Rabbit, Rabbit. So they say. I might have forgotten to say it when I woke up this morning (I think my first words were, “Gooooooood Morning Roux Bayyyybeeeee”, so can you blame me?) but I figure if they are the first words on this blog for the month, that’s something.

I am a dedicated PLANNER person. The type of person that spends a little too much on a yearly planner in the hope that it will play the part of secretary, motivational coach, and confidante. The only real goal that I achieved in January (at least what my planner is telling me this morning) is getting back to reading. As an English teacher, the love of reading runs deep, but in the past it is the first thing to get bumped from my daily rituals. Between managing the Shirt Factory, the farm, the job, the relationships, etc – it was easier to fall into a heap of exhaustion on the coach at the end of a long day and binge reality smut. My sister and I set a goal – a simple one – of a book a month. While it seems too easy, I know that Roux’s naps are largely spent doing chores and Factory things, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to accomplish a book. But here I am, TWO books done on February 1st.

It’s like there has been a part of me missing for a long time – a piece of my soul that has been dormant, dying for someone to pick it off, dust it off, and show it some love. That’s what it felt like sitting by the fire night after night with a book in my hands. And for the last week, Scott has joined me each night – after we put Roux down, we race through chores and dinner just so we can find the blanket, curl up on the couch and read. This is the stuff of dreams.

I am reading again, but there is another piece of me that has been lying in wait, hoping for an opportunity to stretch and reawaken: the writer. For years I took to my keyboard to sort through heavy things, and when I met Scott we used the blog as a means to journal and record our adventures. All I have to do is sift through my archives to see, smell, and taste DC. Every glorious meal, every stroll through Alexandria to the market on Saturday morning- it’s all right there, post after post.

We did a fairly good job when we moved home, but I chalked that up to not having a job for the first year. What was I to do but write? And then the wedding came, a new job, buying the farm, and most especially – 4 years ago TODAY we took possession of Shirt Factory. Our life went from busy to chaotic, and the blog essentially was no more, minus a post here and there to surface and keep the domain fee worthwhile.

Thus, my February Challenge.

Every day this month, I am penning a post of something we have done but never recorded. There are 4 years worth of amazing dinners, epic trips, mini adventures around WNY (and beyond). Every day another place or thing we’ve loved, just never shared. The most upsetting part about abandoning this space is that we have welcomed the most incredible little person into our world, and very little lives here to document his first year with us.

It’s time to change.

Penning this blog started for us. Somewhere along the line it turned into our warehouse of influencer posts as it morphed into our dining guide to DC. And when it came time to move home and experience life on the farm, we lost track of why we started the blog, or how to even record our life if it wasn’t a slew of date night recaps. We just lost our way.

(For the record, we have several date nights from the last few years that require recording because they were that good…)

So it’s back to being about us, about the things we love, the places we love to visit. It will be about our son, our farm, our Factory. All the things that we dedicate time and attention, things into which we pour our heart and soul.

Welcome February. It’s time to write.


Btw, my planner? This stunner right here. And I have gotten it for the last three years and it is everything a human can need and more. No ads or sponsorship here, just personal love for the thing.