I've been quiet around here lately. I needed some space to explore life without our sweet Oakley girl. I needed some extra space in my schedule to grieve, rest, and begin to look ahead. Things have been crazy these past few weeks. I thought I'd pop on here and share a few of the things that I've been loving and what I've been up to lately.

What I've Been Up To Lately

READING Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero. This book is a tough read. It's a really challenging read, but it's proven worth it. I highly encourage reading it and taking your time with the material. I've been reading a chapter a week for the past 7 weeks. I have one chapter to go, but I'm so glad I chose to read it this way rather than read it all at once. That would have been way too much to process. I'm excited to finish reading it and go back through to dig even deeper into some of the topics it covers.VISITED the Houston Zoo for the first time in a long time in early April. Rick and I went with some friends that were down from Michigan. I forgot how much I love the zoo from seeing the animals and all the lush foliage. It was weird without my dad. They've changed things at the zoo since I'd been there last. I really enjoyed it.ENJOYED a quick little road trip to Austin with my mom for the Happy Hour Live with Jamie Ivey event. It felt a little surreal to finally be at one after wanting to go for so long and listening to so many of Jamie's podcasts. The atmosphere, food and people were so delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed Jamie's chat with Kat Harris and Lisa Whittle. It was a really good balance of serious and comical. I'm looking forward to the next one already! Jamie posted a little recap video that I'm posting below so you can see for yourself.

What I've Been Loving Lately

BASKING in the sun. Well, really, Scout basking in the sun. She's full of such joy with a huge ridiculous grin on her face as she rolls around in the backyard grass.PLANNING all my summer festivities with my Happy Planner. I just bought my second one last week. I now have a classic planner for planning out all the things I've got to get done each week. My new one is more of a scrapbook/memory journal, which I'm super excited to get some free time to print pictures and start getting it together. I'm currently using all the stickers I can from this pack and loving the colors in this washi tape. I've also got my eye on this beautiful washi tape and this sticker pack to buy next.WISHING there was a ton of these Damak fine chocolate bars with pistachios. So extremely tasty! I just added a case of these to my Christmas List. (Yes, in May!)GUFFAWING at all the failures on this new Netflix baking show, Nailed It. Y'all know I love a good baking show, so Nailed It on Netflix clearly grabbed my interest. I honestly, kind of felt like it'd be too kitschy and a bit of a train wreck. I'm so glad that it proved me wrong, because I could not stop laughing at the fails.