staying real : you will still sleep tonight if you don’t read this [part III]

Oh, readers…

It’s time!

Time for installment numero tres of your favorite post genre and mine…

You Will Still Sleep Tonight If You Don’t Read This!

It’s going to be a good one. Good being a relative term.

• I’m sorry for the relative silence on the blog over the past week or so. It was 50% due to visiting home and the ‘rents and 50% due to being completely whacked out on cold medicine. I took a mix-and-match approach which didn’t really benefit the cold or my mental capacities, but may explain the following:
• The other night I had a dream that I was wearing the new Nike gloves for the new NFL uniforms. I think that means I miss football. Last night I had a dream that I fell down a rocky ledge and into a river. While wearing a sequined fish costume. I think that means I need professional help.
• I don’t even want to tell you how many discs episodes of Gilmore Girls I watched over the weekend while doing 8,000 to-do tasks I had been neglecting to-do.
• I did take two breaks to put something different in the DVD player: Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred and No More Trouble Zones…which would really be more appropriately titled “No More Zones” since that’s usually what I feel like when I’m finished.
• I’m withholding really exciting information from you because the whole brain-to-keyboard connection hasn’t really been firing all that well lately (exhibit A: um, this) and I can’t get the post started.
• Wegmans is now selling Theo Cacao Nibs. Expect a full post coming soon – another grocery bag post! I love those!
• That’s not the really exiting information.
• Well, it is if you’re me.
• Last I checked Rochester was the homicide capital of New York State. But clearly, my vehicle being parked on the wrong side of the street slightly an hour past curfew is the bigger problem here.
• Of course, I could just remember to move my car. But let’s be real here.
• Moral of the story: if you’re looking for a charity to donate to, may I suggest my always-necessary Parking Ticket Fund?

And on that note…check back tomorrow for TWO installments of Inspired! See you then!

beka stays : ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

(For all of you fancy RSS and email subscribers, this post will only make sense if you visit the actual blog site. I encourage you to relocate there promptly. Ready…go!)

Public Service Announcement #1: I gave the blog a new coat of paint this morning! It may seem contradictory to the cause of staying consistent…but read on! There’s a revelation tucked into this post!

So, backstory which is not actually exciting or informative but which I will tell you all about anyways: I never really loved my old theme. I didn’t love the lack of sidebars which caused all of the menus and links to get shoved to the bottom. I didn’t love that EVERYTHING WAS IN CAPS because I’m more of a lowercase personality. And I really, oh so really, didn’t love the font. It pained me. (It’s nothing personal, old theme. Just irreconcilable differences.)

I decided to stick with the theme though because hey, that’s what I’m trying to do in life right now. So why not stick with a blog design? Why not be consistent in one thing in an effort to be consistent in all things? Am I right?! Am I right?!?!?!

Well…no.

Because sticking with something you don’t like just to stick with it even though there are better options that you actually do like is just stupid.

[Aside: That may be the biggest lesson I've learned from this whole staying endeavor thus far. It has major implications for other areas of life that are much weightier than blog design. (Thank you, Lauren, for helping this epiphany come to fruition over granola bars and brussels sprouts!) But deciding that it's ok to not stay after you've made the commitment to stay is challenging. It's like being on a diet and switching to maintenance: it's hard to convince yourself that it's ok to have a brownie after you've been eating asparagus for 3 weeks. Does that make sense? I wasn't intending on this tangent...but it's TRUE! Oh, so true.]

SO…with that in mind, I decided to make the change!

And I’m so glad I did.

I LOVE THIS BLOG!!!

(I’m glad I’m really driving home the evidence that clearly, I’m a lowercase personality.)

Mini tour:

• I had to keep the smore’s header. It’s like my thesis statement for life.
• I also wanted to keep the light blue background. It just looked so wintery and clean and I just loved it…but now with added texture and layers I love it even more! Be on the lookout for the colors to change seasonally. (Also love having that option.)
• No more top line clutter! It’s simply an about page, a staying page which contains all of the top ten goals pages, and a resources page.
• If you’ll look to your right, you’ll see SO MANY WONDERFUL THINGS! (Again with the CAPS. Maybe I was wrong about THIS.)

1. A mini welcome center. I want you to make yourself at home!
2. A list of all of the staying goals with links to their definitions
3. A search bar so you can quickly find old posts
4. Links to other places you can find me on the interwebs
5. A cloud of frequently discussed topics (frequency indicated by size…I love it that pinterest, food, and football are the biggest ones…)
6. Twitter feed! Love having this on the sidebar now!
7. Follow button for Pinterest…also love having this on the sidebar!
8. Archives organized by month

• Then, on the bottom, is everything you need to follow along! There’s an RSS feed link and a button for email subscriptions.
• As for the actual posts…I could not be more enamored with the new layout. Love the font, love the little quote box that shows comment counts, love the “posted in” and “tagged” list in the footer…LOVE IT ALL!

So, moral of the story: don’t stay just for the sake of staying. Lesson learned, and learned in such a pretty way! Hope you all like the new design as much as I do!

Public Service Announcement #2: For some reason the Packers loss stings much more this morning than it did last night. Perhaps it’s because I’m listening to Mike and Mike and the only thing anyone can talk about is how HORRIBLE the Packers are. Um, that wasn’t your tune a few weeks ago, folks. I understand they stunk up the field last night, but all around, this is still an exceptional team. BACK OFF THE PACK.

(I think we can conclude that in the stages of grief I’ve moved right along from denial to anger.)

Public Service Announcement #3: APPARENTLY I’M A CAPS PERSON. Who knew. Things you learn by blogging: Lesson No. 948.

inspired : 10.23.11

love these reflections from carpool queen

i think i might turn into a pumpkin soon…but i still want to make this

and these

starting to get excited for thanksgiving!

do the crazy thing

i really love big mama’s blog

the real life of a food blogger

the packers. the 7-0 packers. the headed into a bye week as the only undefeated team packers. (OH MY WORD.)

and, most of all, 15 points in the last 3 minutes to force overtime for the eventual win. it doesn’t get more inspiring than that. go tim go!

pin of the week:

pinned here