Look Back at August

The last day of August my friends!!

It's been interesting for me to try and find a good morning routine.  I think I like doing some light yoga first thing with a cup of tea.  Some mornings I would jump online and start working, but I think that is not the way I need to go.  I did promote in my S&D biz, so that was super fun and exciting!

I also had some fun nights out with the hubby.

We had a few date nights as a whole family, one of which ended with a ride on the Merry Go Round.

These two have been extra clingy; we all are fighting off a little Summer cold still.

We've sat outside and seen some amazing sunsets.

Our bathroom got a mini makeover--yay for no more makeup or bronzer on a white rug! We are hoping to paint soon.

90 degree days call for burgers down by the lake.

And cool drinks in the shade on warm and muggy days.  Sandbox, treehouse and slide were some of our favorite moments.

I took home some toys to clean for the pre-school and this one carried the jugs into my bedroom all by himself!!  He just looks so big; my heart explodes.

And Summer is not over yet!! I bought these and declared that we will be having a fire either here or at the land this long weekend.  I also bought a pack of hot dogs (gasp!) and we'll be enjoying those as well.  

If you're feeling overwhelmed, like everything is spinning out of control, it probably is!  

It's the New Moon so be sure to set your intentions.

It's also Mercury Retrograde so chill out, laugh at things and know that everything will be okay.

Happy Hump Day!!

A Quick Hello

Well, Summer is almost over and although I am a Summer Girl...I'm ready for a new season and new routine.

I've been doing okay with my Miracle Morning, but I would still like to get up a little earlier.  I'm still getting into a routine and that's what's important. I keep reminding myself, progress not perfection. (In everything in life)

Joe woke up Saturday not feeling too well; kind of run down etc. He had to go to work all day, but came home and pretty much went to bed until 12 the next day.  We even had a date night planned but had to cancel our sitter. Of course I started feeling a little achy myself, and today poor Mr. Bubs is full blown runny nose, sneezing and downright miserable. I feel so bad for him!! Hopefully it will clear soon. Stupid germs!

As August comes to a close, I am really looking forward to September.  We have a whole new season of life starting come September.  Our oldest will be going to Pre-School! I cannot believe how time has really flown by.

This morning I was looking at my Time Hop and it showed little Brookie at Bradley's age now, and I was pregnant with him.

It makes me realize how much has changed in our lives and how precious time is.

For those wondering, my sister is still doing well--keep those well wishes, prayers and healing thoughts coming.

I will definitely say this is the Summer that I have truly started to come into my own.  I look at my past, and I realize how much I relied on others to support me, give me guidance, or be there for me.

I have learned however, that at the end of the day, you only truly have yourself.  Well, with that said I know I have my husband, but he cannot be here every moment if I'm feeling a little down, angry, frustrated, hurt.

I had been doing really well working on myself (listening to daily motivation) and then bam, I stopped.  What happened? I started feeling down, hurt, like a victim etc.

So I started listening again.  Just like we need to shower every day, we need to surround ourselves with the right words, shows, people, things etc.

My Angel card today was, "Notice the loving guidance you hear inside your mind, or from other people."

Don't focus on those who won't give you the time of day, or worse, those who bring your spirit down.

My little blog has been such a great place for me to connect with, uplift other women, and speak from my heart.

It saddens me that some things are the way they are in my life, but sometimes I have no control over things.  And that, has been the biggest lesson of all.

I hope you are having a lovely Wednesday my friends.  Shine bright! You are beautiful; you are wise, and you have all the power within you.

xox

Friday Fashion

Happy FRI-YAY!!

This girl had a little ME time this am and it was muuuuuuch appreciated.  I always feel so good to step away from the house, alone, for an hour or so.

Today I went with a bubble gum pink for a mani color!  It is so bright and happy---just like me! haha

I am having a Mystery Hostess Trunk Show and we are just an order away from someone winning some MAJOR GOODIES!


I have to brag about my girl Elizabeth; she is usually a studs/hoops kinda girl, but she gave our ear climbers a try and loves them!! She's getting compliments left and right--she was so excited to try a little something different and bam, #nailedit.

I am on the hunt for an open vest like this, to pair with our gorgeous infinity scarf in rich burgundy.  Throw on our bungalow hoops and voila--perfection!

The two necklaces I highly recommend as any staple this season, would be the Rebel Pendant (bottom in this photo)

And the engravable bar necklace.  You can get whatever you'd like engraved and wear it close to your heart!! {I totally want to get our land coordinates on one!!}

The Luna is also a hot item currently, as seen on my friend Ann.

My official, "Mom/running errands look" My hair is a hot mess but I have my cute accessories!

My arm party from that day was Keep

For real though...

TGIF!!

Miracle Morning

The other morning I was in looking through books on my kindle and I came across a book I had never heard of before.  I bought it rather quickly, (thank you Amazon) and for an extra dollar or so, I had it added to my audible account.  {I tend to listen more than sit and read as of late!}

Wow.

I feel like the universe has definitely been trying to tell me to get up earlier.  I don't know if I would call myself a morning person, but I have always been really good about getting up early...until I had kids.  After I had Bradley, sleep was really hard to come by, as he was not a great sleeper.  In fact, I think my body was still trying to catch up on all that missed sleep up until a few months ago!

Now, that said, I am always up by 7am, which is still early for most people!! But, in the land of littles, a working hubby and my stay at home life, 7am means time to take care of everyone else and no time for me.

I kept saying to my husband that when Brooke goes to pre-school this Fall, one thing I do not want happening is the whole rushing out the door/stressed out mornings.  We really enjoy our morning time together and the last thing I want to be doing is fighting with her to eat her eggs and get dressed.

Mind you, she's up now at 6:15 pretty much daily, so waking her will not be a problem.  I was more concerned how I will walk the dog, iron clothes, make breakfast, get her ready and feel like myself a little more.

Everything I continue to read, listen to or watch, has told me that in order to be successful, I must wake up early.  OK, but how?? I wake up then what?  What is the best way to start my day so I am on the right foot??

Enter this gem:

As with anything, there's no shortcut, excuses or BS that can help you become the best version of yourself.  In this quick book he explains a little way to start your day.  {By the way, his story is similar to my husband's and quite inspiring!  Talk about falling down and climbing your way up to the top!!}

So here is what he says to do.  Wake up an hour earlier.  Can't do that? Well, then aim for a half an hour earlier.   Drink a glass of water (we are dehydrated from not drinking overnight).  Get up and get dressed or shower.  Get out of your bedroom. Break your hour down into these 10 minutes each.

Silence

Affirmations

Visualizations

Exercise

Read

Scribe

{SAVERS}

Silence

Not many of us will actually sit in silence doing nothing.  We have so many distractions, we rarely clear our heads.  If you can sit down and just be for a few moments, it will set your tone for the rest of the day.  {I'll admit, I just started implementing these and this one I still do in my bed. I try not to grab my phone or kindle, but just start being grateful for things in my life listen to my inner self.}

Affirmations

Write out positive affirmations and read them aloud.  "I am a morning person."  "I am patient."  "I am a published author."  Whatever you believe, you become.  A few positive and inspirational affirmations will help your morning turn into a beautiful day!

Visualization:

Where do you see yourself going today?  What sort of plans do you have laid out?  What about tomorrow?  Next year?  What are some goals a dreams?  Taste, feel, smell, hear ---try to actually picture yourself being whatever it is you want to become.  {one for me is our new house! I keep trying to visualize where it is I want to live.}

Exercise

I loathe working out in the morning. Always have.  For 10 minutes though?? I have been doing some light yoga stretches and just trying to get that blood flowing. I  also walk the dog so that helps too.  If I can squeeze in a workout later, I do that too!

Read

Pick up a motivational book.  {Not just the latest chick lit!} Obviously the one I have been reading is The Miracle Morning---next up on my list is The Diamond Process.

Scribe

Write.  Get a pretty journal or a $.59 spiral notebook and write.  You could just journal what comes to mind, you could write a book, you could just jot down some goal, just put words on a paper! {today I am actually blogging!} 

Here's the kicker; a lot of you will say, "I don't have the extra hour, I get up so early as it is."

Then do it for SIX minutes.  

Sit in silence for a minute, read your affirmations one minute, visualize something for a minute, do jumping jacks or yoga stretches one minute, read one or two pages, and write for one minute.

NO excuses.

So my mornings are starting to look more like this...

I've added an essential oil; today is "Grounding."  I have my full cup of water, my green tea and lately I've been getting into Angel Oracle Cards.

I shuffle the deck and choose a card.  Today this card came up twice; once when I opened the box and then when I split the deck to choose a card.

Whatever comes to mind, I acknowledge and think about throughout the day.  Kind of cool...

This has come to me at a perfect time in my life.  I cannot control what is going on around me; I am going through some stuff, just to say...but this is helping me stay centered and at peace.

I told my husband last night, despite all of the negativity surrounding us and all that is going on within our lives, I have never been more at peace.  And that to me is something I have never really felt before, so whatever I am doing must be working and I will continue working on myself.

I want to give my children and my husband the best version of me; they deserve it.  I deserve.

Love yourselves and have a beautiful day friends!

House Goals #2

Building a home.

We haven't even met with a builder yet and I'm still just having fun with tearing out pictures or finding ones online of houses.  It's fun to say yay or nay with hubby and really discuss what we prefer over what we really don't love.

I haven't written anything about our dream home since this post here. 

I think we're still leading towards a side loading garage, but this looks cool too!

I'm still really researching kitchens.  I'm fairly certain I don't want two islands, but rather one really large one.  I don't know if I need 2 sinks.  I don't like exposed beams or the hanging light fixtures; and while I want a wine fridge, I think I'll store the rest of the wine in a temperature controlled area of the basement.  I do however, love the light counter tops and the cupboards.

My favorite spot in our current home is our back deck. It's seriously like a little sanctuary.  We can't see the parking lot because of all the trees, and it's pretty quiet since school is out of session.

One of our favorite things is to go to the land and walk around where things will be built.  It's so important to decide which way we want to face; the sunset is gorgeous here!

It's so funny because one day we are totally chill and love just dreaming and the next we are both like, "UGH! Why are we not living here yet!?"

{as I type this, Joe is currently out there working on the trails again.}

I absolutely love these huge windows. I want as much light to filter into the livingroom (and the kitchen!) as possible.  We also want high ceilings.  This furniture isn't really our style (the color) but I love how crisp all of it is and how there's an accent.

I need to look a little more into this contraption!  Is one of these a warming oven? A microwave? Holy smokes!  This back counter/stove top is essentially what we'll have though, so that's cool!

This is the idea of how open we would like it.  Like I said though, we don't want to do the double islands...and the side eating area will be one large table (no formal dining room).  I don't like all the different colors going on back there in the kitchen either, or the lights.  BUT the open layout is spot on!

Patio and a pool in the back...or would we go with a wrap around deck and a pool?

This will be the biggest project we will work on together and I am so excited.  

Day 7: Finish Something!

I DID IT!! 

Today concludes my 7 day video challenge.  I am so excited I could hardly contain myself.

Day 7?  FINISH SOMETHING.

All too often we get caught up in 500 different things, going 300 different directions. 

That. Drives. ME. Crazy.

I have noticed however, when I make a real effort to complete a task, I feel SO awesome!

Finish a book.

Finish a to do list. (We did this yesterday and literally high fived each other!!)

Complete a workout schedule.

Sell that certain amount of product (jewelry, in my case!)

Make a new meal, (plan, shop, prep, cook, eat!) 

Choose something applicable to your life and follow through.

Whatever it is, enjoy what you've chosen through the process and feel the incredible energy after you've finished.  You'll be flying high my friends!

Happy Saturday!

xo

Day 6: Dance

Sometimes ya just need to move and groove.  Pull up your favorite song and just start dancing around.  Dance like no one is watching, or record yourself so someone is!

It's no shock that I love to dance.  Anyone who knows me, knows it's probably my favorite thing to do!  While I am struggling to get into an adult class (that whole selfish/me time!) I can dance any time or anywhere, especially while I am home!

My favorite thing is when we'll be eating dinner all together, listening to Sinatra, and Joe will pull me up out of my chair.  It instantly lifts my soul and we have a great time twirling around the kitchen. 

I know that when the kids get a little grumpy or seem like we need a mood change, this is exactly what we do.  Joe will play videos and I'll throw on Pandora.  We love Kidz Bop music channel or even the top hits (I censor them).

The kids requested Rio (it's their favorite movie right now! We have seen it a million times!) So here ya go. Perfect for Friday.

Dance away my friends, dance away!

Day 5: Be Selfish

Sometimes we put ourselves on the back burner.  We don't take time to pamper ourselves, read a good book, sit down and eat a healthy meal. 

I'm telling you it's OK to be selfish! If you take some time to fill yourself up, you will have more to give to others. It's really just a matter of making ourselves a priority from time to time.  

If you feel like you're just empty, it's time to be selfish.  (maybe only an hour or two of time by yourself is what you'll need!)

What's your favorite way to be selfish?

Day 4: Wake up Grateful

It's not always the easiest thing to do, or remember to do...but when I do, I feel so much better!

As soon as you get up in the morning, (you can even keep your eyes closed!) think of at least ONE thing you are grateful for in your life.

Today I was grateful for a healthy 3.5 strong willed curly haired little girl who crawls into my bed at 6:15.  What a beautiful little face to wake up to.

What are you grateful for?

Day 3: Be the First to Comment

Today's task is a super easy one.  I found myself scrolling my instagram or FB and just feeling blah.  It then occurred to me, that when you're feeling down, the best thing to do, is to lift someone else up.  In turn, it will help you feel better.

I really started getting a kick out of being the first to comment; obviously you can't always be the first to comment, but if you pull up your Facebook and see a post that just went up, say something nice!

It really does lift spirits and it's always a good feeling to spread happiness. There is so much joy and happiness in the world, we just need to focus on it to find it.

There is also much anger, frustration and sadness, and if you focus on that, you'll attract more of that as well.

Happy commenting!! 

Day 2: stop the comparison game

Happy Monday friends!

I am a little anxious today, so any extra positive energy can be sent my way!! I am really trying to focus on all good things and to get myself to stop comparing my life to anyone else's. 

I am truly happy with my life, but there's always that wish of ....just a little bit more!  

----breathe----

Maybe you too struggle with being at peace with what you have and are a little harsh on yourself.  We need to stop being so hard and just love ourselves.

Here's my unedited day two video!

xox

7 Day Video Challenge...

Happy Sunday sweet souls!  I am in need of pushing myself out of my comfort zone and so I decided to mimic Veronica's You Tube and do my own 7 Day challenge...

I have chosen 7 little tips to share this week and they all deal with bettering oneself; you can call in motivation, self-improvement or even raising you vibrations.

Clearly I am on my own path, but I feel compelled to share my heart in hopes of inspiring someone else.  I take this journey lightly and am always aware of how much room I have to grow, learn, and become my best self.

If you think you are at your best, perhaps you should look a little deeper and start improving some area in your life.  We should never settle and have so much to work on, so that we can be who we are meant to be

I'm not sure if I'll post every day on my blog, but feel free to check up on my YouTube channel this week.

I'll change up topics and do something else in the future, but for now this is what I felt I was called to share this week.

Today's tip: Be Present

With these videos the point is to record and upload--no editing allowed! I was just about finished with this first video and ran out of space---oops! Real life.

Either way...enjoy!

Fashion Friday {gone country}

It's been awhile since I've put on the country stations. I'm not sure why, but for some reason when I went for a lonesome drive a few weeks back in June, I turned it on.  I laughed, I cried and call me crazy but I feel like sometimes a higher power, the divine, God, whomever...speaks to me through {country} music.

It happened when I was pregnant with Bradley and I was on the way to the gender ultrasound and I said, "give me a sign.  I really think we are having a boy!"  Low and behold, a Brad Paisley song came on--and I just knew for sure that ultrasound would show a little man!

Maybe it's the fact that my heart longs to be out in the middle of nowhere and raise our children in lots of land to run around on.  To cultivate big gardens and lots of self-sufficient necessities (eggs, chickens, I want goats, but I'm still working on Joe for that one!)





Our little country bumpkins to be.



I want them away from the hustle and bustle; I want us to all have a place to retreat.  These last few months have been so trying for all of us, and I cannot tell you how incredible it's been to back off from social media.  Sure I still like to hop on and check things out, but there is so much living to do, sometimes you need to step away.

Bubs helping Daddy clear trails.



Even Brookie was helping out! Daddy was posting No Trespassing Signs.



I'm going so country lately, we even got tickets to a Luke Bryan concert with my sis and some friends! I figured Joe wasn't exactly thrilled to be going at first, but to be honest? I think he had a way better time than he thought he would!  It was a blast and a little different; we are really embracing the different these days.  It's so easy to become all stuck in our ways, but sometimes that is exactly what we don't need.

So of course, in Jenn fashion, I needed a pair of cowboy boots!  I found a super cute (and great deal) online at Macy's.

I wore my camo keeper with "love", aviators & a wine glass. I also wore my double wrap black keeper with the arrow going forward.

It was super hot (of course!) So I just did the plain black tank and pink bralette from VS.

Keep earrings & tassel necklace.

This was my, "We are leaving!" text to my sis since she bought our tickets-we were meeting them there.

Trying to get a good pic of my boots was tricky!

We parked on the opposite side of where my sister and her husband parked.  Instead of taking the road like normal people, Joe and I walked a path in the woods, then had to walk off of the path and into prickers/bushes...and finally hopped a fence.  We found each other though!

This girl is the reason I even like country music! Ann and I met our freshman year at Fredonia State.  She is from the middle of no where and introduced me to Tim McGraw.  I was obsessed with his CD.

I had my heart set on a hat and my sis got one too.  Gotta protect our skin from that crazy sun!

It was so fun to get all of us together! We lost them by the time the show started but I'm impressed we grabbed a photo and actually found each other.

How incredible was this sunset? I mean...breathtaking.  I felt like the universe was just smiling down at all of us.  Reminding us how powerful and infinite life is.

We had lawn seats and couldn't exactly 'see' much of Luke himself, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  We could dance around and sing and look at this gorgeous view.

Thanks again for my awesome birthday present Bri!



Seriously love this song.  I love my "country boy" (even though he can also be a city boy!!)  I love that Joe and I can have the best of both worlds.