RELOCATED

I mentioned recently how listening to inspiring podcasts made me want to do  bigger things  with my  life . They've also made me want to do bigger things with my  days  though. I've spent a lot of time in my married life wishing that we got out and did things more often; I think I was hoping Russ would initiate things or they would just magically happen. But now that I'm choosing to  make  life happen rather than  let  life happen to me, I'm doing what I can to make sure we get out and experience the world and bring more variety and fun to our lives. So far, this mostly means making plans for family outings on Saturdays and making plans for date nights on Fridays. I've often suggested that Russ and I alternate planning our dates. In an ideal world, that would be great! But planning dates isn't Russ's forte, and there's no reason that should bother me . . . I love him regardless of his date-planning abilities! Plus, I like planning dates, so why not p

Sweet Ada Girl, 10 months?! Already? Where did my little BABY go? You're practically a toddler now! It's nuts. I know you'll get sick of me saying this throughout your life, but the time just gets away and you just grow up and it's crazy. I love seeing more of your personality come out and I really love that giant smile of yours that comes so freely and easily :) Thanks for being so cute and bringing so much joy into my life. I'm so eternally grateful to have you as my daughter 😙 Stats You weigh 17.8 pounds (35% -- about the same as last month) and are 28.75 inches long (75% -- jumped from 54% last month, so who knows if I measured you right both times).  Still wearing 3-6 month and 6 month clothing.  You are still wearing size 3 diapers, but I started buying the "little movers" version instead of the "little snugglers" since you are now so mobile! Notable events You met the rest of your extended family this month because we h

With all of the amazing and inspiring podcasts I've been listening to over the last six months, I've found myself wanting to be amazing and inspiring myself, but I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know what I might be able to do to contribute to the world and find personal fulfillment (besides being a mother -- which I definitely feel like fulfills both of those things). One day, I told Russ that I wanted both of us to think of things we were good at and/or enjoyed, and see if we could find a way to start a side hustle with them. Some of my initial thoughts were to start an Etsy shop because I like crafting, or to try and do something with interior design or party planning since I enjoy both of those things. However, none of those ideas felt quite right for me. For one thing, I'm actually not creative. I'm FANTASTIC at copying other people's ideas and maybe even improving upon their ideas, but I've never been one to come up with the ideas on my ow

Lately I've been listening to this podcast and I find myself wanting to share every single episode over every social media platform I'm part of because they're just that good. So rather than doing that, I just decided I'd give kind of an overview on here. The podcast is called  The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo . As the title suggests, Brooke Castillo is a life coach. I had heard the term "life coach" before, but I never really knew what that entailed. From what I've gathered from the podcast, life coaching is basically about teaching you to manage your thoughts -- rather than letting them manage you -- to create the life you want to have. Brooke teaches that a lot of people believe that their circumstances create their results, and how that's actually not true. Instead, it's our thoughts and feelings about our circumstances that create results. To illustrate, here's an example. Say your mom gets cancer. This makes y

Sometimes I wish I had the money to fork out for all the cute handmade things on Etsy, but handmade things are expensive, so I just can't do it. And it's actually okay, because I love to craft, and I really love the satisfaction of saying, "Thanks! I made it!" when somebody compliments my crafts :) So when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to put above the bed in our master bedroom, I saw  these signs  on Pinterest and decided something like that would be perfect. I was pretty sure I could make one myself for less than $125 though :) I cut a piece of 1/4" tempered plywood that I already had down to 44"x12" for the background piece and then painted it Behr Sterling (light grey). I found  this tutorial  on Pinterest of how to transfer a printed word or phrase onto your canvas (in my case, the plywood). I took a few graphic design classes in college, so I used my InDesign skills to create the look I wanted with my chosen phrase, fonts, and