Taking a Page from Her Book - On How to Be More Productive

I'm kind of an anomaly among Virgos. Most Virgos are extremely organized, and many are clean/neat freaks. They love charts, lists, and calendars, and datebooks. I am disorganized, and definitely not a neat/clean freak, but working on turning that around. And I love lists, I only wish I knew where that important list was when I needed it.
One of my favorite bloggers, Yes and Yes, just posted this list that one of her friends and fellow bloggers posted on "How to Be More Productive." She has some excellent advice, like even organizing to-do lists into categories, so that even the to-do list itself is as efficient as possible.

Check it out!

http://www.yesandyes.org/2011/01/how-to-be-more-productive-advice-from.html

A Lovely Weekend in Napa

Good News Served Daily

Because on any given day, the good news outweighs the bad news exponentially, only we aren't hearing about it. But we need to. This site is a great source of good news, cool websites, and uplifting tidbits. Be sure to check out the 25 Amazing Websites!

Here's to more good news.

http://gimundo.com/

Some Pearls of Wisdom from Gandhi

I saw this posted on not one, but two of my favorite blogs today. I had to pass it along. It was too good not to share. I think that I personally can GREATLY improve on every single one of the points he mentioned here.

Message in a Bottle Project

Somehow, my memories of stories of messages in bottles being washed ashore from distant times and places always sparked my imagination. So much came into play: chance, time, the sea, the elements, and most of all: the message. Why did these people send these messages, and who, if anyone, were their messages intended for?
Amazingly, often these messages were intended for someone specific. Love letters sent via a message in a bottle over the last few centuries abound, and I'm sure that although those letters rarely made it to their intended recipients, what I love the most about it was that somebody even tried. Talk about the most romantic way to get a love letter ever. Although the stories of these love letters completely blow me away, what I think I find even more fascinating is sending a message in a bottle to someone somewhere, but having no idea who that someone might be. 99% of the fun is wondering where it will end up, and with who.
Since there is no way of knowing where it might end up, we are faced with the question. What would we want to share with someone about ourselves, our lives, and our world? What might we want to know about them? What kind of message would we want to send to them?
What would you want your message to say?
I am still formulating my message, but once I've figured out what I want to say, I'm going to find a bottle, and set my message in a bottle out to sea. My goal is to do it by this June. I will probably set the bottle to sea in San Francisco. If anyone else in on board, I'd love for you to join me.
Xo, Jeneka

Life, You're Full of Surprises

WOW life, you are full of surprises. A few days ago, I was bracing myself for surgery a couple of weeks from now. Then two days ago, the doctor called to say that a second, more in-depth lab report showed that the precancerous tissue hadn't spread as they before thought, and I don't have to go back for more surgery! Talk about the best news ever! I'd been so stressed about it.
Another example of how quickly life can change: 2 weeks ago we were a day or two away from booking plane tickets to Ireland for a summer vacation. Then Rob got a phone call from his boss telling him that he'd been laid off. If his boss had called a day later, we would have had tickets, and we would have had to cancel them.
A friend was over recently and she said, "Life is good, but nothing like I expected. I've gotten most of what I've wanted in life so far, but it has never happened in the way I pictured it would, and it's never looked the way I thought it would."
So true. I feel genuinely happy with my life the way it's turned out so far. I love my husband, our dog, our home, and our friends. I no longer have serious health worries, which is such a blessing. Rob is looking for a job, but he will find one. Life is good, and we can count way more blessings than worries. In the big scheme of things, we have it pretty good. But things are different than I once imagined they'd be by the time I was this age. I dreamed of living in a beach town, surfing, and writing for a living. I love my job in education, it's just completely different than what I imagined I'd be doing. And I never expected to end up in Sac, although we will not necessarily stay here forever.
And those dreams of being travel writers, island hopping in the Caribbean, and writing and taking photographs of all the wonderful people we meet, the food and local culture, we're not there yet. But we'll get there, and in the meantime, life is happening here and now too.
And it's full of surprises.

Some FUN New Year's Resolutions!

Ok, so enough about the serious stuff. In order to truly enjoy life, we all have to have FUN on a regular basis. So here's what I plan to do in the New Year to have lots and lots of it in 2011.
1. Entering every contest I can find. It's so much fun just thinking about the possibility of winning!
2. Trying something new or going somewhere new at least once a month. Everyone needs more novelty in their lives, right?
3. Sending out at least one special letter/care package to a friend or family member once a month. In the age of the internet, letters have almost gone the way of the Dodo bird.
4. Make more lists! Sure, it's kind of nerdy I guess, but I love making lists. And making lists can go so far beyond the grocery list. Today, for example, I plan to make these lists: work to-do list, writing to-do list, books I want to read list, a "What I'm Looking Forward to this Year" list, and other miscellaneous life to-do lists.
5. Becoming more organized. Sure, this may sound like a boring resolution, but in the big picture, being organized does make life more fun. Clutter is not only visually unattractive, but it hinders one's success in life when everything is not organized in its place. I am starting with photos and paper clutter, and going from there.
6. Reaching out and helping more. I'm not sure if it will be a soup kitchen, a children's home, or planting new trees along a green belt, but this year I am planning to get more involved in helping out in the community when and where I can. Dwelling on one's own problems doesn't help anybody, especially when all of this energy could be spent helping others instead.
7. Remembering birthdates and special events in my loved one's lives. I am such a forgetful person that this is a tough one, but I am making an effort to get all of the important dates on my outlook calendar.
8. Learning to cook a new kind of food. What I mean by this is that I want to take cooking classes to learn to cook, say, some new Thai or Vietnamese dishes. Bring it on! Variety is the spice of life, right?

What New Year's Resolutions would you like to make for more FUN in your life???