Hey Reader, I had a shotgun wedding three months ago. Well… kind of. There was no actual shotgun, for the record. 😂 But I did find out I was pregnant in April and then got married to the man who had been my boyfriend when this year began, only a few months later. So, I know how it looks for sure. From the outside, I’m sure it looked like we saw the positive pregnancy test, panicked, and rushed to get married before anyone could do the math. That isn’t exactly how it happened. My now-husband...
8 days ago • 5 min read
Hey Reader, I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe we're already in September. For me, September always feels a little like a second mini New Year. There’s something about this time of year that makes me want to pull out a new planner, reorganize my schedules, return to the projects I had set aside, and finally make progress on the ideas I’ve been thinking about for months. Maybe you’re feeling it too. Maybe there’s a business you keep imagining, a creative project you want to share, or...
15 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, Last week, I told you that I wasn’t prepared to be pregnant when I found out this past April. But after sending that email, I realized that wasn’t completely true. To be completely honest, the pregnancy wasn’t an "accident" or a complete surprise. My then-boyfriend, now-husband, and I had started trying earlier this year. So, we both knew becoming pregnant was a real possibility. What neither of us expected was how quickly it would happen. We had been talking about having a...
22 days ago • 5 min read
Hey Reader, It’s been a while since I’ve written to you consistently, and a lot has changed since the last time I was regularly showing up in your inbox. At the end of April, I found out I was pregnant. The first few months brought with it a level of exhaustion I wasn’t prepared for, along with nausea and days when my energy and productivity looked nothing like they normally did. Some days, taking care of myself and getting through what absolutely needed to be done was about all I had the...
29 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, These past few weeks have felt like my energy and creativity have been shot. And truly, not in a completely bad way, either. I feel like during the past few weeks, I have been trying to figure out what I want this next stage of my life to feel and look like on a daily basis. Lately, it feels like my life (and me, as a byproduct) has been changing a lot. And even though the changes are not completely outward, they are more present for me than ever. You see, change (even when it's...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Hey Reader, Yesterday, I went to the end-of-school-year dance recital for my boyfriend's daughter, and it was funny to see the contrast between the young kids messy and cute dances followed up by the advanced teams' older kids dances. It made me think about the process of starting. Start messy If you really think about it, anything that is beautiful and amazing in this world started messy and non-exceptional first. And the thing is that the only people who create beautiful, amazing things are...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, This past weekend, I was down in the Florida Keys, surviving on almost no sleep, eating burgers at 1 a.m., and pacing my boyfriend through part of a 100-mile ultramarathon. And if you read that first sentence, you probably first thought I was partying all weekend, LOL. Far from it. My boyfriend just completed his first 100-mile race: the Keys100. And honestly? Even being part of it as a pacer was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done physically and mentally… and I wasn’t even...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, We all experience preconceived notions, limiting beliefs, disempowering thought patterns, and failures. The issue is when these become our roadblocks, and many times, the 'excuses' we use to not try something. Often, we treat these things as permanent in our lives. And until we realize that they're not fixed things and that we can therefore change them, nothing can change. That's why today I want to tell you about the concept of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, This is going to be a short one. I recently saw a question that helps you make decisions when you feel paralyzed by them. When you're considering big (or small) decisions, a simple question you can ask yourself is: "What would make the story better?" Or even, "What story would be the one I would want to tell?" Looking at the big picture, if you considered yourself the main character in a book or a movie, what is the storyline you would want to read or watch? What is the plot that...
5 months ago • 2 min read