Life & Lemons

Financial instability, challenges within work, and life circumstances can be really hard to deal with.   

Certain situations have been personally rough, both at work and in my personal life.  For weeks, even months, I was waiting for these challenges in my life to get easier or to flat out go away.  Nothing catastrophic happened, just a lot of little things were adding up to make it really difficult to deal with.

Thinking it was just a phase, time kept passing and if it wasn’t one thing, it was another.  After a while it felt like I was carrying around one giant, heavy pit in my stomach. 

That’s when it hit me – I need to accept the fact that it’s not going to get easier.  I honestly don’t mean for that to sound negative – it’s just reality. 

Life is hard and that’s ok!

The fact I needed to change my mindset finally clicked. I needed to move beyond the simple fact that life is hard to the part where I say “that’s ok”.  It was time that I accepted it and stopped fighting.  

We are all dealt lemons in life that we don’t like.  I finally stopped whining and complaining about mine.  I looked at the different situations with fresh eyes and said “okay, what can I do with this” and then started taking action. 

Because I had been carrying that heavy pit for so long I had to do a mental inventory and pin point each topic on my heart and mind that was causing heaviness and/or pain and really examine it to find out the root problem and find a solution.    

I’ve been asking myself questions like:

  • Does this really matter?
  • Does this need to happen right now?
  • This is my current situation, so how can I make this work?

Some situations require different questions and sometimes it’s a matter of simply accepting “it is what is” and moving on. 

Praying and keeping close to God has helped me the most. I’ve reminded myself that God is good.  The situation might not be, but God is and He can be trusted with all of this.

There’s a saying that says God doesn’t give us more than we can handle – but that’s not true.  We are often given situations in life that we can’t handle and that’s why we need God so much in our life to lean on Him and let Him handle it.

I don’t know if this helps anyone by sharing any of this, or if you can relate, but this is just where I’m at in life with certain circumstances and it’s ok.  Life is a journey with ups and downs. 

I have so much to be thankful for and am so glad God knows the future and has a plan for my life.  When I keep Him in perspective, all things fall into place, even the ones that are still up in the air, and I can find it easier to rest. 

What’s In My Bag?

I have mentioned it before, but I like seeing what other people carry in their bag. Here’s what’s in mine!

Bag

I love a good deal. I bought this Nine West purse at Ross for $24.00. No, it’s not super fancy, but it works and I love it! It has the perfect amount of pockets and I find the size to be just right. It’s very easy to keep organized

Cell Phone

Can’t go anywhere without it! Especially while my little one is at daycare. I bought my phone case at Walmart and it’s done its job!

Keys

Again, can’t go anywhere without them…

Wallet

My wallet is also a Nine West brand that I bought on sale during the last cruise we went on. I love it!

Some people buy refrigerator magnets as souvenirs, others buy Christmas ornaments…I like to buy accessories!

Hand Sanitizer

Any hand sanitizer will do, but Victoria’s Secret PINK Fresh & Clean is my favorite!

Lip Gloss

I rotate between different brands and shades, but NYX Lingerie gloss in Honeymoon is the current lip gloss in my bag.

Coupons

Have you ever been out shopping to one of your favorite stores and then realized you left your coupons at home? I do this all the time! My purse has a zipper divider pocket right in the middle and it’s the perfect spot for these coupons. I go through often and throw out any that have expired.

Dog Waste Bags

Ok, what?! This actually makes a great ” mom hack”.

1 – I have a kid who gets car sick and these have come in handy.

2 – unexpected stinky diaper you had to change? Throw it in the bag and tie it up until you can throw it away in a garbage can without smelling up your whole car.

3 – you can use these for small wet clothing items

Feminine products

Not much explanation needed there. These go in the small peachy pink pouch. The pouch is one of my favorites that I got from Mary Kay back in the day when I used to sell it.

** What you will NOT find in my purse – Opened packaged snacks.

This became an official rule after I cleaned out my last purse. It’s hard when you have a small child who doesn’t always finish his snack but you don’t want to throw it out. My last purse was disgusting with all the crumbs. No more!!

Summer Bucket List

Now that it’s June I’m sharing our summer bucket list! I kept it all pretty toddler friendly. And, in case you’re interested, I even made a printable at the end. :)

There are some things I’m personally planning to do this summer that didn’t make it on the list. Such as, sitting in Gryffin’s kiddi pool while sipping on a Mike’s Hard Margarita. #noshame

I’m sure I will think of more things to add to the list as the summer goes on, but I figured this is a good start! I am excited to document and share it all.

I decided to split it up into different categories – so here we go!

Food & Drink

  • Make peach cobbler
  • Make sun tea
  • Bake a cherry pie from scratch
  • Make Root Beer floats
  • Buy from the ice cream truck
  • Roast marshmallows
  • Make homemade salsa and guacamole

Out & About

  • Go to a children’s museum
  • Go to a zoo
  • Visit an aquarium
  • Check out books at the library
  • Go to a farmers market
  • Go to a park with friends
  • Visit an animal shelter
  • Go to a splash pad
  • Go to a baseball game

Fun in the Sun

  • Color with sidewalk chalk
  • Feed the ducks
  • Run through the sprinklers
  • Play with bubbles
  • Have a picnic
  • Play Tee-ball
  • Plant flowers

Rain or Shine

  • Go puddle jumping
  • Play Simon Says
  • Play Red Light, Green Light
  • Build a blanket fort
  • Finger paint
  • Make a bird feeder
  • Make puppets
  • Have a puppet show
  • Make a summer scrapbook

So there you have it! I would love to know what’s on your summer bucket list!

I hope you all have a wonderful Summer!

Much Love,

Cami

Well…

Life is hard.  Due to some certain life events I had to let some things go…and writing consistent blog posts is one them.  Everything is fine, but there’s a lot going on in our personal life…on top of trying to keep up with working a full time job, being a mommy, and trying to manage home life – it’s just a lot.  I hope to write some fun blog posts at some point this summer, so hopefully I’ll be back soon.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in really fast just to say hi.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

~ Cami

Currently – March 2018

Happy Easter!  This post was supposed to go up yesterday (yep, same story every time!), but I still wanted to get this up so here it goes!  This past month has been a fun one!  If you’ve read my previous posts you know that our baby turned 1!   I spent this month planning his party and just soaking him in as much as I could on the weekends.  Since that was the big event of the month, and year so far, I honestly don’t have too much extra to share, so I’ll jump right in!

Currently Watching

YouTube!  In order to make cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes more bearable I turn on YouTube and rotate through the channels I follow.  Here are my top 3 favorites

1 – Kathryn Morgan

I found Kathryn’s channel somehow through Facebook a couple years ago.  There was a ballet barre routine she had filmed and after watching it I was hooked.  This also began my journey back to dance.  Through watching her channel and doing her barre routines and exercises I gained the strength and confidence to join an adult ballet and lyrical class a couple summers ago.  After having a baby I haven’t done much dancing, but I continue to follow her videos and absolutely love her.  I would honestly to love to meet her in person.

2 – Brianna K

I found Bri through searching YouTube videos for working mom routines.  She was one of the very, very few that had a channel and worked full-time outside the home. I’m not going to lie, there aren’t a lot of channels out there of moms who do this and I have seriously contemplated starting my own just to get more support out there.  I feel like after having a baby and working full time outside the home I have a lot of advice to offer.

*Side note – she now works from home and travels, but I highly recommend her channel!

3 – Blair Lamb/Blair Blogs

I honestly can’t remember how I found Blair – Pinterest maybe?  I first started reading her blog and was following along there when she started to post YouTube videos.  She does a lot of everyday and weekend Vlogs.  She’s down to earth and someone I feel like I could be friends with.  It’s nice because a lot of her videos consist of cleaning, dishes, cooking, etc. so it’s like I have someone doing the same thing right there with me.

Currently Reading

Simply Clean by Becky Rapinchuk.  It definitely has me rethinking the way I spend my time cleaning.  Her routine consists of cleaning for 10 minutes every day.  I was pretty skeptical when I read the title, but after listening to the audio book, I realize her way actually might work for me.  You obviously can go deeper and spend more time in each area, and her book goes into that as well.  In the end I think I will definitely be implementing her techniques – at least to some extent.

I also finished reading “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman.  I went into a little more detail on this in my February Recap.

Currently Making/Baking

Confetti cupcakes!  Between lack of time and patience we ended up special ordering a smash cake for Gryffin’s birthday.  However, I did end up making cupcakes for everyone else and they were delicious!

Current Obsession

Oriental Trading Company!  I don’t actually think I can say it’s an obesession, but we had been planning Gryffin’s 1st birthday party and they had the exact party supplies and decorations we were looking for at amazing prices!  We originally were looking on Amazon but I am so glad I remembered Oriental Trading Co. because they beat Amazon’s prices.  I got the box in the mail and the quality of the products exceeded my expectations.

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I hope you all had a wonderful and happy Easter!

Much Love,

Cami