I have a new girl crush, Allie Casazza. I met her sometime between Christmas and New Years. The hazy blur where one does not know what day it is – the “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” holiday period! We were camping in the beautiful Crowdy Bay National Park – Diamond Head.

|our campsite just a few steps from the beach

|our pretty hipster Belltent – which is actually awesome to camp in… for real!
One morning as I lay still listening to the waves from down on the beach, awake before everyone else, I decided (insert happy dance from Jake right here) I would work on my goals for the New Year.
Off my own bat.
My own prompting. Yes, yes I deserve I nice little pat on the back.
Obviously the first step to anything you are not familiar with is to consult with the “experts”. So I started googling about goals.
How to write goals? Goal writing layout? – That kind of thing.
As I stumbled down the internet rabbit hole, which one does, once you start googling any topic. I came across this post– where Allie outlined, in detail, how she wrote up her goals. Right away it was really appealing to me. Rather than hand write my goals in a pretty journal/notebook, I wanted to write them in Evernote so that I had them always with me at hand. The benefit of having my goals in Evernote was that I couldn’t put them in a really, really safe place that was so awesomely safe they would never be found again until I decluttered! #truestory.
In all honesty, I have not been a real goal setter in my lifetime, however, I just happen to be married to a Goal Setting machine. So for the last few years, we have consistently taken time out away from the kids – in a really in a beautiful, relaxing environment (usually by the ocean at a cute little cafe) to talk, dream and put pen to paper and set our goals in ink.
The trouble was I NEVER…EVER…. looked over what was written until the following year as we made our annual day away to dream again, and set our goals and reflect on Jake’s copy of our goals.
So back to Allie and her goal-setting ways.
I liked her set up.
She detailed her layout, included lots of pictures to get across what she meant, and I pretty much used the template to write my very own goals list in Evernote. It was super simple, and I liked her system.
I pretty much punched out most of my goals in an hour or so and then tweaked and added to them over the course of the following weeks as I thought about it or they came to mind. It was so easy to refer back to and reflect on them – they are on my phone always at hand. (#mumtip right here!)
So then from there, I started to read her other posts, her story – what she was all about.
I was intrigued.
She is a mum of 4 like me, AND she is a big believer in minimalism – but not the super freakish controlling kind…
She had me at “WHY I DON’T HAVE A CAPSULE WARDROBE” because you know….me likes the clothes and all. But with her wardrobe decluttering Questions alone, she had me clearing out a lot of my clothes!
I love her story and why she became a young & hip declutter Mama queen and even more so the way God has blessed her and her little tribe! Just look up her hashtag #declutterlikeamother. She pretty much preaches the honest and vulnerable message that all the overwhelmed mama’s need to hear – that too much stuff can play a big part in our story and yeah…
You know that toy area where your kids walk into and dump everything out then proceed to spread all the toys across the entire friggin house? Then they walk away and follow you around the house saying they are hungry, but really they are just bored?
Yeah.
Then you spend a good part of your time cleaning up the said friggin mess while cursing under your breath about the toys and thinking surely… SURELY there must be more to motherhood than cleaning up (AND feeding) kids all day errday???
Yeah.
I have felt it in my own life – niggling at me – being overwhelmed by our stuff…just thinking about the laundry, don’t even get me started!
How can we seriously, SERIOUSLY have baskets (notice plural) of clean washing NOT PUT AWAY and still have clothes to wear…?
I KID YOU NOT.
When I think about it, it makes my brain hurt. It is pretty excessive, and I know that just laundry alone can be a significant cause for overwhelm for me.
She has a great little podcast which I love. She’s been integral in waking up the dreamer in me and has helped point me in a new direction.
So across the Pacific ocean, I send some good old Aussie love & thanks to Allie.
Anyways, join me as I smash some goals this year…declutter my house (this is still in the early stages! eeeek), try new things and get ready for big brave new adventures.
Photo Credit | Instagram @smokeyoldsouth
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