As the popular phrase goes, January was a long year but we finally made it to February! Last month brought a lot of hikes in the Gorge, cocktails, and just generally laying low after a busy holiday road show to Illinois and Texas. Looking forward to what February has to bring!

Ten things on my mind this month:

• The winter olympics start on Friday! Seeing that we had a baby born in the middle of the summer olympics las year, I am very excited to tune in and cheer on team USA with a happy and fat six month old baby who sleeps through the night. Last summer we caught glimpses here and there of what was happening, but in the end we pretty much missed all of the good events.
  
• My dad is coming to visit and spend time with us. I’m so excited to have him here. C will be traveling for work, so I’m extra thankful that my dad can be here to help with the kiddos. We plan on eating some tasty khao soi.

• Our first date night with a babysitter in Portland is happening!!! It’s been a looong two years of the pandemic, but we finally have a babysitter to use in our new city (can I say it’s new if we’re coming up on 2 years of living here?) and we are headed out for an early Valentine’s Day date before C leaves for his work trip. I can’t wait to sip cocktails and have a late dinner with him. Grabbing dinner here. Looks cozy and delicious.

• We’ve got a pretty busy month, but I’m hoping to squeeze at least one hike in the Gorge. I’m eyeing this one.

• I’ve been trying to get into a habit of more solidified rhythms and routines this year. I have always worked out consistently three times a week, but I’m attempting to make that happen each week on M/W/F as opposed to sporadic days throughout the week. I’ve also turned Thursdays into laundry days and Fridays into cleaning days before the weekend begins. Implementing these tweaks into my weeks has been weirdly satisfying!

• My next purchase is going to be one of these. I can’t be the only one who hates cleaning floors! Hoping this can save me time now that I have two little humans eating food and making messes on our floors all week long.

• Have you seen these ridiculously affordable but also very chic storage boxes?? They look so similar to Open Spaces storage, but a fraction of the cost. I’ve got my eye on them to do some major organization this month.

• Something we began doing this year was using an actual paper calendar. I wanted to be able to see the whole month. I felt like weeks were getting away from us, and suddenly another month would end and whatever it was that we meant to do (hike, house project, etc) wouldn’t happen. I’ve loved having the big, fun, and colorful calendar on our wall.

• This Force of Nature cleaner has, dare I say…. changed my life?? If you have little kids in your house, you need this! It is the easiest and safest way I’ve found to clean my house and kids’ toys. I truly can’t recommend it enough! I use an entire bottle a week to clean my entire home top to bottom.

• Perhaps the biggest thing on my mind this month is our trip to HAWAII!!! We booked this trip truly forever ago. It’s our first time and we are so SO excited. We plan on relaxing as much as one can when their kids are in tow. 🙂