Day 6: Podcasts

Do you listen to podcasts?

We've been getting into them a lot over the last year and have since become obsessed. We started with true crime ones, the obvious and popular options like Serial, S*Town, and Up & Vanished. Then we expanded our horizon and started listening to different ones that discuss topics like politics, relationships, and well-being.

There's something about the thousands of different options available out there that is both appealing and overwhelming to think about. We all have so much knowledge at our fingertips and we're can learn so much by just listening. The best part is, they have podcasts for literally EVERYTHING. Design, cooking, relationship advice, politics, pop culture, you name it. They've got it.

We like to listen to them the most when we're driving on long road trips. Last night we listened to a new one, The Wilderness, while running around the neighborhood just as the sun was going down and it was the perfect end to the day. We find them almost therapeutic at times. Do you have something like that?

So, here are the podcasts we're currently listening to, in case you'd like to know:

• The Wilderness- a brand new political podcast from President Obama's former speech writer Jon Favreau all about the Democratic party, from the history of it to how we can fix it going forward. Currently obsessed with this one.

• Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness- If you love Jonathan on Queer Eye, you're going to love his thoughtful and hilarious podcast, where he interviews someone new each week on a topic he's curious about that's equal parts informative and funny.

• Keep It!- Our favorite podcast right now and the reason we look forward to Wednesday mornings each week. Ira, Kara, and Louis discuss the week's pressing topics from pop culture to politics and everything in between. They're absolutely hilarious and make a lot of good points. Definitely one you'll become obsessed with.

• The Goop Podcast- You may or may not have heard of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle website that people either love or hate. Her podcast is more or less a reflection of that, and is mainly aimed at women, though we enjoy the ones that discuss health and well-being. You should check out the most recent episode where GP interviews Janet Mock about growing up as trans and becoming a role model. 

• OnBeing- A very popular and long-running podcast. We love going through the archives and listening to old episodes (it's been on FOREVER) because there's something for just about everyone here. Host Krista Tippett is always so prepared when she interviews her guests and always so invested in what they're saying. Also, her voice is like velvet, so if anything you should listen because it's the most comforting and thoughtful sound ever. We're not kidding.

• Fresh Air- a political podcast from NPR that's worth listening to to stay up to date on politics and what's happening around the world. 

• Relationships, Sex, Dating and Marriage Advice- To be honest we've only listened to one of these and it's so eye opening. If you're going to start with this one, listen to the January 31st episode called "I'm Right, And You're Wrong". AHHH cannot recommend this one enough!

• Stuff You Should Know- Literally about random stuff that they think you should know about. The one we're currently listening to? How Twinkies work. What a time to be alive!

What podcasts are you listening to? We would love to add some new ones to the list! 

Day 5: Letters

We went to our PO Box today and opened it to find FOUR letters from you guys!

You don't know how much it makes our day to hear from y'all and to learn your backgrounds and read where you came from, your struggles and triumphs and what you've gone through. And not just the rough, hard to talk about stuff, but also the good stuff. How you and your significant other are doing, the things that make y'all happy, invitations to your special events. 

We don't say it enough, but it means the world that you're here with us. When we started our Instagram account a few years ago, it was mostly about renovating our 1950's ranch house we had just moved into, along with some pictures of us documenting our relationship so we had something fun to look back on in the future. Then, once we started talking to you and meeting new friends on the app, to us it became more about community, about meeting people who know what it's like to feel different than all of your friends growing up, or feeling like you can't be your true self because you're from a small, southern town and other people there just wouldn't get it.

The point is, we're so grateful to be able to connect with people all over the world who are like us, but also who are different from us. It's a beautiful learning and we're so much better because of y'all. We hope to meet and connect with even more people in the future, but for now, we hope you've had a wonderful Tuesday. We'll see you back here tomorrow night!

xx

Day 4: Instagram vs. Real Life

It’s thundering and pouring down rain outside right now which is our best night ever but we thought the below was pretty funny. Do you know what movie the first picture is from? Hint: we get a lot of inspo from her movies and this one is one of our favorites!

The bottom photo is our room and the top is from It’s Complicated, one of our favorite movies by Nancy Meyers and stars Meryl Streep & Alec Baldwin. Have you seen it? Like all of Nancy Meyers’ films, it’s filled with gorgeous, creamy white interiors and a storyline that always works out in the end. Such a feel good movie. If nothing else, you should check it out for the set design!! 

We were joking today that the bedroom from the movie set is what it would look like on Instagram, all done up and staged to perfection, while our room is more what real life looks like 😂. In all seriousness though, we’re completely happy with our bedroom at the moment and obviously the set design of that movie was a big inspiration for us, but it’s still fun to notice how similar they are, right down to the door placement (which wasn’t planned). 

Hope your day was well, friend. See you tomorrow xx.  

(Above photo via here)

Day 3: Floating Down the River

Okay we totally forgot to take a picture of what we actually did for day 3 of the challenger so here’s a picture of yesterday morning when the sun was pouring into the living room giving us all the grateful feels for a world where Sunday mornings look like this. 😊 Moving on.

It’s mid July and yesterday was the first time we’ve floated down the river all year. We’ve been meaning to go for a while, ever since we’ve had our land and since it’s been warm enough, but we’ve been traveling so much the last two months that we haven’t made time to go. So, we ordered some tubes online, blew them up, packed a cooler, and headed out to the land with Thomas’ mom and our friend Golden to finally take advantage of the river that we live so close to. 

 We loaded up two cars and drove one to our land and parked it, and then drove a little ways up the river to the “put in” spot and parked the other car. All four of us connected our tubes together and just floated down the river and it was so relaxing. The water was freezing but the weather was hot and it had us wondering what took us so long do to this?! Why hadn’t we made time to just spend time in nature and enjoy each other’s company? One of the things we promised ourselves that we were going to do now that we’re home for a while is spend more time with friends and family so yesterday felt good. It just felt right. 

If you haven’t spent some time in nature recently, highly recommend doing so, though preferably somewhere near water, especially if it’s as hot where you are as it is here. It was neat to be able to just get out at our land (since it’s on the river) and dry off and head home. Can’t wait to get the cottages and venue up and running so we can spend more time out there!

Anyway, that’s all for today. Hope you were able to find the beauty in your day, too. xx

Day 2: Cook

Do you cook a lot at home?

Ever since we found out Thomas has high cholesterol, we've been trying to cook and eat healthy more and more. It's not always easy (read: never easy) for us to cook at home because, let's just be honest, laziness, so it's something we're constantly working on.

Thomas' sister Amy got us this book last year called Cook: Visualize The Perfect Plate, and tonight we broke it out. Have you heard of it? It's filled with the most beautiful photos of meals and ingredients and it breaks down every step so it's actually really easy to make the recipes. There are so many gorgeous recipes and we can't wait to try them all, but for tonight we tried one and it was so good!!

On the menu for tonight was ratatouille! Loved the movie, but we don't know if we've ever had the dish before. It's basically a bunch of different vegetables dumped into a pot with olive oil and garlic and then it's dinner. Some people use noodles and make it a pasta but this recipe didn't call for that. 

How pretty are all the ingredients laid out? This dish is big on taste and especially big on color. 

And it's pretty healthy, too. No added salt or sugar. Just fresh veggies all mixed together for a quick and tasty meal. If you want the recipe for yourself, check it out below:

And here's how ours turned out:

It's definitely prettier before it's cooked, but the taste is delish. PJ added parmesan to his for garnish. Yum. So that's that! Have you had ratatouille before? We'll definitely be making this again, probably for a bigger group of people, though. #leftovers

See you tomorrow. xx

UPDATE: PJ made his into a pizza 😂 

Day 1: Husbands Who Make The Bed

Well here we are. Day one out of 30 of acknowledging the most beautiful part about our day.

We're actually really looking forward to this. Is it sad to see it as a challenge? Besides blogging every day for 30 days straight (which is a challenge in itself), shouldn't we already just be able to see the beauty in each day? 

So let's get right to it. The most beautiful thing about our day, at least the one most worth mentioning, has to do with husbands who make the bed. Funny enough, it also captures our different personalities perfectly. Thomas took the picture below because he felt like it accurately shows what the feeling of the end of a long week looks like: messy, all over the place, and knowing you wouldn't want to be anywhere else than in your comfy, cozy bed. 

Thomas was picking up around the house when he came back in the room about an hour later and saw the bed was made. Not perfectly, but it was noticeably neater than before, just the way PJ likes it. See what we mean? Thomas is always go with the flow, and PJ is so structured , always wanting things to look their best, which neither of us are complaining about. A made bed is such a treat at the end of the night to us. Pulling the covers back, hopping into bed after a long day. Bonus points if they're freshly cleaned, out of the dryer sheets!

So A+ for all you husbands (and wives! and partners!) out there who make the bed every day. It is always appreciated, especially at the end of a somewhat hectic week. It can't be overstated enough. 

Hope you had a good week! xx

A Fun 30 Day Challenge

Life can be hard. 

We know this. You know this. It's just how it is.

But life is also beautiful. And spontaneous. And crazy. And surprising. And wonderful. And unexpected. It's so many things each and every day but it's easy to overlook those things, especially when dealing with everything we all have on our plates. Oh, life is also overwhelming, too. Did we mention that one?

So, because life is not perfect, and it's sometimes hard to see the good in it, we want to celebrate the beauty in each day. We want to acknowledge the things that make it wonderful instead of focusing on the negative. What was the most beautiful part of your day? How did you celebrate it? Was it something big or small? Did you tell anybody or keep it to yourself? 

To celebrate the beauty in each day, we are going to write the most beautiful thing about our day right here, every day, for 30 days straight.

They say that if you do anything for 30 days it sticks, so we're hoping we can see the good that life has to offer if we document it. And if we do it here, there's some accountability, right? You guys will hold us accountable, won't you? In any event, we think it will be good for us to publicly write it down so that we can look back on this time in our life in a few years. Do you ever do that? on Instagram or Facebook? It's kind of scary/hilarious/cringy. Ah, the internet.

So that's the challenge. Or maybe it's an experiment? Whatever it is we're up for it and can't wait to get started. If you want, you can check back in every day for the next 30 days to see the most beautiful part of our day. We know life isn't perfect and we don't pretend ours is, and every day is going to present challenges and maybe some days it will be hard to find the good. But by focusing on the beauty more, maybe something will stick.

 Won't you join us in this challenge? 

Home Again, For a While

We are back home from Mexico! We went to Playa del Carmen for five days with some of our best friends all thanks to HotelTonight, a really cool and convenient app that allows you to book last minute hotel rooms for cheap prices. 

It feels somewhat weird calling them some of our best friends since we all met on Instagram and have only seen each other a handful of times, (some we met for the first time in Mexico!) but it's true. We have all grown close in a short amount of time and we're so grateful for their friendship. Stay tuned for a vlog of the entire trip! 

We have been traveling so much the last two months and we've had the time of our lives, honestly. We told ourselves this year was the year of travel and so far we've been fortunate enough to be able to go all over, making new friends along the way. However, once we walked through our front door last night and felt the overwhelmingly good feeling of FINALLY being home, we couldn't help but feel so thankful that we don't have anything planned for a while. However, we DO plan to spend more time with family, clean the whole house, rearrange some things, cook more (all of this traveling = not eating so great), and possibly starting a mini renovation on a room at home.

As of right now we have a couple trips planned in September, October, and November, so we're going to enjoy the down time in the next few months. You know home is our happy place. It's where we can be ourselves, watch whatever we want, eat whatever we want, and spend endless amounts of time figuring out our next design project. There’s no place else we’d rather be.

It feels good to be home, doesn't it?