Blogging about personal growth in financial independence, health, and happiness
I’ve had a lot of fun over the last year going through my family’s genealogy. Digging into rumors and fact, old documents and family stories (Spoiler alert: I was lied to as a child, and we are not, alas, illicit descendants of Queen Victoria). And as I’ve done that and have seen some of the struggles that my ancestors overcame, I’m struck by how much my financial heritage—my financial DNA, so to speak—influences my life now.
I come from a farming family. In fact, my family’s farm has been around for close to 150 years. I didn’t grow up on the farm, but that heritage is vitally important to me, and I have a lot of respect for what farmers do. It also means that I get a little testy when activist groups try to vilify certain farmers for not meeting their (often unreasonable) “health” demands. This is especially true with organic products (and non-GMO labels, but I’m not even going to touch that can of worms today). But with that background, and having a deep personal connection to agriculture–one that is supported with plenty of my own research–I don’t buy organic. Continue reading “Why I Don’t Buy Organic”
In every high school movie, there are the stereotypes. The jocks, the nerds, the music kids, etc. Take a minute—think of the stereotypes in your school. Which one were you? I’m assuming that some sort of answer, even if it isn’t a perfect fit, popped into your head. Or, at the very least, a hybrid of a couple archetypes. Having assigned identities provides security—a platform to define yourself upon and to explore from. But it also limits you. To reference a teen movie masterpiece, Zac Efron’s character in High School Musical (Troy) struggled because his identity was “jock,” but he wanted to perform in the school musical.
Those limits, the constraints of the identity that you either chose for yourself or that someone else assigned, can be stifling. And how do you break away from them, especially when the identity overall seems like a good fit or a natural choice? What opportunities are you missing because you have on blinders that only let you see a straight path forward?
It’s my birthday!!! I’m just a tad excited. I took the day off, and I plan on doing fun, relaxing things. I also plan on spending some money, but on things I value, which makes it worth it.
Continue reading “Celebrating My Birthday and Spending Money”
Well, we’re at the end of September, so it’s time to report back on how I did with tracking habits this month. In some respects, I’m happy with my progress, but I can definitely tell that it’s been a hard month in terms of stress. Continue reading “Weekly Update: A Month of Habits”
This weekly update is going to be super short because I’m currently with family celebrating my mom’s birthday. It’s great to be with loved ones, and I’m even more glad that I was able to surprise her for the weekend!
And StarDog is thrilled to be staying with the pet sitter. He views it as his own extended sleepover, and he always has a ball. She doesn’t have cats, so he gets to sleep in the bed there…
Like I mentioned last week, this will be a weekly section on what I’m grateful for every day. I’m hoping that by documenting these, it will remind me to be more mindful about the good things in my life.
Tuesday: StarCat had a relatively painless annual checkup at the vet, and everyone there could not get over how handsome he was!
Whatever you’re doing this weekend, I hope it brings you joy. I’d love to hear about your plans, and what you’re grateful for this week—write me a comment below!
I have a confession: I’m dropping $2,500 on a completely elective purchase in October. And on two weekend trips that were planned pretty last-minute. And I have no regrets. Having my finances together gives me the flexibility to address what’s important in my life. Financial flexibility isn’t necessarily frugal, but it does mean my money is going to things I value.
Continue reading “Financial Flexibility for What’s Important”
The last two weeks, since getting back from Peru, have been difficult. I was sick for a good portion of them and exhausted constantly. It’s also been stressful applying for jobs and not feeling like I’m getting anywhere. All of these factors meant that I wasn’t being very diligent about cooking at home and eating healthy. In an effort to prevent that this week, I did some massive meal prepping today!
Continue reading “Weekly Update: Meal Prepping and Gratitude”
In case you haven’t been closely reading all of my past blog posts, you should know: I really like to bake. I spend money on good flour, and I’ve collected far too much of my mom’s hand-me-down baking equipment over the years. I like baking sweet things, and I love cake decorating, but what I’ve enjoyed most in the past year is experimenting with sourdough.
Continue reading “Delaying Gratification and the Art of Sourdough Bread”
In Thursday’s post, I wrote about my attempts at tracking good habits through the month. I came back from my trip to Peru full of motivation to keep improving. Then, reality hit. But instead of beating myself up about not succeeding as much as I’d like, instead, I took the opportunity to practice some much-needed self-kindness and self-care.
Continue reading “Weekly Update: Self-Kindness and Self-Care”