Simple Saturday
Girl dinners, the cost of maintaining you, and helping you set your intentions
Welcome to Simple Saturdays
The bi-weekly email where we stop for a minute, to have a virtual coffee date and chat all things simple, on purpose
Hello Simple Saturday friends!
We are wrapping up our summer break (back to school at the start of Sept). The kids are on their annual Farm Visit with my wonderful in-laws who take them for a week in the summer.
They get all the cool kid activities, some farm fun, and ice cream every day….., and I get to have the house stay clean as I want it, work at my own pace, take a 4pm Netflix-and-Tub, then eat a Girl Dinner, watch videos on how to cut bangs, work some more, then head to bed!
SIDE NOTE: Girl dinner is the tiktok term for the mismash of snacky foods we put together and call it a meal. AKA how I ate for most of 20s when I was solo for dinner: some yogurt and berries, a bowl of chips, some cheese on crackers, some leftover pasta, maybe a shake.
My kids eat Girl Dinner too, we call it SNACK PLATES and it can be a dinner option sometimes.
I love it because it allows us to eat what we have, eat a variety, and not get all caught up in creating a ‘meal’. It doesn’t have to ‘make sense’ it just has to nourish you.
This solo time will also include me shopping my closet and putting together some outfits for a couple of days that Conor and I will spend in Vancouver as the Farm Visit wraps up.
Shopping my closet even though my brain told me I needed to go shopping for something new and exciting. I'm proud of me for not buying this fallacy that new clothes somehow make ME more new and exciting. That is what the bangs are for! But also, it is worth pointing out that I put together new and exciting outfits with the clothes I already own. #shopyourcloset #getmorecreative
I mentioned before that I recklessly prioritize getaways when the opportunity presents itself. This time I was able to book a hotel using our CC points. This obviously saves us more money for tacos, some bespoke cocktails, and gluten-free cafes! Right?!?
The cost of maintaining 'you'
I shared this episode on the FB group on ‘How to Hop Off the Hot Girl Hamster Wheel’ by the Money With Katie Show.
She outlines how she tallied up all her ‘beauty’ costs and realized that she didn’t want the cost of maintaining these standards and she would rather INVEST that money.
I think this topic is so relevant and interesting. You might remember me sharing this episode by Allie Ward on Kalology (beauty standards).
As I’ve done years of the #moms30for30 challenge (wearing 30 items for 30 days) I feel like I’ve wrestled with the tension of looking how I want to look vs buying into what the world tells me I should look like in order to be relevant and acceptable. I don’t want to pay the price of fitting in a world that will change its mind in the next two months.
This topic is not just about the cost of maintaining your ‘beauty’ or your ‘look’ but the cost of maintaining you - at your current lifestyle.
As I have looked at living LIFE WITH LESS this summer I see some of the things I feel like I NEED to have all the time in order to just live my life:
certain foods (many of them actually: the ‘good’ chips, the coffee beans, the cashew cream, the good pickles, the peanut butter, the non-generic cheddar etc), Yeesh! Eating Princess Level Girl Dinner all the time!!
my fave soaps or shampoos (do I really have to say goodbye to Lush and Sephora???)
vitamins
stops at my fave coffee shops anytime I am near them
cozy socks
and so on
I think it helps to stop and look at what we are doing by default. And decide if this is working and if we want to keep it:
What are we spending our resources on?
Our resources being our time, money, energy and space - I break it down more in the Simple Living Series…worksheets available!
Do we like it?
What is the cost/benefit?
Is this time/energy/money better spent/invested elsewhere??
Some answers might be "yes, I do want to keep it!"
👉🏼. What matters is making the decisions consciously (on purpose!) and in line with YOUR values.
That time of year when I request your official feedback
I have been putting out this survey for a number of years now. And one reason I still do it is because you guys BRING IT!
This survey always has a great response (with about 7-9% of you historically taking a minute to fill it out — pretty good for an anonymous non-prize-related survey!)
I often tell you guys that I LOVE hearing from you, whether on IG, in the FB group, or when you hit reply here - your response is the feedback of be sending all these thoughts/episodes/posts OUT to the internets! It is great to have a response.
So I am hoping you will take a minute to share your thoughts and help me plan out how to spend my own resources this coming year to serve you well!
Set your intentions
Take a deep breath
And another one
Drop your shoulders
Unclench your jaw, unclench your stomach
Allow yourself to settle into your body for a moment (I know this can be hard for some)
Look up from the screen for a few moments
Check-in, what is around you? How are you feeling?
Take another deep breath
And let’s leave with some intention, here are some questions to help you live more on purpose today:
What is happening today?
Who do I want to be today? What is important to me in how I show up?
📱 These questions are available in a wallpaper, if you want to use it regularly
Friends, wishing a great week!
Love Shawna, Your Nerdy Girlfriend and Counsellor who is here to help you turn off the autopilot and instead live on PURPOSE