Tag: routine

Morning Tea Routine – A Little Taste of Home

Joel and I are not coffee drinkers usually. We do have a morning cup of tea – every morning. It’s our daily morning routine. It was reinforced in 2005 when we went to Ireland and had Irish breakfast tea every morning. Actually throughout the day. Since we’ve come to Minnesota I’m finding I want tea throughout the day as well. It doesn’t seem to keep me up at night; so why not?

When we started traveling, we kept a few things to travel with. Included was our small blue teapot and our two favorite mugs for tea. The teapot is just the right size to make our two mugs of tea every morning. So wherever we go, we hope to find a tea kettle. Or at least a saucepan to heat water in. Then we find our tea. We used to have a favorite India store back in California where we could get bulk tea fairly inexpensively. Not only is that not convenient any more, we did get a bit tired of it.

Currently we’re drinking Tazo Awake tea. It’s a bit more expensive though. We’re always looking for a good robust tea to drink that’s not too expensive.

So no matter where we are, we have a little taste of home. We can feel right at home every morning drinking our mugs of tea and having our morning chat as is our routine.

What morning routine do you have? When you travel is there something you bring along to make you feel at home and in a routine?

Morning tea routine

Challenge: Routine

The challenge: maintaining a routine. Many wonder how it is possible to maintain a routine while traveling. There are especially concerns about some sort of routine for Fiona and her schooling. And of course our work. So what’s our routine and how do we maintain it?

We’ve always had a rather flexible routine in our way of life. Important things get done while allowing ourselves lots of spontaneity in life.

One of the most challenging things is arriving at a new place where we know we’re going to be for a few weeks and getting settled in. If we can settle in quickly, in a day or so, we can maintain our routine and get more done. We continue to work on that. One of the first things we do when we get to a new place is find the place we’re going to work and get our computers set up. Next we need to find a place for the books and materials Joel needs to refer to for his work.

Continue reading Challenge: Routine

Seven Weeks in Arizona

We’re settling in at the Wilson’s here in Arizona. We’ve been here a week now and have six more to go. And we’re loving it! Right now I’m sitting outside listening to the waterfall running into the pool and Fiona’s enjoying some outdoor time in the sun.

We’ve known the Wilson’s for seven year. We met when they still lived in Roseville California. Terry and Joel both play bass and enjoy music – a lot! It’s like being with family here. Fiona has her own room and she loves Virgie. Joel has his musical instruments in Terry’s music room. I’m loving the sunshine. Fiona was able to check out books from the local library and we’ve located a nearby park where Fiona played last night.

And business continues. Joel’s working with Terry on his second children’s book and he just placed the order for Jessi Lohman’s proof copy of her upcoming book. Other prospects are contacting Joel as well to help get their book out of their ‘someday’ box.

I’ve also contacted some local virtual assistants and am planning an informal meetup soon. And we were just contacted by another community college in Illinois about possibly using our materials in a class for virtual workers.

So things are moving forward and we’re excited to be in a  great home with great friends and in a routine for a bit. Knowing that we’ll get itchy feet to move on in a couple of weeks, we’re planning a long day’s drive to deal with that. But it will be nice for Joel to be in one place with his music stuff all set up since February is FAWM.

Ideally we hope for a similar situation in April. Some place we can park for anywhere from two to eight weeks house sitting. Maybe somewhere in the south.

Anyone need a  house sitter in April? We’ve got references!

Working Location Independent

Today has been a typical day for our family. Except we can do it as a location independent family. We did all the usual things we do when we’re living in our rented home in California – except we were able to do it from New Westminster British Columbia from the home were we’re house sitting and dog sitting.

We had our usual breakfast and lunch and the usual routine in Fiona’s non-school day. Well, we do have to make sure the dog eats and gets out regularly. Fiona loves that!

Sue was able to send out two client newsletters, Joel and Sue both had client coaching calls via Skype, updates were made to client websites, and preparations were made for next week’s group coaching call for virtual assistants. All the same things we would have done if we were in our home in California. But we aren’t tied down there as we are able to work from virtually anywhere as long as we have internet access. It’s great!

Would you like to work as a location independent virtual worker?