It’s funny how often I look past the this soul-centering reminder right in front of my face.
Most often I miss it because I am rushing past it, simultaneously preoccupied by yesterday and worried about tomorrow.
The irony of it all.
~ C.A. ~

~ C.A.~
There is nothing like an early Autumn night…
~ C ~
Reflecting on this last week, it was one filled with some really positive wellness choices and gains.
It was filled with some great workouts, clean eating, self reflection time, my first acupuncture session, some much needed rest and time filled catching up with loved ones. I even had a much needed vision board session to help set some plans and goals as I head into this new season.
One wellness highlight for me this week came in the most unlikely place – the kickoff to the college football season. My husband and I are huge sports fans. Sitting down to watch college football games is one of the ways we connect and spend time together each fall. And these gamedays for us usually involve getting some takeout pizza or heading to a restaurant/bar to eat greasy tailgate-like food. Now although this is okay once in a while, this year I am just looking to reshape this gameday tradition for us. So I decided this past weekend to make a healthy and completely from scratch gameday meal (picture below). It turned out amazing and after I ate I didn’t feel like I had the itis or needed to go for a run. Creating healthy gameday meals is a tradition I very much look forward to this football season.
(Gameday Menu: The main dish was made-from-scratch organic turkey meatballs and tomato sauce created with vegetables from the farm. Dish was topped with organic cheese. Garlic lemon organic green beans was the side dish. To drink I exchanged my old favorite hard cider with my new favorite Kevita Apple Cider Vinegar Tonic. The whole thing turned out amazing. Definitely a wellness win for me this week.)
~ C ~
~ C ~
One of the things I have really embraced since my wellness journey began this year is going with the ebbs and flows of the process. Instead of getting frustrated that I fail to meet unrealistic expectations of doing everything and living perfectly healthy, I try to focus on doing a few things each day that I feel are important to me and giving myself grace on the rest.
In any given day I try to do a mix of the following:
I have really found this new system to be working well for me. I’ve been able to stay on track making positive decisions each day, while not worrying too much when I don’t get all the things done.
But I realized over this weekend, it’s so easy to get in an automatic routine in life doing the same things. I determined that I needed to regularly stop and look at the big picture with how I am doing in each area. Maybe I have not been eating as many vegetables as I would like or drinking enough water. Maybe I only did two workouts this week and my preferred is a minimum of 4 workout sessions each week. So I’ve instituted an end-of-week check in to review how I’ve done over the past week holistically. This allows me to review choices I’ve made, reflect on the total successes of the week and reset for the week ahead.
While over the past week I have done a great job taking in new information by listening to tons of podcasts and reorganizing some problem spots in my house, I have slacked in the areas of getting quality sleep and drinking lots of water each day. Those are just two of the areas that I will make a focus this upcoming week. In addition, I am anxious but very much looking forward to trying acupuncture for the first time this upcoming week.
I now have great joy about taking ownership my wellness journey. I just wrapped up my wellness check-in for the past week and I am ready for the week ahead.
~ C ~
Home.
I get a little emotional even at the thought of the word these days.
What once was so easily defined and felt, is now not so much. And as I grew older this concept increasingly and quickly became quite complicated.
Home, or at least as I knew it, was the place where my parents and brothers were, the structure filled with childhood memories that I grew up in, the place where my lifelong friends could be found, the place where our family spent holidays together, the small mountain town that was so familiar to me and the place I always knew I could go when life got hard. Yet the older I grew, the more and more my “home” seemed to be slipping away. And this fact has simply been heartbreaking to me.
I was struggling with this more than I wanted to admit and I didn’t quite know how to move forward. But through a discussion I had with a trusted counselor, it was if I found instant clarity.
What creates “home”. What defines “home”? When do I feel like I’m at “home”? I realized suddenly that our “homes” evolve as we do. As we grow, change and age so does our concept of “home”. And it has too. To only think of home in the past tense, of what it once was when I was a child, denies me any chance of creating a home today and in the future.
I have found that much of what I consider home is about emotions and feelings I had in that place. Happiness, safety, comfort, love, familiarity of tradition and sense of community are all feelings I can create. I realized that I am capable of in a single moment declaring my current house, my “home”.
I can create a beautiful space that brings peace to my heart. I can set up barriers to ensure a safe place to rest each night. I can build a space that welcomes family and friends, bringing with them comfort and love. I can create new traditions to usher in new memories. I can build an open space that fosters a sense of community which I choose to design. I can do all of these things in my current space, to create a home that meets me where I am in my journey in life.
So although I will still reminisce about the home that was once so near and dear to me, I look forward to building upon the little home my husband and I have created. They say home is where the heart is and my heart is open and ready for its new home.
~ C ~
Autumns Peak 