Confession: I have a love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day.
The idea of a holiday where you buy fancy trinkets to show how romantic you are just feels… icky. But what if we pressed rewind and took it back to Elementary school? Or even better- what if we work on loving the person we have to live with every single day, no matter what. Ourself.
Read Moref there is one thing that I truly believe, it’s that we are all works in progress. Every day we have the opportunity to get better. Since the moment I committed to Rob in front of our friends and family our marriage has been something I continuously want to make better.
Which leads me to this book.
I borrowed it on audio from Hoopla (but I have a physical copy in my library!) and we listened to it together on our mini-road trip. To be fair, I borrowed a couple books so I could let him choose which one we would “read,” but he let me choose, and I went with this one since I knew we could complete it during our trip.
Read MoreMonday is our 1 year wedding anniversary. And you know what? Marriage is hard. Like really, really hard. To quote one of my favorite authors,
“All due respect to the Resurrection, but two-becoming-one might be the greatest miracle ever.” (Thank you Jen Hatmaker for keeping it real in your book For the Love)
Don’t get me wrong. It’s also amazing, and exciting, and a whole lot of fun to be able to see your favorite person first thing every morning… but I feel like the movies give us enough of that stuff. What I find lacking in the conversation about marriage is real, honest accounts of how tough marriage can be, but how it’s totally possible to still make it work. We hear the really great stuff, or the really bad stuff. But rarely do I hear people talking about the in-between stuff (except Jen, who I mentioned earlier has a fabulous chapter devoted to it in her book, For the Love. If you haven’t read it do yourself a favor and pick up the audio copy, because listening to her read it will have you laughing out loud).
So while our first year of marriage was far from perfect (what even is perfect?), we did pretty okay. And I thought I’d share some of the stuff we did to navigate the in-between in case you need a little inspiration in your relationship.
Read MoreIs there anything worse than getting a card with nothing but a signature inside? Not to someone whose love language is words of affirmation.
How would you feel if someone sent you flowers because they flaked on you… again? If your love language is gifts, you’d probably appreciate the thought. But, if your love language is quality time, you might just wonder if that person is trying to buy your affection.
So what exactly is a love language? Well, the ones I’m talking about are “the 5” of the The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. In his book he explains how different people not only experience but express love. While the original book is really aimed at couples, love languages can be used in any and every relationship. Yes, even at work.
The Languages are:
Words of Affirmation (words)
Quality Time (time)
Physical Touch (touch)
Acts of Service (service)
Gifts
Have you heard about the Enneagram? Do you know your type?
The first time I heard the word Enneagram was on a podcast sometime late 2017 or early 2018. When I really think about it, it almost surprises me that I hadn’t heard about it sooner. It’s a personality typing system where you “choose” the type you most identify with rather than be assigned a type by taking quizzes or tests.
I’ll be honest, I love this stuff. I love knowing it about me, and I love knowing it about all the people around me. I want to know everything from your Love Language (mine are words of affirmation and quality time) to your Myers-Briggs (ENFJ with my E right on the E/I line), to your Tendency (Upholder with some Obliger) to which Disney Princess you are (Belle).
Read MoreExperienced traveler. Your GO-TO place for motivation, accountability, balanced life tips, and, well... the FRICKin Good Life with Erin Frick: Fit Life Coach; recovering perfectionist, people pleaser and clearance rack shopper.
Last month, I made a life changing decision.
I bought a second laundry basket.
“Really Erin? Life changing?”
Yes.
“Tell me more…”
Does the idea of “starting over” make you want to quit before you even begin? I get it. I’ve been there. I am there.
I’ve definitely had my shares of physical (and fitness) ups and downs. In fact, for the first almost 30 years of my life I was on a health roller-coaster. I would make progress over and over again only to backslide every time, often to a worse situation than I was in before I “started” (again).
My Mom is obsessed with ALDI.
My sister’s finance is obsessed with ALDI.
I have clients that are obsessed with ALDI.
In fact… a LOT of people are obsessed with ALDI. I find that the middle ground is murky when it comes to ALDI. People either love it, or they (think) think they hate it.
So what do I buy at ALDI? Let’s get into it…
Hangry toddlers are the worst.
Okay, so are hangry husbands… and sisters, and… well, I’m sure teens and tweens aren’t much better. But as of this point in my life, most of my day to day experience is dealing with the toddler and husband situation.
Which is why it’s not just nice but critical to have quick, easy, healthy, filling, and satisfying meals and snacks on hand. And these banana almond butter muffins deliver in all of those areas.
Halloween candy. Ugh.
Truth is, I don’t even like it. Maybe it’s because I have re-trained my taste buds to enjoy better quality food or maybe it’s because I know what’s in the candy and how it impacts my body (headaches & breakouts anyone?).
But there it sat, staring at me.
I knew it wasn't worth it. Sure, I love peanut butter and chocolate together. So Reese’s are a temptation. But truth is, the dark chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe’s and Justin‘s peanut butter cups are better than Reese’s.
I said what I said.