marriage | Living My Full Life

Hello and happy Tuesday! I just wanted to pop in and share some things that have been making me happy lately. I’m just going to jump right in!

Lola with yarn

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Lola isn’t a typical dog in that she doesn’t like to play–not with toys, people, or dogs. Her favorite things are food, laying on the couch, and taking long walks. I was super surprised when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law came over last week to teach me how to crochet and Lola was transfixed by the yarn. She didn’t do anything, but I could tell she was enthralled. The next day, she came inside after her morning bathroom break and ran over to my ball of yarn and started ripping it apart and playing with it! It was the cutest thing.

Date nights

Before Jimmy and I were married, we went on dates a few times a month because we only saw each other on the weekends. Now that we’re married and living together, we’re with each other all the time (yay!), but we tend to focus on house work or other activities in our free time. We went on a date night over the weekend for the first time in months, and it was spectacular. We used a gift card we were given for Red Lobster and then browsed around some local stores. Catching up over a meal we didn’t have to cook or clean up after was lovely, and we had a blast window shopping! Must do that more often 🙂

Doodling

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I’ve been doodling each morning when I write in my journal and read my Bible. It’s a fun way to relax and express creativity. Also, I want a cat.

Enjoying the great outdoors

It’s so easy to stay cooped up in the winter when it’s cold outside. Thankfully I have Lola to give me the please walk me now look, which gets us outside each day. Even if we’re only out for ten minutes, I always feel great afterwards. Fresh air works wonders!

Work

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I got to work from home (kind of!) for the first time last week. The family I work for is having their house renovated, so their kitchen is currently out of commission. I typically bake and cook for them each week, so I made some food in my kitchen and then dropped it off at their house. I made granola, bread, chili, meatballs, homemade pasta sauce, and spaghetti. The only downfall? I was totally unmotivated to cook dinner for Jimmy and I that night, haha.

Indoor gardening

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Last month, I mentioned that Jimmy and I bought new windows for our house. Jimmy, stud that he is, made a special windowsill in our kitchen for me to start an herb (and palm tree, ha) garden! I planted basil, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, parsley, and chives. Everything is starting to grow, and it makes me incredibly happy. I’m already dreaming of gardening outside in a few months. Can’t wait!

What’s making you happy lately?

Hi there! Well, it’s been quite some time since I last blogged. Actually, I just looked at the date and noticed it has been exactly four months. How weird! I totally didn’t plan that, haha.

When I stopped blogging, I didn’t specifically plan on taking a break, I just let it fall to the wayside and focused more on everything else going on in my life. Looking back, I probably should have written a post saying something instead of just dropping off the face of the internet. Sorry, guys! I wasn’t sure if I would come back to this space, or if I had become too busy to blog or write. Over time, I realized that writing has always been a huge part of who I am, and blogging is one of my favorite ways to record my life, express creativity, and reflect on everything going on in and around me. I hope I will never become “too busy” to write because it is the easiest way I express and evaluate myself.

Anyways, I’m back! Four months feels like an eternity, and I have never stepped away from my blog for such a long period of time. I have some catching up and updating to do. I feel refreshed and renewed after the long break. I’m also feeling much more focused. I’ve always been pretty random in my posting, but I’m hoping to be at least a little more organized from now on.

A lot has happened since April! Jimmy and I turned this…

Into this…

According to our neighbors, the previous owners of our home used to have a rockin’ garden. We decided to try and follow in their footsteps and have had wonderful results. We actually planted way, way, way too much haha. I’ll blog about the garden another time because I could go on for hours!

Jimmy and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary at Savage River Lodge in Frostburg, Maryland. We even brought Lola along for the celebration :). It was wonderful to spend a weekend reflecting on a year of marriage in such a beautiful setting.

I spent a lot of time taking pictures of Hannah over the past few months to practice my photography. I ended up taking senior pictures for her and her best friend. I don’t claim to know much about photography, but I enjoy learning more every time I look through my lens and take another photo.

My family graciously took Jimmy, Lola, and I to the Outer Banks last week, so that was awesome. Some time away from work and responsibility was just what we all needed. Since moving out of my parent’s house, I’ve missed my family a lot, so having a week with everyone together again was a tremendous blessing.

Other happenings for me since April include plenty of working and pet sitting. Previously, I never really discussed the specifics of my “regular” job. I was hired as a household manager for a family of four in January. Basically, I run errands, grocery shop, cook, clean, take care of their pets, occasionally nanny, and do any other random tasks that they need me to do. I love my job, and the family I work for is very good to me. I won’t go into too much detail about my job because I respect my employer’s privacy, but I figured it’s okay for me to at least say what I do for a living, haha.

Pet sitting has also been keeping me super busy. I adore every single second of it, too. I’ve only had one bad incident where a dog I was watching in our home bit Lola on the nose. Poor little gal. Since then, I’ve been focusing on pet sitting outside the home more often.

I’m sure I’m forgetting about a million other things that have happened since I last blogged, but I’ll probably remember and post about them eventually.

It feels good to be back. The main things I want to focus on and blog about nowadays are life (as always!), faith, photography, dog sitting, book reviews, and some fun writing topics and prompts. I used to blog a lot about fitness and food, but my interestes have changed over time. I’m always going to stay true to myself and blog about what is interesting to me because I feel that naturally produces quality writing, you know?

Okay, this post is getting super long so I’m going to go and try to catch up a bit on everyone’s blogs in the next few days :). Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon!