Friday's Joy

Hi friends! As always I am linking up with Erika and Andrea. I can't wait to read your posts!

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Week in Review 

The weather on Saturday was yucky. It made me feel better staying in and working on taking out my wintry clothes from my closet and putting some springy colorful pieces in. I also made a pile for the thrift store to donate some items that I haven't wore in a long time. 

Sunday was a filling day. Keith and I went to church and we both noticed how crowded it was. I guess everyone wants to get in before Easter. We went food shopping then took a short walk to the dumpster to get rid of some cardboard. A few chores around the house and brunch at home (spinach, bacon and cheese omlettes) then we plopped ourselves on thr couch to watch Fast Five and a few episodes of Outerbanks. 

Monday was a pretty lowkey day, workwise.

I was sick to my stomach about what happened in Nashville. I think a lot of different things needs to be looked at and changed. Kids shouldn't fear going to school especially if  school is there only safe space. I am praying hard for all those families and students and teachers and first responders who were there. I'm praying hard for change. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent pouring over my bookkeeping. 

I took myself out to dinner to chick fil a on Tuesday after work. It was the best little dinner date. I had my puzzle book and two girls who sat by me talked about their relationship and how the one was tired of trying with her boyfriend and he doesn't seem to put the same effort in. 

Wednesday Night I had plans to work on my love letter to the month but I seriously did not have the brain cells to do it and I said THATS OKAY! I gave myself grace. I am so proud of myself that I've learned to say no and give myself grace. Being 35 has brought some pretty amazing things into my life and this life lesson is one of my favorites. 

Thursday I felt more in a groove workwise. I saw my therapist for my bi-weekly appointment and those appointments are my favorite. I have learned so many 'tools' over the years and to see myself putting those 'tools' to actual use and being able to recognize that makes me really happy. 

Thursday night I went out with a girlfriend to catch up to a local place. I ended up changing into yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and calf high taco socks. Y'all I swear, the older I get, the more surprised I am about how I am willing to go out looking comfortable than dressed up. Ha ha ha. I am totally okay with that! 

Reference photo I sent to Keith:

I feel like I look like I should be going to the gym not to a restaurant BUT I was comfortable and that's all that matters.

The weather this week has been flip flopping like a fish on land and its super frustrating. I want to wear cute things but I don't want frostbite. Ha  

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Links

Bunny Bait///How fun does this look? I am planning on making this this weekend; I will report back how it went!

Internal monologues?!/// Do you have an inner monologue? Do you know some people have NOTHING going on in their minds during the day?

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Looking forward 

This weekend I get to see Adrienne for another awesome session. Keith and I have some errands to do that include experiencing Nightforms at Ground for Sculpture (praying it doesn't rain) and Palm Sunday Mass. You bet we are going to the Easter bunny breakfast after mass too! 

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Posts 

Did you miss any of my posts from this week? Find them below!

WGJ #39 | Diary #39 | What's Up Wednesday 

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[[Don't have to, I get to- Granger Smith]]

Dear March

I feel like I've lived 10 different lives this month. March felt extra long but in the very best way. Looking back at my calendar and my photo gallery on my phone, it's been a pretty exciting month. So many adventures  and planning meetings for upcoming adventures with Keith. Spending quality time with my parents and spending time on myself all has amassed to another great month. 

My emoji for the month was 😮 which was a fair emoji for this month. There were so many times I was excited about something or shocked about something. 

Words

Lucky //// How can it be March without feeling just a bit lucky. I'm lucky in so many different ways and i don't take any of those ways for granted either. 

Wacky(weather) /// hot cold, windy, rainy,  snowy- we saw it all this month. 

Excitement /// meeting new friends and new adventures make for fun times. 

Goodness to come /// I am truly excited to see what this season of my life holds and what's to come. I have a good feelings a lot of it will be goodness!

Flashback

In 2016, I was exercising like crazy and I took a blogging break; in 2019, I was starting a new season of life and  WGJ was explained; in 2020, things escalated quickly and lots of outside time; in 2021, time flew, I got a new office and I stepped back from Social Media for a while; and in 2022, I started to drink coffee, I had big emotions and lots of warm weather days

Gym update 

I went to the gym 4 times this month. 3 early morning sessions and 1 after work session. I enjoy the morning session much more than the after work session.  The people in the mornings are more focused and kinder. 

Looking forward to April 

Warmer weather and Easter.

Posts from month 

Random #14 |  February work #OOTD | Show & Tell: Backgrounds | Let's Look.... | International Women's Day | Weekend Rewind | Lucky Girl Syndrome | Happy St. Patrick's Day | Happy 5th Birthday Eleanor | Happy Spring | 12 in 12: March | WGJ #39 | Diary # 39 | What's Up Wednesday | 

Friday's Joy  1| 2| 3| 4| 5|

[[Some old fashion things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat- Laura Ingalls Wild]]

What's Up Wednesday

Hi friends! I'm linking up with Shay and Schaeffer today for What's Up Wednesday! I can't wait to read your posts! 

From mom's garden. 
We planted these daffodils over 30 years ago and they still look AMAZING

What I'm Eating// 

Everything as usual! Haha

((I know this may seem funny I mention this every month but there were years when I was in a Crohn's Disease flare and I didn't want to eat anything/ate only for calories.  I am always so excited to be able to want to eat))

What I'm Loving//

The spring like weather and lots of outside time and all the colorful clothes that is filling up my closet.

What I've Been Up To//

Living my best life with some really awesome people. Running a monthly 5K, spending time outside, thinking about my future and kicking butt at Top Golf. 

What I'm Dreading//

Nothing, I am pretty happy to be in the here and now.

What I'm Working On//

Posts for the upcoming month; a more sustainable workout plan and what I am going to eat for lunch.

What I'm Excited About//

Life and the future. 

What I'm Watching/Reading//

Outerbanks Season 2. What a wild ride! Haha just when I can't think it can get more crazy, it does. Ha #guitlypleasure 

Still not reading anything besides my word search book. Really hoping to change this soon.

What I'm Listening To//

Daily mixes on Spotify and the new DJ option. I know AI gets a bad rap sometimes buy they sure do know what I like to listen to. 

What I'm Wearing//

All the spring colors!

What I'm Doing This Weekend//

Working on blog posts, going for a walk, Palm Sunday mass and relaxing. Also getting Easter baskets together for my favorites. 

What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month//

More days outside; Easter; The Bunny Hop 5K

Favorite Amazon Find Of The Month//

Quicksilver Men's Bushmaster Sun Hat

Cannot wait to wear this all summer long 
KIRUNDO 2023 Women's Summer Mini Dress

If you are looking for the perfect summer fiesta dress, this is it! 

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Love sharing what I have been up to each month and I look forward to reading your posts!

[[Due to personal reasons, I will be shining brightly & unapologetically for the foreseeable future]]

Diary #39

Another month of what I saw!
Lots of colorful fun all with my favorite people !

I don't know about you but I'm feeling PURPLE

Love capturing small moments like this

Smile

Rings around the moon

Mornings with Mom

Friday night Date
Long walks in Costco and the famous $1.50 hot dogs. 

Eleanor cannot fit a 65 inch TV. 

Top Golf 

Top Speed

💗Favorite Person 💗

Right place at the right time

Glowing

Found some luck

Hi pretty

Found some gold on St. Patrick's Day

Hidden Staircase

Vinyl Brewery

Reflect what you are

Three 3's Brewery

We were feeling the good times at this point at Chimney

1/3 Cheer Squad at the Taco Trot

2/3 Cheer Squad at the Taco Trot

Found this by accident and it made me laugh

KW the Bear stole KW the human's Avaitors

Finally feeling back to normal at work

Spring has sprung

They were so sweet and fluffy and so tiny

Too perfect not to take a picture of

Joyful 

More perfection in nature 

This made me chuckle 

I hope you enjoyed a peek at my month.

[[Know what sparks a light in you, then use that to illuminate the world- Oprah Winfrey]]

WGJ #39

Hi friends!

What a fun month filled with such great music! 

WGJ vol. 39

Northern Star- High Valley
Last Night- Morgan Wallen
I See You- Parmalee
Downer- The Tuten Brothers
Shut the Truck Up- Matt Stell
Creek Will Rise- COnner SMith
Stray Dogs- Justin Moore
Next To You- Loud Luxury, DVBBS, Kane Brown
Got the Girl- Reid Haughton
Mile A Minute- Josh Mirenda
Neon Star (County Boy Lullaby)- Morgan Wallen
In The Bible- Morgan Wallen, Hardy
I Know You Do- Tyler Rich
She Got That- Acoustic- Drew Green
Only One Her- Leaving Austin
Found You- Logan Michael
Down For It- Willie Jones
Meet Your Mama- James Barker Band
When Your Heart Stops Beating- +44
See You When I See You- The Tuten Brothers
Take Me Backroad- Tim & The Glory Boys, High Valley
Outskirts- Sam Hunt
Dear Maria, Count Me In- All Time Low
Cowgirls- Morgan Wallen, ERNEST
Noise-Cody Johnson
So Do I- Jordan Davis
Giving Up On That- Dalton Dover

Listen Here.

[[Never forget how wildly capable you are]]

Friday's Joy

 

I'm linking up with Erika and Andrea today for Friday's Favorites. I can't wait to read your posts! 

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Week In Review

What a fun week! Since the last time we spoke...

Keith and I took part in a beer crawl in Hammonton with three different breweries in honor of St. Patrick's Day. It was a beautiful day to stroll around downtown Hammonton with 30 of our closest strangers. Ha! We had so much fun. The breweries were all really cool and we ordered food from local shops too! Hi yummy pizza and delicious soft pretzels. 

The next day, I ran a very cold 5K with Bubbakoos. I recapped that whole adventure in yesterday's post. You can find that link below. 

Monday was back to reality and back to a lot of randomness at work. Work has definitely been keeping me on my toes the last few weeks. 

I made it to the gym Thursday morning for a nice early tred hike. I love my 5 am group of people. They are so much nicer than the group after work. AND bonus I was able to use what I wanted without waiting! 

The weather this week has been giving me whiplash. For example yesterday, it was cloudy when I left for work, it became sunny when I was at my desk, then out of no where it started to rain and then it was cloudy but sunny again. Let's not even talk temperature- 60 to 30 to 50 to below freezing. Mother Nature are you okay?

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Links 

T. Swift's Eras Setlist/// Taylor really knows how to put on a show! Judging from this playlist alone, she gives the fans what they want. Are you swooning over everyone's reels of the concert?!

TikToker shows off Luxury Bag/// This story made me sad. A tiktoker was made fun of because she called a $60 handbag a luxury item. No one should be judging someone else for what they think is a luxury item. I am so happy that the company stepped up. 

3 Finishers in World's Toughest Race/// This race looks absolutely insane and no wonder why these 3 finishers are a big deal! The craziest part besides no gps or phones, is the checkpoints have paperback books that you rip the corresponding page to your bib number out and you must have all the pages when and if you cross the finish line. 

Chick-Fil-A Bowl Hack/// OKAY! This looks delicious and I am so eager to try it now! 

Monet's Waterlilies in LEGOS/// Over a half million Legos in 22 different colors. This artist created something truly larger than life. 

Kelsea Ballerini "Blindsided"/// When Ballerini's Blindsided song came out after Morgan Evans' Over for You song, I saw so many parallels between the songs and knowing they had separated. As a celebrity, your life is public both good and bad. 

Thrift Store Paintings Transformed/// How fun are these?! LOVE the creativity!

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Looking Forward 

This weekend, I am getting my spring clothes out; putting winter clothes away and getting ready for hte week. I am planning to do a Lazy Sunday after Church with Keith. There is a strong possibility of Fast Five and Outerbanks binging. 

I am having a hard time realizing that this is the last week of March! What?! This has been the longest, shortest but most packed month yet. 

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Posts

Did you miss any of my posts from this week? Find them below:

Happy St. Patrick's Day | Happy 5th Birthday Eleanor | Happy Spring | 12 in 12: March 

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[[Joy is worth choosing and its a rhythm that must be chosen over and over again.]]

12 in 12: March

 If you're new here, start with The Plan then come back to this post 🏃‍♀️

When I was looking for races in March, this was the first race I found and I loved the name- Taco Trot! When I started reading about the charity associated with the Taco Trot, Live Run Give, LLC. Live, Run, Give hosts food-themed runs while also giving back to Breast Cancer charities. For this race, they teamed up with Young Survivor Coalition. 

For my outfit, which was mostly hidden because of the weather, was pretty simple; fun taco socks and a fun taco shirt. My old favorite yoga pants and sneakers rounded out my look with my NorthFace knit Jacket. 

Week of Race 

I made it a point this week to do lots of stretching and walking. It worked out well  for me last Race so i figure why not mess with something that works. 

I got my outfit together; it's a look, I'll say that. Ha! I also finalized my playlist this week making sure I absolutely love the songs I have on there and in the right order. That middle song is super important for my pacing. 

Night before Race 

Keith I participated in a beer crawl in Hammonton with some of his coworkers. We had a great afternoon walking around downtown Hammonton. I took that as a great way to prepare for a 5K. I can't say I ate/drank the best but I enjoyed myself.  We were in bed relatively early, which was good because we had to be out of the house by 7:30 AM. 

Morning of Race 

I woke a bit startled in the morning briefly forgetting what I was doing up so early on a Sunday. Ha 

We got ready and I took a look at the weather and it said a really obscene word- the weather was in the 20s?!!! Crap, this is going to be a cold race. 

We made our way to Wall Municipal Complex on all these country roads and saw horses and cows and pretty open fields. 

We made great time and met my parents at the field. We hopped out and made our way to registration to pick up my number and long sleeve tee. 

I was still a little dazed and when we got back to the truck to wait, I realized that there were no safety pins to pin the number on my clothes. 

Daddy to the rescue with safety pins from his medical kit. Yay!

About 15 minutes before the race started, we got out of the truck and made our way to the start line. We took pre-race photos and then I gave my cheer squad hugs and kisses and they saw me off to the middle of the pack, while they waited on the sideline. 

This is go time Spano....

Right before Race 

It was SO cold waiting. I couldn't hear what they were saying and I was trying to keep warm. Which everyone around me trying to do the same.  I found Mom, Dad and Keith on the sidelines that gave me a quick boost of goodness. 

All of the sudden, out of no where,  we started to move. We all had to squeeze on the path to pass over the timing chip. 

And we were off....

During the Race 

Once we started, I clicked my Samsung health app on (in my daze of the morning, I forgot my fitbit on the bathroom sink.) And then turned my music on and started bopping along while I was running. 

I had no idea where we were going. I just followed everyone else. The map on the race website was confusing and I've never been to this park so everything was new. 

I noticed there were arrows on the ground directing us and there were Race officials all around directing us; this made me happy because I was really nervous getting lost. 

We got a tour of the Wall Municipal Complex and while it was very nice it was all open making it So Very COLD. It was a really wacky course. Hills, windy and twisty. 

I remember telling myself " you're in it now" " embrace the suck" " You got this gab!" " let it goooooooo (a la frozen) 

Just before the last loop, I got to pass by my cheer squad and that was such a nice surprise and it gave me a boost of goodness and to get going.  I loved seeing them especially since I didn't expect it! Mom caught an action photo of me. You can see the shadows of the Cheer team too! You can see the happiness on my face.

To make it a 5k, we had to go another loop that was an out and back with a funny taco sign directing us. 

After the loop, I got to pass by my cheer team AGAIN and I knew then, it was almost over.  They were so excited to see me! I told myself, just a bit more! Mom caught two more action photos.

After the Race 

So excited to be done. I had no idea what my time was and I didn't care. I embraced the suck and got it done. I got my medal and a bottle of water but skipped the tacos. I was that cold. HAHA!

They should have handed out those metallicky looking blankets to help us warm up.  

We took some finisher photos and then we were off to breakfast.  

Results 

Chip time: 35:59.6

I was 26 out of 53 for my age group. Again, right in the middle. 

I was 154 out of 286 overall. I was just below the middle of the pack. 

My goal was to do better than my previous Race and I DID IT! I was SEVEN seconds faster than my last race, Cupid's Chase. Even in the cold and wind, I was faster! WAHOOO!

Music 

This month, I took the same approach as I did last month with my music. I first figured out a realistic time for me to finish the race in (35 minutes) and I built my playlist with songs that would propel me forward and help me keep a consistent, comfortable pace. 

While I could have reused the same play list from last month, I decided to make a new one. I ended up with 12 songs that will run for about 36 minutes. Which is perfect. You can listen to my Taco Trot playlist here. 

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Well, that's #3 of the 12 5K's I'm running this year. YAY! 

Next month, it's the Bunny Hop in honor of Easter! 

Did you miss last month's 5K? Check out February and the other races I've run previously: 

January 2023 | December  2022 | August 2022 | August 2017 

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[[The more you run, the more tacos that will be at the finish line ]]