*Giveaway!!* Enter to win Sims 4 DLC or a copy of "The Bullet Journal Method"

I’m celebrating reaching 700 Twitter followers with a giveaway!

I’ve reached 700 followers on Twitter, and to celebrate I’m doing a small giveaway. Two of the most popular topics of my posts are my Sims 4 stories, and my Bullet Journal or planning posts. To honor that, and the variety of my readers, I’m allowing the winner to choose between two prizes!

You can win either:

A Sims 4 DLC pack of your choice purchased through Origin

or

A copy of “The Bullet Journal Method” by Ryder Carroll. Ryder designed the time management system. It is an excellent read for anyone who values time and is trying to live more intentionally.

Thank you for reading & following!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About: What do I want from this site?

My site is still undergoing a bit of a reboot/reorganization and I’ve been considering how to separate various topics. I used to have separate blogs (all on this site) for the various topics I post the most about (Sims, Bullet Journals, etc…). I’ve condensed down to one feed now, but I do plan to have pages dedicated to specific topics. To help me decide which topics would be turned into their own pages, I took a look at my most popular content over the last year or so. One thing that I noticed was that my “about” page was one of the top pages.

That information inspired me to focus on creating another about page as I currently don’t have one. My idea for the about page is to have a collection of posts about the site and me. That brings to me to this post! The first “About” question I’m going to answer is what I want from this site. Here is what I’m striving for:

Community

The first thing I want is the creation of a community. I have a have a habit of creating communities, or at least attempting to, where ever they fit into my life. For many years, I had Yahoo! groups dedicated to various interests of mine- mostly with friends or real life acquaintances, but sometimes strangers too. When I was younger (highschool through undergrad), I organized group trips of 10 to 18 people for a week long vacation in Maine, all staying in one house. Not all of the people were my friends- we had friends of friends, acquaintances and relatives too. I organized food, activities, games and tried my best to bring everyone together as a group. I now have several Slack communities I manage- one for friends, one for family, one for a game I like to run called Mafia, one for work, and one for a Pathfinder game I run. I also like to arrange group gatherings and trips among friends and family.

Ultimately, I want to have some sort of community here. A community of people with similar interests. There might be a forum, or maybe a Slack workspace. I’m not sure how it will develop, but I want my readers to interact with me, the blog, and each other. I want to facilitate new friendships. I’d like games, events and snailmail swaps. I’m not sure how I’m going to get there yet, but it is my aim.

Discovering Fun

Another thing I want to do is help people add more fun and play into their lives. There are plenty of reasons to be serious in life, but having fun is equally important for ALL AGES. Adults should be playing board games, collecting things that make them happy, and striving to have a sense of wonder and joy. It is important to be creative, learn new things, try new hobbies and seek out ways to make your life more fun. I have a lot of hobbies and I want to share them with you in hopes that you find something that interests you. If you are excited and happy about life you have more energy to get the things done that you need or want to do.

Inspiration, Self Motivation & Accountability

I find sharing my journey quite inspiring and motivating. With whatever hobby or self care practice I’m trying out, blogging about it encourages me. Sometimes I find support through comments or tweets, but also the act of self reporting provides some accountability on its own. Thinking about topics from the perspective of a potential reader brings new ideas, interests and paths to the surface for me to explore further. When I layout a blog post on a particular topic, or am generating ideas for blog posts, I find inspiration for all aspects of my life.

Self Care Awareness

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Since then, I’ve begun viewing everything with the lens of self care. I’ve done a lot of work with therapy, classes, research, mindfulness, meditation and health coaches. I’ve made some huge leaps in how I feel. I didn’t realize how intensely my mental health could impact my physical body when I started this journey, and I have learned so much about why self care is important. I want to help others become more self aware, and share the tools I have found in hopes they can help someone.

A Job I Love

Yes, someday I do want the blog to generate a little bit of income for me. Right now, it generates $0 and I’m okay with that. Oh, actually like -$50/year due to costs of domain, etc… I don’t know how I want to handle generating revenue yet. Integrity and honesty are very important to me, and I haven’t been totally satisfied by some paths I’ve looked into. I have a full time job that I like well-enough, but I really love blogging. In the future, I’d like for it to produce enough income that I can make blogging my primary job.

Here's a cat...

I’m currently working on a couple of longer blog posts. One on the different categories of self care and examples of activities you can try for each one. The other post is my first post for my WDW 2019 trip report.

In the meantime, here is a cat (Mike Wazowski) sitting in his toy box.

Back from Walt Disney World & Upcoming Blog Posts

Today I’m transitioning from Vacation Mode to Routine Mode, as last night I got back from 10 nights in Disney World. I had a great time in a magical place with some amazingly lovely friends who were excellent to tour with. It was my first time to the World with friends, and my fourth trip as an adult. My transition is even harder this year as I do not know when my next trip to the world will be, as we currently have no trips planned. I definitely will be back- it’s my happy place- but I don’t know how soon.

I have plans to do a day by day trip report here with our experiences as well as some tips and recommendations for your own travels to WDW. If there is anything you’d like me to talk about in those posts (Toy Story Land, restaurant reviews, merchandise, how to prepare for a trip, or any questions you have about Disney, really) please leave a comment below! I love helping people plan their future experiences in WDW, and talking about all things Disney!

Aside from my trip report posts, I’ve got a lot on my mind for upcoming posts:

• Establishing an improved Self Care routine: My mental health hasn’t been the greatest these past several weeks. I think I need to make self care a priority. I’m going to do some research on the different categories of self care (physical, emotional, psychological, social etc…) and establish a weekly routine for addressing my needs.

• Related to the above, in WDW I got a new notebook perfect for recording daily intentions and gratitude journaling. I will discuss my plans for this.

• Disney Souvenir hail: Pins!!! Plus a few other things (like earrings and a cute purse) that I got in WDW.

• Goals: Now that my vacations over, I can focus on the fact that it is a new year and I only recently started a new bullet journal. I have goals this year to improve my cooking skills and learning to draw.

• Bullet Journal Spreads?

• What podcasts I am listening to/podcast recommendations

• Reblogging old posts

• A Sims story? My new self care routine should involve more time for gaming, which means I will have Sim stories to tell.

• Other things I might touch on- WDW news, journaling, depression, anxiety, pets, games, apps, books, penpalling

If there is something from the above list that really appeals to you, dear reader, please let me know and I’ll do my best to make it one of my priorities. While I blog for me, I do enjoy engaging with my readers so if something sparks your interest, we can have a conversation about it!

I hope you have a magical week!