Welcome a new year! If you caught our New Year’s Eve post, you know we, like many, welcomed the new year with mixed emotions.  2020 will be the year we look back on with gratitude for our health, home and each other. It’s the year that taught us to stumble with grace, have patience, and sit in the messy beautiful moments because those are the moments that hold true meaning, that shape us and heal us. Thanks for being here and connecting with us this past year. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions for sure.

Towards the end of December, I felt the need to start setting small goals for myself. I’ve always been a list maker and I think the rush of the holidays and finishing up projects for the year just made me want to refocus and feel organized again. Here’s what we’re looking forward to this month…

1 – Read more! 

A common theme in our household this year for the holidays was gifting books. We’ve been better about not crashing in bed at night and turning on Netflix, instead we’ve been reaching for a few titles that have been on our reading list. It’s been a nice way to wind down for the night and just unplug. I’m currently reading: My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem and have Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld next up in the queue.  

2 – Give the Guest House a Refresh

Over this last year our guesthouse has turned into a glorified storage unit. When COVID hit, our travel slowed down and of course we didn’t have any visitors. As we settled into our home more and really lived in it, we ended up moving around a few things for little refreshes. It’s fun to restyle your home with things you already have – move things from room to room and kind of shop your house. After all, any bit of change in 2020 felt exciting. Now that Ollie is growing and our old home office has become his nursery, we think it could be fun to give the guesthouse an update: some fresh paint, a little facelift with new pillows and artwork possibly. We may also sell some rugs and baby items that we’ve been holding onto that are currently occupying the space. I’ve been pinning a bunch on Pinterest and just really enjoying that platform again. It’s a stress free place for sure. 😉 This isn’t a necessary project, just something fun and gives us the push to purge a bit. 

3 – Wellness + Rediscover my Personal Rituals: Baths, Skincare, etc…

I have totally neglected my skincare and “me” time over the last few months. It’s fine, we’re raising a very active and lovable toddler, juggling work life and some personal projects, and we wanted to create a very magical Christmas admist COVID, but I’ve realized not taking those few moments to breathe, has contributed to a lot of anxiety. I mentioned a while back that over the summer I started having some abdominal pain. It would come and go. Starting in November my abdominal pain got worse and it moved to my groin. I thought it could have been a cyst (I used to get horrible cysts before I had Oliver) so made an appt with my obgyn. Thankfully everything looked good, but it was frustrating to leave without any answers. December I started to feel a little better. I paid more attention to nursing my body, getting rest, and nourishing it correctly. The adrenaline of the holidays took over and I realized how much better I feel when I just have a few moments of quiet time. So my personal self care rituals of baths, taking my time to do my skincare at night and make sure I’m having nourishing teas throughout the day with my Manuka honey from Activist has been key. This kind of goes hand in hand with reading in the evenings, and paying attention to the environment when unwinding for the night. 

4 – Finish the Living Room Layout

During the holidays we switched around the living room layout. We wanted more of an open space for Ollie to play. We found a wooden shelf on CB2 that fits our home decor style (love the mix of dark and light wood) and will be perfect for all of Oliver’s toys. We like having some of his things in the living room with us. We spend the most time in the living room together, so we want him to have a few books and toys out as well. We follow the Montessori method, switching around and rotating toys and materials for Oliver every other week. It’s been great seeing what he gravitates towards and how his skills continue to grow. We moved the television from over the fireplace to over the shelving unit, and put our favorite brass mirror back over the fireplace. (It’s been hiding out in our guesthouse.) Now the living room feels more practical for us. Rob and I have enjoyed some date nights at home with movie nights and ordering in churros. It feels even more cozy and we’re loving it. Just need to get that shelving unit here and we’ll share some photos.