Hello all! Long time no talk! We finally have gotten moved into the river house, renovations are well underway, and we are feeling pretty settled in our new, more relaxed, life! I am loving the more relaxed pace around here, not that we are less busy, in fact, I think we are busier than ever, but just that everything seems less chaotic. It feels like there’s less of a strict schedule out here in the country and it’s taken me just over a month to get used to it!
I will have lots of posts for the future about our renovations but as none of our projects are actually finished yet they’ll have to wait! But today I wanted to talk about something that has had me thinking hard for the last couple of days.
Many of my Facebook and Instagram followers (and if you don’t follow me, why not? lol ;)) will know about my weight loss journey. We are following a ketogenic lifestyle and have been for the past 6 months. My husband and I are both down over 40 lbs each and feel great. I also go to a TOPS (Taking Off Pounds Sensibly) group meeting every Wednesday. I love my TOPS group. It’s an incredibly supportive and encouraging group of ladies who help lift each other and celebrate the victories. I’m not saying that every week is a victory for me, in fact, I have had more than a couple of weeks in the last 6 months where the number has gone up instead of down, but for the most part I have been incredibly proud of myself for my downward trend!
What struck me this week was that after our meeting one of the lovely ladies asked my mother-in-law if I was always that happy. I’m the loud out-going one of the group. My entire life I have been the loud, out-going one. I know my parents struggled when I was younger but have now embraced the obnoxious human-being I am lol! Anyway, I didn’t hear the exact response my mother-in-law gave but I know it was along the lines of “for the most part, yes!”.
Since that moment I’ve wondered “Am I always happy? If yes, what makes me that way? Aren’t most people happy?” I’ve been trying to observe people for the last few days, I spent the day Thursday with my mom at the Farmers Market and although I think a good lot of the population is happy, there are definitely some who show it more than others. The woman that runs the Farmers Market is one of those bubbly, always happy people. She clearly loves her life.
And you know what?
So do I!
I am genuinely happy. Happier than I’ve ever been, in fact. I don’t think I’ve ever been a miserable person (although my mom would probably have something different to say about my moody teenage years!) but I am genuinely, truly, incredibly content in our life.
I am very fortunate to have a great set of parents (the best, actually!), an incredible (and always hilarious-without-meaning-to-be) set of grandparents, a wonderfully loving set of in-laws, the worlds best husband (sorry ladies, he’s all mine!), and 3 truly great children. Each and every one of these people make my life better in ways I will never be able to tell them and I am grateful to all of them!
We have a beautiful home and are lucky enough to be able to renovate ourselves. I love the process of renovating, less fond of the living in chaos during them, but totally worth it. I love learning how to do something new (yes I am guilty of watching hours upon hours of youtube videos to learn how to do something. I would never admit I don’t know how to do something!). I love the time spent in my garden, watching plants grow into something beautiful, or tasty, is one of my favorite things. I talk to my pumpkin patch every day. They are my “little darlings” and I hope to have some great looking pumpkins in time for fall!
I know that my confident, out-going, happy personality comes from my beautiful mother. She’s always happy, always laughing, and always brightens up any room. I also know that I have passed all of those traits on to my daughter, Maddie. She is, without a doubt, the happiest person I have ever met. No matter how much trouble she is in, how mad she has made us, how frustrated we are with her, she is ALWAYS singing and humming. I think I can count on one hand how many times she has been truly sad, or mad, in her 9 years. One look at her running through the sprinkler, or jumping on the trampoline, and I reminded that whatever little, trivial, thing I am worrying about means nothing.
For the last year or so I have tried something I read about on Pinterest. Any time I am angry, frustrated, sad, about something I ask myself “Will this matter in 5 years?” 99% of the time the answer to that question is a huge NO! If it’s not something that will change your life for the worse, if it’s not something that will damage your family, if it’s not something that will even matter 5 years from now is it really worth worrying about??? It’s taken a long time to be able to do it successfully but now, when faced with something trivial I ask myself that question. If the answer is no, which is almost always is, I let it go. I take a deep breath, go for a walk if it’s really bothering me, have a long soak in a hot bath, a glass of wine (lets be honest, it’s more likely to be a gin and tonic!), and just let it go. It’s not worth it.
I’ve also let go of all of the hate. Hate is an ugly word. I don’t think there has ever been someone that I truly hate, but there have been more than a few people I have a strong dislike for. But they’re not worth it either. Again, it’s taken me a long time, but I truly feel like I have let go of all of it. I have mentally forgiven those I feel have wronged me. I’m choosing to focus on the good and it has made all of the difference in the world!
My aunt recently attended a birthday party for a woman she knows who just turned 100! 100 is an incredible feat, and I am so proud to have had a Nana who also made it to 100 before passing away shortly after her birthday. During this birthday party people wanted to know her secret to living so long. Do you want to know what she said? She said she never said a bad word about anyone, she never let people get to her. She let things slide off her back like a duck.
People like her are who I aspire to be.
I take it day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. I try to participate in activities with my daughter that will stick with her. I want her to think back to her childhood and remember the fun, happy, times we had together. The things we did together. The things I took the time to teach her. And during these times I learn so much from her.
When life gets difficult, put the sprinkler under the trampoline, turn it on, and bounce all of your cares away. Even just watching her, or listening to her through the kitchen window, puts a smile on my face and reminds me that life is beautiful. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff. We are given one life, make it a happy, fun, loud, obnoxious, carefree one!
Live like someone left the gate open, find something you love and do it often, dye your hair a crazy colour and be unapologetic about it. Just do you. Other peoples opinion don’t matter! I truly think that’s the trick to true happiness. No longer worrying about what others think. If you love yourself everyone else will love you to! Try it! I promise you won’t be sorry!
Our living room in this home is quite small, there are only 3 of us, and although the living room is the most used room in our house, it suits us just fine. We have a couch, a coffee table, and a media stand. What more do we need? Despite it’s small space it was lacking in any sort of style. I couldn’t figure out what I could do to make it beautiful. I tried hanging pictures on the walls, I tried adding some décor to the media stands, I outfitted the couch with nice pillows and blankets, but still it was missing something. One afternoon we were catching up on some Fixer Upper and the sun was shining through the window and making it difficult to see the “dream team” of Chip and Joanna so we starting talking about putting up a set of curtains. Then suddenly it dawned on me. Barn doors! We’d seen Joanna do it on one of their flips. Barn doors over the window in place of curtains! We talked about whether we would order doors, or make them. It’s easier to just order doors but there are 2 electrical outlets on that wall and they wouldn’t be usable if we had full length doors so we decided we would make some short ones. After a few weekends at the shop we had some beautiful shortie barn doors. I heavily distressed them then stained them in a beautiful English Chestnut finish. After the very painful 48 hours of waiting for the stain to dry, we hung them with some barn door track that Rex had purchased through the store. And I’m telling you, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. They add so much personality, so much style, and so much function to our living room! We won’t take them with us when we move as they were custom built for this house, but there will definitely be more barn door building in my future!
