I had a video call with some family members, and I asked them to teach me something instead of buying me presents. The result was wonderful. When each person thinks through their knowledge and expertise, and decides on what would be most meaningful to share- you have a lot of meaningful topics.

I stayed up so late writing some notes. Have we already talked about my neck? I injured my neck and thus am taking corticosteroids to help it heal faster, but they give me insomnia. So I finished writing this stuff at about the time the birds woke up.

Thrifting, by Natalie

If you see something new and you like it, you can always find it cheaper, with time. Put items you want on a thrift store shopping list on your phone and check regularly for those items.

“There are some people who just want stuff. If they see a good deal for something they’ll just buy it, whether it will be useful to them or not.” This is something I do!

Giving and Receiving Feedback, by Savannah

Copyright radical candor graphic

Here is a copyrighted image that I copied.

When giving feedback, you should actually give good information to people. It doesn’t help them to spare their feelings. If you’re trying to spare their feelings, that means you don’t think they can change. That’s a fixed mindset. (This kind of parenting spoils toddlers.)

But you certainly can give information in hurtful, rude ways. This is yelling, in parenting.

Radical candor is saying what you think. It’s putting time into helping someone change.

When receiving feedback, ask when these changes need to be applied. They usually don’t need to be applied instantly, but they do need to be heard and begun.

Try to ask for feedback, because then you receive it better. And then you grow! And then you feel happy that you’ve grown.

Asking for feedback after social interactions is a good idea because you owe it to your friend or family member to not ruminate over issues. Ask them an open ended question about the interaction, and then narrow in about the one weird thing you said that you couldn’t sleep over.

Lindsay’s Ask Me Anything:

The Jane app has reviews on clothing items regarding fit. and has cool deals. I’m excited for this, because I need to shop for clothes online but I don’t know where to start.

Valerie’s morning routine:

savor your morning routine infographic

I used to have an early morning routine, and some of these were on here, but NOT VISUALIZATION! Such a great idea to bridge dreams with reality.

When you first start, wake up like ten minutes early and do each thing for one minute.

Put your alarm clock across the room and put water right beside your bed.

Make your bed and get ready for the day and do your hardest thing first. These three things will give you a confidence boost which will carry you further through your day.

Add comfort to the family through taste, touch, smell, sights, sounds.

Clutter brings anxiety. Your stuff takes up your time, your time takes up your energy and money. The more stuff you have, the more time and energy you spend maintaining stuff.

Oh, and toddlers can manage the book section on hoopla by themselves.

Nikki: Using neuroscience to help you change.

Triggered: when a you have a negative emotional reaction and your whole day is shot. You have 10-15 seconds between event and reaction, and if you don’t avoid being triggered it will take 5-6 hours to recover. During normal brain function, you can process 8-12 pieces of information. When you are triggered, you can only process one.

Reflect on the day, identify your triggers. Recognize those situations and go a new way. Practice alternate reactions, like box breathing. In for 3 seconds, hold for 3, out 3, hold 3.

Here’s a line: “I want to have an open and fair discussion with you but to do that I need a few moments alone.”

Reflect on the day and list three good things that happened that you influenced in some way. After two weeks, you get as many benefits from this as you would get from taking Prozac.

Personal To Dos:

  • write a blog post about minimalism
  • make a white board about how to get a toddler to obey you, including the radical candor diagram
  • Customize a savor-y morning routine.
  • Think ahead through the morning routine and make things easy for my future morning self
  • Grease the slide by practicing workflows for morning routine
  • Organize music playlists
  • Set a good-enough exercise goal
  • Make wooden block quote above cabinets that says, “Brauns Keep Trying.” I’m worried that the lengths and letter placements will be different. So paint the letters in typewriter type, or times new roman, because old print is usually not in perfect lines.
  • Make one of those arrow signs for your house, just as a learning project, with distance to major cities and pointing in the correct direction. Geography. Trigonometry. Building.
  • Devote one cup to everyone
  • Reduce your stuff again
  • Blog about what you’re doing during quarantine
  • Schedule workouts
  • Read Eat that Frog
  • Read stuff from Brene Brown