The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist - Page 2 of 89 -

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My Hack for Picking Outfits for a Carry-On Only Trip

This is my process for choosing clothes to take for a carry-on-only trip. (We’ll be in Europe for 3.5 months—March through June—which means preparing for a pretty wide range of weather.)

Now, when I say…

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Organization, Personality Insights, Planning, Travel
Feb, 26, 2026
38 Comments

Fresh FIGs: Gratitude Collective Week #3

Is February zooming by for everyone else?? Just me? I know it’s a short month to begin with, but it feels like my life is currently on fast forward and I’ve lost the remote!

In…

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A (Golden) Day in My Life: Friday, 20 February 2026

I haven’t done an A Day in My Life post in almost a year. Oops.

Technically, I didn’t set out to record this as an “official” Day in My Life, so timestamps are few…

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Life, Personality Insights, Random, Time Management
Feb, 24, 2026
31 Comments

Schooling Without School: Help Me Pull Together a European Learning Plan!!

Today is all about crowd-sourcing. I need your help!

Two weeks from now, WE WILL BE IN EUROPE, which means the kids won’t be in traditional school for literal months! (Though with all the snow…

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Parenting, Travel
Feb, 23, 2026
79 Comments

Happy Things Friday: 20 February

The crunch is on, friends. Two weeks from now is our final full day in Canada. Eeks! This is really happening.

I feel like I’m overloading everyone with with Happy Things/FIGs, so I’ll try…

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More Frugal Things…(These Post Titles Aren’t Very Creative)

Life has been hectic this week, and I was coming up empty in terms of post ideas. Writing about frugal things is always a good fall-back plan.

At first, only two things came to…

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Frugality
Feb, 19, 2026
37 Comments

Fresh FIGs: Gratitude Collective Week #2

For anyone joining for the first time—welcome! Here’s a peek at last week’s basket of fresh “FIGs”.

Before I dive into the literal dozens of FIGs we’ve collectively gathered over the past seven days, I…

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Hi! I'm Elisabeth...

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