Easter

We had a nice Easter.  Ry and I colored some eggs and we had a delicious Easter Dinner with Kaitlyn and Alex.  Kaitlyn bought some art kits at Hobby Lobby that her and Ryan molded and painted(and once it was dry they squished).  

Best part of the dinner was Kaitlyn's Key Lime Pie she made - AmAZinG!!

Healing Journey Update

I'm not a fan of sharing a ton of personal stuff on my social media platforms, but this is my journal space(of sorts), so I share a lot more personal messages here on my blog than anywhere else.  I won't ever apologize for being too personal here. I'm never trying to preach, just sharing.  If you're here and you want to read, that's great.  Enjoy!

Healing is a journey, and I will forever be in the space of evolving as long as I'm alive.  I feel like we all have life experiences to unpack and trauma to process. The amount of trauma will vary with each of us, but we all have it and how we deal with it is our own individual life journey.   Each day/week/month/year I hope to be better than I was before.  One thing I have learned along the way is that there are several elements to this journey.  It's not one thing or the other, it's several parts that make it work.  My goal is to strengthen my whole self, and that requires mind, body and spirit/soul work.  Here are a few things I'm learning....

Meditation(mind):

Each morning I wake up before everyone and quietly find my space for meditating and starting my day with being mindful and aware of my purpose. I have found a few apps and books that help me in this path of mediating and being more mindful.

Body:

                                                                 (a few of my very favorites)

I try and make better choices with food.  I always feel better when I do.  I continue to educate myself on what the impact will be with what I'm putting into my body.  I've learned a lot over the last several years and I continue to read, listen, and watch for ways to increase my knowledge when it comes to making better choices.  I continue strive for the 80/20 rule.  Perfection is not going to happen, but for me it's knowing how much better I feel when I'm listening to my body and how it reacts to the things I'm fueling it with.  

I  make sure to spend time outside each day.  Walking or stretching/strength training has been so good for my body and spirit.  It's always been the best way for me to process through all my things. Nature and movement are my best healers!

Spirit: I have felt such a strong shift at this point.  The focus has been extremely different than what I've typically been engaged in when it comes to the spiritual aspect in my life.  I have felt a deep desire for finding joy in following(for the 1st time) my inner self. My truth. It's been difficult, exciting, exhilarating and exhausting, but overall I'm evolving into the person that I've always felt I was but couldn't truly become.  I'm thankful for the gift of intuition and spirit to help me in finding my highest and truest self.  It's a journey that I am continuing to travel.  I've had a small circle of people that have been my tribe of transparency and love, and for that I am thankful.  It's been my greatest gift in life.  People that will listen, learn and love(without judgement)💓 

I find so many thoughts along my way and try to pay attention to each one, giving them value where they need to be. I heard a quote today that I loved, "Lessons find us when it's time". Yes, and each lesson gives way for more growth and that's what life is all about.  Evolving, growing, and becoming.

The Gutsy Health podcast is one I regularly listen to, and it had a really great one this past week.  It's probably one of my Top 5 favorites. It talks about all of these things I've been working on and gives such a great perspective on how we can change our lives through actively changing our minds.

Healing Begins in the Mind

March

March came and went.  We didn't have too many things going on, except an exciting 30th birthday to celebrate!  Happy Birthday to our Beautiful, Sassy, Sweet, and Smart Kaitlyn Marie!!

We had a delicious dinner and cookies(her request) and enjoyed some Chameleon game time.

This was the first time using a recipe with brown butter, and it was a game changer(in a good way)!😋

Fun game(as long as you're not the Chameleon)!

The remainder of the month was spent doing yard work and enjoying the 

sites and sounds(birds) of spring.

 

February

January and February always seem to go so slow and last forever.  Thankfully Cody came for a visit in February which made things a little more exciting!

Casey wasn't able to burn with all the wet weather, but he decided he'd try it anyway.  Our fire pit wasn't completely dry but he managed to find a way to get his pile burned.  at one point he was in the  pit trying to move things around, underestimating the moisture and started sinking into the hot coals so he hopped and rolled onto the ground with his shoes steaming.

We started having septic issues with all the rain.  We ended up having to pump our tank, even though we just had it done 1.5 yrs. ago.  Not fun. It was full of water that didn't have time to drain.  Part of the problem is that when they built the pool they covered part of our drain field(which isn't supposed to be allowed), so it can cause problems with a lot of rain.  Basically it was just a bad combination of a few things, so we paid a lot of $$ to have mostly water drained out of our tank, and then we could shower and use water in the house again. Yay!

It was teacher appreciation week in February.  We had a lot of parents generously gift us with a variety of things. So nice💓 I also managed to catch strep, so that wasn't fun.  I missed a day of work for recuperation time.

We had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  I love it when I can be there to catch the view.

My walking buddy.  It's so nice she's back in town and we can see each other often💓

Cody had a couple of weeks he was doing rotations remotely, so he was able to come home and enjoy some time with family.  

he cooked dinner a couple times😍

 We went out a few times...

Oyster shots...

And we went to Andy and Janelle's so see Gibb's Gardens opening day and celebrate Seth's Sweet 16🎂

Trying to find the best lighting....

                                    

Happy Birthday to our Sethie! #16

Cody helped Casey in the yard, digging up some deep roots.  We also had a fire the night before he left.

It was a beautiful night!  The starts were shining bright🌟