Tag: consistency

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Let's Look

Let’s Look: How We Maintain Relationships

Hello all! Happy Wednesday! I hope you are having a great week so far! This has been a busy, but fun week for me! We had the Super Bowl on Sunday, tomorrow is Galentine’s Day, but I have been celebrating all month long with friends but setting up one on one dates with friends and then this weekend is Valentine’s Day. I’ll be out of town for a weekend getaway which I’m excited about too! 

Here’s how I have been celebrating the month of love! 

Enjoying lots of sweet treats!
And baked goods too!

Love is the topic for today’s Let’s Look as I link up with  Shay and Erika!

In January, we covered low level goals.

Today the topic is How We Work on Our Marriage. Since I’m not married, I switched the topic to how I work on my relationships, with friends, family, and my boyfriend.

Let’s start with friendships! I cherish my friendships with my gals, whether they are near or far away. One of the biggest ways that I maintain my friendships is by being consistent with my friends with routine dates or check-ins. Besides sending random texts or check-ins with my friends, I try to set up weekly or monthly dates depending on our schedules. Life can get busy, but having something on the calendar is important for holding each other accountable. For example, my one friend and I have monthly facetime dates. We talk at the end of the month for about an hour and catch each other up on all our life happenings. We will still occasionally text through the month, but we save all the girl talk for our facetime dates since we live far away from each other.  When it comes to friends who live in town, my friends and I try to see each other once or twice a month for a walk, coffee date, or meal. For me and my friends, having something on the calendar keeps us in a good rhythm of visiting one another. 

When it comes to my family, I live at home with my parents and one brother (the other two are grown and out of the house or in college). Family dinners are super important to us, we always make time for each other and love to hear about each other’s days. I love the connection that sitting down for a meal offers. When it comes to my brothers who aren’t home, besides texting, I try to call and check in about once a week. We talk about our weeks, what’s new and life in general. I love the connection that a phone call or facetime offers as opposed to a text.

Lastly, my boyfriend. I keep my relationship pretty private. But we have been together for almost five years and every day is better than the last. We have grown and learned a lot through our relationship. We met through work and worked together for a few years, before he decided to make a career change and now we are going long distance. We have learned a lot by going the distance and grown in our relationship too. The biggest thing I have learned is the importance of communication, whether it’s something that’s good or bad, being upfront and honest with one another has been so helpful when we are hours apart. We talk and text through the day and try to visit each other once a month and when we are together we try to have a balance or doing things and just doing mundane things. Having good communication skills, putting each other first and giving our best effort are top priorities for us. 

Relationships are so vital to our lives, whether it’s friendships, family, or significant others. I try to maintain relationships the best that I can and in ways that works best for me. With Valentine’s Day just days away, how do you maintain your relationships? Let me know in the comments below! Have a wonderful ramp up to Galentine’s Day and Valentine’s Day! Sending you lots of love!

Categories
Fabulous living

New Year’s Resolution Check-In

Hi everyone and Happy July!

Can you believe that we are already seven months into the year? I feel like we were just celebrating the holidays and hunkering down for winter and now we are in full summer mode. This has been such a good summer so far, and in good news, we still have a lot more to enjoy. These past few weeks have been filled with walks, reading by the pool, grilling and family time.

Outdoor walks by the water have been a favorite of mine recently

Plus, tomorrow is the Fourth of July-one of my favorite summer traditions. 

Since we are just passed the halfway point of the year, I figured it would be a good time to do a New Year’s Resolution check in to see how I’ve been doing so far with my goals for 2024.

Here’s a look at my post from the start of the year.

My top resolutions that I set for this year were:

-Donate Blood

-Do 8K or 10K

-Re-Learn Piano

-Learn How to Braid Hair

-Cook a New Recipe a Week

We are half way through and I’ve tackled a handful of these already.

Let’s get into it:

–Donate Blood– I donated blood for the first-time last month, although it took until June to do it, I accomplished it, and it was not as scary as I thought it would be. My boyfriend is an avid blood donor and has been encouraging me to do it for years. We made a date out of it, and it felt good to give back and save lives. I was most concerned about the pain and passing out afterwards, but thankfully, all went smoothly, no pain during or after and no passing out. Success!  I will definitely be donating again when I am eligible. If you are ever on the fence about doing something out of your comfort zone, don’t like fear cause you to back out.

–Do an 8K or 10K- I will be accomplishing this tomorrow! Most races happen on the weekends when I work, but I found one that was happening on one of my days off. I will be running a 10K tomorrow for the Fourth of July. I have been upping my mileage over the past few months and I’m looking forward to seeing how I do timewise tomorrow. I have been focusing more on distance rather than speed, so I’m anxious to see how it goes. I’ll be back here on Friday to let you know the final results.

–Re-Learn Piano-This has been a hobby that I started at the beginning of the year and have been consistent about it over the past seven months. I aim to practice for ten minutes a day at least five times a week. Sometimes, I practice all seven days, other days, I only practice for five days. There are even some days when I do practices on my phone on the go, it just varies week to week. I have been using Simply Piano to teach myself. This hobby has been one of the more challenging hobbies I have attempted. Some days, I really love learning new music and playing well-known songs, other days, I get frustrated and want to throw in the towel, but I take a deep breath and keep practicing (even though it does annoy my dog and I’m sure my family at times.) This has been a learning experience unlike other hobbies I have attempted but I have been proud of the progress I have made so far.

-Learn How to Braid Hair– I have not attempted this yet and that’s due to the fact that I got a haircut and got layers which makes it harder to braid. I do have many how-to braid ideas saved on Pinterest and that has been giving me inspiration. I just need some longer hair to get there haha! However, this does give me something to work towards for the second half of the year.

– Cook a New Recipe A Week– This has been something I have been really proud of. I have been doing lots of cooking this year and once again have been consistent by cooking one new meal a week. I have been getting recipes from blogs, cookbooks and Pinterest. I have been loving getting more comfortable in the kitchen and trying new recipes and gadgets. These will be great skills to have when I am on my own soon. I have to give a huge shout out to my family for indulging me in all my new recipes. Some have been hits and others misses. I need to get better about making sure I make enough food for everyone. I’ve done super creative dishes and simple, one pot meals too. This has been such a fun passion and skill to improve on and I’m looking forward to trying even more recipes as the seasons change through the rest of the year. 

Big meals
Soups
Salads

There you have it. My New Year’s Resolution Check-In! I’m proud with how many things I have accomplished so far and behind the scenes, I’m proud of the personal growth I have seen in myself over the past several months. Although, I have made a lot of strides in my New Year’s Resolutions, we still have five more months left in the year, plenty of time for more improvement and consistency.

Tell me: how are your new year’s resolutions coming so far? 

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

I’ll see you back here on Friday!

Categories
Fabulous living

2021 Resolutions

Hello all!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had enjoyable holiday seasons, from Christmas to New Year’s, I hope they were spent with loved ones, making memories, laughs, joy and love.

2020 was quite a year and now as we embark on a new year, I love to take the time and set up some goals or resolutions for myself as we embark on a new year. There are a lot of unknowns with the new year which makes it hard to plan for since there are so many things out of my control, but I know there are still goals that I can accomplish or continue to work on as we begin a new year. I like to keep my goals simple and realistic. 

This upcoming year, I want to continue to focus on my health, both mental and physical. I plan to continue working out five days a week, whether it’s at home or the gyms once they reopen. I also plan to continue to work on my mental health by journaling daily and putting things in perspective.

I found good routines that work for me when it comes to schedule for work and my days off to make sure I have a balance of getting things done while spending time with family and friends and taking care of myself too. 

Now, time for resolutions for 2021!!!

My word for the year is…Intentional. I want to be more intentional with my time, my friends, my family, my relationships, and myself.

My first goal is to be more intentional with my time, my family, and my friends and along with that, I want to be more present. For example, when I’m with my family watching a movie, I want to watch the movie and not be working on my computer or scrolling on my phone, but I want to really enjoy the movie. There were so many times this past year when I would be focused on two things at once and not being 100 percent there and I want to be 100 percent for everything. I started doing this towards the end of 2020, and I want to keep at it. 

My next goal is less screen time. Given the nature of my job, I have to be connected or on my phone or near it. But, I don’t have to scroll through my phone aimlessly, especially social media. I started to enable screen time and set limits for myself on my phone and it’s been a game changer, but I still want to be better. I want to be more present and that means putting the phone down more and focusing on where I am at and not what others are posting on Instagram or twitter. 

My last goal is to be more consistent with my friends. I have some friends who I have bi-weekly facetime chats with but with other close friends it could be months before we catch up. I want to be better about staying connected with friends and checking in on them especially with a year or uncertainity ahead.

I’m looking forward to everything that 2021 has to offer. I know it will be filled with hope, joy, and love. I want to continue to work on the goals and routines that work for me and work on my new goals. Overall, I don’t know what the year holds, but I know if I go into it with a clear mind, positive attitude and I’m willing to be flexible, it will all work out. 

What are some of your New Year’s Resolutions or Goals?!