I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling 32

I cannot believe it's already September! Yesterday was my birthday (32!), and of course it was the best birthday ever because it was my first birthday as a mama. We spent the long weekend really just relaxing and hanging out with family & friends-- it was kind of perfect if you ask me.

Blowing out those birthday candles always gets me thinking about my future, and what my hopes and dreams are for the upcoming year. I thought it would be a good idea to take this opportunity to do a little self reflecting on how I feel turning 32-- physically how I feel, mentally how I feel, and what my plans & goals are for my next year of life.

Physically, I've felt much better. Truthfully, this is the heaviest and most out of shape I've ever been. I've always had a curvy, petite figure & I've always had to work to maintain my physique. That being said, I've always been a dancer and generally, I enjoy healthy foods, so it hasn't been too difficult-- but it has definitely been work at times. In the past two years or so I've noticed my metabolism slowing down, and generally having more trouble keeping weight off.

Third trimester pregnancy is when I completely fell apart. I began retaining so much fluid and legitimately blew up like a balloon. I couldn't exercise much at all, my feet were huge, purple & sore (for 3 whole months!), and I climbed up the scale. According to my doctor, I was just one of the small percentage of people that had insanely ridiculous swelling-- lucky me. Would I do it all again? ABSOLUTELY! The reward is worth more than anything.

This brings me into how I feel mentally. Mentally, I'm unhappy with the current state of my body. I hate every article of clothing that I put on, and finding a bra to fit me is actually impossible (I've spent hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars on bras in the last year). Of course I get over it as soon as I look at Nash, because he's so much more important to me than my weight. However, one of my biggest goals this year is to find my balance. What do I mean by that? I'm struggling to dedicate myself to Nash, work, and working out all in one day. After I feed Nash in the morning, I want to snuggle him as long as I can before I go to work. When the work day is over, I want to rush home to him and spend as much time as I can with him before bedtime. I'm doing at-home workouts, but even those are difficult for me to squeeze in (or am I just making up excuses?). Starting next week, I'm switching up my work schedule which is going to give me more time home with Nash, so I'm hoping that will make it easier for me to attain this goal.

Physically and mentally I have some work to do this year, but that's okay-- I'll get there. Let's talk about something more fun, like upcoming vacations!

Vacations are always annual goals for me. I love vacationing, and I will side hustle my heart out to save up for a vacation! Chris and I love cruising and are trying to set a goal of taking a cruise next summer from Boston to Bermuda. We've done that trip before and it's so fun and easy because of not having to fly. We have no concrete plans for it yet, but we're hoping to make it happen sometime in June or July.

Concrete plans we do have-- DISNEY! (are you surprised?) We have two, possibly three, Disney trips planned for this year. Obviously, I'm super excited and all the trips will be with family & Nash's cousins, so we'll be making such great memories. Our first trip is in November (for Thanksgiving) and our second trip will be sometime in the Spring. The possible third trip, will be just a weekend thing. I am a DVC (Disney Vacation Club) member and we are getting annual passes this year, which is making making our trips much more costly efficient.

Speaking of Disney... did you know Freeform is having 30 days of Disney this month?? Yup, Disney movies everyday -- my dream come true! I only wish I had an awesome TV projector to watch them on... which brings me to my next goal -- our basement!

Chris and I have big plans to make the ultimate rumpus room in our basement! Ideally we'd like it to have a giant sectional couch, a TV projector, a play area for the kiddies and a bar area for the adults. We love entertaining and spending time with our family & friends (most of our friends have babies and children too), so it would be so awesome to have a space where we can do just that. We also LOVE game nights, so this would definitely be our new game night spot, for sure! This is our #1 project for the upcoming months, so hopefully we will be getting started on this soon. So far, we've started looking at flooring... that's it.

Lastly, this is on the bottom of the totem pole, but I hope Doucette Designs works it's way back into my life someday. If you know me, or have followed me for a while, you know that I used to have a tiny, small business out of my home making signs, shirts & home decor items. Right now, I couldn't open the shop back up if you paid me. I just don't have the time at all. One thing I'm hoping to do is do this year is devise a more efficient business plan that will allow me open the shop back up. Again, this isn't very high on my priority list, however I really do miss tapping into my creativity this way.

So, that's what's up in this 32-year-old life of mine. I have a busy month coming up with a new dance year starting and lots of fall activities underway! Not sure what next week's post will entail... I really wanted it to be Nash's nursery tour, because I'm dying to get that out, but I also want it to be perfect, so I don't want to rush it. We'll see, maybe I'll surprise myself and get it done!

See ya real soon!

xo Courtney

photo cred: Amazon Basics Tripod & Self Timer