Happy Monday! Hard to believe it’s almost MAY! This weekend we got a taste of the Summer heat coming our way soon. Sadly Spring weather doesn’t last for too long here in FL.

This weekend was a productive one. We spent most of Saturday working on the house. It doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s something we rarely get to do and maybe for that reason enjoy it more than we should. It’s also just so rewarding.

Sunday we hosted brunch and read in the afternoon. Then we went to an event at our church for Divine Mercy Sunday and afterward evening Mass. This week Stephen’s schedule gets even weirder as he will be working nights. Right now he’s asleep in our room and he probably won’t be up for a few more hours. In a way it’s nice to have him home, but it would be even better if we could hang out!!!

In any case, my mom is coming on Wednesday and I’m so excited. It will be so good to spend some time together and get some extra help with Monica.

I hope your week is off to a good start. Here is this week’s five!

PAINTING

Last week I somewhat spontaneously decided I wanted to paint the house. Obviously this is a huge project (our house isn’t even big but still…). My home decor guru over at Neatsmart suggested Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams for our home office and, with her blessing, I decided to just go for it. I bought supplies Friday and Saturday morning emptied the room in about 30 minutes. Stephen and I spent the rest of the day painting and it looks SO good. The color is perfect and really adds so much to the room. Now I’m even more excited to tackle the rest of the house, but I know I *have* to pace myself.

GREEK QUINOA SALAD

Quinoa is one of my favorite foods. You can add so many different things to it to make it tasty and it’s a complete protein all on its own!! I was inspired to do a variation of Barefoot Contessa’s Greek salad dressing with quinoa and it was so yum. I cut up bell peppers, red onion and cucumber, then added some kalamata olives and and mixed the dressing in. So easy and delicious and healthy!! I think next time I’m going to add some feta cheese and chickpeas too. YUM!

THIS CLIP

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been on a Jen Fulwiler kick recently. This clip from her interview with Mikhaila Peterson is phenomenal. She absolutely hit the nail on the head regarding the understanding of ‘traditional motherhood.’ It breaks my heart when mothers live with the belief that they are bad moms if they aren’t entertaining their kids all day. Even when I babysat I understood (because of the way I was brought up): that’s not my job. When mothers feel that they can’t step away from their little ones, or that they have to entertain them constantly, both mothers and their babies lose. It’s too hard on the mother to provide that type of attention for long periods of time, and it makes their child dependent on them entirely—being unable to spend any time playing by themselves. I haven’t watched the full interview yet but I think this clip is definitely worth watching!

LIFE COACH

Recently I’ve been feeling a little… off. Getting married, having a baby, and moving away from friends and family is a lot to do in the span of about a year. And though I’m so grateful for the goodness all these changes have brought, they also have brought on new challenges, such as building community from scratch, dealing with the the difficulties of military life, and feeling a little lost after a career change. After struggling for a few months, I’ve decided to meet with a life coach to help me get some direction and tackle all these different changes. While I’m not under the impression that a life coach magically solves all my problems, I do think the act of bouncing off ideas to an impartial third party (and paying them to do so), can yield results. Luckily I also found someone I trust and who shares my core values. SO. I guess I’m that person now.

THIS PODCAST

As you know if you’ve been following my blog even for a couple weeks, I’m an avid fan of the Art of Manliness podcast. This episode really gave me a lot to think about in regards to growth, development, and technology. While I don’t dismiss all technological advances as bad, I do think they have significant downsides if not used appropriately—which is actually quite hard to do. This podcast sheds light on how technology can prevent us from having the life we want, the life we’re made for, if we’re not careful about how we use technology.

That is it for today! I’m off to finish the last wall of the study while Monica, and her dad, are taking a nap.

Cheers,

Miranda