopping for others. But now, now that you can think about what you’d like…You’d like to upgrade your DIY Sunday Basket®. You are in luck because when you get the Sunday Basket®, now till the end of the year, you will also get a portable Sunday Basket®! That’s a...
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Happy Boxing Day! Let’s talk about transitions and what you need to declutter or add to resemble where you are going. We are all transitioning into the new year. I’m sharing the smallest shift you can make to be more intentional with what you want to get out of 2026. How are you planning with that anticipatory energy of things to come when the ball drops at midnight on New Years Eve? Transition So yes, we are all transitioning into a new year. We have this anticipatory energy as to what could happen for us in 2026. For me personally I’m thinking about a “new me” too. I know...
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We are in it! There’s no time left to plan anything so how can you still be proactive and ahead of things? I’m sharing my sanity saving tips to meet you and your family’s needs and still show up as your best self in these last couple of weeks in December. We are in those flexible strange last weeks of the year so what can you do to save your sanity? Event Go Bags If you only have time to implement one thing - this is it! Event go bags are like the go back you should have packed to grab at a moment’s notice so you have the things you need while you are away from home for an...
info_outlineOrganize 365: Productivity Tips for Home and Life Organization
Are you ready to hear all about Sarah Hart Unger’s new book, “Best Laid Plans”? I learned new things from reading it and in this podcast I hope you too learn new ways to make yourself more efficient. Then grab your copy of her book. There are few people who love to plan as much as me and Sarah is one of them. Sarah shared all about planning with school aged children, how she’s overcoming distractions and how to still dream. Closed Systems Input She had me by page 14! She was talking about all the input from closed systems that we are all overwhelmed with between an...
info_outlineOrganize 365: Productivity Tips for Home and Life Organization
I feel it and I know you do too. That decluttering and planning energy is starting to bubble up but who has time to deal with that? No one. We’re all stuck in this purgatory of sorts where Thanksgiving is done but there’s a lul until the December holiday that you celebrate. So I’m sharing best practices to harness that energy, use it for good, but all delay doing anything about it, for just a little bit. Decluttering You are waiting for all your purchases to arrive. You know what people are getting or even yourself and you want to purge the old. But wait! If you purge toys now, what will...
info_outlineI know, I’m full of shocking news lately. Yes, we cancelled Italy again! I started to feel like we were really pushing this trip through and it was causing a lot of anxiety. Plan B became a staycation. I can’t wait to tell you what we did!
Cancellation Reasons
Everyone encouraged me to not cancel the trip. Four days before we were supposed to leave I turned to Greg and said “We can’t go to Italy.” And he completely agreed. I didn’t buy the insurance this time but we are able to recoup most of that money as long as we book within a year so third times a charm hopefully!
When Abby told us this spring that she was pregnant we were excited for this new little heartbeat but also realized that meant she’d be 25 weeks when we were away. Now the time had come and we just didn’t feel right leaving her. I had set up all these people to come help her and then there was the dog to worry about and it was leading to a lot of anxiety. Once we decided to cancel, that all went away and the environment in our house was immediately better. It’s funny once you cancel something and then the issues that were prohibiting you all of the sudden are gone. But nonetheless, we decided on a staycation and I got to planning!!
4 Days with Greg
Day 1: We decided to visit a few small towns nearby to do a little boutique shopping. You could still feel the effects of Covid because the store hours were limited and some were only open on the weekends. Then we went to a cooking class and learned how to make pasta. We had fun but might not be “our thing.” And then toured Home-O-Rama. It was different than what we were used to.
Day 2: We had a great day in Lebanon, OH. We went to lunch at the Golden Lamb and tried to shop again. I quickly realized all the shops were for women. We found an art gallery though and really enjoyed our time there. We found out we both really like the same artwork and found a few artists that we will keep our eye on. Funny enough some of the artwork was that we had seen in the homes of Home-O-Rama. And then we drove to another little town and we checked into our hotel. There was nothing to do so we waited till the restaurant opened at 4pm. We had a two and a half hour dinner and I was really intentional with the conversations I started. This is “our thing” and I’d like to have more leisurely dinners with Greg.
Day 3: Family needed us so I am glad we didn’t stray too far.
Day 4: Last day we were off together and we headed to the Keenland horse track in Lexington, KY. We had a great time. The people watching was fantastic. I discovered I might need to pick up a sundress because this too was something we really enjoyed that I would like to do more of and I like to look the part. When in Rome… It was fun to discover new things we like to do together and it was great to connect with Greg!
Baby Ready
And I got to spend some time with Abby. We spent some special time together really getting her ready for the baby. It was nice to have some undivided time to support Abby.
I can’t wait to tell you what I did with the remaining days of my time off. And I want to share with you something I realized about technology and how conversations are more difficult these days because we have all the information coming at us all at the same time. It’s not like we are sharing new information with each other. That was why I got so intentional with my conversation with Greg the night of our long dinner.
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