First Snow

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I've mentioned that we are in Virginia this weekend visiting family. We really hoped we would get to see snow since the girls have never seen it being from Florida and all. It doesn't look like we are going to see snow falling but we were able to go to a mountain and play in it. We went to Whitetail Resort in Mercersburg, PA, about an hour from my in-laws and the girls did some tubing. 







She kept eating the snow, I normally wouldn't have cared but it was dirty!


The snow pants were almost too much for me to bear, almost feel the need to plan something else cold so the girls have an opportunity to wear it again. 

Hope you are having a nice, relaxing Sunday. We definitely are.



Happenings Right Now

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Happenings in my life...

  • I've just started this book recently, I'm not too far into it just yet but I've already highlighted some great passages. This is the line of the summary of the book that really hit home:
    • In Chasing Slow, Erin turns away from fast and fame and frenzy. Follow along as she blazes the trail toward a new-fashioned lifestyle—one that will refresh your perspective, renew your priorities, and shift your focus to the journey that matters most.

  • I have been obsessed with all thing Coffee + Crumbs lately--the blog, the Year of Creativity course, and the podcasts. Their podcasts are very relevant to the season I am in, touching on topics such as parenting, being a working moms, and life in general. The guests on the podcasts have all been great, the recommendations have all been things I have loved so far. My reading list is growing and growing, mostly from their recommendations. 

  • This spray promises to help with prep and prime and is an overall complexion spray. I love the way this makes my skin feel and I can actually see complexion improvement. Honestly I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that my skin has been great lately but either way I love the way this makes my face feel. I spray it on my face morning and night. 

Planning Macie's 2nd Birthday Party (Seriously?!)
  • I cannot fathom that Macie is almost two. I started planning her birthday party last week. I am a little "partied out" from the holidays and was considering not hosting a party for her but I know I will regret it if I decide to forego a party. We are planning a farm theme since she is obsessed with all sorts of animals.

Watching This is Us
  • When the trailer for This is Us was circulating around the internet I was very interested, I had high expectations for this show, expecting something comparable to Parenthood.The first few episodes were great but not quite the emotional, gut-wrenching show I was hoping for. I do still like it, I just wish is was one step further, one more level of emotionally raw. Despite this, I am still enjoying it and I'm glad it's back from holiday break. 

Wearing my Mama Bear Shirts
  • The buffalo plaid one is my current favorite but these shirts are so cute and comfy. Perfect for a casual day with some distressed jeans and Toms. 

We are hanging out in Virigina, trying to stay warm. Tonight we attempted to go see Sing with the family. The girls did pretty well for a little over an hour but the night ended with tears and meltdowns. I think Henley might be getting a cold, she's pretty congested and was very emotional leaving the theater. 

Still trying to decide what to do tomorrow but for now I'll leave you with this, hope you are enjoying your weekend.



Our Little Gymnast

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Last August we started Henley in gymnastics classes. About a year earlier, when Henley was 2.5, we tried ballet classes and she hated it. It was a fight each week to get her to go into the class. She cried and fought until we finally decided it was not something she was interested in, or simply she was too young. A year later we did a free gymnastics class and she has loved it ever since. She runs right to the class each week without even looking back. She really enjoys the movements and activities they do and I have already noticed improvement in her flipping and balance beams. Last week she even did the high balance beam with some assistance.

My mom joined us last week for her class and I tried out the 25mm lens with my camera. I recently got an adapter for my Olympus to be able to use my husband's lenses on my camera and I'm having a blast so far.







It's so fun watching her get into something she likes. I'm torn between hoping she wants to develop her skill and praying we aren't spending every weekend in ten years traveling for gymnastic competitions. 

We are in Virginia this weekend for five days visiting my husband's mom and family. It's nice and cool here so we are going to enjoy some snow play today. My Florida girls have never seen snow so I am pretty excited to see them playing in it. Hope you are enjoying your Friday.


Me Time

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Do you ever feel like your mind is in a thousand different places? I usually enjoy multitasking. I love being busy and I love having a lot going on around me. On the flip side though I've learn that I need time to myself to unwind, to feel human.

Lately I have made an effort to be more conscious of setting aside time for me, whether that time is spent relaxing or working on something creative. Often times these things are opposites and I feel the pull when it comes time to me to decide how to spend my free time.

During the day my mind is mostly busy with work. Of course there are times when I will get an email or hear a song that will remind me of something I want to do or something I need jot down but overall, I am set with my tasks at hand until I leave there for the day. From the time I get home until Macie's bedtime around 7:30, we are busy with dinner, baths, playtime, reading books, and bedtime. Once Macie is in bed sleeping, I am available for a little me time, sometimes however this is where the struggle begins.

Something along these lines is a familiar internal battle I have....

Should I take a relaxing bath and read?

Should I work on my Year of Creativity, I want to blog, improve my writing, and connect with the awesome group of women on this journey with me.

I could always grab my markers and spend some time lettering, or coloring and wind down for a bit with a glass of wine.

Do I go sit with Henley for an hour of snuggles, playtime, or TV with just her?

Should I start a movie with my husband to spend some time with him?

And as always, I could work on something around the house --- laundry, bathroom cleaning, picking up, etc.

It never ends. I want to do it all---I want to read all 27 notifications on Facebook and I want to read all of the unread blogs in my feed. I want to take a long, hot bath while reading a few chapters of my book. I want to close out the night with an awesome blog post that you all will love to read but realistically, that can't happen.

My mind is this open browser with a million tabs open and sometimes I feel like a toddler haphazardly clicking the mouse, opening and closing them all at random. Most nights I can successfully choose one of these options but sometimes I can't decide and end up being sucked into my phone by default and waste the whole night away, leaving me frustrated with myself.

I am glad I took the time to decide what I want to work on for me for this year because I feel now at least I am aware of the struggle. Before I wasn't even aware of these internal struggles I was having. I would just end up in bed dissatisfied at the end of the night because I didn't actually do anything, even becoming bitter at times.

I'm not perfect and I am still working to find the right balance for me but I'm getting there. I've had some great nights lately, even if it's just two hours of doing something that I want to do. I feel like acknowledging things I want to work on or things I want to do helps me to focus and not feel overwhelmed, therefore making me a happier, more relaxed, wife and mother.

Tonight was spent working on some watercolor hand lettering and finishing this blog along with some tickle time with Henley. I am not one to believe it's possible to have it all but sometimes it can feel pretty damn close.



Where the Comfort Zone Ends...

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I started my first blog in 2009, Idle Banter (it's still out there, check it out if you dare!). At the time I was a part of an online community of mostly newlyweds, all embarking on a similar journey, an exciting time in our lives, in love and relatively unencumbered. I was working as an auditor, typically between 40 and 60 hours a week and traveling for work often. I have always been a creative person, my mother is very creative and her influence has had a great impact of my own creative nature. My career at that time did not provide me much opportunity for the creative outlets I had come to love: sewing, scrapbooking and baking. Many of the women in my online community were bloggers or had recently become bloggers and it seemed like a great way to do something outside of my everyday work. I had never been a writer, I still don't consider myself a writer, so I wasn't sure if this is something I was capable of but I was intrigued, could this be the creative outlet I was so badly missing? I really felt out of my league at the time, but thought 'why not'. I focused on things I could blog about while traveling or working long hours like fashion, makeup, trends, foods, etc. My blog did pretty well considering it really had no vision and I essentially just flew by the seat of my pants.

In 2012, my husband and I decided to start trying for a family. My blog was tired and I felt I had outgrown it. I decided to start a new blog that would mostly be all of the things I loved (and would soon come to love) like traveling, running, and eventually babies, Our Own Kind of Paradise was born. I did weekly pregnancy updates that in the end were probably mostly viewed by family, I'm sure of it. I have posted things we've done, places we've traveled, recipes, and a DIY craft here and there. During this time I also started an Etsy shop creating clothing and accessories for kids. I was busy, working every night from Henley's bedtime to 10pm making headbands and leggings or embroidering shirts. My blog accumulated dust and eventually went months without posts. I ran my shop for about two years before life just got larger than the amount of free time I had.

Fast forward to 2017. I have two girls and work a full-time job as an Accounting Director. I have learned so much about myself in the last four years. I have learned that I am an introvert in almost every sense of the word. I have learned that I love my family more than life and would give anything for them. I have learned that giving myself time alone helps me be a better wife and mother. I have learned that I need to be creative to be me, to be happy.

I resurrected the blog about two months ago and it finally clicked that this is a perfect creative outlet for me at the moment. I can put all of the words and thoughts rushing around inside me into print (type?) and hopefully share it with you all. I've been enjoying it more than I really ever have before but I want more. I want to be better.

I came across the Year of Creativity from Coffee + Crumbs which is a year long online course of monthly lessons themed and designed to inspire your creative side. From their site:

The Year of Creativity is for the woman who is uninspired, disconnected from her creative self, longing for something more. This program is for the woman who wants to dedicate this year to rediscovering inspiration in order to make beautiful things.

When I initially read about it, I was interested but I wasn't sure it would be a good fit for me. I was intrigued and kept coming back to the website. I was reading more and more about it and before I could talk myself out of it I signed up. I've been a fan of C+C for a while, their essays are so inspiring and real. I immediately thought how much I would love to be able to create like that.

The first lesson started January 1 and I am so excited to get started working with all of these amazing women but mostly, in this moment, I am scared. I am a CPA, I am not a writer. These people are real writers and bloggers. I am majorly out of my comfort zone and while I'm mostly excited about it, I am still nervous and feeling vulnerable. I'm confident I will embrace this journey and get the most out of it that I can and this is the last moment that I am going to let myself feel undeserving to be included. Tomorrow I will log in to my lesson and write as if I have been writing my whole life, because in my heart, I believe I have been. 

One Little Word: Intention

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Yesterday, New Year's Day, I started looking around Facebook, Instagram, and the Blog World at various posts and hashtags and ended up down quite an enlightening rabbit hole. I came across the hashtag #onelittleword and fell completely in love. I have heard of people picking a "word" for their year but when I sat down to think through what I wanted for 2017, I couldn't really choose a word that I thought fit me so I didn't.

Well a few weeks and tons of great posts later, I have chosen my word. I was in the shower and it clicked. Everything on my list really comes down to one word. Intention. I want to be intentional this year. I don't want to be that person that just rides through and ends up four months down the road off track from where I want to be. I've been excited about my lists of goals and to-do's but this clarity has me so pumped! Intention!! So easy but it just took me some time to get there. 

As with everything in my life, to the planner I went. I setup a #onelittleword page in my notes section and went to town with some lettering, definition, and quotes that really capture what I want to see for myself this year. 


Today is my last day of my twelve day streak so I am going to go soak up every minute of it. 

Have a good day!





New Year, New Restart

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I mentioned the other day how much I enjoy the new start that the New Year brings and this year is so exception. I have my 2017 Planner ready to go and I've already sat down and laid out my 2017 Goals and Plans. I noted all of my plans in the first section of the planner so I am able to refer back often and see my progress.

I separated my goals into four categories and thought I'd share with you are few of them.

Financial - 
  • Reach my yearly goal for our savings account through set weekly deposits
  • Retirement account setup for my husband
  • Setup college accounts for the girls
  • Payoff our main credit card balance
  • Stick to Mint.com budget and check progress weekly

Health - 
  • Visit the dentist twice for cleanings
  • Workout consistently three to four times a week
  • Drink Shakeology daily
  • Meet daily step goals
  • Reach weight goal and maintain it

Family - 
  • Disney trips for girls' birthdays
  • Schedule dates with the husband monthly
  • Take the girls out on one-on-one dates
  • Swim lessons for March for Macie
  • Weekly lunch dates with husband

Personal - 
  • Keep up on blogging at least twice weekly
  • Monthly updates to my photobook
  • Reading challenge 40 books
  • Stay positive and above the B.S.
  • Continue working on my creativity (hand lettering, calligraphy, and most recently photography)


Do you guys like setting goals at the start of the new year? What are some that you are working on this year? 





Christmas Recap

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Another Christmas has came and gone and it was a great weekend of family, friends, and fun. We are Christmas'ed out over here.

Christmas Eve started with breakfast out with the family. We have a daytime cafe down the street called First Watch that is amazing. I had a hard time choosing what to get because everything is so good. If you ever near one you've got to try it.

After breakfast we hung out and started to get ready for dinner while the girls played with our neighbors, cleaning the house and making dessert.

I made a conscious effort to not go overboard with dinner and therefore only had to make mashed potatoes, rolls, and a dessert. See here for my Christmas Eve Menu. I ended up choosing creme brulee for dessert, which I've made a handful of times, but it was a total flop. I tempered the eggs just right but when they came out of the oven it looked very yellow, like scrambled eggs and had shrunk way down into the dish. To make up for the flop, I ended up making chocolate cake balls---equally as good, just not as "fancy".

My family arrived around four and the festivities began. We attempted some family pictures and got a few cute ones.




Dinner was great, the girls played so well with their cousins, and of course the opening of presents was a huge hit.


Christmas morning was amazing. The girls came out of the rooms excited and hopeful. Seeing their excitement was infectious. Being a parent on Christmas morning is way better than being a kid. Seeing the pure joy on their faces makes every bit of effort worth it.







The Owlette Costume, the Frozen Jeep, and the makeup kits have been the biggest hits. Christmas was really great. It one of the few holidays that I love every aspect of---love prepping, love the actualy holiday and love to see it go. 

The last two days have been spent purging and organizing. There really are more toys than we have room for so we have had to donate tons. I refuse to have stuff just to have it so we are donating tons that the girls just don't use. I am working on a post for our organization that I should have up this week. 

I'm really looking forward to 2017 and a fresh, new start. I really enjoy the reset that comes with the new year. I have a few goals and resolutions that I'll be sharing shortly.

I hope your holiday weekend was amazing and hopefully you have a few days off to recover.