What April Taught Me.

That life will probably never look like I think it will, and that's okay. I say this a lot, but I am the biggest planner at heart who is living the least-plannable life at the moment. And I am slowly (oh so slowly) learning that it is okay. In fact, it's sometimes it's better than okay, because sometimes being flexible and going along with the flow leads to really great things. I realize I will be learning this for many more months (years?) and will probably master it just as I'm heading into a season of life where things are easily planned. But whatever, it's a journey, right? 
That cooking dinner makes a big difference. This is so silly, but it made the list! Usually, when Chris is working a rotation where he works late and isn't home for dinner, I just eat cereal or drink a shake or something in lieu of dinner. This month, though, I've been making it a habit to actually fix real food for dinner. It's made a difference in two ways: One, it makes my day feel less like a throwaway day (know what I mean?) and two, I feel a lot better physically when I'm eating actual food instead of cereal every night (Who knew?!). I feel like this is a very "Well, duh" thing, but I learned it this month, so on the list it goes. 
That recognizing the negative doesn't mean you aren't thankful. On Tuesday, I had a rough day that quickly spiraled into a bad night. Just a lot of little, frustrating things and a few big and bad ones. I posted a cute video of Jack pulling a blanket over his head and just laying down and said "100% how I also feel about this day" and a friend messaged me saying she, too, was having a bad day. So we exchanged teething toddler tales and stories about how the world was out to get us today and it made me realize that sometimes, it's okay to talk about the negative. 
Sometimes I feel the need to make a bright side out of everything because if not, surely that means I'm not thankful for my life, right? NOPE. Last week, I had a toddler with a double ear infection and medicine that induced insomnia. That's a negative. It doesn't mean I'm not thankful for said toddler, or that I get to be his mom, or that I have so many good things in my life. It just means some days have bad things, too. And it's okay to talk about them!
What did this month teach you?

You Should Read These Things.

Every now and then, I come across articles or posts that I really just want to make all my friends read. Here are three of them from the last few weeks that I haven't been able to stop thinking about, so I wanted to pass them along! Anxiety Makes Me Want To Apologize For Absolutely Everything. This article depicts anxiety in one of the most correct and clear ways I've ever seen. If you love someone who struggles with anxiety and maybe you don't understand why or how or when it's such a big deal, I'd really encourage you to read this. "Anxiety plants these black seeds of doubt in my mind making me question everyone and everything. It makes me doubt really good people because anxiety tells me they aren’t. Anxiety tells me, “you should wonder if they are lying?” Anxiety tells me, “you’ve done something wrong.” Anxiety is what makes me question my self-worth, not people. Anxiety makes up these scenarios in my head and I have no choice but to follow the destructive path it will lead me down.
Next thing I know, I’m apologizing for something that didn’t even cross someone’s mind but my overanalytical skills think it’s something. . .
. . .Anxiety creates solutions to things that aren't even problems anywhere other than in my head."
When Treasured Things Are Dead. It is not an exaggeration to say that I sobbed when reading this. While it deals with being on the wrong side of religion and experiencing betrayal and hate from fellow Christians who she thought would always have her back, I think there's something in it that we can all relate to. Because there is truly something that dies when you look at a treasured friend and think, "I thought I could trust you with my life and now I cannot." May we read this and remember to love, always love, no matter what differences of opinions we have. 
"This year, I deeply experienced being on the wrong side of religion, and it was soul-crushing. I suffered the rejection, the fury, the distancing, the punishment, and sometimes worst of all, the silence. I experienced betrayal from people I thought loved us. I felt the cold winds of disapproval and the devastating sting of gossip. I received mocking group texts about me, accidentally sent to me; “Oh, we were just laughing WITH you!” they said upon discovery, an empty, fake, cowardly response. It was a tsunami of terror. One hundred things died. Some of them are still dead. Some are struggling for life but I don’t know if they will make it."
Green Ain't Your Color. My friend Lindsay wrote this post this week and it was both a breath of fresh air and a punch of conviction. I'll be the first to admit that I needed to read this. It was a great reminder that petty jealousy isn't healthy or helpful. Let's do better. 
"And remember that if someone else is living your dream, it doesn’t mean you can’t get it, too. There can be more than one full-time blogger. There can be more than one dream home, more than one good man (or woman), more than one degree, more than one weight loss, more than one dream job, more than one dream life. Just because it happens for someone faster doesn’t mean there’s none left for you. That’s a garbage way to live life. There’s room at the table for us all."  
Have you read any articles worth passing along lately? 

Books I Read in April (And Whether or Not You Should Read Them)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Plot: “Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” 
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of." -Via Goodreads


My thoughts: I never would have picked this up on my own, but after hearing everyone rave about it, I needed to see what all the fuss was about. It did not disappoint!  Chris and I were taking a trip so we listened to it on Audible (you can click that link for a free trial & two free books) and we were down to the last 15 minutes when we got home, and we just sat there in the car because we had to finish it.  It's a hard book to discuss without spoiling everything, but I think it's one you'll either be a huge fan of or not like at all. But it's definitely worth reading. The last paragraph of the plot summary nails it: It is sweeping and intimate and mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human. Definitely a winner.    Favorite quote: “I can’t help thinking that we’re more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity."
Should you read it? Yes! Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick 
Plot: "Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.”
At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.” In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.

With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments” (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.”

Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody” to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious)." -Via Goodreads
My thoughts: I really enjoyed it! I think she's hilarious, but she also has a lot of insight on following your dreams and what it's like to be on a journey to become 100% who you are. I highly recommend listening to the Audible version of this one, because she reads it herself and I think that makes it so much better.  Favorite quote: “Having to fight for the thing you want doesn't mean you deserve it any less.”
Should you read it? If you're a fan of Anna Kendrick, yes! Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
Plot: "In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).
In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.Including photos and excerpts from the diary Graham kept during the filming of the recent Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, this book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can." -via Goodreads
My thoughts: There are few fictional characters I love more than Lorelai Gilmore and Sarah Braverman, so of course I was going to read this. It felt like grabbing a cup of coffee with a friend and hearing all about behind the scenes of two of my favorite shows, so it's safe to say I was a big fan. Favorite quote: “But life doesn’t often spell things out for you or give you what you want exactly when you want it, otherwise it wouldn’t be called life, it would be called vending machine. It’s hard to say exactly when it will happen, and it’s true that whatever you’re after may not drop down the moment you spend all your quarters, but someday soon a train is coming. In fact, it may already be on the way. You just don’t know it yet.”
Should you read it? If you're a fan of Gilmore Girls or Parenthood, yes! (And if the answer to that was, "What?" please go watch Parenthood right this minute). 
What did you read this month?

vacation vibes only.

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that I brought our pool floats (Felicia & her cupcake) out of hiding, thus declaring it the unofficial start of summer. Plenty of you were quick to tell me it's not, in fact, summer, and that some of you still have snow on the ground, and I'm sorry you're having to deal with that kind of negativity in your life. My condolences. 

This is Felicia! It looks like they didn't make the cupcake one again this year, so may I suggest the giant popcorn instead?

But here, it is summer. 90 degrees and sunny summer. No really, that's today's forecast. We've got a little beach vacation coming up in a few weeks and I could not be more excited. But, like I blogged about last month, one of my goals for this year is to make my life seem more like a vacation. And being one week out from my birthday (where I started those goals), I have to say...it's going pretty good.  So if you want to join me in chasing after the vacation life, I've got some suggestions for you. Starting with these giant floats.   

When the pool float first had a big comeback, I remember saying to Chris, "What adult is going to pay $25 for a floatie?" Me. I am. And just a little update: Worth every penny. Bonus: It's fun to float on them with Jack, who happens to think giant flamingos are hilarious. 

Not pictured: GIANT margarita pool float. If you don't think I'm adding this one to my lineup, you don't know me.

You also probably definitely need one of these babes. Because if you're going to have a cooler, why not make it easy to carry and also adorable? I have the one pictured (duh) and I can vouch that it works. 

Happy Friday! I'm off to the pool with my giant flamingo and cooler bag full of LaCroix. Because if that isn't the most perfect real life (pretend) vacation day, then I don't know what is. 

I Always Want to Remember 2017: Part 4.

Even if you don't have a blog of your own, I highly recommend looking through all the pictures on your phone once a month. We live in a very cool age of technology where it's easy to just snap a picture and put our phone back in our pocket, but that means lots of pictures (and memories) are just forgotten. Looking back on the month via iPhone pictures reminds me of all the good parts, and I think you should do the same. 

Jack was "in" his first wedding (I say that in quotations because, like I've already told you, he declined to actually be in the wedding once we got there). It was a little bit of a drive away so we were letting him run around after we parked, and all he wanted to do was pick up all the leaves and hand them to Chris. It was precious. 

At least his outfit was cute, though. Priorities. 

The wedding ended with this sunset. Can you imagine a better send-off?

We found a tiny little fake beach town just an hour away from Gainesville and spent the day there.

Obsessed with those cheeks. And those unfair lashes that he will never ever appreciate. 

Jack's first experience with sno-cones. He has since had a second experience with a much happier expression. 

Chris took me shopping for my birthday (which is all I ever want to do on my birthday, anyone else?) and it was hilarious to me to see Jack running around "shopping" for himself. 

We also went back to my favorite, favorite restaurant in Orlando. And yes, I let my kid play with my phone. Desperate times. 

The bench again, because SO TINY.

^This is Sam, my residency friend I've talked about. She took me out for my birthday since Chris had to work. We tried to take so many pictures with Jack, and they all turned out blurry like this. But they still make me happy. 

I view my birthday as the unofficial start to summer each year. This week, we broke out the pool floats and blew them up, which I view as the official start to summer. 

What do you always want to remember about this month?

Being Here, Now, in This Moment.

Sometimes, I hate residency. The long hours, the nights and weekends that I have to spend by myself, the inability to plan anything, the difficulty in explaining to people why I can't commit to things ahead of time.
But it doesn't matter if I love or hate it, because it's just life right now. 
Sometimes, I'm thankful for residency. I'm thankful for the city it brought us to, for the friends I would have never met otherwise. I'm thankful that my life partner is getting to do exactly what he wants to do with his life, I'm thankful for all the ways it's made me grow as a person. 
But it doesn't matter if I love or hate it, it's still just life right now. 
It's still just life. It still passes 24 hours at a time. Good days and bad days alike, hateful days and thankful days just the same. 
When Chris was nearing med-school graduation and we were nearing becoming parents, we sat down and talked about the next step. We didn't know where we'd be moving yet, or what life would look like with him in residency with a baby in the mix. But we decided that whatever the answer was, we were going to treat life like life. 
By that, I mean that we were going to just live life like normal people, not count down to the next step, or view each month or year as a phase. Because 1) That'll drive you crazy, and 2) It will make you miss out on a lot of good, too. 

It's not always easy to just live in the now, to view stressful situations as just another part of life, to choose to just live and enjoy the day to the fullest. And by not easy, I mean I fail at it at least once a week. But I'm working on it. 
I'm working on it because if I was busy counting down for the hard seasons to be over, I might have missed out on how some of the hard days were sunny and warm and perfect for spending by the pool and hey, actually pretty good days. If I was busy wishing time by faster I might have missed how much a gift it is to get to spend so much time with Jack, or how residency friendships are actually pretty great. 
I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this.
If you're busy counting down the days until you can leave your job, you might miss out on enjoying the good things. Maybe your schedule is flexible or your co-workers are great or some other small thing that you don't yet know you'll miss at your next job, but you will. Don't miss out on enjoying it right now. 
If you're busy wishing time away so you can finally move out of your tiny apartment, you might miss out on how great the view of the sunrise is out your window, or how easy your commute is, or how many of your favorite food places deliver to you. 
If you're busy counting down until you finally graduate or finally get married or finally have a baby or finally have another baby or finally land your dream job or finally save enough for a vacation or finally pay off your loans or finally settle down...you will miss so much good in between. Good days in between the bad ones, good months in between the hard ones, good years that are disguised as tough ones. 
I know I'm not the only one who struggles with this. So let's work on it together. 
Let's work on being here, now, in this moment. Good or bad, hard or easy, loved or hated.  Because, after all, it's still just life right now. And life is worth living. 

My Heart is Full.

My birthday was Friday and Chris had to work (BOO), so my friend Sam spent the day with me. We laid by the pool and drank entirely too many LaCroixs and went out for some really good pad thai. Then I let my blogger freak flag fly and pulled out my tripod because we actually looked presentable and wanted a picture together. (I use this tripod and this remote. Highly recommend!)

Side note: If you are in a situation similar to me when it comes to having a partner in residency, the absolute best advice I can give you is to find someone else in that situation too. I hope you're lucky like me and have friends and family who will try their best to understand, but there's something to be said for someone who understands because it's their life, too. It is such a gift. 

After dinner, we went for ice cream and there was a baby-sized bench. If it happens to go missing, I definitely did not steal it because of how cute Jack looks sitting on it. Why would you ask me that?

I spent the entirety of Saturday in the sunshine by the pool. If you've been around me any period of time, you know this is my ideal day. The water is finally not completely freezing warm enough to swim if 1) you let yourself get hot enough, or 2) you're a one-year-old with no fear of cold water. 

We need to talk about this kid's side-eye. 

Jack adds joy to my life on a daily basis, but there are just no words for how much joy he adds to things like Easter. Watching him dig into his Easter basket and throw his eggs all around just filled my heart to the brim. 

Jack really surprised me with how much he understood! I thought we'd get some cute pictures of him, but he was really into picking the eggs up and putting them in his basket. It was adorable.

It was a really great weekend with all my favorite people and my heart is full. The perfect kick-off to a new year of life. 

How was your weekend?

More Flamingos, More LaCroix, More Sunshine.

Today is my birthday! I tend to treat my birthday as a new year's day of sorts, with goals and reflection and stuff like that. I usually write a post about what I learned last year or what I hope to learn this year or my goals or dreams, etc, etc.  While I know life is so precious and every year is a rare gift, I'm not too sad to see the door shutting on 24. Much like we all seemed to feel about 2016, 24 was a doozy for me in a lot of ways, so I'm not too sad to see it go and get to start a new year.  24 brought me a new city that I love, a house that I love, some great new friends that I love. I got to spend 365 days with my new little BFF who turned into the coolest one-year-old there's ever been. It was a year full of new, good things. It gave me a lot, but I'm not sad that it's over. And I think that's a really good place to be.  As for 25, I hope it's full of more.  More flamingos. More LaCroix. More sunshine. More pool days and good books. More iced coffee. More sunsets, more vacations. More bright colors. More good movies and good friends. More happiness. More best friends and family time. More pure joy. More target runs. More beach days.  I hope you join me in having a really great year full of all of more of your favorite things. Because life is too short for anything else.  Note: I had to stop several times writing this because I couldn't remember if I was turning 25 or have already been 25 or if maybe I was turning 24? The year is off to a great start, guys. Cheers. 

If We Were Having Coffee...

I'd tell you that My birthday is Friday, and I told Chris I wanted new makeup. More specifically, I wanted to go have someone teach me how to do my makeup and tell me exactly what to buy while he took care of Jack. It was the longest I have been alone in forever and it was bliss. I love Jack, but trying to pick out makeup while holding a toddler is kind of a nonstarter, you know?  I asked the girl doing my makeup if there was any way she could make me look like I just stepped off the set of a Victoria's Secret fashion show and then show me how to look like that every day and she didn't even laugh so she's obviously my new favorite person on this earth. 

If we were having coffee, I'd ask what your plans are for celebrating Easter. I'm so excited for Jack to see his Easter basket, since his first Easter he was only two months old and didn't care a single bit. 

If we were having coffee, I'd tell you I started another 30 days Yoga with Adriene challenge (highly recommend). I'm on day 5 and I remembered that the first time I did one of these, I literally could not hold a plank for more than 3 seconds and it would make me feel so bad about myself. Now I can, and it's awesome. A little bit every day adds up! I love yoga for lots of reasons, but one big one being that it's the first thing I've ever done where I can really see myself getting stronger day by day. 

I'd also tell you that I have somehow ended up on some spammy email list and have been getting bombarded with requests for my bank account number (they just want to send me my inheritance!), offers of hot single girls of different ethnicities, and looooots of enhancement pill adds. I would also tell you that every time I see one of these, this is all I can think about: 

What's going on with you?

We Need to Talk About Airplanes.

I started writing a coffee date post for today, then realized that I bizarrely had a lot to say about flights. So here we are.  

United. Oh man, this just keeps getting better. It's a bad week to be the CEO of United. Also, fun fact about the CEO: He apparently doesn't know how to apologize? I hope that doctor is a millionaire when this is over, but I also hope that we get to watch it play out a little bit first because PASS THE POPCORN. I truly cannot wait until the opportunity arises where I do something other than what I said I was going to do and someone calls me out on it, so I can respond and say, "I was simply re-accommodating you." Gold, people. Pure gold.

My friend Myra was harassed on an airplane...because her one-year-old was talking? She was very calm and mature about the whole situation and isn't raising a fuss now (like I really want to do), but something really great about what happened to her...people helped her. They switched seats and stood up for her and walked with her because that psycho waited for her when she got off the plane. 

Anyway, I say this because I know that sometimes, for me at least, when I see or overhear something like that happening, I tend to think, "the people who are in charge will take care of it. I don't want to be awkward and get in the way." In reality, being awkward and getting in the way can be the biggest help. I'm going to remember that. 

The last flight I took. I briefly posted this on Instagram stories when it happened but never expounded on it because when you've been stuck on a runway for three hours, you just want to go home. 

It was our last flight of the day and Jack was kind of quietly fussy the whole time, and the woman in front of me kept turning around and shushing him the whole flight. Then, our plane landed and for some unknown reason we just had to sit on the runway for hours with the plane (and air conditioner) turned off. So he got reaaaal fussy. And I didn't blame him! It was hot, I ran out of snacks and milk for him (it was supposed to just be an hour long flight!), he needed to be changed but we weren't allowed to get up. This apparently just pushed the woman in front of us over the edge so she got her phone out and started recording him. 

I am an extremely non-confrontational (read: scared) person and was afraid to say anything to her lest she get angry and yell at me for the remainder of the 839 years we were gonna be stuck on this runway. Luckily, I was flying with my little brother who is neither non-confrontational or scared. He leaned in really close to her phone and said, "Hello. I would just like to state something FOR THE RECORD. It's illegal to record someone without their knowledge." Which probably isn't even true but it scared her so much that she jolted and dropped her phone and stopped recording Jack. 

Your turn! Tell me your weird/good/horrible flight stories. 

You're Doing a Good Job.

Last week was made up of a string of tough days. Jack was sick, and it was the first time he's been really sick...the no sleep, pathetic little cough, so sad kind of sick. 
I've said before that I'm often caught off-guard that I'm the adult in some situations. Last week was no exception.
I've done my best, of course, but I really just would have loved an adult (a real adult...none of this "supposedly an adult but really just pretending" impostorship) to pop their head in and say, "Hey, you're doing a good job. You've got this." 
So I figured I'm probably not the only one to ever feel like that. And that I'm probably not the only one to feel like that on a normal basis. So I thought I'd drop by and say hey, I think you're doing a good job. 
If you've fallen behind on work and have been pulling some late nights and early mornings to catch up...hey, you're doing a good job. You'll get caught up. 
If you're trying your best to be a good mom, but it feels like you're just barely able to survive the day to day...you're doing a good job. You're supporting another human being (at least one), and that's amazing. 
If you feel like you suck as a friend right now, if responding to text messages and phone calls and (gasp) actually going out with friends just keeps falling further and further down your to-do list you're trying to keep up with, it's okay. You're doing a good job because you're trying your best.
If that dream you've had brewing in your heart for years now seems further and further away with every day you wake up, but you still find yourself devoting little bits of time you're able to scrape together to it...you're doing a good job. A little bit every day adds up, don't forget that. 
So...world traveler, coffee chugger, manager, blogger, mama, email responding champion, worker, dreamer, artist, assistant...you're doing a good job.
And here's the good news...If I am, for any reason, wrong about this...if you're not really doing the best job...you can start right now (on a Monday! The ultimate day to start fresh!) and decide to start doing your best. 
Trust me...I'm an adult (Or so I'm told). 

3 Things You Need to Know About.

S-Town. If you're like me and finishing Serial left a void in your life (and season 2 of Serial just didn't cut it), then you need to know about this new (to me) podcast. "John despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life." I can't wait to dig into this one!  
$10 & Under with free shipping section. Amazon has a whole section now devoted to things that ship for free and cost $10 or less. Some things are super weird, but there are a bunch of things I probably definitely need. Like this dream/believe/achieve shirt, and this pineapple shirt, because...summer. It kind of feels like shopping the Amazon sale rack. 
Mermaid waves tutorial. Two things: 1) If you add the word "mermaid" to pretty much anything, I am instantly 30x more likely to try it. 2) I had no idea you could use a curling iron like this! I'm going to try it soon. I'll report back! 
Tell me something I need to know about! 

5 Things I Want to Stop Doing This Year.

If you missed it: 5 Things I Want to Start Doing This Year.  1. Needing a plan all the time. Some of the best days happen without a plan. While I'm a planner at heart, I want to work on being okay with days (ahem, weeks/months) that I'm not able to plan. Not having a plan for a day and wasting a day are not the same thing. 
2. Assuming other people's motives. I wrote about this in January, but I really want to stop doing this. Just because someone doesn't text me back doesn't mean they hate me. Just because someone looks angry when I say hello doesn't mean I offended them. And on and on. 
3. Comparing myself to others. Not sure why 25 years into life this still makes the list, but it does. Comparison is a nasty game. As a mom, as a blogger, as a human being. I saw something on pinterest last week that said,"Flowers are pretty, but so are Christmas lights, and they're completely different." I love that. Comparing myself to other people takes time and energy that would be much better spent trying to become a better version of myself. 
4. Stressing over things that have nothing to do with me. Raise your hand if you worry about irrational things. Same! I think that if I could wake up one day and only be stressed about the things that were directly related to me, I could probably cut my stress and anxiety in half. So that's a goal I have for this year: If it doesn't directly relate to me, or if it can't be changed by me, then I don't need to stress about it. So much easier said than done. 
5. Making decisions out of fear. Life is too short to do things or not do things because I'm afraid of things that may or may not happen. Simple as that. 
What do you want to stop doing this year?

Spending Your April: A To-Do List for Adventuring Through the Month.

1. Write your biggest dream down on a sticky note and put it somewhere you'll see it every day.
2. Spend some time thinking about your priorities. See if your day-to-day life reflects the priorities you want to have. If not, just change that! 
3. Start a summer calendar. An actual paper calendar on the wall where you can write out all your summer plans. 
4. Write someone a letter.
5. Spring clean!
6. Try your hand at planning your meals ahead of time. See if it saves you money! 
7. Buy a new outfit for Easter. 
8. Pick a few words that you want to describe you and assign a word to a day. Do you want to be more kind? Go through an entire day thinking about that, looking for ways to be extra kind. 
9. Make a wish list of books you want to read. And then get yourself a library card and read them for free.
10. Spring break. If you don't get a spring break anymore (WHY is this not a thing as adults?), take a weekend and make it your spring break. A beach trip or a lazy weekend or whatever you want! 
11. Find a workout you like and stick to it for the month of April.
12. Make someone an Easter basket.
13. Look up any fun Easter events in your area. Pro tip-churches in your area probably offer a lot of free things the week of Easter.
14. Pick strawberries. 
15. Plant something. 
16. Celebrate Easter! 
17. Make an effort to slow down. You don't have to respond to every email right away. You don't have to have a jam-packed weekend for it to be a good weekend. Slow it down a little.
18. Go buy discounted Easter candy. Starburst jellybeans forever and ever, amen. 
19. Plan a road trip. To see an old friend, or to see a city you've been thinking about. 
20. Build your own firepit. We did this and I love it! I see s'mores all summer long in our future. 
21. Delete your texts. I did this and it feels SO GOOD. I only kept the ones of people I talk to on a normal basis, so I no longer have pages and pages to scroll through. I know it feels scary, like you're going to need them for some reason, but I haven't realized I deleted anything important yet! 
22. Buy spring colored nail polish.
23. DIY shaved ice. 
24. Go for more walks. 
25. Start planning a summer vacation. 
26. Get in touch with an old friend. A text or an email, it's really not hard to get in touch these days! 
27. Spend an afternoon in the park. 
28. Hunt down an ice cream truck. 
29. Look at the areas you spend the most money and see if you can change that. Do you spend a ton of money eating out? Try your hand at making cooking enjoyable. Spend a lot of money going out with friends? Try inviting them over for drinks and dinner instead. 
30. Eat dinner outside. Because that makes any night feel like vacation. 
How will you be spending your month?