Tag: daily life

2019 in Snapshots

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This one is purely for me. A 2019 year in review:

January

I finished my second ever crocheted blanket! (Husband asked for a looonnngggg blanket, so I delivered.) Oh, and I started off the year as a red-head… I love my red hair, but this was the second worst hair decision of the year.
I committed to raising my succulents!
  • Carpet, eww
  • The last piece!
We also took on our adult-iest project in our lives and put down 1200 square feet of lament wood flooring in our house! (Thanks to the helping hand of both of our dads, of course. We’re not that level adult yet, geeze.)

February

February started off with our close friends having a baby boy! The first baby of our friend group. Who knew you could organically add humans (that you didn’t meet in a bar) to a friend group?!
We also had Valentine’s sushi and I tried my hand at Amigurumi. The sushi was delicious, but I stopped crocheting after exactly one amigurumi ball. It’s a cute ball, though.
Look at all that lack of husky hair! Ahhhhhhhh.

March

Husband got back to work on his 67 Mustang this month! Look at that engine. ❤
I also got my blonde back! Hurray! And I tried my hand at making bread from scratch. 2018 was the year of pies but I tried to diversify my baking skills in 2019.
Also learned that our dog is a pretzel.

April

Back to the races we went! How can you live in Kentucky and not go to Keeneland?
(Actually very easily… With all the track problems in California and now here, it makes me nervous every time we go. But I digress.)
April is always one of my favorite months because the flip flops make their return! I’m sure it wasn’t actually warm enough to wear flip flops, but you better believe I tried!
My favorite holiday is also in April! Easter is my favorite, always has been. Jacob was very egg-cited for it this year, as you can clearly see.
AND I got to hang out with my neph-pups for a whole weekend when my brother-in-law (and the rest of the Hollon family) went on a work trip.
Look. At. That. Face!
To end the month we rekindled our youthful spirits and went to see Avengers: Endgame… At 3:00 in the morning. Yes, 3 AM. I haven’t stayed up until 3 AM since college, let alone to go to the movie theater! It was fun, though. And now I can say I’m still not old.

May

In May we had a visitor. That is a groundhog. And he’s coming up through our patio what was our nice, completed, not-broken patio. *sigh*
(Chair-cage so the Husky won’t eat Mr. Groundhog, even though he probably deserves it.)
Also in May:
I added to my tattoo collection! That makes 8 total now.
Lola ate a really big bone, and I dreamed about vacation.
My mom, sister, and I went strawberry picking! (An annual tradition.)
I drove a Mustang for the first time.
  • That’s him, waving to the crowd!
My nephew graduated Middle School and my niece graduated Elementary School!
And we ended the month by seeing Coheed & Cambria in concert. No person in that venue had as much fun as we did that night. I think this solidified Coheed as our favorite band.

June

June was by far the best month of 2019. Jacob and I hopped on a plane and flew to Miami for a 6-day cruise in the Bahamas.
(I can feel my nerves through this photo. I hate flying…)
…but the flight was so worth it. We had a balcony room on the most beautiful ship.
We snorkeled in an underground cave in Mexico, and Jacob swam in the ocean with sea turtles, and we ate the most delicious conch fritters ever.
But our favorite part and the highlight of the trip was hiking to some of the Mayan Ruins in Belize and climbing to the top of Lamanai.
And on June 20th we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.
(Hence the romantic vacation!)
But then we had to say goodbye to paradise…
…and we came home to a Husky pupper with a couple very bad hotspots.
She took it pretty well, though.

July

Lola started July very happy to be back in her own bed, apparently.
We fixed our patio, and got our fence stained, annndddddd had an accident involving a very hot grill and some very melt-able siding… All is well though, no major damage.
I reached peak adulthood as far as gift wrapping is concerned when my niece turned 12.
And then I reverted directly back to my own childhood when Kiki’s Delivery Service came back into theaters for one weekend only. I was the nerdiest one there, complete with my Kiki shirt, red bow, and Jiji tattoo.

August

Every August starts with two things:
My family reunion on the first Saturday, this year made Annual Hunt Reunion Year 56,
and my husband’s birthday on the 3rd!
Unfortunately for him, it’s usually the same weekend… But we always carve out time to celebrate anyway, and we always have a party later on in the month to make up for it.
This year we decided on a LAN party for Jacob’s birthday!
(But we forgot to take a group picture until after I had already gone home and gone to bed. Oops!)
Oh, and Holly is still a pretzel.

September

At least this pretzel protects us from Turkey Vultures, though. Whoever said that dogs don’t look up at the sky, did not know what they were talking about.
September was a big turning point for me internally; this is the first time in my life that I had the confidence to wear a crop top. Maybe that sounds silly, but it was something I had always wanted to do but never felt like I could.
we had to buy a new dishwasher in September! Which was very adult and very exciting.
And then we flooded the kitchen, which was much less adult and definitely not exciting. But after a couple days and a couple dozen trips to Lowe’s, we finally leveled up our “Replacing Large Appliances” skill in our Adult Skill Tree.
My nephew turned 15 in September, and I had my very first hummingbird in my flower garden!
And for the very last weekend of the Summer months, me and the girls hung out all day on the patio and soaked up all the sunshine we possibly could.

October

Summer is my favorite season, but October will always hold a special place in my heart. October 1st hit me hard in 2019 and I dressed accordingly.
And then I got sick…
Sick isn’t so bad, though, when you’ve got cuddly doggos, and Zelda to keep you company. Also, with Alka-Seltzer brain you come up with meals like Pancakes and Chicken Tenders. I ate that meal for about 3 weeks straight.
By the second weekend, the Halloween festivities had officially begun! I went as Ciri from the Witcher and Jacob went as Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride!
This year we had two different costume parties and my family’s pumpkin carving party.
I don’t fully dress up for the Pumpkin Carving Party, but I at least stay in spirit with fun makeup.
Even though distance leaves us missing one of our group and adulthood leaves us missing a few others, I’d say this was our best Halloween Party so far.

November

Not much happened in November, except the temperature dropping. The 6lb pupper does not acclimate well to cold weather.
We ate lots of food, spent lots of time with our families, and shopped the sales, but mainly my November consisted of decorating for Christmas!

December

And then came December.
This month was easily the hardest month of the year. A lot of good happened in December, like booking our SS Neverender Cruise!
…but a LOT of bad happened this month, too. Luckily I have a supportive husband who will hold me when I cry or take shots with me on random Tuesday nights.
(But he can’t talk me down when I’ve got hair-cutting scissors in my hand… We’ll need to work on that one…)
(This picture interrupts my train of thought, but I couldn’t not include it. She’s gone full dork.)
And we closed out 2019 by entering the new year in true 20s style. I think Gatsby would’ve been proud.
It was a wonderful night with my favorite people.
There’s no better way to remember the closing year and celebrate the new.

The January First Song & Dance

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Holy moley.

Life really knows how to kick you when you’re down, doesn’t it? I think this has been the most difficult, most confusing, most painful month of my entire life. But you know what?

December is almost over, thank God.

I’ve never wanted to be one of those people that was like “Start the new year fresh!” I don’t know why though, because deep down I’ve always been this person.

  1. I love fresh starts.
  2. I love round numbers.
  3. I try to go into every day with a clean slate, every week with a new focus, and every month with a new goal.

So why do I hate on the “new year – new me” trend every year? Am I so hipster that I hate it just because it’s popular? Possibly.

I think it also makes me sad, and I don’t like being sad. People are so motivated for JANUARY FIRST and ready to start on JANUARY FIRST and excited for JANUARY FIRST and then the other 364 days of the new year are neglected. If we truly want to have a “new year – new me” mindset, then we should all be restarting our 365 day year every single morning.

If we all treated every day like it was JANUARY FIRST I guarantee we would see:

    • More kindness and generosity
    • Gyms packed with motivated people reaching their goals
    • Coffee shops filled with avid readers
    • People cooking themselves and their families healthier meals
    • More bad habits kicked
    • Less money unwisely spent
    • Overall more happiness all around

…and all the other popular new year’s resolutions that people keep for JANUARY FIRST and then forget about because it too quickly becomes January second.

So, I know I have winter goals that I’m chipping away at (badly, might I add; I told you it’s been a horrible month), but I do have one New Year’s goal:

I do not want to make any New Year’s goals.

I want to have goals for every season, every month, every week, and every day, and I don’t want them to be limited by waiting for the big sparkly ball to drop at midnight. I think the world would be a better place if every day were New Year’s day.

If anyone reading this has had as shitty of a month as I have, I’m so sorry. Whatever you’re going through: I’m sorry and that sucks. Try to remember that every storm runs out of rain. (Isn’t that a country song? I think that’s a country song.)

And that’s my two cents. See you next year!

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I gave myself bangs, guys. That’s how emotionally unstable December 2019 has made me. And yes, I do regret them. Thank you for asking. *sigh*

Day 28/90: How to Re-Set

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Hey, hi, hello, internet.

Being an adult is weird… One moment you’re achieving your goals, blogging every day, hitting the gym, then the next moment your grandmother dies…

My grandmother passed away last Friday so I’ve been on a life-hiatus for the last week. When we lived in Wisconsin, we would drive to Kentucky to visit my Mamaw and Papaw every Thanksgiving. I fully credit Mamaw with my love of nature. Me being the true born city girl that I am, I never really did anything outside… until Thanksgiving. Mamaw would take me four-wheeling into the mountains; we walked waded in the creek for miles collecting rocks (I still collect rocks and minerals btw); we would play in the barn with the newest animals she had or walking across the plank between the two lofts; and she would sing while I played my violin on the porch (very badly as a 5th grader, but she didn’t care). She was 84 but truly acted like she was 14, in the best way. I’ll never look at Kentucky mountain or valley again without seeing her there.

Pardon the crass transition

Without surprise, I’ve fallen off the wagon as far as fitness and health goes for the past week, so I thought this would be a good time to talk about how I re-set and kick my butt back into gear.

 

How to Re-Set Your Goals

 

#1   Re-evaluate your goals

People “mess up” on their goals for a multitude of different reasons, most of them not nearly as dramatic as death, but regardless of the reason you need to first determine if it is a you-problem or a goal-problem.

A lot of the time it’s a you-problem (that sounds harsh but stay with me) where you’ve either lost motivation, or been a little too lax on yourself, or maybe it’s the holiday’s and you let yourself indulge, or maybe heavy, adult things smacked you in the face like they did me. All of those scenarios can be summed up by saying:

life happens. And that’s okay!

However, sometimes it’s a goal-problem. Maybe you got injured because your workouts were too intense, or maybe you’re exhausted from too few calories, or maybe you’re truly burnt out from being TOO strict on yourself. You have to be honest with yourself and adjust if your goals are too much to handle all at once.

#2   Let yourself change your mind!

If you need to adjust your goals, allow yourself to do so. This was going to be lumped in with the “re-evaluate” part, but I thought it was worth it’s own bullet point!

People (me, I’m people) get so stuck in their ways sometimes and don’t allow themselves to change their mind. Don’t set yourself up for failure! Adjust your goals so that they are still challenging but attainable.

#3   Be very strict for the first few days, but don’t overcompensate.

Again with the setting yourself up for failure; don’t overcompensate! Do what you would normally do to chug along towards your goals.

Think about it this way, if you push yourself too hard during your re-set you’re more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again, and if you overcompensate again then you’ll be more likely to fail again, and then you’ll have to re-set again… You see what I mean? So start fresh. Move on. You can’t change anything you’ve already done, so do better this time around.

#4   Stay positive.

This is probably the most important part of a re-set for any goals. Your mindset can make all the difference when it comes to starting over.

Keep in mind:

  • You’ll bounce back quicker than before
  • You’ve already done this part successfully once, you can do it again
  • Take it day by day.
  • Actually, take it decision by decision.
    • If someone offers you a Christmas cookie and you only get those cookies at Christmas and you really want that cookie… Eat the cookie. But then the very next decision make sure it’s a good decision. That will set you back on track.

 

No matter what your goals may be or why you need a goal re-set right now, I hope this blog hits the right notes for you.

Does anyone have any other tips and tricks? Motivation? I’ll take it all: Questions, suggestions, criticism, concerns, send them my way please and thank you. I will be starting my re-set tomorrow. The day before Christmas Eve. Because I am a masochistic idiot.

Wish me luck.

Okkkkaaayyyyy bye!

Mamaw

Winter Goals

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Good morning, happy winter!

I’ve never been good at new year’s resolutions, mainly because by July of whatever year I’ve made the goals I’ve already forgotten what they were. So I decided a while back that I was going to do seasonal goals. So here we go!

Winter Goals

Lose 15lbs and 7% body fat

No explanation required, we’re still doing a fitness thing here even if I have fallen behind. 175lbs & 29% are the numbers I’m aiming for.

 

Write the first draft of my novel

It’s been in the works for a very very long time and I think I have everything I need to write a complete draft, everything except the will power that is.

 

Stop biting my nails

Surely 3 months is long enough to kick that habit, right?

 

Read at least three books

I don’t do this enough.

 

Do at least two charcoal drawings

I have an art degree, but you’d never know by the amount of art I make.

 

I think seasonal goals will be great not only for mindset but also for practicality! These are all things that I want to do, of course, but I tailored these goals to be winter specific. I also want to walk our husky more often and kayak and hike, but if I decide on those goals in January when it’s 16 degrees and we’re buried in Kentucky ice, how will I get excited about those goals again in May?

I need to do things immediately or I lose interest.

The fact that I won’t be writing on my novel as soon as I close this blog will undoubtedly make me think twice about that goal when I do sit down to write. But no matter, they’re written in the blog and so they shall be.

Alrighty, that’s all!

If you have any goals that you don’t want to put off until the ball drops, tell me about them! Let’s make seasonal goals a thing. Can we do that? Is that legal?

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I really do.

Welcome to my diary

It’s amazing how quickly you can fall into a bad habit. It’s day 19 of my daily blogging and I’ve already caught myself only writing blogs that give advice or have a clear defined point to them.

But the thing is,

this is my personal website and essentially my daily journal. I’m not selling anything, I’m not marketing myself as some sort of guru, I’m just out here living my life. My intention for this blog is to document my life so years from now I can go back and read about… myself… oh wow, how narcissistic, Emily.

That’s why I initially started by documenting “something I couldn’t stop thinking about from yesterday” on my first couple blogs. That didn’t really work because all of my days run together as one long existence. But nonetheless, I would still like to daily blog.

That all being said, sometimes my blogs will be short and sweet and uninteresting.

Future readers:

I wanted to inform all of you that when you come across a post like this it’s most likely because I’m half asleep sitting on my recliner at 6am writing my stream of (semi)conscience thoughts.

Future Emily:

You’re welcome girl, this is for you. Hang in there.

 

Hey future me, have you figured out what this contraption is yet?