Hey November, What’s Up?

November, how the heck did you get here so fast? I mean, I don’t necessarily dislike you, but I feel like you kind of sneaked up on me. I mean, there are some really great things about the month of November, like the birth of my first son, Cody, and Thanksgiving, which is pretty much my favorite meal of the entire year. Nothing will ever top spending both our birthday (Cody was born on mine in 1994) AND Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World two years ago, but this year will be pretty special, too, since our birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. I’m hoping that means Paul and Nick will do some of the meal prepping and all the cleaning, but mostly I just want cake from my favorite bakery.

I Miss My Dad and My Dog

While I look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving and birthdays in November, it’s also a little challenging, too. November brings with it a chill in the air that immediately reminds me the anniversary of my dad’s death is coming. It will be 14 years this November 26th since my kids lost their Grampy and we will still miss him very much, but we’ve also gotten used to a new normal without him in our lives. Hopefully he’s looking down on all of us with pride and enjoying time with his beloved dog, Roxy, and our sweet girl Jenna. He certainly loved to spoil both of them when he was alive, so I have no idea he’s doing it now that they are all together again.

National Blog Posting Month – Here Goes Nothing!

Now can we talk about what motivated me to sit down at the keyboard today? If you’re a fellow blogger you probably already know that November is National Blog Posting Month, which means committing to writing a blog post every day of the month. The last time I attempted I failed and this year I’m using that failure as motivation to accomplish my goal, even if I have to publish a lot of posts with nothing but photos in them. Seriously, though, I’m feeling motivated and hoping disciplining myself to write every day will bring back that blogging spark I’ve been lacking for a while now. Wish me luck, pretty please?

30-Day Burpee Challenge – It Will Be So Much Fun!

One more thing before I go. I mean, I don’t want to write all the words on November 1st and have nothing to say the rest of the month, but I want to share one more challenge I’ve decided to participate in because I apparently want to put a lot of pressure on myself this month. Either I’ll come away feeling totally proud and patting myself on the back or I’ll, wait, no. I’m ending that sentence there because not completing both of these goals (even though they are both pretty big) is simply not an option. That reminds me, have you ever heard of burpees? If not, look it up so you can have a good picture of what this challenge will look like. If you have heard of them then you’ll know it’s going to be a really fun challenge. By fun I mean not-pretty, but hey, if it was supposed to be easy everyone would be doing it, right? Which leads me to my friend, Lori, over at Groovy Green Livin and her recent post introducing me to the 30-Day Burpee Challenge. Basically, it requires you to do 50 burpees every day for the month of November. FIFTY. Not 15, but 50. Yeah, I’ve probably lost my mind, but I’m committed and looking forward to seeing a transformation in my body and my strength. I’ll try to share updates weekly on my progress, with several Instagram posts in between to keep me accountable, so feel free to come follow me over there, you know, for a good laugh or maybe a little inspiration.