My Happy Lists

And the winner is…CONNECTING CONGO!

#10 on my 104 goals for 2012 is to make a monthly donation to a non-profit I care about.

I have selected Connecting Congo as the non-profit I'm going to donate to each month. I actually donate $5 per paycheck to United Way, but I want to do something a bit more meaningful for me.

My best friend, Mary Manda, and her husband, David Suze Manda, founded Connecting Congo. It is an incredible organization and in addition to helping maintain their website, I want to find new ways to support them.

I'm committing to sending $35 each month. I even added it as an automatic payment from my checking account. So now it'll just happen automatically! The only thing I need to be aware of is when Mary moves to DR Congo permanently. I will likely need to change it to an electronic transfer.

I hope this will inspire someone to make a monthly commitment to an organization they care about. And if you don't have one, pick Connecting Congo! They rock!

January Pinterest Craft

"Our Week" – Weekly Calendar and Dry Erase Board made from a photo collage frame. I LOVE this. I think it will look great under our monthly calendar in the kitchen/dining room.

http://pinterest.com/pin/170010954652909985/

1/4/2011: I'm going to pick JoAnne up from the airport tonight after work, but if I have time, I'd love to go to Walmart to get some lunch items for the week and see if they have one of these collage frames.

February Pinterest Craft

Coming Soon…

After starting our new company, Wilson Media Consulting, I experienced what all home-based business owners experience: struggling with discipline and motivation.

Here are some tips on how to be more productive (no matter where you are).

1. 45/15 Split

My background in psychology and experience as a learner and worker has taught me that people have an optimal range of time of which they can learn, focus and be productive. The typical time range is 40-55 minutes. What this means for you: start paying attention to time when you're working. About how long into a task do you start to "fade" or does your creativity or productivity diminish? For me, it's about 45 minutes.

I like to start my work "on the hour" so I can easily do a 45/15 minute split. I start working at 7:00 am and at 7:45 am, I take a planned break. Knowing that I get to take a break helps me focus because I don't create excuses to not work.

When you let yourself expect a break, you'll be more productive in your 45 minutes than if you just take random breaks, get frustrated, and then stop working altogether for a couple hours.

2. The planned break

Before I start my 45/15 split, I have a plan for how I'm going to spend my 15 minutes break. That way, I don't waste time thinking about what I'm going to do when I should be working, or wasting my break time by trying to decide how I want to spend it. For example, I know that in 20 minutes I'm going to get a snack and play with our adorable cockapoo, Mazie. She likes to sleep in, so I won't wake her for a little while.

3. Timing my tasks

Measure, measure, measure! That's how you know if anything is successful. I measure the time I spend every day by using an automatic time tracker. Gone are the days of writing down what you're doing (especially if you spend 80% of your work day at the computer). I use a cool time tracker that lets me add new tasks and then set the timer on them when I start working on them. At the end of the day (or week, month, etc), with a click of a button I can see where all my time went. It also helps me bill clients because it's organized by client profiles. It's a breeze to use, and I've noticed that on the days I don't use it, my productivity plummets. There's something about seeing that little timer on my screen that shouts to me: GET TO WORK!

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Today is all about LOVE – the most powerful things in the world. There's a lot of pressure put on today, but relax! Expressing your love is one of the easiest things you can do. All it takes is a little planning and a little effort.

The 5 Love Languages

The following ideas are inspired by Dr. Gary Chapman's book, "The 5 Love Languages." If you don't own this book already, one of the best gifts you can give your relationship or marriage is buying this book today and committing to reading it and discovering your love languages. It's currently on sale at Amazon for only $6.59. That's a pretty cheap gift that says, "I commit to loving you the way you need to be loved."

Words of Affirmation

If your partner's love language is words of affirmation, you have it pretty easy on Valentine's Day! Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Write a letter

You have tons of ways you can choose to write your letter: handwrite it, type it, use fancy paper, make it look old and roll it into a bottle, draw a picture on it, fold it up like you're in middle school, frame it, etc. The key is to just sit down and express your love in writing. Feel free to talk about how you met, why you fell in love, why you're still in love, why that person means the world to you, etc.

2. Create a video

Whether it's a flip camera, your phone, or a fancy camera, film yourself saying all the important things your partner deserves to hear. I suggest taking some time to write down what you'd like to say and maybe even practice it a couple times. Then just sit yourself in front of the camera and go for it. Another video idea (if you have a little more time and some video editing software like Windows Movie Maker) is to create a a slideshow of pictures of the two of you and then record what you'd like to say (maybe even with their favorite song in the background) and put it all together. This will end up being a cherished gift for a long time to come, especially for the person who needs their love tank filled with words of affirmation.

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As you can see, I haven't added a new blog entry in 6 months! That's pretty ridiculous. Like many people, I have some pretty typical excuses: I'VE BEEN BUSY.

Really? Too busy to take 15 minutes to post a new blog? Probably not. So here's to a new challenge to add one new post every day for 30 days straight. I'd like give myself a 100-day challenge because I think those are more substantial and fun, but let's start with a more manageable 30-day challenge.

And to give myself the motivation to get those posts written every day, here's a list of 10 reasons why blogging consistently is good for you:

1. Stretch your mind. It's one thing to sit and have a chat with a friend about something, but when you sit down to write something, you're going to stretch your mind much more. You have to organize your thoughts and communicate in a way that will connect with people.

2. Do better in Google. Search engines love fresh content. If you want to perform better in search engines and grow a larger following, you need to write consistently so that Google will rank your blog better.

3. Maintain reader loyalty. If you're writing just for yourself, then this one doesn't really apply to you. Usually people are writing for an audience – friends, family, or strangers. If you want those people to stay loyal to your blog, you need to give them content to keep coming back to. If you let your blog sit without an update for 6 months, no one is going to be paying attention!

4. Challenge yourself. Ok, so this is kind of like stretching your mind, but seriously – stop being so lazy and give yourself a good challenge. With something new to accomplish every day, you're going to push yourself more than just sticking with the "same old, same old."

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Jean-Clean Van Damme is a bad-ass. I don’t care if you think differently. He is the model of pure awesomeness. Last night, Tyler and I watched this awesome movie and I knew I had to share this awesomeness with my Happy List readers.

If you’re needing a way to cheer up, I encourage you to rent/Netflix/etc. his movie Kickboxer. It will cheer you up immediately. Just check out some of the reasons this movie is awesome:

1. 1980’s martial arts movie. Need I say more? The 80’s are filled with so many fun classics, and Kickboxer is one of them. If you love 80’s movies, you’ll love Kickboxer. It has a definite 80’s vibe to it: terrible dialogue, crazy awesome fight sequences, and a rockin soundtrack.

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After our Chocolate Apothecary and Auntie’s Bookstore date last night, we went out to Rusty’s Sports Bar & Grill for our friend’s 26th birthday.

We didn’t want to drive downtown Coeur d’Alene, but we wanted to go somewhere that was open past 10 pm – and so we went to Rusty’s for the first time. Overall, the service & drinks were good. Here’s what stood out to me:

• Down-to-earth service. Our server was friendly, but she wasn’t pretentious, annoyed, or fake. She was friendly and helpful. When asked what she’d recommend, she asked good questions and made good recommendations.
• Variety of music. Other than the times when there was music (which was kind of odd), we all liked the variety of music from contemporary to hard rock to country – something for everyone.
• Drinks were priced right. Most of the drinks averaged $3.75 – and that’s without having any specials.
• Variety of seating. There’s the bar, some high bar tables, tucked in booths, and a couple couches. Again, a little something for everyone.
• Sports on the TV. This is sort of a given since it’s a Sports Bar, but whatever. I like having some good old sports on the television so I can have additional entertainment other than friends and drinks.
• It’s in Hayden. For those of us that don’t want to go downtown Coeur d’Alene (or to some of the scary bars I haven’t tried), Rusty’s is the perfect solution.

After our fun chocolate tasting date at the Chocolate Apothecary, Tyler and I headed over to Auntie’s Bookstore to use another Groupon.com coupon (50% off $20 purchase).

I was so excited to get $10 free dollars to Auntie’s. Tyler and I love that bookstore. Here’s a few reasons why:

• It’s Big AND Local. We haven’t found many local bookstore that have such a huge selection of books at such a big location
• Downtown Spokane. There’s something fun about old downtown buildings. Auntie’s Bookstore is big, open, and old. It’s awesome.
• Great staff. Every time we go there, the staff are friendly and accessible.
• Huge selection of new and used. I love discovering fun little “finds” there – old used books for an affordable price.
• Autographed books. They are always hosting book signings, from local to national authors, including the likes of David Sedaris, Jamie Ford, Sherman Alexie and Chuck Palahniuk. If you can’t make it to one of the book signings, you can still pre-order a signed book, or even purchase one afterwards.

  Last night, the hubbie and I headed to Spokane after work for a Chocolate tasting class the Chocolate Apothecary in Spokane, Washington.

I didn’t even know they were there until their coupon showed up last week on Groupon.com. After 8 years of being together, Tyler and I are always on the lookout for new and fun adventures. Last night was just such an adventure.

10 Reasons Chocolate Apothecary of Spokane rocks:

1. Groupon.com participation. Yeah, I know it’s basically for their own promotion, but without their participation in Groupon.com, we never would have known about them. Using effective marketing makes them smart (and I like smart businesses).
2. Chocolate Dream Tour Engineer. That’s not exactly what she called herself, but it was something awesome like that. She did a great job of presenting the process of making chocolate and the experience of tasting.
3. 14 different chocolates. By the end of the chocolate tasting, I was on an incredible chocolate high. It was fantastic.
4. A little to-go baggie. Once I started getting a chocolate overload, I wasn’t able to eat the whole piece of the samples. They planned ahead and had cute little to-go baggies so we could save our leftover chocolate. Brilliant!
5. Water. Water is fantastic, and we had plenty of it to cleanse our palate between tastings.
6. Journal & Pen. At first I thought it was silly that they offered a journal and pen, until I realized I wanted to take notes on all of the chocolates we were trying. Great idea!
7. Chocolate and espresso cafe with tables and chairs. People don’t have to just stop in and buy chocolate. They can stop in, have a drink, relax and enjoy themselves. The atmosphere was great!
8. Delicious souvenirs. Nothing like purchasing a souvenir that’s so delicious.
9. Perfect length. An hour event was perfect – not too long, not too short. It seemed to go really fast, which is a good indicator that we were enjoying ourselves.
10. Chocolate High. I felt amazing after munching down on so much chocolate. I could tell from the look in Tyler’s eyes that he was feeling mighty good as well. (He had this big grin on his face, despite feeling kind of sick earlier in the day).

Bottom line: Chocolate Apothecary has a fun Tasting Class that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys chocolate and wants a fun date.

The Hubbie and I (commonly known as Team Wilson) are not wealthy by any means. We work in fairly low-paying jobs (in the $10/hour range) despite our advanced college degrees. And yet, despite living paycheck to paycheck, we have managed to end up owing the government an additional $2,000 this year.

Here are 7 reasons why (my UNHappy List of the month).

1. Miniscule pay raise. I actually worked full time for the whole year and we earned a little more money since I wasn’t going to school. But that leads to #2.

2. No longer a student. Those tuition credits came in handy.

3. Debt Settlement = Taxable Income. So poor that I defaulted on a student loan and settled the debt for about 50% of what I owed. Turns out that counts as “taxable income.” Because that makes sense.

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