Gain time by chunking activities together.

Do laundry once a week or every other week rather than daily.  Buy enough socks and underwear for everyone and wear ALL your clothing. Empty the drawers. Everyone has 7 pairs of pants and 14 tops.  Then when you do laundry, do it load after load and put it away.

Same for dry cleaning, save it up and go every other month rather than weekly.

Cooking-make 2 or 3 meals at one time rather cooking daily.  Make a pot of chili or several casseroles and freeze the others for meals later.  Add a salad and veggies your finished.

Disconnect!  Turn off all the alarms on your phone and computer.  Check it few hours rather than constantly.  Interrupts keep your brain scattered and off track.

Be acutely aware of how you spend time and exchange time wasters, like news and other media, for scheduled in downtime. Turn on music and create an oasis in your home rather than looking to be “entertained by outside events.”  Spend time at home without TV or outside in nature. You don’t need to be productive all the time.  Manage your energy not your time.  Lean into your body’s rhythm.

Stop external children’s activities.  They want your time and attention, not another teacher’s or coach’s.  Give them one-on-one time with lots of eye contact and conversations. Cook or bake together, include them in household chores, do crafts, board games or use their imagination to invent games.  Leave room for spontaneity and silliness.

What is the most remote or isolated place you have ever visited?

I visited Bora Bora and stayed in an over the water bungalow and loved it. On the road trip with my dad, we got in some very remote forests with giant trees and I felt the very presence of our Universal Life Source. That was life changing!

What is the worst travel experience you can remember?

The night our boat dog, Bambi, fell overboard in a bad storm in the middle of the night and drowned. We were changing guard at the helm and released our jack lines, including the one Captain Pete made for her and during the creaking and swaying of the boat and the roar of the waves, she must have gone unnoticed on deck to go to the bathroom and slid off. We were devastated to discover her missing just minutes later but it was impossible to find a little dog in 12 foot seas in the dark.

Tell us about your book, ‘Living With Reservations’.

It’s the true story of how I quit my life. I went from wife, mother, corporate commissioned sales executive commuting from the suburbs of Orlando to divorced, empty nested, survived the death of my fiancé and liquidation to a road trip to Alaska, to island hopping the Caribbean to Italy and landing on a winery in Tuscany with a handsome wine maker, all on a shoe string budget.

I turned my personal journal into a life-changing, awe inspiring, “all-in” journey of globetrotting and discovery of what it means to be brave, dream big, think outside the box and create one’s own definition of happiness. I openly share the thrills, fears and guilt as I learned to live without reservations. My hope is that is will inspire others to take the leap of faith and live the life of their dreams. You can find it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, in print or eBook.