Kay's Five - Girls Retreat, low-VOC paint & chocolate pie

In keeping with my tradition of always incorporating food references into my Five posts... ;-)

Last week, I hosted a Girls Retreat at my house. I had friends in from around town and out of town and we spent the day talking about what's going on in our lives and how we can support each other as we all work to create more balance and harmony in our lives this year. This kind of positive atmosphere--combined with my friend Celesta's decadent chocolate pie--was exactly what Make family and friends a priority is all about.

I just wish I'd taken pictures of the pie. Seriously... SO good.

In preparation for the retreat, I decided to finally finish decorating our house. We built our home several years ago and, for reasons I cannot fully comprehend, I opted to leave it sort of half decorated since. I have a habit of this, actually. We usually wait until right before we sell a house to rush around finishing all of those projects that make a house a home. And then stand there looking at the house and say, "Why didn't we do this years ago when we could actually enjoy it?"

With decorating on the agenda, I knew eco-friendly was the way to go for my Live a greener life commitment. The best thing I did was buy the same paint I've used in our last three houses: Glidden's Lifemaster 2000 paint (now called Lifemaster No VOC). It's the greatest thing ever, I'm telling you. The smell is so pure my family doesn't even know I'm painting. You have to buy it from a Glidden store (they don't sell it at home improvement centers), but it's basically the same price as the premium home improvement store paint.

When we first moved in, our local home improvement center was selling a "Low VOC" paint that I decided to try for one room. BIG mistake. It smelled so bad that we had to air out the room for two days before moving the furniture in. I've never found another paint that compares to Lifemaster. I actually heard about it from watching a This Old House episode several years ago. (And no, I don't secretly work for Glidden. LOL.)

Now technically, it's not "No VOC" once they add color dyes to it. So to keep things on the eco side, I chose a beautiful low-VOC color called Bavarian Cream that adds a lovely warmth to the walls without tons of dye additives. I'm addicted to this color, I think. I've used the same exact color in our last three houses. It just has a wonderful warm, cozy feel.

So that's what I've been doing to Live My Five. What new and exciting things have you been up to lately?

Living Your Five presents... Honorary Fiver Day!

Welcome to Honorary Fiver Day!

We'll be hosting this event on the first Friday of every month. Honorary Fiver Day is your chance to become a bonafide Honorary Fiver member of the Living Your Five community.

To become an Honorary Fiver, all you have to do is share your Five in the comments on this special Honorary Fiver post. Let us know the five areas you want to make a difference in!

Once you've shared your Five on this post, you are officially an Honorary Fiver and have our permission to nab this cute logo (designed by our own fab Tera!) to place on your blog or web site. Cool, right?


What does being an Honorary Fiver mean?

Being an Honorary Fiver means you're ready to join us in our quest to change our world... one person and one Five at a time. But posting your Five in the comments area of an official Honorary Fiver Day post is just the beginning. We want you to keep us posted on how you're doing on your Five! Any time one of us posts about our progress, please chime in and share your Five news too. Tell us what great things you're up to. All Fiver progress is worth celebrating, big steps and baby steps alike!

The more action we take, the more excitement we spread, the more momentum we build... the more impact we make as a Fiver community!

And yes, we encourage you to post about your Five progress on your own blogs too if you wish. Blog your Honorary Fiver hearts out, we say! Just remember to post your progress on Living Your Five too so you can inspire the rest of our community. :-)


An important note to keep in mind...

One of the tricky things about creating your Five is distinguishing between something that's beneficial to you vs. something that's immediately beneficial to others. Even we had to stop ourselves on occasion and ask "Who is really benefitting from this?"

Your Five must be things that directly impact others in a positive way, not something that is primarily for your own personal benefit.

In addition to our Fives, Alyson, Tera, Becca and I are all actively pursuing our own kinds of personal development. That's just part of being the best we can be. But that's a personal endeavor, not a Fiver endeavor.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Things like regular meditation and spiritual development are for your own personal growth. They're lovely goals, to be sure. And they may very well improve your ability to carry out your Five. But those goals would not be part of your Five themselves because the person who benefits most is you.

Stick to things that directly and obviously impact others first and foremost, whether those others are people, animals, the Earth, or whatever you happen to care about. Don't worry... if you're like us, there will be way more than just five things in your "Impacting Others" column.

NOTE: You must post your Five here to become an Honorary Fiver, even if you've already shared it in the comments of a non-Honorary Fiver Day post. (Having all of the Fives together on these special Honorary Fiver Day posts is the only way we can keep track of our growing Honorary Fivers membership.)


And now, without further ado, I introduce... YOU!

So there you go, dear readers! If you're ready to step up to the plate--Welcome! We're thrilled to have you aboard!--now is your time to shine. Share your Five in the comments below, nab the Honorary Fiver logo for your blog or web site, and go change your world!

Are you ready to Live Your Five?

Alyson's Five-You're never too young to make a difference in the world!

So I just realized that even though my Fifth Five is hugely important to me, other than keeping my vow to uphold my end of it, I've yet to post anything about some of the incredible people who are reaching far beyond their own self interests to do something positive in the world.

And when I read THIS, I knew I had to start here!

For those of you who are click shy, the story I'm referring to is that of Charlie Simpson--a seven year old boy from West London who, wanting to do his part for the people in Haiti, ended up raising the equivalent of $240,000.00 to aid them!!

How awesome is that?

And it just goes to show that you're never too young (or too old!) to make a difference!

Also, on the Random Acts of Charity front, well, I'm gearing up to donate a ton of stuff I no longer need . . . but I'm not done yet, so more on that to come . . .

What about you? Are you living your Five?

Kay's Five - Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, good friends & more!

Has anyone noticed that food plays a role in many of my Five updates? ;-) Lots of fun stuff to report this week.

On the living green end, I took a massive van load of recycling to an out of town recycling place since our local recycler doesn't accept them. We also got a new security system put in recently and the installer asked if I wanted him to throw out the old components for me. Since I know electronics have to be disposed of carefully because they can be hazardous materials, I told him I would take care of it. I'll be calling around to find out where to dispose of the electronics.

On the family and friends side, I held a Girls Retreat at my house on Saturday. It was four of my writerly friends and, whereas we often chat about career things, our focus this weekend was on how to create better balance in our lives while still pursuing our dreams. It's amazing how many struggles we share, regardless of where we are in our writing careers. Being able to talk openly about it and share support and ideas was invaluable. As was the wonderful array of goodies, from decadent chocolate pie to pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I'm incredibly grateful for my wonderful friends. And, okay, for the sweets too. ;-)

What about you? What have you been doing lately to Live Your Five?

Living Your Five presents... Paying It Forward ala Tera

Happy Friday! We're back with another installment in our series about paying it forward with a question we posed to all the Fivers:

What is your favorite way to pay it forward to other people?

Here's what Tera had to say:

Do you remember that commercial, where one person does something nice for a stranger, then we zoom back in time and see that a stranger did something nice for that person, and we keep going back along the chain of good deeds, seeing why everyone is paying it forward? Well, I learned that lesson long before I saw that commercial.

Right after college I worked in the box office of the Colorado Shakespeare festival. I was having a miserable time at work because my boss was my recently-former friend, and the situation was pretty tense. Sometimes I worked the front counter, dealing face-to-face with people, and I always put a smile on my face. It was customer service, after all. But most of the time, I was in the back, fielding phone calls about ticket purchases, changes, exchanges, and complaints. Since I wasn't dealing with the customers face-to-face, I usually didn't bother with a smile. I was miserable and didn't feel like making the effort. Besides, it seemed like half the customers were angry and rude anyway.

Then, one day, I decided to stop letting my former friend apparently get the better of me. The phone rang and I smiled as if I meant it (I didn't, actually, but I made the muscles of my face pull into a smile). And the strangest thing happened ... the customer on the other end of the phone was very friendly. I tried my fake smile again for the next phone, with the same positive result. For the rest of the summer, I made myself smile every time I answered the phone, and wouldn't you know it? I didn't have any more miserable customers.

I learned my lesson. Even if people can't see you, even if you're only faking it, they can hear the smile in your voice. (I swear, it's true.) And even if they're calling because of a problem, they respond positively to your positive response. Now, whenever I'm next up at the post office or calling in to tech support, I make sure to put a smile in my voice, because if I can share a little bit of positive, then maybe they'll share a little bit with their next customer. It's the butterfly effect ... and it all begins with a smile.

Living My Five -- Tera Takes Baby Steps

It's been a slow couple of weeks and, with my housemates (aka my parents) out of town for most of it, I've been on my own in living my Five. The fresh promise of the New Year is wearing off, so motivation is a little hard to come by. Here are the small steps I've taken:

1. Vegetarian Night -- Last night I made falafel, vegetable frittata and Greek salad. Tasty, affordable, and easy on the planet.
2. Reusable Bags -- Still using the cloth grocery bags instead of plastic.
3. Saving Pennies -- I've been collecting all my loose change to cash in an donate at the end of the year.
4. Writing Blogs -- I've written a couple of blog posts geared at writers, like one on character motivation and another on the self-doubt that plagues me (and all authors, I think) during writing of a book.

Small steps, that hopefully add up to something bigger in the long run. Have you had a crisis of motivation now that the New Year is behind us? Do you have any tips for keeping going? I'd love to hear them.

Are you Living Your Five?

Living Your Five presents... Paying It Forward ala Becca

Happy Friday! We're cruising along with our series about paying it forward--a favorite Living Your Five topic--with a question we posed to all the Fivers:

What is your favorite way to pay it forward to other people?

Here's what Becca had to say:

I think the value of a hand-written thank-you note is erroneously undervalued. When someone does something kind or helpful to me - even unintentionally - I like to make an effort to personally thank them.

I know when I receive thank-you notes, it motivates me to continue helping others. The mere act of saying thank you isn't just a way to show our appreciation, but to show people that they are making a difference, and it's worth their time and effort to continue down that path.