Monday Quote from a Favorite Book and Movie

Fall is here. Are you sad to see summer go? I love living in New England where we get to experience all the seasons.

A new season is a great time to remember that no matter what our circumstances you can always choose happiness. If you have not read the book or watched the movie The Pursuit of Happiness I highly reccomend it. A true story and a true triumph for Chris Gardner.

Happy Fall!

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Another Monday Another Quote To Get You Going For the Week

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash

Monday Quote - Procrastination

It's Monday! Start off your week by thinking about and prioritizing getting important sh*% done.

Anyone else do this? Courtesy of Jennifer Lancaster, author of My Fair Lazy, comes this quote:

Spiralizer Adventure

This week I found some time to use a much-loved Christmas gift. My husband has been bringing home beautiful vegetables from his co-worker’s garden. These gorgeous summer squash and cucumbers were a motivator to bring out the spiral veggie slicer and cookbook that have been sitting on a shelf for way too long, since last Christmas to be exact.

Cooking is one of those things that I am bad about making time for. Eating out and take out have been a go to for me in the past and it wreaked havoc on my weight and my wallet.   I love to bake, cooking not so much. Now that I am trying to maintain the weight I have lost and maybe lose a couple more pounds eating at home has a new appeal. I tried several of the meal home delivery services. It was fun for a while but with all the packing materials and pots and pans to wash the fun went out of it. For all their proclamations about being less expensive than eating out I am not fully convinced… It seemed expensive to me. So, I tried it, will maybe try again but not until after I’ve exhausted my cooking motivation.

Spiralized Summer Squash & Cukes

A fun gadget like my spiralizer is just the item to get me excited about doing some cooking. The fall also tends to bring out the interest in it for me. Crock pot meals are likely next on the agenda. A friend of mine introduced me to one of my all-time faves for the crock pot – salsa chicken. It could not be easier. Put chicken breasts in your crock pot, dump a big jar of salsa on top and cook all day while you are at work. The meal possibilities with this are plentiful: salad topped with salsa chicken, tacos, fajitas, nachos … all are so delish.

Last fall another friend created a Facebook group for sharing healthy but easy recipes for the work week. There were so many good ideas. A couple of the top ones that I seemed to make over and over last year were Italian Wedding Soup with turkey meatballs, Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls and Stay in Bed Beef Stew. I’ll post the recipes in the comments. If you give them a try let me know what you think. If you are a spiralizer and you have tips or great recipes, I’d love to hear those too.

The internet opens so many opportunities that you otherwise would not have when it comes to so many things, cooking lessons among them. There are endless videos with step by step recipes, pie crusts (hoping to try some over the holidays) and food blogs for days. One thing I liked about the Facebook group is that I knew it was real people and not professional chefs making these meals so I figured they would be within my cooking capabilities and would likely be edible.  Some of the stuff you find online is just not realistic for a regular person in a fun of the mill kitchen. Ingredients I’ve never heard of, cooking utensils I don’t own and hours of needed prep time I don’t have. Simple but healthy and delicious is what I’m going for.

I’ve started some regular posting on the blog: a Monday post with a quote to get your week started on a positive note and Wordless Wednesdays has been going on for a while. I am a visual person and I am loving posting a beautiful photo mid-week either of my own or from a photo sharing site like Unsplash. There are so many talented photographers sharing what they have captured with their lense.

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Every Day I'm Hustling

The song that never gets old

To get ahead, to stay ahead, to be engaged, to stay engaged takes hustle. I can think of a few other things that go in to the equation when it comes to loving your work. What those things are depend on what you enjoy and they type of person you are. For me I need the thrill of the hustle, the enthusiasm of working on something I love, autonomy to approach things my way and some accountability thrown in so I don't succumb to procrastination that can sometimes be in my nature.

One thing I learned over this past year is that no matter how much you love what you do there can be external influences that take the wind out of your proverbial sails. This is a condition that can sometimes be overcome and sometimes they are out of your control.

Sales (my chosen profession) is very rarely smooth sailing. The choppy waters that need to be navigated is part of the fun. 

There is a huge need to keep a positive mindset and a focus on problem solving to get to the closing. That is one of the big reasons I have spent time collecting my favorite quotes, which I publish here each Monday to start the week off right.

The last part of the hustle equation is energy. Positive thinking helps tremendously when it comes to the energy needed to hustle. It's hard to hustle when you are feeling down. It is hard to hustle when you see the glass as half empty instead of half full. 

The quote you see below is from a guy I admire who has a podcast I started listening to: Side Hustle School. He's also got a book coming out and I can't wait to get my hands on it! Real estate, the type of sales I work in, is often a side hustle. Many agents do real estate full time but it is the second source of income in their household. I'd like to see it become more than that for those who aspire to that.

Do you have a side hustle? It would be great to hear about it. And so would Chris at sidehustleschool.com

Listening to the successes on his podcast or in his book might just give you the courage to take the leap and turn your side hustle in to your main source of income.

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Bedroom Re-Do on a Budget

Knobs for platform bed drawers

Fall is always a time of new beginnings. With a son going off to college and a daughter starting high school there is lots going on in my house.

I find that throwing myself in to a creative project is really helpful when it comes to managing stress.  Sitting on the couch watching The Real Housewives and drinking wine is fun but gets a little old after a while.

 My high schooler has been pinning on Pinterest her ideas for a bedroom re-do and we'll be tacklin it on a budget because of the brother going off to college thing. (read bills, bills, bills)

She loves the IKEA Malm collection and I've been searching online yard sale sites, ebay, craigslist, etc to try to find the pieces she is interested in. We also need to paint her bed. It's a green color that was popular about 10 years ago. It's a really solid platform bed with nice, deep drawers. Once we paint it a glossy white and add new knobs it will look great.

IKEA Dressing Table

So once the painting is done hopefully I'll have found the dressing table, a 6 drawer dresser and a couple of mirrors and lamps that will round out the look. I could go to the IKEA store and pick up the needed items but with Allston Christmas going on as new college students move in and out I figured I could score a bargain and avoid the dreaded IKEA assembly process. No luck yet but I'm not giving up.


I'm also thinking about how to plant some succulents in tiny, pretty containers. I've got a used up candle that I think will work nicely.
Where do you get succulents? I'll need to find out. I've never had much of a green thumb but this summer I had some success with my plants and with tomatoes so I'm feeling like a doing more of it.






Speaking of my daughter ... I just got a saved pin from her Pinterest page as I was writing this ...

Have ideas for decorating on a budget? I'd love to hear them!
Wendy

Happy Labor Day

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