By the time our eyelids flutter open, small bits of morning light have started seeping through our window blinds. We no longer feel we are waking in the dark of night each morning. We can see the familiar landscape of mountains and trees burst with green. It is lush and teeming with new life. I open the window over our kitchen sink and can hear a chorus of birds fill the air with song. They are ready for the day. Flitting and tweeting about with great energy.

“When your eyes are tired the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone no part of the world can find you
Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own.”

This post is for my fellow readers out there. I tried something new this year and kept track of the books that I read, careful to note my favorites. If you are searching for a new book, you may just find your perfect match in this list!

We are exploring a new podcast idea and I would love to hear from you! Have you found that there is an area in your life that has significantly improved or become healthier after going through a faith transition?

Winter challenges us to turn inward and now we have more reasons than ever to find a way to live mindfully at home. I would love to hear from you about how you are at this moment in time.

Invitations are just what they sound like! They involve choice. You are invited but not required to…come out to breakfast, attend a family dinner, consider listening to an important podcast, talk about personal things, or join me on a morning walk.

Anthony Miller, Samantha Shelley (Zelph on the Shelf), Holly Ashton Wallin, and John Dehlin, and I all came together to talk about what spirituality means to us now—and basically…a whole bunch of MAGIC happened!

Today, I thought I would share five of my favorite books on conscious parenting!

How is life feeling for you, loves? Tell me the truth. One thing that seems to provide me with a needed boost is to reflect on what has been bringing me joy. I literally grab a pen and paper (yep…the good old fashioned way of making a list) and get to work. Happy work, it is!

I have seen a few “Top Ten Things I Will Not Buy” lists showing up lately on my YouTube subscriptions or on blogs that I frequent. Have you ever tried creating one?

While we all will likely have our own ideas about how to truly live as we age, I thought I would share a few thoughts about what healthy aging looks like for me these days.

I thought I would share a favorite granola recipe that I have made for years! It is wonderful AS IS but you can also add extra nuts and dried fruits to suit your personal preferences. If you have young children, they will love being a part of this process as the best way to mix this up is with your hands!

Working through a “reflect and edit” process is one of the best tools we have in living an intentional life. What is the “reflect and edit” process exactly? Simply put, it is a process where we slow down and reflect on a particular area of our life that seems to be regularly causing us stress or suffering. After reflecting for a given span of time, we edit or make adjustments to our lives based on our insights.

A few months ago, I read a book called The Healthy Deviant: A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World by Pilar Gerasimo. Pilar was the founding editor of Experience Life magazine and is the co-host of The Living Experiment podcast (a favorite of mine).

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for joining me for another year on the blog!! It has been a time that few of us anticipated in the early days of 2020. Isn’t it strange to think back to that time? We now have layers of loss to integrate into our current selves—and I would guess some births too.

For many of us, when we feel increasing levels of distress and overwhelm, we fall back on coping patterns from our childhood. Normally, how we cope is unconscious. We are not aware of it. And much of our coping stems from a wound of some sort.

As the world around us grows more and more unstable and the air turns cooler, our homes and lifestyles can serve as a place of grounding and comfort for us. Here are some simple cozy ways I am making my time in my home feel like a refuge from the storm.

As the weather cools here in Salt Lake City, I find myself craving comfort foods. Have you heard of Tieghan Gerard’s website called Half-Baked Harvest? If you enjoy seasonal comfort food, this is a resource just for you! I have yet to make a recipe that isn’t delicious.

The idea of a capsule wardrobe is that you narrow down the clothes in your closet to your favorite items that you wear all the time. These items should be easy to mix and match so that you can create different outfits from using the same pieces.

I thought I would offer an update on my silver hair journey as several people have asked how the process is going. Are you ready to be “in the loop?” I have included a few photos so you can see for yourselves how things are progressing.