a low light sunday night

I hardly ever share pictures from around the house, and that's mainly because there's only about one hour each day where the natural light shines through well enough for quality shots. Most evenings are spent chilling out with candles lit and a book in hand or a movie on the big screen (usually both at the same time because I love background noise),

In an effort to share some simple, everyday moments, I took a few pictures of what 7pm in the Active Spirit household usually looks like and am posting them here - in all their grainy and fuzzy glory.

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recently read - dismantling hustle culture

I'm not a person who chooses a word for the year, but if I were, this year it'd be REST. Lately I've been read so much goodness about work and rest and how they should often operate in tandem. I haven't been seeking out this content; it's been finding me. Today's roundup includes two lengthy pieces from Atlantic, and a book.

Enjoy!

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a recap of no-spend january

I've started and deleted this post a couple times because I'm not even sure it's worth sharing because it's really not that deep, but this is a blog, not a literary journal, so I'm just going to post it anyway.

For the most part, J and I are both mindful spenders. I'm the more frugal one in the relationship, but over the years, making money moves together helped us become super intentional about where each dollar goes. We still splurge. We still travel. We still make room for fun, and there are some weeks where we lose track of the budget altogether. But we make sure to never be in a position where our money is seemingly disappearing and we have nothing to show for it.

December was a heavy spending month. Christmas shopping, unexpected car maintenance, unexpected vet bills, and extra commuting around town all added up. After Christmas, I looked at our bank account and decided we needed to hit the reset button for 2020. On New Year's Eve, both agreed to a no-spend January. I popped a bottle of Prosecco from Trader Joes, and we stood in the kitchen hashing out the terms while making dinner.

The Rules

We called it "no-spend" month, but really we just significantly cut back on all miscellaneous spending. Here's everything we could buy without a second thought:

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