Coffee Break #38

Happy Holiday season, my friends! In this month’s Coffee Break, I’m revealing the furniture that DIDN’T make it into our new home, chatting about an unexpected challenge in capturing our new home, and sharing a glimpse into my day-to-day life! So grab your favorite hot beverage (because it’s coooooold outside!) and catch up with me!

The Furniture That Didn’t Make the “Cut”

Without a doubt, one of the biggest challenge when moving into a new home is figuring out what to do with all the stuff that doesn’t fit. I’m going to share some ideas for dealing with those items in an upcoming post; but today, I thought it would be fun to give you a behind-the-scenes look at the furniture items that didn’t “make the cut” this time around.

Whether it’s because they had just run their usefulness, we didn’t have space for them this time, or we were ready for an upgrade, below are the items from our past home(s) that you won’t be seeing any longer!

Don’t recall seeing some of these items in our last home? We had a big (and rather full) basement where we stored anything that didn’t fit upstairs!

So what did we do with these furniture items? Most of them we sold, a few were trashed, and some were donated to my niece’s college apartment (the Jenny Lind bed is “on loan” because I’m 99.9% certain I want it back after we move out of this house.)

Earlier in our marriage and our military journey, it was easier to get rid of furniture because we were still identifying our style and buying rather inexpensive pieces. But as time has gone on, we’ve started investing in nicer items that we truly love and don’t want to part with.

It’s always interesting to see what we make space for and what we’re willing to get rid of when confronted with the lack of space, lack of use, or both. I’m pretty at peace with everything we got rid of this time, especially since it means we lightened our load (quite literally) and created space for the items we truly love.

An Unexpected Challenge In Our New Home

Dealing with items that don’t fit is an expected part of the moving experience. Want to know something I didn’t expect moving into this house?!? How different the light is!

Sure, we all notice how light or dark a particular home is thanks to its windows, the direction it faces, the color of the walls/floors, etc. But as a home blogger who takes LOTS of photos of her house, I’m particularly sensitive to lighting.

Our new home didn’t initially strike me as “dark” until I started trying to photograph it. (Or rather, maybe I should say that I didn’t realize how bright our (last) Virginia house was until I started taking pictures in this one.) The windows are smaller and the rooms are more closed off, creating a lot more shadows than I am used to. As such, my usual angles, staging, and tricks just don’t seem to work in the same way. To say the least: it’s been a learning curve I didn’t expect to find myself on at this stage in the blogging game.

Little by little, I’m learning this house and how to use my camera in it…so perhaps by the end of our time here, I’ll be able to capture the rooms a little more accurately and become a better photographer in the process!

A Day In the Life

I’ve had several of you ask for an updated “Day in the Life” post now that all my kids are in school and I’m working full time. I wish I was clever enough to make you a 60 second TikTok but I’m just not that cool. So here’s how my days are looking lately (you can apply your own funny filters and catchy music!)

• 5:50 – Alarm goes off and I (half-awake) get dressed and shlep down to the workout room to exercise. I usually do a 30-45 minute workout with Cathe.
• 6:02 – A little blonde 3 year old follows me down the stairs and proceeds to watch me exercise (even though he could just stay asleep in his cozy bed).
• 6:45 – Wind down from my workout while prepping breakfasts and catching up with my 11 year old before he heads out to catch the bus.
• 7:00-7:45 – Breakfast, coffee, and the Today Show while packing up backpacks and getting everyone dressed.
• 7:45-8:00 – Drag Walk the two little boys down to the bus stop and wave the Kindergartener off for the day.
• 8:00-8:30 – With two off to school by bus, I head out to drop the 3 year old at daycare. I’m usually home and in front of my computer by 8:30.
• 8:30-12:00 – Work. I primarily block task: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are dedicated to blog content (projects, photos, and writing), while Tuesdays and Fridays are behind-the-scenes tasks like social media, emails, bookkeeping, courses, etc.
• 12:00-12:30 – I’m the type that can literally sit at my computer the entire day and not stop. But I noticed my productivity was waning in the afternoons, and I was an unmotivated mess by the time Friday rolled around. So I’ve now made it a goal to eat my lunch away from my computer and follow it up with a short walk to stretch my legs, catch up with neighbors, and see the sun.
• 12:30-3:00 – Work.
• 3:00 – Kids start to trickle home, which signals the end of my focused work time.
• 3:30-5:00 – Kids are in and out. I can usually sneak in another hour or so of work while they are playing outside, having snacks, and doing homework. But since I’m constantly interrupted, I reserve this time for easier, brainless tasks or small projects I can knock out.
• 5:00 – Pickup the 3 year old from daycare. The little boys usually watch shows while I prep dinner.
• 6:00-8:00 – Dinner, cleanup, sports practices, and a little more play.
• 8:00 – Evening routine to wrestle get the two little boys in bed.
• 8:30-10:00 – Pack lunches for the next day, answer emails, watch TV, work on small projects, or read. Lights are usually out by 10 and I’m asleep by 10:01.

Thanks for catching up with me this month!