• Faith,  Life,  Self Care

    90 Days of No Social Media

    January 2, 2020

    Hi friends, I wanted to stop in and share a challenge I have decided to start now that it’s a new year. At the end of last year I was feeling like I had a lot of dreams and goals that I wanted to do but wasn’t getting anywhere with. This in turn created a lot of really ugly feelings. Deep down I knew what was causing these feelings.

    Social Media = The Problem

    Social media: mostly Instagram and Youtube was the problem. I’ve come to realize slowly over the course of the last year or so that wasting too much time on social media caused me to feel paralyzed in my own life and goals. It had reached its height towards the end of last year so I decided to cut it out cold turkey. (!!)

    The Rules

    1. Absolutely no time spent on social media of any kind.
    2. Spend more intentional time reading my Bible.
    3. Spend more time journaling.
    4. Spend lots more time reading.
    5. Blog twice a week.
    6. Create new products for Etsy.
    7. Spend more time with others – book time at the library, playgroup at church, etc.
    8. Start doing yoga 1-2x per week by the end of the 90 days.

    The Results

    The hope is that taking a break from social media will cause me to feel less paralyzed in my own life because I won’t be constantly comparing my life to others and feeling like I don’t measure up.

    It will also create a lot more time in my schedule. This will help with finally finding the time to work on the many goals that I’ve been wanting to meet.

    If I’m being completely honest: I am very nervous to start this challenge. I’m worried about how hard it might be. I know that some of the goals I am reaching toward are pushing myself outside of my comfort zone but I know in the end that it will be good for me.

    I will be checking in once a month to share how things are going.

    Have you ever taken a social media detox? How did it go? What did you learn? Can you relate to any of my feelings caused by social media? I’d love to hear how you work through them. 🙂

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  • Life

    Year In Review: 2019

    December 31, 2019

    This is the first year in review that I have done since 2016!! I can’t believe it’s been three years since I’ve recapped one of our years. I thought it would be fun and really special to go back and see how we spent the year. If you want a blast from the past, you can check out my past year in reviews here:

    2015: Part One + Part Two (the year we got engaged)
    2016: Year In Review (our first year married!)

    January

    • We celebrated Shane’s first birthday at our house with a small group of friends and family. It was a really sweet time. I recapped his birthday here.
    • We got 5 Etsy orders, which was a lot at the time and rewarded ourselves with a table saw.

    February

    • We spent lots of time working on collaborations for our Etsy shop this month.

    March

    Our winter months are pretty slow here in New Jersey. It’s very cold and doesn’t start warming up until April or so. We had lots of family time inside, spending time with this sweet boy. Nothing too significant happened.

    April

    • We took a trip up to Lake George, NY this month and Tommy and I snuck away to our favorite cafe and had a little breakfast date one morning.
    • We celebrated Easter as a family!
    • We gave Shaney his first lovey to sleep with and it was the cutest thing ever. 😍

    May

    I gave Shaney his first haircut in May! It was super nerve-wracking but it turned out not so bad!

    June

    • We took our first family vacation to the beach in Ocean City, NJ and had a BLAST! We discovered how amazing this beach and town was, had some delicious breakfast sandwiches, and enjoyed time at a zoo!

    July

    • We took another beach vacation to Seaside Heights, NJ this month with Tommy’s parents! This beach was not as nice as Ocean City, but we made the best of it and had fun anyways.
    • We also went and looked at the home we currently live in and got our offer accepted on it this month! How exciting!

    August

    • Two out of four of my cousin’s kids came to visit and ended up spending the night with us! The carnival was in town so we took all three kids to the carnival, it was super fun!
    • We took a day trip to a local beach, Belmar, NJ and had lots of fun.
    • Shaney had his first hamburger! 😍
    • We started preparing/selling stuff in our house to move next month!

    September

    • We moved into our new home! This has been a lot more emotional and difficult than we had anticipated but we are enjoying making the home more our own. I would love to start blogging our home improvement projects! Maybe soon I can blog the before and all of the plans we have for the house.
    • I also faced a giant fear of mine and got all four of my wisdom teeth out! 😣I was so scared but it went well and the recovery wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t the worst thing ever either.

    October

    • We celebrated an early Thanksgiving with my family and I got to spend some time with my cousins who I haven’t seen in over two years. I actually don’t have a picture of them, but this is from that day. 🙂
    • We brought Shaney apple picking for the first time! Apple picking is one of my favorite traditions and it was super fun to bring Shane this year especially because he loves apples!

    November

    • We celebrated Tommy’s cousin at her baby shower where Shane got to hang out with his cousin all day.
    • We found out some very exciting news that will be coming to the blog soon enough! 😉
    • We enjoyed a park day because the weather gave us an abnormally warm day for November!

    December

    • We celebrated lots and made lots of Christmas cookies.
    • We had three different Christmas celebrations this year!
    • Shaney loved all of the Christmas decorations and made this Christmas so much fun!

    If you made it this far, you are a champ! Let me know what your favorite memory was from this year! Happy New Year!

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  • Life

    What We Got Our Almost Two Year Old For Christmas

    December 13, 2019

    It’s technically a little late for a gift guide, but I thought it would be fun to share what we got Shane for Christmas this year. Well I guess it’s technically not late since we got all of these off of Amazon and if you are needing a last minute gift for your two year old, any of these could be at your house in two days if you wanted. 😉

    We stayed pretty simple this year, but I feel like these gifts will be used and loved by our two year old and many are practical as well.

    1.Dr. Seuss’s Beginner Book Collection– Shane loves to read and he’s finally at an age where we can buy books that are a little longer and ones that are not board books anymore. I’m excited to give him these because they have a lot of the classic Dr Seuss books like Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish, Green Eggs and Ham, Hop on Pop, Fox in Socks.

    2. Ainikas Toddler Slippers – I’m so excited to give these to Shane. He loves putting on our shoes and his own so I think he’s going to love having a pair of nice, cozy slippers to wear around the house.

    3. Fox Chair – This is perfect for any toddler who loves to watch their shows from a little too close to the TV. I’m hoping this will help keep him back a little lol.

    4. Fisher-Price Caring For Animals Farm – Shane loves animals, especially farm animals. If your toddler also loves animals I’m sure he or she would love this one as well. The one we got is sold out currently, this one is similar though.

    5. Melissa and Doug Horses – Shane has been obsessed with horses so we thought this was a fun little gift specific for him, but it would be great to give to many toddlers as it fosters their imagination.

    So far that’s what we’ve gotten Shane and I’m so excited for Christmas this year with him. He’s starting to understand more and has been loving the lights and decorations. I can’t wait until he wakes up and sees his presents under the tree! It’s going to be so much fun. If you have a toddler, what did you get them for Christmas? I’d love to hear!

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  • Baby,  Life

    My Biggest Struggle With Being a SAHM: A Part of Me Is Missing

    November 18, 2019

    I think it’s time I finally write this post. I have been struggling with being a stay-at-home mom since Shane was probably around six months old.

    So a little backstory for you if you’re new here: I got married in May 2016, quit my full-time job in December 2016, got pregnant in April 2017, and had my son in January 2018.

    A Dream Come True

    I quit my job in 2016 to pursue trying to make money from home. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Things have not gone quite how I thought they would though. I got pregnant only four months after I quit my job and that turned everything on it’s head.

    I kind of decided to put making money at home on the back-burner either temporarily or possibly even permanently because I was going to be a mom! That’s all I really cared about and felt that once my son was born I would feel fulfilled and wouldn’t care about working from home anymore.

    Moral of this blog post: that didn’t happen.

    Part Of Me Is Missing

    I love my son to death and am so incredibly thankful that I get to stay home with him but it just feels like part of me is missing.

    So another little backstory for those of you who don’t know: I grew up in a home where I had to fight hard for the things I wanted. My family didn’t have much and I realized at a young age that if I wanted my life to be different then I had to put in the work to change things.

    I went to college and worked full-time during the last two years before I graduated. I got lucky and my uncle’s work hired me as a part-time worker, which later turned into a full-time job, which later turned into me being the supervisor.

    I graduated, became supervisor, and really learned that hard work pays off. It became a big part of me. I learned a lot about myself through that process and I was proud of who I became and where I had gotten myself.

    That’s why I was so confident in trying to make money from home. I learned that I could do what I set my mind to.

    Shifting Gears

    But all of that changed when I found out I was pregnant. I was ready to fully embrace this new role and expected it to fulfill me the way that working hard at a full-time job did. But honestly, it hasn’t and I hate that. I want to be fulfilled with being home with my babies. I love my son and want to stay home and be the one to love on him throughout the day.

    I just feel like part of me is missing though. I love having a schedule and being able to see the results of my hard work. Being a mom is wonderful in a lot of ways but there definitely isn’t the same rewards for doing a good job.

    I know it may seem like the solution to this might be going back to work but I honestly think I would be more unhappy leaving my son and going to work than I am staying home with him.

    I don’t have a happy ending or a bow to tie on the end of this story. I guess I just wanted to let you know that if you feel the same way, you aren’t alone. I see a lot of voices out there sharing how they absolutely love being a stay at home mom or others who are struggling with being a working mom, but I haven’t come across many who are struggling with staying home. It sometimes makes me feel guilty because I know how fortunate I am to be able to do this. I don’t take it lightly. But that doesn’t make it easy for me either.

    Going Forward

    That doesn’t mean that I’m just going to just leave things as they are. I’m still going to be trying to find a work/home life balance. My husband and I did start an Etsy shop last year, so that has helped a bit, and I am thinking of starting a Youtube channel as well/maybe just working hard to blog more consistently. But whatever the case, I am and will forever be grateful to stay home and raise my babies – no matter how crazy it may make me. 🤣

    If you’re a mom, please leave a comment and share your story about when you became a mom and if you are fulfilled with either being a SAHM or working mom.

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  • Home,  Life

    We Bought A House! + Life Update

    November 1, 2019

    You guys, is anyone still here? I have barely blogged at all this year and I honestly am having such a hard time even starting this post because it feels so awkward!

    So lets just jump right in then shall we? We bought a house! Actually we bought a house over a month ago 🤦🏻‍♀️. It was a crazy stressful process, as I’m sure you already know if you’ve ever bought a house. There were a few things that happened where we thought we would have to back out of the house. Like the seller wouldn’t do anything at all to fix the house (which there was a lot to do) and then the well water failed for bacteria 😱! It was quite the adventure.

    But we overcame all of those obstacles and are officially homeowners! Like I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot to do here. Mostly minor renovations though. But add in an almost two year old and it gets quite overwhelming as you might imagine.

    But we are slowly working on the things we want to get done (we’re putting up a fence this weekend!) and maybe if I can get my act together enough, maybe I can even blog about some of the projects we are doing. No promises though. 😉

    Oh and another big thing… I got my wisdom teeth out! One week after closing on our home! Womp womp. That was not fun at all, and it’s actually been something I have been straight terrified to do for like my entire life. But I did it! And it really wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. Not a fun experience, but not the worst thing in the world either.

    Also, Shane is going to be two in January! Totally not okay. I don’t understand how time goes so quickly. He’s learning and growing so much and it’s both awesome and so very sad. We watched all of his baby videos the other day and it just made me so emotional. I wish he could stay little forever.

    So those are basically the big things that I haven’t written about in months but things are finally starting to settle down here so maybe I can keep this space a little more updated over the next few months. We shall see!

    Thanks for reading! I’d really love to know, how have you been lately??

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  • Life

    Blog Update: Where To Go From Here?

    August 27, 2019

    It’s been over three months since I’ve shown up in this space. That may be the longest break I’ve ever taken. I didn’t exactly intend to take such a long break but it’s been much needed. 

    I needed a break to re-evaluate this space and to be able to see it clearly. 

    For a long time I’ve felt very lost in this space. I originally started this blog to create community and to make money even.

    What I’ve realized within the past year or so is that the pressure to make money blogging totally sucked any fun out of writing or documenting my life. I haven’t been motivated to write because I haven’t had a clear direction with this space.

    I keep toggling back and forth between this being just a place to document my life and between writing posts to make money. I haven’t been enjoying the process either as you can imagine. Not having a clear direction or purpose for this blog just feels confusing when I finally do sit down to write a post.

    Recently, I’ve been in this season where I’ve been realizing that I get to curate my life the way that I want it to be (more on this soon). I don’t have to participate in an activity, such as blogging, if I don’t want to. I know that sounds kind of strange but let me try to explain.

    Sometimes I see someone else that I look up to either in real life or online, enjoying or being successful at something and think that I would enjoy or can be successful at it too. I’m sure that’s not a rare occurrence but where it becomes a problem for me is that I forget to check back in with myself to see if I am actually enjoying whatever it is that I started.

    I’ve been in a place of re-evaluating different areas of my life and whether or not I want to spend time or energy on them. When it came to blogging I realized that I wasn’t actually enjoying this little blog, which is why I’ve never been able to be consistent with it.

    The pressure to be like other successful bloggers and to make money sucked all of the fun out of blogging. It also sucked all of the creative energy out of the process. Blogging was a chore instead of a hobby.

    My new plan is to turn this space strictly into a hobby. Erase the pressure and do it for fun. I plan to write when I want to and about things that I’m interested in writing about.

    I want to be more intentional in this space. I used to write posts on a whim and barely edit them. I want my posts to be more meaningful. I want to share my experience as a mother, a wife, a follower of Jesus and connect with others. I want to be proud of what I’m writing.

    Let’s see how these changes affect my little space on the internet. I have a feeling it’s going to be a very, very good thing.

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