Finding the Balance in Our Lives

Is this even possible? I ask, because we all seem to struggle with it. I don’t think I’ve ever met a single person that has said they live a perfectly balanced life. We are always striving for a perfect balance between our work, family, hobbies, responsibilities, etc. What does having a balanced life really mean, anyhow?

I’ve struggled for a long time with this. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the freedoms and perks that come with being a mom who works mostly from home. But, it’s very hard to work from home and have “working hours”. When I’m doing laundry, I feel I should be working. When I’m at the gym, I feel I should be working. When I’m playing with my children, I feel I should be working. But then, when I’m working on my computer, I feel guilty that the dishes aren’t done or that my daughter is playing alone in her room. Or better yet, watching way too much Disney Jr. Also, with social media being such a big part of our lives and in my case, a big part of my work, I feel like I’m always “on”.

There are days, when things feel completely chaotic and out of control mostly because I’m trying to juggle too much at the same time. On those days, I feel unaccomplished and stressed out. I find that when I get to this point, I need to step back and prioritize. I need to figure out what’s most important, what’s truly urgent and tackle those things first. This means some things just don’t get done or don’t get done right away and I have to be ok with this.

Maybe having a balanced life does not necessarily mean a stress-free life. Maybe a balanced life isn’t so balanced after all. There are things that will take priority over others, like our family. Or things that will take more of your time. There are things we just prefer doing over others. Instead of looking for a perfect balance in our lives, maybe we should just look for some balance. Maybe balance is more about being flexible and able to change directions. Balance may not always be about giving everything or everyone equal priorities. Maybe balance is about letting go of the things that hold us back and weigh us down and keeping what makes us happy and fulfilled.

What does having a balanced life mean to you?

I was really struggling to keep my balance during Tough Mudder!

It’s Our Wedding Anniversary | 17 Years of Awesome Times Together

17 years ago today I married the best guy ever. We were married young, so it was a bit of a rough start, but I don’t regret one minute of our life together. We grew up together and rather than grow apart, we’ve grown closer with every year.

There are so many things that I love about the hubs, but I won’t bore you with all the mushy details, but I will say that he is perfect for me. I cannot imagine my life without him. I love the life we have together, even if it is a little crazy sometimes. It’s the most amazing thing to know you can count on someone no matter what and believe me I’ve pushed my limits (yikes!)

Here’s just a glimpse in photos from the past few years together! ps. It was hard finding photos of just the two of us without the kids, so note to self: more photos together as a couple (even if it’s the kids taking them)!

First Day of School | Third Grade

And….summer is officially over. I must say we had a great summer this year and we got to mark almost everything off our Summer Bucket List. I told the kids we could still mark a few more things off since the weather is still so warm here in Vegas.

Yesterday was the first day of school for our little man. I can’t believe he is in 3rd grade already. Time sure does fly. Elysse won’t turn 5 until the end of October, so she still has one more year with me at home. Well, she’ll be starting preschool twice a week soon! She is thrilled and I’m excited for her because I just know she is so ready!

This year, due to overcrowding on our side of town, Diego’s elementary school is one of 3 that will be going year round here in Vegas. Diego is excited to be off for random months throughout the year, I’m still not so sure how I feel about it. I’ll have an update mid-year. For now, I do like that I’ll be back to my regular work/stay-at-home mom routine with Elysse and not have to be playing referee most of my day. Although, I will miss the carefree summer mornings with no rushing or packing lunches.

How are some of you other mom’s feeling about kids going back to school? Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments 😉

I love how their personalities just shine through in this photo!

Summer Bucket List | Sometimes Things Don’t Go as Planned

So, we are getting to the end of summer and that means the end of our Summer Bucket List. Every summer since Diego started kindergarten we’ve taken a 3-4 day trip to Southern California around the end of August. It’s become a tradition, so of course going to Calif was on our list. As I’m planning the trip, I thought we could also mark off a few more items from the list. We planned to make a few stops on the drive down and look for Geocaches. We also planned to go to a children’s museum and see the sunset on the beach. But, sometimes things don’t go as planned…

We planned to get an early start Friday morning, but that didn’t happen. We left way later and decided to do the geocaching either Saturday or Sunday on the drive back down because we wanted to make it to the museum. We did make it to the Kidspace Children’s Museum in Pasedena, CA. The kids really had a great time playing with all the hands-on exhibits, getting wet in their creek, and climbing the indoor towers.

That night, Elysse’s asthma flared up and she began coughing & wheezing a lot. We managed to get it under control by mid-morning with her inhaler and other medication I took. But she was definitely not back to normal. The kids really wanted to go to the beach, especially since we were meeting some friends out there, so by early Saturday afternoon we did make it to Newport Beach. Unfortunately, Elysse was not feeling 100% and she didn’t really enjoy herself too much. Diego tried out his new boogie board but the water was cold, so he hardly played. Needless to say, we did not make it to watch the sunset on the beach. As a matter of fact, Elysse’s asthma got worse, so we decided to pack it up and head back home that night so she could get on her nebulizer treatments asap. We’ll never be leaving home without that machine again!!

What is normally a 4 hr drive turned into 6 hours due to major traffic from an earlier road closure. It was pretty nightmarish. We made it home around 3am and put her on her nebulizer. She’s much better now after her treatments, which is what matters most. I am a little sad we didn’t get to have the fun trip we planned for, but I guess this means we’ll just have to be going back sooner than later 😉

Summer Bucket List | Bike Wash & Star Gazing

We got 2 more things off our summer bucket list this weekend! First up, was the kid’s bike wash! We’d seen this idea on Pinterest last year and Jason thought it would be a ton of fun for the kids, so we put it on our list this summer! It really was a family project, as the kids went with Jason to the hardware store to buy the supplies and Diego even helped with putting it together. The kids had a fun time riding their bikes through it and keeping cool 🙂

We also had Star Gazing at Red Rock Canyon on our list. The Las Vegas Astronomical Society hosts Astronomy in the Park at Red Rock Canyon once a month. It’s a free event where members of the club invite us non-astronomers to peek into the night sky through their telescopes. This is something we’ve been wanting to do since last year, but it just never worked out. So, when we finally were able to go this Saturday we were all really excited. We were able to see Saturn, Venus, few constellations, a nebula, a far off galaxy, and we were even shown how to find satellites flying across the sky. Saturday was also the start of a meteor shower, so we saw some really awesome shooting stars! It really was a fun night to remember!

Summer Bucket List | Camping & Drive-In Movies

So, we’ve got 17 days until the first day of school (but who’s counting!) and then another week until Labor Day which is the official end of our Summer Bucket List Challenge. This summer has flown by! I’m so glad we have this bucket list to keep us from wasting the whole summer away and getting us to have a fun time together as a family. It’s so easy to get carried away in our everyday chores, errands, and chaos that we forget to make the time have fun. Because, that’s what it’s about it’s about making the time to be together and being intentional about it.

So, we had backyard camping on our list but we had to tweak it a bit and bring the camping indoors. The Vegas heat has been intense this summer and none of us really wanted to sleep outside in the heat. Kids still had a great time helping their dad put up the tent! I’m calling this one a “WIN”.

We also had “Mystery Activity” on our list. Jason and I thought it would be fun to keep the kids guessing, plus it gave us some wiggle room as to what kind of activity it could be. We ended up taking the kids to the drive-in last week. We only told them we were going to do our mystery activity so having them try to guess what it could be was half the fun! They were thrilled they were going to see the movie Turbo! It was a fun night and they really enjoyed the movie.

Summer Bucket List | Fishing at Floyd Lamb Park

Last school year, Jason went on a fishing field trip with Diego and his classroom to Floyd Lamb Park. Although it was a pretty cold day, they both had a lot of fun and Diego was very excited to have had a chance to try some fishing! He was ready try it again and kept asking when we’d go, so we decided to add it to our family Summer Bucket List.

About two weeks we bought the kiddos some fishing rods and bait and made our way to Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. This is a historic park found on the northwest side of Las Vegas. What makes this park so different, is that it has a nice lake and lush landscaping. It really is a nice oasis in the middle of the desert.

Although it was was a hot day, it didn’t feel so bad in the shade and there were some clouds too. I was a bit nervous since fishing isn’t much of an “active” event. There’s lots of sitting around and waiting and honestly, my kids are not too good at that. Surprisingly, the day went well. They enjoyed fishing a lot more than I expected and it ended up being a pretty relaxing afternoon. Of course, we didn’t catch any fish but we still had a great time together as a family and that’s all that matters!

Let the Training Begin | Rock N Roll Half Marathon

You know when a new store is about to open and sometimes they have a “soft opening”? They open quietly without the bells and whistles and work out any kinks they may have. Then they have the big Grand Opening a few days later with a bunch of balloons out front and all the hoopla!

Well, that was me last week. I decided to kick start my half marathon training without any big announcement. I really just wanted to get an idea of where I was in terms of my running endurance. The most I had ran nonstop and without obstacles up to that point was about 3 miles. Last week I ran 2 days and had 2 personal training days and 2 P.I.T. (pure intensity training) Classes. I ran my usual 3 miles on Tuesday and Friday I ran 5.45 miles on the treadmill in 1 hr. That was quite the accomplishment for me. I learned a few things that day.

I don’t like the treadmill.
My feet will go numb from running farther than 4 miles.
Running makes me sore. Very sore.
I’ve got a long way to go.
I will get blisters.
I can do this.

So this week, I start training for real! I’ve got my playlist ready and the training schedule is on the calendar. I’ve also started a running board on Pinterest. You can check it out HERE! I will be using a modified version of Hal Higdon’s Half Marathon Training Program. His is a 12 week program, but I felt I needed more time than that to get ready, so I’m working on a 16 week program. Most weeks I’ll be running 3 – 4 days, with one of those days being a long run. My first 4 weeks will consist of 2-3 mile runs, with my long run being 4-5 miles. The milage will be increasing more in Sept. & Oct. I’ll have 2 strength training days and 1 – 2 P.I.T classes a week, as well. I’ll get one rest day a week. I’m tired just thinking about it!

Like I’ve said before, I don’t consider myself a runner, so I’m really hoping these next months will change that and I hope will find the runner’s high I hear so much about!

xo,

Jessie

I'll definitely be taking this advice! — I’ll definitely be taking this advice!

My Fitness Bucket List

I love lists. Like seriously! I have lists for just about everything in my life, from vacation bucket lists to grocery lists. I’ve got quite a few list apps on my iphone! I had a 101 things to do in 1001 days. I got about halfway with that! One of my favorite lists right now is our Summer Bucket List! It’s fun for the whole family. Last Monday I even posted about some of my Fitness Goals & Making Lists.

Anyhow, I’ve been keeping a mental fitness wish list since I started on my fitness journey, but I thought this would be fun place to share what’s on the list right now and add a few new things too! I’m hoping this will keep me accountable and motivated to reaching these goals. Do you have a fitness wish list or bucket list? I’d love to hear what’s on it. Don’t be shy 😉

MY FITNESS BUCKET LIST

Do a pull-up (yup, just one for now)
Complete a half marathon (signed up for one in November)
Run a 10K
Complete a Super Spartan race
Move up to 10 lb. dumbbells during P.I.T. class
Do 3 one-handed push-ups
2 minute plank
Learn to ride a bike (Don’t judge me)
Complete a triathlon (hence, the above item)
Bench press my own weight
Lululemon outfit (does this count? a girl can dream!)
Learn to rock climb

Now, it’s your turn? Leave a comment below and let me know what’s on your list!

xo,

Jessie

Happy Friday | The Challenges of the Weekend

The weekend is almost here and we are looking forward to crossing a few more things off our Summer Bucket List these next 2 days! I’m looking forward to spending time with my family and doing some fun stuff together. Do you have any fun plans for your weekend?

I’m a wedding photographer and lots of weekends are spent away from the kiddos, so we really try to make the weekends we have with them special! As much as I enjoy having weekends off and spending them with my family, I do worry about how I’m going to eat healthy and stay on track while we’re eating most of our meals out of the house. I’ll do really well all week. I’ll workout every day and cook and eat healthy meals. Then the weekend gets here, we’ll be at the park or running around at stores and then BAM it’s time for dinner. Your options are limited and you aren’t going to go home and cook (it’s Saturday, after all). You decide on a place to eat, vow to find something healthy on the menu, and then the bacon blue cheese burger and fries catches your eye….Is this scenario familiar to you? Do you give in to the burger or make a sensible choice instead?

Let’s not let the weekend ruin all our hard work this week! Here are 3 easy steps we can take this weekend when we’re met with temptation while eating out!

1. Tell your family or friends you’re out with that you’re going to have a healthy meal! Just saying it out loud to others will help keep you accountable and when you start drooling over those chicken nachos, they can hopefully help steer you away 🙂

2. Plan a quick morning workout. You can find some on my Pinterest workout motivation board. Anything from 15-30 mins. should do it. Something simple you can do in your home that will help get your blood flowing & heart rate up. I find that taking just a small amount of time for myself before starting the weekend helps me stay on track. It reminds me of what’s more important and I feel stronger when faced with temptation during the day. I’m like, “I worked hard this morning and don’t want to ruin it!”

3. Have fun. Don’t be too hard on yourself. If you give yourself a cheat day or a cheat meal once a week, then go ahead and use it on the weekend when you plan to eat out. Enjoy the time with your family and friends. Don’t be so focused on counting calories or not eating carbs that you forget to live in the moment. Eating healthy and exercising is a way of life, but it shouldn’t consume your entire life.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your messy life!

xo,

Jessie