Organizational Strategies: electronics and cords

Although you wouldn't be able to tell by the state of my room at the moment, I'm an organization nut. (A hectic week and mounds of homework result in a disaster zone, but that's another story.) Everything needs a place. A neat place. (It comes from my mother.) I am also a fan of technology. Without my computer, I would not be able to be in school or be able to write because the arthritic-symptoms in my hands would prevent me from doing a lot of hand-written work. My cameras feed my photography passion. My MP3 player brings music into my life. My Acer, although I don't use it often, gives me the ability to read books when I cannot have a physical copy on me.

What I do not love is all of the power cords and USB cords.

For the longest time I kept all of the cords together in one drawer. It was chaos! I tried to ease the madness by moving them to a basket in the drawer. While it made the drawer itself look neater, it did not solve my problem. It was worse! The cords tangled and knotted. Whenever I wanted to find a particular cord I had to dump the whole basket and search, search, search. It was so time consuming. And frustrating!

To save my sanity - and my budget - I came up with a fairly cheap and easy way to keep all those cords organized. There are a lot of awesome organizational tools out there (boxes, wire wraps, drawer dividers) but a lot of them don't work well or cost money that just isn't in my budget. So I had to get a little creative. If you want to try this for yourself all you'll need are two things: permanent markers and plastic bags. (Note: I used freezer bags from the dollar store, rather than sandwich bags because they're thicker and more durable.) 

Next, I took all of my cords and made sure I had a bag per cord (or cords, if  I'd wanted all of my USB cords together).  In the "Date and Contents" space on the bags, I wrote in permanent marker what cord(s) they were for. (Example below)

Slip the cords into their appropriate bags, seal them and voila! You're done! I've loved this so much that I even keep my MP3 Player in one now. (It keeps the headset from getting tangled and knotted.) Since keeping all of my cords stored in bags it takes no time at all to locate what I need. The cords never tangle or knot. It's a simple solution that has been a life saver!

A bunch of my cord bags on display for all of you!
Good news: the basket didn't solve the chaos problem,
but it does great at holding all of these organized cords. 

I hope some of you find this trick as helpful as I have. If you've found other cheap and easy organizational solutions, share them in the comments. Or, better yet, make your own blog post and post that link in the comments. I look forward to seeing all of your creative solutions. Happy organizing!

Honesty Corner: Let's Talk About Inspiration

I want to get a bit of honesty in. Get a little heavy. Dig deep.

Currently I am an undergraduate student majoring in Health Sciences with a double minor in Biology and Holistic Health. From here, my goal is graduate school - two of them to be precise: naturopathic medical school and then allopathic medical school. I'll be a double doctor when I come out: ND/MD. It's a long road ahead of me, but I'm super excited. There is nothing else I could see myself doing - not even my beloved art and writing. Don't get me wrong, I still plan on doing both! I plan to publish. I plan to sell and give away my art. I plan to share these talents with as many people who can enjoy them and get happiness from them. But as my lifepath, helping people reach their best potential, to live their best life, is a passion of mine. One important piece of living your best life is having good health.

One of my high school teachers once told me that to the best way to make it through college and all of it's rigors was to find a passion for it. Have a goal.

I'm a biology nerd and a health nut.

Giving the gift of good-health is my way of giving back to people. And I like to help people. Humanity is a collective effort. I've always felt we're all here to help each other and everything, in small ways and big ways. If I'm not in service to others  in some way - whether it be people, animals, nature, the world -  I feel lost. But I've got to be honest: my passion runs even deeper than that.

If you've seen my fashion posts then you've seen what looks to be a vibrant, happy, healthy young woman. The truth is...well, that isn't always so. I do tend to be happy and vibrant. I love life! But even with that happiness, most of the time my days are riddled with debilitating pain and fatigue, overcome with waves of anxiety, and plagued with migraines that come on at random and stay longer than they're welcome. There's no defined trigger. It all just comes on out of no where, without warning. Most days I barely have the energy to make it through a school day. In high school, the only reason I graduated was because of a 504 plan. I had no idea how I'd make it through college. There's been a few times I've worried I'd have to drop out. But it's three years in and four semesters of Dean's List grades later and I haven't thrown in the towel yet!

The doctors don't know what's wrong with me. They've run a bunch of tests. They're trying to figure things out. Some of them admit they know I have something, they just don't know what. And most of them? Well, most of the doctors have just given up on me. They say I look normal. I've had doctors tell me I have no right to be in their office, when they have cancer patients waiting to see them. As if my health doesn't matter because they aren't scraping me off the floor yet. (To be clear: many members of my family have had cancer, I am incredibly aware of the struggles and pain that comes along with that illness - the last thing I would ever do is take away from their treatment) I have sat in a chair, facing a doctor, and had them tell me that a). I am not ill, that maybe it is psychological or b). they have no idea how to help me, they've given up, they just don't know where to go anymore and then politely shown me the door. They tell me this will be the rest of my life. I'm 20 years old. They've sentenced me to the prison of my own body for the rest of my life.

I can't run, bike, hike, swim, horseback ride, stay up late, spend hours out with friends, make my own bed, or drive beyond 30 minutes on a good day, 5 on a bad day. There are days I cannot even walk or stand. There are many days I cannot write by hand because of arthritic symptoms. Some days I am so tired I cannot make it out of bed. Some days it is a minute-by-minute struggle to keep my eyes open. Some days I am so riddled with pain that the only thing I can do is lie on a heating pack. After having a good day, where I am a bit more active and have some energy, whatever I do that day becomes repercussions for the next. Whatever groceries I lifted become my source of pain tomorrow. The fatigue has always been part of my life at some level - I never had the sustained energy that most of my peers had. But the muscular pain and arthritic symptoms? They just came on one day. Between the years of 11 and 13, my life progressively stopped.

Most people don't know this.

The majority of my friends who do know, don't really know the severity of it.

To say my health has impact my life is, by far, an understatement. Passions I have - small things like drama (the acting kind), swimming, horseback riding, getting a job - are impossible right now. My friendships have suffered. I don't make friends too frequently. All because I do not always have the energy to pour into them. The weirdest thing for me to admit is this: this has become my normal. It's not a normal I want to accept. But I have lived with it so long that some days I forget that other people's lives aren't like mine. Sometimes I forget there is another normal.

It isn't all singing the blues, though! We're wackadoodles, remember? Through and through! Part of that is taking the curve-balls life throws at you and making them sparkle like diamonds.

I have two amazing parents. They raised me with three things: an inclination for optimism, undying determination and a wicked sense of humor. So for every bought of depression I do face, there is a light. While some of my passions are unattainable at current, other ones such as my art, my writing, scrapbooking, photography, reading, knitting, gardening have all grown over the years due to my inability to attain the others. Being ill taught me creativity. It taught me to be comfortable in being with myself. And while I couldn't always meet friends out-and-about, I have made a few good friends and become closer to friends I already had, thanks to social media (facebook, blogger, twitter, role play websites). I have learned, practiced and fallen in love with meditation. I have grown stronger and deeper in my spirituality. Because of my experiences, and my parents, I also have an incredible capability to laugh at myself and at my hardships. It is the best resilience tool I have in my "Getting Through" toolbox.  

(My parents and I have always been determined to say that I have an illness, it does not have me.)

The biggest thing that my illness has given to me, though, is my passion. My inspiration. Every day it just gets stronger.

Being ill downright sucks pond water. Not going to lie there. I never stop hunting for the ability to not be sick. But I am grateful for it, in some strange way, because it has taught me compassion for those who are suffering. I've been there, in those shoes, I know what it's like. Being ill gave me a passion to want to help stop suffering. It's taught me how I don't want to treat my patients as much as it has taught me how I do want to treat them. (I will never give up on a patient, that's for sure!) I've progressively learned how to be my own advocate - baby step by baby step.  I've gone down an endless path of healthful eating, filled with delicious vegetables, creative meals and organic, locally grown foods. I've learned there is a place for both allopathic and naturopathic medicine, and that the two can live in harmony.

I do have a few doctors who are still working hard with me, not giving up. The main ones are a naturopath and allopathic doctor duo who work as a team. They treated me for Lyme Disease, Bartonella, Babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis, both with allopathic means (pharmaceuticals) and herbals. With each treatment, I improved a small bit. But I am still no where near better. (If this is how well I am now, you can imagine what I was before. I was well on my way to being wheel-chair bound and a forced couch potato.) Right now, though, they're putting together pieces of a puzzle that are promising. Good health appears to be on the horizon!

That gift of excitement, promise, and hope - that's what inspires me. To be able to look at a patient who has been suffering and tell them how we as a team can improve their life, perhaps even cure it. That is priceless.

Being a doctor is being a private investigator. There are clues to be sniffed out, pieces of the puzzle to find and lock in place. Solving the case means giving someone their life back. For me, that's the ultimate reward.

I've always enjoyed a good mystery.

What inspires you?

This is what happens when I try to exercise

I was trying to do my Friday exercise session this afternoon, as per my 2014 Goal Endeavor, but it didn't go quite as planned. While I had goals of activity...well, my pups had different goals.

This is pretty standard procedure. (Just my first time capturing it on camera!) Either Peaches and Amara claim my mat for their bed or they snuggle in close to me, making maneuvering difficult. In this particular instance Peaches claimed my footsie as her pillow. They're just so cute that I don't care it takes me longer to do my sessions because of them.

I may be their own owner, but I'm fairly certain they own me. And I love every second of it.

OOTD: Cowgirl at Heart

 I never really grew up in the "country." At least, not as much in the country as my soul feels like I did. In my head I grew up on a horse farm 30 minutes out of town, surrounded by more breathtaking landscape than city roads, telephone lines and neighbors. In reality I have never lived more than 15 minutes from a town with a grocery store and shopping complex, nor ever had the experience of being without a dense cluster of neighbors. Being just beyond town has always been my home. (I've only ever moved twice in my life that I remember - but that's for another post.)

There's always been a country girl living inside my soul. Horses, country music (I grew up on it!), farms with large fields, gardens, wooded trails, bonfires, nights spent watching the stars on a black sky, cut-off shorts, plaid shirts - they've all called my name. Growing up a few friends of mine did live in the country; whenever I visited, I felt at home on the land. I love the peace of the country - the stillness that comes with being physically set apart from busy society. I'm a social creature. I love people. But I love coming home to nature, to quiet, to beauty. The country has always symbolized all three for me.

While I cannot have them right now, my vision board is full of pictures of a future home with fields for my future horses, green houses and gardens, and wooden trails through the forest. I even have managed to save $400 over the past several years towards my dream horse. It's no where near enough right now, but it keeps me holding on to that dream. It makes it more tangible. (I've got at least eight years of graduate school before I settle down, anyway! I've lots of time to build savings up.)

My striped shirt featured here isn't exactly "country." But my boots and belt are! I have been wanting cowgirl boots for years, the real kind that can be used for barn work, but I've been unable to afford them. One day mom came home from shopping and handed me these beauties. They aren't exactly "official" cowgirl boots, but I love them none-the-less! They're my new favorite fashion accessory. (Edit: The plaid shirt might not be entirely country, but the design and the mellowed purposefully worn colors sure do fit my earthy-artsy-nerdy side!)

• Shirt: J.C. Penney (bought last year with a coupon!)
• Jeans: dELiA*s (bought during a huge sale - so I got four pair for the price of two!)
• Belt: Old Navy (bought during one of their specials and with a coupon - it was practically free!)
• Cowgirl boots: Khol's (Clearance item! I cannot remember the discount price exactly, but it was somewhere around $20 marked down from $79.)
• Earrings and necklace: gifts from over the years
• Rings: gifts and random finds

True to form, I'm keeping up with my Bargain Queen fashion status.

Up-close shots of the necklace, the boots (I couldn't resist showing off their detailing), the belt's detailing and, inadvertently, the shirt:

I never used to be a belt-lover, but within the past few years I've fallen in love with belts.
I wear them all the time. I must have about ten different ones, all for different kinds of outfits.
This particular belt is one of my favorite "every day" belts.

New favorite shoes! I love the decorative pattern.

I am a huge lover of peace, so a few years ago mom thought it a great idea to give me a necklace
that has three prominent symbols of it: the peace sign, the word "peace," and a dove.

I hope you're giving into your soul's loves and desires. Happy weekend, everyone!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Getting connected! Thanks to my dear friend Miss ALK, I now have a Bloglovin' account. (I've never been this connected to social media before!) Feel free to follow my blog with Bloglovin - there's a button in the sidebar as well. Don't be shy - come on in and say hi!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Snowday Ramblings: a photo-filled post.

Happy Snowday!

It seems that this winter just keeps getting crazy and crazy. Between arctic freezes and polar vortexes, huge ice storms, mass snow storms stretching across half the country. Some days I wonder if I'm living Day After Tomorrow. I really thought we were away from the bulk of the snow and cold after a week of relatively mild winter weather. Mother nature had us all fooled! It looks like we'll be getting around 14 inches of snow today and perhaps even more this weekend as another storm rolls in. I hope you are all staying warm where ever you are! If you're also in this snow storm, I hope you're snuggled safety inside doing something you love. If you're in a state that's warm and managing to avoid this - revel a little in that for us all, okay? (Or, you know, invent a way to ship some warm sunny weather, that works, too!)

Really, though, I'm not complaining. I'm enjoying this snowstorm. Finding out that for the third time this week I was saved from the misery that is waking up at 5:30am for an early morning class, I was ecstatic. I have a pile of homework beside me to get done, a notebook for my writing, and hours of possibilities on my hands. In between a morning meditation and watching Super Soul Sunday on the DVR with my parents, I ran outside to photograph the snowfall we're having. Not even the temptation of breakfast could keep me inside!

Though I did snag a tasty spiced tuna melt afterward. It's
a new addiction. Totally healthy, right?

Pushing aside my detest of cold, exchanging it for a love of photography, I snagged my winter coat - and nothing else other than my cameras - and spent the next few hours outside. I trudged through the snow banks, got soaked by the thick, fluffy flakes that were still falling from the sky. The snowflakes were so numerous, big, and fluffy. Sometimes they were falling so densely that I couldn't see our neighbors house or the majority of the woods behind our house.

Too often during the winter I spend most of my time shut up inside. Cold has never been my favorite temperature. In the winter, if I don't have to go outside, I don't. Simple as that. (Oh, 101 reason I want to move to a warmer climate!) But on rare occasions I indulge myself in winter splendor. I enjoy ice skating - though I haven't done it since I was very young. Making Mr. Snowman and his best friend, Snow Angel, brings out my inner child. Sledding? Heck yes! Snow ball fight? Bring it on. Winter photography also holds a special place in my heart - it has to, for me to drag myself out of my warm sheets in the early morning  and brave the frigid air. (Only for a wee little while anyway.)

Can you blame me? Awaking to a scene like this in my backyard, I cannot help but
fall in love, despite the cold.

Winter scenes always make me want to do a few specific things once I come in from a bit overdue outside fun. Cold, snowy days signal pajama days spent snuggling in a comfy chair with a warm blanket wrapped around me, with a warm mug of tea or "snowcoa" in my hand. (You know you're a little over excited about snow when you start calling the hot cocoa you drink on snowy days "snowcoa.")

I totally am devouring a tasty cup of Snowcoa this
morning made from a Trader Joe's packet and piled high
with whipped cream. Ahh, the way winter life should be!

When I'm not busy on a snowy day, I also love to read lots of books or watch movies; however this week has included little recreational reading and a ton of scholastic reading, set to the backdrop of movies. (Hey, I have to make it fun somehow! How to Train Your Dragon, The Back-Up Plan, Mystery Woman movies on Hallmark channel? They're all amazing. Probably not helpful to productivity, but they make reading textbooks a bit more worthwhile.) Today alone, thanks to Netflix, I've already popped in The Host - which I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it - and I currently have Frozen's soundtrack playing on loop. It is really making a wonderful background to reading. Today's endeavor includes some fun required reading, now that I've gotten this week's textbook reading out of the way. In my hand I currently have Ethics for the New Millennium by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to my side, once I finish that, I have Living Downstream by Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. I am so excited to read  both books and look forward to sharing more about my adventures with them in the future!

A few of my favorite snow reads include "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost and "Snow Image" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Each have a special space in my heart. Frost's poem is in a paperback book of the same title, a book I have had since I was very small. It was always a favorite of mine to read. Only a few words are on every page and the illustration captures the kind of snowy, country winters that remind me of home.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, filled with amazing illustrations.
His writing has always made my literary-loving heart soar. The images only
add to it.

One of my favorite illustrations.

And another. :)

Hawthorne's short story has been with me for a significantly less amount of time. I found his work hidden in a row of books while wandering my local libraries stacks. "Snow Image" is part of a collection of works in a book by the same title. The book itself is very old and full of character. It's binding is falling apart, so I have to handle it with great care. But it spoke to me that day. Something about it captured me. I opened pulled it from the row and sat cross-legged in the far corner of the library, surrounding by the tall stacks, encompassed by silence, captured by words, as a warm summer breeze trickled in through the windows. The first and only short story I read that day was "Snow Image." When I brought forward it's deteriorating condition to my friend, Leila, who runs the library, it was apparent that the poor thing would just have to go. But because she's amazing, she let me snag it off the libraries hands for a small cash exchange.

A summer photograph of the newest family addition:  a very old, lovingly worn copy of
Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

My other favorite winter adventures include paintings and drawing, knitting, writing and, of course, photography. Quiet activities that let me be with myself for awhile and enjoy the slower pace. That is one thing I do love about winter and snow: it gives an excuse to slow down and take time for myself. In the summer I feel guilty taking a day to just play and do nothing, particularly indoor activities, where the sun is so bright and everyone else so active! Being shut-in because of a storm is the perfect excuse to just be. 

Happy Wednesday, everyone. I hope that you get to enjoy some time outside. What winter activities do you love most? What do you love to do on a snowy winter day?

Confession: closet coffee lover.

Normally my drink of choice is tea or hot chocolate. In between my water consumption, I down these like it is going out of style. There is an entire cupboard in my kitchen devoted to tea and cocoa. It is packed so tightly that I have to take it all out just to find one I want! Then there is a whole stash downstairs, too! My dear friend, Miss ALK, from Southern Belle in Training, even bought me a sweet travel mug for my birthday so that I can bring my addiction to classes with me. (You know you're an addict when your friends start buying you mugs.) It has gotten a lot of use.

Super sweet traveler's mug modeled here (a cut photo from my latest fashion post "Pretty in Pink").
The quote running horizontally along the mug is a proverb (17:17). "A friend loves at all times..."
Which is so, so true.

A lesser known addiction is my love of coffee. It's no secret that getting a chai latte when I'm at a coffee or tea shop is usually my go-to. (Chai has a special place in my heart and it always will. I own about five or six different chai teas as it stands and have been known to make my own caffeine-free almond milk lattes with them ever since a friend showed me how.) But within the past year I have discovered the wonders of many other kinds of delicious drinks. Mochas, cappuccinos, lattes.

I cannot tell you the number of White Peppermint Mochas I devoured from Whole Foods this past holiday season, or the number of times I have devoured caramel or french vanilla cappuccinos and lattes from there or another coffee shop. Luckily I don't get to Whole Foods often, or find myself in a coffee too frequently. (Ouch! That'd hurt the budget.) But because I don't get the chance too often, I do treat myself whenever I have the opportunity. The stars have to be seriously misaligned for me to walk out of Whole Foods without a fresh cup in my hand and a spiced scone in the other.

This morning, after a week of tea and cocoa, I wanted a change. I wanted to spice things up! So, into our cupboards I went...

And out I came with this scrumptious organic coffee mix. I am starting off my day of homework and studying with organic Ghiradelli Chocolate Crème brûlée coffee with MimicCreme Almond & Cashew coffee cream (French Vanilla). Sooo tasty!

I have spent the majority of my life away from regular milk. I was brought up on rice milk, almond milk and other nut milks. Personally, I prefer their taste to cow's milk. Mom even makes home-made nut milks for drinking in our Vitamix. (Which tastes amazing! I honestly don't know what we'd do without our Vitamix. We use it for everything - soups, green drinks, smoothies, nut milks! They're expensive but worth every penny. We've had ours for around 12 years and it is still going strong!) For most of my baking, though, I use MimicCreme - including pies, whipped toppings and puddings! I'm dying to try it for ice cream this summer. I have never tried the coffee cream, though. (Usually I just poor in my regular almond milk and carry on.) Let me tell you - I am so glad I did! I may have a new addiction on my hands here...

What's your favorite heated beverage?

Even better: what's your closet food-love?

Edit: I am so saddened to hear that, according to its website, MimicCreme will not be producing it's line of products for retail businesses. While I tracked down the website to link to this post I discovered this news. I love their product! It's so delicious and works so well in everything I've tried. Their former website can be found here: http://www.mimiccreme.com/ If anyone knows of another amazing dairy cream substitute, I'd be happy to hear your suggestions! It looks like I'm on the hunt for a new one - or going to be developing my own!