avatar

About Mandi

Mandi Ehman lives in wild, wonderful West Virginia with her husband of ten years and four beautiful, spunky little girls. As a full-time work-at-home, homeschooling mom, she runs Life Your Way, a site that blends intentional and creative living, and Jungle Deals & Steals, where it's all Amazon, all the time.

avatar by on October 2, 2012   •   51 Comments Live With Purpose You

This week, spend $5 on something that matters

One of the greatest privileges with this gig as a blogger is the opportunity to make a serious difference in people’s lives. Mandi from Life Your Way recently told me that earlier this month, a friend of hers lost her husband after a sudden, unexpected illness.

Jenny is a stay-at-home mom to five kids between 9 months and 11 years old, and is suddenly facing the task of meeting not only the emotional, physical and educational needs of her kids, but their financial needs as well.

Mandi reached out to a group of bloggers to put together a one-time ebook bundle as part of a benefit sale for the Barlow family. I’m happy to contribute One Bite at a Time to the bundle, and this week, I’m asking YOU to make a tangible difference in Jenny’s life.

For three days only, pick up the following collection of e-books—worth more than $50—for just five bucks. 100 percent of your purchase will go directly to Jenny and her kids. (Or if you’d rather donate directly to this precious family and skip the e-books, you can do that here as well.)

Head here to purchase your ebook bundle.

You’ll receive the following collection of ebooks and printables:

Update: Thank you so much for your interest in the Barlow Family Benefit! At this time, the sale has ended. Thanks to your help in getting the word out, we sold 5,619 bundles and raised more than $26,000 for the Barlow family (not including direct donations)! My heart is full for the gift you’ve all given Jenny and her kids as they walk this difficult road. Thank you! If you’d still like to donate directly, click here.

avatar by on August 17, 2012   •   23 Comments food & drink

Baby steps to cooking from scratch

Easy. Homemade.

Written by Mandi Ehman, author of Easy Homemade.

Why do we as women carry around an all-or-nothing mentality?

It’s the one that says, “If I can’t do this perfectly, there’s no point in trying” or “This is all too overwhelming; I’m just going to stick with the status quo.”

I know this mentality well because it’s one I struggle against myself. It’s often been referred to as perfection paralysis, and it’s this paralyzing fear that makes us think that baby steps aren’t good enough!

Slowly, I’ve started to overcome this fear in my own life, especially when it comes to making “real food” changes in our kitchen.

You see, I’ve never been a great cook – even when I was simply throwing together ingredients from various boxes to make a meal – so the idea of cooking from scratch has been overwhelming to me from the start.

It may seem crazy that someone who starts a post that way is writing to share her new cookbook with you, but what I’ve happily discovered is that cooking from scratch – even kitchen staples that you may never have considered making from scratch before now – is a lot easier than you’d expect.
[Read more...]

avatar by on June 22, 2012   •   43 Comments Productivity You

How I use productive procrastination to get more done

productive-procrastination

The following is a guest post from Mandi Ehman, founder of Life Your Way and Jungle Deals & Steals.

On weeks when my schedule and to-do list are overflowing, I always seem to get more done.

Does that sound familiar?

For a long time, I thought it was because of the adrenaline during those packed weeks.

What I’ve realized, though, is that while that may be true sometimes, I think I’m more effective when I have more to do for one simple reason. I like to call it “productive procrastination.”

Productive procrastination?!

When my to-do list is small and I want to procrastinate, I end up zoning on Facebook, blog hopping or, if I can pull myself out of the internet fog, reading a book.

But when my to-do list is overflowing and I don’t feel like working on project A or folding laundry, I still have a long list of activities to choose from (some of which I am probably excited about).

By choosing those activities – even if it’s not the most critical thing on my list — I’m able to make forward progress.

What this looks like in my life.

For example, I was feeling kind of lazy about an hour before I started writing this post. I should probably be working on a post for my blog, but I’m not really feeling inspired or motivated to do that.

I started to sink into the rabbit hole that is the internet before I reminded myself that this is a crazy busy week and took another look at my to-do list.

One of the items on there? Testing a ricotta cheesecake recipe for my sister’s graduation party this weekend.

That certainly sounds like a lot more fun than writing a post.

I got the ricotta cheesecake ready and in the oven, and then I moved right onto another fun project, which also happens to be on my to-do list…making a photo mobile for said party.

I’m about halfway through cutting those pictures, and it’s getting pretty tedious, so I took a break to, well, write this post.

When I finish the draft, I’ll go back to cutting the pictures, and when that’s done, I’ll sit down and write the original post that sent me running to the kitchen.

At the end of today, I will have made pretty significant progress on my to-do list, even if it wasn’t in the perfect order, so I will feel like it was a productive day. And I’ll do it without white knuckling my way through.

Ways to productively procrastinate.

How else does this play out in our day-to-day lives? No matter what your daily responsibilities look like, here are some more examples of ways to use productive procrastination to your advantage:

Note: Not all of these are fun activities. Some of them simply get you moving or allow you to check something easy off your to-do list!

  • Call a friend
  • Exercise
  • Do a brain dump
  • Read to the kids
  • Fold laundry
  • Work on a scrapbook
  • Write a blog post
  • File paperwork
  • Go for a walk
  • Start dinner prep

Of course, there are still times when we have to suck it up and get something done on your to-do list now and not later. And there’s definitely value in eating the frog first thing in the morning.

Understanding your personality and motivation is an important part of developing discipline and becoming more productive, so look for ways to use productive procrastination, not just as a way to avoid some dreaded task, but as a way to get more done!

Have you ever used procrastination for your benefit? What else would you add to the list of ways to productively procrastinate?

avatar by on September 7, 2011   •   83 Comments Personal Growth You

Understanding your personality: balancing tasks and people

While personality tests and reading about personality types have been regarded by some as self-indulgent navel gazing, there is real value that comes from identifying your natural tendencies. Every personality has strengths and weaknesses, and understanding what yours are allows you take advantage of the strengths and create a plan to overcome the weaknesses.

The most popular personality test is the Myers-Briggs typology, but I’ve always been fascinated by the task-oriented versus people-oriented personality spectrum. Perhaps it’s because I am so strongly task-oriented, and I appreciate having a name for the focus I tend to place on my to-do list and getting things done.

As with all personality types, there is no right or wrong here. We need a balance of both personalities within society. People-oriented personalities build relationships and community, while task-oriented personalities get things done, and both are important.

Just like we need a balance of both to make the world go round, we also need to find a balance of both within our homes.
[Read more...]

avatar by on July 11, 2011   •   74 Comments Work You

The secret of success for work-at-home moms

Written by organizing contributor Mandi Ehman of Life…Your Way.

What if I told you that there was one principle that would have the biggest impact on whether or not you’re successful as a work-at-home mom?

Hint: It’s not the industry or niche you choose. It’s not the structure of your business or what trade organizations you join. It’s not even the people you network with or your customer service.

All of those things are important, of course, but the number one reason many work-at-home moms give up is not because their businesses aren’t doing well, but because they’re not doing well. They’re tired, stressed and frazzled, pulled in a million directions and feeling like they’re not giving their best to their families or to their businesses.

So what’s the key to success? Simply put: Get it done early.

[Read more...]