Getting It Together {a review}

December 31, 2012 ~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

Among many other things I loved about Tsh Oxenreider’s book, Organized Simplicity, I was drawn to the home management notebook idea. I’m kind of OCD about organizing anyways, and the thought of having a binder full of important documents, schedules, and spreadsheets for just about everything was thrilling to my love of structure.

I never acted on Tsh’s good idea. Meals seemed to get planned and the house was kept clean. Bills were paid and, thanks to Facebook, I remembered 89% of people’s birthdays. As Tim and I adjusted to our new environs and the holidays arrived, we began to eat more meals out of a blue box than I’d like to admit. I couldn’t remember if I paid the student loan bill and our bathrooms suffered the consequences of utter neglect.

Then, I got wind of Kayse Pratt’s new e-book, Getting It Together. Yes, that sounds about right!

A home management system that can be explained in under 50 pages? Sign me up. Stir in the fact that Kayse kept me smiling with her honest reflections about her own home management attempts and I knew this was an attainable approach to home organization.

Plus, Kayse somehow knew that I’d be more likely to use a binder if it was pretty. She provides simple instructions and ideas to make your binder visually appealing on top of having 30 cute printables!

Some of the printables weren’t applicable since I don’t have kids, however, I made copies of five in particular:

Financial Goals
Auto Maintenance Log
Monthly Meal Planning
Perpetual Calendars
My Shopping List

Tim could attest that grocery shopping does nothing to enhance my mood. My stress level escalates the longer I wander around trying to find everything on my list. I end up leaving unhappy and huffy, never wanting to set foot in a produce section ever again.

I’ve always thought grouping items by location would be the answer to my problems (in addition to avoiding Fred Meyer on a Saturday afternoon), but I didn’t want to bother with the initial break down of grocery store departments.

Kayse did it for me! With tons of food to purchase before Christmas, the shopping list printable was such a time saver. I wasn’t pushing my cart back and forth across the store or buying things I didn’t need. One loop around the store and I was in the check-out line.

Thanks to Getting It Together, there is hope for a home management binder becoming a reality.

Hop on over to Kayse’s blog to grab a copy and we can get it together, together!

Here’s even more ways to to get Getting It Together:

Subscribe to Kayse’s newsletter.
Purchase as a PDF for just $3.99!
Purchase for Kindle on Amazon.

A Twitter party {#gettingittogether} is happening on Thursday, January 3rd at 7pm. Connect with others trying to get it together and discuss New Year’s resolutions, home management tips and tricks, and the ups and downs of keeping our homes running smoothly!

Kayse is also giving away one set of custom printables!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read Along The Road {e-books}

December 28, 2012 ~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

Generally, I’m a flip pages, hard-bound in hand kind of girl, but I’ve recently discovered the joys of reading e-books. My idle down time is now spent chipping away at my reading list instead of playing iPhone games. I have a Nook Color and use the Kindle app on my phone so all my e-reading bases are covered.

I devoured a few e-books in the the past couple weeks using the read-while-your-waiting-for-anything and read-while-your-crossing-the-street methods. I thought two, in particular, were worth passing along. I happened to score both of mine for free at one time or another, but e-books are generally inexpensive (and offered for free quite often!).

E-Books Worth Reading

Finding The Core of Your Story by Jordan Smith

I’ve heard of taglines, but until I read Jordan’s entertaining book, I had never heard of a logline. Loglines are one-sentence summaries used to explain the essence of a movie or novel. In one sentence you can introduce the hook and key ingredients of a story and succinctly leave people wanting more.

Jordan has a screen-writing/fiction perspective on loglines, but the ability to give an elevator (short enough for an elevator ride) description of whatever project you’re working on is a valuable skill to learn. It also gives your writing focus and purpose.

Though I write non-fiction, I love the elevator speech concept and plan on applying Jordan’s logline principles to keep blog posts on point and develop a confident reply when people ask what Primitive Roads is all about.

You can get an overview on crafting loglines from a blog series Jordan wrote.

Community Wins: 21 Thoughts on Building a Thriving Online Tribe by Bryan Allain

Bryan’s book was the exact kick-in-the-blogging-community-pants I needed. I read it once through and was overloaded (in a good way) with ways to grow a healthy community. I’m looking forward to the re-read so I can make good on his suggested action steps.

His approach to building a community – around your writing, your art, your message, your anything – relies on the ability to push past perfectionism which happens to be one of my bigest obstacles Time wasted is progress lost forever. Bryan is honest about the ups and downs of this process, but it’s like he was whispering in my ear, “That book won’t write itself, Emily,” and that’s just the message I needed to hear.

I especially liked his “love/like” time management system:

The key is to avoid spending downtime on things you merely like so you CAN spend it on the things you love and still be productive. [Kindle Locations 610-611]

If you’re wanting to be more intentional about supporting and growing your community, Community Wins is a great place to start. Bryan’s personal experience, combined with practical exercises, will get you well on your way to building that thriving online tribe.

Have you read a good e-book lately? Do share!

Read Along The Road ~ Christmas Edition

December 9, 2012 ~ Emily ~ 1 Comment

A list of favorite Christmas tomes that adorn my bookshelves:

Christmas With Anne by L.M. Montgomery.

A fellow Anne fan gave this to me a couple years ago and I have read it every Christmas since. Christmas with Anne is a collection of 16 holiday stories, including favorites like “Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves” and others that have never appeared in book form.

Christmas Cookies by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I was charmed by Amy’s first book, Cookies: Bite Size Life Lessons, and was so excited to see a Christmas themed follow-up. Gorgeous illustrations accompany a delicious ABC dictionary of holiday lessons.

GRATITUDE means taking a minute to look around the table and be thankful for all the people and all the cookies.

The Greatest Shepherd of All: A Really Woolly Christmas Story by Holley Gerth

Grandpa Woolly shares the story of THE Shepherd to his little woolly grandkids – Faith, Hope, and Joy. The whole Really Woolly line (brought to life by Julie Sawyer Phillips) makes me smile and this book is a prime example why. Part allegory, part kid’s book, this little gem manages to be cute without being simpering.

Classics

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

It just so happens that one of my favorite novels also has plenty of Christmas spirit. Little Women is wholesome and worth reading no matter what holiday is around the corner, but there’s something special about snuggling up to read the March women’s timeless story during the Winter months.

The Gift of The Magi by O. Henry

The twist ending in this popular short story has long lost its surprise, but O. Henry weaves a sentimental tale that continues to resonate with gift-givers everywhere.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Beneath the ethical and emotional transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge lies the subtle comedy of Dicken’s literary genius. The story is oft adapted, but the original definitely earns its classic status.

Read Along The Road

December 2, 2012 ~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

There’s a box in our garage filled with journals in every shape and size, their content chronicling my life since junior high. Some are specifically devoted to a certain fellow I had a major crush on, others contain my travel adventures from a year studying abroad.

Needless to say, I am an avid journaler.

So also is Amanda Holland, who wrote an excellent post for Inspired To Action about journaling her spiritual journey.

How Journaling Has Impacted My Faith

Faith journaling has changed my life. My walk with God is growing so much deeper than ever before.

I can already look back and see how He has slowly revealed things to me, little by little, as I spend time with Him. He’s revealing big dreams – God-sized dreams – to me, and reawakening dreams that I let die long ago. Do I have this “listening to God” thing down? Good grief, no…but the closer I get to Him, the better I hear His voice. When He speaks to my heart, I record it in my journal.

Read the rest HERE. Find more of Amanda at Grace In Our Moments.

Read Along The Road

November 21, 2012 ~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

Highlights from my recent readings:

3 truths of personal growth | Simple Mom

Do whatever you can to drink from the fountain of wisdom. Sometimes it will be messy. Sometimes it will be a trickle. Sometimes it will rain down hard. But if you look for mentors, start now, and choose persistence, you’ll be in the perfect position to own your life and make it grow.

Now is the time to grow, learn and be women who inspire.

{by Kat at Inspired To Action}

How Not To Miss Your Real Life Calling | A Holy Experience

A career is about the guidebook and a calling is about leaning on the Guide who speaks to you through His Book. A career is about making a plan and a calling is about trusting a Person who changes the plan. Grace, that careers can fall way to callings.

The call that thing one keeps listening for and the heart of faith is the ear.

{by Ann Voskamp}

Bricks: Final Thoughts On An Open Letter | the extraordinary ordinary

One day we will certainly all fall apart at once and with faces to the ground in our messes we will have to cry over all that we did not see. Oh no, actually, I do not mean the state of the sinful awful world around us but the state of our own hearts and minds and how did we not see?

{by Heather}