Motivation Monday: How Many Daydreams Will You Make Come True?

I'll be honest; I did not know what I'd use for today's Motivation Monday until last night during my son's bedtime routine.  I had brainstormed ideas, pulled a few quotes and had even considered using a side project I'm working on for a church girl's camp (maybe next week!).

But after bath time and reading time, we have a last feeding time, during which I sing a few bedtime songs. I'm not much of a singer and am possibly worse at remembering lyrics, so I stick to the same few songs every night. One of those songs is from my youth attending girl's camp. The song is called "Misty's Song" and the lyrics are as follows.

Tell me the reason I was born to roam,

Tell me the reason I am so far from home,

Tell me the reason only birds can fly,

Tell me the reason I was born just to die.

How many mountains will I have to climb,

How many memories will I leave behind,

How many daydreams will I make come true,

How many heartbreaks until I find you?

There is a valley called Peace of Mind,

There is a river running right by it's side,

There is a moment of Glory so new,

There is Eternity to spend loving you.

Last night as I sang the second verse, I was moved by the idea of daydreams. I thought about many of the things I have once hoped for, aspired for, and most importantly, worked for to make happen. I thought about my hopes now for the future and reveled in my personal knowledge that, yes, dreams can come true!

I love that the lyric emphasizes that I, myself, am who makes things happen. I can't sit around and simply wait for my dreams to magically show up. I can put in the effort, make a plan, set things in motion, and focus on the progress I make day by day. That's how reaching dreams actually work.

So today I ask you to think about the daydreams you've seen come true in your life. How did you make those come true? Do you have new ones or ones you still hope to see unfold? How can you make them happen?

How many daydreams will YOU make come true?

Follow the links below if you're interested in download high-res versions of the images in this post. There is both an 8.5x11 option and an 8x8 option. Thanks for reading. 

Motivation Monday: Do What Makes You Happy

Welcome back to my resurrected Motivation Monday series!

I've kinda been on a "happy" kick, huh? (In case you missed my last posts, check out "A happy HAPPY life" and "Happy does not equal perfect.") I suppose I'm trying to capitalize on my current situation and adopt life practices that help me maintain that outlook and continue to feel this way, regardless of circumstance.

Thinking about the topic actually brings back a lot of thoughts from the book, "The Happiness Project." It's been YEARS since I read it, but I'm definitely going to pick up a copy and re-familiarize myself with it. Oh, plus I want to check out the author Gretchen Rubin's newer books "Happier at Home" and "Better Than Before."

In case you aren't familiar with the bestseller, "The Happiness Project" follows the author's journey through self evaluation and noticing some simple ways to capitalize on her happiness. (Yes, that is my own personal, very brief, and very generalized summary.)

I commented on some of my take away from the book in my post "Little Ways To Live a More Simple Life." 

Today's Motivation Monday quote, "Do What Makes You Happy," is a reminder to ME to continue to seek out those little things that make me happy. Most recently, I mentioned my goal to add more writing and designing into my everyday life. Those are both aspects of my career that I don't get to do on a day-to-day basis anymore, and I've missed them.

Download this image with high resolution here! 

That said, I also what to add the reminder that the things YOU do to be happy might not be what anyone else would choose to do. And what someone else does might not make you happy. Incorporating this reminder requires you to know and accept yourself for who you are. (Which I think is a beautiful process!)

So take a minute to think about what makes you happy. What's one thing you could do to be a little happier today?

Happy does not equal perfect

A look at this moment: I'm sitting on my bed with a load of laundry to fold and Emerson laying next to me kicking me with his feet. Though we tried for a nap in his crib, he wasn't having it and squalled until I brought him into my room with me. (Granted, he slept a lot this morning in the car so we'll just do an afternoon nap.) While he was quiet but not asleep, I did manage to heat up a small lunch. After that we all headed to my bed to work (and me to eat). 

P.S. Emerson fell asleep next to me after about a half hour of watching me work on my laptop. 

P.P.S. I got a little work done on an impromptu design project for my sister but then we had a pooping-on-the-comforter incident, a spitting-up-on-the-sheets incident, and several we-definitely-won't-get-anything-done incident. 

P.P.P.S. I am now continuing this post. Two. whole. days. later. 

Wow. The struggle is real, folks. I'll say that my intent with the above information was just to show what my day might look like for a single snapshot of time. In fact, I thought it might be a fun little detail to include on any of my personal life posts going forward.

However, with each additional "P.S." I realized that the unfolding of events actually demonstrates the topic of this post pretty well.

See after I published my "Happy happy life" post, I continued to think about what I wrote. (Other people do that too, right?...right?) And I started to come up with all kinds of "wait a minute" reasons about why I shouldn't be as happy as I've been feeling.

I am constantly behind on housework
As much as I intend to meal plan and make dinner every night—shoot, every other night—I rarely do
I don't have huge attendance at my fitness classes
I have baby weight and am sensitive about unflattering pictures of myself
I am horrible at responding to or even reading text and Facebook messages and am horrible at staying in touch with friends
I have so many personal professional projects that I have never moved forward on
I still haven't scheduled the dental appointment I've been needing for months
Somedays Emerson and I don't leave the house
I have moments where I am frustrated, tired, and overwhelmed
I often don't get done any of the things I wanted to that day

Overall, the idea that kept coming up was that I have a thousand reasons NOT to happy, namely because I am not perfect. I didn't want others to think I was putting on a front to appear better than I actually am. I mean, I have so many downfalls and my life is most definitely not perfect. I don't want to be a person that pretends my life is something that it's not.

But I realized that everyone will ALWAYS have thousands of reason not to be happy. And perhaps the most gratifying thing about "happy" is finding it even through the many reasons not to.

Happiness is not dependent on perfection. Happiness is not dependent on success. Happiness is a daily choice. Happiness is thriving in the moments that give us joy. Happiness is knowing and accepting who you are and loving that person.

Happiness is driving home from a daily errand and seeing beauty in the moment. And smiling.

A happy HAPPY life + 2 GOALS

Look at me.

It's the middle of the day. I have my laptop open. I'm actually writing a post!

Since I'm working (aka freelance design) less these days (plus the addition of Emerson, my now 4 month old), I find myself rarely using my laptop. Most things I can do on my phone, but not being on my laptop majorly cuts back on any motivation to blog, design, and the such. As a side note, I also don't see a lot of Facebook messages and other notifications type of things. I need to seriously dedicate some laptop time to those things.

So to get into WHY I'm wanting to post right now.

I am been feeling so incredibly happy lately. And I feel the need to document that.

Over the past few months, I have found myself on multiple occasions just stopping for a second and thinking, "Man, I'm loving life right now."

And I feel so incredibly blessed.

I'm thrilled to be at a place in life where I am content and satisfied with who I am, what I have accomplished in life, what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, my relationships (hello hubby!), my adorable baby boy, my work life (which right now is fitness and 1-2 professional projects a month), my friends, living in beautiful Pensacola, planning for the future (and welcoming the military unknown), and everything in between.

In April I turned 30 and of course that had me thinking a lot about the past and what I want to accomplish in the future. I definitely thought about tons of stuff and need to sit and write and plan some new goals. Because, yes, I am the kind of person that won't do anything until I have a plan and have thought things out as much as I can.

As I'm writing this, I'm deciding to do a little gratitude post series because right now I can't focus on one thing and I feel so happy and blessed about so many things. Jake and I just had our two-year anniversary. Emerson is seriously the best baby ever. I know everyone says that, but I can't imagine anyone having a better baby. I feel so lucky to not have experienced (at least yet) any sort of postpartum depression/anxiety and the such. (And I have to say, I thought I would. And Jake was sure I would.) I feel like I have the perfect schedule of fitness classes. So much good in life right now. I know life won't always be like this, so I definitely want to focus on the positive and make the most of my current situation right now.

Last week I sat Jake down telling him I wanted to talk. Basically I wanted to just tell him how happy I've been feeling and sharing some of my profound little "loving life" moments the past few months. He is obviously a huge part in all of this and is my best friend and the best partner for me and I wanted to say thanks and share the goodness.

With all this in mind, I started thinking about what I'm NOT doing that I wish I were doing. Two things came to mind.

Writing and designing.

So I've decided that I'm going to make some personal goals to write more (aka blog) and start doing more personal design projects. (Typically I just design commissioned professional projects that tend to be more technical and I'm hoping to do some more fun type of things.)

And if those things stress or detract from my current happiness and love of life, I may cut back on them once again. But I AM looking forward to pushing myself a little more and working on some small personal goals.

You heard it here first. :P

Homemade Dishwasher Tablets

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my post about making DIY dishwasher tablets. Seriously, I don't know why I was suddenly inspired to make this. I am beyond stocked up on laundry detergent from some couponing deals, but when I saw we were nearing the end of our tablets, I decided to go for the homemade option. I seriously had the ingredients on my shopping list and while shopping with Jake he says "We need dishwasher detergent" and I'm like "Oh that's what all these ingredients are for!" He definitely gave me the side eye with that.

First off, let me say so far the tablets work great! Granted, I've only used them a couple times, but so far so good.

I decided to try this recipe from the site Say Not Sweet Anne (found on Pinterest). When looking at recipes, it seemed like there were either ones that used Borax or ones that proudly claimed "No Borax here!" Now, I don't personally have anything against Borax and tried to do some research to find why people are so anti Borax. In the end, I didn't have conclusive info and decided to just go with the option without Borax.

I also avoided recipes needing castille soap because that stuff is expensive and I didn't want to invest in that much initial cost with just trying something out.

The recipe I link to above is one of the simpliest I found. Here is a look at the ingredients and where to find them.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups washing soda (laundry aisle & apparently you can make from baking soda if you want)
1 cup baking soda (found in baking - at my store the small boxes were cheaper by ounce than the large box)
1/2 cup kosher salt (found in baking with other salts)
2 packets lemonade mix (found with drink mixes) ** This may be my favorite part of the recipe...I kinda wanted to add in like 4 of these for extra lemon smell!
1 cup water (I added a liiiiitle bit of vinegar instead of the full cup of water)

I had read that sometimes people have problems with residue left over on the dishes and needed to add vinegar to the liquid rinse space. I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO HAVE TO DO THAT so I opted to add a little bit instead of the full cup of water. Several recipes I looked at did include vinegar so I figured I couldn't throw the recipe off too much.

The Process:

This was SO easy. Seriously add all the dry ingredients. Add the water (and vinegar in my case). Stir together. This video shows the initial reaction and me trying to mix everything together. I apologize about the awful camera work, stirring a thick sand-like mixture while holding a phone is quite difficult. **Side note, the background music is Jake playing his guitar. I was seriously confused when first watching the clips and thinking "How did I add music already??"

Setting Into Tablets:

If you have some spare ice cube trays or any kind of molds, I'd use those! (Just make sure they will still fit in your detergent compartment.) I did not have any trays (I must have gotten rid of them in the move) so I was planning to use a tablespoon to scoop out the portions.

The tablets drying on the countertop.

Now, my mixture was initially VERY wet. There was no way I could separate this out into tablets.

This may be because of the Florida humidity or maybe I added too much vinegar or maybe I just needed it to set a little bit. I added small amounts of each of the dry ingredients to thicken it up and just kept mixing. Finally, I decided to just let it sit for a few hours.

This helped A TON! Suddenly the mixture was very moldable.

I actually had filled my tablespoon with some and THAT was a perfect tablet having dried in the mold. Hence why I'd recommend the trays. You can immediately work with the mixture and pack it in. I had to go back a couple times as the mixture loosened up as I worked with it more and then I'd need to let it dry again. Once the mixture was TOO dry so I just added a tiny bit of water and things worked fine.

(I also have to mention that I made the mixture right before Jake and I were going to bed because you are supposed to let it sit out for 24+ hours. Then my pregnancy insomnia kept me up and so I finished this project throughout the night when I'd get up. :P)


In the end I made about 40 tablets. Some are prettier than others but overall I'm pretty pleased! :D  I am just storing them under the sink in the container from my old tablets.

Returning to Couponing

Years ago I was pretty into couponing. However I was single and found myself with waaay too much food to handle and constantly giving away gift baskets of my random freebies I picked up. Eventually my efforts died down because seriously, it takes a bit of time. I was getting back into it in Utah a few months before we moved but down here in Florida, the grocery stores are completely different and what not. I do miss my Smith's deals.

No this is not mine! :D Just an example...but when do you have too much?

Anyways, with Baby Ortiz on the way, I definitely wanted to get stocked up on diapers and wipes. That's the motivation that got me going. I'm still trying to find the right "stock up" price because in reading other blogs, the price points vary so much. For example, one person says she aims to pay .08 per diaper while someone else says .11-.14 is excellent. (Those exact numbers come from their estimates for size 1 diapers.) For ME, I've tried to stay around .11-.12/diaper or at least 50% off regular price. Wipes is at least .01/wipe.

I'm hoping to be able to use a variety of brands but so far I've stocked up on Honest Diapers and Pampers. For wipes I have Huggies and Up & Up so far.

Today I picked up this wipe deal at Target and attempted a deal scenario to take advantage of their spend $50 on food/drinks, get a $10 gift card. I typed up a thorough break down of my whole deal, but here are my highlights.  (If you are interested in the rest, let me know.) <---- JK, I included it at the end.

My Target trip

3 Betty Crocker cake mixes at .17/each
1 Pillsbury cake mix at .04
2 Buitoni refrigerated ravioli at $1.61 each (reg $3.99)
4 Simply Balanced fruit strips at $1.4 a box (reg $2.99)
2 Ocean Spray juices at $1.02 each
1 V8 infused water at .01 (after Ibotta deal)
Orbit gum at .38/each

Spaghetti that fits in the pot...brilliant!

Oh and I got this little box of spaghetti for .57. I used to get pasta for free all the time, but seriously how cute is that box?

I admit I'm not good at planning trips yet and end up staying FOREVER in the store. We don't have Super Targets around here either so I'm never sure what the store will actually carry. I picked up a few items that I needed at regular prices so there's that. I calculated the final prices by dividing the $10 offer by the number of items I had and evenly subtracting that amount from each price.

I also stopped at Walgreens where I scored some money-making makeup deals. Granted, it's Wet & Wild, but I'm not picky and think the lip products go great in gifts. In my area, Walgreens offers a 15% military discount on Thursdays on top of all sales.

(P.S. Speaking of Wet & Wild makeup, I have to give a little shout to this lovely makeup channel on YouTube that I watch all the time. She has done some great videos about cheap drugstore makeup including Wet & Wild, ELF, etc.)

As a simple breakdown, I got 2 boxes of Kellogg's cereal, 2 dispensers of Scotch tape, 1 Christmas gift bag, 2 Wet N Wild mascaras, 2 eye pencils, and 4 lip products for $4.82 after submitting a .50 cent Ibotta rebate.

My Walgreen's trip

OK, this is probably too much info for this platform, but I went ahead and included my price breakdowns below. Otherwise, I'm done!

Oh, oh...do YOU have diaper and wipe price points you aim for? I'd love to hear.

(P.P.S. I've never quite gotten into Ibotta. I started using it but then always forget to scan my receipts and the product and it seemed like a big hassle. I'm going to try again.)

- - - - - - -


Walgreens

2 Kellogg's cereal: On sale for $2 - 15% military discount - 2 .50/1 Kellogg's coupons = $2.38 or $1.19 each
2 Scotch tape: On sale for $1.29 - BOGO free - 15% discount = $1.10 or .55 each
1 gift bag: Priced at .29 + 25% discount (I don't know why this was more) = .22 and submitted for .50 Ibotta = .28 = rebate MONEY MAKER
2 Wet N Wild matte lip color: On clearance for $1.79 - BOGO 1/2 off - 15% discount - 2 .75/1 WNW lip product = .78 or .39 each
2 Wet N Wild mascara: On clearance for $1.29 - BOGO 1/2 off - 15% discount - 2 .50/1 WNW products = .65 or .33 each
2 Wet N Wild lip gloss: On clearance for $1.09 - BOGO 1/2 off - 15% discount - 2 .75/1 WNW lip product = -.11 = MONEY MAKER (of course this just came off my total)
2 Wet N Wild eye pencils: On clearance for .59 - BOGO 1/2 off - 15% discount - 2 .50/1 WNW products = -.25 = MONEY MAKER
Tax = .55 (rounding numbers made my receipt .06 cents off the total)

Target

To figure out my final product prices, I grouped the Tic Tacs as 1 item and then divided the $10 gift card by the number of items I purchased (21) and evenly subtracted that additional .476 from each item.

My total before ANY coupons came to 55.28. I had one set of items that were buy 3 get 1 free and that free item (2.99) seemed to not count toward the total automatically so I had to add a little more.

FYI:
CW = Target Cartwheel offer
TC = Target coupon

1 Orbit gum value eight pack: $5.49 - .75/1 TC - 25% CW = 3.55 - .476 = $3.07 or .38/pack of gum (Jake's favorite + Christmas stockings)
4 Tic Tacs: $1.14 (4) = $4.56 - 20% CW - BOGO FREE (-2.28) = 1.36 - .476 = .884 or .22/each
1 V8 Infused Water: $1.66 - 40% CW = .99 - .50 Ibotta rebate = .49 - .476 = .014
1 Market Pantry spaghetti: $1.11 - 5% CW = $1.05 - .476 = .57
1 Market Pantry parmesan cheese: $2.97 - $5 CW = $2.82 - .476 = $2.34
2 Chex cereal: $2.50 each - $1/2 coupon = $2 - .476 = $1.52 each ($3.05 all)
1 loaf bread: $1.97 -.50 Ibotta offer - .476 = .99
3 Betty Crocker cake mixes: $1 each - 10% CW - .75/3 coupon = .65 - .476 = .17 each (.52 all)
1 Pillsbury cake mix: $1.09 - 20% CW - .35/1 coupon = .52 - .476 = .044
2 Ocean Spray juices: $2 each - $1/2 TC = $1.5 - .476 = $1.02 each ($2.05 all)
2 Buitoni pasta: $3.99 each - 40% CW - $1/2 TC = $2.09 - .476 = $1.61 each ($3.23 all)
4 Simply balance fruit strips: $2.99 each - B3G1 Free - 5% CW - $1/$5 TC = $1.88 - .476 = 1.4 each ($5.62 all)
Pop Secret: $4.49 - 50% CW = $2.24 - .476 = $1.76 (This was my filler items so I kinda threw it on but wish I had picked something else.)

A little blood clot update

Jake painted my toes for me. :)

I wanted to write up a quick blood clot-related update since I've had so many people ask me about it. I had a draft from when I was still in the hospital written up but I think once they released me, I apparently lost motivation to sit in one place and type. Haha.

Well, I'm happy to report that things have gone and stayed well since that second hospital stay. Putting me on the heparin drip for those few days really seemed to do the trick and get my blood coagulation right where it needed to be.

When I was in the hospital they took care of my Tdap and flu shots AND my glucose testing. If any of you follow me on Instagram, you may know that the glucose test turned into a little bit of an ordeal.

But they released me Friday morning/early afternoon. Jake off course had to work, but we were able to time everything so the nurses, pharmacy, doctors, etc. had everything done and me ready to go for the 45 minute lunch break where Jake could come pick me up. Leaving the hospital and going home is seriously one of the best feelings.

The swelling in my leg was almost completely gone, if only present ever so slightly. As far as medication goes, I was put BACK on my lovenox injections but this time with a higher dosage. So I again got a huge box of needles to take home. And I still have the lower dosage needles which obviously they can't take back. Sooo we'll see what ends up happening there.

I stopped taking percocet after the first couple days in the hospital and while I was allowed to take it, I never felt that much pain again. I think I took Tylenol maybe once in twice in those first few days home. But the "pain" aspect of the clot was over. I was still on crutches for a little over a week after that, but everything smoothed out and I first started walking on my own around home, then brought crutches but left them in the car, etc.

I was able to pick up a temporary handicap parking sticker Monday after leaving the hospital. That has been extremely helpful. Obviously when I was on crutches, but even now that I'm not, walking and activity really does tire my leg really quickly and I've been thankful for that (even though I'm a bit embarrassed at times to be using it.) I also took full advantage of driving carts at stores for a few weeks and Jake told me multiple times that I apparently have no shame. Yes I'm going to park in the handicap spot and yes I'm going to drive my slow cart around the store, thank you very much. :D

After being home a week, I decided to teach my senior Zumba class. I had been on crutches this whole time but didn't really want to show up on them to the gym. So I braved without the weights and adjusted class so I could be sitting down more. Because you can do that with senior Zumba. Class went well but it was definitely a bit hard for me. The next week teaching went WAY better  with my only needing to sit for 2-3 songs. Today will be my third week.

Jake and I went on a morning walk this week. While it wasn't as long as we usually go for, it was longer than I've done since the hospital. I'm hoping to attend some regular Zumba or fitness classes to see how I do and then MAYBE try teaching for a few more weeks until the baby says no again.

That's pretty much the gist at this point. I gave myself 15 minutes to write this update but have several more, mostly unrelated, posts to add. I'm finishing up my 31st week and I'm trying to get some many things in order. Yes, the nesting has begun.

My box of medication to take home.

Yay! Going home

Week 30