Tuesday

Technology I'm Drooling Over


I love to read. For people who know me, that statement comes to no surprise. I remember being in High School sitting in the library reading a book. This is what people are supposed to do in a Library, right? Anyway, I remember my friend Heath flipping paper clips at my "Gone with the Wind" book, and telling me I'm boring when I read. I don't understand the problem, I mean I'm completely entertained. :) And more poor husband tolerates a lot when I find a good book...you know a the-house-could-be-burning-down-around-me-and-I-wouldn't-notice kind of book. Oh, how I love to read; I love to get lost in the story; for a few moments(hours) escape reality.

My house is over-run by books, and I've donated countless books to the library to make room for more. I keep a catalog of books I've donated to the library so I can still check them out later. You get the idea?

All if this add's up to the one piece of technology I want more than anything. The Amazon Kindle 2. This thing is amazing!! Some of my favorite features, and surely would be my husband's favorite if I had one:

1) It holds 1,500 books! No more begging him to build me a 3rd bookshelf. :)
2) Books are cheaper, most books sell for around $9.00 (See it saves $, honey *wink, wink*)
3) The Kindle 2 has a read to me feature, so when I should be cooking dinner I can listen to my story and pay attention to what I'm cooking at the same time. (Hear that, no more burnt dinners.)

Hmmm...the more I think about it, the Kindle 2 could help me have marital bliss. :)

Do you have Kindle? What do you think?

Blessings,

Apryll

Monday

Tips from Simple Living Manifesto

I don't know about you, but my life is chaotic. I don't even have children yet, and I feel like I'm always running from one place to the next or double booking myself. I like hearing other peoples ideas on how to make my life a little bit easier.

In part of my search I found an article called Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life.

He has a lot of great tips on here, so I thought I would share some of my favorite's with you. There are a lot of great ones, some I won't list yet because they could be their own blog post and I want to expand on them.

1) "Make a list of your top 4-5 important things. What’s most important to you? What do you value most? What 4-5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things."

3) "Evaluate your time. How do you spend your day? What things do you do, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep? Make a list, and evaluate whether they’re in line with your priorities. If not, eliminate the things that aren’t, and focus on what’s important. Redesign your day."

5) "Simplify home tasks. In that vein, think about all the stuff you do at home. Sometimes our home task list is just as long as our work list. And we’ll never get that done either. So focus on the most important, and try to find ways to eliminate the other tasks (automate, eliminate, delegate, or hire help)."

18) "Free up time. Find ways to free up time for the important stuff. That means eliminating the stuff you don’t like, cutting back on time wasters, and making room for what you want to do."

20) "Spend time with people you love. Again, the list of 4-5 important things probably contains some of the people you love (if not, you may want to re-evaluate). Whether those people are a spouse, a partner, children, parents, other family, best friends, or whoever, find time to do things with them, talk to them, be intimate with them."

36) "Learn what “enough” is. Our materialistic society today is about getting more and more, with no end in sight. Sure, you can get the latest gadget, and more clothes and shoes. More stuff. But when will you have enough? Most people don’t know, and thus they keep buying more. It’s a never ending cycle. Get off the cycle by figuring out how much is enough. And then stop when you get there."

45) "Find a creative outlet for self-expression. Whether that’s writing, poetry, painting, drawing, creating movies, designing websites, dance, skateboarding, whatever. We have a need for self-expression, and finding a way to do that makes your life much more fulfilling. Allow this to replace much of the busy-work you’re eliminating from your life."

46) "Simplify your goals. Instead of having half a dozen goals or more, simplify it to one goal. Not only will this make you less stressed, it will make you more successful. You’ll be able to focus on that One Goal, and give it all of your energy. That gives you much better chances for success."

72) "Always ask: Will this simplify my life? If the answer is no, reconsider"

He has tons of great tips, and I look forward to learning more. I hope some of these tips helped you. :)

Blessings!

Sunday

What Your Children Tell Me

I work with a teen youth group at my church. They are a great group a kids, and they keep me young. Today the subject somehow turned to parents. I asked the question: Do you want to have a good relationship with your parents?

Some of the answers were really sweet. One girl said she loves being close with her parents. She wants to be the girl who at 20 years old will still sit on her Daddy's lap.

One kid told me how her whole family will go downstairs and all hang out together watching movies. She also talked about how she loves eating together as a family.

Another kid quietly said how she would do anything to have that. She said they only eat together at the table as a family when she is in trouble as a punishment. She is sad that her mom never asks her how her day was, and would love to have a family dinner all at the table just to have time to talk.

If you are a parent reading this, know this: even if they act otherwise: your teen wants to talk to you, wants to spend time with you, wants to know that you care about their day, and wants you to be a part of their life. While this all came up in todays conversations...it's not the 1st time I've heard statements similar to all of these, from different kids.

Life is precious, time is short, and homes should be a sanctuary. What is one thing you can do, in my opinion, to strengthen family bonds. Eat at least one meal all together around a table with the television turned off. Talk about eachothers day, find out what is going on in eachothers life, pray together. They might act like they are "too cool" for family time, but they love it and crave for it.

Happy Sunday!

Tuesday

Fresh Start - Changes coming

Hello to my handful of faithful bloggy readers. Sorry I've been so slow at updating my blog recently. Mostly it is because I really had no idea what to right about. So over the weekend I have done some serious thinking on bringing focus back to my blog. Thinking about what I'm passionate about, what other might be interested in learning. Here are some new features you can expect to start seeing:

Ideas to simplify your life - I don't know about you, but my life can tend to be chaotic. I've been learning lots of ideas lately to get this under control. I'd love to share with you what I'm learning and let you know how it's working for me.

Tips to get healthy - Let's just face it...I'm not...but I really want to strive for it. I know there is the basics we all know: exercise and eat less calories than you are burning. However, I think there are healthier choices we can be making every day...and more than just in our food/movement choices. I'll share with you what I'm learning here.

Shameless plug day once a week - I have three businesses I'm working on right now. Once a week I'll talk about one of the products and the business that goes with it. To make the shameless plug bareable...there could frequently be a giveaway associated with it.

Techie days - I'm a technology geek. If it's new and great...I have to have it. I don't always get it, but I haven't been opposed to staring in the store window and drooling. ha ha. Seriously, I'm always researching new technology because it fascinates me. Who knows, maybe we'll both find something we can't live without.

Son-Filled Sundays - I would not want to forget the One who makes every day possible. On Sunday's you'll see something about our Lord. Perhaps it will be something that struck me in church, or a simple song, or something that God has just laid on my heart to share with ya'll.

What else do you want to hear about? I would love your ideas. I really love doing research, so I'm not afraid to look into anything.

If you read my blog ever, please know you have my deepest love and gratitude.

Blessings,
Apryll

Saturday

A Daddy's Love

I stumbled across this video today and that it was wonderful. I hope you enjoy it!!



Blessings!