In one hour and fourteen minutes, our top affiliates for Relaxed Money are going to be walking through my front door for a mastermind day in my living room.

It’s the first time we’ve hosted clients/colleagues in our home and I’m nervcited.

With the exception of a family hike with friends on Saturday morning, I’ve been all in on getting the house ready since I picked the girls up on Friday afternoon and hauled them immediately to Home Goods.

We then embarked on a multi-day complete overhaul of our downstairs guest suite to get ready to be christened by Dr. Deborah Kern, my dear friend and mentor who led the retreat to Peru I just got back from.

She’s also the Godmother of our Marriage. (She dubbed herself that after she officiated our wedding and it’s the best.)

I don’t think I’ve worked with this level of devotion for this many hours straight on anything in years. I got started before the sun rose Saturday and Sunday and both days I went to bed with a satisfyingly aching back from all of the activity. As someone who gets distracted by anything from a piece of tinfoil blowing in the breeze to a text from a friend that sends me down a rabbit hole researching solutions to children’s mouth breathing and long-term implications into adulthood, I honestly am astounded by myself.

 

 

The weekend also included a last minute run to a charming antique shop that I discovered a mere eight minutes from my house, a quick stop at a Made in TN store for gifts, rearranging our entire living room for the mastermind, and many other delightful acts of nesting.

And the thing is, none of it felt like a chore. I was genuinely delighted to be pouring my time and energy into making our home beautiful and welcoming for people I love.

Which got me thinking about how we spend our time and the fact that how we spend our time is ultimately the most accurate reflection of our true values.

Not the ones we say we have. Not the ones we wish we had. But the actual things that matter to us.

Money is designed to be used the same way, but just like with time, it can be trickier than we think to get it aligned.

For example, it’s one thing to say we value the health of our planet. But when it comes to making the choice to invest our time and money with local businesses instead of sit on the couch and get the thing we want delivered to us within hours with one click, it’s pretty easy for our “values” to fly out the window in the name of convenience.

This is not a soapbox moment. I forgot to get towel hooks for the bathroom while I was out and I got them delivered in the middle of the night from Amazon. I also already told you I went to Home Goods on Friday.

But instead of buying a mass market rug from a big retailer, I found a charming local place on Facebook marketplace and ended up having a completely delightful rug buying experience with a guy who’s been in the business for decades. The rug I bought has been sitting in his shop for four years because our living room is unusually large and it’s tough to sell rugs that size.

There was something deeply satisfying about spontaneously driving seventeen minutes from my home, discovering the perfect rug that was just there waiting for me, and supporting a local entrepreneur.
And having the whole thing set up by the time I picked my kids up from school was the cherry on top.

Between mounting my first gallery wall with the helpful eye of my eleven year old, learning to style a bunk bed in a way that makes it welcoming for an adult, and pouring my love into making my home an offering for our guests this week, I feel really proud of where my time and money went this weekend.

Aligning our time and money with what really matters to us is not a one and done. I think it’s more like flying an airplane, where you’re off course 99.9% of the time but you’re constantly readjusting to the compass heading so that you end up getting where you need to be in the end.

Alignment is an act of devotion, not an act of perfection.

What did you invest your time in over the past week that was a true reflection of what matters to you? How about your money?

Xo,
Kate