Recommended Reading List from 2012

I was a busy little reader this year. If your looking for a new book to jump into, I recommend any of the below. Also, check out "My Reading List" for blogs I follow on the side bar of website. These are blog links to people I truly enjoy their content. Enjoy!

• "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins - all three books
• "Pretty Little Liars" Series by Sara Shephard - this series has 13 books. A great summer read.
• "The Compound Effect" by Darren Hardy
• "Love works." by Joel Manby
• "The Five Love Languages for Children" by Gary D. Chapman & Ross Campbell 
• "The Best Question Ever" by Andy Stanley
• "Strengthfinder 2.0" by Tom Rath
• "The Alchemist" by Paulo Cloeho

Tips & Inspiration to make 2013 great!

With the new year there are new challenges and goals to think about. The following are some great jumping off points for organizing and activating all of your resolutions.

Defining your goals for the year:
Chris Bogan's blogs about how to use the three words concept -
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-3-words-for-2013/

My three words as handmade pillows.

What is the "three word concept? A simplistic idea of how to organize, sum up your goals and keep them top of mind throughout the year. This technique is the reason for the title graphic of my blog. Simplify,Thrive & Connect were my words for 2012. I even took my words a step further in keeping them top of mind by creating pillows for my breakfast area in my house. How you can forget what you are working towards when you sit next to it every morning?

I'm currently refining my 3 words for 2013. I'll be publishing those soon.

Making those goals happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CHxhjDPKfbY
I saw this video on Michael Hyatt's blog and it resonated with achieving goals as well as being productive. It's a 23 minute video but it's well worth the time investment. Here's some of the quips that I took from the video:

   * Flexibility triumphs perfection
   * Use your mind to get stuff off your mind
   * Get anything meaningful on paper
   * What is actually the work that you need to do?
   * What is the outcome?
   * Your toughest work is defining what your work is.
   * Appropriately engage yourself in the project or the task.
   * What is your map?

And lastly, this article offers tips about my favorite tool to help you organize those goals:
http://blog.evernote.com/blog/2012/12/28/quick-tip-friday-5-ways-to-accomplish-your-new-years-resolutions-with-evernote/
[I "heart" Evernote!]

Happy 2013!

Evernote is easy to use

I have blogged about Evernote last year in reference to how I use it to help me organize my very favorite recipes - http://thewillardfamily.blogspot.com/2012/08/making-cooking-more-enjoyable.html

Evernote's web page simply states two words - "Remember Everything". For a busy mom and full-time employee as myself, it definitely fills in when I cannot pull the thoughts from my own brain. I promise once you download the app from the website, you will be addicted. It only takes minutes to set up your account and get started with the software. You can use it any where - on your desktop, iphone, ipad.

I have now being using this amazing tool for over a year now. I have completely gotten rid of paper files both at home and at work. I have thrown out my binder of paper recipes. I scan in all the important school notes, bills, receipts, warranties, user guides and file them in the proper Evernote notebooks for easy finding later. 

There are endless ways to organize Evernote for your life. I use it for work and home so I have separate notebooks for each. Here are some of the ways and features that I use to organize my busy life. 

For work. . . 

• I've got all my work notebooks labeled with "Ldr" aka "Leader" so they stand out from my home notebooks. Then I organize them according to my initiatives.
• I take all my meetings notes in Evernote for all projects that I'm working on. I find that in today's day and age it now OK to be in a meeting and be typing on your computer while people are talking. - only if you are taking notes and not surfing for shoes, that would just be rude. 
• If I'm leading a meeting, I create my agenda in Evernote. Then I type in all the notes from that meeting. This technique has saved me in so many ways when it comes to recalling important content. Again, my memory is not always the sharpest and I can use the Evernote search feature to find anything amongst all my notebooks. 
• I still have a notebook that I carry to meetings. If I take written notes, I'll either type them into Evernote later or scan the page. 
• I keep any work related articles in a "To be read" folder so when I'm waiting for an appointment I can catch up on them. 
• My favorite feature is the email address that Evernote assigns every user. With this email address, you can email any important or noteworthy emails to your Evernote account. Then you file the email in the appropriate notebook. Then you just delete it our of your email inbox. You no longer need to keep tons of folders & subfolders in your email inbox. 

For home. . .  

• I'm a creative gal so of course I have a "Creativity" notebook. It's my fancy sketchbook. I have organized the sub-notebooks according to the different mediums I like to work in and holidays. I can store all my creative ideas within the folders and have them at my fingertips where ever I am. 
• I as stated earlier, all my paper files have now been recycled. I use Evernote to track and store all receipts, payments, bills and such. If I'm looking for a warranty on the dryer, I can find it in Evernote. 
• You can also created "To-Do" lists in note with check boxes. This feature came in really handy for my Christmas shopping list. 
• My absolute favorite Evernote feature is the Web Clipper. As you are surfing the web and you find some awesome products that would make great gifts for friends, you can clip the page to Evernote to store it for later. This takes the place of Bookmarks. For exampel, you are re-doing your bedroom. You are looking for inspiration, new furniture, paint colors ideas, lamps, etc. . . You can clip all the webpages you find and put them in your "Bedroom Make-over" notebook. Once you actually start purchase items for your new bedroom, you can send the receipts from your email or scan them into Evernote. You can capture the new and mixture for your perfect new bedroom color in case you ever need touch-up paint. I know there's Pinterest for inspiration boards but Evernote takes you beyond just pinning what you like.

I stated earlier that you would get addicted. It's unlimited to what you can streamline & organize in your life with Evernote. Go Evernote.com today and download the app. Get your account set up and start creating notebooks. I'll be frequently blogging about more tips and tricks on how to use Evernote. Check back often or post comments if you have specific questions or topics you would like more information on. 

Happy Evernoting! 

Inspiration Monday

New Uses & Recycling

Before Jonah was born, I decided it was time to do something good for the earth and the environment. I paid the county $30 to get a recycle bin & bags and started recycling everything I could. It's the least this busy mom can do.

I also love finding ways to reuse items. What can you do with all those beer caps or wine corks? My favorite magazine "RealSimple" publishes web links & books on this very subject. RealSimple released today this links - "New Year's New Uses" 
http://www.realsimple.com/new-uses-for-old-things/new-years-ideas/


There are some great ideas such as:

• using cooking spray as a manicure setter
• cooking oil as shoe polish
• a cork as an earring holder (I have used this one) 
• preserving the shape of your awesome new winter boots by using a wine bottle as a support for the shafts
• using duct tape on the sole of a new shoe to prevent slipping

So the holiday season is always tricky with the recycling schedule in our county. Particularity when Christmas falls during the week. We haven't had recycling pick up for two weeks now and my recycling pile has reached monumental heights. Hopefully we can dig out of this soon.

New Year & New Look

Happy New Year!!!

A few a my cold remedies - Kleenex with lotion, chapstick,
NyQuil, fresh juice and a good book.

I have spruced up the look of my blog for the new year. I'm also going to be sprucing and amping up the content. I started this blog to be a place where family and friends could catch up on our lives. Well, it will still be that place. You'll still able read to about our adventures and misadventures. I'm also going to expand my content to the other areas that I'm also passionate about - creativity, organization, technology, leadership, keeping things simple. Be sure to follow my blog or put my url in your RSS feeder so you can keep up to date with the content.

How did you ring in the New Year? What are the goals that you are looking to accomplish this year? How are you going to make 2013 the best year ever?

Lots of questions! It's a new year - got to kick it off right. I started my new year off with a nasty head cold. I watched the ball drop while downing two tablespoons of NyQuil. Not my ideal way of ringing in the new year but what can you do. Luckily, the kids are sick too so they don't mind all the snuggles and watching lots of cartoons. 

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year is going to help me with my fitness/health goals in this new year. It's my Breville Juicer that was given to me by my very generous husband. I've been hoping all the delicious juices I've been making would help my cold but no luck so far. I can definitely see how people get addicted to juicing. With the right juicer, it's so easy to do. I did not realize how delicious it would be to drink cucumbers, carrots & celery. So in this new year, I'm adding juicing to my diet. No, I'm not going on a crazy juice fast. I just want to see how it can help and change my body, skin & mind. 

That's one goal for this year. More to come. . . Happy New Year!