Happy Wednesday friends! First off, thank you for all the kind words welcoming me back to this space. It's funny to think how I wrote on here effortlessly for 2 years....over 500 posts and then just stopped. Life was "life-ing' then and I just could not find the time to sit and write consistently. 

But gosh it feels good to be back and I am excited for what this space can bring over the next year. 

Coming back here has been on my heart for a while so I have quite a few topics and things I want to share on here, but would love to hear from you what you would like to see. The internet is a popular place and I want to bring something different and that can add some value to you. Drop your ideas for posts in the comments section. 

I am hoping to share posts 3 days a week. Some weeks may be more and some may be less depending on how life is going, but my goal is 3 posts a week. And I will be sharing some daily life and lots of food and recipes over on Instagram so be sure to follow me over there. 

For those new here, I thought I would share a few things about me. ***Warning, this list is really random. 

I am 46 years old. 

I met Paul when I was 20. We got engaged 11 months later and married 13 months after that. We will celebrate our 24th anniversary this year. 

I love to ride a bike that is stationary or uphill. I will walk my bike before riding downhill. 

Growing up I wanted to be a pediatrician. That changed to a pharmacist. Spent exactly one year in pharmacy school, got a job at the mall and I have worked in the retail space ever since. 

My favorite job ever was as a Store Manager for Target. My first job was as a newspaper delivery girl.

I could not boil water when I got married. Paul cooked for us. 

I began watching Food Network, collecting cookbooks and fell in love with cooking. Now, my favorite place is in the kitchen. 

I am the oldest of 3 kids. 

I love chopping vegetables. It is very relaxing to me. 

I also love folding laundry. Like really love it! I don't love putting it away. 

I am a morning person through and through. I do not like to sleep in. If I sleep past 7am I feel like my day is half over. 

I used to own a gourmet cupcake bakery in our town. 

My favorite season is Summer. I could have 11 months of Summer and one month of Winter in December. 

My birthday is exactly one week before Christmas. 

I am not a big fan of TV. I like to watch live sports, but am not a binge watcher. 

I love binge reading on vacations. I will read like 4 books over a week vacation. 

I prefer to drive in silence. Most often I am almost to my destination before I realize there is no music on. 

I love a good theme party. Give me a reason for a fun costume and I am in!

I do not like getting manicures. I cannot sit there for that long to get my nails painted. I feel like I could be doing so much more. If I could drop my hands off and pick them up after that would be great- ha!

That being said, I almost always have my nails painted. I typically paint them every Sunday night. 

I loved running for most of my adult life (and in high school) and completed 5 half marathons. 

My knees don't love running as much anymore. I have found a local fitness studio and have fallen in love with spin class. As a bonus, the women that own the studio are amazing!

My kids are exactly 18 months apart, almost to the day. 

I had never really considered myself to be a dog person. Then we got a dog. She is always at my side and I can't imagine life without her. 

I do not like to type text. I use voice text for almost all my messages. 

I love concerts in the Summer. I love concerts in general, but outdoor Summer concerts are superior. 

I love gum. I always have it in my bag and my car. 

I think that's enough random facts for one post. 

As I was looking at some of my old posts, I found a few that shared why I started this little space. I linked them below for a little more about me. 

Why start a blog?

Why do I blog?

One Year Blogaversary

My first blog post

That's all for today. I'll be back later this week. 

There's always room for one more at our family table. 

xoxo

Genevieve

Coming Back.... with Two Goals for this Blog

 Well friends I am back. It has been 4 1/2 years since I last sat down to write a blog post. On one hand it seems like just yesterday and on the other it feels like a lifetime! A lot of life has happened over the last few years. I began working with a new company, I somehow have 2 kids in high school, we had some fun travel adventures, navigated through Covid and had a pretty significant health scare with Paul that rocked us. 

While a lot of life happened, the core of me and my little family is the same. I'm still juggling corporate life, being a wife & mom and still love finding myself in the kitchen.

The last post that I shared a family picture, we looked something like this. Ella had braces, the dog still looked like a puppy and Paul and I were the two tallest members of our family. 

Fast forward 4 1/2 years and this is us now. Paul, the dog & I have a little more gray, Ella lost her braces, Luke gained them and the kids have a lot more height!

I have been thinking about returning to this blog world for a while now. When I think about where I was when I started this in 2016 I feel like I was an OG influencer- sharing life and fun fashion finds. At times I wonder if I had stayed along with it, what would it be today? But that's not how it went, so we will start back with today. As I have journaled out my thoughts and dreams on what I want from this blog world, there are 2 goals that I have. One is really just about me, to "fill my creativity cup". I enjoy what I do in the corporate space, but I have a creative side to me whether it's around food, decorating, parties (I love a good theme!) or clothing. And I have missed this outlet to share some of that. 

My second goal is a bit bigger. I hope to inspire people that follow along to make simple changes in their lives so they can be the healthiest and best versions of themselves. Why? Well as I mentioned earlier in this post, Paul had a pretty significant health scare last Summer. My husband, a pretty healthy guy had a heart attack at age 51, an artery that was 100% blocked and had a stent put in. Fast forward to today, nearly 6 months later and he is feeling much better and has an amazing cardiology team that has him on a good path to a long & healthy life. 

More to come on how that all played out in a future post. But things like that sure put life in perspective. After we digested what happened, Paul and I have dug right in to learning all we can about our health and making sure we are doing the right things everyday, so we can be here in a healthy space for another 50 years.  One of the most shocking things to me is that heart disease is the number one cause of death in women in the US. 

Number One. 

More than any other disease or cancer out there. This was a wow moment for me. For me, I have heard so much about breast cancer or that smoking is bad, but not nearly as much about heart disease. And it's killing more women than anything else. When I tell you I was shook- I think I still am. 

Now, I am not a doctor or a health professional. You should partner with your own doctors on your health. But I have read a lot about some of the best practices to put in place to feel and live your best life, and I want to sprinkle that into my blog. If I can help one person think differently about how their lifestyle affects their heart health then I found success. 

So those are my goals. Have a creative outlet to share food, family, clothes and fun stuff and to try to help make more women & men aware of their heart health. It just so happens that as I was writing out thoughts to share around that second topic here, I heard a news story reminding me that February Women's Heart Health month. I mean what better timing to launch this into the blogworld, with February just a few days away?  That feels like a God wink that this is the right path. 

See you back here on Wednesday.... where there's always room for one more at our Family Table. 

xoxo

Genevieve