i n • p u r s u i t

I'm pleased to say I did my chores today. I cleaned the bathrooms, dusted surfaces, dusted the baseboards and doors, cleaned the windows in my bathroom, vacuumed floors, and did laundry. Whew. I didn't drink enough water and I'm still up past 10pm. Though, my habit tracker says "in bed by 10," and I technically am. So. Counts. Tomorrow, I have my allergy testing, so, should be fun. I'm really hoping I'm not allergic to nuts, but also, God's got this. Whatever I might be allergic to, it will be fine!

Lately I've noticed I have this habit of consistently writing things down in my planner just to ignore. For example, I have written "clean bathrooms" or "dust house" literally every day for a week. At the end of each day, I put an ❎ instead of a ☑️ and I write it again the next day. It's gotten so bad, it's almost as if I write these tasks with the intent of not doing them. I would say I intend to do them, my actions say otherwise. My actions say I don't believe my own words. My actions say my words hold no weight. They don't matter. So, I'm making a new day's resolution (because who needs a whole new year to make a promise to herself). I will do the things I say I am going to do. If it is important enough to take up space in my planner, it is important enough to set aside the time to do. Tomorrow, the only thing on our schedule is my super early workout class. It's the perfect day to stay home, enlist the kiddos, and catch up ...

We generally have unstructured days in my house. We have a loose rhythm that goes something like: breakfast playdates, errands, or free play lunch free play nap/quiet time free play dinner free play bedtime routine But towards the middle/end of summer Jojo started misbehaving more and it occurred to us that he was bored and would thrive a little more off some structure. Today, they were having fun playing a super annoying game called "me-me" which is where one of them is the me-me and crawls around saying, "me-me," and the other one is the mommy. And I LOVE when they play together. But I made them stop and get some shoes on, which is often a herculean task, so we could start some activity time. We went outside to collect leaves. Jojo started grabbing fistfuls, but after I told him what to look for, he was more careful. We were only outside for a couple minutes and then we brought out leaves to the table. We got out their journals and crayons and I taug...

February 2, 2018 vs November 17, 2018

Day nine routine: I cowashed with Suave Essentials Conditioner in Juicy Apple and used Tresemme Flawless Curls Bouncy Curls Gel afterwards. Then I plopped. I think I totally air dried. I didn't use any leave-in conditioner. After it dried, I scrunched out the crunch. (Ignore my pimple bandaids!) Thoughts: Its good. Not quite there. But still good! Okay. Soooo I trimmed my hair last night. I did that ponytail on your forehead method. Look it up on YouTube. I only trimmed, like, half and in and thankfully didn't ruin my hair.  I slept in a braid that night and brushed out my hair in the morning. Fight me. Just don't take my brush.  Day nine routine: I actually wanted to rock the big fluffy hair today! But I went on a run and needed a shower afterwards. Co-wash with Suave Essentials Conditioner in Juicy Apple. Squeezed out some water. Raked the same conditioner through my hair as a leave in. Coated it in Tresemme Flawless Curls Bouncy Curls Gel using the prayi...

Day one routine: I washed with Suave Essentials Daily Clarifying shampoo to clear out any buildup, silicones, etc. Then, I put globs of Suave Essentials Juicy Apple Conditioner all over my head. I focused on rinsing my scalp and there was just a tiny bit of conditioner left in the rest of my hair. Then, I flipped over and scrunched a bit with a microfiber cloth so it wasn't sopping. I then proceeded to scrunch in globs of Tressemme Bouncy Curls gel. I plopped in my turbie twist (no hair in the actual twist) for a while. Then air dried for a while. Then diffused a bit with a kitchen strainer. Yes, a kitchen strainer because I don't yet have a diffuser. Its a tip I learned from a coworker when I worked the phones at BringFido.com and its a good trick! Thoughts: I was blown away! I didn't know it could look so curly!! I kept looking in reflective surfaces all day! Day two routine: I brushed my hair. I know it's a no-no, but I have to brush out my hair before be...

I spent today's MMO time up at Caesar's Head to see some hawks! This time of year, citizen scientists volunteer to count migrating hawks , and one of the sites isn't too far for me! This is the view from Caesar's Head: Table Rock & Table Rock lake. After adjusting the image on my computer and going back and forth between my Peterson's Field Guide and my MerlinID app, I'm fairly confident to say this is a broad winged hawk. We saw 35 of those this morning in just one hour. Bill, the official counter, has a good chance of seeing hundreds this afternoon. This one, I think is a red tailed hawk. I don't know for sure. I mean, we saw a lot of those, but it doesn't look like it to me. But I can't identify it. I've posted to the Greenville County Bird Club, so hopefully someone can help me out! EDIT: Apparently it's an immature broad winged hawk! Thank you fellow bird nerds! This one I know for sure! It's a tu...

Just spent my morning walking around Lake Conestee Nature Park. I wore my walking with the intent of doing a bit more exploring that usual. I didn't pack my camera because I just wanted to look. And my 85mm lens doesn't have that much of a reach. And I had my phone for a few snap shots. First stop was the West Bay Observation deck. You can see the Heron nests in the tall trees from here. Its really quite pretty. I stayed for a bit but I didn't see any herons. I did see what I later confirmed were wood ducks. I also saw a couple of bluebirds in the distance. I did see a few bees near the West Bay Observation Deck though! Last time I was on the Possum Run boardwalk, I saw so many sparrows. Absolutely NONE right now though! And at this point in my excursion, I started wishing I had stopped to use the bathroom before diving into the wilderness! As I was walking, I found it enjoyable to realize that I could easily identify some birds by sound alone. I heard t...

I used to hear about people doing triathlons, bootcamps, or even 5k races and I was so freaking impressed. Also pretty intimidated. I never thought I'd be one of those people. One of those fit people who did things like run and wake up early for bootcamp. Ugh. Bootcamp? What kind of crazy person does bootcamp. That sounds AWFUL. Its weird though, y'all, because I am one of those fit people. In the sense that I workout regularly and enjoy it. Not like an instagram fit model who has an amazing body. Because I don't think my belly can recover from these babies. And also, I don't want to control my eating that much. But I have run 13.1 miles. I have biked 20 miles. I have swam one mile.  I have woken up before the summer sun to make it to a bootcamp class and left saying, "That was fun!" And here is the thing!!! I am NOT that impressive. I am not a super fit person. I'm an average girl who decided to try something. Dece...