groundhog day

Thursday Three

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

And it’s Thursday, yet again! This week has been one of those longest weeks ever, yet somehow I’m not quite ready for the weekend. I know, that sounds crazy. It might have something to do with the fact that we are playing some music this weekend at a local coffee shop and also have some couchsurfers headed our way for a few days. In both cases, I am nowhere near prepared. So if my harmonies are off tomorrow or my house isn’t quite clean enough for guests, I blame the following blog post and all of its contents.

1. Groundhog Day–the moment you realize more winter is coming regardless of what that marmot says. Thankfully, we can celebrate the dark of winter and be silly by throwing another Groundhog Party. Yep, we’re those freaks. I’ve been hosting such ridiculous parties since high school. Over the years, we’ve been given so many groundhog art pieces to adorn our home and brighten our February. Therefore, we feel it’s completely logical to invite a few people over and insist they bring some brown food with them.

Groundhog Party | Moving Peaces

2. You can’t do everything. With a lot of new and awesome opportunities coming my way this week (more on that later) I’ve definitely had to assess what is doable and where my priorities lie. Not always easy, but necessary. Sometimes I get caught up in wanting to do everything and pleasing everybody, but it just isn’t realistic. You’ve got to do the best with what you can and move forward.

3. I think half of the REI employees recognize me as soon as I arrive. (And probably roll their eyes, too). I have been seriously on the hunt for the best backpack ever. Wait, what? Didn’t I already blog about a new backpack? Yep. And then the hubby wanted a new backpack. So we ordered him one. And then I started second-guessing the one I brought home for myself. You see, it was more of a hiking backpack with so many straps and clips that I started envisioning a massive tangle walking down the street. Sigh. So, hours and hours after reading countless reviews I finally ordered a new one. We’ll see how this goes.

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

It’s here, it’s here, it’s finally here!! The OLYMPICS! (Bet you thought I was going to say Thursday). Yes, the opening ceremonies are tomorrow, but some of the events are already playing on TV tonight! I’m so excited! Tomorrow I might even wear red, white and blue. This week has been a lot of highs and lows and not much in between, but I’m excited to end it on a high note.

1. Date night is a vital part of any relationship. I wish we were better about setting a night aside for date night because whenever we do, it really helps to have conversations that never seem to get brought up in the day-to-day at home. We hit up the art museum for the Porsche exhibit and ended the night with an entire pie from the pie place down the road (if you’re going to spend that much for two slices, you might as well go for the whole thing).

2. How does one talk about stress, struggles and insecurities gracefully on a blog? I’m not sure that I’ve figured that out yet. I sometimes consider never mentioning the dark days that I just feel kinda worthless and wonder what I’m good at. There’s days that someone gets mad at you and you don’t know how to handle it but to go home and cry it out. Days when you feel alone even when you know that’s far from the truth. This week has had included days like that. I hesitate to talk about it for several reasons—I don’t necessarily want to keep talking about, I don’t need a pity party and don’t really want to whine about it. That said, I decided to share anyway because often our social media culture is conducive to posting only the glory moments. We post the pretty pictures of parties and traveling as if our life is nothing but celebrations and fun. The problem is, it’s just not reality. We all have good moments and bad. Sometimes it’s nice to know you’re not the only one whose life isn’t always picture perfect. 

3. We celebrated Groundhog Eve for the first time ever. Then on Groundhog day we met a real live Groundhog and witnessed the official winter prediction. Honestly, this should be an entire blog post in itself but clearly I’ve been a little behind with my blogging. Let me just tell you that it was awesome. We threw a party and dozens of people brought brown food to join in the festivities. We love hosting this party for so many reasons, but the main one being that it’s really fun for us to introduce our friends to our other friends.

Thursday Three

Samantha Gratton

Hello Thursday, my day of the week. The day that I’m tired and ready for the weekend but sometimes stay up too late anyway just because. Getting home when it’s dark outside makes me feel like I never even had a chance at the day, so I try to stay up late out of defiance but usually don’t accomplish much in those hours anyway. So it goes.

1. Sore muscles are the best worst feeling. After months without formal exercise I decided to try the gym that’s much closer to where we live last night. It was good to get back there and fake some confidence while I lifted baby weights next to hulking men as they grunted. Glorious. Okay, not that part. But I tried to do the machines for the first time since the big injury this summer and didn’t end up on crutches. Success. 

2. Learning is fun. I’m taking not one but two graduate level classes this semester at a nearby university. So far so good, but the homework hasn’t really piled up yet. I’m really glad for the opportunity though to learn some new things and hopefully open up some interesting opportunities down the line. The classes are in the nonprofit management program, which in no way relates to what I’m doing in my day job. Sometimes I think doing things like this is really great and interesting and other times I wonder what the purpose is or what I’m doing with my life. But in a good way.

3. February might be my favorite month of 2014. I know that sounds a little presumptuous and not totally fair to the rest of the months. But seriously, so many of my favorite things are happening this February that I can hardly wait! First of all, my favorite holiday (Groundhog Day) is on February 2nd, as always. We might even try to throw another party this year for it. Too soon to say officially, but it’s a good possibility. Second, the Olympics are coming! It will be like a party every day for 17 straight days! I LOVE the Olympics! So, even though that has no direct relation to this week, I’m pretty pumped about February.