This past week was one of those weeks where it was just so bitter cold out and dreary…I wanted to pull the covers up over my head and stay in bed all week. I just wasn’t feeling it. It didn’t help that my favorite little potted plant got knocked off the shelf by Shady and broke. Kelly made “Meep” in her ceramics class and I just love him so! Thankfully Nick was able to glue him back together. I’m hoping he stays safe from now on. 

This week in pictures isn’t very exciting because I really tried to avoid leaving the house as much as possible. With an extra day off school for “ice”, that wasn’t too hard of a task. Here below is our week in pictures for Project 365 January 13th-19th….

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The other day, I was looking through some of my 14 years of blog posts and kept coming across my old Project 365 photos from years past. Looking at the pictures from the photo a day projects I participated in made me so happy. In an effort to reclaim this space, focusing on things that make me happy, I’ve decided in 2020 to participate once again. 

The following are my photos from January 1st – 11th. I’m not going to hold myself to super strict rules or standards, but one goal I have is to pull out my DSLR more often to shoot instead of always using my handy camera phone. We’ll see how well I do! Here is my first week of Project 365 2020. …

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I woke up this morning, the morning of my 45th birthday, with a terrible RA flare up. Every inch of my body ached. In addition, I’ve been playing tennis almost every night for the past couple of months and for the past few weeks have had a horrible case of tennis elbow. Seriously – I can’t even squeeze toothpaste or turn the keys in my ignition without searing pain. Getting older is a lesson in patience and acceptance, isn’t it? (Happy birthday to me – I ordered a tennis elbow brace last night at 10pm that will be delivered for free today by Amazon. What a time to be alive!)…

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Dear Friend,

First of all, thank you so much for your kind response to my letter last week. It’s so good to have the support and understanding of someone who understands and gets it. The response I received definitely made me feel so much less alone. This time / age / season of life is full of changes and I never really know which part of it is just me or which part of is it a normal part of getting older. Either way, it was so great to hear from you and to get your perspective….

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Dear friend,

Hello! I’ve been meaning to write you for quite some time to share a little bit about what’s happening around here. There’s so much I want to tell you about, but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible so not to take up too much of your day.

I’m just going to come right out with it…this past year or so has been a difficult one for me when it comes to blogging. About 5 years ago (coincidentally right around the time my brother passed away), I noticed a shift in my brain. I began having trouble focusing and following through on things or even really caring much about things I formerly cared a lot about. As a former Type A, get stuff done, kind of person, this shift was really hard for me to deal with. I’m not sure if it was the grief, getting older, hormones, or what but there was a definite change I had a hard time dealing with….

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Sometimes the thought of changing the world is overwhelming. How can my one small act of giving or kindness make a difference? Can buying someones coffee or complimenting a stranger really do much in the whole scheme of things? I’d like to think yes….

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I love reading. It’s one of my all time favorite hobbies and things to do whenever I have free time. I consume books however and whenever I can. One of my greatest joys is seeing my kids follow in my footsteps with their own love of books. Now, some of my kids are even old enough that we can read the same books and then talk about them. I absolutely love that!

I’m excited today to share my love of reading and books with you and your kids through Usborne Books. My friend Julie is a Usborne Books consultant and has offered to do a Holiday Book Bundle giveaway for Dine & Dish readers! How cool is that? Keep reading to find out how you can win one of two Holiday Book Bundles from Usborne Books!…

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I’ve come to really value “me time” over the past few years. Even though my kids are now all in school full time and I work from home in a quiet house, I still wake up early so I can get some quiet, creative me time in before the rest of the people in my house awake. My mornings absolutely depend on it. If I don’t get up a solid hour before my kids do and take care of myself first, the rest of my day seems to go to shambles. Quiet time to center myself each day is pertinent to my overall mood and happiness.

So, what does my morning “me time” look like? It’s a little different each day, but for the most part I follow the outline from my Miracle Morning schedule. I make time for stretching/yoga, affirmations, meditation, reading, journaling/planning and creative time. In addition, I make sure to eat something along with my morning coffee that doesn’t require a lot of effort, yet still tastes amazing and fits in with “me time”. …

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