Living a Life of Purpose and Intent

I’ve been quiet on this site for a while as I contemplate the purpose and intent of BalancingMotherhood.com. It’s quite a load to bear: knowing that you have such intentions to reach people and inspire them to lead intentional and balanced lives. It’s something I’m passionate about and have been, myself, focused on creating and cultivating a new meaning of balance for the past 6 months. I’ll get into that more as I launch new parts of this site in the future, but understand that it involves risk, fear, courage, and even (sometimes) loneliness. It’s real and I feel alive in this purpose.

Enter “Notes From a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World,” by Tsh Oxenreider. As part of the “launch team” I am among a group of bloggers who follow Tsh’s amazing blog, The Art of Simple, and received an advance copy of the book. I can tell you this is the fastest I’ve read a book in a long time. Soaking in each chapter, I pictured myself and my family in her stories of trying to live a more meaningful life. Tonight, for instance, I took more time to make a “slow” dinner. We roasted a whole, organic chicken and sautéed vegetables for a side. Simple, easy, healthy, and delicious. We sat as a family, as we usually do, enjoying a meal that I know is more healthful than some of the fast meals on which we lean on too often.

And, yesterday afternoon my son was frustrated with an iPad app that kept taking him to the internet — I wouldn’t let him continue with the game, which agitated him. While this was happening, my daughter was demanding another cartoon to watch. When I said no, she cried for a movie. The whining went on for a while, but I stuck to my conviction that we were using games and TV a little too much and I didn’t like the level of frustration is was adding to our family. We turned off the TV and didn’t allow any games for the entire night and, after some consoling, had a really wonderful evening. The kids found other things to do. We weren’t rushed with homework. We had time to properly set the table for dinner. And, we had enough time to sit in the reading nook and read and color. By turning off the TV, my kids got creative.

This idea of mine was spurred by Tsh’s book and her stories within her “entertainment” chapters of the book. She openly discusses her own family struggles with technology and how she overcame them. There are several themes in the book: entertainment, education, and travel, among others. Tsh is a magnificent story teller and, at the same time, inspiring.

I’m not where Tsh and her family are yet, but am on my way to creating a path that is filled with meaning and intentional living. It’s the goal of Balancing Motherhood to help reach women (and men) who struggle with daily chores, while wanting more for themselves and their families. This book is a start to helping us all get there.

This post is part of the Blue Bike Blog Tour, which I’m thrilled to be part of. To learn more and join us, head here. 

Tsh is going on a blog tour around the US so be sure to see if she’s going to be in a city near you.