Struggling

This week is off to a completely rough start. This semester is serving me up a bigger meal than I care for, but one I can handle, yet this week, this week I am unable to harness the needed motivation, energy, and alertness to make much progress on anything.

I think I have mentioned before that all of classes are online this semester due to them only being offered in that format. This is a good thing for when I am feeling sick and run-down as I am today, but it is also really overwhelming and labor-intensive. Plus, as you can imagine, finding the right structure and plan to get everything done efficiently is a struggle.

Throw on top of that not being able to find wedding/reception sites that fit our budget and needs, working out the last kinks of getting my internship set-up and rolling, getting my site secured for necessary service hours for one of my classes, along with some general money, life, and basic human worries....and I am feeling overwhelmed.

I am trying my best to stop, breathe, and just know that I will get it done and everything will work out, but this week is providing me with quite the lack of necessary qualities for that kind of behavior.

I don't know what I am looking for in sharing this, for advice is always good, but will it help break through these walls of exhaustion and stress? I am open to any if you think it could, but I guess more than anything I just needed to get this out, to say I am having a pretty rough week and maybe just putting that out there will help me move past it. I'm hoping a long evening stroll with the pooches and my guy, along with a good nights sleep, will also work a little magic.

If nothing else, there is always tomorrow, there is always next week, there is always an opportunity to start fresh and push forward.

Chuggin' Along,

Sara 

Happy Birthday May May

Friday marked the 7th birthday of my oldest furry kiddo, Miss Lilly May.

Although I have talked about her issues and how she can stress me out, she and I have been through a lifetime together in these last seven years.

I adopted her soon after turning 20 years old and I am quickly coming up on 27, those are some pretty crazy years to get through, and with all of her unique quirks, along with my own, we somehow made it through it all together.

Always had the cutest little puppy belly.

 She continues with this look to this day. Especially when tired or annoyed. 

 In our last bedroom together before moving in with E.

We have lived in four homes together. She has been there to comfort me through the loss of my grandma and more recently the loss of my father. She makes me feel safe and secure on late-night walks. She is never upset to see me, in fact, she is always right at the door ready to greet me whether I am away for 10 minutes or 10 days. 

So, even though she is getting to be an old lady, she will always be my baby, my sweet potato, my bear bear, my winky, my pumpkin butt.

Happy Birthday May May,

Sara (aka: Mom)

Super Self Love: Coloring Inside Your Own Lines

I am sure you all have heard the phrase "color outside the lines", encouraging people to break away from the ordinary and to be unique, to not worry about fitting into somebody else's mold. While I think that is good advice, lately I have been following a different kind of advice and telling myself to Color Inside Your Own Lines. 


What does that mean, Color Inside Your Own Lines? For me it means not worrying about being different for the sake of being different. It means being okay with doing something I love even if it is not trendy at the moment, or alternatively, even if it is. Maybe most importantly to me it means deciding on a few things I love most and giving them all I have, coloring inside my own lines.
Not long ago I found myself overwhelmed. While our technologically oriented society is wonderful in that it connects us all to each other in an insanely efficient way, it can also lead to overstimulation and to feeling like you need to have your hand in each pie, trying anything and everything you come across. This is not always a bad thing, in fact it can be a great breeding ground for creativity, but it can also lead to feeling overwhelmed.


So, when I found myself overwhelmed I stopped.
I took time to focus and look inward.
When I looked closely my mind returned to the activities I have always enjoyed, writing and art (mainly drawing and photography). I decided I would color inside my own lines by giving more energy to each of those activities rather than trying to be a master of all, and it felt good. I will admit I lose focus and have to steer myself back in that direction from time to time, but when I feel overstimulated or overwhelmed I can now stop, take a breath, and re-focus on the activities that matter to me most, and I think that is an important lesson for me to learn. It isn't about breaking the molds or trying to stand out, but nurturing myself to be the best me that I know how and constantly growing in my own talents and abilities.
There is plenty of time to try something new in-between my old loves, but keeping my strengths in mind is important in nurturing my self-worth and self-confidence while approaching everything else. In this way, no matter how new adventures pan out or what I find when I travel outside my lines, I know I have strengths and talents to return to and find comfort in.


What do you think about this idea? Kinda kooky or are you picking up what I'm laying down (...as I like to ask Eric)?
Do you do anything special to color inside your own lines?


Nurturing My Strengths,
Sara

Ups and Downs

UP: My tooth broke a month or two ago and I finally had it fixed on Tuesday. I feel so much better for it.

DOWN: I don't have dental insurance so my dental relief was quite pricey.

UP: We are getting closer and closer to planning where and when our wedding will be. More on all that once we decide and pin things down a little more.

DOWN: These online classes I am taking are really quite a pain in my butt. 

UP: Once I finish this semester I will be able to graduate and all of the pains in my butt will be worth it.

DOWN: Random weather and temperature changes resulting in a consistently muddy backyard. Mud + Dogs is not a fun time for mama bear.

UP: Lilly May dog turns 7 tomorrow. I survived seven years of raising that crazy fur-butt and succeeded in keeping her alive. Three cheers for us.

DOWN: Even after seven years L-May still has so many issues. Here's hoping old age helps calm her down a bit more. I can only hope!

UP: My own birthday is exactly one month after L-May's and I will be 27. 27 is going to be a pretty big and amazing year, just you wait and see.

UP: Tuesday afternoon I broke out a space heater to drag around the house with me, that was my best idea of the week.

Have any ups and downs to share? Feel free to make your own post with the idea and leave a link in the comments.

Ups and Downs,

Sara

Eloise Margaret - One Year Old

My little niece Eloise Margaret turned one year old in early January and a couple weeks ago my Mom and I made a little journey together to celebrate. 

While the day they move back to St. Louis cannot come soon enough, I am thankful for being able to see them as often as I do.

What you need to know about little Eloise is she is serious. She likes to laugh and play, but you will often catch her examining your face, the room, or various little objects she gathers on her own little journeys around the house.

She has a fiery spirit that we all love. She will most likely be opinionated and strong-willed, in fact she already is, but these characteristics will be beneficial to her becoming a strong woman. But, let us not jump too far ahead, she is only a year old after all, and her one year has treated her pretty well in the adorable-ness department.

         

She celebrated her first birthday with a small family gathering and her first bites of organic raspberry ice cream and whole wheat cupcakes. She seemed to enjoy tasting these new-to-her sweet treats, but quickly returned to her savory lunch. I guess she takes after her dad in that department, choosing savory over sweet, at least so far, although she did especially like the ice cream, something her Mama has been known to eat for breakfast from time to time.

Once again, I love being an aunt and am thankful for having little Eloise and my other little loves in my life. They bring me so much joy and of course give fuel to the baby fever fire.

Has the past year went fast for you too, or is it just me?

In Love With Being an Aunt,

Sara

Monthly Date: Painted Pottery and Pizza

Early on in January I had the idea of E and I planning monthly dates with each other. While I love hanging out at home together, watching netflix, playing games, working on our home, I felt like we needed to mix things up. 

So, I had us each make a list of six activities we would like to do with the other person, allowing us each to pick one to enjoy each month. This way we will each do things with the other person that we would not normally do on our own, while also having a wonderful time spending the day together.

This month I picked Painting Pottery and Pizza as our date.

We had a lot of fun at The Painted Zebra where we each picked out an unfinished piece of ceramic to paint. I chose a cardinal bank and E picked out a dinner plate to do in his fun style that I love so much. 

They will dip them in a clear glaze and fire them, allowing us to pick them up tomorrow afternoon. It is always a lot of fun to see how ceramics turn out once the firing process is complete. I will be sure to share them once they make their way home.

We hope to make a complete dinner set of plates, bowls, and mugs over the years, along with other various pieces for our home. Using something we made ourselves allows us to remember the memory every time we use it, and since the memory is of a date together, that is definitely a good thing.

Oh, and for the pizza part we headed next-door to Pi Pizza for my favorite vegan pizza and for talking with my guy. It was great to have these hours of colorful paint and pizza to brighten up a rather cold January day.

Do you have your own date day plans with your special lady or fella?

Monthly Dates With My Love,

Sara

Overworked Mind?

Last night I had a crazy-craze dream.

I was driving around in my car, you know, cruising along, no big deal, with a baby in my lap, oh and you know breastfeeding it as I went along.

This was my baby, which at least makes it a little less strange, and we were heading to buy a car seat because I was afraid of getting a ticket if anyone saw the baby bobbing around in my lap doing its thing. There was much hunching and ducking involved to hide our going-ons from curious onlookers.

I also decided we should get a couple diapers since it was wearing the same one as it had been wearing since it was born.

I am pretty sure I wouldn't be such a terrible mother, but if my dreams are anywhere near reality than we are going to have a problem in the next couple years.

Functioning on an Under-slept Mind,

Sara

Ups & Downs

UP: Internship interview went well and I should be starting soon.

DOWN: Had to have blood drawn with super gruff lady who had me fist my hand (usually they tell me NOT to do that) and proceeded to jam needle into my arm. Instant bruise and pain.

UP: Went by Target after those things and found a couple super clearance tops I can wear for my internship. Yay for looking like an adult, but not spending lots of money to do so.

DOWN: That blood thing. It really hurts dudes.

UP: E and I have fun plans to look at a possible wedding spot this weekend and to paint pottery. I love our time together.

DOWN: Crazy weather. Super crazy. Tornado sirens 2am on Tuesday morning, day before super warm, this Sunday supposed to be warm again. Super weird.

UP: Plans for Thai Takeout and board games with two of my favorite sister-friends tomorrow night. Much needed.

UP: Working on my time management and prioritizing to be able to do all things!

DOWN: May dog has a huge barking problem and it is one of my biggest daily sources of stress. I am working on this.

UP: Leroy and Jasper are pretty awesomely behaved most always and help balance out the crazy.

Up Down and All Around,

Sara

More Bits From About The House

The semester is in full swing which left me with a very full day of assignments, readings, and planning, but last night before bed I wandered around the house snapping little phone photos of some of my favorite things.

1. Little chalk keepers for our kitchen lists.

2. Doe trivet on the kitchen wall.

3. My favorite little bird above the fireplace.

4. My howdy owl cookie jar that holds goodies like larabars and fruit leathers.

5. Little vintage lamb for future kiddos room.

6. This cactus has traveled from home to home with me and is now growing larger straight out of the tip. Very cool to see.

7. Little chunk of the fridge. JD piglet, magnets, little niece birth announcement.

8. Ceramic dog that was my dads and has been around as long as I can remember. I was so glad to rescue this from his property after he passed away and will never let it go, passing it on to my own kiddos, even if it has a couple more glue jobs through the years.

I hope everyone is having a lovely week. I for one cannot believe it is nearly Thursday already.

Tomorrow I finally get to go to my internship interview and I hope it all goes well so I can get started soon and know I will be able to graduate in May.

Whatever it takes, I am ready.

Tids and Bits,

Sara

Doing Much of This

Today was so incredibly full. Full of worrying, relief, more worrying, more relief, more worrying, you catch the drift. Thankfully, at the end of the day, I always have my fella to come home to.

//Etsy//

While we love our adventures and I can have a restless soul, the nights at home with my head on his belly and his hand on my shoulder, those nights are some of the very best.

Love Love Love,

Sara

Changing Rhythm

So, I kind of went into a weird kind of mental state the past week or so and have not really known what to share here in this space, have not really had much that needed sharing, and isn't that what this is about, fulfilling a need in my own life while also connecting with others? I think so. I plan to be around here pretty often but feel myself switching rhythms and shifting gears, so I am going to ride that out and see what comes of it.

One big change is that my final semester of classes toward my Bachelors Degree begins tomorrow. While I know crazy times are to come while taking four classes, completing an internship (fingers crossed), planning a wedding, taking care of our zoo, planning the start of a skin-critter family, working on our home, and various other life stuff, I am more than ready to begin, more than ready to start this final chapter and to tick away at it just as quickly as I can.

We will take this one last night to kick back and relax before starting a new sort of structure, a new rhythm, and many new adventures.

Do you have any new adventures coming your way?

Until Tomorrow,

Sara

Sticker Chart Update

A little over three weeks ago I started my big-girl sticker chart. Here is how it is looking these days:

So, to break it down, this is the percentage of time each task was completed:

                                 Vitamins:                   90%

                                  Rox Box:                   81%

                                       Blog:                    71%

                                     Water:                   67%

                15 Minute Clean-Up:                   48%

                                   Journal:                   44%

                               Walk Dogs:                   43%

                                 Creative:                   38%

                            15+ Writing:                    24%

                                 Exercise:                   9.5%

Wow, as you can see, almost every area needs some work.

I would like to see the percentages grow in the area of 15+ Writing, which means writing for personal projects outside of blogging and journaling. I would also really like to up those percentages on creative projects and exercise. It does not surprise me that exercise came in last place, but it really is something I need to make more of a priority.

Journaling was added on 5 days after the rest and I am happy with the 44% because before this chart I had let my personal journaling slide in a huge way, even though it is a really important thing for me, enabling me to clear my head and put things in perspective.

I am happy to say that my reward was waiting on my doorstep today:

Yep, I finally have a big girl camera bag and am so pleased that I took the time to "earn it" with my sticker chart.

The next reward will come when I reach a total of 250, for I want to up the challenge a bit each time.

A reward is not yet in place, and I admit that the days post-those-shown have not been so wonderful on the sticker-earning front. Looks like it is time to pick a reward and to work on upping those percentages, don't you think?

Have you decided to do something similar? Do you have a different kind of plan that works for you? Let me know.

Sticky Motivation,

Sara

Little Bits

Sometimes I wander the house like a curious cat and just take in my favorite little bits, like these:

All of my little treasures help to make our house feel more like home.

What is your favorite little tid bit in your home?

One of mine is that little vintage feathered bird on the branches. The branches are connected to a memory and the bird draws me to them and brings me a smile every day, from where it sits on our mantel.

Staying Cozy,

Sara

Nursery Dreaming: Befores

So you know how I mentioned on Friday that I had THE Fever? Well, since we have made it clear we have a desire for a little bambino of our own, we figure we should get started on making the junk room into a usable space.

You see, there is a lot to do to make that happen:

Walking into the room you can see the damaged wood flooring and your first peek at our piles of randomness.

We will be removing the wood floor and replacing it so it will match right up with the wood in the rest of the house. 

We will also need to remove that wood from the closet, you know, where E's brother used to have his pull-up bar.

Plus, we will need some closet doors or a stylish curtain.

Remove the junk, paint the walls, add some trim, and get my groove on with some nature-themed decoration.

Obviously way more involved and time-consuming than I just made it sound, but I always love a blank slate.

I will share our progress along the way and you know, let you know if we ever have a baby brewing up to actually live in this imagined nursery. You know, minor details.

What do you think? Are you a fan of remodling and making something from nothing or would you rather already have the bones in place?

Nursery Dreaming,

Sara

She's got the Fever

I mean, it really is no secret, I have had the fever for a couple years now, probably more, but lately that fever is burning at an extremely high temperature.

The kind of fever that has me hoarding childrens clothes and planning out a nursery.

The kind of fever that has me spending $60 at a children's boutique for the baby that does not yet exist.

The kind of fever that has me willing to give up my much loved beauty sleep in order to care for a "skin-critter" as Eric calls 'em.

Yeah, that kind of fever, and I am definitely not looking for a cure.

And you know, that 30 gallon rubbermaid tote filled with thrifted kids clothes and labeled "Our Baby"? Well, what kind of person would I be if I were to pass up those corduroy overalls for just under a dollar? I mean THAT would be crazy, right...

Fever With Only One Cure,

Sara

Nothing to Lose

 "For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something...almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose."

Steve Jobs 

Following My Heart,

Sara

My 2012 Intention

My intention, my word, my motivation for 2012 is "Simplify".

Choosing to make this a goal by having specific tasks to complete will not do it for me, for I need to simplify by relieving pressures from myself and relieving the expectation of perfection. Instead, I intend to approach as many days, situations, and ideas with that one word, Simplify, in mind.

I intend to also approach my days as fully aware of my true self as I can manage, choosing to do things in the way which is best for me, which reflects my own unique talents, and which makes me come alive, rather than trying to fit a mold, follow a trend, or please someone. Many of us may claim we do not do those things, myself included, but yet I often catch myself in the act of doing so and in this past year I fear I have done such a little more than I would have liked. This year I want to present myself as-is to the World and simplify my thoughts rather than worrying how I will be viewed. I know I will always question if my artwork, my writing, my creations are "good enough", for who is another story, but I will attempt not to question if I am good enough, because I am, we all are, and we deserve to believe that one simple thought.

Throughout the next year I will be sure to share some of my reflections on this special word and how this intention is serving me. Goals are wonderful, and I always have many of my own, but this year I will choose to look at the bigger picture.

Do you have a word that is leading the way in your 2012 or any plans to simplify for yourself?

Simply,

Sara

Easing Back In

My absence has been longer than usual, but more needed than ever. This time of year it seems everyone is making goals, or resolutions for the fancier folks, but at this point I have not put any pen to paper or fingers to keys with any goals of my own in mind, none specifically for the new year at least.

Rather, I have been spending my time reading, spending time with family, antiquing with my fella, catching up with friends, and thinking, there is always plenty of thinking. Thinking about how I surround myself with objects that carry stories, a deer to remind me to simplify and a cow that reminds me of my late grandma, these objects each providing me with something I need. Thinking about simplifying by slowing down, taking each day as it comes, and remembering what is important to me, and maybe more importantly, what is not.

My jaw drops at realizing how much time I have spent clicking on blogs that at the end of the day hold no true value to me, not a value greater than the time I could be focusing on my own creativity and my own living. So, I have once again narrowed things down, trying to focus on my self, my thoughts, my own projects, while keeping my favorite blogs just a click away, the blogs where I feel the time trade-off to be beneficial, whether it be in being inspired, creating friendships, or any other number of things which enhance my life rather than detract from it. This practice comes highly recommended, even if it means your choosing to not visit me during your valuable free time. After all, there are animals to love, loaves of bread to be baked, and purple cows to be acquired. 

Love and Reflection,
Sara