A Simple Reminder to Maintain Balance in Our Lives

If you are a longtime reader, then you may have noticed that things have slowed down here on 3G2S.  This blog will be turning 6 years old in March and this is post number 3,838!  Until 2014 rolled around, I could barely bring myself to go a whole 24 hours without publishing a post.  In fact, I was often publishing multiple blog posts daily and getting by on 4 hours of sleep per night just to make my deadlines.  The truth is that I had burnt out nearly a year ago, but kept going at the same pace.  Why?  Well, partially because I had set a standard and did not want to let my readers down.  The other part was needing to contribute to our household finances as much as possible.

I have shared a few inspirational quotes I've come across in the past, but this is the first and only quote I have displayed in our home (well . . . aside from a few refrigerator magnets).  It reads . . .

"Never get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life."

I have this wooden sign displayed where my husband and I can see it multiple times per day.  We both work more than we would like because it's necessary, but we need to remember why we are doing it.  It's not so we can buy a larger television or a nicer car.  It's so we can provide for our children, whom we want to be happy and well-rounded.  Part of that is having parents who aren't exhausted and grouchy all the time, who have just enough time and energy to help them with their homework and prepare the meals, but little else.

When I put my mind to it, I am able to make some lasting fond memories for our children.  So, if you don't see a new post from me for 2 or 3 (or 5) days, it doesn't mean I've deserted you.  I'm talking with my children, playing games with them, surprising them with freshly baked cookies,  . . . or taking a much-needed nap.

I haven't quite achieved the perfect balance in my life yet, but I think I'm on the right track by accepting the fact that I cannot have so many full time jobs at once.  It is impossible to be successful at all of them.

What do you do to help maintain balance in your life?

My Photos: A Reminder of What It's Really All About

I have been in a real rut lately.  The fact is that I have been burnt out for months.  When I work, I seem to be going at half the pace I used to, so it feels like I am just working all the time when I am not tending to my children.  On those days when I'm feeling especially run-down and under-appreciated (and counting the days until summer vacation is over), I wonder why I am able to plug along day after day.

I took the photo below at dinner last night.  Those aren't fake smile-for-the-camera smiles.  My family is genuinely happy and having fun.  After I took this photo, I realized that they are why I keep going.  I'm going to put this photo on my desktop so, if I ever begin to forget again (maybe while I'm up until 1am working because I couldn't get enough done during the day), I'll have an instant reminder.

Taken with the Nokia Lumia 920

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

How to Create a Home Office Area within Another Room

At the end of last year, my husband and I created a home office space at one end of our living room that could house both our desks, while keeping them both almost completely out of sight.  It has worked out so well that I thought I would share about how easy and fairly inexpensive it was to do.  There was also a huge added bonus from making this easy change.  We added tons of storage to our living room for Blu-rays and DVDs, video games, books, the children's electronic games, their coloring books, and many other things we wanted to keep handy, but not in plain view.

The only things we needed to accomplish this change were 3 inexpensive bookcases.  I found these Ameriwood 3-Shelf Bookcases at Walmart for about $20 each.  They happened to be the exact width we needed when lined up side-by-side to make a wall in front of our desks.  If you can believe it, the bookcases were not the largest expense.  The Set of 6 Beige Winsome Capri Foldable Fabric Baskets sell for about $30 per set.  We bought 3 sets for slightly less because we had found them on sale on Wayfair.com.  They just happened to be the perfect size we needed, both in width and height, to fill each shelf with two across.  I also found them in Black on Amazon.com, but we ended up deciding that the Beige would help to brighten up the room.

Since it was impossible for me to take an aerial photo of our home office area, I created the diagram below for your reference instead . . .

As you can see, it was extremely easy to do and would be for anyone who has a long room, whether it is your living room, family room, or bedroom.  Our newly created office space takes up about 1/3 of our living room.

Of course you need to adapt this idea to your own space.  If you only have one desk to house, then you might not need 3 bookcases across the front.  The important thing is to measure exactly how long you need the wall to be and then find the bookcases that meet your needs both in height and width.  We also added a small bookcase that we already owned onto the side of my husband's desk to hide his desk from view for anyone walking in from the kitchen.  You can definitely keep the cost down by using what you have already to supplement the new bookcases and bins.

If you try this idea in your home, I would love to hear how it turns out.