Recurring Series

Currently in June

Feeling… devastated and sick to my stomach about Roe v. Wade being overturned. It’s the first time a constitutional right has been revoked, and it sets a precedent for more constitutional rights to be at stake. Here’s the truth: I used to be pro-life because that’s what you are when you’re a Christian. You believe that abortion is wrong. But I’m staunchly pro-choice now because why? Because the government should not have control over what happens to my body. Because it is my body and my choice. Because I should not be forced to go through the physical and emotional turmoil of pregnancy if I do not want a baby. Because the government wants to say that they are pro-life but we’re one of the only developed countries without paid parental leave, without universal healthcare, without services to help parents and children in need. Because the government wants me to bring a child into a world where they can be gunned down in their classroom, in their church building, in the grocery store. At this point in time, guns have more rights than women in America. And that’s a chilling realization. (And hey, maybe you’re still anti-abortion; that’s totally your right! But please remember, making abortion illegal will not stop abortions. It will cause more women to die. Making abortion illegal will also have an impact on access to contraception, on people going through miscarriage, and on families doing fertility treatments. There is a whole lot at stake here, and this is not a victory for anyone.)

Watching…

Ted Lasso, season 2 – Season 2 of Ted Lasso was a lot more serious and poignant than season 1, focusing on mental health and anxiety. There were some really weird episodes in this season and the character arc of one specific character was upsetting, but overall, I liked it a lot and I’m excited for the third (and final!) season.
MasterChef, season 8 – After reading a book that centered around a cooking show that seemed similar to MasterChef, I decided to watch an old season of the show. I forgot how much I love this show! It’s just so good and makes me cry (happy tears!) because the contestants’ stories are so lovely.
Cheer, season 2 – I loved season 1 of Cheer and was excited that they came back for season 2. This season centered more on the rivalry between the two community colleges that are consistently 1 and 2 in the national cheer championship—Navarro Community College and Trinity Valley Community College. There was also a really impactful episode about sexual assault in the competitive cheerleading community (stemming from one of the cheerleaders on the Navarro squad being found guilty of a wide range of sexual assault on minors).
So You Think You Can Dance – I’m watching the newest season “live” (i.e., on Hulu a few days after it airs) and it brings me so much joy and happiness. And who knew I would end up loving Jojo Siwa as a judge? She’s fantastic!

Listening to… American Elections: Wicked Game. This podcast is perfect for my history-loving soul. The podcast is working through every presidential election in American history, starting with 1789 with the election of George Washington and continuing through to 2020. The whole podcast is complete so I’m enjoying dipping in and out of the episodes (I just finished the 1804 election between Thomas Jefferson and Charles Pinckney). The episodes are cinematic, in a weird way, and I’m learning so much!

Grateful… that I’m feeling back to normal after my bout with Covid. I’m really glad my symptoms didn’t linger around too long. It was a really intense few days of feeling miserable and then multiple days of feeling fine but dealing with annoying symptoms like the dry cough and congestion. And, of course, getting that sexy raspy sick voice. Ha. I’m still testing positive for the virus (as of Friday morning), but since I’m no longer contagious, I’m allowing myself to be out (masked) in public. It’s been so nice to be among the living again!

Anticipating… writing and publishing all of my vacation recaps. I promise they’re coming! I usually write and publish all of my vacation recaps right after I come home, but getting Covid threw a wrench in my editorial schedule. But the first one will be published on Wednesday and the rest of them to follow afterward. It’s been fun to relive my vacation through these recaps and to sort through all of the hundreds of photos I took while I was away. It’s always such a beast to organize my photos after a vacation since I take soooo many pictures and videos and then have to cull down the collection to something more manageable.

Loathing… bouts of loneliness. These little moments of loneliness come to me at night, usually as I’m snuggling in bed to read for a bit before going to sleep. For me, there is something so vulnerable about this time of night. It’s when my anxiety can truly get the best of me. This is when I feel the most alone, when the pull to pick up my phone and swipe through my dating apps is highest. I was having a really rough night a few days ago and then I looked up and realized both cats had jumped up on the bed and were snuggled up next to me. It reminded me that I’m not alone but… as much as I love my ladies, they aren’t a substitute for real human connection. I’m missing that. I don’t know what the solution is, I know I could be better about reaching out to friends; there are a few people in my life that I’ve been thinking about setting up regular phone chats with to build that stronger human connection that I need. And also, the solution to these bouts of loneliness may be that there is no solution. Maybe it is what it is. We’re not robots; we’re humans with really complex emotions and loneliness is one of those emotions. It’s okay to have these dark moments, as long as we find our way out of them.

Struggling… with my cleaning schedule. Listen, I don’t know how people with larger households and more on their plates do it when it comes to cleaning. It’s hard enough keeping up with the cleaning tasks for my small apartment where it’s only me and two cats! I’ve tried doing a daily cleaning schedule (on Mondays, I clean the bathroom; on Tuesdays, I vacuum my room; on Wednesdays, I sweep and mop the living room, etc.) I’ve tried setting aside one day a week for all of my cleaning chores (not a good plan). None of it works for me. My floors usually have to get to a state of extreme filth for me to get the motivation to finally mop them, and then I’m just disgusted at myself. And don’t even get me started on how long I go between washing my sheets. I consider myself a tidy person; I tidy my apartment every night and never go to sleep with dirty dishes in the sink. But completing my cleaning chores on a regular basis is just a constant struggle.

Excited… to have unlimited PTO! My company announced this new program earlier this month and I am so thrilled about it. Every time my company sends out a survey to ask how they can improve, I always write down, “Unlimited PTO” because it truly is the greatest benefit. Being able to take a mental health day or schedule a long vacation without worrying about depleting my PTO budget for the year? Amazing.

Needing… to get organized for our podcast! Originally, we were hoping to release the first episode in early July, but things had to get pushed back when I got Covid (we planned to record our last two episodes of season 1 the Saturday I was miserable with Covid symptoms and the next weekend we can both meet to record isn’t until mid-July). So, now it’s looking more like an early August release. August will come swifter than we imagined, though, so I need to get organized so that when things get started, I don’t feel overwhelmed. So far, I’ve created a separate Google calendar just for the podcast where I can keep track of when we’re recording and when episodes are being released. I’ve updated the editorial calendar where we’ve listed out all of our episode ideas (so far, we have seven seasons planned out with 5-6 episode ideas for each season). Next, I need to create an ongoing list on Todoist for all the little tasks I’ll need to do throughout each season (write show notes, schedule social media posts, etc). It’s mind-boggling how much work goes into a podcast!

Buying… Niagara Falls souvenirs! I love buying a magnet whenever I travel—my fridge is full of different magnets from all around the world and it’s so much fun to have them as a reminder of my travels. I also bought a fun tank top, coffee mug, and Christmas ornament. It delighted me to peruse all of the different tourist shops around Niagara Falls and find the perfect style for all of these items. (Although the Christmas ornament was bought at Niagara-on-the-Lake.)

Loving… my cuddly girls. Oh, they have been so sweet this month. Before my trip, Eloise was being especially snuggly and lovey-dovey, almost like she knew somehting was up. (This was before I got my suitcase out!) And when I came home, Eloise didn’t leave my side for at least a week. She snuggled up right next to me when I was sleeping and was always nearby when I was up. Lila wasn’t as forgiving as Eloise when I returned from my trip; she needed at least a day to let me know she was NOT HAPPY with my decision to leave her for a week. But with enough treats, she decided to forgive me and snuggle with me.

What are you loving and excited about?

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments | May 2022

1 – Going to a flower farm with Amber! This was so much fun—they had rows and rows and rows of wildflowers and sunflowers to pick from and we had a great time strolling through the flowers and picking our favorite ones.

2 – A lovely dinner out with my mom and my cousin Rachel. I love our girls’ nights out!

3 – Getting my passport in the mail! They estimated 8-10 weeks of processing but it only took about a month! It is such a relief to have my passport in my hands.

4 – Going to my mom’s to wash lovebug splatter off my car. When I was driving home from the flower farm, there were a couple of miles where it felt like it was raining lovebugs and they kept crashing into my windshield and dying. I forgot that you shouldn’t try to wipe them off with your windshield wipers, so of course I did that and it just ended up smearing the love bugs all over my windshield. I went through a car wash a day later but there was still some splatter so I went to my mom’s where we used her garden hose and dryer sheets to clear off the rest of the lovebugs. Grateful that my mom was able to help me with this!

5 – A phone call with a colleague to talk through some work issues. It was nice to have a space to vent and offer my own support/advice.

6 – Watching a Mike Birbiglia comedy special on Netflix. He was recently on a podcast I listen to and had me laughing so hard I was crying, so I knew I needed more of his comedy in my life!

7 – The return of writing dates! It was so nice to see Mikaela and to snuggle Eleni!

8 – Mother’s Day! I had brunch with my mom, stepdad, and my brother and his family. It was really nice!

9 – Celebrating Lila’s birthday (which was the day before). She got some yummy wet food and lots of snuggles and love.

10 – A day at the office! It was my first time working in the new office and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. I went out to lunch with two coworkers and then went out to happy hour with a bunch of other coworkers. There’s truly nothing like being together in person!

11 – A day off! I decided to take a random Wednesday off, since I had my yearly vision appointment and annual exam, both scheduled at weird times. Both appointments went well and after my vision appointment, I ordered some Warby Parker glasses to try on at home.

12 – Waking up to a 67-degree morning! Being able to take a morning walk without sweating profusely was unexpected and quite nice.

13 – A meeting with my writers where we played two truths and a lie. I was happy that everyone participated and had fun!

14 – My mom crashed our writing date! She snuggled Eleni for an hour and a half. Eleni fell asleep on her shoulder and would get fussy if my mom tried to move her. So cute!

15 – A pool day! I bought a big floppy hat and a pool float at Target. We even got Lucy in the pool for a little bit but she needs some floaties.

16 – My Warby Parker home try-ons arriving! It was so fun to play around with them.

17 – Watching a few episodes of Ted Lasso that just tugged at my heartstrings. This show!

18 – Having a really productive meeting with my director to discuss some work issues I’m dealing with. It’s so nice to have a supportive boss who really listens to me.

19 – Getting Wordle in two tries! I can die happy.

20 – Chopping off my hair! I went to a new stylist since my previous one moved away and I liked her a lot! She was so bubbly and fun and kept us chit-chatting for the entire four hours I was there. I’ve never been one of those people who can just sit in the chair and talk and talk and talk to my hair stylist. It helps to have a super chatty stylist who asks lots of questions. And my hair turned out wonderfully!

21 – Receiving a ton of coloring books from a blog reader. They’re from all over the world! What a sweet gift.

22 – A full day to myself where I slept in, got a pedicure, did my grocery shopping, and got some reading and computer work done.

23 – Unintentionally sleeping in until 8 a.m. My alarm turned itself off at some point overnight so I woke up feeling very rested.

24 – Today was the Ulvade shooting. There are no good things, no good words. My heart is broken for these families and this community.

25 – The Survivor finale. It was such a satisfying one!

26 – Getting my Stitch Fix preview email! I like to select 3 items from the 10 they’ve picked out for me, and then ask to be surprised for the other 2 items. (Sometimes I’ll ask for something specific like a pair of shorts, but I think it’s fun to be surprised every now and then.)

27 – Dinner at IHOP with Amber! I’ve been craving their chocolate chip pancakes for a long time and they hit the spot.

28 – So You Think You Can Dance! I haven’t watched this show in years but it used to be one of my favorites. It was fun to watch the first few episodes of this new season. (Of course, after I watched these episodes, I found out about Matthew Morrison being a goddamn creep. Gross men are gross.)

29 – Podcasting day with Bri! We recorded two episodes and then spent some time in her pool. It was a wonderful day!

30 – Memorial Day! I spent the day at my mom’s and we took the dogs into the pool. They didn’t love it, but they didn’t mind hanging out on the pool floats.

31 – A helpful therapy session. We talked through some of the anxiety issues I have when traveling and came up with some strategies to help when those issues rear their head.

Tell me one good thing that happened to you in May!

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in May

Feeling… emotional, sad, frustrated, upset, anxious. Two mass shootings within 10 days of each other, one in a grocery store and one in an elementary school, places where we should be able to feel safe. The right to abortion being taken away and draconian abortion laws being put in place. A war that’s still raging in Ukraine. And let’s not forget: climate change, inflation, and rising Covid cases. The world is heavy right now. Or maybe it’s always been heavy and we’re just more attuned to the heaviness thanks to those tiny computers we carry around and ding at us with every breaking news alert.

Watching… Ted Lasso. I’m a few episodes into season 2 and I am loving it. It’s delightful and funny and also very poignant, and exactly what I need right now. Last week, I had a dream that I was dating Roy Kent (not the actor, the fictional soccer player) and was that ever a disappointment to wake up from. Anyway, do yourself a favor and watch this show if you haven’t.

Listening to… Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter. Curious if we really need to be drinking 8 cups of water a day? Does milk really build strong bones? Have you ever wanted to listen to a doctor spend 31 minutes talking about poop? Well, do I have the podcast for you! Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter has been a new favorite listen (and it’s relatively new, so you can get caught up on the backlist pretty quickly!) because I am just fascinated by the body and how it works. Dr. Gunter debunks common medical myths, interviews doctors to get the real truth, and does it all in a light-hearted way. Give it a listen!

Grateful… that Mikaela and I get to do our writing dates again. We meet at Starbucks every Saturday morning. She works on her creative project and I usually spend my time working on podcast outlines or blog posts. Mikaela comes with Eleni who is getting bigger and chunkier as the weeks go by, and one week, my mom came by to snuggle Eleni while we worked. She held her for a solid hour and a half, which allowed Mikaela to get a lot of work done. I love these writing dates with Mikaela—mostly because we spend a lot of our time chit-chatting!—and I am so glad we’re back in action.

Anticipating… my vacation next week! I can’t believe it’s almost here. We started planning this trip so long ago and I’m looking forward to spending a week on vacation with my mom. Plus, the weather looks like it’s going to be insanely gorgeous with highs in the low 70s. !!! We’re planning on spending a day in Toronto, two days at Niagara Falls, a day in a small town called Niagara-on-the-Lake, and a day in Buffalo. I’ve planned out a very detailed itinerary that leaves room for afternoon naps almost every day because that’s just the way we like to do things. Next Wednesday can’t come soon enough!

Loathing… exercise. I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that I hate to exercise and I always will. It’s not about finding the “right” method of working out because I’ve tried everything under the sun and I will always choose to lay on the couch and read than work out. While I do feel better after I’ve worked out, I don’t feel like it has a significant effect on my mental health nor do I always feel better after a work out. “You never regret a workout?” Oh yes. Yes, I have. But I know it’s important for my overall health and so, I will continue to try to hit that 30-minute daily movement goal as much as I can and I will continue to try to find ways to make it less awful.

Struggling… to get enough sleep. I’m still averaging around 6 hours a night, according to my Sleep Cycle app, which is definitely not enough sleep for me. It’s no wonder I constantly feel tired! I am trying to get better about starting my nighttime routine at a reasonable time so that I can be finished with it and have about an hour to myself to read in bed before I need to turn out the light. I’m also working on what time I actually go to bed. There were many nights of the past few months when I didn’t get to bed until after midnight. I’ve never been a night owl, so I’m not even sure why I’ve started staying up so late these days. Now, I have a “lights out” bedtime of 11 p.m. (it was one of my May goals) and every month, I want to decrease that bedtime by 15 minutes. So, in June, my new bedtime will be 10:45. Then, in July, it will be 10:30. And so on until I’m turning out the lights by 10:00, if not earlier.

Thinking about… writing a memoir. I was really inspired by a podcast episode with Mary Laura Philpott about the memoir/essay genre, and it got some ideas churning in my head about writing my own memoir. I never thought my life was interesting enough to write about, and maybe it isn’t, but I know I have things to say about some different aspects of my life. I have two ideas I’m ruminating on: familial estrangement (I’ve been estranged from my father for over a decade) and dating/being single in my thirties. I have a lot to say about both topics, and I think I would find a lot of catharsis by writing about these topics and coming to terms with how they have affected me as a person. Who knows what I’ll do, but I’ll continue to let these ideas percolate.

Needing… a new computer, maybe. My personal computer (a PC) has been running slow for a little while now, and I’m not really sure why. I’ve done some system checkups to see if there’s something specific that is causing it to run so slowly, but haven’t been able to pinpoint a source. This PC did a lot of heavy lifting in the early days of the pandemic as I used it all day every day, from work to personal time, until we were allowed to bring our computers home from the office in October 2020. Now I just use it as my personal computer, but I can never just open it up and go. It needs at least a few minutes to gather its bearings before it can respond to any of my commands. I’ve been wanting to switch to a Chromebook for a while (I especially like the Chromebooks that can flip to become a tablet!) because I don’t really need a computer with a fancy-schmancy operating system and it might be time to think about making the switch.

Buying… pool floats and floppy hats. It’s officially summertime here in Florida and this year, I want to utilize my mom’s pool way more than I did last year. My stepdad is constantly working on the pool, too, so we should take advantage of all his hard labor, right? Ha. I bought a floppy hat from Target to protect my scalp and face when I’m outside, and also couldn’t help buying a pool float so I can relax in the pool with a beverage and my book. If we’re going to have 100+ degree days, I’m going to spend them in the pool.

Loving… my short hair! I am so glad I made the decision to chop off my hair because I am really loving the shorter style and how much easier it is to care for. It’s just so much fun to have shorter hair again, and the style and color just feels very “me.” I’m really happy I made the decision to do a big chop!

What are you currently grateful for and watching?

Categories: Recurring Series

Day in the Life: Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Happy Thursday! I thought it might be fun to do a day-in-the-life post, which are some of my favorite posts to write and read. I love doing “Snapshot of My Day,” which is a much more condensed version of day in the life, but sometimes, it’s fun to give you all the boring details of my day-to-day life. 🙂 Enjoy!

5:45 a.m.: My Sleep Cycle alarm starts to slowly wake me up. I have the alarm set for 6 a.m. with a 20-minute wake-up window, so it starts going off when I’m in a lighter phase of sleep from 5:40-6:00. I pick it up, which snoozes the alarm. It’s then I realize both cats have joined me on the bed during the night with one on each side of me. So sweet!

Not the best night of sleep, sigh

5:55 a.m.: I turn off my Sleep Cycle alarm after it goes off two more times, scroll Instagram (which is mostly depressing; I can’t believe there was another school shooting at an elementary school. My heart is so broken for the families.), and then play the day’s Wordle (took me 5 attempts today).

6:10 a.m.: I go to the bathroom, put my hair in a ponytail, and throw on my workout clothes. Then, I head to the living room to spend 30 minutes with my Peloton besties. Today, I’ve queued up a 20-minute full-body workout with Callie Gullickson (she’s quickly becoming one of my fave strength instructors) and a 10-minute arms workout with Ben Alldis.

Afterward, I sit on the couch, bookmark a few more strength workouts to do next time, and play Happy Color.

7:15 a.m.: I make breakfast. Today, it’s scrambled eggs, cinnamon toast, and iced coffee. Yum, yum! I read through some of my email subscriptions while I eat and then start working on this post.

8:00 a.m.: I take a shower. And since I have a few video calls today + plans later this evening, I blow-dry and straighten my hair. But hey, since my hair is now so much shorter than it was last week, it barely takes any time. Win!

8:30 a.m.: I log into my work computer, do a morning check-in with one of my writers, and go through my emails. Nothing too pressing to get to, so I write out my to-do list for the day and then I hit up my team’s Slack channel to say good morning. Every morning, I tag one of my writers for something I call “Sharing is Caring” where they share something that’s going on in their lives: it could be a TV show they’re watching, a restaurant they visited, travel tips for a city they’re visiting soon. It’s a fun way to make sure my team stays connected (and I got this idea from another manager so I can’t take credit!)

After those check-ins, I start my first working block for the day. I tend to work in hour-long sprints and then take a short break. During this working block, I finish a content plan I had started working on yesterday, record a short training video on how to use one of our WordPress plugins, and address some edits made by one of our clients and send them to the content writers working on the account.

9:45 a.m.: I take a short break. I read a little bit of my book on the couch and then wash my breakfast dishes from this morning.

10:05 a.m.: Back to work! During this working block, I edit a few batches of content from one of our contractors and make some notes for my meetings happening later today. I end up writing nearly a whole page of notes (bullet list style), so apparently, I have a lot to talk about today!

Eloise now loves sitting next to me on my office chair when I’m working. How can I deny her anything?!

11:10 a.m.: Break time! I eat a snack, string cheese and fruit, while catching up on Feedly.

11:30 a.m.: Time for our weekly content team lead meeting. During this meeting, we mostly talk about something new that our parent company will be rolling out soon, which is under wraps so I can’t talk about what it is yet. It will mean some changes to our workflow, but I’m excited about it! Afterwards, I spend some time searching for virtual team building games.

12:50 p.m.: It’s time for lunch and I am hungry! I heat up leftover pizza and munch on it while I scroll through Reddit for a bit. During this time, my plans for tonight fall through so I FaceTime my mom and tell her we can watch the Survivor finale together. We were going to have to wait until tomorrow evening to watch it and avoiding spoilers would have been a full-time job.

2:00 p.m.: And it’s back to work for me! I do a little bit of editing work and then I have a meeting with my director to go over some questions I have. We have these one-on-one meetings every week, sometimes they go for an hour and other times, we’re in and out in 20 minutes. This week, it’s a quicker meeting where we discuss writer assignments for June (I’ve taken over assignment duty and it is my favorite thing), an issue I’m dealing with and the best way to address it, and a project I’m working on for the team. Once we’re done, I jump over to Airtable (where our assignments live; it’s basically a spreadsheet database for those unfamiliar) to start organizing the June assignments tab. I can sit there for hours if I’m not careful and I have other, more pressing to-dos on my list today so I give myself 30 minutes to play around with it before I go back to my editing task.

3:45 p.m.: Break time. I spend a little bit of time working on this post and then take myself to the couch to read for a bit. I also tidy up the apartment.

4:30 p.m.: Last working block of the day, yay! I finish up the editing task I was working on earlier, spend a little more time playing around with June assignments before forcing myself to close the browser so I can check off some of today’s to-dos. And for the rest of the day, I work through my to-do list. A lot of boring things: looking over content submissions, answering emails, and reviewing the website posting from another writer to make sure it meets SEO standards. Blah, blah, blah.

6:00 p.m.: I shut down my computer for the day. Work is done – woohoo! I FaceTime my mom to make sure she’s at home and then get ready to head over to her house for the night.

6:20 p.m.: I arrive at my mom’s and the dogs attack me with kisses and excited barking. I always have to sit down on the couch and let them climb all over me, attacking my face with kisses, for a few minutes. They are the best little greeters! My stepdad is watching tennis and my mom is working on a puzzle when I arrive. Chip keeps running over to the patio door and whining, so I take the dogs out. Chip mainly wants to bark at the ducks that love hanging out in the neighbor’s backyard and Lucy wants to make Chip chase her around the yard. Afterward, we come inside and hang out on the couch. There was some snuggling, some kisses, some wrestling (between the dogs).

7:00 p.m.: My mom and I play a quick game of Phase10 together.

7:30 p.m.: Our dinner arrives (we ordered takeout) so we all eat together while the dogs try their best to get any food scraps they can.

8:00 p.m.: It’s time for the Survivor finale! It’s such a good finale and I’m satisfied with the winner. This is only the second season of Survivor that I’ve watched, but I’ve really enjoyed it. I kinda want to watch the other seasons but with 40 seasons to watch, I don’t think I’ll ever get around to that.

10:35 p.m.: The show is 3 hours long (!!!) but the last half-hour is just the cast reminiscing about the show, so I decide to go home because it’s LATE for a weeknight. Whew.

10:50 p.m.: I’m home and the girls are happy to see me. I’m beat and all I want to do is get into my jammies and crawl into bed. It’s been a long day!

11:30 p.m.: Lights out!’

What’s something you crossed off your to-do list yesterday?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 42)

The high of my week was getting my Warby Parker home try-on glasses in the mail! It’s been so much fun wearing them around throughout the week as I try to figure out which pair I like the best. (The glasses just have plain glass in them, so I wear my contacts in order to wear the glasses around.) I was able to eliminate two options immediately, and I’m now trying to decide between the other three. Here are the options:

I thought I was going to go with the pair in the first picture because both my mom and a friend liked them the best when I asked for their opinions. They fit my face well and aren’t too big. But then when I sent the pictures to another friend, she told me that that pair doesn’t do much for my face and liked the other two better. So then I asked Instagram and the clear winner was the pair in the second picture. I like those a lot, but I worry they’re too big for my face. Tell me, friends, which pair do you like the best?

The low of my week was struggling during my spin workouts. Things just felt harder than normal and I’m not sure why. A part of me wonders if I’m in a phase of my cycle where my energy levels and output are a bit lower than normal. Something to pay attention to! I’ve just been telling myself that moving my body is the goal, even if it means setting my bike to a lower resistance level and cruising at a lower speed.

A blog post I enjoyed was When Possible, Choose Beautiful Things by Elisabeth Frost. I loved this blog post because it gave me a different perspective about my desire to have beautiful things in my home. For example, I love buying books and sometimes, it’s less about having my favorite books on my shelves to return to again and again and more about the aesthetic. I love having a home filled with bursting bookshelves. The aesthetic pleases me so much and brings me great joy, but sometimes I feel a little silly about my love of buying books. Or when I choose to buy an item for my kitchen and spend a little more money to get a style that is more aesthetically pleasing. The plain, understated style would work just fine but I want the pretty version because it would make me happier. I’ve always felt silly about this, but Elisabeth gave me a new perspective that had me thinking about this love of beautiful things in a new way.

When I invested in electric toothbrushes for our family I made a small splurge, spending an additional $9.99 to get the pink version for myself. It’s a subtle colour, but really does make me happy every time I use my toothbrush (and, as a bonus, it helps me avoid using my husband’s toothbrush by accident). Two years later, that $9.99 has bought me a disproportionate amount of daily happiness. Even the knowledge that I spent extra money helps elevate the experience, in essence saying: “You were worth it.”

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Soldiering On and Our Five Rules for Reading on Currently Reading. Ooh, this was a fun episode where Meredith and Kaytee laid out their personal rules for reading. They were very clear that their rules for reading may not be YOUR rules for reading; reading is very personal after all! It was fun to listen to what they put on their list and to think about what my own rules for reading are. Future blog post idea? You know it!

For my workouts, I completed two spin classes and two long walks. I took classes with my favorite instructors, Cody Rigsby and Leanne Hainsby. And I’m enjoying taking my walks a little after sunrise—between 7:30-8:00—before it gets too hot. Soon, even taking a walk at that time will be miserable! Florida summers FTW.

The best money I spent was $0 on more government-funded COVID tests! Did you know that you can order 8 more COVID tests? I wasn’t aware until someone mentioned it on Instagram and you better believe, I ordered them as quickly as possible. I’m going to have a nice big stack at my disposal!

My plans this weekend include a hair appointment this afternoon (will I be brave enough to chop off a significant length?!), a writing date with Mikaela on Saturday morning and game night with the fam on Saturday night, and a 5K walk in a local park on Sunday morning. A busy, fun weekend it shall be!

What was the highlight of your week?