Category Archives: Everyday Life

Best Week Ever + Good Reads

I might be having the Best Week Ever, you all. Our life is pretty much routine these days, and it’s not that often that every day has something exciting going on. Of course I’d try to find things to be grateful for every day, but this week just had an abundance of crazy good things!

Monday: My cousin Jen had a baby! A beautiful baby boy named Luke. There is something so magical about a new baby. If you want to sneak a peek at his chubby, baby cuteness check him out here.

Tuesday: On Tuesday night, WE BOUGHT A NEW CAR.  Oh man, was it a long time coming! And my Nissan Murano was really giving up the ghost and it was getting stressful. The most fun part about it was when we finished all the paperwork and came out they had put a big bow on it and filled it with water and snacks. I felt like I was in a car commercial. As a mom, I make sure my kids are safe so I plan to get car insurance at BestCarInsuranceWSA.COM. It was kind of a fun little weeknight deviation.

Looking for a car insurance calculator? How do you ensure that the offers you receive match reality as closely as possible? Visit this website for a couple of tips for you who are interested in calculating the price of the insurance, so that you do not pay more than necessary.

Not to mention a great drive to work the next day. Hopefully, after reading this article about the risks you take when you use a public parking lot, I’ll be more attentive when I use it this weekend. After driving a 10+ year old car, let’s just say the technology change for me is a real learning curve. If you sustained injuries in a car accident, hiring a personal injury attorney to represent you means you will have a professional working for you, go to this website to find one.

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Wednesday: Because we were at the car dealership until LAAAAAAAAAAAATE the night before, I was Tired AF on Wednesday. But we made a (new to us) Instant Pot Recipe and not only was it super quick and easy, but it was an 11 out of 10. I love when kitchen experiments work out like that. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it.

IP Recipe

Thursday: My house cleaners came, and seriously I felt like a Praise Emoji walking around my house afterward. They usually come every two weeks, but it had been almost a month due to some schedule conflicts, and I had hosted Christmas, so my house was at DUMPSTER FIRE LEVELS of dirtiness. Coming home yesterday felt so good, and made me excited to enjoy my clean house this weekend. (Man, I guess this is Adulting. haha)

Friday: I mean…it’s Friday! What could be better?

And just for fun, here are some fun things I have read this week in case you feel like perusing the internet while enjoying your weekend:

Have a great weekend, folks!

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Weekend Recap: Fun + Relaxing

Our first weekend this year was a great combination of fun and relaxation!

I don’t know about you, but last week seemed so long to me, even though I only worked three days. I think because I took two weeks off of work it was hard to get back into the swing of things. By the time Friday came, I was so ready for the weekend!

Friday night was pretty mellow. Holden hit the sack early (he was pretty tired after being back to his daycare routine at Child care Glen Waverley, too haha) and as soon as he was asleep I hopped on the Peloton and did a 30 min Intervals and Arms ride with Denis. Denis, Robin and Cody have been my favorite ride instructors so far, and this one was great! I was a sweaty mess at the end. I’m always surprised that shorter rides can be such a good workout.

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Saturday morning I was up early for no reason at all. I guess my body was in the rhythm of work and so I took the opportunity to just get out of bed and spend some quality quiet time with a cup of coffee and my book before the boys woke up.

It was GLORIOUS! I’m still reading this and while it was a little slow to start, it has all of a sudden really gotten interesting.
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Garrett and Holden were up around 8 and it was immediately “Playtime.” Ignore the fact that all of my Christmas decorations are still up. I wanted to take them down December 26th but Garrett requested we leave them up. Now I can’t figure out when we will have both the time and energy to take them down. It may be Christmas still in July at the Franklin house!
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Holden is doing this cute thing where he basically categorizes his life into Play Time, Food Time and Bed Time. (Ah, to be a toddler!) He is always asking “Is it Food Time?” right when he wakes up and after breakfast he always asks sweetly, “Is it play time?” When he starts winding down for bed each night he always jokingly says “I think it’s Play Time not Bed Time, right?” (Speaking of Play Time, those Magnatiles were the MVP of Christmas! Grandparents, for the win.) I’ve also been wondering about the right age to start potty training, and after reading https://kidadl.com/parents/tips/older-kids-in-diapers-when-should-i-be-worried I’ve been able to decide on the right time.

Our Saturday morning family adventure was a trip to the local tumbling gym for Open Play so Holden could work some of his wiggles out. He has so much ENERGY these days that some sort of major physical activity is really a must. Once I had a baby, I realized the importance of choosing the right stroller. He loves the ball pit and the trampoline, and they do this cute thing at the end where they blow bubbles and one of the owners dresses up as a shark (BLESS HER HEART) and they all sing Baby Shark, and everyone goes home tired and happy!

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After Tiny Tumblers, I stopped to get our grocery pick up order and you guys, MY LIFE IS CHANGED FOREVER. It was the first time I did grocery pick up and honestly, it may get it’s own whole post. It is THE BEST THING! It was an extra bonus that it was pouring rain and I just had to wait in my car to have my groceries loaded instead of squeezing in a trip with my tired toddler.

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Our plan worked to wear Holden out and he came home and took an epic nap! Like, slept for four hours kinda nap — which initially had us a little worried he’d never go to bed. But he must be going through a growth spurt or something because, on top of eating us out of house and home for a few weeks, he asked to go to bed right at 7.

After he went down, Garrett + I made dinner and settled in to watch Top Chef. I’m into this season so far, but seriously Padma’s wardrobe gets crazier and crazier every season. LOL We made a bomb Shrimp Scampi and some simple vegetables for dinner and it was SO GOOD! Definitely not Top Chef worthy, but also a good reminder that simple ingredients can yield a pretty awesome dinner.

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Sunday morning I tried out my new waffle maker! I haven’t had a waffle maker in decades but I spotted one on clearance at Target the day after Christmas and it called to me! It was a total “Instagram Made Me Buy It” purchase. LOL It was under $20 and I have been considering one ever since I started following Brooke Zigler on Instagram. She makes some good looking savory waffles on Instastories  and then I saw a Parmesan Waffle in one of the Chrissy Teigen cookbooks I got for Christmas and all of a sudden I was like “Must. Have. The best waffle makers.”….We’ll see how much I use it 🙂

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The good news is, the waffles were 100% Holden + Garrett approved.

Sunday morning was mostly relaxing and more Play Time 🙂 My mom came over, which gave Garrett and I a chance to do a little Meal Prep for the week. While he is playing so much more independently and imaginatively these days, which is so cute. I also took some time to play เริ่มเล่นกับทางเข้าUFABET on my phone. He still loves to be the center of attention too, and Grandmas are great audiences for that!

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The afternoon and evening were mostly spent inside doing stuff around the house. It was actually SUPER stormy here, but I did make a quick trip out during Holden’s nap to go see my cousin Jen. She was prepping for her scheduled C-Section the following day, so I just wanted to give her a hug and chit chat for a bit before she all of a sudden became a mom of two! SO EXCITING. Her first born is exactly 6 months older than Holden, so we have been in the mom trenches together the last couple of years. It is so fun to see her add to her family, and also it just makes me see SO CLEARLY how far the newborn days are behind us. I am still so unsure on having baby # 2.

If life were completely impractical and we had no responsibilities and endless resources, I would probably have 25 kids! I have loved my experience with Holden so much! But in reality, I am 40, Garrett and I both work full time, daycare is expensive, and we are both only children so we each have a major comfort level with only 1 kiddo. It’s so hard to know what to do! It’s on my mind a lot. No decisions made on that front this weekend. 🙂

All in all, it was a lovely time. Too quick, of course, they always are. But a nice cozy, stormy weekend with some fun thrown in the mix too. Hope you all had a good one!

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2018 Favorites + Words for 2019

 

best of 2018

 

Today I thought I would share some of my favorites from 2018 and talk a little bit about how I’m approaching goal setting in 2019. There is always good energy buzzing with change and possibility this time of year, but I think it’s important to acknowledge all the great things that happened. I’m not going to share an in depth retrospective or anything, but I thought I’d share some of my favorites from this past year. (No affiliate links included, just sharing for the sake of sharing.)

Books

Timehop reminded me yesterday that a few years ago I had only read 9 books and 7 of them I ranked as 1 or 2 Stars. LAME. While I only read 9 books again this year, most of them were 4-5 star reads to me. My favorites leaned toward non fiction. I loved Busy Philipps’ memoir This Will Only Hurt A Little. I listened to it on Audible and it was the perfect mix of juicy celebrity gossip + vulnerable human insights — both of which I need to have in order to love a celebrity memoir. Highly Recommend.

I also continue to think almost daily about Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done by Laura Vanderkam. It’s not just a book about hacks. It is a book that helps you examine the stories you tell yourself about your time, and how to reframe (or change) those stories so that your life feels more abundant and productive. Excellent, excellent read.

Music

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I’m including this for a laugh, as it is worth noting that my kid asks for the Top 5 songs to be played on repeat, which highly influenced this list. 🙂 But it is what it is…this is what was playing most of the time when I had the music on. Both Garrett + I want to listen to more music this year — both old and new…as well as see more shows. It’s a hobby we used to share many moons ago, so hopefully we can get back into enjoying and sharing music.

Podcasts

Hands down, my favorite podcast this year was Best of Both Worlds. Great dialogue about practical tips for moms who also work outside the home. I have implemented a number of strategies/perspectives this year that I learned from this podcast. I always enjoy podcasts about real people talking about how they make their lives work.

A close second was Young House Love Has A Podcast. I hadn’t really kept up with John and Sherry Petersik in a long time and I am not quite sure what made me download their podcast, but it is a good combination of practical and fluff/fun so I enjoyed it quite a bit this year.

Purchases

The best thing we bought this year, was a new car for Garrett. He was still driving the 1998 white Subaru Legacy that his parents bought him in high school. I MEAN COME ON, IT WAS TIME!!!! (It had been time for years, but he just loved that dang car.)  🙂  Guess what he bought?  A 2018 Subaru Legacy. HAHAHAHAHA This is my husband in a nutshell. But the car has been great for his commute, and he’s been enjoying all the technology upgrades. 2019 will be the year I get a new car as well, so that is exciting!

We also bought a dining room table from Costco and I have been so pleased with it!

Makeup Faves

I feel like 2018 was a good year for nailing down my absolute favorites when it comes to makeup. Here is the briefest overview of some of my holy grail favorites.

Foundation: Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation FOREVER (Monday through Friday.) And on the weekends I’m usually wearing IT Cosmetics CC Cream.

Concealer: Tarte Creaseless Under Eye Concealer or Estee Lauder Double Wear Concealer

Blush: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush (Mood Exposure, Luminous Flush and Dim Infusion are my go-tos.)

Bronzer: Marc Jacobs O!Mega Coconut Bronzer in Tantastic

Eyeshadows: Viseart FOREVER AND EVER AMEN. I have many of their palettes and the quality is so, so good!

Experiences

Getting away with my family to Humboldt County for my 40th birthday for sure! Also our weekender to Napa. Pre-kiddo, Garrett and I were all about the quick weekenders throughout California. I hope to incorporate more of that in 2019.

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Themes for 2019

So with all that said — what will 2019 look like from a goals perspective? I’m not quite sure exactly yet. There are so many fun ways people talk about their approaches to goals at this time of year – Lists, Categories, Words of the Year, Challenges, Box Checking. If you know me at all, you know I love all of these things. For the last two years, I haven’t made any goals. It’s felt too daunting to do anything except to just keep swimming. This year I think I have the bandwidth to be more intentional and more focused. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll “measure” that, or how I will share that here, but I’ve had a few words swimming around in my head about what I want 2019 to feel like.

Consistent. I want to show up for myself with respect to self-care. This includes everything from diet and exercise to getting my hair cut. I want to consistently keep the focus on caring for myself. Also I want to consistently show up: for friends, in this space, with my husband and child. You get where I’m going right? 🙂

 

Collaborative. I want to lean into relationships, old and new. I want to continue to feed the communities I am apart of, as well find new ones.

Evolving. I hope to spend this year learning and changing and I anticipate my family will learn and change just based on the fact that we have a two year old and EVERYTHING IS A PHASE. So I know in December things will look different. I think the reason “evolve” resonates with me is that I don’t want things to feel hectic, and disruptive. I want to flow with the changes and slowly develop. Does that makes sense? Am I sounding like a lunatic?

So that’s the plan. (Or the lack of plan? I reserve the right to incorporate detailed lists as the year goes on. hahah)  What are you all working on for 2019? And if you feel so inclined, share with me some of your favorites from the last year.

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What Worked in 2018 + What Did Not

Happy Holidays, friends! I hope you are all doing well.

I haven’t updated here in a while but it is the end of the year and my MOST FAVORITE time for reflection. I’m also getting that familiar desire to set goals (finally! for the first time in 2 years) so I wanted to pop in and do some sharing. The first things I’m reflecting on: What Worked this year and What Didn’t. Plain and simple.

What Worked

  • Reframing my commute as “alone time” – October marked my first anniversary of living with a more sizeable commute to work. (4o mins to and from work on a good day, some days it was over an hour both ways.)  I really didn’t want that to feel like a drag because it was something I was going to be doing twice a day, ya know? What I realized early on was that this was GREAT alone time. And as a parent of a toddler, I really grew to appreciate that. Granted, I am an extrovert and don’t need a ton of alone time. But this seemed to help me strike a balance. It was where I did a lot of quiet thinking, listening to audiobooks, chit chatting with my mom, or listening to new music. Looking back, I literally would not have time for many of those things had I not been commuting. So a total win!
  • Leaving work at work on evenings and weekends – My entire career I have been a “work until it’s done” kind of person. If that meant taking work home, or squeezing things in on the weekends, I would do it.  Having a child has changed that. My time with him in the evenings is precious (and also shorter due to my commute) so it became very easy to prioritize no working at nights. Weekends are the same. They never felt long enough when it was just Garrett and I. Now that feeling is compounded and I feel so protective of that precious family time. The challenge is that a lot of my identity is wrapped up in my career, and I am person who wants to excel. Not being willing to do anything at any time sometimes this meant being a B+ employee instead of an A+ employee. Fellow perfectionists will understand how uncomfortable this decision was. But it turns out that protecting that family time (since I never feel like I have “too much” of it) really, really worked this year and I have no regrets. Maybe I wasn’t overprepared for every single meeting. But I had to brutally prioritize, and over the course of the year I was happy with the decisions I made about when to show up and give 110% and when to just show up. If you’re a business owner that wants to spend more time with your family, then I would suggest you automate some of your processes.
  • Neutrogena lip products – So I’m almost embarrassed to tell you that I have upwards of 50 lip products because I just find lip gloss and lip stick and lip balm IRRESISTIBLE. But this year my work horses and first choices were just about always a Neutrogena lip product. (Specifically this one and this one.)  I think there will be some makeup purging over the holiday break!
  • Audiobooks/Podcasts/Anything I could put in my ears – Curling up with a good book (preferably a hardcover) is one of my favorite things to do! But this year, had I waited on time (or energy) to get through physical books I’m not sure what I would have finished. Instead I gave into audiobooks more then ever and at least got through almost an average of one book a month. Also I spent a lot of time gleaning information and enjoyment from podcasts. More on my favorites of the year in another post. Cleaning the house, running errands, washing dishes — I most always had something good in my ears! Also would like to share because they’re so good, carpet cleaning in Newport beach. You’ll also benefit from longer-lasting carpets, odor-free carpets, and a higher home value when you schedule regular cleanings from a good company similar to miami carpet cleaning services! You can also check out this carpet cleaning Phoenix they have the best equipment to use for removing all the dust.
  • Hair Texturizer and Hair Thickening Gel – I’ve heard that post-partum hair loss does eventually stop. But I’m two years in and my head has just NOT recovered. Sadly I didn’t have a lot of hair to begin with so my hair situation is pretty sad these days. But I’ve found a couple of products that have really helped me out in this space and are no more fuss than what I used to use: This and This were/are winners!
  •  Ordering a Peloton – My workout life in general falls more into the “What didn’t work” category, with the major exception of time spent on my Peloton. I wish I would have rode MORE, of course, but literally this was the only major exercise I got this year and it was literally because there is a spin bike and very engaging programming and instructors 5 steps from my bed. Such a win. I want to commit to even more rides next year!

What Didn’t Work

  • Our Meal Planning system – God it feels never ending. Every week what are we having for dinner and who is shopping at what store and when. 2019 may be the year I try meal planning monthly and it WILL be the year I figure out how to make grocery order pick up/deliver work for us, because there was so much food prep fatigue in my life.
  • My Planner (or lack thereof)– I have ordered an Erin Condren planner every year for the last 7 years. But at the end of 2017, it just slipped through the cracks. I went almost 3 months without a planner at all, and about lost my dag gum mind. Of course in April there were no great options, so I just bit the bullet and bought a Happy Planner on clearance at Staples. It looked like Erin Condren-ish, so it had to work, right? Except it did not. Functionally it was…fine…but I did not enjoy using it. So I was inconsistent. And I do not live a spontaneous life right now, so planning keeps me sane. Needless to say I’ve already received my 2019 Erin Condren LifePlanner and it’s full to the brim with dates, life, reminders….aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh. This is one of those areas where I just need to buy what I like and not hem and haw about it.
  • A consistent and repeatable fitness routine – My mental health suffers when I do not exercise regularly. Full stop. But I just couldn’t figure out where to fit things in consistently between commuting, working, keep our house going, and having quality family time. I tried yoga at home this year. Not for me. I tried a Les Mills subscription. Didn’t enjoy. I tried a new spin studio – FIRM NOPE. The Peloton was all that worked, but even with that I struggled. Consistency is something I need to work on, no doubt.
  • Not enough date nights – Two years into parenthood I am really understanding how intentional Garrett + I will have to be (especially in these early years) about PLANNING to spend time together. If we don’t, it just won’t happen. We are lucky that it has fallen into place pretty well, but if I’m honest, I’d like to spend more quality time sharing intentional experiences with my husband rather than talking while we sit on the couch after work. I’ve already got the ball rolling on this for next year because to me it is a MAJOR priority.
  • Somewhat relatedly: Not having a backup babysitter – We are so lucky to have moved 3 miles down the street from my mom, and it literally is just straight down the street. She can be at our house in under 10 minutes, and this year she has! She has put groceries in our fridge, picked up packages off our porch, run over to our house to let the handyman or housekeeper in, has come through in the clutch on days when Holden was too sick to go to daycare…The 2018 MVP of our household is MY MOM, no question. And on top of all of that, she is the reason we have had any date nights at all. She’ll come over and put Holden to bed some weeknights when we want to have an adults only meal. Or she has been willing to have her babysit on a Friday or Saturday night if we have plans. She has even offered to stay over night and wake up with Holden on nights when she knows we will be out late (ie: wine tasting Christmas Party — HELLO!) Her flexibility, frankly, has been angelic. But also, Holden is now 2+ years old and we need to GIVE MY MOM A BREAK!! I know she loves her grandson, but I would also like to cultivate relationships with some other babysitting options as well. This is hard for me, but it’s going to be a 2019 goal, for sure.
  • My caffeine consumption – This year has been….not good on the caffeine front. Coupled with not a lot of exercise and my anxiety has been a little off the charts. Nobody wins when mama is anxious, let me tell you. Honestly, I know the answer to this challenge, and I really just need to let the caffeine go. But mama is also TIIIIIIRED. It’s a pickle. The only way out is through, I think. More to come on this one.
  • My clothing organization – This was such a point of frustration for me at multiple points this year. I feel a hard core KonMari session coming on. I just need a purge. My closet is twice the size of my old closet and it’s overflowing and I feel like I never have anything to wear. This needs to be a project.
  • No office in our house that I use – Our house has 4 bedrooms which includes our master, Holden’s bedroom, my husband’s office, and a guestroom. I don’t really have a place for any of my creative pursuits, and that is starting to wear on me. We have the space, we just need to make it work for us. I originally thought I didn’t need separate space for things like planning, blogging, memory keeping, etc. But it turns out, that isn’t a functional solution for me.
  • Not blogging – There are a million things I miss about blogging and I’m tired of complaining that I’m not doing it. I’ve already started to make space for this pursuit and I’m hoping that 2019 will be a good come back year. 🙂
  • My approach to physical self care — I’m a girly girl at heart, and honestly I am excited to put on makeup and do my hair 7 days a week. The reality of my life is that I’m lucky if I shower 3-4 times a week (Gross, I know) and many times those showers are exhausted showers at the end of a long day. Not particularly relaxing or rejuvenating. I only cut my hair once in the last year and it was a desperation chop where I walked into Ulta and had a random gal chop 7 inches of my head because I literally couldn’t TAKE IT ANYMORE! I haven’t gotten my nails done in 2018, and literally made zero time to physically prioritize myself. I don’t think bubble baths and manicures are the ONLY type of self care (clearly) but I am a person who enjoys beauty treatments and physically taking care of myself. I even read an article to know the right gel nails for you. And I *could* have made time for that. I just didn’t. I’d like to work on automating some of that for 2019. I’m looking forward to trying the builder gel polish by Glitterbels.

Tell me about you! What worked for you and what didn’t this year? Are you making goals for next year? What’s on the horizon?

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Labor Day Weekend Recap

Hope you all had a nice long Labor Day weekend. We were pretty mellow but productive, which was just what I needed as I embark on a busy season at work.

And, not to be that person, but this weekend I had the happiest thought: THERE IS ONLY 112 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!

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I know, I know. This excitement isn’t for everyone. haha  But the Fall and Holiday seasons are my favorite time of year. It’s our wedding anniversary, Holden’s birthday, my birthday (I’m turning 40 this year, what!!), Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas — So! Many! Fun Times! Ahead!

But also lots of planning to keep sane, ya know? I had a 1 on 1 date with my planner this weekend to start keeping my life straight! I’ve got some work travel peppered into the last few months of the year, so I definitely needed to just GET IT TOGETHER.  Anyway, a relaxing weekend was nice, is all I’m saying 🙂

Holden Mom

Friday afternoon we kicked off with a little ice cream social at Holden’s daycare. It was super cute and it was on the “big kid” playground, which about blew Holden’s mind. I left work a little early and it was so fun to socialize and get in weekend mode.Holden Friday

Saturday morning we got sleep in, which felt AWESOME (Holden must’ve been tired from all of that extra evening playground time.) “Sleeping in” meant that Holden didn’t wake up until 6:45, but since we are mostly on early schedule these days, Garrett and I were up at 6. We had a nice time having coffee and relaxing just the two of us before we had to report for Parent Duty. It’s the little things, these days. haha

Kids dentist las vegas is a recent find we love to share. They’re so good with kids during dental check-ups.

Holden play

It was a mostly chill morning, but we did do some tidying around the house. We had friends from out of town stopping by for a visit in the afternoon, so you know — OBLIGATORY TOILET SCRUBS and all that. 🙂

We also hit up the little park by our house in the morning because the weather was going to get super hot in the afternoon. (Around here we are just pretending it is fall indoors while the A/C runs.) I’m looking for a company that provides quality service in residential spray foam. One of the most awesome things about our new neighborhood (I told y’all we moved last year, right??) is that we can walk out our front door and there are a ton of great bike paths and park options. #welcometothesuburbs

I was looking for an e bike use around the neighborhood and found out that the most popular ladies electric bikes can be found at Wisper.

Holden Swing

It was great catching up with our friends and after they left we just hung out and had a mellow Saturday night after Holden went to bed. For me that meant I caught up on some Real Housewives (What’s up with Leanne on RHO Dallas and her makeup this season??) and I watched some You Tube videos while I took a bubble bath. #RELAXATHON

Sunday Holden woke up right at 6am on the dot and literally by 9am it felt like 10 hours had passed. Toddlers be crazy, y’all. Also I started to feel like I was coming down with a cold, which wouldn’t be a huge surprise since both Garrett and Holden have been sick in the last few weeks.

To keep ourselves sane we ended up taking a walk to the bigger park by our house which is a little further away so Holden could go nuts and run off all his energy. This worked out swimmingly 🙂  We just made ourselves huge coffees (NEEDED :)) and popped him in the stroller and took a nice Sunday walk. By about 10am it was already 85 degrees and tons of kids were playing in the splash pad at the park and Holden went straight for it — FULLY CLOTHED, of course. lol What are ya gonna do?

Holden wet

Afterward we headed back home and my mom came over to help us with Holden so we could do some projects around the house such as updating our flat roofs. For all your roofing needs like residential roof replacement or repair, find Roofing Marketing Pros here or look online for Greensboro roofers near you and get all your roofing needs fixed. Readers in other areas can hire local roofers to provide gutter replacement in Taylors, SC or damage roof repair in Bristol, PA.

Even though we moved in a year ago, there is still so much to be done. And hung on the walls, OY! We attacked a lot of hanging projects this weekend (which is my own personal hell, hence the reason I’ve been putting it off for a year) but I’m happy we got them done. I also did upgrade my windows for a much better scenery and good security for bears around. If you want to know about it, visit MaverickWindows now >>>.

This top roofing company would give the best services you need for your roofing concerns in your individual homes. Just look for A&M Roofing.

We hung a mirror in the guest bedroom:

guest bedroom

A mirror in the entry hall:

entry hall

And some artwork in Holden’s room:

holden room

Holden was very into the Home Improvement Vibes. LOL (This kid will use ANY excuse to climb!)

holden mischief

These are easy projects, I know. But we are no Chip and Joanna. Garrett and I are home decor novices TO SAY THE LEAST 🙂

On Monday we just continued with the house projects and enjoyed an extra day off of work, you can try this out as well if you need any more repair or restoration in your home. There was another park trip, more grandma time, some food prep, some laundry and even some relaxing. This is how most weekends look lately when we don’t have anything specific on the calendar.  I also woke up this morning knowing fully that a cold had taken hold of my sinuses (UGH) but honestly I felt pretty rested and refreshed and ready to go back to work.

Now fingers crossed this cold doesn’t get too much worse. 🙂

Did you all  have a fun weekend?

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The Week In Review

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Y’all, it’s been a while. And I’ve got to get back into blogging somehow or I will NEVER DO IT.

I stole this format from Amber as a quick way to get caught up, so here we go!!!!

The high of my week: Getting a new job at work! I’m about 72 hours into a new role, leading a new division that will definitely require some focus and learning. All of this excites me. It’s a little scary — it’s been a few years since I’ve embarked on something new. And it’s always a little bit nerve wracking to be leading something specialized when your background is in something different, but I think it will be a great challenge!

The low of my week: Holden has been waking up at 5:30 am (which is almost an hour before his usual wake up time of 6:20am) and that complicates getting ready in the morning during the work week. As with all things parenting, I know it’s just a phase at this point, which is fine. Luckily he wakes up chatty and giggly, so it’s a plus that he isn’t waking up unhappy. I actually thinks it’s a sleep regression based on him being almost 2 and his language development exploding. Nonetheless while you’re in it, it’s a little inconvenient. 🙂

For my workouts I completed: HAHAHAHA Right now getting 10,000 steps in a day counts as a workout, but I know that isn’t! Hoping to hop on my Peloton this weekend. (I’m #HollyWould over there if you are a fellow rider.)

I haven’t quite figured out how to fit workouts into my routine. Right after work (for me that’s around 5:30pm) seems like the ideal time during the week, but the reality is that Holden still goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 and I LOVE that time all of us get to spend together as a family. I just don’t want to spend it working out.

But by the time he’s down at 7, I’m hungry, tired and frankly don’t feeeeeeeeeeel like working out. And I’m already up at 5 to guarantee I get a shower before work in the morning (see Holden’s wakeups above) so I would have to be literally on the bike by 5am, which would mean setting my alarm for like 4:45am and YOU GUYS, JUST NO. This is not the season of restful sleep that makes 4:45 am feasible…YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? 🙂

It is what it is at this point. I’m trying to just find creative ways to move.

The best money I spent was on: Hmmmm…this is a tough one. What did I buy this week? Oh, I know – two things I picked up that I’ve been enjoying:

I bought a Make Your Own 12 pack of FlapJacked Mighty Muffin Protein Muffins. I’ve enjoyed a couple lately — they are easy and filling when I’m trying to squeeze in something to eat. And I thought some of the flavors I bought would be fun for Fall. I’m SO looking forward to the change in seasons.

Also I bought 3 new Milani Keep It Full Nourishing Lip Plumpers. These are my current favorite lip glosses. They are sheer and very shiny but not super tacky. Love. My Target doesn’t have them in their Milani display for some reason so I just ordered them on the Milani Website.  The code LABORDAY gets you 20% off right now, which is awesome.

What I’m listening to and loving: We are listening to a lot of Jason Aldean and Maren Morris around our house. They listen to country at Holden’s daycare and I guess he has taken a shine to those two artists so when we put them on Spotify at home he will dance, which is A-freaking-dorable!

What I’m watching: Totally OBSESSED with World of Dance (can’t decide who I have a bigger crush on: Derek Hough or J. Lo) I’m also staying current on Real Housewives of New York (so sad it’s basically over.) But no worries, Real Housewives of the OC and Dallas are right there to help me out of  my funk! LOL  Beyond that, I’m enjoying Very Cavallari (GUILTY PLEASURE ALERT! But I don’t think I’m feeling the revamp of The Hills) and I need to set aside some time to binge the last few episodes of Sharp Objects. YES!)  This weekend I think my mom and I are going to see Crazy Rich Asians (she saw it already and LOVED it and I haven’t been to a movie in ages) and that should be fun! I’m excited for the long weekend and time with my family and my mama!

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What I’m reading: Ugh I’ve got many books going at once and none completed. Here’s the lowdown on what’s in progress.

Audiobooks:

I’ll Be Gone In The Dark – so good, but also I have to read it in small bits because it is heavy and scary and very local for me. When they caught the Golden State Killer he was living 4 miles from our old house, so you know– TOO CLOSE TO HOME. But the book is fantastic and so engaging.

Food Freedom Forever – Mostly because I’m always trying to figure this out. We did a Whole 30 in July and it was SO AWESOME. August was like…NOT awesome. So you know…a work in progress. 🙂 I just like Melissa Hartwig.

You Think It, I’ll Say It – Man, I just love Curtis Sittenfeld. Her writing is A+ and these short stories demonstrate that. I found this fun to listen to on my commutes to work, but then I got focused on I’ll Be Gone In The Dark and haven’t wanted to listen to fiction.

On My Kindle:

The President is Missing – I thought I would breeze through this because we all know James Patterson writes like 3 page Chapters that always end with a cliffhanger, but my eyes get heavy very quickly at the end of the night and lately I’ve been bringing a little work home so I’m not reading as much before I get into bed.

The Secrets You Keep – This is moving slower than I am used to Kate White books moving so I’ve lost a little steam.

On My Nightstand:

Multiple books with bookmarks. I can’t even remember what they are so it’s been awhile.

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So that’s where things are lately. Are we sufficiently caught up? hahahaha Not even close.

But life is good, and it’s hard to get back into habits you’ve fallen out of (I miss you blogging AND exercise!) But I haven’t given up! LOL

Will you pick one of those questions and answer in the comments, so I can hear a little bit about what you’ve been up to? I miss our chats. 🙂

 

 

 

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What Life Looks Like Lately – Weekday Edition

The alarm goes off at 5am.

We are getting SO MUCH more sleep lately, but 5am is still early no matter what. One of us brews cups of coffee and Garrett and I do the morning stuff. Getting Holden’s food + clothes ready for daycare, packing lunches, figuring out breakfasts.

By 5:30 one of us is showering. We ro sham bo for who has to go first. The first person to shower misses out on a few quiet minutes to scroll their phone and exhale. But the second person to shower has to squeegee the glass doors. They each have their upsides. Some days neither of us shower and we steal an extra 30 minutes of sleep. A few days a week I definitely opt to go to work with my hair full of dry shampoo and secrets. 🙂

By 6am Holden is stirring. I’m usually somewhere between my skin care routine and makeup. One of the things I’ve become even more committed to since having a baby is making time for all of my crazy face lotions and potions. It’s a little victory each morning and night. A spot of time for myself to just do nothing else but let the serums sink in. I look forward to it.

Holden is 16 months and usually wakes up babbling some of the words he knows. It’s very amusing and he usually lays there for a good ten minutes chatting through a combination of “HI!” “Elmo!” or “Uh oh!” over and over again. I am always excited to see his face in the morning. This phase of parenting right now — where his language is exploding and he is just communicating and laughing (and ok, throwing tantrums too) — is just SO. MUCH. FUN. Still busy, and all consuming, but man we are laughing a lot. If I had to pick a photo to sum it up, this recent one is it:

Learning to stick his tongue out

While I’m half ready for work, around 6:15, Garrett and I go get Holden and do the wake up routine, diaper change, song singing, getting him dressed all together. He’s so wiggly these days that it’s kind of a full contact sport. But it is one of my favorite times in the day because he is all BABY. He is growing so fast and there is just so much LITTLE BOY in him, so it is fun to start the day picking him up from his crib and seeing him in his little sleep sack with his pacifier and his lovey next to him. It makes me feel like he is still my tiny little baby.

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Garrett goes off to get dressed and ready for work and Holden and I head out to the kitchen for his breakfast. We inadvertently weaned him from his bottle a few weeks ago so it’s usually oatmeal or yogurt while I chat with him about his day ahead at “Charm School” (what we have lovingly dubbed Day Care) and put on his shoes.

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By 6:35am Garrett and Holden are on the road. Holden’s daycare is a block away from Garrett’s work, so most of the time Garrett handles drop off and pick up. I have a few minutes to myself and I spend them cleaning up our breakfast mess, folding up the blankets on the couch where we probably fell asleep the night before. Basically tidying the house so when we get home it’s calm and welcoming. Then it’s off to get ready.

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For about 20 minutes I hair and makeup. It’s no glam squad situation but I get it done.  I’ve tried a bunch of different clothing subscription services lately and the one I like the most is Trunk Club by Nordstrom. I recently decided that I just can’t hang with baggy or saggy jeans anymore so I ordered a “Trunk” with a million pairs of jeans that are higher waisted (LOOK AT ME! GETTING OLD AND PRACTICAL!) and asked for a a few more premium denim brands. I felt like every other month I was buying another ill-fitting pair of Target jeans to solve the problem and I just ended up with 10 pairs of jeans that don’t fit right and AINT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT. I found 4 pairs of nice jeans that stay put and look nice and have NO REGRETS. It’s the little things these days, and not tugging on my pants at work has been a real life upgrade, ya know.

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By 7am I’m out of the house and on my way to Starbucks. One of my credit cards does cash back rewards and a few months ago instead of just boringly applying them to monthly bill, I decided to turn those rewards into Starbucks gift cards. I only drive through if I have a gift card, and it actually does kind of feel like someone else is buying me coffee. I know that this math isn’t quite economist approved, but it works in my head. And I’m off on my commute!

My drive to work from our new house averages about 45 minutes. On Fridays it’s only about 28 but some Mondays take almost an hour. Before we moved I thought this would be the hardest part of living in our new neighborhood. Previously my drive to work was about 11 minutes and all on surface streets. But if you can believe it, I now look forward to the drive on the highway because I catch up on podcasts or chat with my mom, or listen to audiobooks. Plus it’s actually great decompression time on the way home.

By 8am I’m at my desk typing away, attending meetings, thinking strategically, having critical conversations — you know the drill. WORK STUFF. My days are full right now, but I’m pretty satisfied professionally. You know, except for those Monday mornings when you walk into BSOD.

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I’m back on the road at around 4:30 and usually home by 5:15. Garrett and Holden have usually just gotten home and we read Holden’s Charm School report card and talk about his day. If I’m being honest, this is mostly a poop related updated (#PARENTLIFE) but it is always fun to see what they did and how he was feeling. We are so grateful for a wonderful daycare family and for our Happy, Independent little boy.

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By 5:30 Holden is usually ready to eat, and I’m sad to admit we are usually not organized enough to have dinner for ourselves on the table by then. We eat a little later and usually just sit down and chat (and snack, let’s be honest) with Holden while he eats. He still needs to be fed some things, but he is doing a pretty good job of getting to know his fork and spoon. Sometimes one of us will get dinner started depending on what’s on the menu. Meal Planning and healthy eating are getting a solid C+ about 16 months into this parenthood gig. Some weeks we have our stuff together and prep food on the weekends and just nail it. Other weeks when our work schedules are crazy, we rely on take out or convenience meals. Definitely a work in progress at the Franklin house.
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After dinner we clean up, get in our PJs and play. Of course depending on what was on Holden’s menu sometimes there is a bath involved in there too. Post dinner play time is always a blast. Holden is at a really fun age and just wants to entertain us. He is so interactive and talkative and into pushing his boundaries. There are a lot of giggles, sometimes tears, but mostly it is so fun and fascinating to see how quickly he is developing new skills. I’m still pretty amazed how far we’ve come over the last year. I mean a year ago he was just a squishy little baby.
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Not gonna lie, sometimes after dinner we try and talk Holden into curling up on the couch with Mom and Dad and watching a show. 🙂 His favorites are Vampirina and Mickey Mouse Club House, but he’s not super into TV right now. He’d much rather climb on and off all of the furniture. I am just hoping he makes it through toddlerhood with all of his teeth in tact. YIKES.
Watching Sports with Dad

We start the bed time routine around 6:45 and we get him in his sleep sack, read books (Favorites right now include basically ANYTHING Sandra Boynton) and then we say goodnight to the house. Goodnight fireplace. Goodnight TV. Goodnight Dining Room. Goodnight Hallway. Goodnight Bedroom. Goodnight Mama. Goodnight Dada. Goodnight Wesley (his lovey). Goodnight Holden…and down baby goes to get some sleep. All I can say is that our sleep coach was the best money we ever spent, and once he is down, Holden will sleep for about 11 hours. THANK YOU SLEEP GODS.

By 7pm we are finishing up cooking dinner, eating, doing dishes, cleaning up the kitchen and we try and do one house maintaining chore in the evening. Sometimes that is a load of laundry. Sometimes that is boxing up Amazon returns. Sometimes it’s cleaning the fridge out or making a grocery list. Sometimes it’s paying bills or rounding up an amazon order of last minute things we forgot to buy the last time we were at Target (I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again — HOW DID PEOPLE PARENT WITHOUT AMAZON? I don’t know.) But we always try and get a few little things done and then really? IT’S TIME TO SIT DOWN.

Garrett and I are watching a few shows together: Vanderpump Rules, Top Chef — so sometimes we watch TV. Other times one of us will say “How about we just scroll through silly stuff on our phones and have a moment of quiet.” (Usually it’s the person who lost the ro sham bo and had to shower first that morning. haha) And by 8:30 we are ready to wind down and get ready for sleeping. Teeth brushing and teeth flossing and face washing — OH MY! I’d say we consistently get in bed around 9pm and one or both of us will attempt to “read” which basically means read 5 words and fall asleep. When my head hits the pillow these days I am ready to crap out because I know that alarm will come early tomorrow.

We’ve figured out a lot of new routines but we are still struggling with eating well (or at least somewhat how we used to eat) and OBVIOUSLY fitting in fitness. We miss both, but there’s not a great gap of time in our week days and if I’m being realistic, we probably need to be focusing on meals that take 20 minutes or less. Sometimes I get a little too ambitious on the weeknights and then we are too hungry to execute and just get Chipotle. If you have any quick, healthy recipes I am all ears!

On the fitness front, I recently bought a Peloton in hopes that I could just roll out of bed and squeeze in a 30 minute ride, or hop on the bike before I eat dinner — so we’ll see how that goes. If you have one, how are you liking it? Any advice?

Honestly life is really good lately. But also I have never more fully understood the old saying “The days are long, the years are short.” I wanted to write this all down because I want to remember this season of life. The season where our days were full of joy, endurance, laughter, and probably a few too many frozen pizzas. Some day, these days will be the good old days. 🙂

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2017: In Review

Tis the season for reflective naval gazing, yes? Honestly, 2017 was a year for quiet, contemplative naval gazing — obviouslsy evidenced by the fact that I haven’t posted since May. In the past when I’ve gone through major shifts (like I feel like I did this year) I’ve written through it and shared a lot here. This year I just…couldn’t.
I think this was a tough year for a lot of people. Personally, politically, there was just a lot of turmoil out there in the ether and I didn’t really know how to talk about that here. That is some of the reason why I didn’t write much.

But the other part, for me at least, was that in 2017 there were so many changes that I could have shared that I just couldn’t keep pace with them. Honestly, had I written through them, I probably would have given you whiplash. You’re welcome for keeping quiet for a bit.  But here we are at the end of the year and I am feeling pulled to share a little bit. I don’t know what to do with this dusty old blog, but I’m not quite ready to give it up.

I thought we could start with everyone’s favorite end of the year wrap up?

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?
I have never really been a devotee to the “word of the year” phenomenon, but in hindsight I definitely see that there was a theme for me throughout this past year. 2017 was the year of Surrender. The year I had to say to myself – Holly, you can not do it all. And I couldn’t. And I didn’t. And if you know anything about me, you know that was a very tough pill to swallow. I mean, for evidence, please see the name and content of this blog for the last decade.
In 2017 I didn’t set a single goal. I didn’t aim to improve myself, or push myself, or plan for something, or execute on a big project. None of it. And honestly that was hard for me. There were so many times I felt lost and un-anchored and desperate for some structure. But there was also part of me that felt free. Free to just flow with where life took me. And I did that. And so many times I felt energized, and alive and surprised by what surrounded me. It’s been an interesting thing to reconcile.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My goals at the top of this website are from 2016 – so that should tell you pretty clearly about whether or not I kept any resolutions. Ha! I’m not sure if I’m going to make goals for 2018. We’ll see.
Never say never. I mean, I am turning 40 in 2018, so…

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No one in my immediate family gave birth but a good friend did.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No deaths in my immediate family. It was another year of feeling oddly connected to dying celebrities though. I think this has to do with the fact that I’m getting older.

5. Where did you travel?
Zero trips this year, which was just fine by me. But I definitely have the itch to go back to Palm Springs something fierce next year.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
More sleep.
Holden woke up 2-3 times a night until we sleep trained him in June. BEST DECISION WE EVER MADE OMG WHY DID WE WAIT SO LONG. It literally took one night and he has been a champion sleeper ever since. But I went 8 months straight without really sleeping more than 4 hours at a clip and that took a toll. We’ve been sleeping a solid 6 months now but it took quite a few months FOR ME to get back the ability to actually sleep through the night. My sleep isn’t perfect but it is steadily improving and I look forward to feeling slightly more rested in 2018.

7. What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Holden’s first birthday. (Joy)
The night before my mom had a major surgery. (Anxiety)
Christmas Eve. (Because Holden slept in until 8am and so did I, and WOW I woke up feeling festive and rested and we had a wonderful day with family.)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I found balance between work and motherhood. It’s a new pace for me, and it took ¾ of the year to figure out, but I’m there and I feel good and I don’t feel like I’m failing at everything in life.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Fitness.
I maybe worked out 5 times this year? That might be giving myself more credit than is due. I completely lost my fitness mojo. Obviously I wasn’t sleeping until July and working out just wasn’t going to happen – my body was pumping out enough cortisol just to survive. But in 2018 I would really like to get back to moving my body in a way that feels good physically. It’s so good for my MENTAL health, and I really missed that in my life this year.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Pregnancy a C-Section and the natural loss of some core stability shined a light on a congenital back issue that I have going on that caused me to suffer quite a bit of pain this year. I began seeking help for it in spring and only in the last few weeks have I felt a decent amount of relief. It’s been a long, slow process and it’s made me realize that CrossFit is not in the cards for me in the near future (or maybe ever again.) This was a very sad thing for me to come to terms with this year. I want to continue rehabilitating my back in 2018, lose some weight since that will only help things, and find new fitness that both me and my back will love.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
We bought our first home in September after looking for almost 12 months. It was exhilarating, scary and hands down the best thing we bought. I feel grateful every single day for this house. It is all the things we hoped for but thought we would have to compromise on. It was really an exercise in patience because we saw so many houses, made multiple offers, had our hearts broken and really thought we may never find The One. But then our house came along and literally everything from start to finish was easy, effortless and exactly what we had been asking for all those months. It felt like a literal gift from The Universe.

12. Where did most of your money go?
OOF, that house down payment.
13. What did you get really excited about?
Holden sleeping through the night. Celebrating two years of marriage. Surviving the first year of parenthood. Buying a house. Moving three miles away from my mom. The Holidays in our new home. Feeling like I am getting a bit of my personal mojo back after having a baby.

14. What song will always remind you of 2017?
This one.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
– happier or sadder? Oh gosh, that’s hard. I mean – last year I was a blissfully pregnant dog mom and so excited about what was to come. This year we lived through some of the harsh realities of the first year of parenting. Haha
That said, overall I am definitely happier.
– thinner or fatter? I weigh less than I did pregnant.But definitely flabbier.
– richer or poorer? Richer for sure. In all the ways that matter.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
I wish we had dined out more when Holden wasn’t mobile 🙂

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
I wish I had done less panicking. I go from zero to a hundred REAL QUICK on the anxiety scale when I am not exercising. As you can imagine so this year was a hard one on the emotional management front. New baby, re-entering the work environment, family health issues, all of it. I just did a lot of panicking that probably wasn’t necessary.

18. How did you spend Christmas?
We slept in. My mom stayed the night. We had family over. There was cooking and Christmas music and way too much dessert and I went to bed with the fullest, happiest heart.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
We fell hard for The Great British Baking Show this year. That show is just too cute.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?
I only read 4 books this year and I don’t know if any were really favorites.
Hillbilly Elegy (Pretty darn good.)
Love Warrior (Meh.)
The Dry (Great.)
You Are A Bad Ass (Hated.)
A Return to Love (Re-Read)
I was just happy to get through them. I hope to read a lot more in 2018.
21. What was your favorite music this year?
I have been on a Country streak ever since I was on maternity leave and up all night nursing and watching old episodes of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team. Spotify tells me Luke Bryan, Maren Morris, Chris Stapleton, Lady Gaga and Beirut were my most played artists. Seems about right.

22. What were your favorite films of the year?
Did I even watch a film this year? I don’t think I did and that is sad.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 39 and I can’t remember what I did. Is that mom brain? Did we just relax? I’m not sure. Hoping to make this next year’s milestone birthday one to remember.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
It was pretty darn good, I don’t want to be greedy.

25. What was the political issue you that stirred you?
Like so many, I think everything under the entire feminist umbrella made me feel stirred up and like taking action.

26. What kept you sane?
Am I sane? Is that a fact? I am not sure sure. I don’t know if I would bet on that you guys — I went a really, really long time without any sleep. 🙂

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.
I am much stronger than I thought I was, despite the fact that I have much less muscle.

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May Brain Dump

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Howdy friends!

These days are going by in a flash so I thought I better pop in and do a little brain dump or this month is going to fly by just like April and I will post nothing! I already hate that I’m only averaging a post once a month, so I at least have to keep that pace up!

I think I’m experiencing that lame blogger feeling where you feel like so much time has passed that you would have to give some long sweeping updates (for example: Holden’s darn birth story) in order to just start posting about fun, little things again and that is giving me a feeling of overwhelm. So if you see me popping in and just randomly blogging and you’re like “WHAT THE HECK?” just know I am just over here trying to get my blog mojo back. Anyway, on to some random updates!

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Last Friday Holden was 7 months old, and so far this age is my favorite. He is so fun, interactive and mobile — but not TOO mobile that I have to chase him everywhere. He just delights in everything and is constantly curious and smiling. It is so cliche, but seeing the world through your child’s eyes is really a magical thing. IMG_8382

A month or so ago they had a “Picture Day” at his daycare, and you guys — YOU GUYS — when we got the proofs back we basically just offered them all of our money because OMG, it’s a baby! Doing Portraits! ha! The whole things just cracks me up, but obviously we had to order them.

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His sleep right now is mostly good, but inconsistent, and I just feel like: what a wild ride my life is daily. It is the best and most exhausting thing, all at the same time!

Speaking of exhausting, my caffeine intake is still OFF. THE. CHARTS. right now and I’m hoping to rein that in sometime soon but I have to pick my battles these days and being functional at work (and at home!) is required and the coffee helps. I recently helped my mom move and as a thank you she sent me $50 in Starbucks gift cards. She and I talk every morning on the way to work so she is totally in on my habit these days, but when Garrett saw that he was like “WOW, that will take you forever to spend.” and I just chuckled. It didn’t last me two weeks. 🙂

Apropos of nothing, I have to admit that I am really enjoying Instagram Stories. I have basically completely abandoned Snapchat, which isn’t saying much since I lurked on both and didn’t actually put out content, but I am very much enjoying seeing my favorite friends and Instagrammers use video. I think at this time in my life video is easier to ingest than words (yep, that’s my brain that you hear melting) but FWIW, I’m really enjoying them! I wish PRODUCING video type content came easy to me because I think it looks so fun but I legit can’t handle anything new right now.

Maybe I’ll dabble in a story or two but I feel weird talking to my phone. Is there anything you would be interested in seeing on my Instagram stories? (Are you even following me over there? Is anyone even still out there? Is this thing on? tap tap 🙂

If you are still tuning in, you might remember in my February post I mentioned how much I was missing CrossFit but I was having some lingering postpartum issues that were preventing me from going back. Well two things have happened in the past two months that are basically killing that dream to go back to getting my WOD on.

The first, on the injury front, I’m dealing with some pretty bad lower back pain and I’ve found the source of it and it’s kind of a bummer. I have a lot of degeneration in my L5 disc in my back that is clearly causing the pain. It’s congenital (there is no sign that it was caused from trauma and I really haven’t experienced any back trauma ever, so that makes sense) and my doc thinks it was probably that way before I had Holden but since I had a very stable core (heavy lifting, for the win!) I didn’t experience any pain, plus this top buy co-dydramol uk – EU Meds was a great help. Now here we are post-having a baby, and my core is less stable, so NOW I’m experiencing pain related to that disc degeneration. It’s good that my friend recommended me this wellness center like Charleston SC Joint Pain Clinic | Alternative Knee Pain Treatment | QC Kinetix (Mt Pleasant) for my perfect pain treatment and medication. Anyway — long story short: I’m restoring my core, heavy lifting and high intensity exercise are off the table until I make some progress (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) so CrossFit is out.

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The second, is that my CrossFit gym closed. WEEP!!! You guys, I am so sad about this. Above is all of us on the last day at the gym, helping tear things down. Man, it’s a bummer. It’s a great thing for our gym owner for sure, but it feels like such a loss of community. It also comes on the heels of one of our dear coaches passing away, so it’s been a double whammy as of late on the CrossFit front.

To say we are feeling a bit untethered as far as fitness goes in an understatement. I’ve been doing CrossFit at the same gym for 7 years and now I have a new baby, a new schedule, new priorities to juggle, a new injury, and no gym to go back to. I’m considering to buy used gym equipment so I can continue my fitness journey at home. It’s definitely a pickle, but if you know me all you know that I am doing my best to map out what’s next because fitness is MY SANITY. (And I’m very protective of my sanity these days! haha)

I hate to end this with a negative story, so on a happier note — the weather has been SO BEAUTIFUL lately and that, combined with Holden being a little older and a little more independent means that Garrett and I are getting out into the world so much more these days, being more social, and getting to bring Holden with us everywhere. It has just been the best! I anticipate lots of time outdoors this weekend and this season and just enjoying our little family. Life is so, so good right now and while it is not without it’s challenges, it is really nice to capture all of the good happening lately.

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Hope things are going well in your neck of the woods. Hope to be back here sooner rather than later!

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Currently: February

Holly

Despite drinking ALL THE COFFEE, ALL DAY LONG I haven’t made an appearance around here in a while. I literally come home from work every single night and say “Tonight is the night I will blog!” and instead I do the following:

*Snuggle my delicious baby who has been at daycare all day
*Feed said baby
*Read him a story with Garrett and do our general “Hey, it’s time to go to sleep” night time routine
*Cook Dinner
*Eat Dinner
*Wash dishes, bottles, sometimes even myself (HEY-O, showers! Luxury of all luxuries!)
*Pump
*And then, then if my eyelids are still open, sometimes I even sit down with that handsome husband of mine and chat, or watch like 30 minutes of some trashy Bravo program until we are both snoring heaps on the couch by about 8:30. Which is good because that baby is usually awake to eat at midnight and then again around 3am. (You know, before he is up for the day about 5am. RIP SLEEP!)

So, ahem, yes — blogging. I Not Be Doing It. And I miss it so hardcore it hurts, but I know from experience that I will figure out how to balance my personal hobbies with my sweet little baby one thing at a time. Seasons of life, and all that.

In the meantime, I thought we could catch up with a little Currently action. Here is what is going over here, currently:

Blowing My Mind:
4x
Y’all, as of today I HAVE A 5 MONTH OLD! That is literally the fastest 5 months of my life and I feel like I have traveled to the ends of the earth and stayed in the exact same spot ALL AT ONCE! Weirdest and best experience ever, I tell ya.

I can count the days on one hand that I have slept uninterupted through the night (well, more accurately on one finger: it was on my birthday back in October) so I’m slightly insane at most moments of the day, but five months! We’ve made it 5 months! And we’re all still standing! Well, Holden isn’t yet but he sure does want to!

standing

Reading:
Going back to work at the beginning of the month was a pretty major adjustment, but with the tough parts have also come a huge reclaiming of my own independence. I’ve gotten back some parts of my life that I was missing and one of the most exciting has been reading time! (I’m pumping at work which affords me a few minutes of uninterrupted reading every day. YAY!)

I kicked off the year reading something serious, then moved to something even heavier, started a book that was so fast paced and awesome but I had to return it before finishing because it was due back at the library – SAD! Now I just need a good old fashioned easy read, and that’s what I’ve got. Fun so far.

But I’m reading! REUNITED AND IT FEELS SOOOOO GOOOOOOD!

Watching:
I don’t have a ton of time or energy for watching TV and movies, but I’ve managed to watch some fun stuff in the past month or two. Granted one of these movies took us 4 days to get through, but hey — we watched it! (Bad Redbox investment for the record though. We decided after that experience that we probably just need to stick with what’s on Netflix and Amazon in this phase of our lives lol)

On the movie front we watched Deep Water Horizon (Marky Mark 4EVA!), Hell or High Water (Both were good movies that appealed to me and Garrett.) I watched Minimalism (and honestly felt a little eye rolly about it.) Maybe it’s because I heard too much hype? I don’t know. It didn’t feel life changing to me.

On the TV front I have been catching up on Scandal again while nursing. Also I am LOVING HBO’s adaptation of Big Little Lies. I loved the book and I think the show is so good so far! I’m kind of a Reese Witherspoon fangirl so this is not a surprise.

big little lies

Obsessing:
My two current obsessions are both beauty related and impulse purchases picked up at Target. Those are the best, right? The first is this hand cream. Holy hell, I love it! Smells great (not sunscreen-y), isn’t at all greasy and is suuuuuuuper moisturizing! And then I went a little HAM on the NYX Butter Lipstick display and picked up a big range of shades because they were on sale and I love that formula. (Its so moisturizing that it doesn’t have hours of staying power but it feels like lip balm going on, so whatever.) I picked up Root Beer Float and Snack Shack (scary looking, but actually GREAT nudes for fair/light skin) and Moonlit Night (which is a gorgeous berry color.) Impulses for the win!

Missing:
Crossfit! But you probably knew that. I just really haven’t figured out a way to fit in working out AT ALL since Holden was born. I miss my friends, the workouts, the feeling of accomplishment, the rough barbell in my hands, EVERYTHING!!!!
TEARS!
But I’m also have some lingering post c-section issues that I need to get in check before I get back to working out anyway. I have 2 Dr.’s Appt’s this week to hopefully do some digging, but man — people aren’t kidding when they say pregnancy can ravage the bod. I’m hoping it is just some piriformis and hip flexor issues that are exacerbated by weaker abdominals. I don’t really want to think about the other possibilities. UGH. Keep your fingers crossed, would ya?

******

So what’s happening with you CURRENTLY? Tell me some things! I feel like a bad friend. 😛

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