Category: Life

Holidays, Home, Life, Tips and Tricks

How to Make Last Minute Guests Feel Like You’ve Been Expecting Them All Day

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I originally wrote this post right before the worldwide pandemic hit. At the time, we had people stopping by all the time, but just as I was going to publish this post, the world shut down and having visitors wasn’t really a thing anymore! However, as we’re all getting back to “normal” life, I thought I would go ahead and post this, especially since we’re heading into the holiday season when entertaining guests seems to be at its peak!

This little bar cart is right inside my front door. It’s usually one of the first places I go to when I know someone is stopping by. I’ll turn on my diffuser, light the candle, and turn on the lamp to instantly add a warm, cozy, inviting feeling to our home.

We’ve all been there. A friend or relative calls or texts and asks if they can stop by in the next 10 minutes. You graciously say “Yes!” but then you look around your home in a panic!

Lately, Alex and I have been lucky enough to have several people stop by our house with very short notice. I know that this can cause stress and anxiety for many people, including myself, so I thought I would go over a few different things I try to do to always be prepared for unexpected guests.

  1. I love to bake. So often, I have some sort of baked good to offer unexpected guests. However, on the off chance that I don’t have something ready, I like to keep some frozen cookie dough in the freezer, so you can quickly throw them in the oven and be pulling out freshly baked cookies as your guests walk in the door! Store bought treats also work in a pinch! When guests come into a house that smells of freshly baked cookies, it will seem like you have been expecting them all day!
  2. I ALWAYS start up my diffuser when I know someone is stopping by. My favorite essential oil to diffuse is Purification by Young Living. It smells so clean and fresh and makes it seem like you’ve been cleaning the house all day! Every single person that comes into my home comments on how good it smells, and it is 100% because of the diffuser and not because of my housekeeping abilities!
  3. Lighting. Lighting can change the feeling of a space so much. First of all, turn on your porch or outside lights! It’s much more inviting to walk up to a house that has their lights on, it’s the first sign guests see that you are ready and waiting for them! Second, I like to keep just warm lights on. Our lamps, and under counter lights are my favorite. Low lighting feels much more cozy and homey than bright overhead lights. Also, light candles! Not only will they help make your house smell great, but they also give an awesome ambiance that helps your home feel cozy and inviting.
  4. Of course, sometimes the struggle is the fact that your house is just plain messy and needs picked up and cleaned. In this case, of course, I try to pick up according to how much time I have. I start in my living room, since that is the first room our guests walk into, and if I have time I’ll move to the kitchen. Always start at the point where your guests will enter and then work from there to the points of the house your guests will likely spend time (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) Close doors to other rooms such as bedrooms, laundry, etc. if you have to.
  5. Play some music! It makes a home seem so cozy when some light music is playing in the background. Of course, don’t have it so loud that conversation is awkward, just loud enough to add to the cozy and inviting atmosphere.

These are just some basic things I do when someone calls and says they’ll be over in a moment’s notice. Hopefully these tips will helps you feel confident to host those last minute guests! What do you do when someone stops by unexpectedly? I would love to hear your tricks too!

Life, Self-Improvement, Tips and Tricks

Getting That “Back to School” Feeling (Even when you’re not in school!)

Natalie Larson

How was your summer? I trust it went well for you. Mine was great. And busy. (Hence why I haven’t published a blog post in months.) Anyway, by the time mid to late August gets here, I start craving routine.

Summer is so fun and carefree. Trips and vacations, longer daylight hours, warm weather. With all the busyness, I tend to let a lot of my regular habits slide and by the time summer starts to come to a close, I’m ready to get back to it. Remember that feeling when you were in school? You’d get your new school supplies and school clothes and almost be excited to start school back up again. Or maybe you’re still in school! Either way, I think this time of year is a perfect time to reset, make some goals, change some habits, and work on improving ourselves!

One of my favorite podcasts to listen to is the Organize 365 podcast. If you listen to Lisa and are familiar with what she teaches, you know that she considers this time of year one of her “New Year’s.” She breaks up her year into three “new years” and I must say that I completely relate to that! I often feel more motivated this time of year than I do in January to start a new routine, or goal, or habit. I thought you might feel the same, so I thought I’d do a quick post about how to really get that “back to school” feeling even if you (or your kiddos) aren’t even headed back to school.

  1. Get a new planner. When I’m feeling refreshed and ready to restart I always love getting a new planner. There is something so satisfying about filling out a brand new planner. While you’re at it, revamp your schedule! I went through my regular schedule and I’m rearranging things that I think will work better for me. (Like working out in the afternoon instead of morning, etc.)
  2. Meal Plan. There is nothing that makes me feel more organized and like I’ve got it all together than meal planning. It makes it easier to make a grocery list, easier to shop, and I always end up making healthier choices!
  3. Deep Clean. This time of year always makes me want to deep clean and really get ready for a fresh start. This week so far I have deep cleaned my fridge and my pantry. (This also helps significantly when starting a meal plan too!)
  4. Set Goals and/or Make To-Do Lists. I always usually start working on goals around this time of year. Whether it’s eating healthy, working out, losing weight, finishing projects, or planning for the upcoming holidays.

I’m so excited to get into my new routine, accomplish some of my goals, and totally take advantage of that refreshing “back to school” energetic feeling I have. Do you get that “back to school” feeling? What things are you doing because of that? Or what things are you going to do to try and cultivate that feeling? I would love to read your comments about what you’re doing!

Homesteading, Life

Why We Got Backyard Chickens

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The day we brought them home.

This past June we started our backyard chicken flock with 6 young pullets and we have never regretted it! We love having chickens, and for us it is a no-brainer. However, I have had SO many people ask us “WHY?!?” So I thought I would do a post about how we decided to get them, why we love them, and some reasons that may convince you to start your own flock!

These are what the pullets looked like when we bought them.

Almost exactly one year ago we brought home a brand new Bloodhound puppy, Wilma. Being a bloodhound, she is a natural hunting dog, and knowing that someday we would love to live on a homestead with lots of animals, especially chickens, we wanted Wilma to grow up from puppyhood being around chickens so that we could train her to not be aggressive toward them.

The ladies are enjoying some hot, homemade porridge.

My parents conveniently had a small chicken coop that they were no longer using. So we hauled it to our small, city lot. My dad fixed it up for us by reinforcing some chicken wire and repairing the feed box and door.

So we started tossing around the idea of getting chicks in the spring. I’ll be honest, the thought of getting chicks kind of overwhelmed me. We don’t have a big garage, nor did we have a lot of the equipment you need to raise chicks such as heat lamps. I looked at many homemade chick brooders on Pinterest, but I was still overwhelmed by making one, so I started doing more research.

That’s when I discovered the term “pullet.” A pullet is a young hen, under one year, but older than a chick. Old enough that we could put it straight into the chicken coop and skip the brooder stage. We would also know that they were definitely females and avoid accidentally getting a rooster or two. This idea was very appealing to me. I knew that pullets would be more expensive than getting chicks, but since we were only wanting about half a dozen or so, I was willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of getting older birds. Also, they were a bit harder to find than just walking into your local farm supply store and getting chicks, but not impossible to find.

One of our first eggs.

I scoured Craiglist until I came across the perfect listing for us! I found a group of 6 Sapphire Gem pullets for $30. They hadn’t started laying yet. We hurried to get our coop all prepared and went and got them the next day.

For us, this worked out perfectly. We were able to put them right into the coop without having to worry about a brooder. Six birds also proved to be the perfect number for us. Our coop has 12 nesting boxes, so they have plenty of space, and when they started laying eggs we got about 3 dozens eggs a week, which is too much for just the two of us to eat, so we sell a dozen here and there for some extra money, which is a great perk!

We love having chickens for many reasons, so I’ll just make a quick list here for you.

  1. Fresh Eggs – This is obviously the most obvious perk of having chickens. I am never out of eggs. (Except the one time Alex sold 3 dozen in one day and didn’t tell me. It worked out fine though, because I just ran out to the coop and the girls had already laid 3 more.) It is so nice using the nutrient rich, dark yellow-yoked eggs that we get from our own backyard. We know exactly what the chickens are fed and can feel good knowing that we are eating something healthy.
  2. Extra Money – This ties in with having fresh eggs, but since our hens produce more than we can eat, we sell eggs for money! We usually put this money right back into the chickens with the purchase of straw, feed, etc. So it’s a great way to pay for having them, they just earn their own keep!
  3. Entertainment – If you haven’t just sat in an Adirondack chair with a cool drink and watched some chickens do their thing on a summer day, then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. You need to do this. Chickens are so fun to watch! The way they strut across the yard, scratching for bugs, and randomly get scared and run to the other side of the yard is really very entertaining.
  4. Companionship – OK. This probably sounds so stupid, but our chickens love us and we love them! The girls will follow me throughout the yard wherever I go, and will run to us when they hear us coming outside. Our chickens are very tame and enjoy getting pet and held. I have caught Alex on a few occasions, just sitting with them, hand feeding them sunflower seeds.
  5. Compost – Chicken poop makes great compost! We have a little backyard compost bin that we toss all of their droppings and old straw in to make great fertilizer for my garden come spring!
  6. Education – We have learned so much about chickens since we started. We didn’t even begin to know it all, we just started and we are learning along the way! We learned how to care for a sick chicken, how to tell if one is sick, what foods they can eat, etc. It also teaches responsibility, just like any pet or animal. If we ever have children, it will be a great way to teach them responsibility (feeding, watering, gathering eggs).
Alex enjoying watching our little flock.

Most of all, we just really love having chickens. We may live in town, but we would love to someday live on an acreage and have a homestead. This is something we can do now (since our city allows it) to help our home feel more like a homestead. We are learning and building our skills so that someday, if we can have a big coop with 100 chickens then we know how to care for them!

The first dozen we sold.

I encourage you to check your local laws regarding backyard chickens, and if your city allows it, give it a try! We love ours and I think you will love it too!

Life

My “Why” – The Purpose Behind This Blog

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Blogging is something I have been interested in for a very long time. For a long time it seemed unreachable to have a successful blog. I had a feeling that success in blogging only comes to a few, lucky people who happen to stumble upon the opportunity at just the right time. Or only to those who are experts in one specific field. But me? No. I couldn’t be successful at it. I am mediocre at a lot of things. Baking, writing, nursing, homemaking. But I am not stellar at anything.

However, I was still so drawn to the idea of it. Sometimes things would happen in life and I would think “I wish I had a platform that I could write about this on.” So back in 2017 I took the plunge and I started this blog.

I had great intentions of making it into this beautiful, successful, money-making blog. But it was hard. I struggled to put the web pages together. To upload the photos, to figure out the technical part of it. I am not very tech savvy and by the time I had it all set up, I mainly just felt discouraged that it didn’t look like a super professional, established blog. (Which is crazy, of course.) And when I went to actually write posts, I had lost my inspiration. My good ideas. So I wrote a few posts and then fizzled out.

I tried to revive it again in 2019 and thought I would just write posts about anything I could think of. Then I thought “Who on earth wants to read what I have to say? Who is even interested in this? I’m no expert, I have no content to produce!” At this time, I was also getting married, and starting a life with my husband, raising a puppy, learning to care for a small flock of chickens, and doing tons of home renovations, all in addition to working full time. So I got busy and fell out of it again. But looking back, what great content I missed writing about!

So now, here I am again. In 2021 trying to save this blog once more. But now I have a better sense of my purpose for this blog. I have opened up about it to my husband, who fully supports and encourages me to go for it, whereas before I was self-conscious of sharing my blogging ideas with him. I have also decided to just blog about my daily life. My daily struggles. My Splendid Struggle. (Read more about the inspiration for my blog name here.) I’ve accepted the fact that I’m a beginner. My blog will look like a beginner made it. I am learning new things and I can blog about learning them! I don’t have to blog like I am an expert on the topic.

So basically, I wrote this really long post to tell you that I’m trying again. Starting over again. And I really hope that you will enjoy reading about what I’m learning, and doing, and making, and creating on this splendid struggle of life.

Faith, Life, Self-Improvement

2020 -My Hopes, Dreams, and Goals

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Don’t you love the feeling of a new year? Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE Christmas! I love the shopping, and baking, and decorations, and chaos that comes with Christmas. But once it’s all over, I love the new year.

The fresh start feeling. The clean feeling when you pack up all the Christmas decorations. (Mine are currently still up, including a Christmas tree that only has working lights on the bottom half of the tree!) Everything feels fresh and new. Not only the environment, but also my attitude and my motivation.

Don’t get me wrong, I often get WAY too ambitious in the new year resolve to do way too many things, as I addressed in last year’s new year post.

Last year, I said I just wanted to look back and be able to say I am a better person now than I was at the beginning of the year. As I look back, I can’t say for certain whether or not I achieved that goal. I had a lot of new and better experiences, for sure. I even developed better habits this year! Like fixing the bed every day and never sleeping in my makeup! But am I a better person? Do I love more? Am I more patient and considerate? Do I exhibit the fruit of the Spirit?

I don’t know.

But I do know what I want to strive for in 2020. I want to be known as a follower of Christ. I want people to be able to look at my life and see Him. I want to show love and compassion, patience, and goodness. I want to produce spiritual fruit. I want others to be energized and uplifted by being around me. My husband, my family, my friends, and my co-workers.

I want to be a better person, and I will do that by trying to be more like Jesus. In 2020, I want to be more intentional in my pursuit of Christ. To intentionally make time to spend reading His Word and praying.

Of course, I have goals to eat better, and save money. We have a lot of house projects on our 2020 to-do list. And I am really wanting to become more organized. However, out of all of these things, I hope and pray that this year my focus will not be on me. But that it will be on Christ and how I can be more like Him. And when I do that, I know all the other things will fall into place.

I hope you have a wonderful New Year. I would love to hear what goals you have for 2020!

Life

2019 – A Reflection on My Best Year Yet

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As I sit writing this post, I am in shock that 2019 has come to an end. What an incredibly fast year. 2019 happened in the blink of an eye, but it also brought me the best times of my entire life.

I can honestly say that 2019 was the best year of my life. Back in January, I finally launched this blog, which I had talked about doing for years. It’s obviously not much, but I’m so glad I did.

February brought one of the happiest days of my life when Alex proposed! The next several months flew by in a whirlwind of wedding planning and preparations. I was overwhelmed with the amount of love that was poured out to me with the showers, parties, gifts, and help from so many friends and family members.

July was here before we knew it, and we had a fairytale wedding day that was so beautiful, and special, and perfect in every way.

Our honeymoon in St. Maarten was probably the best trip I have ever been on. The perfect weather, wonderful resort, and great food were made even better by getting to spend an entire week with my new husband.

A high quality photo, I know.

In August we both started to learn a lot. We began to figure out how to live together and how to develop new routines. I learned how to wake up before 8:30 and Alex learned how to live with a crazy woman who loves to bake and is obsessed with the Iowa State Fair.

Our trip to Vermont in October was so much fun just relaxing with each other and enjoying God’s fall masterpieces.

Before we knew it, November was here bringing Alex’s birthday and Thanksgiving.

Now here we are on December 31st. My 28th birthday, while I whined and joked a lot about getting old and not wanting a birthday, was my best one yet. Our first Christmas married was a blast and our Christmas party was exhausting, but so much fun.

So as I look back onto 2019, I can honestly say it was the best year of my life. So much happiness, so much change, so many adventures, so much love. The best thing by far, better than all the trips and experiences, is spending every day with my best friend. Building a home and a life with him. I will forever look at 2019 as the most life-changing year. This year has brought me so much that I’m sad to see it go, but I am so excited to see what 2020 brings. Much love to you in the New Year.

Life

20 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Become a Nurse

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It’s nurse’s week. Happy Nurse’s Week to all my fellow nurses! For those of you who don’t know, I am a nurse and have been for 5 and a half years now. I can’t even believe it. Some days I think I’ve seen it all in my short 5 and half years, and other days I still feel like a newbie with a lot more to learn.

I have thought about this post a lot. I have thought about all the ways I could write it and express all my feelings and frustrations about being a nurse, and even now, as I begin to write, I don’t even know which way I’m going to go with it, so here goes.

Being a nurse has, by far, been the hardest thing I’ve done in my life thus far. It has been the most stressful thing. It has been the most physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting thing. Talk about a struggle. I’m really making this sound appealing, aren’t I? Well, it’s true. It’s also true that being a nurse isn’t for everyone, so I thought I would make up a list of reasons why you shouldn’t become a nurse. Here we go. Read the list all the way until the end.

  1. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to take care of 6 patients at a times, all of which are very ill and need you at the same time.
  2. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to take care of the 6 patients above and also have to be in charge of your unit. Which requires figuring out staffing assignments, helping your other staff nurses with their patients, being their resource, and dealing with management, administration, assigning admissions, and doing damage control with unhappy patients and families.
  3. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to find your patient passed away in his sleep and have to prepare his body for the morgue.
  4. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to see abused and neglected children get so injured, and then get discharged right back into the situation that they came from.
  5. Don’t become a nurse if you can’t stomach seeing a skull cap cut off to try to control a head bleed.
  6. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want surgeons to yell at you on a daily basis.
  7. Don’t become a nurse if you want to work in a fully staffed department. That’s not happening.
  8. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want your manager to question you on why you haven’t updated the white board when you just spent 12 overnight hours just trying to keep your patients alive.
  9. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to take work home with you. We all do.
  10. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to do CPR on a healthy 22 year old who got shot in the chest.
  11. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to cry with a patient’s family as they prepare to take their child off life support.
  12. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to see a 3 year old smile for the first time after their open heart surgery.
  13. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to watch a patient walk for the first time in 4 months since their car accident.
  14. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to celebrate with parents as their baby finally graduates from the NICU.
  15. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to feel the excitement of hearing “we got a pulse” after completing a code.
  16. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to see a baby take it’s first breath
  17. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t like to get handmade cards from your pediatric patients thanking you for your care.
  18. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to see your long term dialysis patient finally get a new kidney.
  19. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want to help a new mother breastfeed for the first time.
  20. Don’t become a nurse if you don’t want the satisfaction of saving a life after doing an emergency open heart surgery.

This list could go on and on and on. But my points is: don’t become a nurse if the second half of this list won’t make up for the things on the first half of the list. Because guess what? You’re going to get both. You’re going to get the long, hard hours. The loss. The frustration. The tears. The pain. The abuse. But you’ll also get the smiles. The gratefulness. The hugs. I would say that I get about one of those amazingly good days for every 5 of those painfully bad days. But I am still a nurse because it’s worth it. That one good day is worth all the other bad ones.

I didn’t intend for this post to be negative, I intended for it to be truthful and eye-opening. This nurse’s week, recognize the nurses around you realizing that they chose to become a nurse for the reasons on the latter half of this list. But they still have to face the reasons on the first half of the list every. single. day. And it’s hard. But we do it. Being a nurse has been my most Splendid Struggle yet. Happy Nurse’s Week!