Happy New Year!

It's the first day of a new year, with lots of new possibilities and plenty of time to make decisions about what we'll be working on this year. As I look toward a new year, my goal is to post more, and more regularly. Let's see how it goes...

Meanwhile, I hope everyone has a happy and healthy new year!

© Photographer Ximagination | Agency: Dreamstime.com

A must-read

Not too long ago, I posted about making the most of my mornings by joining a challenge over at Money Saving Mom. And now, she's about to release a new ebook, entitled 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life.

I'll note that I've been a follower of Money Saving Mom for a long time. And one thing that is for sure, this is a woman who knows about discipline! This book is sure to be a winner! I haven't even read it yet and I am already recommending it - I'm that sure that it's going to be great! I just bought it, and my 21 days will start this week - look for an update on how it's going in about 3 weeks!

Calgon, take me away!

After a really tough week, it was nice this morning to get an email from the current renter in the Treehouse asking about the possibility of staying longer. It provided me with a needed reminder that this life as we know it will not always be our life. And after this week, boy did I need that reminder!

A friend of mine recently posted on an online forum:

Much as the ethic of more, bigger, faster dominates the workplace, so it has come to define the way we eat – with similar costs to our productivity and sustainability

This really made me stop and realize that this is so much a part of why I love living internationally. The excess here in the US in almost all things, when so many people can barely feed themselves and their family. The never-ending selection of useless items in the stores. The need to not just keep up with the Jones, but to be more successful than they are. It's just not who I want to be, and more importantly, it's not who I want Pooh to be either.

We have so many details to work out regarding moving, and I know it's not an immediate plan (well, unless we suddenly got handed the perfect opportunity), but such a large part of me knows that this is going to be a great move for us, even if we only go for short stints at a time. And, I have to be honest, I'm so looking forward to ordering meals with reasonable portion sizes and shopping from locals in places like this:

Have we done it?

Have we? Have we actually purchased a treehouse in Guatemala? Nope, not yet, but negotiations are underway, and a verbal agreement has been reached! It's not quite ours yet, but we are in the process of becoming the owners of this great little home in Panahachel, Guatemala:

And when we eventually get there, we can wake up every morning to this:

That might just make the next few years worth all the hard work...

Happy Independence Day, Guatemala!

After a tough week, Guatemala deserves a wonderful weekend to celebrate independence!

Fuego, a volcano about 50 kilometers outside of Guatemala City, has erupted this week more strongly than any other time in the past 30 years. According to the Prensa Libre, over 5000 people were evacuated (though Fox News says 10,000+). Most have already been able to return home.

Nevertheless, the Prensa notes that independence celebrations continue.

Happy Independence Day, mi querida Guatemala!

Still Making the Most of my Mornings

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was trying to make my mornings work better by joining a challenge at Money Saving Mom. This challenge was just what I needed to start the school year off right!

I'll admit that I did not follow all the suggestions of the challenge. I did not commit to working out each morning, and my typical breakfast is still a large cup of coffee. But through this challenge, I developed a night-time routine that prepares me better for the next day and getting out of the house, and I set a specific get-out-of-bed time at 6am, which allows me to have at least a few minutes to myself before everyone else is out of bed. These two things alone have made a world of difference, for a few specific reasons.

First, as I've mentioned multiple times (here and here and here and here and here), Pooh started Pre-K this year, beginning a whole new era in our family life. This meant that we now had a specific time we needed to get out of the house, since he has to be at school at 8:05. Plus, he then goes until 11:05, with no snack most days, so his getting a good breakfast in his tummy was also crucial. That sort of makes it sound like we didn't feed him breakfast before, doesn't it? But that's not the case. It's just that before, once he got to daycare, he generally got second breakfast, so if he didn't eat much at home we were not too worried. Now, if he doesn't eat his breakfast at home, he's gonna be pretty cranky by the time 11:05 rolls around! By prepping the night before, I'm ready to focus on him in the morning, rather than running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to throw things together for the day.

Second, because Pooh has to be at school at 8:05 and his school is right around the corner from where I work, I head directly to work from dropping him off. This puts me at work no later than 8:30 each morning, allowing me to be more productive in my own job. Hopefully, this will mean more positive results at work and a stronger feeling of well-being all around.

Third, because I head directly to work, getting up at a particular time in the morning allows me to check my personal email, read the blogs I follow, and comment on message boards where I am active, without it affecting my work time. In addition, my favorite part of the morning has become my snuggle time with Pooh. He generally wanders out of his bedroom, all sleepy-eyed and barely awake, comes and crawls into my lap, and snuggles up for a few minutes with me. Because I'm up and have had a few minutes to myself, and I'm ready for the day and getting out of the door, we can enjoy a few minutes of mommy~kiddo time without feeling stressed about how the day will go. And that, my friends, that is what's important!