Happy Leap Day! How was your February? I can’t believe we’re already through another month of 2024 and I also feel like these first two months have felt reeeeally long. And I’m not complaining! I love a LONG month as opposed to a short month (even though February is the short month).
Spring is on my mind, probably thanks to the unseasonably hot weather we’re having here in Texas. With spring comes my wedding anniversary and my daughter’s birthday. It’s a happy time for our family and I’m excited to celebrate us! I’m also really excited about the solar eclipse that is going to happen on April 8th. Are you planning to view the solar eclipse? DFW is in the path of totality so we need to get our glasses. We also saw the partial eclipse in the fall and it was cool. I’m starting to think about all the things we need to have on hand for the spring so we can play outside and enjoy the nice weather before it turns to actual hell. What are your go-to spring activities?
I’ve been out of the habit of writing these newsletters lately. Work has been unexpectedly busy and I’ve been really anxious so this is what has gotten pushed to the wayside. So I love posts like these that I already have planned out and know when I’m going to send them. They’re kind of like guideposts to keep me consistent and keep me moving along even when I feel stagnant. Catherine Brown sort of talked about this last night in her Instagram stories when she talked about keeping the ball moving along instead of expecting to perfectly complete everything all the time. It was a helpful message to keep in mind. Her lesson was on work-life balance, and it’s something I try to practice there but also wonder how I can incorporate this mindset into other areas of my life as well. Just something I’m thinking about since I saw her stories!
Noteworthy happenings in January
Celebrated my birthday and turned 36
Finished my first puzzle
Organized a mom meetup for my neighborhood
Started taking more vitamins to help supplement what I’ve been missing
Started baking something on the weekends with my daughter and it’s been so much fun! This weekend she wants to make a strawberry cake! I’m looking at this recipe.
Start/Stop/Continue
We’re now two months into 2024 and I can’t believe it. It’s crazy how it feels like time is moving so much slower since the new year started, but I’ll take it! It makes me sad when it feels like the months fly by. I’ve still been working on my February goals. I set them with the intention of doing them every day, but the understanding that every day is unrealistic. I don’t beat myself up if I don’t do something every day, so I think I’m far more lenient with myself than my previous posts would lead anyone to believe. But making a plan to do these things every day is helpful so I don’t put them off.
Weigh in every morning - continue: I don’t do it every single morning, but more like 4-5 days a week. I know many people recommended weighing in once a week or every few days, but there’s too much going on in my body that leads to fluctuations. Having more data has been more helpful to me. I know this isn’t for everyone. I went years without weighing myself except for doctor’s appointments, so I understand.
Drink at least 126oz of water - stop/continue: I’m still prioritizing drinking a lot of water every day, but I’m not tracking it. My goal is to fill and empty my 24oz Owala at least four times a day, which I almost always manage to do. Prioritizing water on the weekend tends to be harder and I feel it when I don’t.
1-2 miles of walking a day - continue: I’m closer to 1 mile than 2 and it’s not happening every day, but I’m trying. I feel my best when I get in a good walk every day. And I feel ridiculous that I even have to prioritize walking the way I do. I’m so jealous of people in more walking-friendly areas.
Create and implement an evening routine - continue: I can firmly say I have been successful with an evening routine! It’s so minimal, but I typically put on my pajamas after getting the baby to bed, and then take my vitamins and do my oral care routine and skincare routine right before I get into bed. One of the reasons I would put it off or cut it short was because I would be so tired and want to get into bed as soon as possible. That was happening about 30-45 minutes later when I should have already been in bed. So I’ve just been listening to my body more and going to do my evening routine right around 9-9:15 pm.
Track my meals - stop: I have not done this consistently and have all but quit. I still have the app on my phone and get the notifications, but I don’t even open the app. Instead, I have been focusing on eating nourishing meals at home and naming when I am hungry versus experiencing food noise.
Read a book or listen to a podcast every day - continue: Easy. Done. Check and check.
Some fun things
Reading
I didn’t realize until now that I only finished one book this month. As always, I wanted to read more than I did, but it’s all about balance as I also love listening to podcasts and music and most of my reading time is done via audiobook in the car. Here’s what I read in February:
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton | I have had this on my TBR list for years and finally decided to give it a go. It was slow to start because it’s incredibly detailed and I sometimes have trouble getting into male narrators, but once I realized how the story was being told I was hooked. Normally, I don’t get to the point of being unable to put down a book until about 75% of the way through but this one had me from around 40%. I haven’t stopped thinking about the book since I finished it and I somehow wish there were more but I’m also happy with how it ended. This is a great read if you love murder mysteries, time travel, and rich people drama.
Summary: Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.
A fun fact: This book came out around the same time as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. My understanding is that in the UK this book is called The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, so to distinguish it from Evelyn Hugo in the US market they added the 1/2.
TV + Movies
We’ve continued watching Masters of the Air on Apple TV+ and it’s just gotten better and better! The show is paced so well. Something major happens every episode. The episodes do an incredible job of making you feel what these men must have gone through during the flights. One of the horrors portrayed in the show is when the planes fly over major cities, the enemy shoots flak at the planes overhead. So the planes are just flying with bombs exploding all around them. After a little while, the flak stops and you know it’s because the enemy was able to mobilize their fighters and now they will be doing air-to-air combat. The waiting period between when the flak stops and the fighters arrive always gets me. You can feel the sense of relief when they get a break from the flak and the nervous anticipation that the fighters are coming. It’s been fascinating to learn more about this perspective of WWII and I’ll be sad when the show ends.
Cooking
After years of talking about wanting one, my husband decided to treat himself to a Weber Kettle Charcoal Grill, and honestly, I’m so glad he did. He’s been grilling out a lot more and I’ve been reaping the benefits of it. He made some amazing steaks for Valentine’s Day and my birthday. And I am excited about how good burgers will be grilled on it! We primarily grill out all spring and summer (until it gets too hot) so it’s nice to have another option!
Things I Bought and Liked
We’re white noise sleep people. My husband and I have a massive fan in our room that makes our white noise, and both kids have slept in our room until they were about a year old. When they move to their own room and have a Hatch sound machine. With my daughter, it was an easy decision. We bought the Hatch Rest+ and have loved it! My favorite thing about it is that it has a battery backup so if the power goes out, the sound machine keeps running.
When it was time to buy one for our son, it was hard to figure out which one we needed. Hatch had come out with more styles and they all look the same now. I ended up buying the Hatch Rest. Well… it turns out that one does not have a battery backup as I learned late one night when a storm knocked out our power. I turned my son’s sound machine back on and immediately got into bed and ordered the new Hatch Rest+. I’m not even kidding.
It’s been so nice to have again and I LOVE the updates they have made. The unit now had a little charging stand it could sit on, which I didn’t think was going to be useful at first. But now that I’ve used it quite a bit for hunting down binkies in the middle of the night, I’m sold! I can also see that it would be useful with younger babies if you want to move the sound machine around the house. But my favorite thing about it has been the app. It’s so much easier to program and create schedules compared to the original Hatch Rest+. We still use the original setup with my daughter but it’s like night and day how much better the new version is.
I’d recommend anyone having a baby get the Rest+ versus the Rest. The Rest+ was somehow so much easier to set up with our WIFI than the Rest, but having the backup battery is the best part. A+ baby product!
Love the goal check in. This morning was a brief reality check for me as I peer at my own goals, made so optimistically just two months ago. How do I get off track so quickly!?
I’m also due for a goal check in! Masters of the Air is fabulous! It’ll definitely be in my list of top TV shows for the year. We’re also huge fans of the Hatch products. I’m glad you’ve found something that works well for you!