Hello world!!!  Sara here.  Lately I have been feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Simultaneously, I’ve never felt so happy or more in love with everything and everyone!

All week long people have been telling me that I am radiating happiness and I am here for it!!!  #thankskelsey #thanksmichelle

About a week ago, I ordered and started writing in my Five Minute Journal…

What is The Five Minute Journal you ask…oh my gosh thank you for asking!!!  It is  a practice in gratitude.  It is a guided journal that you write in during the morning and evening.  You name things that you are grateful for, things that would make the day great and your mantra in the morning.  In the evening you reflect on what made the day amazing and what could have made it even better and you phrase everything in the positive…for example, if getting up earlier would have made my day better, I write, “I wake up before my alarm goes off.”

Now I am already a positive person, but putting things in such bright and powerful terms changes the way that you think and more importantly to me, the way I feel.  And writing down the same mantra everyday really helps you “fake it until you become it” as Amy Cuddy says!  Which by the way if you haven’t watched her TedTalk, it’s life changing!!!

The mantra that I write for myself every.single.day is:

I am healthy mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally.  I maintain healthy boundaries with myself and others.

There is something about this repetition and me writing it down that makes it feel so real.  I feel so healthy in so many ways.  I feel like I used to really struggle identifying, putting it to place and maintaining boundaries, but now saying that I do all of these things over and over again puts it in the forefront of my mind daily.

It has also changed the dialogue with my boyfriend, family, friends, co-workers and clients.  Since I am constantly thinking about what is going right in my life and what I am grateful for, I am putting good, geniune energy in to the world which is contagious.

Before when my boyfriend asked me how my day was, I might be tempted to start with the thing that was the least pleasant…which is also contagious.  Then we either: start a bitch fest which only leads to more toxicity in the air, or his positivity (he makes me look like a realist) would try and make it better by telling me “At least (fill in the blank) didn’t happen” which would only piss me off since it made me feel like he didn’t hear me or was devaluing my experience…which would lead to a fight or uncomfortable silence on my part, which would only make a bad day worse.

Now I tell him the best parts about my day and I feel like he rises to the challenge and tells me what made his day so great.  We have had an amazing week.  We are really spending quality time together and we both feel so grateful to have each other in our lives…guys, I’ve never been this in love before!!!

We’ve been going on all the dates, hanging out with my parents, going grocery shopping , cooking together and this week, making pinterest boards full of healthy desserts to try together.

This last one is for banana crunch cookies…to die for!!! 

(It wouldn’t let me paste the link separately haha I don’t know why…just click on the sentence above for this recipe!)

In fact, things have been going so well that we took a huge step this week and I met some of his kids!!! I couldn’t have been more nervous, but Ben is always great at reminding me that it doesn’t have to be perfect and you know what; everything went great! I built the pressure of this moment up so much in my mind that it felt really overwhelming, but it couldn’t have been more normal and adorable!  I am grateful and honored that he wanted me to meet them!!! #theyarethecutest #ilovehimsomuch#hopefullyIwillbelessshynexttime

I love continuing to go down this road and getting to know each other better and deeper and letting the love wash over us.

I’ve been super grateful at work!!!! I just love my work family so much!!!  I got to be a part of all the funnest classes this week, I got to see and learn from my old pal Nikki, dig deeper with my team, help stylists find their stride, celebrate the victories, I got to do amazing hair and bond with my clients even more, see my meatball…who could ask for anything more?!

I’ve felt so excited about my career and my weight loss that I’ve even been fine-tuning my own brand!

I’m just going to go full on crazy cat lady in this pinafore and I’m obsessed!!!

Another thing I’ve been super grateful for lately is my farm share from Split Acre Farm!

I feel so connected to nature, North Carolina, eating hyper local and supporting Joe and Lisbeth’s sustainable farm journey as they support my journey to health with their farm fresh produce.  I love opening a box each week and getting creative.  Using ingredients I’ve never tried before…this weeks box had green garlic in it and a recipe for green garlic dressing…tried it and loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is keeping me on my toes and keeping cooking interesting! Can’t wait to see what is coming this week! Here is the recipe from Joe and Lisbeth:

I also have never felt closer to or more in love with my family…which makes me burst with gratitude.  I have been called a “Pollyanna” or “Brown Noser” my whole life because of statements like this, but I couldn’t be being any more authentic to who I am.  This week we celebrated Chase the Great Turning Eight at Kanki…the Beard traditions continue!!!

The night was amazing…I ate as healthy as I could which basically means no rice My only regret…sitting so far away from my sister!!!! #hikelly

And we spent the night laughing and celebrating this sweet angel!

Chase is the sweetest, funnest, funniest, most loving snuggle bug of all times.  He is a taurus and he does what he wants and gives zero fox about it.

Just look at the face!!!! Happy birthday twinnie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family time means so much to me…so when I woke up too early Saturday morning, I reached out to my mom to see what she was up to.  We decided to have breakfast together on her porch with dad and I brought the coffee!!!

What a great way to start the day with the people I cherish.  Later we had a cookout and I brought my Split Acre Farm salad with Green Garlic Dressing!!!

Dad manned the grill, mom made the best potatoes and guacamole of life and we had a feast!

It helps tremendously when everyone is on the same healthy page.  We were stuffed. But we spent the rest of the night snuggling and talking about better communication and flowers!  My mom’s garden is giving me allllllllllllll the inspiration for my newly found green thumb!

After a full day spent together, they sent me home with some beautiful peonies…

Which I put outside on my front porch or as I am now referring to it as my secret garden.  I had breakfast out here this morning just to enjoy the view!

I’ve also had all the phone dates with Kelly, Katie and Jenny!!!  My world feels so happy and content!!!

I am grateful for so many things and my amazing life.  I couldn’t be happier and more at peace and I am more in love than I ever have been before.  I love you all and I’m so grateful you are taking this journey with us.  WE love you the most.

Xoxo