It’s almost my birthday month! I can’t wait to catch up with you and share what I’ve been doing during the month of January, which seems like it’s five years long.

But before we get into it, can I ask you for a favor?

My business supports a little girl in Haiti, and in honor of my birthday, I’m collecting extra donations for her. If you’d like to give, please click here to send me a Venmo donation. Just leave a note saying it’s for her, and I’ll apply your full donation towards what I already give. I sponsor her through Compassion International, so if you’d like to do your own homework before donating, click here to see their about section.

What I’ve Been Up To:

January is an amazing month to recalibrate. I took some time off at the beginning of the month as we closed out the holidays. I’ve been doing lots of reading for fun.

I worked with 62 Soaps to trade for stock photos. I loved meeting Danielle, and I can’t believe how incredibly talented she is. As you can see above, she even hand pipes soap; I didn’t even know that was a possibility!

I also decided to join a special group that’s like a mix of mastermind and group coaching. I’m so excited, and a little terrified, to get more specific feedback as well as grow personally.

Dillon and I do marriage and life coaching with Julia Woods, who owns the company Beautiful Outcome. I’m not working with Julia for business coaching, but what I am doing is similar. I know the benefits of coaching, and I’m ready to experience similar growth in my business.

I also worked with the Layla Lynn Bober Memorial Foundation to photograph their Annual Kids Gala. They do amazing work donating to several organizations in our town, and I loved being able to give back to them as they support kids in our community.

What I’ve Been Reading:

I’ve just started reading Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. I’m barely in it, so I can’t give an opinion on it. I do post my book reviews to Goodreads and I share them on my Instagram each month!

So stay tuned!

My favorite read from this month is Better Than Revenge by Kasie West. It’s a YA romance where the protagonist, Finley, sees her dreams crumble when her boyfriend, Jensen, takes a podcasting host role she’s been working towards for years. So, she decides to partner up with Jensen’s rival, Theo, to get back at Jensen. Despite having a through line of revenge, this is the cutest story ever, and it would be a fun read for Valentine’s Day!

I’ve loved Kasie West’s work for a long time, and she’s also debuting first adult romance later this year. I simply might pass away because I’m in love with her YA work, so I can’t wait to see her growth!

What I’ve Been Watching:

I just finished The Perfect Couple on Netflix. Truthfully, I didn’t love it, and I’m not surprised. This will be an unpopular opinion, but since the show is based on an Elin Hilderbrand novel, I can see why it lacks depth. I think she’s a fluffy writer. Netflix should’ve fixed the problems, and they didn’t.

The show is great background noise, though. The people are gorgeous, and it’s fun to see a story taking place in Nantucket. I just don’t think it will be memorable, and I think the ending is disappointing.

What I’m Looking Forward To:

This part always gets me excited for the coming month! I’m excited for:

-A women’s event at my church. One of our members will be teaching a cooking class on how to prepare Korean food. I can’t wait for this one! It will be fun to hang out with friends, and adding in good food just makes it even better!

-The Super Bowl. Even though I’m not a fan of either team playing, I do always love watching the game. I like having an opinion on the ridiculous commercials and the half time show. I like the food, too! There might be a theme to this month, haha!

-Valentine’s Day. We aren’t super big into Valentine’s Day, but I like doing a few things with the kids and grabbing dinner with Dillon.

-My birthday! I’m so grateful for another year of life. I’ve been reminded several times in this last year how precious life is, and I’m so glad for the blessing of being here. I’m also doing float therapy for the first time, and I’m so excited! I’ve wanted to do this since high school, so I’m finally making it happen.

And for now, that’s all. Thanks for following along with me.

Until next time,

Christine