There are millions of people making their living online, from home. Some of the work-from-home-online jobs are pretty obvious (- if you’ve ever been on pinterest, you’ve probably seen the “how to start a blog” tutorials.) Maybe you’ve even considered blogging or joining in the work online world some other way, but just haven’t quite found your “thing”? OR maybe you prefer to be behind the scenes? Then become a virtual assistant.
I genuinely love buying Christmas gifts for my people. I love being able to spoil them or bless them in a way that I wouldn’t usually. I don’t go all out and by things for everyone I know – but my immediate family (husband, sister, parents, grandparents, nieces) is so much fun to buy for.
Be it a “side hustle” to pay down debt or an effort to ditch the 9-5, we dream about living the dream. Be our own boss, control our own schedule, determine our own salary. I get it – because that was me just a few months ago… (and now here I am, making my dream a reality). Blogging was an easy choice for me – because I’ve always loved to write.
SO. It’s been a month since I received my first real “paycheck” (as in, deposited money into my bank account) that was earned through my blog. I haven’t even been able to bring myself to transfer the money into the checking account, because I am so certain it can’t possibly be real. (Also since I’m still at my day job for another month and a half we aren’t desperate for the money yet.
I’ve mentioned before that we are debt free. We decided early in our marriage that we would STAY debt free (not including a mortgage. Some day we will have a mortgage, if the timing is right.) The decisions we made that helped us be debt free from the beginning were hard decisions. We lived with my parents for two years, we saved the money it required to build our home. Then we actually BUILT our home.
It might seem contradictory that I can claim love for “lazy-girl” cleaning hacks, and still state that I am living on purpose. But I think “living on purpose” can mean that we accept that we can’t do it all. So we choose to do the absolute best that we can, and we prioritize.
Part of me can’t believe I’m doing this. Not because I have any qualms about sharing my blog income – I’ve worked so. freaking. hard. for. it. (And prayed hard for it!). I want to tell the WHOLE WORLD that I have a blog income. ( I might feel differently if this were my main source of income.) No, I can’t believe I’m doing this because I can’t believe that I have a blog income to report.
Ten years ago, I would have told you that I thought this “gut health” fad was just that – a fad. (And I could absolutely not accept that everyone was suddenly coming down with “celiac” disease. As we advance medically, diseases should become less rampant, not more – right?)
We need to talk. We have a big problem. (The “we” here being those of us in the developed world, for the most part.) So many of us live in a constant state of searching for health. We feel overwhelmingly tired and achy. We have brain fog and blotchy skin. We have weight issues. We shell out big cash for supplements and shakes and gyms. All to little (or no) benefit.
I love setting my purse down on the clean counter, and standing there NOT feeling overwhelmed by mess. (Maybe you’ve always had a clean kitchen, in which case you might not totally relate to what I’m about to say here. But if you’re reading this there’s a good chance that maybe you don’t always have a clean kitchen…)