Jacquie Ellis

It’s the first trip, that wasn’t camping or to see family. We were headed to Hawaii with our three kids to renew our wedding vows, but we weren’t a beach family and there was a 10 year age difference between our oldest and youngest. We needed to find some fun beyond the beaches of Hawaii. Pictures of Hawaii were beautiful and we looked forward to the trip.  I had looked forward to renewing our wedding vows as I had always wanted a destination wedding. However, the wedding was only a small moment in the vacation week. I was worried that the kids would be bored, electronics would fill our time…

It’s obvious that clutter is a clear sign of disorganization. Science has proven time and again that disorganization affects productivity, but there is so much more!  Here I dig into the truth about clutter, and how clutter affects home and office life. The human body likes to function as an organized, orderly process so chaos doesn’t occur. It makes sense that it easier for us to go with the flow when there is more organization, process, and order. If that is the case, why do we allow clutter to mess it up and create levels of chaos? The truth is we get used to the clutter and get comfortable doing more…

When we justify the value of objects that are purchased we look at the quality, the cost, and the useful life of the item. If the useful life brings a return that is deemed worthy of the cost then it may be beneficial. How do you value something that is extremely precious and finite? Something that once used never returns? Time is limited for everyone, it is a finite resource. One that we take for granted, regularly. I was originally going to just discuss how to calculate the value of your time. It is simple to put into numbers when you look at the dollars: your hourly rate that you are…

When you have a busy life, it can be difficult to eat healthily and stay on budget. It can certainly be easier to order take-out or to warm up pre-packaged meals, but in the long run, you are spending more money on food that isn’t healthy for you or your family. As a working mother of 3, I found it stressful to figure out what to make for dinner after a long day of work. The meal had to be easy to prepare and eaten before we had to leave for their planned activities. The meal also had to have ingredients that we could find in the kitchen. When there wasn’t…

Scheduling your time is important to ensure you achieve your goals and staying productive. Most of us aren’t scheduling the right way. We look at schedules to plan events, but we really need to plan routines first to optimize our time. These are the best scheduling rules ever! There are some pitfalls that we all tend to fall into when using a schedule: Let others dictate our schedule, Rarely plan for contingencies, Over-commit ourselves leaving very little time to take care of ourselves. Don’t worry I’m guilty of doing this too, so you aren’t alone. It isn’t too late to break these bad habits and get the most out of your…

Delegation is tough when you hold on to expectations for a specific outcome. There is so much more to delegation than just about freeing your time for more productive work.  The Dalai Lama believes that compassion is one of the keys to happiness, and happiness leads to more compassion. How can delegation to all areas of our life, help us lead a happier more fulfilling life? Here we learn that if we focus on compassion, then you have a delegation that works at home and the office. This post may include affiliate links. I only recommend products that I love. All opinions are genuine. Any purchases made don’t cost you…

*Updated April 2020* Have you been in this situation? You are tired of rotating the same meals every week. You find yourself searching for new ideas so that meals are not so boring. That was me. I was tired of cooking them and eating them. Life was busy but we were trying to eat healthier and save money so avoiding the drive-thru was necessary. We needed a solution. I had cookbooks but had trouble finding simple meals that would work for our busy lives. Searching online for new recipe ideas was an easy solution, but not so easy to keep these recipes organized. I found myself needing a simple solution…

The thought of keeping track of bill payment schedules on top of family and work schedules is too much for already busy families. There has to be a better way to budget payments, be on time with payments, and plan for those sports registration fees!  One that didn’t take away hours of the fun time we could be spending as a family. This is a simple bill management system; budget tips for busy homes. This simple method worked for our family so that we had better control of our finances while being able to plan for big expenses. As a bonus, it freed up our schedule so that we had…