What Two Months of Long-Distance Marriage Taught Me.

Because medical school is full of lovely surprises, I spent August 18th-October 20th living across the country from Christopher. I didn't blog about this because I feel like it wouldn't be that hard for someone to figure out where I live, so I didn't exactly want to broadcast my solo living situation to the internet. You've all seen pictures of my dog, so you know you could probably take him in a burglary situation.

But now you know-I lived alone for two months, and it sucked. Going to bed every night without my best friend sucked. Being pregnant and going to doctors appointments alone sucked. Getting bigger and more uncomfortable and having no one around to help out sucked. I'm all for being positive and finding the good in things, but sometimes things just suck, and it's okay to call it like it is.

But as of two weeks ago, my little family is reunited, and all is right in the world. And by all is right, I mean that I have my person home to do fun fall stuff with me, and that my late night cravings are finally accompanied by someone to go get them for me.

Like any good challenge, this one came with some life lessons. Here's what I learned:

It's the little moments that I love the most. Sure, vacations and big events and fancy dates are great, but it's the little moments of married life that I cherish the most. Things like falling asleep watching a movie together, or deciding to skip making dinner and just go to Chick-Fil-A instead. It's the little things that make life so good.

Having a dog is the best decision ever. I would have gone crazy without Gatsby. If you have to spend a lot of time alone, get yourself a puppy!

I hate cooking for myself, but I love baking. The idea of dirtying one, maybe two dishes to cook meat and vegetables for myself? Absurd. The idea of dirtying three dishes and two pans and the entire kitchen to bake a pumpkin cake for myself? Totally reasonable.

I take way too much for granted. I love my husband and am so thankful for him all the time...but now, extra so. Having to take the trash out by myself and take the dog out alone at night and not having anyone to curl up with and talk to when I had a bad day just showed me how lucky I am, and how huge of a blessing my marriage is. I love being in love, and I love having a partner in life.

Have you ever had to spend time away from your significant other? What did you learn?

Give Yourself Permission to Start Fresh Before the New Year.

You know when your house gets so messy, that it seems pointless to tidy up, because it really just needs a total overhaul? So you put off things like hanging up the laundry, because you need to clean your closet, and it doesn't make sense to add more clothes until you clean it...which, you have no idea when you'll actually get around to doing.

Just me? Cool.

Anyway, I think we treat life like that sometimes. We get to a point where there's so much we want to or need to change, that we just change nothing. We want to be healthier, but we refuse to so much as go for a walk until we've had a chance to construct an entire workout plan and spend $300 at Whole Foods on healthy groceries. We want to be more domestic, but we're going to keep ordering takeout until we get around to making a month-long meal plan. We want to spend more time bettering ourselves, but we're not going to so much as crack open a Bible until we've had a chance to look up a devotional and buy a book or two to read through.

See what I mean?

That's why New Years is so powerful. It offers a chance to look at every area of our lives, decide where we want to change, make meticulous lists and goals, and then overhaul our whole lives. And it's great! Having a brand new year can be the best motivation to make changes that we really do need to make.

But also, give yourself permission to start fresh today. Before the new year. To make a change without the craziness of year-long goals and reevaluating every inch of your life. You can start fresh whenever you want to.

New Years does hold a special kind of magic for starting over, but so do you. So don't live the next two months unhappy about something. If you don't like your life, change it. No matter what the calendar says.

Do you find it easier to start fresh at New Years or on your own time?

It's Not Just for Thanksgiving: Being Thankful This Month & All Year Long.

No matter who you are or how much emphasis you put on thankfulness in your daily life, you can't deny that Thanksgiving just brings about an attitude of thankfulness. For me, all of November is just full of constant reminders to be thankful. The month is full of magic and happiness and reasons to overflow with thankfulness.

Every November, I'm always thinking about how much I have to be thankful for. Drinking coffee outside with my husband, having a picnic with our pup, lighting pumpkin candles at night, getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving together...these are all things that make me explode with happiness.

Right now, at the beginning of the month, I want to stop and tell myself to let this month be a reminder to practice thankfulness all year long.

After November has passed, after fall is gone and Thanksgiving has ended, when the holidays have come and gone and Christmas music is a distant memory, there is still so much to be thankful for.

Logically, we know there are things to be thankful for. We know that if we had dinner last night, we're luckier than a lot of people. We know that if we have a bed to sleep in, we should be thankful for that. But knowing something and putting it into practice are two different things.

This coming year, I don't want to just know that I have things to be thankful for; I want to practice thankfulness all year long. In the same way that November fills me with gratefulness, I want the whole year to be one heart explosion of thankfulness after another.

Cheers to November. To Thanksgiving. To being thankful. And cheers to keeping that thankfulness alive in our hearts all year long.

30 Weeks: Things I Want to Remember.

Baby got to visit Lake Eerie this week! 

To say that I'm at 30 weeks feels so surreal. On one hand, when I think about the day I found out, it feels like an entire forever has happened since then. But 30 weeks just sounds so serious! Like, this is happening. It's crunch time!

• This week was so much fun, getting to travel together for residency interviews. Even though he hasn't made his grand entrance yet, it was our first time traveling as a little fam! Getting to see fall colors and have some cooler temperatures was so nice. However....I have no warm maternity clothes. I live in Florida! So I spent a few hours freezing before I just layered everything I had in my suitcase on all at once. I also may or may not have purchased some bedazzled gloves from a CVS, but that's a story for another day. 

• My baby shower is this weekend, but we got our first gifts this week! It's odd, but actually owning baby things in person makes everything feel more real to me than anything else that's happened up until this point. 

• I'm so uncomfortable. There's just no way around it. He's gotten so big that he's always squishing or pressing down on or kicking something. I feel so heavy and it's hard to breathe. What's hard about this is realizing that it will just continue until he gets here, because he only gets bigger from here. That's obviously good, but it's rough. Somebody pass the Chick-Fil-A. 

• On our trip last weekend, somewhere between Cincinnati and Cleveland, we finally settled on a name. Now that he has a name, I feel like I can start to imagine him as a person..so crazy. 

30 weeks down, 10(ish) to go. TEN. Baby Jack, we are so excited to meet you.

It's Different, But it's Good.

I made Halloween plans around a year in advance for this Halloween. The second Taylor Swift released her tour dates and I saw that she was going to be in Florida on Halloween, I knew that’s what I would be doing. Because one, Taylor. Duh. And two, seeing Taylor with everyone dressed up and dancing around in costumes...hello, magic. 

I’m trying to think of another way to phrase this next part other than “and then I got pregnant” because I hate when people say things like that to me, like my life is worse because I had sex and it resulted in a human life. But in this case, the phrase fits..."and then I got pregnant."

So I’m not seeing Taylor on Saturday. Because dropping $200 to spend the night dancing around in a costume when you’re in a "wild and free and you only live once" phase and dropping $200 to spend the night dancing around in a costume when you’re in an “about to have a baby” phase are two very, very different things. 

This isn’t to say, “well, life didn’t turn out the way I thought it would, bummer.” It’s to say, life is way different than I thought it would be a year ago. And it’s good. 

I wasn't dancing the night away with Taylor on Saturday. Instead, I was celebrating the last day of October by freezing my face off and seeing actual fall leaves. The last weekend in October found me catching frostbite by Lake Eerie and exploring cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati and Indianapolis, places I never knew I wanted to see. 

Last Halloween, Chris got off work early (a rare occurrence) and we celebrated by getting queso and margaritas for lunch. This year, he didn't have to work at all (pure bliss) because we're on the residency hunt. But since I've got a baby hanging out in me for another 11 weeks, we celebrated with apple cider instead. 

Last Halloween was fun. Getting margaritas in the middle of the day with my husband, getting dressed up and going out with my friends, it was all so fun. It was a fun season. It was great. Seeing Taylor Swift end her tour on Halloween? That would have been incredibly fun. 

But traveling and seeing new places and exploring towns I haven't yet gotten the chance to fall in love with? That was perfect. Being equal parts terrified and excited while trying to imagine a life in one of these towns with my tiny family was a magical way to spend the weekend. 

On Halloween this year, we had lunch in Indianapolis. We were finishing up when a couple with a baby dressed up as a pumpkin sat at the table next to us. They ordered beers and laughed with each other and showed off their little pumpkin who waved at everyone in the restaurant. They were clearly having the best Halloween ever with the people that were the most important to them, and seeing that made my heart feel so full. Because maybe next year I'll be sitting at a table, having a beer and talking about life with Chris while we laugh at our little guy, dressed up like a pumpkin. 

So life is different now. More different that I could have imagined at this time last year. But it is so, so good. 

I'll catch you next tour, Taylor. 

Happy Writing! You Can Do it.

The magical month of October has come to a close, and NaNoWriMo 2015 is officially here. And so I wanted to tell you, blogger, writer, poet, story-teller...you can do it.

Remember, the magic doesn't lie in a month, in a deadline, or in a process. The magic lies in you. And whatever writing you are setting out to achieve, you have enough magic inside of you to reach that goal. Whether you do it in November or December or in one year or in three...you can do it. You will do it, so long as you just keep writing.

Whether you're setting out to write a novel or a song or a poem or a story, you've got this. Whether you're writing for the world to see or just for the pages between your journal, there's a reason you should write. 

So write. Keep writing. Write when the words are overflowing out of you and write when you have to pull them out of yourself. Write to understand things, to stay alive, to ask your questions. You are a writer. So write. 

Happy writing...Through November, through the holidays, through 2016, through always. You are a writer, and you can do it.

PS...if you haven't joined The Novel Blogger yet, do it! Sometimes seeing a bunch of other people strive for the same thing you're working towards can be just the encouragement you need. 

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

Happy November! November is such a magical month because at the beginning of it, we get full-blown fall, and by the end of it, it's time to celebrate Christmas. If that isn't a good month, I don't know what is.

There are 30 amazing days in November, and you get to decide how to spend them. Here are my suggestions:

1. Drink a Caramel Apple Spice Cider.

2. Participate in NaNoWriMo. 

3. Swing by Trader Joe's and pick up some fall goodness. I especially recommend the pumpkin butter, the pumpkin chai latte mix, and the pumpkin roobios tea.

5. Make a list of soups, hot drinks, and other November goodness you want to make. If there was ever a month to make soup for almost every meal, it's November.

6. Practice Thankfulness all month long. It's not just for Thanksgiving!

7. Remember that sometimes, the best part of the holidays is just being. We can get so caught up in making holiday plans and wanting to make sure we get to do everything we love about a certain season, but sometimes the best part is just relaxing, soaking up all the best parts of fall and Thanksgiving.

8. Get a fall picnic blanket. I realize that in some places, it's starting to get too cold for picnics, but here in Florida, we're just hitting prime picnic blanket weather. Even if it's too cold where you are, get a picnic blanket, light some candles, and have an indoor picnic--it's just as fun!

9. Make apple-cider sangria. Perfect for your picnic! Also, please drink a glass for me. I love this baby, but I miss fall drinks.

10. Plan a Thanksgiving date. A thanksgiving celebration for just you and your boo!

11. Plan your Thanksgiving. Are you traveling? Having company? Cooking something? Make your game plan!

12. Take some time for yourself and reflect on everything you're thankful for about 2015. Every November, I sit outside with a cup of pumpkin coffee and my journal, and write down the biggest things I'm thankful for since last Thanksgiving.

13. Watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

14. Light some fall candles in the morning before turning all the lights on. I've been doing this in the mornings while I drink my coffee and it is so cozy. Second best thing to having a fire place!

15. Check your fall list-anything you really wanted to do that didn't happen? Don't pressure yourself to get everything done, but was there something you were really looking forward to that just hasn't happened yet? Do it!

16. Make a list of everyone you need to buy Christmas gifts for. 

17. Pick up a winter candy apple lotion from Bath & Body Works. 

18. Make a Thanksgiving craft. Place cards for Thanksgiving dinner, or a banner that says thankful, or whatever you want!

19. Bundle up and go for a walk. Walks during chilly weather just make you feel alive.

20. Go crazy and really clean your house before the holidays. You'll be so happy you did!

21. Make a list of Black Friday things to be on the lookout for. 

22. Write Thanksgiving letters or cards to the people you love. 

23. Spend an afternoon with your significant other and talk about what you're thankful for. Go to a park or a coffee shop and talk about why you're thankful for each other.

24. Start a Thanksgiving tradition. 

25. Watch the Macy's Day Parade. 

26. Celebrate Thanksgiving! 

27. Watch Elf! My family always watched this Thanksgiving night to celebrate the start of Christmas!

28. Break out the Christmas decorations! The day after Thanksgiving, of course.

29. Get your first red cup of the season! White chocolate peppermint mocha! It's Christmastime, people!

30. Catch up on the sleep you lost over Black Friday by laying in bed, drinking hot chocolate, and watching Christmas movies. Hello, perfect day.

How will you be spending your November?