Welcome to my weekly post I share a peek into our lives, talk about things I’m loving, share links to interesting articles or helpful ideas I’ve collected throughout the past week, and just talk about whatever is on my heart! ?
Kaitlynn’s class hatched chicks this week — which was pretty exciting for everyone in the class! 🙂
I had fun going back to my roots and making some yummy recipe concoctions using what I had on hand and what I found marked down at the store.
We’re fulfilling a longtime dream of ours to have floor to ceiling bookshelves built in our library, complete with a ladder! I can’t wait to show you the finished shelves — they are supposed to be done this week!
Kaitlynn has been hard at work on her Science Fair project! She’s doing an experiment with growing spores. It’s quite fascinating and kind of gross! 🙂
I got lots of great deals at the store this past week and have had so much fun documenting them here and on Instagram Stories. I was especially excited that I stayed under my $70 grocery budget (I spent $68.22 total this week on all our groceries!)
Something I’ve Been Pondering
“If you hustle hard enough for long enough, you’ll achieve what you’re aiming for!”
I read these words recently online and wanted to reach through the screen and gently put my arm around the writer and ask, “Is it worth the cost?”
Not too many years ago, I was this writer. I could have won all sorts of awards for how driven and disciplined and diligent I was.
I basically never missed a day of blogging — I blogged when I was miserably sick, on weekends, on holidays, on vacations. I never took a maternity leave and I even live-blogged my second labor!
I often stayed up until 2 or 3 am — and this was during the years when my babies weren’t sleeping through the night and I was waking up multiple times per night to nurse them!
I was perpetually exhausted, stressed, and anxious. And I didn’t know how to stop or relax.
This took a huge toll on my health, my marriage, and my relationships. I had so little life outside of work and blogging.
But I kept pushing… because my worth and identity was wrapped up in how much I did, how successful my online work was. My worth was in my work.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m a big fan of working hard, being diligent, setting goals, and following through. But as someone who completely burned herself out chasing after more — more traffic, more income, more followers, more opportunities, more media, more recognition, more impact — I’m here to tell you that more isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
And the thing about chasing after more is that you rarely ever know when enough is enough. Because it usually never is.
These days, my life is a lot simpler… my blog traffic isn’t as impressive, my income isn’t skyrocketing like it once was, I’m not getting many calls to do national media, I’m not signing book deals, I’m rarely traveling for business, and I only work about 35-45 hours per week (instead of the 55 to 70 hours I used to work).
And I have a LIFE! I stopped chasing and hustling and racing through my days at breakneck speed, so now I have time to notice the beauty, reach out to a friend, get enough sleep, hang out with my husband, be more present with my kids, and embrace this amazing life right in front of me.
(Want to read more about this journey? Read my post on Why I Stopped Hustling and Why I Wish I’d Done it Sooner.)
2018 Goals Update
Personal Goals
1. Read 100 non-self-help books that will build me up/encourage me/inspire me/recharge me. (Fiction/story-driven/biographies/inspirational living books/devotionals.) See the list of 44 books I plan to read this year.
**Progress: 19 books read so far this year
2. Read through the entire Bible.
**Progress: I’m using the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan and am all caught up— yay!
3. Write one handwritten note to someone every week.
**Progress: 18 notes written so far this year
4. Run 500 miles.
**Progress: 148 miles run so far
Marriage Goal
5. Go on an overnight trip with Jesse without the kids.Jesse and I went to NYC together in January.Family Goals
6. Read 10 books aloud with the kids.
**Progress: I’ve finished one book so far.
7. Take the kids to South Africa.
**Progress: We nailed down dates for our trip!
8. Go on a family road trip.
Financial Goals
9. Save up to pay cash to finish off an office for me and workout room for Jesse and me in the basement in our new house.
**Progress: We’re getting ready to start finishing out the workout room this coming week!
10. Replenish our Emergency Fund (we dipped into it to replace my car when it got totaled because of the carpet beetle infestation.)
Business Goals
11. Increase our gross income from the business by 8%.
12. Launch 5 new courses.**Progress: We launched 4 Weeks to a More Productive Life launched in January, Content Creation 101 in February, 4-Week Blog Coaching Program in March, Email List Setup 101 in March, and Make Over Your Mornings LIVE in April.
Lauren Nolan says
Crystal, I’m pretty sure I want to be you when I grow up. I found you through the Ultimate Bundle that I just recently purchased. I’m about to watch week 2 of my morning routine process. Thank you for the inspiration!
Crystal Paine says
Aw, thank you so much for your encouragement! And welcome!!
Susan says
Crystal, thank you so much for sharing your story about anxiety. You are so fortunate to have a husband who cares for you to help you work through it. You are so generous to share that part of you with us. It makes you so real, and it is very touching and human. We are all vunerable. I have experienced bouts of anxiety when I was unemployed years back, and had no money, and I was struggling and single, and no family to ask to borrow from. It is amazing how God can touch our lives so unexpectedly. I had exhausted every idea I had, was bawling, sobbing, crying, one Sunday morning early. A friend of mind called out of the blue. I had not talked to her in many months, and we were close friends, and she said what is wrong! I told her, not even thinking she could help me out. She said get dressed, I am treating you to breakfast, and we will work out the rest. She helped me with 2 major expenses I was ashamed that I could not pay. She helped me without making me feel bad or putting any guilt on me. She did it with love, friendship. Just like that, snap! God took away my deep sorrow, anxieties and worry, and immediately I was filled with such relief, and gratitude. I was reminded, God is always close by, watching over us!
Crystal Paine says
That’s beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing!
Luba @ Healthy with Luba says
Crystal,
God bless you for writing about hustling. I did it for a few years too much and ruined my health. Yes, I still work, but now on my business instead of for others. It’s so much more rewarding.
Congratulations on your floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Does that mean that you will be keeping more books from now on? 🙂 Just wondering. 🙂
Crystal Paine says
I don’t know that we’ll be keeping more books… I’m going to wait and see what the bookshelves look like when we get all of our books on them and then I’ll decide what the organizational system will be going forward and if we have space to keep more or not. I LOVE to be able to share books with people once I’ve read them, so I’d rather share them than have them on my shelves — which is what I currently do with most of my books after I’ve read them!
Jill says
I was wondering where you got those curtains.
Crystal Paine says
We got them from a local furniture store.
Megan says
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who dreams of a home library with a ladder. I’m still trying to figure out where I can make room for it in ours! Can’t wait to see how yours turns out.
Marianne says
I’m so jealous of that library! Can’t wait to see the finished product!