Before I get into anything meaty, I wanted to say a few things. First, how are you doing? I’m doing alright - I’ll chat about myself in the first section though! Second, these emails are not going to be consistent, and I know that’s not for everyone. I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee I’ll send one every week. I will, however, try to send them at the same time and on the same day. Perhaps I’ll aim for 3 per month, Saturday mornings? I’ll think on it. And finally, in the past these have been super long. I’m going to try to keep them shorter moving forward!

THE FAMILY

We’ll go oldest to youngest!

Cameron is still working for himself. He’s branching out a bit, trying new things. In the past, he’s done video post production for big companies. Basically, they send him video and sometimes a script, and he turns it into whatever they need - commercials, social media ads, whatever. Now he’s doing some of that but also getting into the marketing side of things. He’s also working on the garden again this year, and we’ll be getting new chicks soon, which is also mostly his thing.

Bethany - hey that’s me. I got a hair cut today - it’s still pretty long, though. It’s halfway down my back, if I had to guess. Recently I saw my GP for a physical, and wouldn’t ya know it, I’ve got low vitamin D and high cholesterol. Listen, I know there are a few numbers there, and “cholesterol” isn’t just one thing. Cam’s been reading a book called Good Energy, which touches on all the numbers regarding your health. Here are a few things I’ve learned: genetics plays a big role, sugar plays a big role, exercise can help a lot, the cholesterol from food doesn’t have much of an impact on your numbers (unless you’re a type 1 diabetic), and cholesterol is affected a lot by hormones (hello, perimenopause, maybe??).

NOTE: I’m not a doctor or an expert, so please take this with a grain of salt!! It’s what I’ve gathered from several resources, and I’m using it to make my decisions moving forward!

I have a follow-up checkup in 6 months or so, where they’ll draw blood again. I’ll let you know how things are looking! In the meantime, I plan to eat less sugar and start exercising regularly!

Alexander, my first baby, is turning 12 in a couple weeks. So cool honestly. He’s awesome. Somehow he figures out puzzles and riddles, and he creates new ones that just baffle me. He’s kind and quiet and silly, and when I need him for whatever reason, he’s there without hesitation. I’m anxious to see what he designs for his birthday cake this year.

Annabelle has a couple updates. She’s not doing dance next year and instead wants to do theater. I think she’ll be amazing at it. Another thing we realized she’s got a knack for is photography. In the “TRAVEL” section I’ll put a couple of her pictures. Always playful, always a helper, always wanting to create something. She loves playing in the mud outside or playing make-believe inside.

Charlie loves dinos and talks about them constantly. Lately, he likes to remind us that plesiosaurs are swimming reptiles, and pteranodon is a flying reptile. And the stygimoloch is related to the pachycephalosaurus, and they both have hard heads. His new favorite dino figure is a dimetrodon he calls Donny. Anyway, besides the dinosaur stuff, he thinks little Bea is hilarious. And he’s finally gotten much better at playing WITH her.

Beatrix goes by Bea most of the time. She’s got 3 teeth now! And she is up to 7 steps taken, although usually she stands up, takes 1-2 steps, and sits back down. Her preferred method of transportation is still crawling (or someone carrying her, duh). She loves waving and saying “hi” to just about anybody. Her favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus. She’ll be 1 year old next month!

TRAVEL

We’ve been fortunate to take 2 big trips this year so far: Austin TX and Colorado Springs CO. Both of them were because Cam had a conference he wanted to attend (it’s one big way he meets new potential clients!), and the rest of us just tagged along. For each trip, he was busy 2 full days, and then we had 3-4 days where we were all together. I LOVE planning trips like this: interesting stops on the way, quirky things to do in the town, tourist must-do items, foods to try, free indoor and outdoor options, kid-friendly places. I do a ton of research (I’m going to put all that in an upcoming email!) to prepare for our trips, so I’ll share how I do all that.

If you want more details about either trip, do let me know!

AUSTIN is about a 6 hour drive from our house, which was a lot for Bea. She didn’t do great, and it took us all day. Our AirBnB was really nice. The only downside was that we pretty much had to drive to do anything, despite being within a mile of most things. We did a couple walks in the neighborhood when Cam was with us, but mostly we drove. The Museum of Illusions was probably my personal favorite place we visited. Here are a couple pictures from that trip (I have a ton of videos from the trip, very few pics)!

COLORADO SPRINGS is 13 hours from us, so I almost decided to fly with Bea. Before forking over hundreds of dollars to do that, though, I decided to try rearranging seats in the van. We moved her to the 3rd row so that I could sit next to her, and I planned and packed a ton of toys, activities, pictures, and snacks for her. We also made planned stops every 2-3 hours, over 2 days. That LA→CO trip was … okay. The return trip, we actually took 3 days and made stops every 1-1.5 hours. It was WAY better with her: she almost didn’t fuss in the car that whole time, which was amazing.

Our AirBnB was alright. The house was odd, lots of little things about it I didn’t love. And it seemed like something kept going wrong. But we weren’t at the house THAT much, and Colorado is so so pretty. We walked several times, to a rock climbing gym, a coffee shop, a bakery, and a park. When you step outside of the house, you have a clear view of the mountains, which is just stunning. My favorite place we visited was probably Garden of the Gods (free to enjoy). Here are some pics from that trip (NOTE: a few of those were taken by Annabelle, which I note in the captions!):

GYPB

GYPB stands for Get Your Pink Back. I’ve mentioned this in the past, but as a recap, flamingos lose their pink coloring after having a new baby chick because they use so much of their energy and nutrients to take care of it. When the chick gets a bit more independent, the parents get their pink back. There’s an influencer named Lindsey Gurk who took this idea to create her brand GYPB (I’ve got one of the sweatshirts!).

Lately I’ve been having a tough go, which is the main reason for not sending out an email in a while. I’m sure most moms feel this way, just being pulled in many directions and never feeling like you are doing ANYthing as good as you can be. It’s like, I can’t possibly put myself together (get dressed, fix my hair, etc) AND cook delicious meals AND spend quality time with each kid AND keep the house tidy, not every day AND do something relaxing for myself AND spend quality time with Cam. Sure, there are days when I’m able to do it all, but most days, something’s gotta give. And I’m incredibly tough on myself when I can’t be and do everything I want to be for everyone.

I’ve discovered a few things about myself in the last couple months though, things I’m slowly working on, things that may help some of you too!

• God time. If I take any time at all to listen to worship music, read a quick devotional, or stop and pray (even briefly), it helps a lot!

• Dance! I actually saw this on TikTok, that dancing has been proven to help reduce anxiety and stress and even depression*.

• Projects. I really thrive when I’m busy, and not just mindlessly busy, going through my daily to-do lists. But if I have a project, I find my mood is better. Recently, planning the two trips helped a little bit.

• Give. This one feels counter intuitive, and I’m not sure where I heard it, but giving to people around you can help you feel better. So I’ve been trying to do little things for Cam and the kids (that I don’t normally do).

That’s really all I’ve got right now. If you have other ideas, send them my way!

*I’m not opposed to medication for anxiety/depression! I’ve been on medication two different times in the past, and it did help me greatly. For now, I’m happy with my progress doing the things above!

FOOD

I’ve been in a creative cooking mood lately, trying things out of my norm. So here are some of the recipes I’ve tried and enjoyed that you might too!

• Croissant Loaf (this is particularly sourdough, but I’m pretty sure you could do it with a regular yeast dough as well).

  

• Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (VEGAN) - I made this again tonight but chopped and sautéed my sweet potatoes instead of roasting them whole. It was delicious!!

  

• Crispy Rice Salmon Salad - leftover salmon, crisped cauli rice (or regular rice), shredded carrot, diced cucumber, green onion, avocado, and a Greek yogurt dressing (I just combined yogurt, lemon, garlic, salt, and enough water to make it pourable). The original lady who shared it makes a tahini dressing for it. That was good, but I liked the yogurt one better.

  

• Salted Toffee Cookies - I’ve made two batches of these so far. I freeze most of the dough so that I can just have 1-2 cookies when I want them. They’re amazing; if you’ve ever tried the salted caramel cookies at Barnes and Noble, this is a great copycat recipe! https://cookiesfordays.com/salted-caramel-toffee-cookies-barnes-noble-copycat/ if the original link doesn’t work! NOTE: Use 75% of the flour it calls for. I think it calls for 4 cups, so just use 3, otherwise they won’t spread.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2

I’ve got a LOT more to say, but this is already too long. 😄 Soooo I’ll write up more and send it out in a few days. Consider these a series of recaps rather than regularly scheduled content.

Reply to this if you want!! I see them and usually reply. ❤️ 

Talk to ya soon,

Bethany