My to-do list isn’t that important.

May 23 – My to-do list isn’t that important.

For the past several weeks my to-do list has been growing at an alarming rate. Alarming because I haven’t had time to start crossing things off that aren’t incredibly pressing.

I’m fully aware that next week I’ll have the time to jump in and attack my list with all of the force it deserves. And until then, I’ve been trying to keep it organized – using a rainbow of highlighters to indicate similar projects.

But organization or not, it has been a little stressful knowing that I’m adding things to my list faster than I’m crossing them off.

And then I remembered, God’s got this.

He created the world, and He’s got a plan.

In His grand scheme, my list of things that need cleaned, people that need called, and articles that need written is not as important as it seems in my mind.

In a few weeks, my to-do list will be completely different than it is now.  Tasks will be marked off and new projects will be added. And God will still be ever-present and loving, and His plan will still be in place. There’s nothing I can do that will mess this up, because God’s got this.

The list certainley needs to be addressed, but it’s nothing to stress about.

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Catching the Sun

May 22 – Catching the Sun

The hummingbird feeder and my iced coffee lined up perfectly for a few minutes yesterday morning.

This is what growing up looks like. Kind of.

May 21 – This is what growing up looks like. Kind of.

With a new job and a growing collection of freelance writing assignments, I’ve got quite the collection of contact information. I haven’t had the best system for keeping everything together and organized, either. I have several business cards in my wallet and a few e-mails I’ve saved for the information in the signature.

But this weekend I grew up and entered the world of organized, young professionals. I created a Rolodex out of a recipe box, index cards and alphabetical dividers.

Then, because I want to ensure that “young” will be tacked on to “professional” for a while to come, I made my Rolodex cute with scrapbook paper.

And a bonus photo so you can have a better look: 

Garden Experiments and Cupcake Explorations

May 18 – Summer Mornings

The weekend started well. Friday morning I woke up early, watered my new flowers, and sat on the balcony with an iced coffee to contemplate life.

May 19 – Explorations

Saturday we explored our town. We went to the library. We browsed downtown shops. We ate at a new-to-us local restaurant. We tried out a few new thrift stores. The day ended with Louie, a Springfield Cardinals cupcake. Louie was a delicious blend of red velvet and french vanilla cake marbled together in one great cupcake. (The cupcake was named by the cupcake shop, but had I named my cupcake before eating it that would have been perfectly acceptable.)

May 20 – The Garden Experiment – Take Two

My balcony garden is expanding. In the past week it has gone from a lonely balcony weasel named Lil’ Weezy to a plant-filled oasis of flowers, peppermint, tomatoes, jalapenos, cantelope and a humming bird feeder. Let’s  hope it fairs better than last year’s balcony garden. I tried growing the same number of plants and ended the summer having had two small strawberries.

Any gardening tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated.

(If your tip goes something like, “Keep scissors away from your plants,” I’m aware. I used them to open the bag of potting soil.)

Extra special, ordinary day

May 17 – Extra special, ordinary day

Dustin surprised me at work yesterday. He stopped by with a bouquet of Sharpies and pens, a bouquet of roses, and a lunch date invitation. I accepted, of course.

After work, we had a picnic dinner (supper) in the park. We weren’t ready to go home when we got finished eating, so we went to the store to see what we could find. It had been awhile since we’d been in a store without a shopping list, so it was kind of exciting to go with no expectations. We ended up with two chairs and a potted plant for our balcony.

The rest of the evening was sent sipping iced tea and enjoying our purchases outside.

Sometimes frivilous things make ordinary life seem spectacular and extra special.

Pillows, Blankets, and Thankfulness

May 16 – Pillows, Blankets, and Thankfulness

Dustin is recovering from a minor illness. So we canceled our plans for the night, covered our balcony with pillows and blankets, and sat outside talking until it was time for bed. We went through our relationship, starting with the night we met, and we talked about all the things God has done for us in the short time we’ve known each other. It’s been a wonderful journey.

Mrs. Fix It

May 15 – Mrs. Fix It

I bought a new planner over the weekend. I spent quite a while browing through planners, contemplating calendar layouts. I wanted something that had weeks and months. I wanted to be able to easily notate when something was going to take up a range of dates, and the format of most weekly planners makes this difficult. I decided on a planner that has the days of the week in columns on the weekly planner, rather than the typical rows.

It’s also covered in doodled owls. I love owls.

It was the perfect calendar, and I was excited.

But then I got home, and I sat down to start writing out my schedule in my perfect new planner.

It starts in July. This is May.

Epic perfect-planner fail.

I kept it on my desk all day Monday, giving it the occasional angry stare. But then I decided to fix the problem instead of spending the rest of May and June angry at an inanimate object.

So, I photo copied the month of July. On the photo copy I whited out the month and the dates. I made two copies of that copy(I could have just made one, but I would have had dried white out on one of my months). I cut the copies out so they would fit on the pages and taped them to the unnecessary pages in the front of my planner.

My planner has gone back to being perfect. Just call me Mrs. Fix It.

Thrifty Organization

May 14 – Thrifty Organization

I’ve been working on getting my desk in order. By “desk”, I mean “card table”.

Card tables clearly don’t have drawers or storage space, so I painted a few cardboard boxes from Birchbox. One holds extra pens and pencils, one holds small notepads and paper clips, and one holds stationary.

Beautiful

We had a beautiful weekend.

We spent time with friends. We spent time with family. We spent time outside. We ate good food.

It was beautiful.

May 11- Break Time

Some people take coffe breaks. Some people take smoke breaks. On Friday, I took a Mario and Luigi Adventure break.

May 12 – Horse Girl

We spent some time visiting with my parents and my sisters this weekend. One of my sisters is trying to qualify for a world show this year, so visits with the family always include visits with the horses to watch her ride. Some neighborhood kids asked for a quick riding lesson while we were there, so the other sister and I wandered over to the other horses. I love this photo. It’s one of my favorites I’ve taken recently.

May 13  – Sunday Afternoons

After a long, busy weekend of visiting with family and friends, Dustin and I took on Sunday afternoon some time to just be. We sat on the couch sipping Sonic drinks and watching the world pass by, and we went for a walk with our dog. We passed by this little guy on our walk, and Dyson spent some time staring at it trying to figure out why I was taking a picture.

The New “Office”

May 10 – New Office Plans

I announced yesterday that I will be the editor of a new lifestyle magazine. I’ll be working from home, at least in the beginning. Dustin and I have been in discussions about my new “office”. This corner is most likely going to be my new work space. I’m incredibly excited to get it set up. I’ve been browsing office and desk set ups on Pinterest,  and this series from the Birchbox Blog has me really inspired.

I would love to hear from you: Do you have any tips, tricks or advice for setting up my new work space in a way that’s cute and functional?