Round Here Lately…
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Here’s what we’ve been up to this last week with a few updates..
Saved $700 on groceries
I started writing in this post about the amazing finds we found at a local salvage market, and it ended up turning into an entire post. You can read it here...
But let me just tell you… Nick and I were nerding out on all the amazing finds we scored. It was a good week at the market.
Games, games and more games….
With winter being in full swing, the temperatures recently having been a bit lower than it has been, there has been a whole lot of UNO being played. I don’t know about you, but I don’t personally LOVE to play. I’m not a great “player”. But I can sit all day every day for a game of UNO…round after round after round…especially when it’s in our library window seat.
A couple of others we’ve been playing a ton is Sorry (a classic) and Monopoly Discover (it’s a learning game for littles to teach them how to play Monopoly. I personally think Monopoly can teach kids soooo much. Counting money, strategic business decisions, counting in general, etc).
Perimenopause or Thyroid?
I’ve recently started to show a bit of symptoms that got me in a tailspin thinking I was starting menopause way the hell early. And I may…some women can lead up to it for a full decade (mon dieu) and next month I turn 40, so it’s not out of the question…
… but once I stopped spinning out of control in my mind, I remembered back to a doctor telling me that I was borderline hypothyroid after giving birth to my first son, and that I was probably going to tip over if I had another. The thyroid being out of whack could resemble the early signs of perimenopause…
Well, 2 kids later, a move across country and all the stress that comes along with that, and the fact that this runs in my family… I think my body is finally making a point to try to get my attention that perhaps my thyroid is off.
I checked this book out of my library and after reading most of it in the last few days, I already know to my core that this is the right lifestyle to improve or even cure thyroid issues. I could not recommend this book enough and plan on getting much more serious about the diet next month. I have a much bigger why now than I did when I ate super clean in my early 30s. Yes, I wanted to be healthier then, and I still do, but I’ve been warned by doctors that menopause would be challenging for me (without intentional supplements and diet) due to my hormone issues and the last thing I want is to have the vast majority of my children’s upbringing in our home be with a raging woman whose hormones are all over the place. Lord help me. And them for that matter. I want to go through the experience of menopause when it comes to that time as gracefully as possible, and I know that diet is going to be the first most important step for me.
1000 hours outside update
Getting 1000 hours of outside time throughout the year is honestly no joke. I’ve heard from some of your in California where the sun is shining and its 65-70 degrees that it can be challenging enough but add on top of that cold wintery days—well, you need to get strategic.
Talking to my husband we figured out a chart that breaks down how many hours we need to get outside by month throughout the year to hit our goal.
- January- 1 hour daily
- February- 1 hour daily
- March- 2 hours daily
- April- 2 hours daily
- May- 3 hours daily
- June- 5-6 hours daily
- July- 5-6 hours daily
- August- 5-6 hours daily
- September- 3 hours daily
- October- 2 hours daily
- November- 2 hours daily
- December- 1 hour daily
So far, we have really been making an effort to hit that 1 hour a day outside. Just one hour on certain days is nearly impossible—hello -20-degree day we had last weekend. But other days we get 2-3 hours, and so far, we are averaging it out okay. I know as the weather warms up, going for hikes, exploring in the woods, going to the river beach behind our house, driving to the beach in Maine for the day, playing in the pool that was left at our house, camping trips…all those things will add up to many more hours a day.
But it’s definitely not easy, it’s called a challenge for a reason, that’s for sure! But I will say, especially here in the winter, it’s a lot harder for my kids to just go out and play without me saying, “hey! let’s go explore in the woods!”. Getting outside for my kids, with this external goal, has been oh so good for me too!
We went on a family walk last week where I was cross country skiing, Bennett was snow scootering, and Nick was towing the kids behind him in a tube while he essentially did a sled pull through the snow. We all had fun and 3 of the 5 of us came back exhausted!
Are you taking the challenge this year? How are you doing with it? What sorts of things are getting you outside more?
Painting the dining room update
The project that I thought would take me 3 days (I’m not even kidding) is coming to a close…2+ months later…and I haven’t even started the wallpapering yet.
But I am almost done…and my fear was that as long as it was taking me, I would get to the end of the painting portion and absolutely loath the color I chose. Luckily, it seems to be the opposite. I fall more and more in love with it with each layer of paint I slather on. So, yay for that!
And just to illustrate what it’s like moving into a fixer upper old farmhouse…our dining room light shorted out on us a couple of nights ago. So until we can get someone in here to fix it, we’ve been eating by candlelight the last two nights. Honestly, it’s not the worst thing that could happen.
Signed up for LEAD
I joined the company Beautycounter in June of 2020, that was my pandemic impulse decision. In all actuality however, it was anything but an impulse. I had been using the products for years at that point and spent so many hours researching about being a consultant.
One of the things I was most excited about in joining a company like this was the conferences. I used to lovvvve me some conferences. The never-ending supply of hot coffee, the vendors, the personal development and the adrenaline of learning new things (holy shit do I love learning new things).
The thing is, joining in 2020 left me hearing all about the amazing conferences Beautycounter used to have before the pandemic, but with no in-person events in sight.
Until now. I signed up for my first live in-person event this August in Charlotte, NC and I could not be more excited. I will finally get to meet other women on my team that I have gotten to know over the last couple of years and soak up all the personal development/learning new stuff that I can in one sweet weekend.
Don’t get me wrong though…I’m scared. While I seem like an extrovert, and sometimes I even convince myself I am, I know to my core that being social (especially with people I don’t know) drains my battery uber fast.
But never once have I done something scary like this and regretted it, so Charlotte here I come!
