11/13/15

\\ found this on a tumblr page that I'll link below. It's the most lovely page and this quote is just as lovely.\\

http://kaifel.tumblr.com/

{9/11}

"I know for certain that we never lose the people we love, even to death. They continue to participate in every act, thought and decision we make. Their love leaves an indelible imprint in our memories. We find comfort in knowing that our lives have been enriched by having shared their love." -- Leo Buscaglia

Where were you?

Koffee Talk w/ Kat {Routines}

So to start my dive back into the blogging world I am just going to start with a simple series of my morning coffee rambles. School just started and it is insane how much work I have already done and is waiting for me to do. Senior year is no joke. I have this semester and 2 more to go and I feel like I will not have a chance to breathe in between. This semester I am doing Session A and Session B classes which means that I will have one set of classes for the first half of the semester then take my finals in October and then a second half of classes with finals in December. Which basically means I am taking two semesters worth of work in one semester. IN-SANE. But nevertheless so far so good, it is just quite a task trying to keep up with all the work.  With the help of my Erin Condren Life Planner (hereafter referred to as ECLP), coffee, millions of to do lists, and of course a few awesome tutors I think I will survive this semester.

I moved back in with my parents this semester to save money my senior year. School and work basically take up ALL my time, and when those two things aren't controlling my time then I am at church or sleeping so living on my own didn't really make sense anymore. I was basically paying for a place that I was never even at to enjoy. So now I am saving money to pay for school, which my dad generously offered to help pay for part of this semester so that was a huge blessing so I only had to pay for a small portion! And I am able to put away more a month to pay for grad school, fix my car, get new tires, and all that other fun adult stuff.

Since I have moved back into my parents house my daily routine has gotten SO much better. Basically I wake up every morning around 7, take my puppy Deacon out to potty, go back in my room and put him in bed with me and I either check social media on my phone, watch Chopped (my guilty pleasure), or sleep depending on how late I was up. Then I get up around 8 and start moving around, get dressed, take Deacon out again to let him get some energy out. Deacon comes to work with me usually twice a week, the other days I pay my little sister Liv to watch Deacon. She owns Deacon's sister Darcy from the same litter.

Here's a little picture of my boy Deacon Paul: 

 So after I am ready to go and either get Deacon loaded up or in my sister's room then I head off to work. I confess I am in the habit of running to Starbucks on my way to work about twice a week, I swear a frappuccino in the morning completely changes the outcome of my day. It is a sure fire way to have an amazing day in my book. Unfortunately, good 'ole starbucks is a little stressful for my wallet so I try to make myself have coffee at work rather than going there but I do not care what you say, none of those doggone pinterest frapp recipes can even slightly compare to one made my the amazing red headed barista that spells my name right. They don't look as good in my insta photos either. #firstworldproblems. Anyways, a little mid-way hack that I like is the Starbucks Doubleshot Energy drinks, my favorite flavor is the Vanilla ones. They are 15 fl oz of goodness and I usually only drink half then put the other half in the fridge and drink it the next day. Today, because it is Friday, I drank a whole one. Currently am typing at 100 WPS and feel like the energizer bunny. #help

So then after choosing how I will be getting my life elixer for the day I start the day with my little Allybug. There will be a whole other post designated to the joy that is my goddaughter and the blessing that is my job of being her nanny every day. So Ally and I usually have either a really chill or really busy morning. Some mornings we load up in my golden carriage and run errands, go to the park, or various other adventures. Some mornings we watch Sophia the First in our pajamas and do crafts. Today, Allison is wearing sheep pajamas and watching Sophia the first while coloring in Nanny's notebook. Choose your battles people. Friday's are huge toss up days. Ally's parents (my adopted bro and sis) are usually off work and go adventuring and some days they need to do work at the house so I will take Ally out to the Children's Museum or if her parents are going to be gone all day we will swim in her little pool shaped like a crab in the backyard or do a craft or be lazy and snuggle on the couch and take seflies (thats my fave). Like I said, today we are being lazy because it is storming outside.

Then lunch is at 12 like clockwork, we get ready for a nap, then she goes down for about 2 hours. During that time over the summer I indulged in a nap myself or binge watching Law and Order SVU, however now I am forced to use that time to do schoolwork. #yay But L&O is still on because I am a rebel. Then when Ally gets up we have about an hour and a half before her parents are home, we eat a snack, color, read books, dance, sing songs, or play outside until they get home and then I head home for the day.

After work I either go study with friends or go home and eat dinner then hangout with my sisters or whatever else I have planned for the night.  (EDIT- So while I was typing this paragraph Ally was eating lunch, pizza flatbread and raspberry jello and she dropped it all over the floor then proceeded to clap her pizza/jello hands on me and my shirt while I was cleaning it up.) Then I am always home, showered, and in bed before 11:30, I watch NCIS or Chopped until I fall asleep. The End.

This routine has really been working for me, it is still super busy and hectic some days because I am also involved in all of my siblings different activities. Olivia has cheer that started a few months back, my mom is the sponsor so I am at everything and I help with the girls. Bailey has soccer, the games haven't started yet but will start next week. My sister Devan has cheer, and my other siblings, Brylee, Sam, and Hayden are all involved in golf. So it is definitely busy. I also have church twice a week and several church events each week. Along with school events and other activities I am involved with.

So that is my crazy day to day life. I get kind of excited when I have nothing to do, my guilty pleasure is being able to lay on my bed and watch TV and do absolutely nothing. I am already looking forward to fall break!

Til Next Time,
Kat

Here's a few other pics from my crazy life:

Life Update

I figure it is about time for me to do a little life update for those of you who are interested. 

So first Lets go through some highlights of the past few months..

1. Completed my Junior year of college! Yes it was DEFINITELY the hardest year. BY FAR. However I was able to drag myself out of the trenches, barely hanging onto the confidence and pride I knew as a wide eyed freshmen. However I think I have now really gotten the hang of this college thing (cue curve balls). 

2. I turned 20 yesterday. It doesn't really feel different except the fact that I will never be a teenager again, that is kind of weird. I feel an intense need to get my life together and be a more adultier adult. You know the kind that doesn't accidentally put her shirt on inside out or try to lock her house with her car clicker. That kind of adult. (UPDATE: I was just informed by a reader that there is no such thing and at 30 years old she still does this. YOU HAVE HAD ME FOOLED.) 

Now lets go through some future plans updates...

First of all let me say that I know a lot of people laugh when young adults try to talk about their future plans and write them off as "dreams" or "goals" BUT, seeing as though I have kept my plans relatively the same for going on 6 years now I feel that this is one aspect of my life I have earned the right to talk about my future plans as though they will actually be happening. 

1. So anyone who has known me the past 6 years knows that I plan on graduating with my undergraduates degree, going to seminary, becoming an ordained minister of the UMC, then going on to do mission work and then hopefully being the associate pastor of a UMC in the Louisiana Conference. 

NOW, there has been little to no change to that plan but here is my rough outline.

1. Graduate with my Bachelors Degree in Marketing and a Minor in Communication Studies

2. Emory/Candler in Atlanta Georgia for a double Masters in Business Administration and Master of Divinity.

3.Strive towards becoming Ordained and then hopefully, possibly, maybe work for UMCOR. 

I have been feeling a HUGE call to mission work the past 2-3 years to the point I have considered moving to Africa and working with the UMC groups there. My heart is just with missions. So I do not know what that will look like later on in life but I have an itch in my toes to get going. 

With all this being said that is basically as far as I have gotten with my future life plans. Right now the immediate goal is to graduate from undergraduate school with a decent GPA. I still have about 3 semesters left because I changed my major as a Junior. I know, I am crazy, but my school took away the concentration for the degree I was working towards and it left me in a degree field that no longer interested me so I changed to Marketing where I am much more happy and feel as though I am working towards something that will actually be useful to me in ministry later on in life.

Apps to Stay on Track

So if you are like me then time management can be a HUGE issue, accomplishing even small tasks seems impossible because the whole day slips from under you. I have tried a million things but it always comes down to just not being good at prioritizing and managing my time. So here are some apps that I have found that help me SO much with keeping my life on track with school, cleaning, health, and everything in between!! 

1. Wunderlist

LOVE THIS APP. I have a serious obsession with making to do lists... It's clinical. I make them every day, I rarely keep the lists long enough to cross anything off, just making them makes me feel good. 

This app lets me have ongoing to do lists that I can't lose and you can add people to them as well (they can ONLY see the lists that you add them to) which is awesome if you have group activity to plan! 

You can also set due dates for items on your list and the app will remind you when they are due! I put most of my assignments on here so that I am reminded when they are due!

2. Commit to 3 

I have a really bad problem with over committing myself or setting too many goals in a day and then not accomplishing any of my goals because I get too overwhelmed and spread too thin. This app is very simple. It asks that you choose 3 things to accomplish that day then commit to them. There are 3 spaces to be filled.

Then you think about the day and pick the 3 things that are most important for you to complete that day. I try to do this every night before I go to bed for the next day because I'm not a morning person and NOTHING sounds important to me at 7 AM. ;) here is what I committed to for tomorrow...

Super simple, nothing very hard. Just 3 things that I want to get done today, and of course it would be great for me to accomplish more but the point is to accomplish goals (even small ones) every day. 

3. iCalendar 

The regular calendar that comes on the iPhone is good but I find it very lacking in customization and overall just kind of dull. 

So I sought out a different calendar that was a little more stylish and customizable. This is what I found! 

So pretty (It will be even better after I add my school schedule in and sorority events) you choose colors for each category and the OCD in me LOVES that I can color code my life and have it layed out so simply in front of me. Now this could never replace my Lilly planner that I carry with me but it's nice to have this with me all the time too for quick reference. So there is a monthly view, weekly, and daily.

And adding events is SUPER simple!

Just really overall love this app and how cute and customizable it is! 

4. Inlivo

So I am one of those people that tends to "forget" what all I have eaten in a day which can get me in serious trouble. Lately I have been noticing more and more that my body is NOT happy with my eating habits! So I downloaded this app to help me out! 

It's pretty simple, like most apps of this type you search for the foods you ate, choose how much you and it adds the calories. 

It also tells me how I am doing with my food groups and what I am lacking in! Overall like this app for its simplicity but I wish it had more options of foods, nothing is specific like there's just a hamburger option, I would love to see specific calories for a McDs mc double or a BK Whopper. Because this girl ain't eating just 1 Cup of Carrots!! 

So these are just a few apps that have been helping me personally and I hope they can help you as well! 

xoxo,

K