our top five essential oils (and how we use them).

i personally think essential oils are awesome, but at the same time, i can totally see why someone new to the essential oil scene would be turned off to the idea of them after meeting a few "essential oil people". mainly because it seems like people either dont use them at all OR they have 239847832648712 that they use 300 times a day and they insist that everyone needs all oils or theyll die. its intimidating for sure, and if youre on the budget-conscious side of things, well...
so today i want to share a short list of our 5 most used essential oils and what we use them for. this list may seem a little different than other top essential oil lists because 1. im not trying to upsell you a big "starter kit" and 2. im going to focus on the most budget friendly and multipurpose oils in our arsenal because, frankly, thats whats going to be most useful to you if youre new to oils. also, i think its really important to give a reasonable, not-crazy perspective on essential oils. 
again, in the interest of transparency: while i am very much not in the business of selling oils, i am technically a doterra wellness advocate and any purchases made through any links in this post would, in theory, earn me a commission. also, anything i say here is my own personal opinion/experience, has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease. 
so with that out of the way, what are our top five essential oils (the essential essential oils,  if you will)?
lavender.  used for: relaxation, headaches (combined with peppermint), allergies (combined with lemon and peppermint), skin healing (combined with melaleuca), and swelling. 
lemon.  used for: increasing energy, mood lifting, allergies (with lavender and peppermint), cleaning up sticky stuff, and flavoring water (note: be sure to do your research about the quality of the oils you use and the safety of ingesting them). 
peppermint.  used for: headaches, focus, allergies (with lemon and lavender), relief from fevers, and breath freshening (again with the reminder to research quality and safety). 
oregano.  used for antibacterial, immunity-boosting, and anti-inflammatory purposes. 
melaleuca.  (also known as tea tree oil) used for: skincare (especially acne!), skin healing (with lavender), cleaning, and as an antibacterial/antifungal. 
if you ask 100 different essential oil people what their favorite oils are, im sure youll get 100 different answers. these five oils are the ones that we use the most, for the most things, and are probably the ones id recommend to anyone just starting out with oils. but then again, thats my opinions. 

why minimalism?

my series on minimalist living has probably been my most popular so far. and while that  probably has a lot to do with minimalism being kind of a hot topic in the blogosphere right now, i couldnt be happier about this. why? because learning to embrace a minimalist lifestyle has been a really awesome experience for us. its been challenging, for sure. but its also been rewarding. im planning on continuing my posts on minimal living on a weekly basis (like i was before my break), but since i was gone so long, i wanted to take a few minutes to back up and talk about why weve chosen to embrace minimalism: 
so why have we decided to make these changes? 
our tiny home is not as temporary as wed originally hoped. obviously nobodys planning on keeping all four of us in this one bedroom apartment forever, but its just not practical for us to move into a bigger place (which would require me bringing in a significant second income) until after i graduate with a degree in an employable field. which wont be happening for... (at least) three semesters. if were going to make this place work (which we need to) we need to clear it out. 
we need to let go of our past baggage. james and i both came into this marriage with a LOT of baggage (both literal and figurative) that had created really unhealthy relationships with "stuff". after getting married, we moved a lot, dragging all that crap around and not dealing with it. it took us way too long to figure this out, but the biggest thing we can do to get rid of that baggage is to literally get rid of the baggage. 
we want to make a home we love. because of the past baggage and the moving a lot and the being poor, our apartment was not only disorganized and cluttered, it was cluttered with my stuff, with jamess stuff with stuff other people gave us, and with stuff we bought super cheap because we needed it right now. we had very little stuff that was ours, that we liked and we wanted, to the point that (up until fairly recently) i never felt like i was at home at any of the places we lived. and while thats not the most important thing in life, its something we need as a family. 
we want to actually use our home. when our apartment was stuffed to the gills it was nearly impossible to do well, any of the things that we actually like doing. things like games, projects, having people over, heck, even normal CHORES were difficult before we got serious about de-cluttering (and being a stay at home mom was miserable). living with less stuff gives us so much more space so that i can work and the kids can play and we can actually use the (small) space we have. 
we want to focus on the important things in life. before we got on the minimalism train, almost every activity we did involved some kind of shopping, whether it was buying things or looking at things we wanted to buy or trying to figure out where to put all the stuff we just bought. i could go on and on about why this was bad but the worst part was it kept us from spending time doing the real important things in life, like spending time together, getting outside, going on adventures, and hanging out with our friends and family. 
we dont want to be enslaved by what we own. sure, we could keep everything we have (and dont use), and move in to a bigger place so that we have room for all of it, but then wed both need to get more jobs to have the money to pay for that bigger place, leaving us with little to no time to spend with each other, let alone the stuff that we werent using that we got the bigger house to have room for. people have literally suggested this exact thing to us, and honestly it sounds like my own personal hell. 
we want to teach our kids good habits. it took james and i 24 and 26 years (respectively) to get to the point where we were ok with getting rid of stuff (mind you, that we didnt need or use or even think about), and this was definitely not a good thing. so many parts of our lives would have been much easier if we had learned to be happy living simply. living simply ourselves (we hope) will set an example for our kids so that they dont grow up with the baggage that we had. 
im going to be honest, this whole minimalism thing doesnt come easily to me or james, and our slow transition has had more than its fair share of challenges. but as we move forward (and our apartment gets emptier), the positive changes were seeing in our home, our lives, and even in ourselves, have been more rewarding than weve ever imagined. 
much like my series on money, this ones still in the planning stages as well. do you have any questions youd like answered about minimal living? let me know in the comments! 

the 15 best things to happen in 2015 (and what happened to those 2015 goals).

good morning 2016! and happy new year everyone! hope you didnt party too hard last night (not to brag, but we just had our SIXTH consecutive new years eve of going to bed early because at least half of the family was sick). 
after yesterdays totally downer post, and before i jump into the legitimately awesome stuff i want to do i wanted to take a minute to reflect on all the great things that happened over the last year, as well as catch up the goals i made at the beginning of 2015, so that we can start moving forward from a nice clean slate. and, what better day to do it than new years day? none, obviously. 
moving on to our first order of business, lets get to the 15 best things to happen in 2015: 
1. we had a baby! not only does this mean im not pregnant anymore, but we also got a really cool baby! and i got to give him a totally ridiculous name without anyone noticing how ridiculous it is (except, like, my mom. she knew EXACTLY how ridiculous it is).
2. i got to collaborate on a rap song! no, im not kidding. my favorite rapper mc lars asked twitter about hipster mom stuff and when i (obviously) had the best answers we emailed a bit and he actually used a lot of my suggestions in his song hipster mom. 
3. i got a trophy in pattern making class! pattern making class was NOT easy (for a variety of reasons) but my teacher pushed us all REALLY hard to do the best we could and when i made the largest collection of the class (11 pieces!) she totally recognized my effort. (sidenote, i never did sports so this is probably the literal first time ive ever gotten a trophy). 
4. we bought all new bedroom furniture! for the first time, our bedroom is cute and functional and filled with stuff we like! and it only took a million trips to ikea and a medium amount of fighting!
5. we went on our first ever family trip! when my childhood best friend got married at a gorgeous but pretty out of the way park, we made it a weekend trip and it was pretty awesome. 
6. alice got tall enough to go on big rides at disneyland! also, her hitting 40 inches coincided perfectly with her turning four so she had a VERY special birthday this year. 
7. james worked at target during christmas time so all our christmas shopping was at least 15% off! honestly, im pretty bummed target doesnt pay enough for us to live off of, because i already miss that discount. 
8. my guts totally calmed down! remember how i used to have like a million food allergies? well now its down to literally only gluten! for a long time i couldnt tolerate too much corn or soy but guess who can have (moderate amounts of) regular soda and tofu? thats right, me. 
9. everybody totally killed it on christmas gifts this year! james got me a boxed set of harry potter books, i got him a bunch of clothes from american apparel, and we managed to get alice ALL of the things she asked for this year. 
10. james and i both embraced minimal living and we got rid of tons of stuff! ive lost count of how many loads weve taken to the thrift store, and theres no signs of them slowing down any time soon. 
11. i got As in all three classes i took this year! which means my GPA since coming back is a solid 4.0! (well see if i can pull my cumulative GPA high enough to graduate with honors though...). 
12. we had some pretty big milestones in the family. my youngest sister turned 13, my brother turned 18 AND graduated high school, and my other sister turned 21. there were a LOT of great parties in 2015. 
13. we saw my favorite band play my favorite record! and i only cried a little. and maybe that was mainly because i was pregnant...
14. james and i celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary! we didnt have the money to do anything crazy so we just went out to dinner, but still, thats a lot of anniversaries. 
15. james leveled up to a level six apprentice! which means he only has two more levels before he journeys out and we never have to deal with this apprenticeship process ever again!
so while 2015 DEFINITELY had WAY more than its fair share of bad times, it had its good times too. and we cant forget about those good times. 
now, what about those goals i set at the beginning of the year? well, in retrospect "focus" was a GREAT choice in a word for the year, but pairing it with 43098574983 little goals was NOT a great decision. i figured out midway through the year that i had spread myself too thin and it just wasnt realistic to do ALL of those things anyway. but, in the spirit of finishing what i started (something ive never been good at but would like to master), heres the final tally: 
i did: solidify my blogs brand and content, blog consistently (for the 2/3 of the year i was blogging), schedule my posts in advance, collaborate with other bloggers, vend at 3 craft fairs, experiment with new designs, have more family time, purge and simplify our home, buy a new bed/mattress, replace the hi-fi in the living room, improve my credit score, get straight As in school, and experiment more in the kitchen. 
i did not: apply for any of the patchwork shows, turn my fabric stash into inventory, go one one "real date" per month, start consistently homeschooling, stick to a reasonable budget, get 1/2 way to our goal emergency fund, or maintain a part time income with jamberry. 
so, looking at the big picture (not one of my strengths but im working on it) i did a LOT more than i didnt do, and we did have an unreasonable hard year. and i learned a lot about goal setting, so thats what really matters i guess. 
now, on to 2016! stay tuned for monday when i talk about my word for 2016 and what i have planned for us as we start the new year! 

benedict harris meyers.

the meyers family is very happy to announce that our son, benedict harris meyers was born on july 4th at 4:39 pm. benedict made his arrival a bit earlier than expected, but still weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long. and as you can clearly see, he is absolutely perfect: 

i hope you dont mind, but im going to spare you (and me) the long, dramatic, gory, detailed birth story and go with the short version instead: 

benedicts birth didnt go exactly as planned, after a scheduled cesarean with alice we had hoped for a VBAC, naturally if possible. i did go into labor on my own and well, labor was very long and slow and unproductive. so we still got the VBAC, just a very augmented and medicated one. which i am totally 100% ok with because, i mean: 

benedict is an absolutely delightful baby. he eats and sleeps like a champ and is very content to just go along with whatever the rest of us are doing. everyone (alice and cats included) is adjusting nicely to life as a family of four, and i still cant get over how much faster and easier my recovery has been this time around. 
now, as far as blog things are concerned, i had scheduled myself a few weeks of "maternity leave" so that i could work on the finishing touches of my rebrand/relaunch in september. since my due date was the 13th i had big plans for getting everything for july and august scheduled before anything baby-related started to happen. but since benedict came so early (and technically my labor process started at the end of june...) i only got most of the way there. so while the next few weeks might have a post or two missing, i do have some great guest posts coming up, as well as some big exciting things happening in september when i come back from my break. 
we spent our fourth of july weekend in the hospital, what did you do over your holiday? 

life lately + our june goal progress.

its officially july now. we are over half way through this year. i am definitely having a baby this month. this is absolutely insane. 
im happy to say that besides the obvious and expected pregnancy junk (not being able to get us out of the house much, spending a lot of time at the doctors office, and totally botching fathers day), june has been a pretty pleasant month. it had its stressful times: the first half of the month james was either out of town working or working terribly late, which happened to be right in the middle of our apartment being all torn up and discombobulated as we finished some big home projects. but, as usual, things eventually smoothed out. 
while there isnt a whole lot of exciting things to report for june, it turned out to be a nice month, we got a lot done, had a lot of fun, and i think were all enjoying this little window of me not working/being in school and not having a newborn in the house yet. 
and what about those 2015 goals? heres where we are now: 
blog goals. 
all things here are going great! i made junes entire editorial calendar in advance, and didnt miss a single post! also, the rebrand is in full swing, and im really excited about everything that im working on (that im actually going to talk more about later because theres kind of a lot). 
shop goals. 
obviously, with the baby coming so soon, im kind of on a break here. but the blog rebrand is inspiring a bit of a shop rebrand also, and i have actually been working on the design portion of both the kids line and the womens tops. plus now that ive taken the time to get to know my new serger, im doing a LOT more sewing (which is awesome!). 
family goals. 
weve had to be a lot more careful in our planning, but (especially after james being gone so much) weve made taking alice out for family time a major priority, and its been really great. alice has also gotten REALLY curious about numbers and letters again, so im doing my best to get some kind of educational activity included in each day, even if its not formal "schooling". also, james and i did go on one last date (probably) before the baby comes. 
home goals. 
aside from hitting a bit of a snag with the crib that we ordered, our home goals for the year are basically done. we're done with the furniture, took another carload of stuff to goodwill, and have reached the point where were re-going through things and fine-tuning the organization of the apartment. 
financial goals. 
things here are kind of floppy-floppy. weve spent more time talking about our budget issues and figuring out what/where we can do better, so were making progress there, but since the busy season of work only JUST started, our savings account hasnt seen any growth (though, in retrospect, i should have made a more specific, incremental plan for the savings account). 
personal goals. 
im all registered for next semester (and im only taking one class, so i really hope getting good grades isnt an issue...) and doing surprisingly well with trying out new things in the kitchen (especially considering how pregnant/just wanting to eat frozen pizza i am these days). also, ive reached an official decision when it comes to jamberry: i wont be continuing my job as a consultant for much longer. obviously ill talk more about this decision (and the reasons behind it) later, and i will run one last party at catalog change (late august/early september), but for now i will say that while it wasnt an easy decision, it was one that needed to be made. 
so theres our goal progress for the month. did you make big goals for 2015? how are they going? 

a black and white shower for baby meyers.

this past saturday, my mom and sister threw baby meyers a sweet little backyard baby shower. the quite-possibly-most-un-baby-showerest-baby-shower ever. which, is precisely what i wanted seeing as how im just not into the typical baby shower routine. 

as always, my family never disappoints there was no pink and blue, no baby decor, no silly games, and no long, awkward present opening. since we dont know babys gender (and this is me were talking about) the theme for the party was black and white, with the main decor throughout the party being fabric buntings: 

square tablecloths, and dainty little flower arrangements (which my sister put together entirely from things that were recycled/from the local salvage fabric store): 

it was all so cute and perfect but also really simple and not distracting from the really important part of the party (the part that i, the pregnant woman, really cared about): the food. remember how my mom works at an olive oil store? (in case you didnt and you live in the los angeles area you really need to check it out), for drinks there was a sparkling water bar with fruit and flavored balsamic vinegars to make custom sodas: 

and a popcorn bar with assorted olive oils and fancy salts: 

(yes, we totally did the exact same thing at my birthday party, but the make your own fancy popcorn is ALWAYS a hit)

then once all the guests had arrived, we had lunch. which, again because this was me were talking about, was pizza. but keeping with the "make your own food" theme that kind of happened, it was build your own pizzas. my mom had par-baked a huge batch of individually sized crusts (and bought a few pre-made gluten free crusts for the few of us that required them), put out a huge spread of toppings: 

and then (why oh whyyyyyy do i not have a picture of this part?) GRILLED THEM ON THE FIRE PIT. as far as parties at my moms house go (which, are typically some very high quality parties) this was probably the best food to ever happen at one. 

since lunch was pretty exciting/ambitious, dessert was really simple, just cupcakes, BUT im putting this here to draw attention to the little flags: that i designed on illustrator to match the invitations even though it was really really hard to do without some kind of template:

ok, and i kind of lied about there being no activities. there was one activity. there was a gender pool, which my sister set up in the cutest way possible: 

heres how it worked: for $5 guests could place a bet on what gender baby meyers would be (hence the two jars, one for girl bets and one for boy bets), the bet slips also had a spot to fill in babys weight, and whoever guesses the correct gender AND weight (without going over, price is right rules over here), wins all the money bet on that gender. losing bets go to the house (in which case, is us and our soon to be endless need of diapers). 

now, i dont have much of an inclination (or preference, honestly) about this babys gender, so it was pretty amusing watching everyone discuss their theories about what the baby is and why, but... it DOES seem like the majority of the votes went into the "boy" jar: 

so, well just have to see about that. 

now, OF COURSE as soon as people started showing up i started to get super overwhelmed and distracted (it was hot, im nine months pregnant and i dont do well with parties, ok?), and i dont have any pictures of our guests enjoying the party (this is precisely why i am not an event photographer or professional journalist of any kind). BUT i do have some new family portraits of the three of us: 

and a few snapshots i stole from a variety of instagrams: 

via @mrswhitecandlesticklibrary

via @em.aee

via @sandsink

even thought the shower itself was short and sweet and mellow and fun, it was exhausting. but in the end, i (well, we) are very, very thankful. for my mom and sister for all the work they did to throw and host the shower, for all the friends and family (especially those that came from far away) who came to celebrate, and for the kindness and generosity that resulted in literally 908 diapers (among other gifts both thoughtful and practical):

ok baby, NOW you can be born...

9 reasons why i am the worst pregnant lady ever.

ive been called a lot of bad things in my lifetime (as im sure most people have), but none of them has ever been truer than when my sister declared me the "worst. pregnant lady. ever." and well, this is a title that i just cant argue with. not even one little bit. because you know what? i do totally suck at this whole pregnancy thing. why exactly? well...

1. i dont do belly pictures. some women feel really confident and attractive during pregnancy. i am not one of those women. i feel like a fat, bloated, greasy whale with about three outfits that fit and i do not want to remember (or be remembered for) looking the way i look now. honestly, im pretty dang shocked at how many pictures of me exist from this pregnancy considering there are exactly three remaining from when i was pregnant with alice. 

2. i dont do "bumpdates". yeah, i know im technically a mom blogger. and im pregnant. but i havent been posting my cravings and symptoms or the status of my belly button or a running tab of my weight gain because frankly, thats nobodys business. also, spoiler alert from a somewhat experienced pregnancy haver: very little changes from week to week and basically all pregnancies are the same. 

3. no gender. were not finding out the gender of this baby. we didnt do it with alice and we wont do it with any future kids we may or may not have. why? because i think its super fun and i like having a big surprise to look forward to at the end of all this. also, there was a somewhat traumatic incident when i was seven where my mom was told for certain that she was having a girl and we were very excited and prepared for a new baby sister named sarah but she turned out to be my brother andrew. i would rather not repeat this scenario. 

4. no names. obviously since we dont know the gender, we havent named this baby in advance. we do have a boy name and girl name picked that we think are pretty solid, but were not telling what they are. partially because of the possibility of situations like the above example of my brother (or the lady i knew once who had baby shower invites printed with the babys name, and then changed her mind before the shower even happened), and partially because once you start letting name ideas out, everyone has something negative to say about the name you picked and tries to get you to use THEIR name idea that you hate. im just not even going to play that game this time. 

5. im really not that into baby stuff. i think ive mentioned my baby registry before, right? in case i havent, its basically just diapers and grey pajamas and a few higher-end appliances that would be nice to have but i really dont care that much about getting. why? because we already have WAY more baby stuff than we need. honestly, i just cleaned out the newborn stuff we were storing at my moms and am considering taking the pajamas off the registry because actually were totally set on clothes. and as for buying things/making the nursery/getting ready for baby? im 36 weeks now and we JUST started...

6. actually i dont even like babies that much. look, i LOVE being a mom, its what ive always wanted to do and generally speaking its pretty awesome. that being said, i honestly dont get whats so great about new babies. i mean, theyre small, which is cute, but they dont do much for a really, really long time. toddlers, on the other hand? toddlers are super fun. im REALLY excited about having another toddler in the house in about a year. (not sarcasm)

7. all this attention makes me really uncomfortable. if it were up to me, we wouldnt have even announced this pregnancy until i started showing up places with an already born baby. why? because the second people know youre pregnant they start getting way up in your business and i am not ok with this at all. im getting a TON of REALLY rude, invasive, and totally inappropriate questions and comments from everyone everywhere i go (dont even get me STARTED on the things people have been asking me at church every week). thankfully i look like a mean, scary person so i havent had to deal with much unwanted belly touching (still not an ok thing to do EVER, just FYI). 

8. i really, really do not enjoy being pregnant. pregnancy tends to get represented as this joyous, exciting, rainbows and unicorns good time where women glow and feel fantastic, and while sure, that stuff is in there sometimes, the majority of it is really weird, gross, and uncomfortable. some of us do not glow. some of us spend approximately 40 weeks sick, tired, and in a lot of pain. i am totally 100% one of those people and im not going to pretend i feel great or am enjoying this process. unfortunately, this is very much the wrong answer to everyone who asks how im feeling and then tries to convince me that i should LOVE being pregnant...

9. honestly, id rather talk about anything else. a new baby is always a big exciting thing and obviously theres lots to talk about: how the pregnancy is going, the fun projects im working on, what were going to do when the babys here, which honestly i dont mind at all. but since im pregnant, all anyone wants to talk about ever is pregnancy and babies (mine or their own or someone they know or stuff they read or whatever). i have literally no idea whats going on in the lives of most people i know (also, i now know WAY too much that i dont want to know about people i barely know), because 99% of conversations i get involved in are about babies and the remaining conversations that i initiate about other topics turn into conversations about babies... i would just really like to talk about something else, ok? 

am i excited about growing our little family? absolutely. do i realize that this whole post made me sound like a huge jerk? of course. its just, im not all that into pregnancy, and im a much, much bigger fan of the baby-living-outside-of-my-body part of this whole having kids thing. 

thoughts on pregnancy, the second time around.

ive been meaning to write this post for a long time, but i kept pushing it back as i realized just how huge and complex of a thing pregnancy is, and how depending on the day, my feelings about it vary pretty wildly. especially when you take into consideration that theres my thoughts/feelings about pregnancy in general, my personal experiences, and this particular pregnancy. i really wasnt sure what i wanted to say or how i wanted to say it or if i really needed to say anything at all but with just a few short weeks (actually, only about a month!) left, and having not really talked about pregnancy at all over here, i figured it was about time to take a minute and share whats been going on in my mind about going through pregnancy for the second time: 

its the same. physically, this pregnancy has been very similar to my pregnancy with alice: i was so, so sick for the first four/four and a half months, had terrible insomnia for the middle part and now that were at the end, im exhausted, in lots of pain, and my weight gain is getting way out of control. honestly the only noticeable difference ive seen is that last time i got terrible skin and awesome hair, where this time i got awesome skin (like, clearer and smoother than its EVER been at any not-pregnant time of my life) and the worst hair. 

but its different. when i was pregnant with alice i was mainly alone: living in a small, unfamiliar town with no job, friends, family, or hobbies, and this time, i have a lot more going on, and its things that i actually like: school, blogging, jamberry, disneyland (plus, i already have a kid to take care of). while at times this has made things harder or more tiring, its also been so much easier mentally and emotionally to have other things besides pregnancy to occupy my mind/time. 

im trying harder. with alice, i really didnt try hard at all to be healthy, active, or prepared to be a parent, i kind of just assumed everything would take care of itself and id be fine. for the most part, it did, but at the same time it made recovery and adjusting to life with a baby much harder than it needed to be. this time ive put way more effort into improving myself, my lifestyle, and our home for the new baby. 

but im also not trying so hard. at least where it comes to shedding my personality and interests in favor of "mom" things. i havent changed how i look or dress or act or any of my life goals to try and be more "mom-ly" the way i did last time. on the one hand this is scary because i really do wonder if ill ever have more than one mom friend, but on the other, its pretty liberating to not be trying so hard to fit in with the other moms, because i know i never really will. 

im more confident. this time i know that i just prefer to be more private about things than is typically expected of pregnant women, and im much more comfortable standing up for myself about the things weve chosen to do differently than the norm (like not finding out the gender or sharing our name choices or moving to a bigger apartment) or giving an honest response to unsolicited advice/opinions, which i was never able to do when i was pregnant with alice. 

but im still terrified. i know alice is three and a half, very smart, very healthy, generally well behaved, and definitely 100% still alive, but that does not change one bit that i spend every second questioning my ability to care for a baby and raise it into a decent human adult without messing everything up. 

im more prepared. last time i didnt buy anything until the last minute and as a result really made a lot of poor registry/purchasing decisions. this time ive actually researched what kinds of things we want/need and even bought my maternity clothes, nursing bras, and stretch mark cream in advance so that i already had them when i needed them. 

just kidding im totally not prepared at all. have i ever mentioned that alice was c-sectioned out long before i went into anything remotely resembling labor? i have literally no experience with contractions, or labor or birth or any of the gross things that go along with that, just the worlds most boring c-section. so yeah, i have no idea whats going to happen here, and i have like, a month, tops, before i find out. 

so yeah, thats whats going on in my mind right now. what are you up to these days? 

life lately + our may goal progress.

is it really june? are we really almost halfway through this year? it cant be, can it? the calendar says it is, so it must be true. it seems like i just wrote the last life lately post but here we are again, checking in on how things went in may. 

i have to be completely honest here: may was a rough month all around. im going to blame this mainly on pregnancy and that ive reached the point where everything is too hard. im tired, im hungry, im swollen, everything hurts, generally speaking i feel like crap and cant do much of anything. plus, you know, i still have a life and family to take care of. and well, there has been a lot to take care of this month: the semester ended and (of course) james was sent out of town the week of my finals. the following week james had school and no one to carpool with so alice and i spent five days waking up at 5 and spending way too much time in the car. i have a lot of doctor appointments to go to these days and alice has just about had it with going with me to doctor appointments. 

thats not to say may didnt have its moments, i mean, the semester is over, and (especially in the last week or so) weve had some great opportunities to have fun with all sorts of family and friends. may wasnt a bad month, it was just a hard month. a hard month that just didnt feel productive, especially where our long-term goals were concerned. actually, in a lot of ways, i felt like this month was really counterproductive in a lot of areas, but after looking over our main goals for the year (you know, the big goals revolving around my "word for the year", focus), we didnt really do so bad. we just had our struggles, but, i guess thats just how it goes when you make big long term goals rather then mile long to-do lists. and i mean, not every month can be april, can it? 

so how are things progressing? 

blog goals: 

aside from missing a few posts in the beginning of may due to finals/james working out of town, ive been doing much better with content, planning, and working in advance. ive also even been able to move beyond stronger branding in my content to working on stronger branding in my branding. so far ive done major updates on my social media pages (you can check them out on Facebook, twitter, and instagram), and if you havent noticed, the new site design is live (thanks chrissy!). so may was a good month for blogging. 

shop goals. 

unfortunately, may was not a good month for the shop. being exhausted and feeling poopy all the time (coupled with having a lot to take care of) resulted in: 1. missing the application dates for the two craft fairs i wanted to do in june, 2. not even touching my new serger to make new product of any kind. on the bright side though, i have a very nice list of projects to work on eventually. 

family goals. 

james and i actually got another date, two months in a row! and while our idea of "family time" has had to shift as my size/energy levels continue to get in the way, weve had some good times as we try to adjust to end of pregnancy/having a newborn type family activities, like ice cream dates and long afternoons at costco so i dont have to go to the grocery store every week. i havent had much energy to work on anything "formal" with alice at all, but weve been talking more about letter sounds and numbers and suddenly shes very curious about math and science, so, in a way, shes gotten a whole lot more serious about homeschooling herself as i find the answers to all her questions. 

home goals. 

i honestly wanted to mark this one up as a huge fail because were having some major trouble getting our old dressers sold so that we can get the new dressers/baby furniture in, but then i realized that wasnt even part of our original goal plan for the year. weve got the living room fixed up, the new bed all taken care of, AND were getting really close to running out of stuff to go through/get rid of (have i mentioned that there are entirely empty shelves in some parts of the apartment? its glorious). so home goals are actually going great. 

financial goals. 

ok, this is another spot where were struggling: not only is jamess income just not consistent enough right now to get on a good "budget plan", but were also in a weird transition of figuring this out with me not being able to do a lot of what i normally do to keep expenses down, as well as anticipating the changes well face as a family of four. also, while our savings account has been holding steady for a while, its about to take a hit as there are some bigger (totally necessary) baby-related expenses coming. on the bright side, we have tried a lot harder this month to break the bad spending habits wed fallen into, so the spending side of things is getting better. 

personal goals. 

ive already mentioned that the semester ended, but i didnt mention that the grades HAVE been posted and i did get a 4.0 again this semester! ive also been way more adventurous in the kitchen, and actually made a legitimate part-time income with jamberry in may (though, its permanence as my part-time job is still in question). 

so, long story short: may was hard. may was not a big exciting month for goal progress. but progress was made, and were ready to make more baby steps next month. 

did you make yearly goals for 2015? how are they going so far?