Greetings blog world! I’ve missed you! It’s been a while, so I thought I’d update you on a few of the things I’ve been up to while I’ve been, ahem… not blogging.
- I’ve been getting to know my new city and taking in all the sights.
- I’ve finished four grad school applications, with a fifth one in-progress. I should hear back in March-April, so fingers crossed!
- I’m halfway through my year of service with a local literacy nonprofit, and am helping nearly fifty students in an under-served school meet their literacy needs.
- I’ve lost seven pounds! I wish I could give you some tips and tricks, but it’s been mostly burning calories shuttling children around at work. Bad cold (or flu?) and stomach bug also contributed, unfortunately.
- I’ve been on a book binge! Books on tape driving to and from work, reading books all day to kids, and a small book club with my high school friends. (New favorites blog post coming soon!)
- I’ve been learning a little Korean. Or, at least how to read it. Work in progress on that one.
- I’ve been on a minimalism/zero waste/plant-based food kick. These are all works in progress too, but I’ve really been enjoying watching Youtube videos and making small changes. I bought almost an entire new work wardrobe second-hand from Clothes Mentor and Thred-up and saved a ton of money in the process.
Now, confession time, I HATE life transitions. I mean, absolutely hate them. Big life changes make me terribly nervous and I have a tendency to want to avoid them. This year, though, changes were thrust upon me, and I just accepted that I was going to be anxious about them. Accepting that aspect of myself somehow made things a lot easier because I was kind to myself throughout the process rather than trying to be hard on myself. I practiced self-care and self-acceptance rather than trying to perfect the process. I also treated the whole thing as an adventure and decided to be grateful for new opportunities, because every life experience is temporary anyway. I’m still in a very transitional place in my life right now, but I’m learning to enjoy that more and to live in the moment.
So, now that grad school apps are almost done and I’m past the half-way mark with my year of service, I’m hoping to be blogging more often. I’ve got a few new ideas, but also let me know if there is anything you would like to hear from me!
January 23, 2018 at 3:23 pm
Hi Stacey, welcome back – it’s great to hear from you again – you have been missed! You’ve accomplished such a lot since we heard from you last. I’d love to hear more about buying a second hand work wardrobe, if you get a chance in the future. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the grad school applications, Lxx
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January 23, 2018 at 8:58 pm
Thanks- it’s glad to be back and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to also since I’ve been gone! My closet is… not too photogenic at the moment so I probably won’t be posting about my wardrobe any time soon, but basically I stuck to mostly solid colors in black, medium blue tones, cream, and camel, and mixed in a couple of patterns and a couple of other solid jewel tones. I’m planning on incorporating more peach/coral/rose for spring, though, and wearing less black and more of the cream/camel. It’s nothing fancy, but through buying versatile pieces second-hand, I’ve been able to mix and match outfits since August for a few hundred dollars.
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January 24, 2018 at 3:41 am
Thanks so much, Stacey – those colours sound as they all work beautifully together and, of course, such a sustainable way of building a wardrobe, Lxx
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January 23, 2018 at 4:34 pm
Did you make yourself as lovely a bedroom in your new home as the one you left? What are you going to study in grad school.
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January 23, 2018 at 9:02 pm
Funny you should ask; I just rearranged it last week! It had no focal point before. I will probably take some photos once everything finds its place. It looks more contemporary than my old room and the colors are a bit brighter. As for the graduate school… I’m a bit superstitious about saying too much at the moment! I’ll do a post about it once (fingers crossed!) I’m accepted. I missed hearing from you- hope you’re doing well!
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