Good morning and Happy Monday lovely readers! 

After a productive weekend and lots of love from family and friends, I'm feeling a bit more ready to take on this week. 

As sad as the last week was, it came with many valuable reminders. Cherish the time with loved ones and the memories created. Make time for friends and family. Always say "I love you." Make time for life, it goes so much faster than we think.

We spent the weekend laying the ground work for some projects. We measured parts of the backyard since he's planning to build a raised wooden walkway from the back porch to the shop so we won't have to trudge through snow and muddy messes like we did on Saturday. 

We made our first chicken related purchases too, though we have more to do on that front.

I spent most of Sunday morning with a cup of coffee and our Rocky Mountain veggie gardening book. We've got a long list now of seeds to pick up to get some of the veggies started indoors, like the onions, tomatoes and peppers. We're going to make a planting calendar so that this year we do better with planting things at the right time and hopefully have healthy plants and more veggies to eat. 

We spent Sunday afternoon for drinks and snacks at a friends house. There was plenty of work we could have been doing at the house, but after last week, it was pretty nice to enjoy a snowy day with friends and laughter. 

And with that, I present Five Things. This is how I start the week, thinking of five things from the last week that made me smile, or what I'm looking forward to in the coming week.

1. Grover thought it would be cool to run off and run across the 70 mph road in front of the house. Thankfully, no cars were out around that time while we found him and got him back in the house. Crazy dog. 

2. Came across an old study abroad friend through Twitter. Small world, eh?

3. Made it out for another run while M grocery shopped. Then carried five 40-pound bags of wood pellets downstairs to the basement. My arms still hurt.

4. Getting the garden plan going. I'm stoked to get things started indoors this week and hopefully pick up some fruit plants soon. 

5. My new coffee grinder. The grinder at the grocery store was broken again and my favorite Montana Coffee Traders blend only comes in whole beans so it was a predicament. M, being the problem solver that he is, went home and researched grinders and had one ordered by days end. Now I have even fresher coffee every morning.

What are you looking forward to this week? How do you keep enjoying life as time feels like it's speeding up?

Not going to lie, 2014 has come roaring in like a freight train. The holiday weeks were fairly slow, allowing time to fill my planner with grand ideas and big plans, start on all kinds of projects and set things in motion. 

Then the first full week back happened. And then this week happened. 

Never ending meetings about things like building codes, lots of stories to write and then news coming off my beat at the paper that has been making national headlines for the last two weeks. My desk is a mess and I feel scattered.

That said, it's time for another round of #inspiremefriday with Eileen, Alicia, Stacey, Megan and Julie.

Some of those projects set in motion are big. Given the time available to pull some off, they are darn near impossible. But, guys, things are coming together. 

In college, I read a newspaper story about the governor's press secretary. For a time, I thought I wanted to be a government press secretary and she had a similar background to mine, so I sent her an email asking if I could shadow her for a day. 

She said yes.

Years later, she's still a mentor and a friend. But the most important part of that story is the lesson learned. Reach high, go big and ask for what you want. I've been rejected plenty of times, but more often than not, people say yes and big projects come together.

2014 has already been full of chaos, changing plans, frustrations and wacky weather. But it's also continuing to prove that the good stuff is attainable, with a little bit of work and little bit of asking for what you want. And when you get it, make something amazing of it.

Be sure to check out Erika's giveaway of Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit. You get three entries just for following me!

Now, to catch up on some fun reads from the last two weeks. And a bajillion other things.

Words to banish in 2014. From a talented writer possessing command of the English language. 
 
The holidays may be over, but Mav's Slow It Down list can apply year-round. 

A peek inside cut food. Fascinating project.

Know your food. Never thought I'd be so interested in agriculture, but Montana is making me want to be a farmer. 

Houses for writers in Detroit. A clever idea that helps rebuild the city and promote literary arts.

M and I aren't really football fans, and I'll usually through out a Roll Tide or War Eagle or Go Hokies or Go Cavs just to irritate my co-workers, but Betsy is a journalism role model and her husband is a super sharp reporter. And this is just great. 

You don't have to be a skater to appreciate this guy's performance. He really does connect with his audience. It's sad to me though, that the commentators say that's a rare quality in skaters these days. The new scoring system has dramatically changed the sport in that regard.

Last week got busy with breaking news and city meetings that went long, very long, and late, other projects, house work and crazy winds. No joke, while we were driving back from Billings with an interior door strapped to the roof (that we later moved into the car), 90+ mph winds were tipping semi trucks, collapsing tanks at the refinery and otherwise causing havoc all over Montana.

So the to-list I created last weekend, didn't get much action and I was feeling stressed out and behind but, today is another day, the start of another week and it's go time.

There's always so much to do. Much of it mundane and not fun, like laundry, cleaning, organizing my mess of a desk. But getting that done makes room for the things I want to do and those things deserve to get done whenever the inspirations strikes, well, hopefully, because eventually, time will run out.

One of those things is Five Things! Each Monday, I list out five things that made me happy in the last week or that I'm looking forward to.

1. Our weekend trip to Billings for an order pick-up at Lowe's. (Yes, we know there's one in Helena.) M ordered insulation and mortar for our mudroom tile. One was in and we thought we'd have to go back for the other, but both were ready to go. And our major score was a solid wood door that is exactly the style I always tell M I love had been returned and had been marked down from $257 to $75. We were going to come back for it Sunday morning but it was gone from the cart we'd seen it on. As we were headed to the checkout line, we found it on another cart...marked down to $5. Yeah, we bought the door.

2. Breaking news all over the place last week, even if the Associated Press did best me on one. Just one.

3. Attending an executive meeting for a local nonprofit aimed at fitness, outdoor activity and healthy eating as a guest promoting the skating club and came away with loads of ideas and definite encouragement and support from the group.

4. While in Billings, we stopped in World Market and M let me buy five bottles of wine. All on sale of course. Back at the hotel, I was doing something and he turned the channel straight to the national figure skating championships and watched it with me. 

5. M came bursting out of the bathroom, frantically telling me to come quick (giving me a near panic attack) all to say, "Is this a gray hair?" Yup, M has his first gray hairs. "I'm going to be a silver fox."

What's on your "Do It Now" list? Mine is currently under construction and coming here soon.

Happy first Monday of 2014! For most of us, it's the first back to normal week after the holidays. As much as I've enjoyed the slower days, time off and festivities, I'm ready to get back at it. Time to put all that energy and motivation from the new year into action and get this year started right.

And, be impressed, the second consecutive edition of Five Things.

1. The closet purge. I went a little nuts on my closet this week and have more work to do. The goal, simplify. Only clothes I really like, actually wear and fit properly get to stay. I'm weeding out the old, worn, never worn and so forth in favor of high quality, mix and match staple pieces. More on this later. 

2. Connecting with the farm where we're getting our Buckeye chickens in the spring. One simple email has sent in motion a chain of planning and designing to be ready for our chickens! 

3. Making progress on the renovation even though each step seems to lead to the discovery that more work is needed. Lucky for me, kicking down drywall is really fun. Punching it, not so much. 

4. Coaching a new group of skaters at the rink. I've got the most advanced skaters of our bunch now and it's incredibly rewarding and satisfying to see them actually listening to my instructions and watching my small tips improve their skating. Especially when they try one of my tips and then come back with a huge smile on their face saying "hey! that worked!"

5. Catching up with old 'bama pals. They're military guys I used to report on, but you know you've built good relationships when they spend an hour going through Army regulations with you to help you with a story happening clear across the country. 

What's motivating you this chilly Monday? What made you happy over the last week?

Oh hey Monday, my near constant companion. 

Honest truth, there are weeks when I dread and loathe Monday. And there are weeks when it's my favorite day and I can't wait to get the work week started because it's full of ambition, inspiration and big projects. 

Today, I'm taking a day off to burn the remainder of my vacation days and get some things done. Lots, and lots and lots of things. Starting with some ice time. 

And when some of those things seem like simple, tedious, annoying, individual tasks, I'll be keeping this quote in mind. That if I keep connecting the dots, dot by painstaking dot, I'm going to get exactly where I want to be. Plus, believing that it all connects eventually makes it that much more fun along the way.

Going with the idea that Monday is a weekly fresh start, I'm jumping back on the idea I started a month ago. My five things. Five things I'm happy about from the last week, and/or five things I'm looking forward to this coming week. I clearly fell off the wagon on my own idea in December, but we'll see if I can get it back on track. 

1. Chatting with both sets of my grandparents on Christmas. My dad's dad spent the early part of the week in the hospital but got to go home on Christmas Eve and talking to him for the first time in far too long on Christmas was just perfect. 

2. Making mega progress on a journalism project and the blog. These things will still take time and lots of hard work, but major momentum was building in the last week or so. 

3. Gathering friends at a local brewery for a fundraiser that supports a local veterans group. I wrote about the fundraiser for the paper and it was just great to walk in and see huge smiles on the faces of the veterans. They are special people who help me out a lot and it's nice to spend some time with them as just a person, outside of work. 

4. Progress on the "purge." Cleaning out the closets, piles of mail, magazines, boxes of stuff and just unnecessary clutter. It's going to take months to really get the clutter under control, probably forever, but the strong start is satisfying.

5. A few days off this week to spend catching up on reading, blogging, cleaning, house renovating and playing with puppies. I'm pretty stoked about all the things to tackle and a break from the morning sprint out the door, when I'm almost always running behind.

Do you believe the dots all connect eventually? What gives you confidence to follow your heart? What are your five things?

Last week was full of small accomplishments and major progress toward bigger ones. All that energy, motivation and inspiration kept me hopping and conquering a huge to-do list. This #motivationmonday is for everyone, but myself especially, since I know not every week will be as productive and encouraging as last week, but to keep working toward those kinds of weeks and those moments of satisfaction in the progress. 

It's #inspiremefriday with Eileen, Alicia, Julie, Megan, Stacey. What's inspiring you this week? 

There are few among us who have lived lives as admirable as Nelson Mandela. The world has certainly lost a giant. 

But his words will live on with us forever and it's up to us to make this great world he dreamed of a reality every day.

There will be days of struggle, days of imperfection and a few steps backward.

But there will be perseverance and triumph and happiness and unadulterated satisfaction. 

Some days will be slogging through the day to day or the down and dirty work, that no one ever sees, of creating something amazing. All of those days of slogging through will move us days closer to accomplishing whatever it is we set out to be. 

It may be hard, it may be lonely, it may be slow and seemingly impossible. 

But in that struggle and a constant state of progress, no matter how slight, is what we owe great men like Mandela. They have shown us what the human spirit is capable of. That one person can in fact move mountains and raise others up along with us.

It may not always be pretty, but what's the point, if not to live the life we are capable of living?

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely, restorative weekend! We took a little time to live life and sure enough, I'm back feeling inspired!

This weekend, we headed a few hours across the state to Kalispell and Whitefish, some of my favorite Montana towns.

We had plenty to do at the Homestead and it had been well below zero with snow covered icy roads, but I had my heart set on heading that way for the Handmade Holiday event, a small gathering of local artisans, crafters, bee keepers and bakers showing off their wares. Our friends at Glacier County Honey were there and I really wanted to pick up some beeswax. I have my sights set on attempting to make my own candles. We shall see. 

The drive was beautiful, though frigid. I kid you not, it was -22 when we left Great Falls. I was terrified the car would break down and we'd freeze to death or loose control on some icy patch, but everything was fine.

I had to close my eyes a few times on the ride out because I was so nervous about the snowy roads, but really, M had it under control. 

On top of never ending house work, I had blogging to do, holiday gifting to attempt and truly, we both had a ridiculous to-do list, but I had a long weekend off from work and I wanted to use it for a little change of scenery.


The ride gave us time to just talk, no puppies, TV, house work, errands or anything to distract. Just us. 

Once we got there, we headed straight to the event in Whitefish and chatted with Courtney, my favorite beekeeper, for a bit. Two beeswax bars later, we got to chatting with Sally, a quilter who has kids in engineering and the military so M could relate on those fronts. She gave us dinner tips and I found this sweet little satchel full of herbs she grew herself that are supposed to be relaxing and help you sleep. I often have a hard time falling asleep (so many thoughts swirling around my head) that we decided to give it a shot. 

Another fun find from the event to come soon, but the event gave me so many ideas for the blog, for local activities, for the Homestead, for the skating club. It is true, being around creative people often boosts your own creative juices and it's nice to see friends and concoct ideas together and make new friends all at the same time. 

And then there's this view from the drive home. Seriously, Montana. It's beautiful here. 

Maybe it's being so far from home for the holidays again this year that it doesn't feel like the holidays yet to me.

But it also seems to me this time of year, when we pause a moment to be thankful for what we have, that I don't have to pause that long because I'm thankful for these things all year long.

That said, I concocted a new idea over the weekend, that each Monday, to go with Monday Motivation, I'll include five things. Five things I'm happy about from the last week, and/or five things I'm looking forward to this coming week. Honestly, I might move this post to another day during the week, but we'll see how it goes first. 

Five Things


1. A three-day weekend since I got to take a Sunday off for the first time in a few months. It's amazing what you can get done with an extra day, and still have time to relax. 

2. Finding a set of cheap, small, simple earrings for just $5. I've been looking for them for months, just some small pearls, silver balls and fake diamonds. I have lost one of every pair of the diamonds I had and most of my pearls broke. Those are the earrings I wear most and for $5, seemed totally acceptable to be so excited about it.

3. Peppermint flavored eggnog. Little weird. Little awesome.

4. Grover-pup decided to run after a rabbit and deer yesterday and made it probably five or six miles from the house. I'm just glad he made it back in one piece, though I doubt he learned any lessons.

5. Finding the kind of chicken that we want to get in the spring and getting wildly excited about building a chicken coop and greenhouse. 

What about you? What are your five things?