I’m trying hard to remember the smaller things that would ordinarily get buried under bigger, more memorable things. I want to remember the whole sum of what makes up our lives and be able to look back at these posts with happy nostalgia and gratitude. Summer 2021 is particularly worth remembering as it’s our last as a family of two! Here’s what I’ll remember from the summer of 2021.
Finding out I’m pregnant with our first baby
Admittedly, this isn’t a small thing. But it is worth remembering. I was convinced it would take us a long time to get pregnant, so having it happen so quickly was both exciting and disorienting. I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that there’s going to be a tiny human forever joining our lives next Spring, but I’m working on it!
Getting fully vaccinated
I’m extremely thankful for modern medicine and for living somewhere where I had the opportunity to get vaccinated. I was surprised by the overwhelming relief I felt after getting my first shot. I hadn’t realized how much worrying about my health and others’ had been weighing on me.
Feeling more freedom and community after over a year of living through a pandemic
As things started to open up and we got to do more in-person gatherings, it felt like we were coming out of a really long hibernation. And it was wonderful. While the pandemic wasn’t over summer 2021, the world definitely felt different.
My trip to Charleston, South Carolina
I joined a friend’s bachelorette trip and made a bunch of new friends in Charleston this summer. I really enjoyed the city and can’t wait to go back and explore more.
Reading on the bench outside during my lunch breaks
I’ve been reading a lot about the positive benefits (and absolute necessity) of Vitamin D. It can be tough to get outside during daylight hours when working from home, so I made it a point to go sit outside for at least a few minutes during my lunch break. It felt so good. I usually read a book, which is always a positive addition to my day. And the midday sunshine really helped prevent afternoon slumps too.
Charles graduating with his Master’s and starting a new job
Charles graduating was such a milestone! It feels like he’s been in school forever since he basically went straight from undergrad to his graduate program. We were both so excited to say goodbye to paper-writing and (mandatory) reading on the weekends! And he’s been enjoying his new job a lot, so that’s been exciting and also a huge relief.
Early morning gym sessions before work with Charles
Charles and I were pretty consistent about getting to the gym before work when the gym was less crowded. It was brutal waking up earlier, but it always felt so nice to get our workout done at the beginning of the day.
Hanging out with our cats
If you’ve spent more than ten minutes with me or Charles, you’ll know we’re pretty obsessed with our cats. One of the perks of working from home and slowing down in general is all the time we get to stay home and hang out with our cats. They’re quirky and clever and funny and sweet and endlessly entertaining. Truly. And we enjoy almost every minute of them.
Seeing our baby in an ultrasound for the first time
Being pregnant mostly felt like make-believe, especially since I didn’t have much morning sickness. But seeing our baby girl on the ultrasound made her seem so much more real! It was really fun to experience.
One of my goals this year is to have a home that’s functional AND beautiful. Our bedroom is (fairly) functional, but now it needs to be beautiful! I’ve been thinking about what direction and color to go with our bedroom for the last 11 months that we have lived in our current home. On the one hand, I LOVE the bright & neutral bedrooms I see on Pinterest and Instagram. But the thought of a dark, moody green bedroom also makes my heart swoon.
We recently painted our bathroom black and I still can’t get over how much it transformed the tiny room. It went from feeling sterile and bland to warm, stylish, and intentional. So with that in mind, I think a dark, moody bedroom is just what the doctor ordered. Besides, it’s just paint! I can always paint over it if we hate it.
I put together this moodboard to help me visualize the direction I want to go in the room. We won’t go with those exact pieces necessarily, but I did want to make sure I knew the cohesive style I was going for. This is my first time doing this and it was really helpful!
We already own this area rug, which I love. We decided to upgrade to a King-sized bed. We did some measurements and, unfortunately, our nightstands are too wide to go with a bigger bed, so we’ll need to buy new nightstands too. Since our current dresser is from Facebook Marketplace anyway, we might end up swapping that out too. I’m not sure if I’ll love a black dresser in our moody green bedroom. We’ll see!
When searching for inspiration, I unknowingly pinned this image several times. I’m definitely taking that as a good sign! I love the paint color and the style of furniture. I definitely want to go more modern or mid-century modern than farmhouse in our bedroom.
I’m also obsessed with this bedroom from Yellow Brick Home. I love the dark paint, but the room still feels so bright with all those windows. I think the white paint on top helps with that too. They didn’t bring the paint up to the ceiling due to having uneven ceilings. I’m pretty sure we’ll do the same even though we have no such problem. I just love the way it looks!
Top Moody Green Paint Colors
I searched Pinterest for inspiration on paint colors and Pinterest delivered. There were so many good ones! Sharing the ones that really speak to me here. I love that Pinterest makes it easy to search the paint colors and then see the paint in a bunch of different homes and lighting.
The more I plan, the more excited I get about this! Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried a dark paint color in your bedroom. Which green should I pick?!
Have you seen the memes about how this has been the longest March in the history of the earth? In some ways, it feels like life was paused a year ago and still hasn’t resumed. But In other ways it feels like there was A LOT of life that happened in the last 365 days. There’s much to grieve and also much to be thankful for. My goals this year look much different than they would have if we didn’t spend the last 12 months in a pandemic. I was listening to Emily Freeman’s podcast this morning in which she asked the question, “Is it time to dream again?”
2020 was a hard year for dreaming. Truth be told, I’ve never been good at it. That’s the magic of goal setting for me. It forces me to dream and hope, but since it’s tangible it doesn’t feel childish or bring as much fear of being disappointed. Let’s do more dreaming in 2021. I don’t want to keep burying my hopes for fear of being let down. Setting goals each month is such a tangible way for me to express hope for even better days ahead. I’ve found that it’s not in the completion of the goal that days are better, but rather the act of working toward good and better things that makes life better. In other words, it’s the journey and not the destination.
Let’s keep traveling in hope, friends. Onward to our March 2021 goals!
A previous goal realized! Our wedding photo book from Artifact Uprising arrived a couple weeks ago and we love it! Here’s a referrallink if you’re interested in making your own!
February Recap
Read a book about community or hospitality – I read this one Get office to 100% – Done! Schedule closet door installation – scheduled and completed! Create a moodboard or roadmap for the bedroom Read The Simple Path to Wealth – a helpful book on investing! Publish 4+ blog posts – 3 done! Publish 16 Instagram posts – 12 posted! Sort 4+ months of photos Do something Charles finds fun Have a marriage journal + budget meeting each week Fill out gratitude + confession journal daily – Totally dropped the ball on this Get dressed and ready for the day in the AM – I’ve done this consistently enough that it’s a habit now! Thankfully won’t need to track this anymore Write for 10 minutes – Dropped the ball on this too. I think 10 minutes was too long to do daily so I have a new plan for March. Complete the Kitchn Cooking School – I learned so much from this and would highly recommend it! Drink at least 5 20-oz glasses of water a day – oops
March 2021 Goals
Make sourdough Watch a cooking show – related to my annual goal to enjoy cooking more! Remove chair rails in bedroom Paint closet doors Launch book club – I am so excited about this one! Review/reread Simple Path to Wealth Do something Charles finds fun at least once a week Sort 4 months photos Publish 5 blog posts Post on Instagram 18x Budget meeting once a week Gratitude, confession, and take notes on my Bible reading daily Write 100 words each day Drink 100 oz of non-caffeinated fluid each day
What are your goals this month?
I’d love to hear what you have planned this month!
I love being able to track my goals and have a place where I can look back on what my heart and focus was for a particular month. So even though January is almost over, I’m sharing my January 2021 goals here.
Monthly Goals
Buy birthday cards for the year – I’ve done this the last two years and it’s the only way I’m able to get them sent!
Update kitchen – I plan to paint the backsplash, put up shelves, buy a rug, install a tip-out tray, and then reorganize kitchen cabinets. It’s a lot, but I’m excited to get this done!
Update bathroom – paint, put up shelves, buy new shower curtain + rug
Get quotes for closet door installation – Hoping to get more use out of our closet by switching from a single door to french doors!
Big sales like Amazon’s Prime Day can be awesome, especially if you’re smart about them. Prime Day is Amazon’s big annual sale, exclusively for Prime Members. It’s kind of become a thing the last few years, with sales similar to Black Friday. If you’re not currently a Prime member, no worries! You can sign up for their 30 day free trial and still get all the sales. If you decide Prime isn’t for you in the long run, just cancel before you’re charged at the end of 30 days. I like to set a reminder in my phone for things like this so I don’t forget!
Tips for Shopping on Prime Day
While big sales can seem like a wonderful opportunity, more often than not they just cause you to spend money that you didn’t really need to. In order to avoid that, don’t go browsing for things you don’t actually need. Before you start shopping, make a list of things that you will legitimately be buying in the near future. Birthday presents. Christmas presents. Household goods. Planned upgrades for your home that you just haven’t gotten around to yet. Now go look for these things specifically.
Before you hit the purchase button, consider again if it’s something you actually need and will actually use. Is it going to help you or is it just going to make it that much harder to reach your financial goals? For myself, I’m primarily shopping for others today. I know it’s only July, but I have my eye out for some great Christmas presents. The holiday season is always hectic and stressful, so if I can buy just a few presents ahead of time, it’ll make my future self that much happier.
Top Things to Buy
Audible
My husband and I took advantage of this deal last year and we have been LOVING Audible. We pick out books and listen to them together. It feels like much better quality time than just watching tv every night.
Amazon Echo
We listen to audiobooks together primarily through our Echo. We just have the first generation (link) in our kitchen/living room area, and an echo dot in our bedroom. These work perfectly well for us, though the echo dot’s sound quality isn’t as great. They have the new Echo Show link majorly on sale, which looks pretty nifty too.
Of course, the Echo is for a lot more than just listening to audiobooks. We also use it as a hands-free kitchen timer. If you have a Spotify subscription, then it’s really easy to listen to music on Spotify through the Echo. My sister’s family has the Amazon Music subscription and the kids love requesting their favorite songs from Alexa.
If you don’t want to use Audible, Amazon Music, or Spotify, you can still get good use out of the Echo as it functions as a bluetooth speaker as well. It takes a couple minutes to set up the first time, but every time after that you just have to say, “Alexa, connect my phone,” and it’ll connect via bluetooth. I use this feature a lot.
Kindle Unlimited Reading
There are all kinds of books you can get with the Kindle Unlimited Subscription, like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Amazon Music
You can currently get 4 months of music for $.99, which is a really great deal and certainly worth checking out, especially if you have an Echo.
Prime Pantry
This is a resource that I’ve certainly underused. I definitely plan on buying more of our staples with Prime Pantry so that we’ll have fewer, and shorter, trips to the grocery store.
Other Products to Watch For on Prime Day
Amazon is rolling out most of its deals throughout the way, so it’s hard to say for sure what are going to be the best sales. Based on last year, and things I love from Amazon in general, here are some things to look out for.
We got one for our wedding and use it quite a lot! I often make this chicken tikka masala with it. Black beans and chickpeas from scratch is another favorite of ours. Things really do taste so much better if they’re not canned.
These are an initial investment, but I can definitely see how they could pay off in the long-term. I was wishing we had some a couple weeks ago when we went on vacation so that we could turn the lights on and off in our apartment without actually being there. That’s still a thing people do, right? Make it look like you’re not out of town?
In the same vein as the Smart Plugs, a Smart Thermostat is an initial investment that pays for itself after a time. If you can get it on sale then it’ll pay for itself even more quickly!
We have two of these in our home and use them all the time. I love that this one isn’t all plastic-y looking.
Books
If you use the code PRIMEBOOKS18 you’ll get $5 off a $20 book order! I’m pre-ordering this book today and debating on what my second should be. #bookwormproblems
We got an immersion blender for our wedding and it’s been incredibly handy. I use it for everything from scrambled eggs to smoothies to homemade mayo. And the cleanup is SO much easier than a traditional blender.
Some other things we got from our wedding and absolutely love:
The Newlywed Cookbook. The brownie recipe will change your life. Or at least make you dissatisfied with any brownie you eat in future.
Overall, I’m a huge fan of Amazon. My husband and I created our wedding registry on Amazon, which was a wonderful experience. It was also slightly easier than using the Target registry, for both us and our guests. I’ve also had good luck finding the best deals on text books from Amazon, so the Prime membership has more than paid for itself in shipping through the years. I hope you’re able to find the things you need today. Happy shopping!
The internet keeps telling me to decide what this space is going to be. Is it going to be about personal finance or is it going to be about writing? Because apparently it can’t be both. I’ve read all the advice from the experts, and apart from this person, they all say that I need to narrow down and find my niche. That means that I can only write for, for example, 25 year-old women who have a college degree and are interested in personal finance and the Enneagram and puppies and their favorite order from Starbucks is a soy latte. Talk about some strict boundaries.
Okay, maybe it’s not quite that specific. But even so, I’ve found it really difficult pre-deciding what I will enjoy writing about for years to come. Right now, my blog menu shows the topics I enjoy. But then my heart felt stirred to start writing about my faith too. Is that too much? I’m not following any of the experts’ advice. The internet tells me I can’t write about both finances and books, and then throw religion into the mix?
Pick your topic, girl! People need to know who you are!
And I agree, to an extent. But here’s my struggle with that mentality. We are vibrant, ever-changing, always-exploring human beings. We cannot be narrowed into a niche, though we can certainly put our words in boxes. But real life is messy. If, on this little corner of the internet, I’m going to offer up my most authentic self, then I can’t separate the words. My writing informs my understanding of religion. My religion informs my understanding of personal finance. My personal finance informs how I interact with books.
Real life is complex. I want to embrace the complexity and let it grow how it grows. We’ll see what it ends up looking like. Just like a garden, it’s impossible to predict where the branches will grow, when the flowers will bloom, or which plants will thrive the most. Real life has a mind of its own and will not stay contained for long.
But at the same time, we have gardeners for a reason. In well-cultivated gardens, there are boundaries. There’s a person pruning and shaping and guiding the plants in their growth. It’s not all wild growing and flourishing. Gardens need boundaries and people need boundaries too.
Perhaps three months from now and 36 blog posts in, I’ll realize that I find writing about personal finance boring. Or, more pertinent, I could find that no one finds my writing on that topic helpful. It could certainly happen. And then I’ll switch gears and write about what feels life-giving. I want it to resonate with both me and you. And I’ll need boundaries for that to happen. There are plenty of good things about limits. I constantly question and test boundaries, but I’m learning how necessary and good they are too.
Here’s what I’m learning.
Boundaries keep you safe
They keep the good things in and the bad things out. In this circumstance, it means that I’ll only write about the really good stuff, or the stuff I’m good at writing. It means that I won’t just let any idea or voice or topic onto my blog. In your life circumstance, boundaries might mean you don’t watch horror movies because you don’t like how it affects you. It might mean that you make more room for cheerful music in your life. Children have all sorts of boundaries from their caretakers. Just imagine a little boy who longs for adventure. You don’t want to take all adventurous play away from him, but he has to know how far he can go. It’s in his best interest. Boundaries are beautiful and necessary.
Boundaries are limiting
I recently heard the famous phrase “the sky’s the limit” rephrased on a podcast (I wish I could remember which one).
[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘The limit is the sky.’ The key to #boundaries is knowing that they’re good, but also remembering that they’re often much broader than we expect. Don’t set your boundary closer in than it has to be.” quote=”The limit is the sky. “]
I like that way of putting it. First of all, it makes you realize that there is a limit. It’s good to shoot high, knowing we have a limit. It can be paralyzing if there’s no boundary at all. How will we know when to stop? When we’ve run out of oxygen, that’s when we need to turn back around. That’s a good limit.
But sometimes the limits are in the wrong places.
This could be something we do to ourselves. We tell ourselves that we’re not experienced enough for XYZ or that while we have a small talent, it’s not a natural gifting like so and so’s. I give myself boundaries that don’t have to be there all the time. I tell myself that I don’t have the right to speak into someone’s life because I’m not an expert on that subject yet. I tell myself that I can’t solicit my services as an editor because I might make a mistake. As if any human person could ever know all the crazy rules of English grammar. We give ourselves boundaries that we shouldn’t sometimes.
And maybe other people give us the wrong limits sometimes, too. Maybe your mother always told you that you couldn’t wear pants with a flare because they make you look short. Maybe a teacher told you that art wasn’t your strong suit, so you’ve been stamping out self-expression. In middle school, when I revealed a desire to make a living with the written word, I was told that I should come up with a Plan B, because it wasn’t realistic to make money as a writer or editor. As a result, I never pursued the very things I’m pursuing now. The things that I’ve wanted to do for almost 2 decades. Other people can give us the wrong boundaries too.
The Paradox
That’s the paradox in boundaries. They can be good and bad. They’re internal and external. Listening to people who know more than you is an excellent idea. But sometimes it can harm you too. What we need to do is find that beautiful middle–reaching high and knowing that eventually we’ll have to stop for lack of oxygen. But friends, there’s a long way to go before we lose oxygen.
I appreciate your support as I find my limits. Like a little boy on the hunt for an outside adventure, I’ll explore the perimeter and see what there is to be found. When I run out of oxygen, I’ll turn back around. For now, my boundaries will not be a niche or a genre.
My boundaries are:
What feels authentic and genuine
What feels life-giving to me
What is either educational, entertaining, or encouraging (idea gotten from this podcast)
But I also think it’s important for me to define what’s not going to keep me out so I can make sure my limits are in the right places.
My boundaries are not:
What makes me feel vulnerable or afraid
What doesn’t look “perfect”
What doesn’t have THE answer
What other people are or are not doing
How about you? What are some struggles or breakthroughs you’ve experienced in your own life?
Hi, I’m Kelsey! I live in the DC area with my husband and two cats. I currently spend my days working from home, reading all the books, and enjoying home life in our new-to-us 1940s condo. Read more about me here.
