Hello fellow life travelers! So, what do you think of the Need Less / More Method?

How we spend the first part of our day sets the tone for the rest of our day. What we do to set up fuel for the day affects our energy for the day. When I start my day with my complete Morning Ritual, my day normally goes pretty well. Of course, life happens and I have to adapt and adjust; but how well I am able to do that often is determined by how my day started. If I don’t complete my morning ritual, then my day tends to encounter a pattern of unfinished business.

Speaking of unfinished business, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing to Life Souvenirs weekly newsletter!

I have often had to stop and reset my day. I will lay down and set my alarm for 20 minutes and I will wake up and start over. I love the Walker series (It’s on CW - I stream it through a channel on Amazon Prime.) Walker in one of the episodes did this thing where he filled a sink with cold water and would dunk his head in the water when going under cover and coming out. Personally, I prefer the nap - but that might work, too. Some sort of ritual that triggers a reset.

So, what is in your morning routine? Do you have any non-negotiables?

My morning ritual consists of getting up and making my bed. I drink 8 oz of room temp water and 8 oz of ice water. I do 20 jumping jacks. I wash my face. I shower if it’s shower day (I often bathe at night and only shower when time to wash my hair). I end the shower with 2 minutes of cold. I do hair and make up, get dressed, and take my collagen supplements. Then, if I’m not already, I have my morning playlist on my speaker and I read devotional, study Scripture, pray and write reflection from my morning. If I am hungry I will go ahead and eat a simple breakfast. Then, I will write for one hour. Then, if weather is cooperating, I will go for a walk for an hour. Or, I will do strength training for 15-20 minutes and have a dance party for a couple of songs from my Move playlist. Then I read at least 10 pages if not more from my current book stack. And if weather permits, I read with a cup of hot tea out on my deck.

This morning ritual is not only setting me up for my day to be successful, it is moving me closer to my goals in health, nutrition, movement, mission, and faith. When I make my bed, that’s my guaranteed “I had a win today!” I build my day on winning. I don’t build my day on winning if I start checking my email or scrolling through social media or binge watching Netflix.

Look at your day as a guest at your table. You set the table for your day to feast from. To fuel from. To glean enjoyment. To restore. To succeed.

How do you set your “table” in the morning? Is there anything you need to change up? Anything to start doing? Anything to stop doing?

The Lord can always be trusted to show mercy each morning. Deep in my heart I say, “The Lord is all I need; I can depend on Him!” Lam 3: 23, 24 CEV

I created a Morning Ritual worksheet and added it to the workbook today. So be sure and grab that - I just update the workbook and replace the file. So no matter when you come in, you get the most updated version of the workbook. You only have to purchase it once (it’s free if you use the coupon from the Life Souvenirs chat on the Substack app.)

Today’s Song of the Day is by Hillsong United and it’s called I Know You Will. I just love this song. It’s a great way to start off the day in a positive, optimistic headspace. You can find it by clicking above. You can also subscribe to the playlist - and if you’re so inclined, my channel while you are there.

My Personal Story - A Wallflower’s Call to… (Gulp) Stage Part 2?

Note: You might be missing some context for this story if you haven’t read yesterday’s post yet. This is part 2 to the story.

So, fast forward to when I enrolled into classes for high school. My mom wouldn’t let me enroll in the only classes I was interested in (journalism: newspaper and yearbook - ironic, isn’t? Since I’m now basically a family journalist who promotes family yearbooks? lol!).. She thought they would take up too much of my time. The classes I enrolled in ended up not a good fit - and I was switched into home ec classes (yawn)… I volunteered for One Act Play.. and it was one of those things where the English teacher begged for volunteers who could come before school (I was already there early every morning anyway because mom had to be at her school as a teacher and I didn’t drive until the end of the school year) .. And when I volunteered, she was like “is there anyone else?” ha!

I can’t blame her. Wallflower, remember? And that other embarrassing thing at the choir concert you read yesterday… Finally, another person in the play who was a friend and afraid there wouldn’t be a play if they didn’t find someone told her to give me a shot and then told me “You better not make me regret this!” The play was Make Mine Vanilla. And I played an aunt who walked imaginary poodles. I don’t remember how we did - I loved watching all the plays at the UIL One Act Play competition. And I was hooked. I loved it. I definitely surprised my English teacher! I transformed when I stepped on stage into my crazy character. I had so much fun. Is it too late in life to become an actor?

So, for my junior year, I enrolled in speech, a brand new theater program, and then after dropping band (a story for another time), I enrolled in tennis. This choice in courses is a direct result of that incident at the conference that I wrote about yesterday. I’m thinking by this time, my mom was probably wishing she had let me enroll in the journalism courses. I did well in speech and in drama I was cast into lots of bizarre roles. I think the drama teacher hated me. But I did well. I ended up running tech on the One Act Play (lights and sounds) with two crazy dudes that made it lots of fun.

My senior year I joined the choir so that I had choir on my transcripts since I planned to be in chorus in college. And I wasn’t a teacher’s pet. He definitely had his favorites. I read for parts in vain knowing they would go to his favorites. When roles were announced, he got to the last character. He made this speech that this would take someone special to pull off this role - it was the most challenging role in the entire play. “The only person that I believe can pull this off is Mel.” Yes, you there, the wallflower in the corner over there. I see you.

This character’s name was Magna Carter. And if you think that’s vaguely familiar, you are right. It was no coincidence. This character was older than dirt, as we used to say. Because this was actually for choir (a parent-approved elective), my parents attended the play the first night. They had not seen me on stage before. In my first scene, I was supposed to emerge from the curtains to answer a ringing phone. Well, my second dad (my best friend’s dad) Orby was on curtain pull duty that night. And he got caught up cutting up with people on stage-right, he forgot to pull the curtains enough so I could find the opening in the middle to come out in front of the curtains to my “office” to answer the phone. So, I was behind the curtains desperately trying to find the split so I could get to the phone. When I finally bursted forth into the spotlight, in my best old lady voice I said something like, “Ok already! Can’t an old lady pee in peace! Never fails, phone doesn’t ring all day. As soon as I go to the bathroom I come back to a ringing phone!” And the audience bursted out laughing. My choir director Mr. Kessler - let out his famous belly laugh. And that was all she wrote. I took that as license to ad lib my lines throughout the play and it was a hit.

The people sitting close to my parents say my parents were really confused. They kept looking at the program and trying to figure out where their daughter was in this ridiculous (it was most definitely ridiculous!) play … and the people next to them pointed out that I was the funny old lady - the only redeeming character in the whole play! My parents were stunned. They hadn’t recognized their own daughter… the clumsy comic relief that was making everyone laugh. Mr. K came up to me after the play that night and said, “Now, tomorrow night? Do it again!” and he walked away laughing.

All of this from a painfully shy wallflower. Maybe God knew what He was doing after all.

Have you ever received a calling from God that caused you to raise your eye brows? Too crazy for you to have created or made the thing up? A call that you later grew into? Please comment and share your story!

So, what do you think so far? Day 3 of 90… If you haven’t grabbed my workbook yet, you should. My workbooks are cool! (I might be biased - but I think they are!) As I go, I am adding a link on workbook pages of the corresponding 90 Days post. So, it makes it much easier.

Would you please share this on your social media platforms? Invite others to this 90 day journey? You may be late to the party and that’s okay. This 90 Day section will stay right here. So, share away if you got value from it. Also, please comment and let’s have a conversation!