WAYS WE WENT FROM AIMLESS TO INTENTIONAL LIVING

Intentional living became the way we started living after we got married and the aimless days were no longer bringing joy. Especially when we made ourselves some small humans to live in our house… intentionality became one of our main focuses.
It might sound exhausting – but so are the chaotic & scattered days we live in until we chose to be intentional. Can we have intentional living in every area of life? The simple answer is.. probably not. But we might… check out our blog on five ways to be more intentional in life.

ORIGINS OF INTENTIONAL LIVING

As I began this post, I realized there were a few turning points from our single days to where we are now, eight years and close to four children into marriage.
We became intentional about relationships after getting married. This meant couple friends, work friends and other relationships. No longer were we interested in wasting time with people who are shallow and, quite honestly, boring. Also we were very careful with individual friendships with the opposite sex, careful meant we didn’t invest in those relationships. If this is too vague – leave a comment and we can elaborate.
Then we became parents. Meg surprised herself and everyone else by deciding that she wanted to leave her career and intentionally build her legacy at home, raising the small humans we made. A couple years later child discipline became a very intentional aspect of our family.
In 2021 we found minimalism – which totally transformed our lives, for the better. We are way more intentional with purchases and clutter. But also we have seen this intentional living and simplicity spill over into all areas of life. Scheduling, homeschooling, budgeting, grocery shopping, and meal planning. Once it starts – it invades your life, for many reasons that is a whole new blog post.
So now about three years later we are still taking clutter out of our home and finding more places that intentional living is changing for us.

Finances

We have been on a long (eight year) journey to getting on the same page in finances. At the beginning of our marriage we were on different pages. Each of us have moved away from these old expectations and patterns of thinking into a new mindset. Just since the beginning of 2024 have we started taking our finances very seriously. While there has always been willingness to budget from both of us. Yet it has never been a priority set into the routine. This year we are moving from aimless toward intentional living in our finances.

Food

INGREDIENTS
For a few years we have been working to reduce sugar and refined carbs in our diets. We also have taken a step back from highly processed food, alcohol and soda. Our start came from watching a couple videos on the effects of processed food and sugar on our bodies. It gave us the start we needed to move from our status quo into a new way of thinking about food. We are much more intentional about the foods we purchase for our home. Our goal is for most items to be in their whole form and use them from there. For example, purchasing peanuts and putting them in the food processor for a few minutes – instead of buying processed, sugary peanut butter. If we want to sweeten our peanut butter it can easily be done with honey, natural sugar or even a smaller amount of white sugar. The goal isn’t to always eliminate something – it is to control the amount.
This was not a budget issue, although we do see the benefit there as well.
MEAL PLANNING
Food is such a huge topic that we needed to break it up. We are also seeing meal plans and prep is intentional living overflow. For example, pizza night is regular enough that we made two crusts last time and one is waiting in the freezer. Although with toppings and cheese. Homemade pizza is no longer daunting, take out pizza is not longer the fast option. Homemade pizza is the easy and quick option now. Just a little planning and prep is life changing.

YOU CAN’T DO EVERYTHING PERFECTLY,
BUT YOU CAN BE HIGHLY INTENTIONAL
AND DO A FEW THINGS WELL.

Meg

FITNESS

This has been in and out of intentionality. We are currently on the aimless side of fitness, but are looking into 2024 as a year where we turn it around again. Since we are not in the groove, there is not much to say. We will both have to make time and set a routine to support each other in this goal. For Meg this probably looks like giving up some time during the day to do short workout videos and walking with the boys on other days. For Cole this means making sure to fit it into a busy schedule between the fire department and tree work, which he does on the side. We honestly might not make an update on this – but perhaps it will stick this time and become a non-negotiable. In that case, it bound to land up on the blog again.

summary

While writing this post I have noticed that the place where we have been most aimless have been places of shame for us. It is not the places we have decided not to focus, those we don’t feel any shame saying “We are not pursuing that right now.” But the places we do care about, but are not taking steps to be intentional has caused us a lot of shame. So if you feel that way, can I encourage you to take a step today. A simple step, learn more about the topic, start a micro habit around the issue. Make once change today or this week that will help you have more intentionality over the choices you are making – it will bring freedom.
You can’t do everything perfectly, but you can be highly intentional and do a few things well.