Several authors that I follow will pause quarterly and build a 'What's Saving My Life Right Now' list. These lists allow for a simple acknowledgement of what brings joy, relief and fun in life for them in this season.
I picked up the practice and find it so helpful to purposely pause and identify these things for myself - a quick moment of gratitude as Fall arrives!
There are not rules here, simply logging things that are helping me win my days and love life.
Heading in to the last quarter of 2024 (crazy, huh?), here's what has been saving my life:
Getting responses from you - When I send out a newsletter, I get emails back from you and I absolutely love it. While we might not all be in the very same season of life, I love that something I write connects with you. I adore hearing from readers so I am encouraged to keep sharing.
Watching someone I love do something they love - it's energizing! My sweet boys have recently wrapped up football season. They played on different teams and my husband coached one of the teams. It was a family season!
My oldest son loves every aspect of football. He gets excited for practice. He gets pumped for games. He encourages his teammates and he congratulates other teams playing. He brings the best energy because he simply loves it. I wish I could bottle that because it's so fun to witness.
Kevin's Natural Foods Meals - We get them at Costco and they are a quick and healthy meal for first dinner. Our current favorite is Thai-Style Coconut Chicken. We make it with riced cauliflower and everyone eats it!
Not familiar with first dinner, friend? It's the meal that comes after school but before evening practices. And yes, there is second dinner and it's after practices but before showers.
I'm just a Mom learning to feed growing, active boys here.
Being mostly done with decluttering - I have written about decluttering and this is about the time of year that I get most motivated to do it. A few years ago, I made a conscious effort to declutter, making sure that everything in our home had a home and only keeping things we used or loved. My systems continue to work for our home so there isn't major work to do here anymore. The best news: keeping the house picked up involves much less effort for me than it used to.
Uno Flip - This is a super fun game that we have loved for a long time in our house but lately it's a tool that I use with my boys to get them to talk about their days, their thoughts and their frustrations. A very wise woman, who watched my boys as babies, told me once that the key to getting boys to talk is to keep their hands busy (and to distract them in the car for awhile). She was so right.
Some nights, I offer a round of Uno over reading and occasionally, I hear about whatever is on their mind without them even realizing. Uno love forever....
Smaller Grocery Runs - Some seasons call for a pivot in routines, right? During football season, we regularly got a Costco run in for the heavy lifting of grocery shopping but then, I would fill in with smaller grocery trips that I could fit in a shorter window during the week. Less of a production and super helpful during this season.
Business and Home Dreaming - I am not great at dreaming. I have to create the perfect environment and be in the right mindset, it feels like. I am more of a practical do-er. But in order to continue to grow personally and professionally, I need some targets. We all do. It has come a bit easier lately, which helps me visualize what next year's vision board will look like.
This season, my husband and I have been doing some dreaming about new projects at home and have enlisted some help from a design firm to help us visualize it better and a realtor to explore options around us. It's wild to think about our family enjoying spaces that we dreamed up.
Dreaming about growing my business is challenging, thrilling and energizing. It feels huge but also doable - I can't ever reach a dream that I never build, right? Dreaming has been saving my life lately.
Consider compiling your own 'what's saving my life right now' list just for yourself or share it with a friend for another way to connect. Maybe what's saving your life right now friend, might help someone else!
Check out previous lists from this year:
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