Adventures in Brussels Sprouts!

I'm a new found Brussels Sprouts fan and over the past month or so, I've tried three different ways of preparing them!

Check out my new blog over at wordpress to see which was my favorite!

Adventures in the Kitchen - Brussels Sprouts Mania!!

Don't forget to follow me over there as well! :-)

Movin' On Up!

I know I mentioned this on a previous post, but here is the official announcement!

I've finally decided to "move on up" from a Blogger based blog to a Wordpress based blog!

It was relatively smooth transition, but I'm really happy with the outcome! I'm really excited about some of the features Wordpress offers that Blogger does not, including replying to comments.

I hope that every single one of you (Google followers and Google Readers) to come on over and check out the new digs! Oh and don't forget to subscribe! I don't want to lose a single one of you! Let me know if you find any bugs or anything on any of the pages, cause it is definitely somewhat of a work in progress. Can't wait for you all to see it!

Here's the new address:

http://livingabrighterlife.wordpress.com

See you on the flip side!

Kindle Reads - The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts

Image Source: 5 Love Languages

I'm a new subscriber to the awesomeness that is Amazon Prime and one of the perks of the service (along with free 2 day shipping) is access to a large Kindle library online.Although it is in the early stages and is a bit hard to search through, I came across the book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary D. Chapman.

The book was an extremely easy read and quite interesting. It explained the five love languages in detail and how you can tell which one is yours and your spouse's. It discussed how we need to speak in the proper language that makes our significant other feel love and fill their "love tank". You may be expressing love in a way in which you partner really doesn't understand which can cause distance and dissension in a marriage. 

At first, I couldn't tell which was my primary love language as I thought that multiple love languages applied to me, so I took the test in the back of the book. It turns out that I was right. My primary love language is "Words of Affection", while I am bilingual in my secondary love languages of "Quality Time" and "Acts of Service". These second two were a close second which is why I included them. 

The Hubs's love language is Acts of Service, followed by Physical Touch. I'm going to try to be more diligent in trying to show my love in his language. This could include spontaenously making a dinner I know he loves, helping him with projects outside (I'm adverse to getting dirty and bugs, so this would definitely show him love!), or giving him a back rub without being asked.

The Hubs and I have a happy marriage, but I think that armed with this information we can make it even better. I know that if we both make the effort to speak in the other's love language that we will both so appreciate it and get the little butterfly feeling of first love for years down the road!

I would definitely recommend this book to others. It's an easy read with lots of good information for couples and singles alike!

Have you read The Five Love Languages? If so, did you find it helpful?

What is your love language and that of your spouse?

Starting 2012 Off Right!

Image Source: kabun

Hope everyone had an amazing New Years! Ours was extremely low key...dinner with the family and then home to watch The Change Up (hilarious!) and New Years' Rockin' Eve. New Years Day was spent cleaning up the holiday decorations and drowning myself a bit in computer time.

But on with my goals for 2012! Last year was the first year I consciously made an effort to make goals and put them out into the Universe (i.e. this blog) and it worked! I accomplished almost everything I set out to do!

So without further ado, here are my goals for an AWESOME 2012!

1.) Practice Yoga Regularly
I started to do this more regularly during the second half of this year and it has felt wonderful! The tricks to accomplish this goal include being willing to go to different gym locations in order to attend yoga classes, starting an at home practice, and/or investing in some sort of membership to a yoga studio.

I'm going to try to keep a note on my calendar of the days that I make it so I can track my progress.
2.) Read More
You can see on my Kindle Reads page that I read 15 books last year. I would like to try to read at least 20 books in 2012. On my must read list include:

Image Source: Amazon

Image Source: Amazon

3.) Unplug
This goal is for me as much as The Hubs. I'm going to commit to not checking my phone while talking to The Hubs. This has been one of my worst habits since getting a Smartphone. I'm constantly checking Twitter or my Google Reader or Facebook and I get distracted from whatever he is saying. It really annoys him!

One of my goals is blog related (see #4), so I'm not going to be able to unplug completely. My plan is to set aside an hour a day to do anything computer related. I'll discuss with The Hubs ahead of time so that perhaps he can pursue his own hobby (running or watching a horror movie on Netflix).

This is going to be one of the most difficult goals for me to tackle!

4.) Finish Projects
There are two projects that need to be finished in 2012 (at least for now...)!

The first is to make both sets of parents wedding albums. Two years and two months later and I still haven't done it! I need to make this a priority this year.

I've heard awesome things about Blurb, so I think I'm going to use that site to create my books.

Photo take by Peters Photography

The second project also involves wedding pictures. We have ZERO up in our house, ZERO printed out.
When I saw this small hallway picture project Katie over at Bower Power did, I just knew I needed to duplicate it!

Source: bowerpowerblog.com via Jen on Pinterest

So far I have one frame that's got nada in it. At least it's a start though!

5.) Blog

I have a couple of goals for this blog this year.

First, I'm in the process of transitioning over to Wordpress . The switch has been recommended by many and after seeing the smooth transition Amy over at Dandelion Paperweight had, I figured I would give it a shot. I'm still working on making the blog look the way I want it and adding a few things and I'll make sure to let you know when the move is complete, but you can already go ahead and update your Readers now since I plan on posting in both places during the transition. I hope you all will follow me over there as I think Wordpress will allow me to connect better with each and every one of you through easy comment replies!

Second, I'd like to put myself out there with the posts I write. I have about 7 posts regarding my journey so far in trying to conceive, but I just haven't hit publish yet. Perhaps I'll put myself out there even more and apply to be a recurring blogger on popular blog. Or maybe just a guest post here or there.

This blog has been such a wonderful outlet that I want to do my best to keep up with it the whole of 2012!

6.) Travel

This goal worked out for me last year with our trip to Seattle, so I hope it works again in 2012!

We already have trips planed to Vegas for Garth Brooks and San Luis Obisipo for my sister's graduation.

Image Source: disneybrent

If we can swing it though, I'd like to take one more trip, perhaps to Chicago! I've been wanting to go to Chicago forever to visit a friend from grad school. It looks like a beautiful city and I've heard wonderful things about it!

Image Source: jarek69 & evelyn

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I'm sure these goals may change and evolve as the year progresses (I may even get ambitious and make some new ones!), but for now this is a good start!

What are your goals for 2012??