A Date Night With Yourself

Good afternoon everyone! It is Friday, which means…weekend!! I hope that your week has gone well and if it hasn’t, well time to celebrate because you can enjoy a little time without those work week stresses. Today I want to talk about a way that you can do that and take care of yourself.

No matter what you do, it is extremely important to make sure that you are taking care of yourself. By take care of yourself I don’t simply mean eat healthier food, drink lots of water, get plenty of sleep. Those are all very important things that need to be done, but I mean take care of your soul. Take your time for you, the time that you need to recharge your person, soul, and make sure that you are prepared for what you need to do in your day to day. If you don’t take this time it wears on yourself and you cannot better do everything else that you do.

This past year I have realized just how essential this time is, not just for me but for my husband as well. I also have had the chance to figure what works best for me that lets me recharge my batteries. This allows me to be a better mom, wife, friend, employee, store owner, and just overall person. There are a couple of things that I’ve learned in finding what works for me.

The first thing I learned is when you want to have your time. Some people like to have their time late at night, others prefer the middle of the afternoon, while some get up extra early in the morning. For me, most of my evenings I try to set aside for family time and my mornings are for getting my day off on the right foot. For me, my perfect time is the middle of the afternoon on Sunday Afternoons. This is when it works for me.

The second thing I learned is what I want to do for “me time” and that it isn’t the same thing from time to time. Sometimes it is watching a movie with a cup of tea in a quiet house. Sometimes I want to get out of the house and go get pampered or go somewhere to read. What I do will change based on what my needs are at the time. That’s ok, the whole point is to take time for myself and what my needs are.

The last thing that I learned is that this needs to be a semi regular time that happens. It may not be every week, but it needs to be at least once a month. Some months I will need it twice a month, but I need that time at least once a month. I do bits and pieces of my time throughout the month (my morning routine being a good example of this) and that helps quite a bit as well.

I find that when I have the time that I don’t have to worry about anything, I don’t have to be a mom or a wife or really a being if I don’t want to be allows me to be a better mom and a better wife. This is something that is true for anyone. You can’t take care of anyone (or anything) else without taking care of yourself. If you incorporate this time on a regular basis, you will find yourself in a much better place.

What do you do to take care of yourself and recharge?

MiaLeave a comment

A Chatty Week!

Good afternoon everyone! It is a Monday and I feel ready to get down to business this week!

This past week and weekend has sure gone by fast! The week has been filled with the normal busyness of work and well life. We took a little “adventure” halfway through the week to just get out of the house and pick up some needed grocery items.

When we first started re switching (yes, re introducing and switching, that is a story I will tell) to milk, I didn’t realize how quick he would actually take to it due to previous situations. I also didn’t realize that his switch would literally be an overnight switch. Also, that switch would include the sippy cup that he just decided which one he loved and that he only wanted that. He literally woke up one morning and when we put him in his high chair, he refused to take his bottle first (which still had milk with a smidge of formula) and simply wanted table food. Once he had that he only wanted plain milk and took the sippy cup right away! Who woulda thunk 😉 Now our sweet little baby is turning more into our little man every day.

So, with all of that we ran over to get some lunch at Panera Bread and then a stop at Target for odds and ends and of course, some milk (we had only been getting 1/2 gallons until he made the full switch). Aside from that trip though, it was a pretty standard week of work and play (more play for Colton and work for me). Our little man is getting more and more curious at what we are doing at times.

We re arranged our lower level to give him more space to play. With that change, we also opened our desks and computers up and he is able to see what is going on on the screens at any time he would like. This is both good and bad as just about every day this week there has a come a time where he wants to be up in my lap banging away at the keys and playing “big and important” on the computer. My calculator seems to placate him (at least for now) and it is something that he can also carry around with him and I’m not worried about him damaging it!

Over the weekend, I had a singular goal of finding a dress for a special occasion that we have coming up in February. It requires a floor length “ball” gown type of dress and the search was not one that I was overly looking forward to. Being 19 weeks pregnant with Baby #2 can mean any number of things for your body and I honestly didn’t know what type of style or dress I was really going for. I am in that time where the baby bump is “cute” before starting to get big, so I wanted to lean towards something a little more form fitting than an A-Line or Empire waist style dress, but I wasn’t totally sold on that. Above all, I wanted to feel comfortable in whatever I chose and look good/appropriate.

I am not going to show pics just yet, as I want to show the entire look, but suffice to say, I found a dress that I absolutely love! I have never felt so good in a dress and I am so glad that I decided to go out on a whim and try it. It is form fitting, but gives me room to breathe (and grow if need be!).

My second goal of the weekend was to get my life and home back in order. I didn’t know when or how I was really going to approach this goal, but I knew that I needed to put in some time to do some writing, a little tidying of accumulated messes, and get my meals figured out again. I think I’ve also conquered this goal as well! I have cleared the last bit of mess from our moving furniture and tidying last weekend as well as cleared out quite a few of the accumulated messes. I’ve still got to sit down and sort some meals out and write a couple more posts, but on the whole, I feel quite accomplished!

How was your week and weekend?

MiaLeave a comment

What is Date Night?

Good afternoon everyone! We are at the start of yet another weekend even if this week may be shorter for some of you due to the holiday, it’s still another week and that can mean long hours or stressful work to be done. I want to touch on a little bit of a self care for your relationship amid the chaos that can be the week. I am going to do a self care post as well for taking care of yourself as an individual, but wanted to start with more of the “Date Night” first.

*Quick side note, because I can’t resist…I am currently in the office/den/guest quarters of our house to get some work done. My husband (who is off today) is upstairs playing with our son and I am just down here marveling at the excited, happy squeals and screeches coming out of my our sweet boy as he just runs around the house with daddy. It warms my heart in a way that I cannot explain. Now that I’ve gotten that little note of emotion out of the way…

When Rob and I were expecting we heard (and I knew) that continuing to take care of our marriage, separate of our son and future children, was going to be key. While I know that we have a strong, solid, loving, caring marriage, kids are hard work and it is so easy (so so so easy as I’ve learned this past year) to forgo that while in the throws of parenthood. I didn’t want us to lose any bit of our marriage and really wanted to develop some time in our week to devote to each other, as most nights we spend as a family.

Here’s a little tidbit about Rob and I, we are one of the biggest pair of homebodies ever. We don’t really like “going out” unless we are making a special trip out (like a day trip or a weekend away) and we just tend to feel more comfortable in our own home. We also aren’t really into crowds or a lot of social events. The social events that we do attend are work events and, while nice to have, are not really what I would consider “Date Night”.

The fact that we are homebodies is not a bad thing, but it can make what is considered a traditional “Date Night” (dinner and a movie or some variation of that), difficult. Combine that with having a young child and not a lot of family in our immediate vicinity, I knew that we needed to improvise.

For us, “Date Night”, looks like the following:

  • We order in food or get takeout from somewhere. Occasionally we might cook, but if we do it is super easy meals that don’t take a lot of prep work or cook time.
  • We put away cell phones, books, computers, tablets, whatever that might distract us. During our normal family times, we typically will multi task to an extent and so for our “Date Night” we make a point to put everything away after dinner and focus on what is happening. I also want to make a note that at a certain time during the week we stop multi tasking and focus on our family time.
  • We get a movie. We will either use RedBox or pull up a movie/tv show on Netflix and watch it. Each person gets a chance to pick every other week (one week it’s my pick, the next it is Rob’s). This allows both of us to be able to watch what we want and not always feel like we are having to watch what the other wants to.
  • Typically (not always, but most of the time), we end up sleeping in our living room. This means we don’t have to worry about getting up at the end of the night or having to do anything further other than enjoy the evening. We get to just relax and not worry, which is so nice.

This is our Date Night tradition and it fits perfectly for us! We also don’t have to worry about the expense of having to get a babysitter as we are at home still and our transition into “Date Night” flows really seamlessly. Our son is old enough to where he can play independently (although still supervised) in the same room as us and goes to bed at a reasonable time so that we are not falling asleep right as we get into the movie.

I would love to hear if you have a specific tradition for Date Night or how you handle getting in time with your spouse that is somewhat or all kid free!

MiaLeave a comment

Let’s Talk About 2017 Resolutions!

Good afternoon everyone and Happy Monday! I hope that this week has started off well and wasn’t too bad of a day. For me, it’s been a day. In between my son being extra picky about food and drink (thank you first molars), trying to get all of the work that I wanted to get done today, oversleeping this morning, and my husband being off (which sounds like it would make things easier, but not always LOL), it’s been a busy day. I make sure that I carve out some “quiet” time throughout the day for myself to regroup, but today just hasn’t allowed that. That is ok though, things will even out as they always do.

I wanted to take a little bit to talk about my “plans/resolutions” for 2017. I don’t typically set actual resolutions each year as I find they are easily broken and that it is similar to what I already do when I sit down at the beginning of January and evaluate everything. I do a little bit of self reflection- looking at what went well the previous year and what I want to improve on in the new year. From that point on depending on what the items are will determine what I change for the new year.

I also try to assign a word to each year. This is a common thing that I have seen and after trying it last year, it is something that I want to incorporate into each year. This is something I do after I do my self reflection and have determined what changes I want to incorporate.

This past year has had a few rough patches, some things I could change, others that were out of my control. The first chunk of the year was navigating several changes to include our son, new home, new working hours, and just overall new balance of life. While I personally think that I navigated all of the changes well, I know that there were times that I could have done better or could have reacted to certain situations differently.

In looking at the upcoming year, I think that the biggest thing that I want to change is bits of my attitude and reactions. I want to learn to trust my gut again (that may be a separate post at a later time) and know that there are times that I may know best and to go with that. I lost my trust in my gut and myself at times this year and I want to keep in mind that my gut is usually pretty good. Basically, trust in myself and in my instincts.

Another thing that I want to focus on, especially in the first half of the year, is really focusing on our little family. With our new addition coming halfway through the year I want to make sure that we are able to have some good times as “just the three of us” before we become the four of us. Our sweet son is going through quite a few changes changes this year, the biggest obviously being a sibling, but a couple before #2 comes along. I want to make sure that he feels the love from Mommy and Daddy and that we have some good times together. Going along with that, I want to make sure that we also get some good memories as “the four of us” when that time comes in the second half of the year. It’s going to be a busy year I feel!

Lastly, I think that my word for this year is Peace. There were so many times last year, especially the beginning, that I just didn’t feel at peace with myself, my family or where I was at. This year I want that to change and I feel like the second half of this past year I have really managed to find peace at most times. I want to carry that through this year and keep it going.

What are your resolutions or changes that you want to make for 2017? Do you have a word set aside that you would like to focus on for the year?

MiaLeave a comment

A Cuppa Books Update! 

Oh hello there! My name is Mia, I like books, tea, mugs and handbags (in that order) and I have failed this blog. Sometimes life becomes a whirlwind of…well…life and it can be overwhelming at times. The past few months have been busy and at times, rough. I will explain, but I want to say that things are looking up now and should start heading back to a more regular schedule. 
I am excited to say that soon I will be joining the two under two club! We are expecting our second child and while things got off to a rough start, I am now feeling great! I had such severe sickness throughout the entire first trimester that just being able to enjoy a small bit of the food that I am eating has been nice! I had days where I couldn’t bare to be upright and some days that it was all I could do to simply “be”. All of that has passed for the most part, although I am still dealing with a severe loss of appetite. I’ll take that over all of the vomiting though. 
Other than that, now that the nausea has started to wear off, most days I honestly don’t even think about it. I haven’t had any other symptoms or cravings or anything like that. Colton tends to keep me on my toes and he doesn’t allow for much time to relax, let alone think! 
Speaking of Colton…he has been a busy boy! Since he started walking it has been a completely different ballgame. He loves to explore and find new spaces and places within our house. We spent some time with family and he loved to be around his grandparents and cousins. He ran around with them from sun up to sun down. He also had a fun time on Christmas between his own gifts and watching everyone else open their gifts. 
I can’t believe that he is a year old! This year has really flown by and while I’m not feeling “weepy” over this particular milestone, but I am a little taken aback by him already being one. We didn’t do anything major to celebrate his birthday, just a simple little immediate family night. He had some cake and presents and we just enjoyed the evening together. 
That is my short little update for now, but look for some more posts in the coming weeks! I can’t wait to get back into the blogging and being able to feel well enough to be posting more.

MiaLeave a comment

Mum Musings: Gifts and The Holiday Season

Good afternoon everyone! How has it been? I know, long time no chat, but I am back and hope to make it up to you!

Today I wanted to quickly touch on a subject that seems to come up more and more during the Holidays…gifts for the kids. This may be a touchy post, but these are my thoughts and feelings. I want to preface by saying in our extended family we have quite the differences in gifts and I have nothing agains people who handle the holidays differently than we do. I will not bash or look down on anyone who goes all out. To each their own 🙂

My little boy is 11 months old (where has the time gone?!) and this will be his first Christmas! It is such an exciting time for him and for our family and I have been loving it! Long before our sweet boy was born, my husband and I had a conversation about how we were going to handle gifts and what we each thought was appropriate for our child (and any future children we have). We settled on something that we think will work for us.

Our son will be getting 2-3 gifts this Christmas, one being a “large” gift and the others being smaller gifts that either go with the large gift or are something small that he likes (relating to a TV show or a separate toy he already likes). He doesn’t need much at all. He already has several toys that he enjoys (although realistically only plays with a couple regularly) and we are stocked up well on clothes for now. I never felt like my child wanted for anything and I don’t feel the need to shower a whole bunch of presents (and money) on a almost 1 year old who a) probably wouldn’t play with most of the toys and b) doesn’t need much in his day to day beyond what he already has. Besides, in all honesty, he is probably going to enjoy ripping the wrapping paper a lot more than any of the toys inside (at least for this year).

I don’t want to end up having a whole bunch of toys and things that will collect dust and remain untouched as the years go by. He grows and changes so much in his week to week, what intrigues and occupies him at this moment, may not be the same thing in a couple weeks. I know this is the nature of the beast of having a child, but I don’t think that Colton is in need of a lot at this time.

I will say, the one thing that I am doing and have wanted to do, is a Christmas Eve box. I have watched Sister-In-Laws do these boxes, and even though Colton might be too young, I love the tradition. He will get a movie and some special Christmas PJ’s in a box that he can open the night before Christmas. He can get in the pajamas and we can watch the movie together as a family. This is the “splurge” that I will do every year, because I love the “home-iness” feeling it gives.

This continues on for his birthday as well, which is shortly after Christmas. He will get a few things that work with where he is at and will grow into with his development (I am actually very excited to see what he makes of the Mega Blocks :)), but we will not be going all out or getting a whole lot more than that. Of course there will be cake, but we aren’t holding a party (a lot of logistics of it just not working out other than the desire to not have one). Colton likely won’t remember his first or second birthdays as it is, so we don’t feel the need to do much more outside of our little family.

All that aside, I have no problem with people who do splurge and go all out for Christmas and Birthdays. I love watching the kids get excited and open all of their presents! It is such an exciting time for both the kids and the parents. I think that in this case, each family must make their own decisions on how they want to handle the situations where gifts are involved.

How do you do gifts and is there a reason behind it? Do you get kids a whole bunch of gifts or stick with something simple? I’d love to hear from you!

Mia1 Comment

A Week in Photos 10/16/2016-10/23/2016

Good afternoon everyone! I hope that you are doing well and that you had a great weekend! I posted quickly on Friday about a new feature that I am going to start trying out and this is the first post! Just to quickly say, in case you missed the last post, I am going to start trying to do a weekly post of photos of my week. These posts will be going up on Mondays and would be the previous week. I don’t know how often these posts will be, I am hoping for semi weekly to weekly, but it will vary in length depending on what the week entailed. Since this is the first post, I am also going to detail a little bit more about what my weeks look like in a day to day sense.

**I will say right now, this could become a long post, so it may be a good idea to grab a cup of something wonderful or a quick snack. For myself I grabbed a large cup of tea and some little chocolate pieces as I am writing this. It will help with a curled up mindset, I promise! 🙂

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My Writing and Reading Spot 🙂

My week started on Sunday and for me, Sunday’s are writing, reading, and relaxing days. I try to get my grocery shopping done as early in the day as possible, so that I have the rest of the day to just relax and most around the house. I work on the weeks blog posts and then get a substantial amount of reading done.

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Love having 2 Screens for Work!


Monday through Fridays follow the same day to day routine with work, business, and little human. I work part time (about 4-5 hours a day) with a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. In between, I take a lunch break and play with little human. 

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The Lamp Posts on Main Street Hershey were Kisses!

Where the fun begins is the weekends. This past weekend was an exceptionally fun one as we went on a little 2.5 day vacation.

We celebrated our anniversary

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A Little Photo from our Wedding

in the middle of the week and while we weren’t able to do much on our actual anniversary, we decided to celebrate over the weekend by heading to Hershey, Pennsylvania! Dubbed “The Sweetest Place on Earth”, it really is in food, people, and things to do! I have included, probably, way too many photos below about all of the different things that we were able to do.

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A good ole Chocolate Coca Cola

We started our first night off by checking into our hotel and then heading over to Hershey’s Pantry. This was a small little restaurant with decent food. Rob decided to be adventurous and order a Chocolate Coke and really enjoyed it! I wasn’t as big of a fan of the drink, but it was horrible. We picked up a couple brochures to decide what we were going to do the next day.

We woke up bright and early after a rough night-who would have though little human, who has done so well at other places, would decide not to sleep by himself in a hotel room?! It was an off and on night of sleep, but we didn’t want that to deter us from enjoying everything that we could. With both of us being history lovers, we decided to start at the National Civil War Museum. I think The Civil War (along with WW2) is one of my husbands favorite times to study and learn about. This museum was incredible with it’s mannequin diorama’s and historical objects. It really gave a new life to such a trying time in our country.

DSC_0098.jpgWe also decided to make a quick stop into the Antique Automobile Club of America Museum. They had a nice selection of old carriages and cars and a large history of how cars became to be what they are today. Growing up around older cars and motorcycles I did really enjoy seeing some of the cars and the history!

After a stop back at the hotel for lunch and little humans nap, we headed out once again. dsc_0170We headed over to Hershey’s Chocolate World, which I’ll be honest was cram packed with people. Strollers are not allowed inside the little shopping/museum/“factory” area and I completely agree with that policy. You could not move very far without either running into someone, or running into merchandise.

That being said, it was so much fun! We went on a little ride that took you through the process of making the chocolate and chocolate bars and explained what made Hershey different from other brands. We wandered through loads and loads of different chocolate items that Hershey makes and all of the different varieties for each specific candy bar. It was mouthwatering to be completely honest. img_0448Our final stop in the Chocolate World was to make our very own candy bar! This was fun as you got to have your very own little bar made right in front of you in the same manner that all of the rest are produced. I chose to have a Dark Chocolate shell with rice crispies, chocolate cookies chunks, a Milk Chocolate covering (that was the only option for covering) and sprinkles on top. Sort of a mash up of Krakel and Cookies ’n Cream, with Dark Chocolate. I haven’t bit into it yet, but I’m sure it’s wonderful.

We stopped at Fenricci’s for dinner and had a lovely evening on the patio with some of the warming lamps. It was such a nice romantic evening and the perfect ending to the day.

We were scheduled to leave on Sunday, and after another restless night of sleep, we started to pack up our bags. The last thing that we wanted to do was take a look at the Hershey Story Museum. This details out Milton Hershey’s life, his development of his caramel company and later Hershey Chocolate, as well as the lasting impression he has made on Hershey, PA. It was a really neat museum with some interactive portions to allow you to get another look at the chocolate process. img_0453They also offered a chocolate tasting of different chocolates around the world. We enjoyed being able to sample bits of melted chocolate from around the world. My personal favorite was Venezuela, while my husbands was Tanzania.

Overall, it was a really good trip and an alright week! I definitely needed the little vacation that we took as it was nice to be able to get out of our home, our routine, and not have to worry about much of anything! It got my mind off of everything that is and has been going on and it allowed me to put a smile on my face!

I hope that you enjoyed this post, although I know it got a little (very) long. I’ve been trying to determine what will be the best way to share these types of things with you. So any and all feedback would be great! Until Next Time…

Curl Up with

A Cuppa Books

MiaLeave a comment

A Short Post about a New Feature

Hello everyone! I hope that you had a good week and hey, if nothing else, it’s Fri-Yay! Today is going to be a quick post as it is a busy day for us!

I am going to start doing a weekly or semi weekly post (depending on how the week and scheduling goes) of “A Week in The Life”. This post would be going up on Mondays and it would feature pictures and descriptions from the previous week. This would include travels and adventures that we go on as well as “humdrum” everyday things.

I have always loved to document our life in pictures and videos and have long been trying to figure out what the best way to do that would be. I want to share the adventures and travel we get to do, but I also am a slightly private person and didn’t want to expose my young child to the internet and my husband and his job. I am going to give this a shot and see where it goes and what happens!

I am hoping that I can find that perfect balance between sharing enough without feeling like I’m overstepping or exposing my family to too much. We shall see how it goes and what happens.

This first post will be up on Monday and will be a very exciting one as there are quite a few pictures that we will have! I am very excited to share!!

MiaLeave a comment

The Autumn Tag

Hello everyone! I hope that your week has gotten off to a good start and that it hasn’t been too much of a Monday! While brainstorming (and wasting time on youtube) I ran across this tag on Kalyn Nicholson’s youtube channel and thought that it would be perfect to do! It’s a good way to give you a little bit more tidbits about me that you may not know. I should say, I love and am obsessed with Autumn. It is easily my favorite time of year and I cannot get enough! I am all about being cozy and this is the time of year for that. You can watch her video and answers HERE. Without further ado, into the tag we go…

**Before I begin…grab a cup of whatever you want because this is going to be a long one…got what you want to drink? Ok, now onto the tag…

1.) Favorite Thing about Fall: Gosh, a tough first question! I have to say I love feeling the change that comes. Once the weather starts to cool down and when I head outside in the morning, I can just feel the change that is coming. The cooler days and even cooler nights. Curling up with my husband, our son, and a book under a blanket. It’s just the knowing that things are going to get cozier. I love it.

*That was probably a really crazy long ununderstandable (is that even a word) explanation of how I feel. I’m not very good at articulating the feeling I get with Autumn, but I absolutely loooooove it. I’m such an Autumn person.

2.) Favorite Fall/Halloween Movies: I love Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. Those are the two big Halloween movies that I enjoy, although I like the 13 Nights of Halloween on Freeform. The other movies that I watch continuously during fall are the Harry Potter moves (although those are year round movies realistically).

3.) Fashion Trend You’re Loving For Fall? I have a hard time keeping up with up to date fashion that looks good on me. I try more to dress with what is going to look good on me and then look at what are the more fall colors that fit into my wardrobe. I love the deep hues of Fall. So basically, not favorite trend, but loving the colors that are big this season.

4.) Favorite Fall Drink? Not Pumpkin. I’m not a big pumpkin fan at all. I’m a big tea drinker year round, so that is still my go to drink, but for fall I like to have a more “chai” or spice based black tea. I will treat myself to Starbucks Latte’s however as the weather turns cooler.

5.) What is the Fall Weather like Where You Live? This is my first Autumn here where we are. So far its cool in the morning and evenings, but still somewhat warm during the day (long sleeves only, no sweater or jacket needed during the day). The leaves are turning and falling as well!

6.) Apple Picking or Hayride? Uh…both 🙂 I love to do both and can’t wait till Little man can actually get into it!

7.) Rain of Fog? Uh…both again? I think honestly they go hand in hand a lot of the time. I love when I wake up in the morning and open the blinds and there is the fog right off our deck and as the fog clears, rain starts to fall. It’s like heaven for me.

8.) Hocus Pocus or Halloweentown? Hocus Pocus all the way! In fact, we are coming up on the time for me to watch it in the next couple of days.

9.) Corn Maze of Haunted House? Yea, I’m not a fan of either. I don’t like things jumping out at me, so Haunted Houses can be a bit difficult. I also am not sure about a Corn Maze. So yea, neither.

10.) Halloween or Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving. I highly prefer Thanksgiving over Halloween. I like Halloween, but it’s not really my favorite holiday. I don’t get over excited about it.

11.) Coats or Oversized Sweaters? Is this even a question…oversized sweaters all the way. Much much cozier.   

12.) Apple Pie or Pumpkin Pie? Again, neither really. I’m not a big pie eater and I honestly have one piece of pumpkin pie a year (on Thanksgiving) and I prefer to just eat the apples for apple pie after they’ve been coated with sugar and cinnamon. HAHA

13.) Cool Crisp Mornings or Cozy Evenings? Another hard question! I really like both, but to pick one, I prefer Cozy Evenings. It’s just…me 🙂 I love to be able to snuggle up under a blanket and relax with a fire going. I like the idea of a cool crisp morning because it helps you wake up and feel like a “fresh” start to the day, but the cozy evening is really where I would love to be.

14.) Favorite Fall Candle? Ok, from Bath & Body Works I love the Autumn Candle and from Yankee Candle I like the Autumn In The Park, November Rain, and Autumn Bouquet. I don’t have just one favorite when it comes to candles…ever.

15.) Favorite Thing To Do In The Fall? So many I can’t even say…if you haven’t guessed by now I just love to be cozy, so my favorite activity is to get into some sweatpants, a sweater and curl up under a blanket with a book, some soft music or movie in the background and just relax.

So, that is it! Did you make it to the end? I want to know what your answers are! Let me know and I tag anyone who has read this post to do the Autumn Tag!

MiaLeave a comment

Let’s Talk About Planners

I’ve always been a bit of a planning/organizing freak. I’m a scheduler by nature and like having my routine and planner in order. I start to have “problems” when I feel disorganized and a “mess”. I like being able to schedule things out and have our routine. It’s how I work best. I find what works for me and then I stick with it. Obviously there are times when our routine changes and new things arise constantly with a young boy, but being able to have some place to start helps me out immensely.

In order to help me out, I have a paper planner and a couple of notebooks on my desk. I am still looking for the “perfect” planner for me, but I have found the layouts that I like to have. I need to have a monthly and daily layout. I like to look at the big picture of my month and then break everything down on a day by day basis. I was never a big color coder-I felt it took too much time and go too “busy”-but I have found that these days, it’s a huge help. I can easily see what is going on, who is doing what, and what needs to be posted when for work. While I have gotten more adventurous with my color coding, I still am opposed to using stickers. My planner is more of an office tool and I have a separate memory notebook that I use for more of that type of stuff.

I really like to be able to have my day laid out with the time. It allows me to track some things between my work schedule, my sons schedule, as well as when posts go live and meals. I also like that there are separate spots where I can mark down my to-do’s as well as little things needed from week to week.

I’m not really going to touch on notebooks in this post (that will be separate), but I do have 4 that I use regularly. One is for my business, one is for my job, and then two that are personal. Of the two that are personal, one is a “diary” of sorts and the other is my memory book. It has all sorts of goodies in it from big moments in my life and little bits and bobs that I receive. I love being able to look in one notebook that and see all sorts of memories, from meeting my husband, to finding out we were pregnant, to opening up my business. I digress, this will be a separate post, I promise.

Overall, while it may seem like a lot to do and that things could be simpler, this is what is working for me right now. I feel much calmer when I can see clearly what is going on with life! What works for you? Are you a color coder? Sticker person? Or do you scrap paper planners all together and use an electronic calendar? I’d love to hear!

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