Reflecting on the End of Summer

Where to begin!? Summer feels like it came and went. It was really hot and humid, gas prices were through the roof, and talks of inflation made us all feel uneasy.

I was also project managing a large entertainment space in one of my pastures that began in May and trying to stay on top of the million things I choose to do 😂 I have so many hobbies and passions. For the longest time, I thought having so many interests was a bad thing, often calling myself “a jack of all trades, master of none.” But what’s funny is people don’t ever mention the other half of that quote. “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” I’ve found this to be true in my life. In 2016, I picked up a camera for the first time, wanting to blog and include professional photography. In 2017, I started a YouTube channel and fumbled my way through filming and editing. Fast forward to today (2022) and my company now sends me to their big events to film and do live coverage because they love my work. I never thought in a million years that my hobby (photography, videography, blogging) would ever turn into a full-time job.

I recently attended an event for my company (Cisco) at the Kennedy Space Center with Amazon.

But yes — hobbies! And summer. Let’s get back to talking about summer. I started a pottery class in the beginning of the summer and it was and continues to be so fun. I love that it’s something that’s just for me and time that I get to disconnect, decompress, and focus on creating something with my hands.

I’ve also been working out a ton! I’ve been consistently doing Pure Barre since March and have lost around 15lbs since then. I’ve been doing a lot of smoothies, salads, and drinking lots of water. I still eat what I want but I don’t overdo it. I don’t calorie count or macro count. I have a history of anorexia so counting anything triggers me into becoming obsessive about it. I do Pure Barre 3-4x a week and I swear by it. In my opinion, it’s the best workout for postpartum moms because it triggers all the areas that need tightening again. It also works your pelvic floor with all the “tucking”. I like to imagine that I’m training to get pregnant again 😊

Something I loved about this summer was that John and I prioritized taking a lot of family day trips! We took Archie to a local amusement park a bunch of times and focused on doing things as a family as much as we could. John is a teacher and the school year is busy and we don’t get to spend a lot of time together as a family, so the summer is our opportunity to get that quality time in.

I also tried my hardest to get together with my mom friends! As any mom can relate, it can be hard to get together with everyones schedules (and sick kids)! But it was great to have friends over, meet up for a picnic, and grab dinner. There was one evening that my friend Fallon and I went to a movie and that was so fun because I hadn’t been to a movie theater in SO long!

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how our summer went. I don’t really like summer because it’s so humid and I feel like a part of me dies when it’s humid out. Next year, I’d like to get a pool membership at our local country club so I can use the pool. Maybe having access to a pool will make summer more enjoyable? Hopefully Archie likes the water by then…that’s another problem. Archie is not into the water 😬 I should have put him in swimming lessons EARLY. We tried swimming lessons earlier in the year, but he cried so much that I couldn’t take it and just stopped all together.

Here are some more random memories from the summer:

I’m really looking forward to Fall! I get revitalized with cooler weather, haha 🍃 I’m taking another semester of pottery, and now that Archie is really starting to understand the world around him I’m getting excited for him to experience Halloween, apple picking, and Thanksgiving. I’m also going to continue working on my podcast — which just hit 40,000 downloads, yay! I’m trying to incorporate more solo episodes since people really seem to like those 😊.

Thanks for reading! ❤️