Healthy Oatmeal Banana Breakfast
"Cookies" - 119 views
The Colic Days - 357 views
The Colic Days - 357 views
And honestly, 30 of
those views on the cookies were probably just me going back and looking at my
own recipe. Speaking of view counts, here's a fun fact, my highest viewed post is this one about our IKEA step stool. A
whopping 30,376 views! Isn't that wild!? If you want my autogr- just kidding.
Anyway, back to the
point here. 31 is not a traditional "milestone" year, but it was a
year of many positive changes for me. When I turned 30 last fall, I was in a
dark place with a 3 year old and a 6 month old. I wasn't sleeping and we were
all crying a lot. But as the year carried on, I did several things that really
helped bring me back to a place of peace and happiness. Some of them were small
and some of them were big, but every little thing counts. As I celebrate this
birthday, I am so incredibly grateful for my beautiful family, my simple but
special life, and the opportunities that lay before me for the next year.
Without further ado,
here are the changes I made this year:
1) I organized my
closet. This may sound ridiculous, but it was a real pain point in my life. So
when we moved, I took a few hours and went through every single item in my
closet. Well wait, before I did that, I made a detailed list of all my
"categories" of clothes (i.e. casual tees, sweatshirts, work clothes,
long sleeve blouses, etc) and I designated a spot in the closet for every
category. Then I painstakingly went through every item, assessed it for size,
fit, and actual likelihood of wear, then either hung it in the correct place or
put it in the donate bin. Now it's easy to find what I'm looking for and I'm
actually motivated to keep it all in order. Plus I pared down my wardrobe to
items that I truly enjoy. And another fun fact, several of the sections are
actually organized by color :) because I'm Type A like that.
2) I bought a
gratitude journal. Taking the time to give thanks for the many blessings in my
life just puts me in such a happy, peaceful place. The journal I bought has
quotes and prompts and pretty floral pages. I had lofty goals for
how often I would journal and I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be, but I
figure I've got to start somewhere. Also sort of related to this, I'm doing
Rachel Hollis' #last90days which also had a gratitude component. Haven't heard
of #last90 days? Look it up on Instagram for some great motivation!
3) I started
exercising again. I'm only 4 months in on this, but wow, exercising has had
such a positive impact on my health and well-being. Running regularly has
improved my energy levels and self-confidence. I already wrote in detail about how I started the new habit of running,
but I'll just quickly say that making very specific plans for exercising has
been key for me.
4) I wrote out an
entire monthly meal plan and weekly grocery lists, printed all the recipes, and
organized them in a binder. This task sounds daunting, but it was actually
really easy. And incredibly helpful. Before I did this, I used to write out a
meal plan every Sunday, along with a list of groceries I needed. I had a
running list of meal ideas, but every week I would start from scratch looking
through that list and choosing every breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the week
(trying not to repeat chicken meals 3 nights in a row, making sure we hadn't
had that meal the week before, ensuring we didn't eat Mexican food at every
meal, etc). I hated it. I dreaded meal planning so much. Finally I had an
epiphany- what if I created an entire month of meal plans and then just keep
repeating it! If anyone is actually interested in my process here, I'll gladly
write a separate post about meal planning. I'm sort of proud of myself on this
one ;)
5) I'm on my way to
really embracing my hair. I did several things this year: I cut off 8 inches
for a fresh start, I stopped heat styling 90% of the time, I loosely follow the
Curly Girl Method (thank you to my cousin Haley for introducing me!) and I
decided not to hide my grays. Some days I still feel embarrassed by my frizzy
waves and my silver streaks, but most days, I'm really happy with my low
maintenance, natural hair. Will I ever go back to straightening? Probably not.
Will I ever dye my hair? (It's NEVER been dyed!) I'm not sure. I've heard many
women say, "I've dyed my hair so much, I don't even know what my natural
color is any more!" And I don't want that for myself right now. I've
always liked my brunette hair, and I'm pretty curious what it will look like if
I let my grays grow out. So for now, I'm embracing it.
6) I rearranged the
app icons on my phone. This is another one of those little organizational
things that was such a face-palm moment for me. For literally years, I
accumulated apps on my phone and arranged them in absolutely zero order. Some
of the apps I used daily were on my 3rd screen over. So I went through and
removed apps I no longer used, and then arranged the remaining apps in order of
use or in categories. Everything I use daily is on the first screen, because,
duh! That's so logical! And apps I rarely use but don't want to get rid of
entirely (like the Domino's pizza app) are on the 2nd and 3rd screens. It
probably took me an hour to do, but it's so great having everything I
"need" on my home screen! Sometimes it really is the little things in
life.
7) I unfollowed
people on Facebook/Instagram. Have you ever done this? Oh my gosh, it is SO
liberating. You don't have to completely "unfriend" them if you don't
want to, but you can secretly and quietly just unfollow their posts. I've spent
some time this year really cultivating the type of online community that
motivates me, helps me grow, and makes me happy. While I do think it is
important to have a broad base of friends and perspectives, I also think there
is something wonderful about choosing the content you want to see. If someone's
posts just irritate you to your core daily, simply unfollow them. I promise
you, you will not regret it one bit and you will not miss them one bit.
And as I move on
into the next year, I have a few more changes I'd like to make to improve my
overall health, happiness, and fulfillment. First, I want so badly to adopt an
"early to bed, early to rise" approach to sleep and productiveness. I
waste ridiculous amounts of time in the evenings doing stupid stuff like
scrolling through Facebook and online shopping, but when I do wake up early, I
use my time much more wisely. For some reason, I just cannot kick this habit of
staying up late. Perhaps I need to make more specific goals for myself. Second,
I want to be a more patient parent. This may surprise you because I seem pretty
mild-mannered, but man my kids know how to get under my skin. Or maybe my
expectations of them are unrealistic? Maybe they need more undivided attention?
More boundaries? More affection? I'm not entirely sure what's going on here,
but I'm striving to be a better parent. I have a stack of books I'm planning to
read and I'm going to prioritize it this year. And third, I want to be more
altruistic. Not necessarily in monetary terms, but more so in my actions. My
heart is already there, but I want to ensure my behaviors are reflective of my
heart. I feel sort of limited with this because I stay home with the kids and
they're always with me, so there's not a ton of free time for
volunteering, but I'm brainstorming.
Anyway, if you've
made it this far, thank you for "listening". Most of my writing is
more for me than you but occasionally I come up with
something that I think others might benefit from too! So I hope you at least
got one idea that might make your life better/easier too.
Here's to 31!
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