Self Improvement Project

I am beginning to realize that I have lost a bit of my groove.  I mean, life is seriously good, I have no real honest to goodness complaints.  Just a little bit of life, laziness, and lack of routine have taken their toll over the past couple of years and I want to be the best version of myself for a multitude of reasons.  I am taking a pro-active approach to finding said groove and finding it fast.

Here’s my plan:

-Take time to pursue things that interest me.  Last night I started a “flower arranging from the home garden” class and I was kid on the first day of the school year excited and it totally lived up to my expectations!  Me and the adorable 60ish year old lady I sat with walked to our cars cooing about how nice it was to do something totally for fun and random and that was all for us.  Next up I really want to learn to play the banjo!  And you know what, I am going to.

-Slow down.  I think I need to do more yoga or find my center or something because I always have about 20 bruises and cuts and bumps from banging into things throughout the day.  I’m moving too fast, not taking my time to enjoy the act.  Even if its as simple as getting a roll of paper towels from the laundry room, I am acting in too much of a hurry and its draining.

-Get in shape & push my exercise comfort zone.  I know that this is cliche and this is by no means meant to be read as “get skinny for summer.”  I want to be strong and fit and capable.  My sister, Sean and I have been running the same loop from where we currently live, to the site of the house we’re building, up a couple hills and down a couple hills and through the village and back to our house and we recently found out that it is 3.5 miles! I am so NOT  runner and its still really really hard but I’m doing it! Boom! I want to take this further though and push myself.  I am aiming for being able to run 5 miles by the end of summer.

-Drink one (read: one!) glass of wine a day.  For health, of course.

-Eat clean and eat for long term health (most of the time).  Up until very recently I had been a vegetarian (but ate fish) for about 5 years and lately I have really been re-thinking my dietary choices and putting a focus on local and seasonal foods.  I still don’t eat much meat but I’ve actually been feeling physically better eating the occasional free range chicken breast.  I am looking so forward to living literally 20 steps from the local farmers market once our house is finished!!

I hope you guys will keep me accountable!

Italian Job

I fell hard for this little Italian number at a winery over the weekend. I know it’s true love because I can’t get her off my mind. Che Bella!

Daydreaming: Beach Cabin Getaway

I am seriously DYING for a vacation.  Between Sean’s rigorous paramedic school/real life working schedule, I feel like its been a really long time since we have been able to take an honest to goodness string of days off to go somewhere.  And if he gets hired on a fire department full time, it could be another year of probation and not being able to take time off.  I’m really hoping there is a week or two in between for some kind of getaway.  I would be so happy with just stealing away with all of my favorite people, a blender, & a swimsuit and heading to a cute little cabin on the beach like this for couple days.  I’d spend my days sleeping in and waking up to the sound of the waves, alternate between reading, swimming,  and sleeping in the sun during the afternoon, consume way too many calories in fruity blended drinks, and play cards every night. Its perfection!  Whose ready to go???

Timing is everything.

If i have learned one thing from my 20s, and the 20s associated rat race, it is that timing is EVERYTHING.  That and that God is great, beer (and wine) is good, and people are crazy!  This makes it seem as though everything you need to learn in your 20s can be learned by listening to country music…

Anyhow, back to timing… Timing has saved our butts so so many times.  Protected us from ourselves. Kept us from making huge mistakes.  Caused us to make some mistakes that turned out to not be mistakes at all.  If we had gotten everything that we thought we wanted when we wanted it, I don’t even know where we’d be right now.  We probably would have lost a house or worse.  My husband would probably still be trapped in a sales job he hated. I might’ve not gotten the experience I needed in a bigger city and would have had a really hard time getting my first break in my small town.  I had this revelation yesterday that this opportunity to build a house is way more than I ever even hoped for.  Six months ago I wanted to so desperately to buy a 2 bedroom house built in 1889 that was basically falling down for 75k more than they were asking for it!  Thank God timing had my  back on that one.

The take home here is that I am so thankful that things worked out the way they did and that the timing all came together for us to build this house.  My mom and Brian and Sean and I were just talking about how the market has already changed so much in just 6 months that we didn’t think we’d have been able to do this if we were starting to look for lots today. Weird right?

Did I mention my mom & step-dad (to be referred to as Brian from  here on out) started building?!?  They did.  I am going to post about their lot and progress ASAP.

Falling in love all over again.

Were getting so close guys!  So close.  I am hopeful that by the end of the month there will have been some work done on the lot.  At the very least, hopefully the forest of weeds will be gone.  We close on our loan in a couple days & the city is working on our final plan check revisions. Eeeeeeeee!!!!

Now that the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end is near, I am getting excited all over again about the things that made us fall in love with our little lot in the first place:

The opportunity to have a nice back deck with a little view of the downtown area where we can entertain and watch the sun go down with a glass of wine in the evenings!

The proximity to the farmers market one block away and the cute market basket possibilities that go along with said proximity:)

Having a safe place for our kitties to roam a little outside and bask in the sunlight of the big windows we have planned inside.  I could spend an hour just daydreaming about our kitties sitting on the ledge of the dutch doors staring outside….its gonna be so presh!

Pretty darn excited to have a couple cozy rooms to offer to our friends and family who come to visit in place of the couch and/or motorhome accommodations we currently have to offer.  Pretty sure said friends/family are with me on this one!

The biggest and best thing about the lot is how close it is to my family.  We are basically down the street from my mom and stepdad (who are also building a house!!!) and even closer to my dad’s house.  My best friend is about a mile away…walk to met in the middle for coffee distance perfection.  For those of you who aren’t friends and family and are reading this, two years ago my husband and I moved from a couple hours away back to my hometown.  We love it here and we’ve always known we wanted to end up in this little pocket of the world.  It’s so magical, I cant even explain it. Sadly, we are now a couple hours away from the other half of the people that we love.  This grates on my heart but this is also where the guestrooms come in.

Broadcasting Live

Tonight we had our very first dinner at our lot!  We’re currently sitting where our deck would be and taking in the sights and sounds and dreaming of what it will be like with a house taking up a good portion of the lot in place of all these crazy weeds.

Inspiration

Sean and I decided that we needed a visual reminder that we are indeed building a house, so last night we made some margaritas and put a big ‘ol inspiration board together. We look right at it when we lay in bed and it was so nice to wake up this morning and see it all there in front of me what we are waiting patiently(ish) for. I think this is just what we needed to get through the last push before we break ground….which might actually be in the next couple of weeks. Hallelujah!