Friday the 13th, Full Moons, and Blogging, Oh My!

Whew! Where in the world did the spring and summer go?! Seriously guys, it has been a whirlwind of life. If you recall, those of you who are still here, back in April I announced we were in the process of buying a house. Our closing process took waaaay longer than we had anticipated so we got to do the couple of projects, like painting in the middle of July when it was hotter then hell outside.

Let me tell you, I am NOT a fan. Also we had no fans while doing this so I just wanted to melt away forever. Good news, our house is a log cabin. Most walls are wood, so no painting those. A silver lining for sure.

So anyways, hot mess aside, we moved in the hottest time of year and I am just now starting to feel like a normal human being again. The weather is even cooler now. I can see less boxes crowding my living space, and maybe by the time I post this I will have a desk and space set up again for blogging.

But seriously, if you ever want to find yourself, challenge yourself, lose yourself and doubt yourself.. you should buy a house, chase a toddler while trying to unpack and organize, never take a day off from work, and question everything. I'm telling you, it's enough to make you a born again human, or make you a hot mess. Depends on who you ask.

Also you should make sure you stop from time to time to remember the good things that happened in those long challenging times.

So what has happened since my last post?

Ben turned 1 (I can't believe it either).
I was scouted to be on a local board of directors for a fabulous organization.
I've grown in my career.
I've met some amazing new friends.
I'm growing every day as a human being. Learning to take care of myself first.
Went on a weekend retreat alone and met some great women.
Applied for a leadership program that I have dreamed of doing for years (Still waiting to hear back on that one).
Kept a porch garden alive, even through the move!
Put together a plan for a fall fitness exercise program.

And I can say after all of the crazy that was my life, I and standing here today telling you about it. I am proof you can find the zen between the chaos folks.

Now if I can just survive this full moon on Friday the 13th thing, I'll be golden!

Fall is coming. Let the adventures begin!


Trish List signature

When the Universe knows you need a laugh

Yesterday was the Monday-iest Monday ever! It was definitely one for the books. I even swore on my personal Facebook page, something I try not to do!

Lets just say it was one of those days where I had to really try hard to find something to be grateful for. We all have those days where we feel defeated and like nothing is going right.

For me, running on maybe 2 hours of sleep, I was able to find 2 things to be grateful for yesterday. The first was the beautiful weather we had. It was near 70 and felt oh so good. A warm pleasant day always puts me in a good mood. Hearing all the birds chirping and the laughter of kids as they play outdoors. Being able to leave the house with only a light coat and flats with no socks. Those are my kind of days.

Then I enjoy the sweet sounds of the night coming alive as all the creatures serenade us with their chirps and songs. Sleeping with my window open is soothing to me. I laid down and felt myself drifting off into a quiet place as the nature lullaby relaxed my tired body. Something I would call Heaven.

As I laid there I could hear Grace come in from outside and come running up the stairs. She greeted me with a loud meow that startled me, even though I knew she was there. She instantly came up to get some attention and when she realized I was not that interested after a few pets, she decided to find somewhere to sleep.

She struggled with getting into R's armoire and knocked over the alarm clock in the process. It fell loudly for some reason, even making a big crash noise onto the carpeted floor. Once again I was startled awake.

It was quiet again for maybe a second or 2 before Cher started belting out at the top of her lungs "If I could turn back time.."

It was clear someone was trying to cheer me up. This was some kind of sign for sure. I am not sure what kind it was, but all I could do was burst into a big laughing fit. What else can you do when you have the Monday-iest day ever? 

I was grateful for the laughter and whoever in the universe knew I needed that laugh.

Ever have one of those days?

Namaste!

Trish List signature

Friday Magic

Welcome to the magic. Do you feel the magic in the air? Usually this is something I reserve strictly for the Fall (My favorite time of year!), but this year something feels super magical about the Spring.

I can feel something brewing in the energy around me. Something big is about to happen. 

Maybe it is just me being super happy that it is FINALLY Friday and I need something to carry me through, but somehow I think it is more then that.

Do you ever have those feelings? You can feel the change coming, but can't quite put your finger on what it is?

It could also be that the light is finally here. We are moving out of the darkness of the winter and moving to warmer and brighter times. I don't know about you, but the warmth and the bright sun always makes me feel better.

Over the next few weeks you will probably see a little bit more of me as I prepare for the big move (EEEK!) and my mind wants to just spew all the things about it.

I am also slowly getting back to reading blogs again. I have missed all of your daily knowledge and stories. I literally would come home everyday from work and scroll the internet looking for houses for sale and things I can do to make all kinds of changes around me.

But here I am.. I've moved through all of the darkness of winter and all of the hurdles of getting my family into a bigger space that suits our needs better. The first quarter of this year is already almost over and I feel like I did a lot of work in it. Work that can't exactly be seen by everyone, but work that made important strides in my life.

I truly hope you all have a wonderful and magical start to your weekend. Spring is here and the light is coming. To everyone who has struggled through the darkness of Winter, know things are getting better. Look to the light and even if only for a moment, you can see the glimmer of hope to better days to come.

Namaste my friends.


Trish List signature

Hello April!

Hi friends!

I've missed you! Spring has been bustling with new things here in my household which has kept me go, go, going for sure!

Spring has always been a time for new projects, new adventures, and growth. It is definitely living up to those standards this year.

We bought a new car AND are in the process of buying a house. That all went down in March.

Of course it all had to happen in the same month, but I am grateful for finding all the things we were looking for in such a short time. I will update more about them both soon!

Having a new home and more space will give me a more dedicated space to sit down and blog. When Ben was born the room that I was working out of for my job became half of Ben's room. That made it hard to sit down and write once Ben went to bed.

I find I need that quiet, uninterrupted space to write. I also found I like sitting at a desk rather then sitting on my couch with my laptop trying to bang out blog posts.

I have had this streak of motivation and creativity to get moving on some long put aside projects, and I'm hoping once we get into the new house, all of those creative juices are still flowing. We are aiming for sometime in June, so fingers crossed!

So, if you have missed my posts, I am hoping to be back more regularly once we get into the new space. Home decor is going to be my new job! The house is unique in itself, so can't wait to share it and some of the projects I have in mind.

Talk soon!

Trish List signature

A Fun Little Questionnaire About Me

Today I thought it would be fun to re-acquaint myself to all of you. I picked out some fun questions from a "getting to know you" questionnaire in hopes that it will be fun and not boring... We shall see..

What job would you be terrible at? I would be terrible at anything that requires me to have upper body strength. So things like waitressing or body builder.. lol. I have the worst upper body strength. Even when I was my fittest and was working out I would never seem to gain much strength. I have a hard time carrying my son now that he's 18 pounds. 

What have you only recently formed an opinion about? Politics. I have never really cared either way. I just stayed out of it all. Now I have some strong opinions about a few things that I'd love to change. Still not something I am going to strike up a conversation with a random stranger about, but it is definitely something new for me. 

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? Travel, hands down. Seriously if you have never gotten on a plane and just explored, do it. If only once, go somewhere and see the world you live in. It is something I did quite a bit of and wish I had gone more at this point. I have more responsibility now, but I am just now realizing that doesn't mean my life is on hold. 

How different was your life one year ago? Well for starters, I was getting more sleep, sort of. I was pretty close to giving birth to baby bloob, but I still had my own sleeping patterns. 

Music break! What are you listening to? Green Day- When I Come Around

What are you addicted to? Right now I am addicted to learning more about everything it seems. I can't stop reading how to's and just anything to give me more knowledge in my life. 

What is your spirit animal and why? Cat. I don't care what anyone says, cats are resilient animals. Grace has a sense like nothing I have ever seen. She knows when I am sad. She knows when I am sick. She knows when something isn't right in the house. She is my savior and love all in one. 

Do you believe in magic? Explain. I believe in the magic within the world we live. I believe in the magic we can unleash in ourselves when we really let ourselves live. Magic happens when we let it. 

What is something that fires you up and really shows your personality? I am a music fanatic. I love, love, love it all. I remember my life in song. I can tell you exactly where I was in life with the lyrics of a song. I live for a good concert and won't accept seats outside of the front 10 rows. 

What is something your coworkers don't know about you? I am very insecure and have a hard time taking compliments when I do a good job. I have a Marketing degree, but never intended to use it for traditional marketing. I wanted to be a band manager of a famous musician. I graduated and went out to Los Angeles where I worked at an entertainment marketing company owned by the original managers of the band The Offspring. While working there, I was able to have lunch with The Offspring and then immediately after attended their set where I lost my shoe in the mosh pit. Good times right?

Tell me something fun about you!


Trish List signature

A Valentine For Yourself


 
On this day of love, let’s celebrate the love we have for ourselves! This is one of the healthiest things you can do for yourself. Do this by making a list of things that you have accomplished that at one point you thought were hard.

Thinking about this I have a lot of accomplishments I never consider on a day to day basis. We are a pretty amazing species when we stop and look at what we can do.

Here is my list:

I became a mom: This is something I was so scared of. The whole time I carried Ben I prayed every night I would be a good mom. I prayed I would be able to handle a little human. I prayed I wouldn’t mess my kid up because I had no idea what I was doing. Well that kid is 10 months old and he’s loving and happy and an all-around great kid.

Becoming a certified Yoga teacher: There are days I still can’t believe I accomplished this. I am that person who is terrified of speaking in front of a room of people and would never raise my hand to volunteer as a demonstrator at an event, yet I signed on to not only talk to a room of people, but teach them how to move their bodies in a way that will enhance their lives. This is HUGE for me.

Becoming a leader: This one can be taken differently by different people, but to me, it is an accomplishment. I always felt like the follower in life with a million ideas. I never seem to know what to do to implement my own ideas, so I would just do what others do. Now I understand how to be a leader and to follow my own lead and dreams. I know my own worth. This makes me feel so very accomplished.

Getting up every day: This may sound silly, but when dealing with depression and all the things, this can be hard. You want so hard to get up and be a happy person, but you don’t feel that way and staying in bed sounds like a better idea. It is an accomplishment to me every day when I choose to live my life verses sleep it away. When winter is over, those feelings die down and it’s easier, but when full on winter is here, this is an everyday struggle.

There are so many other things I can list here. Our accomplishments are all around us. We just need to recognize them. I hope you take a moment today to check in with yourself. Pat yourself on the back and keep on keeping on my friend! You are loved when you love yourself.

Namaste <3


Trish List signature

A cute little rambling about stress



It's Tuesday night and we have gotten some weather today... ya know the white stuff with some ice mixed in? Yeah that weather. I am sitting here after putting the baby to bed drinking a glass of wine and eating popcorn. Dinner of champions right there!

It was a long day for a Tuesday. Snow and ice always stresses me out. You just never know how the roads are going to be. Driving with a baby is also a new stressor in my life. I now have to watch everyone around me and mentally tell them to "stay back" and "slow down!" and all the things that you internally (or maybe externally) yell at other cars.

The point of all that complaining is I need to get back to regularly doing yoga and other things that tackle stress and my well-being. This popcorn and wine ain't doing it! I work at a gym, per se, but I don't get much time to actually use it. Since giving birth to Ben my whole body is out of wack, and I just last week got the magical idea of going to the chiropractor. It's been WAY too long!

Well between them cancelling me last week and the weather today, I am now scheduled for NEXT week to get in. I keep telling myself that once I go and get aligned everything else will fall into place. Maybe it's just an excuse, but I am quite set on that excuse to do nothing about my fitness and stress relief until then.

I am honestly holding myself to the promise that once I have seen the chiropractor and get myself put back together, I will start moving my body again. It's pretty frightening. To imagine a year ago how much more I was working out and moving my body and I was 6 months pregnant with Ben! Now he is 10 months old. He will be a year in 2 months (My math isn't wrong here, Ben was 5 weeks early).

It's time to get myself in working order and lower my stress. Next week will be the week I do something for me.

Do you like to exercise to release stress? If not what is your stress relief?

Namaste




Trish List signature

Yes.. I've Jumped on the Marie Kondo Train

I know everyone is talking about Marie Kondo... again. When her book came out in 2012 there was a lot of buzz about her tidying up methods, especially in the blogging world. As with anything that comes out there was lots of love and lots of hate it seems for the methods. It seemed to have died down until recently when Netflix released Tidying up with Marie Kondo.

I knew nothing about it (I seem to live under a rock) until I started seeing meme's on Facebook like this one:


This made me laugh.. 1. because I am a huge thrifter and 2. it's so true! People will be going through stuff and getting rid of things after watching the series and I want to be ready. #sorrynotsorry.

After the initial laugh, I realized I also need to go through my house and declutter and organize. We are planning to buy a house this year and I really don't want to move all the things that don't bring me joy.

I also realized I am a box person.. meaning I basically create clutter by putting things in boxes rather than either finding a home for it or just getting rid of it. As we speak there are 3 small boxes lined up along the wall next to my bed with "stuff" in them. The stuff is defined by random things that I don't know what else to do with. (I will post a photo of these boxes. Stay tuned!

Just by writing this post, I have realized how much I really need to go through all of this stuff and get rid of it.

I also have a problem with clothes. Most of my clothes don't fit since having the baby. Do I just get rid of everything pre-baby? Do I hold on until I lose the baby weight? Like seriously none of it brings me joy right now because of obvious reasons, but dude it's like 90% of my wardrobe. That just sounds expensive.

I am going to have to think about that one. I will however probably try the folding methods due to having no space in my drawers. I am hoping this will at least create more space and I will be able to find what I am looking for.

We BADLY need to work on our paper clutter. We have stuff everywhere. It is time to sort and shred. This actually brings me anxiety. There is SO much and it is mostly because R doesn't like to get rid of any record of anything, Some things I understand keeping, but a brochure from your bank from 20 years ago probably doesn't need to be kept?

Anywho, I think I am going to try this out. I am going to at lease sort and fold my clothes and get rid of the boxes of "stuff". That is something I have put off WAY to long!

I also want to remind myself to thank my house more. It is a good house. It deserves some love!

I will check back soon with my progress!

Have you tried the KonMari methods?

Trish List signature

2019: February Goals and Mantras



It has been awhile since I have blogged some of my goals. February seems like a good month to start it up again. I also picked a word for my year. I haven't really blogged so I hadn't mentioned that.

2019's word is evolve. I picked this word because it represents my current self becoming my best self. I am evolving everyday and it is a great word to focus on.

Goals I have for this month are pretty simple:

Self - Love: February is a month for love so why not love on yourself?  You need to love yourself before you can properly love another. I am getting better at this, but it will always be an ongoing goal for me.

Journal: I bought a new journal this year and I really love it. I have written pretty regularly so I need to keep it up.

Blog: I love to write. The journal helps with this, but I need to come here and scratch that itch as well. I love community and writing here helps me build that.

Find a hobby: I need something new to do to help me get out of my current rut. Not sure what that will be yet, but I wold love to hear your ideas!

Nothing too deep here, but I have decided to keep my goals light and fun this year. We already live in a hard and stressful world, why make our lives like that too with difficult goals?

Some mantras that have been a part of my everyday life are all about becoming and staying true to myself. I am loving these:




What are your goals for February?

Trish List signature

How a week can change your life

This post has been a long one coming. Blogging has really taken a backseat in my life while I sort through the remains of the the person I was even 6 months ago. Sounds a little dramatic, I know, but I am definitely not the same person I was 6 months ago.

One week back in September really changed my outlook on life and shaped me into a different mindset. I am not sure yet if that can be categorized as a good thing or a bad thing yet, but I want to believe it was mostly good. and

The week of September 10th 2018, 3 major things happened. First, I went into work on Monday and quit my job. It was something that I needed for my own sanity and self care. 2nd I quit pumping/breastfeeding Ben. It was not bringing me any kind of joy and Ben was frustrated so I just stopped. And the last thing that happened, the one thing that is still laying heavy on my heart is the disappearance of my cat Rick.

A lot of change happened at once and it made me feel relief and major stress. I wasn't sure what to do next. I anticipated I would spend more time with Ben and bond with him. I did do those things, but I knew something was missing. I still needed that purpose in life outside of being a mom. I wanted a job. I wanted something to do with my time other then just be a mom.

Some people may call that selfish, and I am sorry if you feel that way, but this was the best choice for me. I didn't really have a plan, but I just started applying for jobs. After about a month of being without a job I was hired. I had no child care plan or anything for Ben. I just prayed that if it was meant to be, it would be.

I have been with my new company for almost 4 months. It has been a learning experience. Ben goes to a home daycare 5 days a week and it is great for him. He interacts with 3 other kids in his age bracket and it has been so rewarding.

I have finally given myself the credit I deserve with my skills. I applied for a job I wouldn't have even considered a year ago. I am the marketing director for my local YMCA and it is amazing. I deserved this job years ago when I doubted myself and only applied for admin positions.

At some point through all of the change, I also felt a little closer to my spiritual self. I was able to meditate and clear my head and feel a little more put together. I completed my Reiki 1 certification and currently am working on Reiki 2. I have found some wonderful teachers to help me on this spiritual journey I'm on.

Ben is a few days away from being 10 months old and he is thriving. He is a happy, spunky little boy. He loves to laugh and blow raspberries and is know for making all the kids at his daycare growl with him. He is saying momma, dadda, and baba. He is just about crawling, but has a mean army crawl. He and Grace have come to a truce and will spend time together without a fight.

This is the year me and R will buy our first home together. We have rented our home the whole time we have lived together and with the expanding of our family when Ben came, it is time for a bigger space.

We plan to take our first family vacation this year. All the kids and grandparents if they want to join us.

2019 is going to be a year of big growth and love. Both for myself as an individual and as a family unit.

I can't wait to share it with you!

So tell me, what big changes have you had in your life recently?


Trish List signature

New Year. Same Me?

A new year is often a time for new beginnings and resolutions. Some people never make it past the first month of their promises of the new year. This year I decided rather then make a resolution to something I will do this year, I decided to just be okay with who I currently am.

I will always be the girl following her dreams. Sometimes that takes me off the path a bit, but I always seem to find my way back. I want to learn everything I can possibly learn in a lifetime. Sometimes that means learning the hard things. Life things.

I want to continue to strive for being the best me I can be. That means I will often fail and have to pick myself right back up, dust myself off, and keep on moving. Sometimes that can be hard. Sometimes life challenges us to the point where we feel like nothing will ever get better.

So 2019 will be just that. Me, being me. Me learning to love the person I currently am. Me continuing to be the best person I can be.

I have A LOT to tell you. I will be back to tell you soon. This week even :)

Happy middle of the month!

Namaste


Trish List signature