Tag: balance

Posted on

Life and Family Update

Well – my last post on here was about living in limbo and building our house. We have currently been in our house for about a year and a half now. We are loving it for the most part, and have been already planning more changes for the future … deck, pole building, etc..

In 2023, we planted grass, and got a REAL driveway. This will help so much with rain and also melting snow…if we ever get any. A couple other bigger things that happened in 2023 was that my mom, and my grandma moved back home from New Mexico! It’s been so nice having them back close by.

In October of 2023, we had been treating our 10.5 year old German Shepherd Zooey for a UTI, but it was not getting any better — the third time we took her in her bladder ruptured, and the vet had found a blockage in her pelvis that was cancer. We had to make the VERY hard decision to put her down. Even though at times she drove me crazy, I still miss her, and she will always have a place in our hearts.

In November 2023, my cousin James (aka Jimmy) moved back home to Minnesota as well!

Its been so fun having him so close to us as we haven’t gotten to hang out very much through out life, but especially as adults. Unless it’s the annual trips to the MN State Fair. Also shout out — if anyone needs any wines for special occasions or even just a Tuesday night — he’s your guy! The boys are so excited to have Jimmy close by as well because, last summer when he was visiting he taught Killian how to play pickle ball, and he loves it. Killian can’t wait to play more pickle ball with Jimmy.

Fast forward to this month (Jan 2024), we got a “puppy”. Everyone meet Zeke (formerly known as Kasper).

We got Zeke on January 5th, through Ruff Start Rescue. He is such a sweet boy, most of the time haha. We started Obedience training with him about a week ago, and that already seems to be going better than expected. He loves playing with balls of all sizes, and seems tolerant of Zelda (Mini Schnauzer) chasing and barking at him as he chases the balls.

Once again, I hope to be more active on here as I enjoy sharing my life with any one interested in it. As usual, please leave a comment for things you want me to talk about or share on this page. I think I’m going to share about the next steps on my fitness journey on my next post to give a little self update.

Posted on

Finding… balance – Life Update

Hello! It’s been a long while since I have posted anything. Over the past year — or more, I have learned a lot about myself through individual counseling.

That’s right.. you read that correctly — I have learned that mental health is very important, and to me you need to fix yourself before you can fix anything else around you. Kind of like the saying that goes something like you need to love yourself before you can love or be loved by anyone else.

I started writing this blog post back in February of 2021 — its been a long time since I have taken the time for myself to actually sit down and write a post… so here we are October 2021.

A little update on life — I started a new job in Feb 2021, thought I would like it but it turned into a stressful situation, and made me lose a lot of my balance that I was working so hard to find. Every time I would need to be away from work for appointments, or dropping kids off, I would feel bad, and feel like I needed to work extra, extra hours to make up for lost time, even when I had finished all the work that I knew how to do.

While working that job, we prepped our house for the market, and sold it in 24 hours. We moved in with my adopted dad in a much smaller space than we are used to. The kids started a new school (Spanish immersion). We started the process for building a house and I quit that bad for me job.

From my Springbrook Nature Center trail walk this week.

I have two weeks off in-between quitting my previous job, and starting my new job. During these two weeks I have already planned so many things that make my heart happy. I am meeting up with friends that I haven’t seen in a while, and taking care of myself by getting out in nature for walks and just sitting. It feels good to feel good about myself again. The kids seem happier too since I’ve been able to take them to the park after school each day for them to enjoy the weather and just be kids. I love that I am able to have this time with them.

K and P playing at the park — living their best life.

Throughout the next few weeks I will be keeping that word balance in my mind as I start my new job, and know in my being what balance means to me. I feel so much better inside and out since quitting that job — its unbelievable what a not so great environment can do to a person.

We continue to juggle the struggles of working from home, being twenty or more min from everything, and trying to find time for each other during this time of transition.

If you are wondering where we are at in the building process — its just getting started. Currently awaiting the preliminary drawing of the blueprint from the architect. If you know me, I am kind of impatient but have been trying to keep busy so that I don’t think about it. I hope to keep you all updated on the progression of building a house.

I am truly hoping that I don’t take a year off from posting on this blog. I hope to create some valuable information for you all in the months to come.

Posted on

2020 Goals — Here We Go AGAIN!

January for me seemed to fly by — I have already started working on my goals for this year.

I have seen/heard a lot of people coming up with 20 in 2020 lists, so I decided that I wanted to do that as well — at least for a couple things:

I will read/listen to 20 Books in 2020. I will go to 10 new restaurants in 2020. I will try 10 new recipes at home in 2020. I will go on on monthly date nights. I will practice SELF LOVE. I will blog. I will run (Ragnar Sunset, Grandma’s Marathon, and Ragnar Relay – so far). I will have a gratitude practice.

I have started reading/listening to books already this year — I have completed at 5 books so far this year. All of them so far have been on audible, because that is easier for me to do with my busy life, but I’m still getting it done. The books that I have listened to so far have been Mindset by Carol Dweck — so so good talks about the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and helps you try to find the ways to get out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset. If you love the Netflix show You then you would love listening to or reading the books You and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes. They were really easy to listen to and the first book was pretty close to Season 1 of the show. These two definitely kept me engaged and I literally couldn’t stop listening. Another fun read was The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines it was such a sweet book and it was fun learning more about their story of how they came to be, and the bonus of the audible version was that it was read by both of them. #couplegoals Another book that I listened to was Not a Diet Book: Lose Fat. Gain Confidence. Transform Your Life. by James Smith — very informative in all the ways. I first learned about James Smith from one of my best friends, she sent me his instagram and I started following him and would watch his story and have listened to his podcast. He really knows his stuff, and I loved listening to him read this book on audible.

As for my other goals, I have tried one new restaurant Momo Sushi in Minneapolis, such an amazing “cheat” meal!! I love sushi so much, just in case you didn’t know that about me. We got a sous vide for Christmas and we have made quite a few different meats using that (chicken — so juicy and steak). I would count that as one of my new recipes, because it was a new way of cooking. 🙂

The monthly date nights have been working well, because we have made a plan with another set of parents from our daycare that we switch off with them one weekend each a month, and they take our kids one weekend and we take their kids another weekend. So far it has worked out, and the kids have had a lot of fun.

Self love and gratitude is an on going work in progress for me — I am trying to get back my confidence in myself and figuring out my balance of fitness and being a wife and mom. I would say this year is off to a much better start than last year. Last year I lost weight and felt great and so confident, but I was becoming addicted to going to the gym and would be so upset at myself if I cheated even the slightest bit on my diet — my diet was very restricted. This year I started training with Okon Fitness, and I am in love. From the weekly check-ins not only looking at weight, but also measurements, and photos it has made a world of difference on my mind. They are also part of an app where there is a group of strong women that are part of the program and we motivate, inspire, and lift each other up. It’s such a great feeling.

The running — well in October of 2019, I was planning on signing up for Grandma’s Half Marathon in Duluth — well by the time I got around to signing up — that race was FULL, so I just decided to go for it and sign up for the full. Why would I do such a thing … you might ask. Well, I LOVE, like literally, LOVE Duluth and Lake Superior, and I have always heard that if your goal/dream doesn’t scare you a little bit then its not big enough — well needless to say — I’m scared for June 20, 2020. My goal going into this is to finish, I don’t have a time that I need to beat or anything like that I just am going for the experience and the challenge. Fun Fact: When my husband, Dan, and I were up in Two Harbors in April of 2019 we randomly met this great girl and her friend at a small town karaoke bar. Her and I connected so well that we became friends on Facebook, and started following each other on instagram. Each time that I’ve been up to the north shore, I have met up with her. Her and her fiancé are letting us stay with them for grandmas marathon weekend!! So excited to get to know her more!

The Ragnar runs — a group of my crazy FXB people #teamstupidstuff decided to run the sunset Ragnar as well as the full road Ragnar running from St Paul all the way up to Duluth. Again — I’m so scared, but so excited at the same time.

I will blog this year! I am making that promise to myself, the only way to get better is to practice…so here I go.