Life Update: February 2020

Hey guys! Another month has come and gone, so we’re due to sit down and catch up on life. Let’s get into it!

I always laugh at the cliché mention of how long or short the month was in Life Update posts, but let’s be honest, we need to talk about how LONG January was. It was like a never-ending cycle of overcast, grey days. In comparison, I feel like I blinked and February is already halfway over (another cookie-cutter statement, but honestly VERY accurate). Looking back, January was a pretty lowkey month for me with not a lot going on — basically just getting settled into the new year. Honestly, I just want spring to get here… yesterday.

Let’s get into… mental health? To be completely transparent, I thought for the longest time that dealing with longer-term negative emotions related to mental health just wasn’t in the cards for me. I’d had friends talk about their anxiety and though I was sympathetic, I couldn’t totally relate. Yeah, I’d had periods of my life where I wasn’t necessarily the happiest and the occasional unexplained anxious day a couple of times a year, but all of this was short-lived and mild. This last time though, it lasted for months and it really frustrated and confused me. Why couldn’t I just perk up, unclench and get out of my own head? However, I’m genuinely feeling so much better these past few weeks. I had a breakdown to Justin (yikes) and I think that was a huge release for me. After that, it’s like the sky opened up and I was able to see things for what they really were again, let go of my internal stresses, loosen the pressure I put on myself and just live life again. The rough patches I go through are not unique to anyone else’s, and that’s exactly why I try to be open about it on here. Not every day, week or month is great and it’s normal to go through these periods of uncertainty about who you are, who you aren’t and where your life is or isn’t going. I’ve had more bad days than good the past few months, but I’m on the upswing and I feel like I’ve broken away from this. With that being said, don’t hold your emotions in like me. I let them leak out every once in awhile, but it wasn’t enough. Talk about everything you’re feeling because it can (and will!) be so healing.

Moving on from that, let’s talk about Lucia. If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, you know we’ve been working on transitioning her from her pen to free-roaming in the main living area of our house while we’re at work. After 5 full days of being an angel, she tore up some of our blinds on the sixth day and we’ve been using her pen again ever since. We had high hopes that she was ready and we were SO proud of how well she did in the beginning, but we’re thinking she’s still a little too young after that incident. We haven’t been brave enough to try again since. Oh, and we haven’t been able to get our hands on replacement blinds since our window size is the most common one and they’re always sold out, so those janky ones are still hanging in our windows. Cute!!!

Speaking of Lucia, her first birthday is on Sunday and I can’t wait! We invited a few people over just so we feel like we have a better excuse to have a “party” and decorate. It’s horse girl themed (no, I’m not kidding) since she’s loved horses since day 1, so you best believe we bought horse party supplies and a cowgirl hat for her. I’m not one to go all out for this kind of stuff and we’re still keeping it pretty mild (believe it or not — there’s SO much more out there that we could’ve bought), but I figured she only turns 1 once and doing this adds a little fun to our lives, you know? She’ll only be our “only child” for so long (hopefully). If I get enough pics, I’ll do a blog post on it!

My cousin and I got together at my house last weekend and made vision boards and it was so fun! I realized that I haven’t done a cut and paste project like that since high school, and when it’s not for a grade, it’s so calming and therapeutic. We had music playing, chatted and ate Taco Bell while we did it. Though vision boards can seem like a silly concept, I find it to be beneficial to sit down and figure out what my goals actually are and visually document them for future reference. To me, cutting it out and displaying it where I’m going to see it every single day holds more accountability than just writing it down somewhere random. Even if it doesn’t spark any of this in you, it’s at least fun to make. We put ours in frames that we bought from Target so they look much more like art pieces and home decor. I have a few places in my bedroom in mind where I want to hang mine. I may be doing a blog post on this too.

In other news, we got our taxes done last week and I’m so relieved to have it out of the way early this year! I’m also happy to report that we had to pay back less than half of what we did last year (due to my side business income). Let me know if I’m in the minority with this, but I don’t keep track of how much I make from blogging/freelance work as the year goes on. Whatsoever. I really don’t have any solid idea until I add it all up at tax time and I’ve never really cared to. For whatever reason, I’ve never gone out and pursued any of my blog or freelance work and I let every job that I do get come to me. I feel like I don’t have time to chase after anything while also working a full-time job, but I must say that this has me thinking about how much I could make if I pursued additional work. Hmmm.

Something Justin and I have been enjoying is watching McMillions on HBO this past week. It’s really interesting! It basically dives into the investigation of the McDonalds Monopoly game scammers from back in the 90s and early 2000s. Someone was manipulating the game to have their friends and family win and it’s so fascinating. It’s a series and so far just episodes 1 and 2 are out. Check it out!

__________

That’s all folks! Well, at least all I can think of to fill you in on right now. Thank you for taking time out of your day to catch up with me & enjoy the rest of your week!