SOUNDTRACK 03 : LIVE IN THE SUNSHINE

I love all kinds of music, but my favorite is folksy, singer-songwriter stuff. I've been in the mood for it a lot lately, so that's what I stuck to for this soundtrack. I'm always on the lookout for new artists to check out, so if you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments!

Listen: 8tracks

01. From This Valley - The Civil Wars
02. Only Love - Ben Howard
03. Sunflowers - The Harmaleighs
04. I Never Knew You - The Avett Brothers
05. Smooth Movin' - The Likes of Us
06. Flowers in Your Hair - The Lumineers
07. Lover of the Light - Mumford & Sons
08. This Side - Nickel Creek

Hope you all have wonderful start to a new week!

THINGS I LIKE : 01

This week has been a pretty relaxing one. I had the week off work, so I got in a lot of much-needed alone time (and managed to be somewhat productive in the process). I'm trying to enjoy these few weeks between the end of classes and the start of the fall semester. Although I'm not taking any classes, I will be working on my thesis + wedding planning + renovating a house (more on that soon!). It's about to get crazy again!

Here are a few links and things I've been liking this week. I hope you enjoy them, too!

Have a happy weekend!

- DIY constellation coasters by Almost Makes Perfect. These are currently at the top of my DIY list. Stars and constellations are some of my favorite things, and they need to be in my house.

- The Civil Wars new album. So great! Current favorite tracks: "From This Valley," "Eavesdrop," "Devil's Backbone," and "The One That Got Away." (This week only, it's on sale for $7.99 on Amazon!)

- And in And bracelet from ModCloth. Because it's a bracelet with an ampersand and why not?!

- iPhone Challenge by The Small Change Project. My own personal "rules" I'm trying to live by may be slightly different, but this just furthers what I talked about earlier this week.

- Your Life is More Epic Than You Think. I love this article from Relevant. "The ordinary life we wake up to every day is full of its own magic, beauty, wonder, and meaning; we just choose to ignore it most of the time." YES!

- The Day I Stopped Saying "Hurry Up." This article from The Huffington Post is one more good reminder of the value of stopping and enjoying life in the moment instead of always racing to the next.

- Meet the Racists! A great post on A Deeper Story from a couple of weeks ago. I don't agree with her on every point, but her underlying point--how racism and the like really all come down to the basic sin of pride--is excellent. (A Deeper Story is one of my favorite blogs because it is such a honest, varied look at life and faith. I don't always agree, but that's part of why I love it.)

Some of my favorite pins this week...

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SIMPLIFY

Lately, I've been realizing: I spend so much time doing things that just don't matter. I like technology. I love browsing through Pinterest and finding pretty pictures and inspiration of all kinds. I like keeping up with my friends' lives through Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. I love reading blogs of all types–design, faith, fashion, creative writing, you name it.

However.

While those things are fun, and certainly have their place, why has “their place” in my life seemed so huge lately? Why do I spend so much time mindlessly scrolling through an endless list of updates on a screen–things that are completely inconsequential to my life–instead of doing things that matter?

I've found that, because there is so much information to be consumed, my brain goes into a different mode when I'm online. When there's so much to read, I skim through it and quickly file it away. It may be great information, but because there's always something else on the list, I am rarely able to take the time to process it and make it part of my life. Again–that's fine in its place and completely necessary at points, but I realized that I was carrying over that way of thinking and processing to other areas of my life. I would read my Bible, but it became just another piece of information. Because my brain was constantly moving to the next thing, I was not really internalizing anything.

I have a huge stack of books I want to read, but I never have time to read them because I'm always reading blogs.

I love to do all things creative, but I rarely sit down to make anything because I am too busy looking for new inspiration.

I love to write, but never seem to be able to sit down and actually put words to paper because I am too busy reading others' words for ideas.

I'm really, really tired of living like that. I'm tired of feeling attached to my phone, or having my time sucked away by irrelevant information that I just can't seem to stop taking in. I'm done with it.

This past week, I have made a conscious effort to not waste my time and actually start doing the things I genuinely enjoy. It's not as if I've stopped going online or using Pinterest or scrolling through Facebook; I've just done them significantly less. And it has felt really, really great. I thought it would be difficult, but it hasn't in the slightest. The hardest thing has been breaking the habit of mindlessly reaching for my phone if I was not otherwise engaged for more than 5 seconds (pathetic, isn't it?).

I've made time for writing in my journal, for reading books, for making things. Today, I unintentionally let myself waste a good chunk of my time online. While I wish I hadn't, it let me realize that I enjoy my days significantly more when I spend them doing things that matter. It's a lot easier to find adventures in the everyday when you leave your brain some space to actually see them.

Less crazy, less wasting time, less technology, less overload.
More creativity, more peace, more productivity, more depth.
It's time to simplify.