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This Week’s Three

January 16, 2015Samantha Gratton

What a cold and dreary week it has been. Last week seems like it was so long ago, but I think it’s just that it feels like that because we’ve gone a week without actual sunshine. But today, Friday, the sun is shining and a new energy seems to here. Ahhh, what a breath of fresh air for this stuffy nose recovering from a slight cold. Let’s review my week, shall we? Is that even interesting to you? If not, then why are you still reading?! Just kidding. I’d love to hear about your week, too. This isn’t just about me, I promise.

1. Three’s company. Last week my youngest sister was here but at the end of the week both sisters stayed over for a night. We had a fun day exploring the science museum and chowing down on some of North Carolina’s famous BBQ before they each headed to their respective homes.

(pictures soon to follow…this blog can’t handle all the awesomeness of all three of us together in one place and is therefore having some difficulty uploading photos)

2. Fly away. Or bike away, rather. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to check out Flywheel, a new cycling studio in town, along with some other local bloggers. To be honest, half the time I thought I was going to pass out, but I loved every second of it. Note: Never eat famous BBQ the same day you are going to go to a spin class for the first time in years, you will regret it. That was just the way the planning worked out, but seriously it was just super fun and a great workout. They have a great space for it and turn the lights down and the music up so you can really get in the zone and push yourself.

3. Tiny desks fit best in tiny kitchens. NPR does a segment called Tiny Desk Concerts where they have musicians play original music behind their desk. Recently, they opened up a contest for unsigned and unknown musicians to submit their own “tiny desk” recording and video. We decided to go ahead and put together a video of a song we wrote together called, “We’ll Be Here”. While we don’t have any plans of winning, we definitely loved the chance to work on a project together and get creative.

Thursday Three

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015Samantha Gratton

Hello to the Thursday Three! It’s been a good week of lots of fun things. I’ll just go ahead and tell you that this will be a photo heavy post, but I’m alright with it. We’ve been showing off Raleigh to my youngest sister for the week, which is a great excuse to visit all of our favorite places in the area. All I can say is, ~~YUM~~ FUN.

1. You are never too old to try something new. Right before my sister arrived we decided to cash in one a Christmas gift card toward a local Art Bar. I’m much more of the writing type…I see things I like in art but when I go to replicate it…well, it doesn’t always go as planned. That said, we spent six plus hours painting away until our canvases looked like something we meant to make. Can you tell what it is?

This was the bonus 6″ x 8″ canvas the hubby painted while I finished up my masterpiece. It fits right in with the rest of our kitchen!

2. Christmas is still here in this household. Because both sisters were going to be in town this week and shipping is a total pain, we just decided to leave the tree and decorations up. At this point, it almost seems easier to keep it going year-round. Alas, we have a real tree and cannot make it last much longer. But who doesn’t love those twinkly lights on the tree?

3. There’s not enough time in a week to see all of our favorite places in Raleigh. I made a master list of all the things we’d go do and see and eat while my sister was here and we’ve only hit about half of them so far and sadly, she leaves tomorrow. Recently, I found a list of places to check out in Raleigh and they really did include all of our favorites in case you are wondering what there is to do around here. I wouldn’t call Raleigh a tourist-y place, but we sure do like living here. It’s been really fun showing yet another family member all the reasons why we love it.

Thursday Three

December 4, 2014Samantha Gratton

It’s that time of the week. The time when I talk about three random things that have either happened or I have been thinking about in the last week and call it the Thursday Three. Because, come on, who doesn’t love a little alliteration? Ready? Go.

1. I’m thankful for Thanksgiving. We headed out to the mountains for time with the hubby’s family. This meant, we had a great meal with his grandma, hung out with our niece and nephew, did a little bit of hiking, found a few Black Friday deals (I know, it’s been years since I’ve gone shopping that weekend), ate way too many tasty snacks and started thinking about Christmas.

2. Ever burst into tears just because life wasn’t going the way you wanted? Yeah, well, that happened this week. I’m not particularly proud of that, but we can’t have you believing my life is all about holidays and an overload of awesome. To be honest, there are things I wish were different in my life right now even though I have a good life. I’m learning what it means to be okay with life not going how I planned, and that’s not easy. Thankfully there are no photos to show here.

3. Christmas is coming. We have officially entered into the month of December and are starting to prepare. When we were out in the mountains, we bought a tree, and last night we spent some time decorating. I was reading another blog the other day that talked a bit about Advent and how it meant “coming” in Latin. It really stuck with me, so I am going to try to instead of just thinking about how Christmas is coming to also think about coming closer to Christ this year.

Thankful Thursday Three

November 27, 2014Samantha Gratton

In honor of Thanksgiving, let’s make this Thursday Three the things I’m thankful for. Maybe it sounds cliche and maybe these things are of no surprise, but I still think it’s worth saying anyway. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

1. I’m thankful for family. Flaws and all, family is such a blessing to have. I’m especially thankful for my husband and how well he loves me. Since getting married four years ago we’ve formed a family of our own that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I’m so grateful for his patience and kindness, his leadership, his sense of humor and of course, his dashing good looks.

2. Friends make life more fun. Sometimes I just think we have the best friends. I’m so thankful for friends who want to do life together and friends who want to do more than just dinner a few times a year. We have friends who care for us and friends who make us laugh, and I am so glad for that.

3. My home is my favorite place to be. I don’t know that I’d flat out say I was a homebody–I like traveling far too much to say that. But at the end of the day, I love being in our home and am so thankful for it. We were fortunate to find a place in such a great location, near friends and just the right size. I love our little yellow house and am grateful we get to share it with others.

Thursday Three

November 21, 2014November 21, 2014Samantha Gratton

Oh dear me, it’s Thursday. You ever have those weeks when suddenly you realize all of your hours are already scheduled away but you still have a heck of a lot of things left to do? Your option becomes: lose sleep or drop the ball…or sometimes both. That has been what this week has looked like for me. Don’t get me wrong, plenty of that time scheduled away has been great but it still leaves me with not enough hours in the day. Hence, tonight’s post will have to be short and sweet.

1. Ask questions, but be prepared for the answer. I’ve been very thoughtfully considering my career path lately and decided to get some feedback from a variety of people this week. I have gotten a lot of great advice and insight, but I’ve walked away with my head spinning more often than not.

2. Spending time with a friend while meeting new people can be so much fun. This past Wednesday, that’s just what I did at the TriFABB blogger meetup. I loved meeting a whole bunch of the girls in the area, bloggers and readers alike. But even more so, I enjoyed spending time with this lady (and the lady behind her who helped host this event).

3. People are doing amazing things in the world. We get to decide how to respond to those amazing things: be amazed, jealous, apathetic, lazy, encouraged, discouraged or inspired. What is it going to be?

Thursday Three

November 13, 2014December 9, 2014Samantha Gratton

It’s time for that weekly wrap-up that I like to call the Thursday Three. Alliteration is awesome.

1. The job search is on. I keep getting asked for status updates on the job search and all I can say at this point is that it is on. For those who haven’t been on a job searching journey recently, let me explain. Except in rare cases, it is not a one-time thing. You interview and send cover letters and network and do all the things until you think you can’t do it anymore. And then do it some more. It’s tiring, but I’m hopeful. I don’t want to go on like it’s all bad, but the thing is that it doesn’t have a clear outcome until you have an actual offer. I’ve been a finalist several times in the past few months, but they don’t let you put that on your resume. So, I’ll just keep going until I find the right thing for me.

2. We’re more than just married…now, we’re a band. This weekend was our official big debut at our friends’ coffee shop. We played for around an hour and a half but then a while later, did an encore set. I was nervous the first few songs, but soon really started to enjoy it. There’s something very vulnerable about singing songs you wrote (we sang 9 originals), but it’s good.

We still need a band name... Photo by John - Triangleexplorer.com — We still need a band name…
Photo by John – Triangleexplorer.com

3. Sometimes it’s worth being silly, just because. Do something to make someone laugh today. Write a funny story or be ridiculous. Maybe they need it or maybe you need it.

Thursday Three

October 30, 2014October 30, 2014Samantha Gratton

Hey there Thursday. It’s been a week, hasn’t it? The leaves on the trees are really starting to pop around here, which I LOVE but the dark mornings and dark evenings are not my favorite. Let’s look back on the week and all of its lessons, shall we?

1. A weekend away can do a world of good. I know the plan was 31 days of blogging, but over the weekend I was just all out losing steam. It’s been a packed month and none of my guest posts came through for the weekend. I thought about blogging but realized I wasn’t going to provide any depth and it would instead just be me checking off another thing on the long list. I love blogging and writing and all the things, but I’ll be real, I’m ready for this month of blogging to be over so we can go back to our regular scheduled programming.

2. Time with friends is so important. In the busy of life, it’s easy to cut friends out. We all have obligations and can only do so much in a day. But I need keep reminding myself that being over-committed shouldn’t mean that my relationships are what get cut out of my schedule. You need your friends and your friends need you.

3. And then I found five dollars… literally. I am that person who is always picking up pennies and dimes left behind in the street, but this weekend I found a $5 laying around outside in the dark for the second time this year (weird, I know). I think my point is, we don’t always know what we will find in life, it might be a pretty average penny or it might be a not-so-common $5. Either way, we have to keep an eye out and be ready for whatever it may be. How’s that for some Thursday night vague wisdom?

Thursday Three

October 16, 2014October 17, 2014Samantha Gratton

Ready for the shortest and most random Thursday Three of all time? Okay great. Also, that photo has nothing to do with this post as it was from our hike a few weeks ago, so don’t read into it.

1. This week has been busy. I’m ready for life to be a little less busy as I don’t wear that term like a badge of honor. Lots of good types of busy things, but too busy nonetheless. If you feel too busy, let me encourage you to also try to be less busy, not more.

2. Always keep a blanket in your car. I got completely caught in the rain this week so I did the only logical thing, took of my shoes and ran through the puddles before jumping into my car. Having a random blanket to dry off with was a glorious thing.

3. There is so much beauty in this world. I’ve recently had to drive a lot for work and I can’t help but look in awe at the clouds and the trees and the great big patch of sunflowers off the side of the highway.

Thursday Three

October 9, 2014October 9, 2014Samantha Gratton

Regardless of any blogging challenge, the Thursday Three is ingrained in my brain. Speaking of things ingrained in the brain…according to my book on tape (aka audiobook) if you rhyme a statement, people seem to think there is more truth in it than a statement that means the very same thing but doesn’t rhyme. Crazy, eh?

1. Sometimes we all need to get away. Last weekend at the mountains was a great way to do that. We hiked a mountain, walked around town, ate some BBQ and stumbled across a small wine festival. All in all, a good time.

2. Sometimes we fall apart. Appearances aside, we all struggle with something. No one is perfect. No one has it all figured out. The more we compare ourselves to others, more more lies we convince ourselves of. So let’s just take that idyllic little trip to the mountains and add a bit of “life feeling like a lot.” There you have it. Reality.

3. Sometimes we need a night off. This week has been just as full as always, but sometimes we need a night in our ~~ugly~~ comfy clothes and the blogging is simply short and sweet.

Thursday Three

September 25, 2014December 9, 2014Samantha Gratton

This week, y’all…this week has been so much fun. It’s had its ups and downs like any week, but something about this week has had a fresh air about it. Maybe I’ve had too much pumpkin flavored everything, or I have just found some good people in the world. Either way, glad to have had such a great week.

1. Weddings are some of my favorite pastimes. This past weekend both the hubby and I were in a wedding on the beach, and it was AMAZING. The year we got married we somehow managed to attend something like 13 other weddings the same year and that got a little exhausting. But this year, we’ve only been to three and each have been so much fun that I wish I had another one in the books. Invite me to your wedding, people! No but really, this weekend we had the most wonderful time as bridesmaid and groomsman. I think we both just love the opportunity to really serve our friends at such a monumental time in their lives. Plus, we got to hang out with a few great people and always seem to make friends with the photographer (who was adorable, by the way…can’t wait to see her pictures from the day but until then, here’s a few others).

2. The blog is growing. Like a total nerd I sat and watched google analytics realtime tracking on Monday night. Every couple of minutes I would yell out the current number of readers and their locations to the hubby while he worked on a song. I’m learning a lot in a short time but also feeling like I have SO much to learn and catch up on. That said, thank you so much for reading along with me so far as I try different things and tweak different sections of the blog. Any and all feedback is most appreciated!

3. It’s a good thing my voice is back because it’s been all over the microphone. This week the hubby decided we were doing an open mic night. While not new to him, it was a first for me. After months of working on songs together we went ahead and shared them with the world. While I didn’t really tell anyone we were doing it beforehand, please allow these poorly lit phone pictures to say it all. It was really great, and I ended up being more comfortable than I thought I would be. I’m ready for our next gig! In addition to my singing debut, I got to do some voiceovers this week for some freelance work which was really fun and completely new to me. Apparently they loved it! So, moral of the story…prepare to hear me on the radio some day, one way or another.