The Daily Birch: Lately

"Life is going to get easier in the new year,"  I said to myself. "I'm going to have more time to blog, to take care of my self, and to get organized!" I excitedly thought to myself. 

Seven weeks in to 2017 and I finally started to put my plan together to achieve just that.

I spent the better half of December, and a good chunk of January, sick. By the time I started feeling better our house was overrun by the holidays, two months worth of clutter piled on top of already existing clutter, and unpacked boxes scattered around the house from our move in July. 

On a mid-January morning I woke up feeling claustrophobic and spent the whole week scrubbing, decluttering, and organizing the house. I had barely scratched the surface but I was finally able to breathe. 

Stop to snap the sunset. (February 10, 2017)

Setting small habit forming goals has been my MO the past two months. Increasing water intake, decreasing alcohol consumption, spending more times outdoors, and hitting the gym have been helpful in reducing my anxiety. I can count on one hand the number of times I've felt crippling anxiety this year. Granted, there are daily stress inducing events but I've been able to handle them...for the most part.

My daily gratitude journal has been a blessing, specifically on days when it feels like nothing good happened. There are days when I don't want to reflect, I don't want to be grateful for anything, and all I want to do is just quit. But that's never an option and pushing through and finding ten things to be grateful for helped me end those bad days on a good note. Because let's be honest, I (and we) have a lot to be thankful for and we are truly blessed. Every bad day, and every challenge, makes us stronger and helps us handle the next day and the next challenge with new found strength. 

Finding time to blog again. :) 

Listening to minimalist moms podcast.

Learning to do more with less.

Reading Grace, Not Perfection. This book is helping me re-think the structure of my days and how I organize my life (family, friends, house, etc.). Highly recommend it!

Working on my consulting website and looking for my next digital marketing client! If you or someone you know needs help with digital and social media marketing strategy, content creation, and daily maintenance, let me know! 

What are your favorite life organizing books, podcasts, bloggers, worksheets, etc.?