This Week, I'm finally getting back to waking up at 5 AM every weekday. My morning routine was nonexistent the first month of quarantine. The 2nd month, I started waking up at 6 AM most days. And now, I am trying my best to bring back my pre-quarantine 5 AM wakeup. I snooze the alarm more than I'd like to admit, but I'm working on it. I love my sleep, but I also love what I'm able to accomplish in the morning when I wake up early. I didn't know it was possible to hate something and love something so much at the same time

Check out my newest Vlog above, where I show off our new "Sold" signs and talk about Discovering Your Why. Do you have a "Big Why" for your life? If you've never heard of this, check out this website!

LAKE CHELAN

I spent last week in one of my favorite places on the planet - Lake Chelan!
BLESSED to live in the Pacific Northwest!

MENTAL HEALTH DAY

Last week, I took a mental health day. I worked for a few hours in the morning, but I found it impossible to focus on anything for more than a few minutes. I’ve been feeling “out of it” lately without any real reason why.

Usually when I’m feeling this way, I have a few mindset tricks that I do. I think about 3 things I’m grateful for. I have a motivational note on my phone that I read to myself. I listen to music that lifts my spirit. These mindset triggers are great, and they usually help a ton, but not last week.

So I decided to close my laptop and go for a hike. I didn’t see a single soul on the trail. This allowed me to do some searching of my own soul.

I came to the realization that I am way too hard on myself. I pride myself on being a positive person. I pride myself on being productive and making the most of every day. I pride myself on working extremely hard and being self-disciplined. I pride myself on getting back to people quickly and always being there for the people in my life.

This stuff is all great, and I intend to continue being positive, productive, disciplined, etc. But the problem with all of this is that I can’t be perfect every day. I have days when I snooze the alarm, or spend too much time on social media, or eat poorly, or skip a workout. And these days make me feel like crap. They make me feel like I wasted a day.

And maybe there’s some truth to that. Yes I want to live my life to the fullest. But what’s the point of beating myself up for a bad day? Why judge myself? What good will that do?

Give yourself grace.
Forgive yourself.
Allow yourself to feel emotions (even the not-so-good ones).
Learn and grow, yes.
But don’t judge yourself for the decisions you made yesterday.
All we can control is what we do TODAY.

ITALY

What's your favorite country you've ever traveled to?

Mine is Italy! Such an incredible county with beautiful sights and out-of-this-world food

I re-discovered my travel blog recently, and it's been fun reminiscing on old trips. Here are a few of my favorite blog posts from Italy:

STORY TIME

I went to Chile in December of 2015. I was starting a study abroad program in Ecuador the next month, so I decided to get to South America a few weeks early. Traveling from Seattle to Santiago, Chile was probably my worst travel experience to date. Here's an excerpt from the blog post I wrote about it:

"I woke up at 6:30 AM on December 26th to catch my 9:30 flight from Seattle to Oklahoma City. As we were about to land in Oklahoma, the airplane was struck by lightning. ‘Nuff said. I was supposed to fly from Oklahoma to Dallas for another layover, but my flight was canceled due to terrible weather conditions. I needed to catch my next flight 5 hours later, so I thought it would be a good idea to rent a car. I proceeded to drive for 3 hours in the worst conditions of my life. Tornadoes, flash floods, thunder and lightening, the whole gamut. THEN, when I was less than one mile away from returning my rental car, I got a flat tire. Long story short, I missed my flight. I waited in my car for 3 hours and contemplated the meaning of life while it was literally raining cats and dogs all around me…..and I had to pee. I spent the next 24 hours in Dallas, Texas, as seemingly every single flight was canceled because of the storms."

What I didn't know at the time is that a month later, I would receive a lovely bill in the mail from the car rental company for over $5,000. Apparantly I damaged the undercarriage of the car when I got the flat tire. I fought the bill for over a year, ended up having to pay the whole thing because I didn't get insuranse on the rental car, and now I am blacklisted from that rental car company for life

Once I finally got to Chile, I ended up having a wonderful time. I spent most of my time in Santiago, but also visited Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, two beautiful cities on the coast. Here are my blog posts from my time in Chile:

Traveling is frustrating, exhausting, and amazing
Chile

SKYDIVING

Any adrenaline junkies out there?? I'm hoping to go skydiving for the 3rd time this summer. Anyone want to jump out of a plane with me?

GOLFING

One of my goals for this summer is to become mediocre at golf. For any golfers out there, any pointers for a newbie?

Thanks for letting me borrow your clubs Chad Erskine!

WHAT I’M READING

I finished 7 books last week. I was falling super behind on my 2020 Challenge to read a book every week, so I doubled down and caught up. I won't lie - most of these books are fairly short, but I got something good out of each one! Have you read any of these books?

The Defining Decade
The Go Giver
How’s Your Soul?
I Hear You
The Science of Getting Rich
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
Start

“A compliment is a free way to make someone's day"