I’m not sure I’ve ever been more ready for Spring!  Can I get an “amen?”  Maybe it was the polar vortex thing, or maybe it’s just that this year I had TWO kids to bundle up with coats, gloves, hats, socks, boots, etc., but winter feels long where I live, and January through March are not exactly my favorite.  So, Spring, I welcome you!  I don’t even care if you bring a ton of rain, just please bring warmer temps!

So, yes.  It is April, and I did just wake up to a light coating of snow on the grass, but mostly we are through it, and it is SO great.  We’re back at the park here and there, and getting out the door for a twenty minute errand does not take an additional thirty minutes of bundling.

With a new season, I like to write about what I’m into lately.  So, here we go! [Read more…]

One of the audiobooks that I completed last year (and mentioned in my 2018 Top 5 Best Books) was Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise. I have found the principles and practices suggested to be quite life changing!

Here are the ClifNotes–habits can be formed using will power or motivation.  Will power functions like a muscle in your brain.  It even requires glucose to function (a big reason why diets can be so hard…try going “low carb” or “keto” or whatever and completely depriving yourself of sugar while you form a new way of eating!).  Additionally, it is exhaustible.  You have more at the beginning of the day than you do in the evening (another reason why diets can be so hard–who has ever eaten great all day only to settle down with a giant bowl of ice cream at the end of the day?…not that I’m condoning diets, but you get the point).  Motivation is another way to affect change and form habits.  However, it is hard to pin down!  (If we continue with the diet example, maybe the new cookbook inspires you to cook real food at home, but maybe the delivery pizza just sounds so good when you’re super tired after work.  Maybe the photos of your favorite celebrity in her bikini taped to the fridge is inspiring to eat salad, but maybe sometimes you just don’t care or it feels totally unachievable.  Maybe the new gym clothes help you get to the gym a few times, but eventually they’re in the wash and you find yourself back on the couch.)  Motivation is tricky!

Since motivation is often quite elusive, Guise argues for habit formation strictly using will power to create a new habit.  However, since the new habit is extremely small, it uses such a small amount of will power that the habit can continue endlessly while feeling effortless.

Now, here’s the kicker. [Read more…]

It’s winter! Time for another “Stuff I Like” post!  I LOVE the change of seasons.  I don’t think I could live somewhere where the seasons didn’t change.  Summer is definitely my very favorite time of year, and winter is definitely not my very favorite.  BUT, I do like being cozy.  Winter is very, very cozy.  It’s a time for lingering over good food and wine with good friends.  Time for books, movies, and lettering and card making in my woman cave (read: basement).  It’s a good time for lots of coffee and pajama pants and knit hats.  There are things to love all year round, even if where you live it is ugly and grey and SO COLD in winter.

So, what am I into on all these chilly, grey days?  Here we go! [Read more…]

In my last post, I shared my favorite books that I read in 2018–my top 5 of the 16 that I read/listened to.  It’s been so fun to fall in love with reading! I did really enjoy reading as a kid (and I still marvel at my concentration, focus, and comprehension that I had then).  However, I was a pretty active kid, and being outside probably had more appeal than sitting curled up with a book.  So, here I am, all grown up and enjoying time with a book–generally early in the morning before my people are awake or after the tiny humans are in bed.

This year’s goal is 24 books–two per month.  When I factor in audiobooks, that feels pretty achievable.  I am a list person and definitely a planner, so I enjoy deciding which books I’ll read when.

So, what am I hoping to tackle this year? [Read more…]

I keep a running list of books I read every year.  I try to read 20 (this year I’m shooting for 24).  That’s not very many compared to lots of readers, but for me, it feels pretty good (and actually attainable).

I’m not a very fast reader.  Additionally, I feel that I’ve lost a bit of reading comprehension in the past ten years or so.  I’m only 31, so this feels weird to think that my reading comprehension as a fifth grader was significantly better than it is now that I’m an adult.  Does anybody know?  Is this common?  I’ve got a hunch that reading on a screen (iPad) probably does not improve reading comprehension (I’m sure there are studies, but I haven’t looked yet…again, does anybody know?).  So, I’m trying to read more actual books these days.  Plus side: the cozy factor is exponentially higher.  Down side: since I’ve always got several books going, it’s harder to have them all handy at all times.  First world problems.

Anyway, this week I wanted to review my reading list from 2018 and give a few recommendations.  Spoiler alert: next post I’ll let you know what I’m currently reading/planning to read in 2019.

This year I read/listened to 16 books.  Five of those were audiobooks.  I do really enjoy audiobooks, and I like how it helps me get to my 20 book goal.  Also, if you’ve got a good book going, household chores are, like, suddenly enjoyable (“When can I do the dishes?”).  Also, I read fiction and nonfiction books, and I’m going to just bunch them all together into one list.

So, here we go.

[Read more…]

When I wrote my first, seasonal “Stuff I Like” post, I did not intend for it to take a whole year for me to write another one.  I have about zero creativity and mental space for “extra stuff” for some odd reason when I am pregnant, and then it all comes back about ten minutes postpartum.  But then there is the whole time factor so blogging was difficult for the first few months, and alas, here we are, and it’s been one year since I wrote about all the things I’m into lately!  So, here we go! [Read more…]

Part of me can hardly believe it, and part of me can totally believe it.  We are halfway through Isla Jane’s baby year!  I know I’ve said this once or twice, but I am not really a baby person.  I do really like my own babies, but I have to say, little toddlers and little kids (and even teenagers!) are probably more fun for me than babies.  But, this time around, I think I’ve been enjoying her “baby-ness” a lot more than Landon’s–probably because I know how short the time really is.  One year?  That’s not very much at all!

However, let it be known.  I have baby opinions.  (You probably guessed that…I’ve had two home births by now.)  And if there’s one thing that I have a fully formed opinion on, it’s sleep!

I am actually quite a huge fan of sleep.  I should have written the book on napping.  It’s kind of like, “Oh, what are my hobbies?  Oh, you know, cooking, photography, racing, hand lettering, and napping.”    (When my Hashimoto’s got better and I wasn’t so terribly tired all the time, I tried to take a nap just because it is fun!  I was so bummed that I couldn’t!  Ha!)

So, yes.  You could say, mama needs her sleep!  I was not cut out for night shift.  I am naturally an early to bed, early to rise kind of person.  So, hello, tiny human, but why are we looking at each other right now?  It’s 2 a.m.  You will be cuter when the sun comes up.

It is my goal from day 1 with new baby: get that baby sleeping!!  (Lots of you will say, well, yes.  That is always the goal for everyone.  But ask my husband.  I am fanatical.  I am putting my game face on as I crawl into bed at night: Baby, I will win. You will sleep.)

So, yes, we only have two kids which means I have only done this two times.  There will be someone out there who has had like 13 children and will claim the first 5 slept great, and then 8 were terrible.  There will be a baby out there who will be the exception to all the rules.  I know this.  Please don’t blow up my blog with nasty comments.  All I’m saying is what I did because some people seem to want to know.  Take it or leave it, but we are two kids in, and the first one slept 11 hours solid at 12 weeks, and the second one slept 12 hours solid at 10 weeks.  I don’t personally believe I got lucky.  Here’s what we did…

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Blog Readers!  I have not forgotten about you!  Life has been full…so, so good, but rather full, and I’m still trying to figure out how to do life with two tiny humans!

It seems that just when you think you’ve got things down to a pretty solid routine, something changes and you have to readjust and reevaluate.  I think that’s just called life.  Let’s be honest, I would get bored if things stayed the same all the time, and I like the challenge of change.

It was more than two years ago when I wrote about a day in my life and just over a year ago when I wrote about my experience logging my time.  So I thought I’d write a little update now that we have added another tiny human into our life! [Read more…]

Inspired by a blog that I read (who’s author I know in real life!), I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things with my readers.  People seem to like to know that stuff (at least, I like to know that about other people!), but particularly people seem to want to know what sort of weird, crunchy thing I’m trying at the moment.  But also, some fun stuff, because, believe it or not, I do some normal stuff, too.  So, here goes…stuff I’m into right now… [Read more…]