Hi friend! Long time no talk!

Where do I start?

If you’ve been following on Instagram stories, you’ve been keeping up with our life a little bit, but in case you aren’t on IG or you don’t watch stories, I’ll update you with some highlights. Along with life updates, here are a few other things I’ll share in this email:

• Journaling

• Some recipes I’ve tried and loved in 2024

• Movies, books, TV shows

• Random things

  

LIFE LATELY

The biggest update is that I’m pregnant. Currently I’m 23 weeks. There’s an app called Flo (App Store / Google Play) that’s a period and pregnancy tracking app. I’ve got the premium plan, but the free plan is really handy too, especially if you are like me and have no idea what day/week/month it is sometimes.

This is baby 4, and I feel like I “popped” really quickly - I felt like my belly was noticeable pretty dang early. Up until about 3 weeks ago, I’ve been physically fine. And then this friggin groin pain crept up again. I’ve had it with every pregnancy… at the end of the last pregnancy, I went to a prenatal chiro, and she said something about how my uterus pulls to one side and makes my pelvis uneven, which makes me walk a little lopsided, which causes the pain. So she adjusts the pelvis… something like that. Anyway, I have only gone once this time, but I’ll see her again in a week. It does help a lot right away, and the exercises also help.

Another thing that I’ve noticed this time is the questions from people!! I don’t remember this happening as much last time, but I’ve gotten the same 2 questions SO many times already, from strangers and non-strangers alike:

• Are you sure it’s not twins? [YES I’m sure.]

• Was this a planned pregnancy? [YES, but what does it matter?]

Anyway, that’s the main update. Here are a few more!

OTHER LIFE STUFF

We went to Disney World in December. When Annabelle was 2 & Alexander was 5, we went, and while they both enjoyed it, neither remembered it well. Now that they’re older, they both really loved it. We stayed at Coronado Springs - it was SO chilly and windy for a few days but super nice the others. We only did 2 park days (Epcot and Magic Kingdom), which actually worked out well. A lot of people say Disney is overpriced and overhyped, but honestly, there’s just no where else like it - it’s magical. It’s clean. It’s humongous, at least World is (I’ve never been to Land). It’s super expensive, yea, but I think once every 5-ish years will work for us!

I’m teaching a baking class at homeschool co-op this semester. We parents submit ideas for classes; I submitted this one. And when it got approved, and kids actually signed up, I realized I needed to come up with ideas. And that’s when I realized… oh crap, what in the world am I going to do? The class is 50 minutes: that means we have to measure, mix, bake, let the food cool down, and clean up, all in 50 minutes. If you think about it, there aren’t THAT many baked goods that can be fully done, start to finish, in 50 minutes (not to mention instruction and explanation time!!). After lots of Googling, brainstorming, and asking folks for ideas, I’ve got a solid list of about 30 ideas (I only needed 13). 🙌🏻

Annabelle had a birthday. And for the first time, she requested a birthday party. In the past, pretty much every kid birthday was just the 4 or 5 of us. This was an actual get-together with some family and one of her friends from co-op. It was around 25 people (mostly grown-ups), but it turned out really well.

We’re adding on to the house. With another kid on the way, we figured our 2 bed 1 bath house could use a little extra room. Technically, the square footage is not terrible (1,100 sqft, or 102 square meters), but it’s broken into these large squares and rectangles, and we couldn’t figure out how to just split it differently without literally knocking out every wall and adding new walls everywhere. Instead, we’re adding on 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to the side, coming off of the living room. We’re still waiting for that to get started, and I’m actually really anxious it hasn’t. Baby’s due in June, so I’m hoping it will be fully done and ready well before then (so we can furnish and set everything up, you know?).

Enough about my life! (These next things are also about me, but they can be useful for you too, I think!)

I started JOURNALING just a little bit this year.

Cameron writes in a journal every day. He writes his plans in the morning, then in the evening, he writes a little recap of the day, the highs and lows, affirmations, prayers, and more. I don’t read it, so I can’t say for sure, but he’s told me about it.

Mine isn’t quite like that. Here’s what my journal consists of:

• Daily rating (from 1 to 5 stars)

• Step count (displayed as a chart)

• Highlight of the day

• Daily highlight doodle (I do these in clumps, not daily)

• Habit tracker (I just have 2 things I’m working on right now)

• NOT DAILY: Recipes I’ve tried, plus the source, plus a rating

• NOT DAILY: Books I’ve read

• NOT DAILY: Movies I’ve watched, plus a rating

So, with that said, here are ….

SOME OF THE BEST RECIPES I’VE TRIED IN 2024

Chocolate Waffles via The Salty Marshmallow

Vanilla Cake via Southern Living via Honey and Jam

Sundried Tomato Pasta via Zach Choi (it’s a video with no actual recipe, but you can sorta figure it out like we did! Happy to help if you need it!)

Lemon Bars via The Loopy Whisk (hers are gluten-free; I used regular flour)

Turkish Wet Cake via Damy’s Kitchen (it’s in Turkish, but mine has a button at the top to translate to English)

I’ve made a dozen new recipes this year; these were all 4.5/5 or higher!

MOVIES / BOOKS / TV SHOWS

In January, I watched 12 movies. In February, I’m at 2.5. Someone on IG mentioned that I have a clear “type”: I like INTENSE, whether that’s horror, thriller, psychological, true crime… So regular ole drama, rom-com, comedy, just don’t hold my attention as well these days.

I really like the app called Letterboxd (App Store / Google Play) for keeping track of the movies I watch, plus ratings and info about them. It’s like Goodreads but for movies.

My top 3 fav movies for 2024 so far:

• Nyad (Netflix) - It’s a true story about Diana Nyad, a swimmer who attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida.

• Society of the Snow (Netflix) - A Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashes on a snowy mountain, and the survivors must do whatever it takes to survive until rescue. Also a true story.

• The Holdovers (Peacock) - This is a drama that’s sort of a slow story, but the characters and character development are endearing.

Books: I’ve been keeping up with my “want to read” books on Goodreads this year, and there are a ton of ‘em. So far this year, I’ve “read” (audiobooks via the Libby app) the ACOTAR series (that stands for A Court of Thorns and Roses). I’ll say, they’re romance books with some fantasy tossed in. I like the fantasy aspects way more than the romance. Some of the spicy scenes, I would just skip forward a few minutes and hope I didn’t miss anything critical to the plot. It was a little too much for me at times!

Next books I want to read: Practicing the Way (John Mark Comer), Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros), and Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity (Peter Attia).

TV: Cam and I have been watching the Super Fans episodes of The Office (on Peacock). When I saw that pop up, I thought it was just a collection of the best episodes, perhaps. But it’s actually all the episodes (I think) with the deleted scenes. So every episode, I’m getting to see new-to-me scenes, which is awesome. I’ve got the episodes pretty much memorized, through season 5 anyway, and this has been a real treat!!

We watched a limited Netflix series called Fool Me Once that had us guessing up to the last episode. Some of the acting and writing are a tiiiiny bit cheesy for me. But overall, the mystery of the story is captivating. We liked it a lot, and turns out, it’s based on a book, and the author of that book has MANY other Netflix limited series. So there ya go!

A FEW MORE RANDOM THINGS

If you haven’t yet heard, there’s a solar eclipse passing through my area in April! Here’s a map of the path, so if you happen to live close enough to total blackout, I highly recommend you take the drive and go check it out!

I recently joined the Facebook page called Adult Bluey Fans, and one thing I’ve learned is that there are hidden long dogs (like, I’d call it a wiener dog) in many episodes as well as the video games. They’re quite hard to find! Even when someone posts a screen grab, I have a hard time seeing them!

June’s Journey is a game app that I’ve become rather obsessed with. It’s puzzles that go along with a story, and I really like it so far. I’m currently on level 15, waiting (impatiently) to be able to unlock 16.

Australians: I saw a TikTok video recently, and so far I’ve not heard an answer. The guy in the video is asking for an Australian to say “knowing what I know now” because he can’t figure out how it would sound. 😄 It’s probably impossible to type it, now that I think of it… so if I happen to see a response video (there will definitely be one since it has over 1 million likes already), I’ll try to remember to share it!

HOW ARE YOU?

I can’t promise any level of consistency with this newsletter right now. Technically I have the time for it, but I’ve got pregnancy brain. So if I can think of several helpful things to share one week, I’ll hop on and send it your way! If not though, I don’t want to force it you know?

I’m probably overthinking it. 😅

Anyway, let me know what’s been going on with you. I think the last email was, gosh, October maybe?

Have a GREAT weekend. Love,
Bethany