When my kids were young, I told them that I'd take each of them on a solo trip with me once they turned 10. Though my youngest is still a few weeks away from that milestone, a deal for California residents to go to Disneyland and his school's spring break made it too fun to wait, and we headed down for 3 days at the parks. It was such fun, terribly exhausting, and you currently can't tell me that almost 1o-year-olds aren't the best humans. We were home most of this week and are now in Lake Tahoe, a trip made possible by our fave website ever (Trusted Housesitters), where we're housesitting for a cute dog while exploring the still-snowy mountaintops and nature here. Use my friend code JESSICA25 for a deal if you want to try traveling more than you might otherwise be able to afford.
Newish Zoom Feature: You can now set a meeting wallpaper in Zoom meetings that surrounds all the meeting content with a particular color or image background (I've been playing around with a floral one this spring, as well as an under-the-sea vibe). You've gotta be the meeting host, and the option to do this is in the top right of your screen. All the details here.
My favorite little videos for the background: I've recently been playing various "spring ambience" videos on one of my extra monitors during focused work blocks to add a little joy to the workday. I sometimes also put various "ambience" scenes on our TV screen in the living room during family time or when I'm just getting things done around the house. Click here to see the kinds of videos I'm talking about - so many options. It's not limited to seasons, either - you can find them for particular countries around the world, or just a coffee shop ambience, or even things like a Finding Nemo ambience with the characters swimming by as you go about your day. Enjoy! Send me any fun ones you find, okay?
Travel Essentials Checklist! As you can see, I've been traveling a ton lately, so packing lists are on my mind. If you’ve ever sat down to pack and had that quiet moment of, “Wait… what am I going to forget?” — you’re not alone. The Travel Essentials Quicklist (it's free) from the super-smart Darcy Vierow covers the most commonly needed travel items for pretty much any trip, so you’re not starting from scratch every time. Just a reliable starting point that saves time and helps avoid those last-minute “oh no” moments. It's a Google Doc you can modify to add your specific items and reuse. Hope it helps you!
If you need a retreat but struggle to find time: I just messaged a friend (hi Tommie Jean) this week that I want to make a reading retreat happen again soon. I feel like we all need to find a little time away, but it's often so hard to actually do that (financially, time-wise, with our responsibilities at home and work). So I've shared this before, but wanted to share again - Stephanie's free retreat guide helps you set up your own private mini-retreat—creating a quiet pocket of time that truly feels like a retreat, even if you can’t get away. With a few thoughtful choices about when, where, and how you pause, you’ll create a nourishing reset that helps you settle your nervous system and arrive more grounded and present (so you’re not starting from stress when you sit down to practice). My suggestion: grab this, then go find an actual time on your calendar in the next 3 months when you can make some time "away" (even if still at home) happen.
Crafting and cooking and baking and painting for a year: My daughter and I went to a crochet class the week before last (it was my first time), and I made this cute little fat caterpillar stuffed toy that's sitting right in front of me as I type this. It reminded me to log in to my Craftsy membership and do more things like this! And y'all, look - apparently Craftsy is 49 cents for a whole year (also, just stay on the page for like 10 seconds and it might drop to 25 cents (!!) like it did when I just looked). If there's any of these hobbies you or someone in your family wants to do, you literally can't beat these tutorials, videos, and printables to teach you what to do. I just noticed they also have yoga videos and gardening tutorials! This appears to be a March-only deal, so don't wait on this one.
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Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link:The 6 photobooks for $6 deal (which seems to still be working today).
