Becky at Choose Happy has been running a fun link up party called Currently. I am going to start joining Becky for her Currently link up series once a month. I thought it would be a fun way to update y’all on my life in a light way through photos and a blurb of text.
Currently…
Feeling overwhelmed…
October-December are always such fun months, but WHEW… they can be really busy, too! I have been trying to be better about saying ‘no’ to things I would normally say yes to, just to lighten my load a bit!
For instance, I said no to volunteering at the school book fair, even though I ALWAYS volunteer at it. I figure they have it twice a year and maybe I will start volunteering at it only during the other time, because my schedule is usually less busy then. I also recently said no to a blog opportunity that involved a huge chunk of time, even though it paid pretty good. These are just two examples, but I’ve said no to some other things as well. I feel I am just at my limit right now and not ready to take on anymore… if anything, I want to take on less!
Brian and I had an anniversary recently and he asked me what I wanted as a gift. I told him a blog planner and I did a little research and decided that Erin Condren was a pretty popular planner amongst bloggers and I told Brian to order me one. I am really impressed with the quality and just all of the little freebies they added for it in my box. It is so nice to write out my blogging editorial calendar and view it from a months perspective. I am a HUGE fan of Google Calendar, but I wanted something more personal for my blog.
Halloween
We had a WONDERFUL Halloween weekend, it couldn’t have been better! Friday the kids both had their Halloween parties and then the dismissal was at 1 p.m. for the school day! We got home and we worked together as a family on our trunk or treat theme (Peanuts!) and Brian even carved THREE pumpkins! We then had a indoor ‘picnic’ dinner of cheese, crackers, salami, veggies, etc. On Halloween morning, I surprised the kids with little treats and gifts and they were really excited about that. Nathan got the Tower of Terror DVD and we watched that for our Sunday movie night. He really loved it, especially since he just went on the ride last summer at Disney World!
Here I am with the kids before dinner and trick or treating. Nathan is Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy’s and Autumn is Mal from Disney’s Descendants. This is the first time I got a picture of both of them fully dressed in their costumes (I have a lot of photos of Autumn without her wig!). On Halloween evening we hit FOUR subdivisions and brought home 3 big bowls of candy. In this last photo, you see me standing by a house in a subdivision behind ours. Brian and Nathan were tired, but me and Autumn wanted to hit ONE more subdivision. Brian insisted NONE of the houses had their lights on to give out candy last year and I said there was at least 3! It is a pretty small subdivision… well, we walked and walked and NONE of the houses were giving out candy! BUT, finally the very last house had it lights all on and Autumn and I told the boys they were WRONG! Well, Autumn rang the doorbell and no one came… except… we heard her yell out, “Oh! They have a bowl of candy… OH! And, we can take THREE pieces it says!” LOL! Brian said it didn’t count, because they had just a bowl out and he took this photo of me, so he can show it to me again next year before I want to head down this street again. LOL! It was so funny, that is was worth the 1.5 mile walk (ok, it really wasn’t that far).
Exercise
I am still doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred two days a week and so far so good. I have worked up to Level 2 and whew… it is a killer, but I am doing good! I think I may do another month of Level 2 before I move on to the last level, Level 3. Then, I may see if I can find another Jillian workout DVD or something else to workout to… it is so fun to mix it up a little!
I am currently running still and my goal is to run 17 miles a week. I am running 3x a week and that includes two 6 mile runs and one 5 mile run. I have stepped it up a little and I am running .35 of each mile a little faster and I’m also working on more hill/incline training. It is going good so far. I mentioned on here that Brian and I had signed up for a 10k (me)/5k (him) fall race and we (ok, my mistake) missed it. I am sort of looking into maybe doing a Turkey Trot to make up for it… but, we’ll see if I have time to find one and sign us up. I am also thinking about signing us up for a Santa run I’ve done in the past that was a lot of fun. There is also a Hot Chocolate race here that I’ve never done, but I’ve heard mixed reviews on it (good and bad).
Curl Products
DevaCurl was kind enough to send me more of their products and didn’t even ask for me to review them… isn’t that the best? But, I had to review them, because I love their products and the new products they sent me to try.
You can find DevaCurl products at Sephora. What they sent me last week was a Curl Box, which is a box full of their curl products! I tried some of these out on my hair and I am really pleased with them! My absolute favorite product by them in their ‘Set It Free’, I put it in my hair when it is wet and it really gets rid of ANY frizz I would have. My hair is normally pretty manageable in the fall, but when I was using this product in the summer, it worked like a charm. The DevaCurl Super Cream Coconut Curl Styler is new to me, but also another great product by them. If you have curly hair, be sure to try out DevaCurl!
The selfie I included here is of me at pick up in the car, the best time to take selfies, right? My hair is differently more relaxed and manageable here!
Finished Reading…
This is always my favorite part of my currently post, sharing the books I have read in the last month! I read only two books this month and Paper Towns was JUST ok I thought. I didn’t realize they had recently made a movie for it (last July) and I would like to see the film when it comes to video (if it hasn’t already). The other book, Me Before You was FIVE stars in my opinion! I loved it so much that I was happy when I saw that the sequel to it (After You) just came out and I am currently reading it!
Also, if you are not following Mix and Match Mama, you need to! She always has the best monthly book reviews. If I had time, I would read EVERY single book she reviews and loves. If only I had more time to read books! Here is the LINK to her October book review and Me Before You is one of the books she read.
Paper Towns by John Green – This book is about two neighborhood kids that grew up playing together and then drifted apart. Quentin has always had a bit of a crush on Margo, so when she shows up unexpectedly at night to take him on a night of one adventure after another, he can’t say no. However, Margo vanishes and Quentin is left to pick up the pieces and clues. I think this is a great read if you are in high school, I just found a lot of it to be mildly interesting. The ending wasn’t all that it built up to and a HUGE chunk of the book talks about what they did in a van for each hour while on the hunt to find Margo. I think ALL of these hours in the van could have been summed up in one or two chapters. So, I did get a little restless reading this book, but I would still like to see the movie.
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes – This book is AWESOME, awesome, AWESOME! Ok, maybe I shouldn’t say that such a heartfelt book is awesome, but I really got into the story and the characters. Louisa is an ordinary girl stuck in a boring town to live out the rest of her days. However, she loses a job at a coffee house where she feels comfortable only to land up working for Will, who is stuck in a wheelchair the rest of his days. Will is awful to her at first, but later the confide their deepest secrets with one another and Will once again becomes the charming man he once was… however, Louisa finds out a deep and dark secret about Will’s future which I won’t mention here. The ending is not what I was hoping, YET I was excited to find out that the sequel to the book is out (After You) and I am currently reading it.
Dreaming…
I have one week left of my Mondo Beyondo class and I have finished my Mondo Beyondo (dream) list! I am so excited that I was able to carve out time to do this, I really needed to take time to write out my dreams, no matter how silly or out there they sounded at the moment. I am thinking about sharing my Mondo Beyondo list on the blog, but we’ll see… I’m still too chicken to share it, so I may not. lol.
Well, that is all I have today. Be sure to join Becky in this link up series sometime, it is a lot of fun!
