Spend and evening with me as a working mom just trying to build her dream life one day at a time 🥹

I used to dream of slow mornings like this 🥹

SHE’S FINALLY DONE. 🥹🐓🤍 Well she was done almost two months ago but still 😅 After what felt like months of building, painting, approximately 847 trips to Menards, changing our minds, figuring things out as we went and spending basically every free evening and weekend working on this thing… our chicken coop is officially complete. And I’m kind of obsessed with her. 😂 One of my favorite finishing touches was adding the @runchickendoor eternal automatic coop door. Because as much as I love this little chicken era of ours, I also love not having to walk outside every single morning and night to open and close the coop. 😂 It’s solar-powered, aluminum, predator-resistant, and opens + closes automatically, which basically means one less chicken chore for us AND a little extra peace of mind that the girls are tucked in safely at night. 🙌🏼 We built this entire thing ourselves using plans from @thirdcoastcraftsman and I still can’t believe this started as a pile of lumber in our driveway. All those weekends of work were worth it. Now please excuse me while I stand at the dining room window drinking coffee, and admiring our chickens in their tiny dream house 🐓

I used to be such a workaholic. No one was asking me to be. I genuinely love working, but over time I started believing that being good at my job said something about who I was as a person. Being productive made me feel valuable and important. Doing more made me feel like I was doing life “right.” After kids, and working my ass off to build a business, there was a point where I realized… it really wasn’t that serious. I started asking myself what I was really working for? And it took me time to really find an answer. That felt sad. I started to realize I can care about my career, I can want to do good work, and I can have goals and still be ambitious. BUT my job, and work, does not have to be my whole personality. Life got a lot better when I started paying more attention to what made me feel full outside of work. What do I actually enjoy? What kind of mornings make me feel good? What hobbies do I want to try? What makes me feel like myself? Who am I when I’m not being productive for someone else? Turns out I’m a person who likes morning workouts and coffee at home and chickens and DIY projects and creating things and being with my family and having approximately 47 interests at once 😂 getting to know that version of myself has been one of the best parts of getting older. Your career can be something you’re proud of without being the thing that defines you. Kinda chic, actually.

I used to think balance meant I needed to want less. Fewer things I cared about. But I don’t actually want a small life. I like working. I like having goals. I want to continue to build financial freedom, and help other people do it too. I want to create things. I want to take care of my body. I want to be present with my kids. I want a good marriage. I want chickens and DIY projects and hobbies that have absolutely nothing to do with being productive. I just don’t want any one of those things to become my entire identity. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ Work has always probably come the closest. If I was doing well at work, I felt like I was doing well in life. If I wasn’t being productive, I felt like I should be. Still do sometimes. But I’m realizing I don’t need less ambition. I needed boundaries around it. I needed a life big enough that my job could matter, but didn’t need to become who I was. So yes, apparently my toxic trait is wanting all of it 😂 I’m learning that a full life and a slow life aren’t necessarily opposites. I don’t think the goal is doing less of everything, but rather knowing what deserves your energy, what doesn’t, and refusing to let productivity be the thing that determines your worth. If you’re trying to build a full life without rushing through the whole thing, you’ll probably like it here.

There’s nuance in every number!! For example, some of the money we spent on restaurants in July didn’t land in our “restaurants” category at all. We categorized it as gifts because we were buying food to celebrate people we love. Technically, it was still restaurant spending. But the reason behind the purchase mattered more to me than the fact that food was involved. One of the things we want our money to make room for is celebrating people, treating family or friends, and being able to do thoughtful things just because. I feel very differently about spending $70 on a meal for someone we’re celebrating than I do about spending $70 on takeout because I didn’t feel like cooking. Neither one is automatically “bad,” but they don’t mean the same thing to me. This is also why I think categories should help you understand your spending, not shame you for it. Our restaurant spending is usually higher than July’s total, but even then, we tend to eat out when we’re already on the go and usually choose something pretty budget-friendly. Shoutout to the @dairyqueen $7 meal deal 😂 we are also complete gift card hoarders, tbh. Birthdays, holidays, random gift cards we’ve saved… those are often what we use when we do want to go out. Personal finance is personal. The point isn’t to categorize every dollar the “right” way. It’s to understand why you spent it, whether it aligned with your values, and whether you’d make the same choice again.

The bag that accidentally became my whole personality over the past month 😂 For YEARS, my everyday “purse” has basically been the same athletic belt bag because It worked. 🤷‍♀️ I’m not someone who needs a different purse for every outfit or occasion. But, when I started going into the office more, I realized I wanted something that felt a little more put together with my work clothes, but was still casual enough that I’d actually use it every day. Enter this @portlandleather bag that I’m OBSESSED with. I wanted something I could carry to work, throw on with jeans on the weekend, or bring on a date night when I actually put on real clothes 😂 since getting it, it has pretty much gone everywhere with me. So yes, after years of carrying an athletic belt bag everywhere, I think I may officially be a leather bag girl. If you’ve been eyeing one too, comment BAG and I’ll send you my link for 30% off. 🤎 #plgpartner

A niche??? Never heard of her!

What is a niche? Never heard of her!!