What I learned in February can be summed up as — everything is better with a nice hot cup of tea 🙂 From the caffeine to help me study to the soothing needed when I struggled through a cold, hot tea was a large part of my month! However, I did learn a few more things along the way that I’d love to share with you. I’m linking up today with Emily P. Freeman, our gracious “What I Learned” host and other writers across the internet. I would love to hear what you learned this past month! Feel free to share in the comments and make sure you check out Emily’s post to read about what she and others learned this month.
The Washington Redskins are D.C.’s team…not Washington State’s.
Y’all. This is embarrassing, but I must share. If I claimed to know nothing about football, I don’t think it would be as bad, but I‘ve written a post on watching football with my dad, and I enjoy the game! How did I go twenty-eight years thinking the Redskins were, along with the Seahawks, a Washington State team?? I guess since New England seems dominated by the Patriots, I didn’t realize D.C. had a team until this month when we drove by where the Redskins play while visiting D.C. Now I know. 🙂
Gluten Free Croissants exist…as does a croissant emoji
Another fun thing I learned in D.C — there are gluten free croissants (Rise Bakery D.C. — it’s amazing!), and there’s also an emoji! How random? I was texting my family about the croissants and my phone brought up the “predictive” emoji, and there it was – a croissant emoji. I hope this fun fact helps you in your future texting 😉
Seeing History Gives Me Hope
I think most would agree that 2016 was a rough year in America no matter what your political leaning. It was unprecedented how divided the country was and social media made it a million times worse (in my opinion). That being said, I wasn’t sure how I would feel going to D.C. this month, but instead of feeling anxious while we were there, I felt quite the opposite. I felt hopeful. Seeing the memorials to our Founding Fathers and our soldiers, walking the paths of our history and through the sacred spaces of America of years past, I was encouraged, proud once again to be an American, and hopeful we can rise above the anger and division to become unified once again.
Counseling is always worth it (and I shouldn’t have waited so long!)
There’s been many major changes in my life over the last three years, and I found lately — with more large changes looming — I was struggling to find any joy in life, in all honesty, struggling not to be in tears more often than not. So I made an appointment with a Christian counselor in my area, and I cannot believe I waited so long!! I’ve done counseling before and found it extremely worthwhile, but there’s still such a stigma to admitting you need/want/long for help. So I’m sharing this with you today to encourage you to check out counseling if you’ve been struggling — there’s nothing like having an unbiased trained professional help you work through this beautiful and messy thing called life.
Stretching for Five Minutes in the Mornings makes a difference
With school, I sit for most of the day in front of a computer or hunched over a book. I found my shoulders and neck started to tense up and hurt! My husband and I have been working to improve our morning routine, so I decided to try to stretch right after I got out of bed. This free app has been awesome! You can choose which stretch routine you’d like, set how long you want to stretch for (up to 60 minutes!), and it cues you with words and pictures the whole time! Maybe it’s a placebo effect, but I feel so much better starting my day off with this.
Putting My “Alarm Clock” Across the Room is Key
Like I mentioned above, we are trying to improve our morning routine, which basically means getting out of bed when our alarms go off, not pressing snooze for thirty to forty-five minutes (yes, we do that…such a bad habit!). Snoozing that long just made us feel more lethargic and really cut into our morning quiet/reading time. So this month we both switched it up — Russell downloaded this app (you have to take a picture of something you pre-program in another room for the alarm to quit…pretty intense! haha), and I started charging my cell phone/alarm across the room on my dresser. Getting out of bed is the main battle, and this is helping us win most days! As a bonus, my phone is less accessible and not the last thing I look at before bed anymore.
Our dog is a good hiker
We knew our puppy would love to hike — we just thought he wouldn’t be good at hiking due to his over exuberance regarding everything that moves and with any new situation. However, we took him this past weekend to Hanging Rock (great hike for any NC locals by the way!), and he did great! He was excited for sure, but it was tempered enough that we all enjoyed the hike since he didn’t drag us off the trail 🙂 We are looking forward to more hikes in the future!
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What did you learn this month? I’d love to hear in the comments!
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Previous What I Learned Posts:
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–>Linking up with Emily P. Freeman — check out her post to see what others across the internet learned this month!<–
I love the idea of stretching for even just 5 minutes in the morning. I am going to check out that app you recommended. DC is such a fun place to visit. I love all the architecture and history there.
Thanks for stopping by, TJ! I hope you enjoy the app! I think it makes a big difference 🙂