On Trying Again

It's been nearly 4 months since our miscarriage and as of this week, we can officially start trying to get pregnant again. We've gotten approval from my doctor that I am physically able to get pregnant again but also and more importantly, we're emotionally ready to try again.

I'm sure everyone that goes through this deals with it differently, but I have not spent the last four months anxiously counting down to this day. Don't get me wrong -- I can't wait to experience pregnancy and I still absolutely want to be a mommy. I guess the last few months I've just known we needed time to heal. Time to feel confident that my body has healed. Time for our hearts to heal.

I know if I'd spent the last few months stressing out and feeling anxious over when we'd be able to try again, it wouldn't have been good for me. I needed to simply not look toward the future for a little while. I needed to focus my energy toward my health, our home, God, our marriage, my passions -- not how quickly I could get pregnant again. This time has been good to me. I feel at peace and I feel hopeful again.

I still have moments where I relive that sad day. I don't plan to, but sometimes it just hits me and I remember the specific little heartbreaking details. It's hard to forget a painful experience like that but we are doing.

The last four months have brought us peace and healing. We've grown closer through this and we still have faith that He will provide for us. We're more aware than ever that we are not in control here and we just have to trust in His plan.

I feel hopeful but more importantly, I feel patient. I pray we are blessed with a healthy pregnancy and are able to start a family soon, but I'm patiently looking forward to that day because I know His timing will be impeccable.

Weekend Snapshots

Happy Tuesday! Just popping in to share a few snapshots from our weekend.

I've been suffering from major baking withdrawals so on Saturday, I picked up a bag of pretty spring M&Ms and baked my heart out. This is my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe because they always come out perfectly soft. The only problem is that I can't resist sneaking one of these babies every now and then so I've been bringing a bag of cookies everywhere I go to get rid of them!

Jonathan promised he would help my sister and her boyfriend re-landscape the lawn in their new house so on Sunday, we all met up at the nursery to pick out a few plants for them. Let me tell you, this was a great place to be first thing on a Sunday morning. The sun was out and I was a happy girl wandering around looking at the beautiful plants and flowers. 

We wrapped up our weekend with a quick shopping trip to find the perfect sunburst mirror to finish off our front entry table makeover. I thought I had found the one at World Market, but we popped into Kirkland just to be sure and we laid our eyes on this beautiful piece of work and knew it was the one. I've been promising some home makeover photos but we still have a few small things to finish up before I share those. In the meantime, I can't hold back on you guys when it comes to our entry table makeover. I need to see if I snapped a before picture of this because this whole space has been so completely transformed. It's brighter and more welcoming with a few pops of color -- it's exactly what I envisioned! It was fun (and a little bit tricky) to decide what pieces to include but I think we've got a good balance now.



Tell me -

• Did you do anything this weekend to celebrate the arrival of Spring? 
• What are your tips for the perfect entryway decor?

Somebunny Loves You {Easter Printable}

My design skills are improving at a pretty slow pace, but I'm celebrating today because I'm sharing the cutest little Easter printable with all of you!

I mentioned earlier this week that we're hosting Easter brunch at our house again this year and I cannot wait! I'm extra enthusiastic this year (if that's possible) because we are going to have all our nieces and nephews here this year which is going to mean a total of 6 little ones running around our house. This means we'll be setting up quite the Easter egg hunt and I'll be putting together the cutest little Easter baskets for them, too. I'm not a huge fan of peeps, but I couldn't resist including them in the goodies for the kids on Easter. I even designed this cute printable to go with them.

I still need to go shopping for the rest of the goodies that will go in the baskets, but I just know these guys are going to make a perfect addition. To download for yourself, click here!

I used these Wilton 3 in. treat bags and even though it's a little tricky to get the peeps in there, it's totally worth the effort because how cute are these?


Tell me, what are your must have Easter treats? I may not looove peeps, but I can name quite a few other favorites including Cadbury mini eggs. Those things are dangerous for me to have around the house but it isn't Easter without treating myself to a few!

Feels like Summer {Weekend Recap}

And just like that, we're back to summer weather in Orlando. With temperatures back to the norm in the 90s over the weekend, we took full advantage and I have quite the sunburn to prove it.

I'm already a day behind schedule, so I'll keep this simple and share some snapshots from our weekend fun.

Jonathan worked on Saturday so I used the time to knock out a gym visit, grocery shopping and some Easter prep. We're hosting brunch at our house again this year and I can't tell you enough how much I enjoy planning this.

With the gorgeous weather we've been having in the evenings, I planned a summer-like meal for dinner we could enjoy on the back patio and it did not disappoint! '

On the menu (with the links to recipes):

Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Fresh Pineapple Salsa (I don't follow this recipe exactly but you really can't go wrong)
Simple Greek Vinaigrette Pasta Salad
Vodka tonic with fresh strawberries and cucumbers

This guy was home from work and cleaned up just as I was finishing up dinner. He came out ready to relax looking handsome as ever and we enjoyed an awesome dinner on the back patio.

Sunday was spent on the boat with some friends. I'm pretty sure having a friend with a boat is better than having one yourself. Anyone with me on this? It was an awesome day and we all wondered why we don't do it more often -- maybe this summer we will. A girl can dream, can't she?

We made it home just in time Sunday evening to close out the weekend with a few Friends episodes. A perfect day, if you ask me. Hope your weekend was full of sunshine and fun, too!

Have a great week!

A Few Things on Friday

I've got more than a few things coming your way today.  I guess that's what happens when you try to fit the last two weeks into one blog post. Here we go -

(one) I've made this Paleo chicken salad recipe 3 times since I found it on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I can make a bowl of this on Sundays and get several lunches out of it for my and Jonathan through the week. It includes a recipe for Paleo mayo and while it isn't quite like real mayo, it does the trick. I don't do the wrap, just the salad with some cucumbers works for me. 

(two) I'm still on track to complete Erin's #1800MinuteChallenge by the end of this month. I have almost 1200 minutes of exercise under my belt since the beginning of the challenge on February 1st and it feels good to know I'm following through on it! 

(three) Over the last two weeks, we've completely transformed our home and I couldn't be happier with the results. I am going to put together a before and after post eventually, but right now we still have a few minor things on our to do list. We still need to finish repainting base boards and doors and I am in the process of restyling the table in our entryway. After weeks of going back and forth on the perfect gray paint color, we are pretty happy with the color we settled on. Last weekend, we knocked out painting the living room, kitchen and entryway and it turned out amazing. I can't wait to show you all more photos, but for now this is all I've got. 

Taylor has been hanging out up here a lot since we moved the birds to the living room. I like to think she feels left out and wants to be part of their group. 

(four) We're hosting Easter brunch at our house again this year and I'm just getting around to planning out the details. I finally called to set up the table and linen rentals and I think I've settled on what I want to make this year. I'm most excited because all our nieces and nephews will be here. We'll have six littles ones running around our house on Easter which means we'll be setting up an Easter egg hunt and I've already started putting together little baskets for all the kids. If all goes well with my limited design skills, I'll hopefully be sharing some Easter printables soon. 

(five) I'm going to be a bridesmaid! My dear friend Laura is getting married in January and I received this in the mail from her earlier this week. My answer was an absolute yes and I'm so thankful she wants me by her side through this process! It's going to be fun!

(six) I started a part-time schedule at work this week. I've been feeling quite lost career-wise for a while and after a lot of discussions with Jonathan and a lot of prayer, I presented the idea of me going part-time to our leadership last week and thankfully, they were willing to give it a try for a while. We decided on a Monday-Wednesday schedule and while we're only one week in, I feel really good about it. This opens me up to help Jonathan as he is looking to grow his landscaping business and is launching another business this month. I also have things I want to pursue myself and while I'm not ready to share the details, I am excited to have time to devote to this new venture. Who knows how long this will last or if it makes sense for the long-term, but right now, I am going to make the most of it. 

That's all I've got for you today! I've got a long list of things to take care of today but before that, I'm off to the gym to make sure I get my workout for the day in before I get distracted with other things. 

I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

Our Happy Home Gets a Makeover: Part 1

Hi friends! Happy Monday. I started this post at 10 a.m. and it's now 4:30.I'm not going to lie -- I am struggling today. Lack of sleep after a weekend of home improvements will do that to a girl, I guess!

I mentioned a few weeks ago we were planning on getting hardwood floors installed and once we decided on the floors we wanted, we didn't have to wait long to get moving. We scheduled the installation for this past weekend and in the meantime, we decided to also repaint the living room, kitchen and master bedroom while we were at it. We knew replacing the carpet with wood floors would make the space feel so much brighter, but switching it up with lighter paint colors would really transform our home. We've spent the last few weeks adding paint samples all over the walls and at this point, we'd only settled on our master bedroom color.

We were up bright and early Saturday morning to prep for the flooring installation and it didn't take long before our home was a mess of dust, noise and complete chaos:

The good news is that the guys who installed our floors are awesome. They arrived at 8:30 a.m. and when they left 12 hours later, we had beautiful wood floors in our bar, foyer and living room. They even helped move all of this out of our kitchen which was great because I was a tad stressed out by the chaos. Seriously, props to those of you who take on large renovations. Between the dust and the mess, I couldn't imagine this being a long-term situation.

With the guys coming back first thing Sunday morning to install the floors in our master bedroom, we spent the evening drinking wine (me) and moving everything out of our bedroom (Jonathan). We ended the day camped out on our bedroom floor watching Friends and soaking in all the fun of being in this together.

I was pretty eager to get back in the kitchen Sunday morning. While the guys got to work installing the floor in our master, Jonathan starting painting the base boards and I went to my happy place which is making Sunday breakfast and prepping some meals for the week. It was glorious. Our master bedroom was finished by noon and with the flooring installation complete, we were able to focus on putting our house back together. In the meantime, we decided to go ahead and paint our master bedroom. We had planned on saving the painting for another weekend, but since our bedroom furniture is so big, we figured we should paint that room while it was still empty. Plus, we already had our color picked out. We went with Sherwin Williams Winter Wood and I just love it. We are quite the painting duo and despite the ridiculous number of times I leaned on and/or bumped my butt against the wet paint, I think I was still a big help!

Okay, yes I am taking a break in the above photo but in all fairness Jonathan turned on Friends so he basically asked me to take a break and I couldn't help but sit back and watch him in action.

I'm glad we did because our bedroom looks amazing. With a lighter, soothing wall color and new wood floors, it feels like a totally different space.

We still have quite a bit to do including repainting the baseboards/doors throughout the rest of the house, painting the foyer, kitchen and living room and changing up the decor a bit, but we're hoping to finish all of that within the next week or so. When we're all done, I'll do a full post of before and after photos so for now, I'll just leave you with a photo of Taylor cat from yesterday afternoon. She found a peaceful place to sleep away from the chaos on a mattress in our living room. She was clearly less than thrilled with all the activity going on in our home this weekend.

It was quite a weekend! It was loud and it was messy but also absolutely joyful and exciting. Such is life, right? A sometimes messy, always beautiful work in progress. Hope your weekend was wonderful in its own way!