Category: Blogging

How I Use Notion To Organize My Life

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Hobbies, Reviews

About a year ago I mentioned in my annual accomplishment post that I had started using Notion to organize my life. I didn’t know that I was looking for an organizational solution to my ‘busy’ retired schedule 😉 , but a YouTuber I watch mentioned they use Notion and I loved the look of it so I decided to try it out.

Doing so was easy because it’s a free service and was simple to set up. I was then immediately blown away by learning that it’s completely customizable. Anything I want to create – I can. Continue reading “How I Use Notion To Organize My Life” →

The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Net Worth Update, Relationships, Travel, Travel Hacking

This might have been the fastest month of my retired life. I had a great time, but fast travel is definitely not for me because while I had a lovely time, I can’t remember the last time I was this tired. It was probably during my career 4 years ago and I don’t like it! So let’s see what I did this month that was worth messing up my sleep schedule and my relaxed lifestyle 🙂 .
Continue reading “The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap” →

The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Budget Check-In, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Net Worth Update, Spending, Travel

And with that, 1/4 of 2024 is complete. Wow. And I only got used to saying “2024” instead of “2023” recently. Oh well 🙂 . Anyway, let’s see what I got up to in March!

Continue reading “The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap” →

The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Net Worth Update, Spending, Travel

What even is time 🙂 ? I feel like I just updated y’all about 2023 and here we are in the 3rd month of 2024. I keep waiting for time to make sense, but I think I’ve been having too much fun so it keeps flying by. I remember when months would drag on and feel like 100 years when I was working.

I guess I should just count my blessings instead of always being baffled by time passing so quickly these days. Lessons learned 🙂 . So let’s see what I got up to in February!

Continue reading “The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap” →

The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Net Worth Update, Spending, Travel

Welcome to another monthly recap of what I’ve been up to during my 4th year of early retirement 🙂 . I’m currently writing this while sitting in the sun in our Costa Rica Airbnb staring at the lush green mountains that surround San José. But for the sake of accuracy, let’s turn back the clock to see what I was up to during most of January, which overall involved freezing my ass off in the northeast US 🙂 . Let’s get into it!

Continue reading “The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap” →

Lessons Learned After 9 Years Of Blog Writing

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Hobbies

Well, I’m still here 🙂 . I’ve now been writing on this blog for 9 years and it continues to be my longest running hobby. So on the anniversary of penning my first words for this blog, I like to reflect on the past year and if I’ve learned anything new about writing. So let’s get into what I experienced and learned in the last 12 months. Continue reading “Lessons Learned After 9 Years Of Blog Writing” →

The Month Of Warmth: December 2023 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Budget Check-In, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Finance, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Investing, Keto, Net Worth Update, Spending, Travel

December’s theme of “warmth” had two meanings 🙂 . First was the fact that I spent half of the month soaking up the sun in Puerto Vallarta, México where it was literally warm (75F), and the second was that I spent the rest of the month in Upstate NY with family that makes my heart warm…in an emotional way, not a concerning medical condition way 🙂 . Continue reading “The Month Of Warmth: December 2023 Recap” →

The Year Of Reading: 2023 Goals & Accomplishments

by A Purple Life, posted in Annual Accomplishments, Blogging, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Reviews, Travel

Guess what 🙂 ? This is the 500th post on this blog!!! That number is completely wild to me, but I guess that’s what happens when I do something for almost a decade. Ridiculous. Anyway, thank you for being here 🙂 . Now let’s get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Throughout the year, I like to write down new things I’ve learned, read, watched and experienced to try and remember what each year entailed and how they differ. I then summarize all of that in my annual goals and accomplishments posts. The goal of these posts is not just to curate what I’ve been up to, but also to document how I have changed from one year to the next and how I’ve grown as a person. Continue reading “The Year Of Reading: 2023 Goals & Accomplishments” →