Thoughts on Living Intentionally and Notes from a Blue Bike

Sometimes I read books and walk away with one thing to take with me.   If I’m lucky, a handful.  But then, there are some books whose message makes me rethink everything.

 

As a blogger, author, entrepreneur, wife, and working and homeschooling mom, Tsh Oxenreider knows what it means to live the fast-paced culture of America.  And yet, while living extensively overseas, she also learned how to wear those labels in a slow, relationship-based culture.

After moving back to America, she’s relearned how to wear all those labels, get it done and yet, incorporate the slower lifestyle of other cultures so that she’s living the life her family craves.

 

If you read her blog for any amount of time, you know that Tsh speaks not from theory, but from an authentic voice of experience.  She knows how to leave the American chaos behind to live simply and yet richly.

She’s taken all that experience and written Notes from a Blue Bike, encouraging readers to take a break from the chaos and live intentionally.

In her book, Tsh suggests these are the five categories where we can be most intentional with our life. 

 

Work

Travel

Education

Entertainment

Food

 

Through engaging stories, she challenges her readers to not just mark some things off your to-do list to slow down, but to rethink the life your living.  You come away asking yourself questions like:

 

What will we do when we retire?

Am I doing the work I’m meant to do?

How much work is enough work?

How can I help educate my children—whether they’re in public school or homeschooled?

How can we entertain our family without the TV?

Where should we go on summer vacation and why?

What kinds of food should we eat?

 

I hope in some way we’ve all asked ourselves these questions, but in this book, we get Tsh’s wisdom on the answers for her family.  But what I love about Tsh is that she doesn’t suppose she knows the answers for your family—although she will insist you travel overseas at least once.  The doors are open wide for you to wrestle with the questions and figure out what is best for your family. 

After I finished the book for myself, I read—out loud and with a head cold, mind you—the entire section on Travel to Scott.  I read him my favorite chapter from the Work section, “Enough”. 

We are inspired.

 

 

I can’t recommend Notes from a Blue Bike enough. Required reading for everyone, ok?

Now, if you’re local, we have some exciting news.  Tsh is traveling on a book tour and is making a stop in Charlotte!  Follow along at The Art of Simple to get details when they come out.

In the meantime, I highly recommend you checking out these videos on each of the topics and then picking up a copy.

Food:  http://youtu.be/r5ROsqUvngQ

Work: http://youtu.be/78XtPP8n6go

Education: http://youtu.be/gjSPkNxdpLI

Travel: http://youtu.be/4y0cd2Yd7Bg

Entertainment: http://youtu.be/PZBYZQdMGxQ

 

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This post is part of the Blue Bike Blog Tour, which I’m thrilled to be part of. To learn more and join us, head here.

Notes From a Blue Bike is written by Tsh Oxenreider, founder and main voice of The Art of Simple. It doesn’t always feel like it, but we DO have the freedom to creatively change the everyday little things in our lives so that our path better aligns with our values and passions. Grab your copy here.