51 - The Things We Carry
Each week, there is a report of what percent of readers clicked on a link in the past week’s newsletter. Sock Locks were extremely popular!
Photos of the Week
The little bit of newsprint is from an 1897 edition of the Richmond Indiana newspaper - The Palladium Item. It says my great-grandpa Elmer left for Terre Haute, Indiana that day to go to the state normal school there (what would now be considered the school of education at Indiana State University. My dad had no idea his grandpa had ever gone to college.
Kona and I returned to Indianapolis after a longer visit in Richmond only to have the power go out on us. Kona decided he would be safer in his crate - a theme that has continued a good part of this week which is a bit odd for him. He’s usually right in my shadow all the time.
I had lots of meals and drinks with friends this week. This one - the Izzy Spritz from Harry and Izzy’s was particularly pretty - and tasty!
The OG - “green ball” - finally came completely apart this weekend. We’ve been flirting with this separation into two halves for months. Kona was not deterred from playing with his second favorite toy - he now flips both halves around as if this is exactly what he wanted to have happen.
Last night’s full moon.
The Things We Carry
If you’ve ever been unlucky enough to offer to carry one of my bags and have me actually accept your offer, you know first hand that I don’t pack light. My mom nicknamed me the bag lady when I was in school. I’d stand at the end of our driveway waiting on the bus with a backpack over my shoulders, a gym bag hanging off of one arm, a lunch bag in one hand and whatever that month’s musical instrument of choice was in the other.
I’m no different today. Loading my car back up in Richmond at the beginning of the week took three trips before I loaded Kona in his car seat. I marveled at my sister who packed for over a week in Hawaii in just a carry on and a backpack.
I decided to write about this since I lifted my own day pack one day this week and thought to myself, “what the heck is in here that’s making this so heavy"? When I finally notice that the bag is heavy is when I need to reexamine things. The physical things we carry with us often hold a key to unlocking some of the mental and emotional burdens we’re carrying around too.
There were the usual suspects - glasses case, wallet, my favorite travel pill case, tissues, some mints, and a couple of clean masks but my iPad, a pack of markers (that I honestly don’t remember ever putting in there), two sets of wireless headphones (neither of which had any charge left) and receipts from at least three past trips - some organized in my receipt envelope and some floating free but marked that I’d processed them - were all hanging around in there when I dumped the contents out on the table.
Cleaning out my bag each weekend used to be a meditation of preparation for the week ahead. Back when my life was ruled by someone else’s calendar and priorities rather than only my own. I didn’t realize how long I’d let this ritual go now in my new life. The oldest of those trip receipts was from early November. I’m quite sure I haven’t done a full bag clean out since at least that time.
One of the beauties of my former ritual was that it did help me lighten the load both physically and mentally. As I scanned through the contents of the bag this past weekend, I checked each receipt to make sure that it had my little markings on it showing I’d recorded it in my receipt software. While there was too much in the bag, there were no negative surprises in there either. There was a sigh of relief as I began sorting through everything and putting them back in their proper places.
So, what do you need to unpack that is holding onto something you no longer need to carry?
Where’s Kara?
A quick summary of where I’m going to be hanging out online and IRL over the next few weeks. Join me, and if I’m visiting near you, hit reply and let’s meet up!
In Real Life (IRL)
February - I’m heading to Chicago a little later this month for the Achieving the Dream annual meeting.
June or July - I am waiting on all the signatures but I may get to North Carolina later in the summer
July/August - Gayle and I bought airline tickets this weekend for a northern European cruise!
Around the Virtual World
The Facts of Life LIVE Cohort - You will often find me hanging out in the course and community for my course “Facts of Life Book” that launched on January 1! I know some of you were waiting for the first ever live cohort - and that is now available. From April 7 - June 23 I’ll be running a live cohort including virtual sessions every Friday afternoon during that time period. What is the Facts of Life Book? Do you need to organize your most important stuff for life’s most important moments? If so, then the Facts of Life Book course is just for you. With loads of templates, tools, and guides I’ll help you get your most important information organized. Join now and you’ll get access to all future updates as well as any additional future live cohorts I run. Use coupon code FRIEND to get 50% off of the cost of the course.
Quarterly Retreat - It’s still a great time to prepare for an awesome 2023 by signing up for the Quarterly Retreat All Access Pass or the Quarterly Retreat Workshop. Visit https://karamonroe.podia.com and download the workbook for free and check out all of the offerings.
Creative Work Hour - Every single day of the week, at 10 a.m. eastern, a group gathers online in Zoom to do a quick check in, a brief meditation, work for about 50 minutes on whatever they want to do, and then check out with one another for 5 minutes. Creative Work Hour is one of my favorite places to hang out online and I’ve been there every single day that I could be there since about March of 2022. Come as often or as little as you need to get projects done. To register for the sessions (they are free but you have to sign up to get the zoom link) and to learn more, visit https://lu.ma/CreativeWork.
Tools, Tips, & Tricks
Use the Easy Expense app to manage receipts and mileage
Even if you don’t own a small business, tax time reminds us that we might be able to save a little extra on our taxes by keeping track of medical and volunteer expenses and mileage. No app that I’ve tried makes than easier than the Easy Expense app. For my business, I can receipts every time I make a purchase and add them to that month’s “report”. Then I email myself a copy of the beautifully formatted PDF at the end of each month. The developers are adding new features all the time and it just gets easier to use.
Use Newspapers.com for genealogy research
I have had such a blast using https://www.newspapers.com for genealogy research. The little tidbit in this week’s photo round up came from there - as have a load of other great little pieces of news about my ancestors. The free trial is generous - 14 days - so you can do some focused research all for free if you don’t want to invest in a subscription. It’s a fun - and maybe even productive way - to spend a few hours. Way better than Candy Crush.
What I Published This Week
It was a good publishing week, although I did screw up posting my podcast - putting it on the wrong YouTube channel.
Now be it resolved…or maybe not. Why resolutions don’t work for me and what I do instead - on Medium and Hive
The only right way is what’s right for you - this was the topic of the podcast (see image below) and I wrote an article to go with it on Medium
We’re all just walking each other home - supporting one another through all of life’s griefs - on Hive
Moon Moods - on Hive
My Digital “Garden”
As a part of the Obsidian Vault Rebuild Series that I wrote on Medium and YouTube, I began using Obsidian Publish. This add on tool for Obsidian allows you to easily publish your “in progress” notes to the web. If you want to see what I’m thinking about, this is a great place to see inside my head. It’s always available at https://publish.obsidian.md/iwannabeme
This Week’s Featured Book Note
Each week, I’m featuring one book note from a book I’m currently reading. Click the image to view this week’s note as a PDF file.
No Book Note this week. Still figuring out what this section should be.
Diversion
I’ve shared the story of my friend Mike and the pregnant dog, Noxie, he rescued. Mike is Kona’s trainer (and let’s be honestly he’s training me at this point - not Kona). Noxie had ten puppies and Mike is setting these little cuties up to be some of the most amazingly well behaved puppies on earth. Whoever adopts them will be so lucky.
He’s doing individual “training” sessions with them - which at six weeks old is basically a game of follow the snack while he loads up the words yes and no with their correct meanings. The cuteness is too much.
This is the training session with the pup he calls “Pat” who is the pudgiest little ball of adorableness. It’s 9 minutes of your life that will bring you much joy.
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