Do you have a book you absolutely loved to read? 👇 Drop your favorite read in the comments!

These pants cost me a little over $100 in 2012. I wonder how much they cost now! 😱 At the time, that was a lot of money for yoga pants for me! I was a part time teacher with two little kids. My husband was a teacher too. We lived in a tiny starter home, lived simply, picked cheap happy hours with the kids over fancy dinners, and pieced together extra income through side gigs and night classes. We were happy, but money was definitely something we thought very carefully about. A few years earlier, we had taught abroad in Rome and absolutely loved it. We always dreamed of going back overseas once the kids were older. Then our district stalled out. No raises for five years. We felt stuck. So we took a leap earlier than planned and accepted jobs at Shanghai American School when the kids were just 4 and 6 years old. That decision changed our lives. Not just because I went back to full time work. Not just because the salary was better. But because housing was also paid for. I don’t think people fully understand how life changing employer paid housing can be. It completely changes the math. And while many people around us fell into what people call “golden handcuffs,” we made a very intentional decision not to. We wanted freedom more than appearances. We wanted options later. So we stayed pretty frugal, even in Shanghai. Yes, I loved my Monday massages 😂 But we did not live the luxury brunch every weekend lifestyle that was very easy to fall into there. Instead, I learned how to invest. We saved aggressively. We kept our lifestyle relatively simple even when our income jumped. That decision quietly changed our entire future. I was even able to make the leap and leave teaching because of these years of investing in the stock market and real estate and intentional living. But this story is actually about the pants. Right after we signed our contracts and spent thousands on visas and paperwork, I decided to celebrate. I bought my very first iPad… and these Lululemon yoga pants.

Lately I’ve noticed my sleep changes a lot depending on stress, screen time, and how grounded I feel before bed. I sleep so much better when I journal instead of scroll at night. What about you?

How about you? Right now, I’m pushing through and: • optimizing my Amazon listings for what feels like the millionth time • fighting with AI while trying to update my Skool images • synthesizing everything I learned recently so I can teach it ASAP in Claude Coworker Lab • putting in the hours for my other gig work And honestly? This is the part people don’t always see online. The repeating. The tweaking. The learning curve. The mental overload of trying to turn information into execution. Everyone loves to talk about passive income. Very few people talk about the very active work it takes first. But I also know this: Sometimes growth looks less like a breakthrough and more like quietly staying in the room long enough to figure it out. So today, I’m just continuing. One listing. One image. One experiment. One step forward. What are you pushing through right now?

There’s something about bare feet in the grass that instantly slows me down. ☀️ Lately I’ve been intentionally grounding outside again now that the weather is warmer. I also use a grounding mat year round during my guided meditations. I just roll it out on my bed, breathe deeply, and let myself unplug for a little while with Brain.fm in my ears. Whether the science is placebo, nervous system regulation, actual electrical grounding, or simply the power of slowing down outside, I think many people underestimate how much the body responds to nature, sunlight, stillness, and sensory calm. Have you ever tried grounding or seen the Earthing documentary? I highly recommend it! Earthing Movie And honestly… when was the last time you stood barefoot in the grass for even five quiet minutes?