Hello and good morning from a cozy spot and a cluttered mind! I’m in my Christmas pajamas, sipping from my Christmas gnome mug, under a plaid blanket, with my favorite Christmas candle lit. And instead of getting any cohesive post out, I feel the need to go rapid fire and empty my mind, so are you up for a quick chat?

Picture we ran into each other at the local coffee shop and you casually asked for a life update and I blurted out these little life tidbits at you before giving you a hug as we both ran along to attend to our days, because that can be what real life catch up looks like during this season of life and time of the year, right? While that’s totally something I would do, I would certainly ask you the same, so if you have little life updates to share, hit me with them in the comments!

We decorated for Christmas. But I kind of gave that away in my intro, did I not? This weekend was our only open days to decorate and now I’m so glad we went ahead and made it happen because it feels SO cozy! It’s a wonderful experience with a tween and a teen and a handy husband because we took it on as a team. David hung garland, the girls tackled the tree, and I headed up the little trinkets and decorative details. I can’t wait to give you a tour!

I recently read this Wellness Mama Article and thought it was fantastic. Maybe because I’ve followed Katie for so long and we’ve kind of grown together through the health and wellness space, but a lot of what she said resonated with me and my current beliefs about what healthy living looks like. Here’s an excerpt:

I still believe in real, whole foods, but I also believe in flexibility. I eat seasonally, choose foods grown close to home when possible, and pay attention to how I feel after meals instead of following strict rules. I’ve learned that true wellness isn’t about perfection or restriction, it’s about resilience. The healthiest people I know are the ones who can travel, share a meal with friends, and enjoy food with gratitude instead of guilt. My current philosophy: food should fuel, heal, and bring joy, not fear.

Meeting to try and establish a new GYN. I need a new doc in our new town and I’m meeting with a potential one today! We will be discussing perimenopause. This probably deserves an entire post on its own, but the quick version is that I’ve been noticing some things that make me raise an eyebrow- mood changes, skin changes, etc. Emotionally it’s hard for me to even say perimenopause because I still feel like I’m 28 and if I’m being honest, it makes me feel old. But I’m also all for optimizing health in every life stage and want to educate myself on what’s available to help me feel my best and thrive during this next decade. I found this podcast to be helpful and insightful in you’re in a similar place.

David starting on peptides for his knee. He’s had issues with his knees for years (yay for intense soccer during his youth). He’s had an ACL repair in one and a medial meniscus tear in the other. We met with a functional health doctor in Asheville last week and it was a great experience. We went over his lab work in detail, discussed options (scope, PRP, etc) and ultimately decided he was a good candidate for the Wolverine protocol, a peptide therapy that combines two peptides, BPC-157 and TB-500, to accelerate injury healing and tissue regeneration. He’s excited about it and I’ll let you know how it goes in a few weeks.

I just love your girls. I worry this might sound obnoxiously braggy, but I’ve been on the receiving end of this compliment twice over the past week and it makes my mama heart beam. Raising kind-hearted, helpful, positive, resilient, respectful, confident kids is something we’ve worked really hard at. Seeing them embody these traits as they grow and weaving these core values into their own personalities is just awesome. We are so proud of the young ladies they are becoming.

Friendsgiving. We had a Friendsgiving gathering our Saturday with our neighborhood friends crew. I brought David’s chili in my travel slow cooker (so handy) and we enjoyed several hours of connection while the kids ran around playing sardines. One thing we were hoping for with this move was for a connection with our community and we lucked out so much.

Solar panels are up. But not yet turned on. Hopefully this week! This has been David’s focus for months upon months now, doing research, going back and forth with the power company, understanding the system and now it’s installed! The hope is that is will act as our generator for times of power loss, and we will have the ability to sell power back to the grid, too. David is really psyched about it and I’m psyched that I won’t lose all the meat in my deep freezer if the power goes out.

The chickens are 22 weeks. No eggs yet. And now I’m wondering if we will we get eggs this late fall//winter? Or will they wait until spring when more daylight returns? Only time will tell! While David would like them to start paying some rent, I just love having them so much. When I let them out in the evenings, I just sit and watch them peck and it makes me feel so happy and relaxed. I am going to do their first big coop clean out this week so we’ll see if I’m just as enamored after that or not 😉

The power of rugs. I finally got a wool rug for under our bed and even though it just adds a foot or two around the bed, it really warms up the space. I also moved my fiddle leaf fig into a corner and with a plant and a rug it’s feeling so much cozier! Next up… lamps.

Tech week. Somehow along the way I became a musical theater mom, with both girls in productions this fall. This week is “tech week,” which means between our drive to the arts center and the dedicated rehearsal times for each kid, we will be out of the house 6 hours each afternoon and evening this week. I thought I’d try to be on top of it and make dinner to pack but now that it’s here I’m thinking… how’s CAVA, Chipotle, Whole Foods pizza, and Viva Chicken sound as a weekly dinner line up instead? 🤔

And this is when the big coffee shop hug comes in where I apologize for throwing all those things at you rapid fire and sincerely ask when we can find a time to sit next to a fire together in comfy clothes and catch up on all of life’s happenings in more detail as I wish you a really good week and remind you how much I appreciate you as we both head to our cars. <3