Currently

 Joining in my favorite link up for Currently with Anne and Stephanie!

Documenting

I’m as slow as ever with this task, but I’ve been working on using Artifact Uprising to make picture books full of the pictures I have of Jacob. It has been quite the task to go through all of them because since having my phone delivered on the day we came home from the hospital I have collected about 10,000 pictures on my phone (I think I may be obsessed with taking pictures?), but let’s be real – it’s been a fun task going down memory lane.  Just look at those pictures!! Where has the past 2 years gone?! I have so many that I want to include though that I’ve decided to make a book for each year. Considering he’s now a few months beyond two and a half and I’m not even done with his first 6 months of life I should have this project done by what, maybe the time he graduates from high school? 🙂

Accomplishing

Work outs again! They feel hardly mention-able with how short they are and my body (and mind) have made it clear it’s going to be a long road to feeling like I’m in any kind of shape again but I am proud that after a co-worker read my Summer Bucket List post that included running a 10k and suggested we run one together, that I committed to it. It may not be pretty, but I will cross that finish line.

Enjoying

Time with my husband’s family who came to visit yesterday to celebrate the 4th! Our immediate family on both sides is spread out a little bit so it was nice yesterday that they all made the drive from their respective distances from Columbus to spend the day with us. Jacob had the time of his life getting to run around with his cousins and grandparents (I couldn’t even pin him down long enough to eat a real lunch and had to catch him for a few minutes at a time to even get him to eat a snack!) and I enjoyed playing bartender and assistant to my husband while he made us a delicious lunch on the grill. 🙂

Reading

After wandering around the library one day and picking up books that just captured my attention, I read through Aimee Song’s Capture Your Style pretty quickly because I found it fascinating to hear how much technique and strategy some people are putting into Instagram. My favorite part though was just to learn about how she approaches photography and styling photos, as well as the technical side of things like editing for better quality photos. It definitely left me thinking that it was just too much effort for that level of coordination, but gave me a different type of appreciation for the work these women with large platforms have put in.

The other book I’ve been slowly but surely making my way through is Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before. I saw this book referenced in this post on Anna’s blog and decided to check it out. It’s a pretty interesting look at habits and a discussion about why some people can set them more easily than others so it provides insight on how to be better at establishing and maintaining new habits. I love most anything that digs into characteristics of our personalities and how those characteristics play out in our lives so it’s no surprise to me that I’ve been enjoying this book!

Spending

More time without my phone nearby, or at least trying to. I recently listened to one of Katie Dalebout’s podcast episodes where she interviewed Daniel Lerner, an instructor for a popular NYU course called Science of Happiness, and they talk about positive psychology, relationships, and knowing your strengths and it was such a great episode. I found myself jotting down several notes of things I wanted to remember, but one he touched on (and we all probably truthfully know) is how our conversations with the people you’re with change when your phone is in sight, even if it’s just sitting on the table and you’re not even touching it. I’ve known that putting my phone down more is something I have room for improvement on so this was a great push to remember to do that so lately I’ve been leaving my phone in my purse for a bit when I first get home from work, I’ve made sure that Jacob and I have a good amount of snuggle time before bed that involves no screen time for either of us, and earlier this week my husband was off work on a day that I wasn’t and made the effort to meet me for lunch so I zipped my phone in my purse and didn’t touch it until it was time to leave. True alone time, the kind where someone else is in charge of the safety of your child and you’re away does not come by often so I wanted to make the most of the opportunity!