Better late than never? September flew. For the last couple of days I’ve been trying to recall what all happened in September. We began our new rhythms of life. We made a couple of trips to Columbus first to Rogue for gym equipment and Mexican food. (Yes no amount of drive will keep me from finding Mexican food.)
Another Columbus trip took us back to Rogue, but we spent some time at a mall. A real mall. A mall that had stores I had access to in Indianapolis but are not in the Dayton area.
In September we shut down many extras and chose to spend that time with one another.
We also finished up moving out of our Indianapolis house and handing the keys over to the new owner.
Lots did happen in September. Here are a few of my favorite things I found/used and still love:
Gel Len nail polish
Honesty time: I struggle with feeling more masculine than feminine. My voice isn’t sweet and kind. My presence isn’t graceful like Jackie Kennedy. I come across as straight-forward and controlling. My macro missionary journey hasn’t helped this cause much, either. Yes I’ve lost weight. Yes I have more energy. But with that loss of fat, my body shape is changing. I have more defined body structure—and I’m wide. I’m a broad broad. My muscles show, yes, but so does the actual width and depth of my natural body. I’m learning to love myself for who I am, in this moment, not who I’m going to be or who I was.
Because I feel this masculine-ish thing, I’m being proactive. I’m doing little things to ensure I am reminded that masculine femininity is beautiful, too. Simply—I am beautiful. So I got my hair done. There’s nothing like a fresh bout of color on the hairs to make a gal feel confident. But I knew something else was missing. My nails.
Something about nails being polished, in my mind, makes femininity complete. When a woman’s nails are done, we notice. Our hands are everywhere. People see our hands. We see our hands so many times a day because of how much we use them. I didn’t want to waste money and time, okay mostly time, going to the salon to get my nails done. The amount of money I’d have spent on one session getting gel polish done, I was able to buy exactly what I needed and wanted to get started on my own. My nails aren’t perfect, but man they are pretty. And what’s more, I feel good about myself with them done.
These are the brands/items I bought to get started. Each picture is linked to Amazon via an affiliate link. All that means is if you choose to make a purchase I get a couple of cents back to help maintain this blog. At the time of this published post, there is a 5% off coupon on the color set and the UV light.
Lauren Daigle’s album Look up Child
Lauren’s music is unique. The DJ’s on Sirius/XM’s The Message said it last year about this time—They were discussing how they were eager for a new album. Then one said, “Lauren doesn’t need to turn around to make another album because all her songs hit platinum.” There’s a reason for this—she is a unique voice in our mainstream music culture. She preaches through song. Girlfriend is so wise beyond her years. Her voice and songs are those I hope we get to sing in Heaven. They’ll last forever. Whatever you listen to music on, get this album now. PS- It is free on Amazon Prime music right now.
Our homeschool group
It is so weird to say my favorite thing includes a homeschool group because there’s still a stigma attached to homeschool with some people in my life. These people the kids and I get to be around every week are so stinkin’ normal. We are all different, yet are the same. Some families are active duty and some are retired. We all come from different places in this beautiful country of ours and have access to all different perspectives. The kids and I are learning how no matter how different we are, we are all bound together by a similar lifestyle. We love the friendships we’ve begun.
The Sill
Early in my marriage, I thought I could grow plants. It turns out I had a nasty black thumb that killed anything green that was in my care. My husband had beautifully landscaped and managed our yard’s gardens so well. It looked easy. It wasn’t.
Growing plants is not easy. I wanted to grow beautiful things. I wanted to have a house that just oozed Grandma’s comfort. Daylan loves flowers. She loves plants. She loves all things beautiful. I wanted that, too. After reading Cultivate What Matters by Lara Casey, I decided to try again. Realizing my approach to growing beautiful things needed to be changed. I had to learn the connection of the dirt to the roots to the stem to the leaves. I had to learn the importance of nourishment needs for my plants.
When I look at my plants I see so much more now. I see that good and beautiful things begin their growth in the dark. What we see as beautiful on the top-side of the dirt actually has an intricate system hidden below that feeds, waters, and holds it steady. I learned that beauty takes work.
Local garden stores don’t keep plants all year round. I don’t understand that thought, but I found this store called The Sill. It’s an online store where you can order plants and they are delivered to you. The prices are very reasonable. They send you cards to tell you how to care for your specific plants. They also offer courses and support to help you learn to be a better plant parent.
My macro nutrition people.
In September I posted on social media a video of me doing chin ups—assisted. I, Danielle Hofer, can now do assisted chin ups. Never in my life have I ever been able to do them. Do you remember in elementary school and probably middle school when we had to take the Presidential Physical Challenge? Do they still do that? I could always do everything but the pull up/chin up part. It was humiliating and was a reminder of being so close but good enough, physically.
Thanks to my nutrition program people—following their nutrition recommendations for my specific body plus the workouts they prescribed for me, I was able to finally do chin ups assisted.
