Well, it has been a while since we’ve had one of these life updates. I really enjoy(ed) writing them but life just got in the way and I couldn’t keep up along with everything else I needed to do.
A lot has changed for us personally and for the website since we last “talked” so here we are to chat again! 🙂
My last Life is Short Make it Count update was Nov 2017, so I’ll update what has happened since then.
The Website
Migration to WordPress from Squarespace
We’ve had some MAJORRRRR changes happening behind the scenes over here. This website started on Blogger in 2011. In 2013 we moved to Squarespace but it was very limiting and we needed to move to WordPress. That finally happened on April 2.
With a website this size (we have 7 years of content!), this isn’t a small undertaking and there are many things that can go wrong.
Over the next few months, I will be going into each post and updating them one by one. FUN. 😉 If you or someone you know is a virtual assistant AND knows SEO let me know because we may be looking for help.
We are trying to make the experience you have on here the best it can be. So far the site is organized better and it loads MUCH faster. We hope you enjoy it as we make some much-needed changes over the next few months.
Issues You May Notice:
There are still a few coding issues like links that aren’t working, random spaces in posts, and EXTRA large (obnoxious) pictures at the end of some posts. We know about these but have to go into each post to update manually. If you come across any broken links or you can’t find something you are looking for, please let us know. Also, I’m so sad to say that we lost ALL of our comments when we migrated over. We had a ton of great reader insight in our comments section. I’m still trying to find a fix for this but so far no luck. I still have access to the backend of our Squarespace site so I may screenshot the comments and add them here. I’m not quite sure yet but it’s no fun to lose that connection with readers from so long ago. 🙁
Videos
Have you noticed we’ve added a few videos? Scott was able to help with quite a few food videos over the winter to enhance our recipes. We really like doing these and hope to release a few more soon. So far we have videos for the following recipes:
- Clean & Simple Roasted Chicken
- Paleo Coleslaw
- Instant Pot Bison Chili
- Paleo Fried Pickles with Ranch Dipping Sauce
- Blueberry Burst Oatmeal Bake
Personal
We celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary on December 1, 2017. Here is our list of the 10 Things We’ve Learned in 10 Years of Marriage.
Travel
In December we went to Jackson, Wyoming again. We’ve been going there every year for the past 5 years because it’s so inexpensive for us. We usually go for a week for under $1,200 (INCLUDING hotel and flights from Atlanta). I will post about how we do that soon. If you are interested in Jackson you can read about winter activities here. Start planning your winter trip now. 😉
When we got back in town, we had our families over for Christmas and had a few uneventful weeks after that. It was a very cold winter here in Georgia so we spent most of the time inside working on the website.
We just returned from a trip to Arizona where we went hiking and watched a few Cubs Spring Training games. And, surprisingly, I already have those trip reports up for you to read (48 hours in Phoenix and a 4-day guide to northern Arizona)!
Aside from Scott going to California for work next week, we don’t have any major trips planned until July when we go to Vermont.
Hiking
One thing that I have actually done this year is to keep track of our hikes (it’s been on my to-do list every year since 2012 and I never do it!). These are the hikes that we travel to, not things like walking around the neighborhood. We hiked 65 miles in the first quarter of the year, most of those were from our trip to Arizona and the others are from Blood Mountain in north Georgia. The weather has been terrible here on the weekends (cold and rainy) so we haven’t even made it to the Smokies yet. 🙁
You can view pictures from our Arizona hikes here (Northern Arizona) and here (Phoenix, Arizona).
- 01/14/18 – Blood Mountain (GA) / 4.3 miles / 1,463 elevation gain
- 01/21/18 – Blood Mountain (GA) / 4.3 miles / 1,463 elevation gain
- 03/05/18 – Blood Mountain (GA) / 4.3 miles / 1,463 elevation gain
- 03/18/18 – Blood Mountain (GA) / 4.3 miles / 1,463 elevation gain
- 03/22/18 – Miners Needle Loop (AZ) / 9.1 miles / 1,300 elevation gain
- 03/23/18 – Camelback Mountain (AZ) / 2.6 miles / 1,200 elevation gain
- 03/24/18 – Bear Mountain (AZ) / 4.7 miles / 1,900 elevation gain
- 03/25/18 – South Kaibab to Bright Angel (AZ) / 17.6 miles / 4,900 elevation gain
- 03/26/18 – Lennox Crater/Lava Flow (AZ) / 2 miles / 250 elevation gain
- 03/27/18 – Devil’s Bridge (AZ) / 4.4 miles / 400 elevation gain
- 03/27/18 – Bell Trail (AZ) / 7.1 miles / 500 elevation gain
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Random
I started biting my nails again because of anxiety (which I will go into more in a separate post) and sought out a product to help make my nails stronger and discourage me from biting them. I decided on this OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener and it is AMAZING. It’s not cheap but it has worked wonders on my nails. Within a week they were actually growing again and looked so good so quickly I don’t even want to bite them anymore. Random, I know, but maybe it’ll help you. 😉 Ignore my cuticles…I still bite those (insert rolling eyes!).
We’re also loving the NOW Foods Seasonal Changes Balancing Essential Oils Kit. It’s less than $15 and includes 4 oils! We pair it with the NOW Respiratory Care Probiotic. For real, both seasonal game changers.
We have been enjoying the Detox Your Life Challenge that we started at the beginning of the year where we work on a different topic each month. It’s never too late to start. Join us!
Other than our trips and working a lot, not much has been going on over here.
As far as working out and food prep, I will be going into much more detail on this one in two personal posts I’m going to publish soon but let’s just say that we have drastically reduced the time we spend working out (especially cardio!). Stay tuned for MUCH more info on that and why we made that decision.
What have you been up to over the first quarter of the year? Time flies and barely moves at the same time, do you agree?
P.S. Cats are great. As usual…not much changes with them. 😉 Here’s Rambo (actually not acting like Rambo for once):
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