Soup to Dutts

I was recently inspired by one of my favorite YouTubers  to do a monthly recap and reset. I don't know if I'll keep it up, but here's the first one at least, recapping February and looking ahead to March! Highlights -My mom, dad, and brother spent a weekend with us. They got to go to N's belt testing for her orange stripe in taekwondo and one of E's basketball games. -We had a Super Bowl party at our house! There were so many good friends, so much good food, the game was fantastic, and Rihanna...come on. When I was pregnant with my second child, I could barely stand up straight without vomiting or having an asthma attack. Riri is kinda making the rest of us look bad. Crochet projects I finished I didn't keep track in February, but I plan to do this going forward. This year, I decided that I'm not going to buy any new yarn until I use up my current stash, so it'll be interesting to see how much I can work through in a month. Books I finished Spare by Pri...

Well, last week was interesting, wasn't it...? And this week probably isn't going to be much different. My family and I have been sheltering in place; N is off from school, and the Mr. is working from home. With all this extra time at home, I thought this would be a good time to kick off an idea I've had for a long time: sharing some of my favorite things at the moment. It might be a new product I'm trying, or something more generalized; I imagine it will vary from week to week, but without further ado, here are 10 things I am loving right now! 1. Audiobooks! My local library is closed until further notice, but their audiobook/ebook app is alive and well. Last night, I finished Where the Crawdads Sing , and now I'm listening to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn . 2. TV shows featuring funny women. If you checked the Keep Watching tab of my Hulu account, you would see I Love Lucy , The Mindy Project , Sabrina the Teenage Witch , The Mary Tyler Moore Show , and The Golden ...

It has been a CRAZY two months! Since my last post, we celebrated two birthdays and an anniversary, spent about two weeks as a 1-car family, went out of town a few times, started N at kindergarten, and went under contract for a house! With all the craziness going on (in addition to the ongoing struggles with anxiety and depression), it's been a little too easy for me to make my health less of a priority. I haven't exercised in several weeks. I've been eating whatever I want, whenever I want, and I haven't been tracking any food in the WW app. Most days, I try to justify it by saying things like... "I'm too tired to exercise; I just need rest." "I'm going to have this treat because I deserve it." "I'm sad/angry/stressed, and eating junk food will help me feel better." "I'll get back on track tomorrow." (Tomorrow never comes, though. In fact, the longer I stay off-track, the harder it is to get back on.) An...

It's been exactly four months since my last post. Yikes. Well, here's a quick recap of some things that have been going on with us... Little E turned 2 in March, and we threw her an Uncle-Phil-themed birthday party. No, not the Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince ; I'm talking about my brother Phil, who is pretty much E's favorite person. We made decorations in red and black plaid (Phil's wardrobe color/pattern of choice) and cat-ear headbands, in honor of Phil's cat Kiki. The  pièce de résistance , though, was the Kiki birthday cake made by yours truly. So, it's not a great likeness, but it was my first time ever making a cake like this, so I was pretty proud of myself. Also, don't tell E, but I really don't like cats, so I think this was quite the labor of love on my part. Just sayin'. Anyway, she loved her party, which was the most important thing. Tom was in Louisville for classes at the end of May/beginning of June, so it was just the kids...

Happy Friday! How was your week? Or month, I should say, since that's how long it's been since my last post... Weight change since last GFF post: +0.9 pounds Net weight change since starting GFF: +6.9 pounds So, I'll start out with a couple of celebrations: 1) A weight gain of any amount usually isn't cause for celebration, but I'm celebrating it today. Why? My last weigh-in was four weeks ago. Since then, I've been to a Super Bowl party and gone out to eat several times (including a pizza buffet with my family on Valentine's Day). I've also been sick most of this week, which has made it difficult for me to exercise. The fact that I've only gained 0.9 pounds since then is pretty astounding to me. 2) In the last couple of weeks, I've become much more diligent when it comes to tracking my calories, and most days I've had a pretty easy time staying within my limits. It hasn't been all good, though. I've actually been dealing...

Starting out with a couple of celebrations today: 1) Worked out three times this week, in spite of having a nasty cold. 2) Ran on the treadmill for four whole minutes last Thursday! It might not sound like much to some of you, but this is a huge fitness milestone for me. It's been years since I was able to run for even one minute, let alone four. This is not simply due to being overweight; I've also had asthma for over two years now, so being able to run at all without having an asthma attack is a pretty big deal. There have been a few lowlights as well: 1) I'd made some good progress with losing the holiday pounds, but I'm up about half a pound from last week. Could be worse, I guess. 2) Ripped a hole in a pair of jeans I bought less than a month ago. It was a weird rip, too; not on the seam, but kind of started from the seam and went toward the middle. Ugh. I'd like to assume that they ripped because they just weren't very good quality, but it's h...

Happy New Year!!! Who's excited about 2019? I know I am! I don't know about you, but if I were to post my Facebook relationship status with New Year's, it would definitely be "complicated." When I was a kid, I loved New Year's Eve because it meant staying up late, but then I kind of hated New Year's Day because I was expecting to suddenly feel different but never did. When I got into my teens, I grew to hate the whole idea of celebrating New Year's because it was an annual reminder that I had resolved to lose weight and failed miserably once again. In my 20s, I was sort of indifferent, especially when it came to resolutions. I would often try to sound cool by saying things like "Why wait until the start of a new year to change for the better?" (I still feel basically the same way, but I'd like to think I'm less pretentious about it than I used to be.) Now I think I'm back to loving New Year's, but for different reasons. It...

Sorry I've been MIA again. I was out of town for a bit, and getting back into a routine after a trip is always difficult...especially when you don't have much of an established routine to begin with. Just sayin'. I know it sounds obvious, but trying to get healthy during the holidays can be incredibly difficult. And it's not just the actual days of Thanksgiving and Christmas; there are also holiday parties and other get-togethers that seem to revolve around food. (I'm thankful that I no longer work in an office setting; it seems like the office break room is always a dangerous place around the holidays, with everyone leaving homemade treats lying around.) My birthday also happens to fall almost directly between those two holidays, so there's a lot of cake and going out to eat. Plus there's the fact that I pretty much never want to exercise when it's cold; I just want to sit on the couch wrapped up in a blanket with the space heater aimed directly at...

Wow, I'm really killing it in the consistency department. I debuted Get Fit Friday three weeks ago and haven't posted since. Welp, there's a mini-goal for myself: to actually show up once a week for this thing. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving last week. We actually celebrated Thanksgiving twice (once with my family on Thursday and once with T's family on Saturday), and both times were wonderful. I didn't track my calories; instead, I just tried to be mindful of portion sizes. I wasn't even super careful about that, though, if I'm honest. There was quite a bit of "I'm on vacation, so calories don't matter" mentality going on with me, which at one point translated into eating leftover mashed potatoes at midnight while working on a crossword puzzle. As an aside, I think Mashed Potatoes at Midnight will be the title of my autobiography. My mother-in-law and I celebrated our birthdays together last weekend, which meant cake and...

So, about a month ago, we did a thing: We moved to Charlotte! T got a new job, so we sold our house in Louisville and moved to Charlotte all within a matter of weeks, which is a lot easier said than done when you have two small children, not to mention a ton of stuff (we did a LOT of decluttering...but that's a separate post). We're loving our new city! In addition to having lots of fun stuff to do, we're also a few minutes away from any store or restaurant you could think of. My favorite discovery so far is just down the road from our house. It's a full-fledged brick-and-mortar Family Video store. Talk about a blast from the past; I had no idea any video-rental stores were still around in 2018! It's great, though; they have just about every title you could think of, including several that you can't find on Netflix or Redbox. In fact, to save a bit of cash each month, we've cancelled our Netflix subscription because renting from Family Video is way cheaper...

About three months ago, after much deliberation, I decided to quit Weight Watchers (or WW, because apparently they just recently changed their name...I honestly have no idea what the WW stands for anymore). It was a tough decision because I absolutely love the program, and I've had fabulous results with it. I reached my goal weight with WW back in 2013; then WW helped me get back to goal weight after Baby #1, and I went back to WW earlier this year to try to lose the post-Baby #2 weight. Honestly, the only reason I'm quitting is the monthly expense. Lately, Tom and I have been trying to cut down on unnecessary expenses, and that was one that suddenly didn't seem worth a budget line at this point in our lives. However, just because I quit Weight Watchers doesn't mean I'm giving up on losing this baby weight. (Huh. Can I even still call it "baby weight" even though my youngest is closing in on her 2nd birthday...?) I'm just going a different route by t...

My most recent morning retreat with God (for my 99 in 999 list) was about three weeks ago. That morning, I was weary in both body and soul, and I couldn't make myself feel any other way. I was just physically and mentally exhausted. (You may know the feeling, especially if you are or ever have been a parent of small children...!) Anyway, when I sat down to read the Word, something told me to take a little break from my Bible reading plan and read something else. When thinking about what I might read instead, particularly with regard to how I was feeling, the first thing that came to mind was "He restores my soul," from Psalm 23:3. So I spent the morning doing a bit of a deep-dive into this familiar psalm, and I came away with some interesting insights on the idea of self-care. Self-care is a popular topic at the moment, but I've often wondered: What does self-care look like for a follower of Jesus? After reading Psalm 23, I would propose that self-care for the Ch...

So I've definitely been MIA here the last few months. Sorry! I'm still chugging along on my 99-in-999 , and this weekend, I was able to knock out a pretty big goal: organizing the storage room. This has actually been a goal of mine ever since we moved into this house, almost 3.5 years ago, so it feels incredibly good to finally have it completed. Here's a before pic... This is just a fraction of the clutter. What you can't see is that there are many more piles of stuff just to the right, as well as another shelf in complete disarray. I ended up just taking every single thing out, getting rid of stuff we don't want/need/use, and putting back what was left in a more organized fashion. And after... Yes, it's still cozy, and there's a lot of stuff. But you can walk from one end of the room to the other without having to clear a path! And everything in this room is in a place that actually makes sense, which is more than I could say before this ...

#2. Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner... Last weekend, Tom and I watched An American in Paris . We both love musicals, and this one was no exception. Gene Kelly was fabulous (as always), and you can't possibly go wrong with the music of George and Ira Gershwin. I do have a question, though: Why did so many musicals from that time have these incredibly long dance numbers that seem to have nothing to do with the rest of the story? I mean, I love watching dance as much as the next person (especially tap, which I've always kinda wanted to learn #confession), but come on. The one at the end of An American in Paris just went on forever. Oh well. I guess it was just one of those things. #19. Have people over for a meal 10 times. So, the first of 10 of these meals is officially in the books. But we didn't just have people over for a meal; we hosted a full-blown 4th of July party! There were 20+ people in our humble abode, which is the most we've had at one time...

I just haven't had a chance to post lately! So, here's a quick recap of some of the progress I've made on the list this month. #1. Have a morning retreat with God once a quarter. Tom had this past Wednesday off from work, and he watched the girls while I spent the morning at Panera having an extended quiet time. I may just have to write a separate post about this because it was just so good. #2. Watch all of the Best Picture Oscar winners I didn't watch during my last challenge. I watched Spotlight  at the beginning of the month, as one of the first things I did for this list. (It's available for streaming on Netflix right now, so it was a pretty easy one to knock out.) I gotta say, I've never really taken Mark Ruffalo all that seriously as an actor...maybe because I had only seen him in 13 Going on 30 and the Avengers movies. However, I thought he was fantastic in Spotlight . And the plot...such an important issue, and it was told in a way that I...

It's June 1! You know what that means...it's the first of 999 days during which I will attempt to complete 99 personal goals. I really hit the ground running this morning, literally. One of the first goals I want to start working on is to get back in shape, so I went for a run. Well, it was more of a walk/run; I'm using an app that allows you to run in short intervals and gradually work your way up to being able to run a 5K (also one of my goals) and eventually a 10K (another one of my goals). Hopefully I'll be able to keep this momentum going. Only time will tell! For the full 99-in-999 list, click here .

Years ago, I came across a friend's blog about 99 goals she wanted to accomplish in 999 days. It sounded like a fun idea, so I decided to  try it myself ; and I had a great time with it! Not long after that challenge ended, Tom and I started a combined 99-in-999 on which we...didn't really make much progress. 😩 But, given my penchant for lists and crossing things off of them, I've decided it's time to try this again, so I'm excited to say that I'll be embarking on a new 99-in-999, starting June 1! A few things have changed since the last time I did this, though, and many of my goals will reflect that... 1) I became a homeowner. Tom and I bought our first house three years ago. We love living here, but it could use some updating (the house is older than either one of us). Additionally, I've been a little slow when it comes to decorating and what-not, so some of my goals will involve putting our own personal touches on the house and continuing to ma...

Spring has sprung! You know what that means: spring rain, spring flowers, and...spring cleaning! I don't know about you, but I have my work cut out for me in that last area. Have you ever heard of the KonMari method? It's a different approach to decluttering that's really taken off in the last few years. Rather than going room-by-room, you gather up everything in a certain category (clothes, books, knickknacks, etc.) and as you sort through each category, you get rid of every item that doesn't "spark joy." Unfortunately, it doesn't work on bills. (Heh.) I tried the KonMari method on my wardrobe this past weekend, and it was a surprisingly enlightening experience! Here are some things I learned. 1) My wardrobe had taken over my house.  At the beginning of the weekend, all of my dresser drawers were stuffed full of clothes. I also had a laundry basket overflowing with clothes that wouldn't fit in said drawers. And a flat plastic bin of clot...

Check cleaning schedule. Quietly pat self on back for having a cleaning schedule, even if you rarely stick to it. Find that today is "floors day." Immediately decide that it is only "vacuuming day" because you're going to vacuum all the hard floors instead of sweeping them. Try to convince yourself that you're being efficient, not lazy. Dig vacuum out of storage room. Knock over skeins of yarn that haven't been touched in months because you don't have time or energy for a hobby. Turn vacuum on. When child screams with excitement, pray that she will still be this excited about the vacuum by the time she is big enough to use it. Begin vacuuming. Child will decide that this is the perfect time to inspect the pretty lights and colors on the vacuum by standing directly in front of it. Turn off vacuum. Child will ask "all done?" Say "no" and ask child to move out from in front of vacuum. Proceed as planned. Move to hallway. T...

I turn 29 tomorrow. I really, really love my birthday. I still count down the days like I did when I was a kid. Even this year, while I'm fighting a nasty sinus infection and probably won't do much of anything tomorrow, I'm beside myself with anticipation. I just can't help myself. This year I'm feeling especially reflective. As I embark on the last year of my 20s, I've been thinking a lot about my 20th birthday. I was a junior at Clemson, and I spent the night in the library, working on a paper that was due the next morning. Truth be told, I didn't feel much like celebrating that particular birthday. I was not at all excited about turning 20. It seemed like I was surrounded by people who'd had all these amazing life experiences, and I hadn't done much of anything. At least that's what I told myself. Well, here I am, nine years older, and I still haven't learned how to snowboard. I've never been to Europe, or even to the West Coast....