not necessarily in this order

This is a bit of a sad one (pet loss and feelings), so please skip if that’s what serves you best right now! This week, we mostly unexpectedly* lost Bella, our 12-year-old Maltese Yorkshire Terrier mix.  *  “mostly unexpectedly” because Bella was part of the senior population of pups and had some health challenges, but ones we’d thought were more of a “in the next year or so” conversation… Bella was my parents’. Right after I had Lil Momma, they decided to get another dog and no matter how I begged them to get an old and slow dog for their older and slower years, my dad took one look at a Morkie puppy and that was the end of that.  They called her “Bella from Hella” because she was such a handful, especially after we lost my dad. She ate baby LM’s socks, bit all of us, and tripped my mom multiple times. I tried to get Mom to work with a trainer, but she somehow ended up with a pet psychic who would tell us how Bella communed with my dad and wanted more respect around the ...

In a season where baby steps and consistency are the name of the game, I’ve had trouble seeing wins because of everything I feel like I should be doing. I should be doing all the strength workouts and moderate intensity cardio and protein and fiber and, and, and… I should be done with this Estate and my house should be declutterred and read more and better and, and, and… I should be making more intentional memories and traditions before Lil Momma goes off into the world in like 5 years and my own Estate planning and what do I want to do with my one wild and precious life and, and, and… All of that in my head at all times AND how I very much know habits are built brick by brick and jumping ahead because of the noise in my head is why I crash and burn, alongside this darn “ avoid/procrastinate if it can’t be perfect ” vibe that’s more than a little exhausting. I’ve been encouraged to try and lean into things that make me uncomfortable in this season of life, so I decided one “experime...