moh-tuh-vey-shuhn, noun, from the medieval latin mōtīvus

Uhhh, you know how bloggers, lots of bloggers, get into a rhythm and a schedule? Like they post every day and they plan ahead and work it all out? This is not one of those posts. I just needed someone to talk to.

I am really flagging when it comes to my personal motivation lately. I have a reading list the size of Mars and the end of summer is looming ALREADY and I can’t summon the energy to clean the apartment or empty my inbox or study or ANYTHING. I want to be successful, I want to buckle down and get stuff done. But right now I feel like I’m just watching the calendar pages floating away like they do on old Saturday morning cartoons and I just want to stop the clock for another five or six weeks. WHEW.

I just needed to get that out there into the universe. This weekend, I plan to clean the apartment until it squeaks. And then maybe that reading list will seem more manageable somehow. I just can’t think inside the mess.

Alright. Make me feel better. What helps you get re-motivated when you’re in a slump?

love, elizabeth

Giving It Up

Happy Leap Day, everybody! The next time we have one of these, hopefully I'll be Dr. Elizabeth...hopefully...well, hopefully, a lot of things will be different.

Jenni's post today inspired me and I'm thinking of making a radical change in my life this spring. For some of you, maybe this wouldn't be so radical or so difficult but for me, it kind of is. I'm thinking about giving up watching television. I've been realizing what a HUGE time-suck this is for me and I'm sort of hopefully dreaming about all the things I might accomplish without it.*

*Right now, somewhere in Colorado, my mother is breaking into a joyful aria.

Source: designfloat.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

I had to think about the terms of this for a little while and here's what I'm thinking...

- No television. The only exception will be news. Because I'm a news junkie and I'm waaaaay into the election coverage right now.

- I can still watch movies because, for whatever reason, I feel the need to plan movie-watching time. It feels a whole lot more deliberate to sit down and watch a feature length film for two hours. Consequently, I actually don't do this very much.

I'm going to start with a week. Can I go a week without it? And here's where the whole i'm-an-addict thing kicks in. But, Elizabeth, what about The Voice? Battle rounds are next week! You really, REALLY want to know what happens in the battle rounds! Sigh. You're right, TV-Junkie-Elizabeth. I really do. But can I live without it?

I can live without it.

Learning to live without is something that seems like an act of growth to me. It feels important to take something out of the equation so that other, better, healthier, more amazing things might happen. I imagine the outside world, a sweeping chasm of possibility in front of me and I think about how much I am confined by my television-watching habit.

So television and I are taking a break. And frankly, Hulu, it's not me, it's you.

Questions for you today...are you giving anything up, either for Lent or just because? What do you want to be different by the next Leap Day?

love, elizabeth

Calendar Girl

                                                           Source: google.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest

Things are really starting to get busy here. September is flying and as our schedules get more hectic with school and work, Kyle and I have started a new wall calendar system to keep track of each other’s whereabouts. I’m pretty proud of the end result which may look like a color-coded disaster area but I assure you, is a highly sophisticated organizational system…kinda. At least I got to use all of Kyle’s different Sharpie colors. Every box color represents a different thing – school, work, church, volunteering, and if you look closely you can see our date nights penned in.

Take a peek at our week below.



I just realized that if someone on the internet wanted to stalk me, it would probably be really easy as I have just provided you with a time and location for my entire month. Um. Please don’t stalk me. Unless you really want to take Avante-Garde Solo Performance with me. There may or may not be leotards involved.



What about you? What keeps you organized on your busiest days?

love, elizabeth

PS: Thank you so much, everyone, for your wonderful feedback and advice regarding the blog title! I think I’m going to stick with Love is the Adventure for awhile. I really appreciate everyone’s opinions and it definitely helped me make a decision.

Oh, and…one week from today, the giveaway. I’m a poet in case you didn’t…hear it.