Life at a "Swell's" pace

Hello.

Here are five things this week.

1. This View.

A lovely view of downtown Portland, Oregon, we took on our way back from purchasing our Thomas school bus. You can follow along with our conversion progress at the link of the top of the blog, or by clicking here. We are thrilled to share the ups and downs of our skoolie progress.

2. These Scones.

We've been eating scones every morning this week and enjoying whipped cream and cream cheese frosting on top. Although I added the blueberries, and mixed the topping, the scone mix and cream cheese icing can be snagged below. Click the image of the scone mix and the frosting.

(All I did for the scone mix was add half a bag of organic, frozen blueberries to the mix and bake. For the whipped cream cheese frosting, stir the frosting to make it fluffy and then fold in the whipped cream. Add to the top of the scones once they are cooled.)

3. These Turkeys.

These turkeys are sort of "famous" in this city. They have literally covered the entire city from north to south and keep multiplying. This is the first time I've seen them on the main street through the city, but mostly everyone leaves them alone. They've shown up in front of our house a few times pecking at the grass, but end up moving along pretty quickly.

4. These Brushes.

I recently made a trip into the Dollar Store here in our city, because I haven't been inside the store in awhile. Skylar took off to the toy section and I headed down the makeup/bath/body area. A lot of the makeup in the Dollar Store is cheaply made, but every once in awhile we find some winners. These makeup brushes were the winner for this trip. They are actually made well and I've already used them a few times to see how my sensitive skin would handle the bristles. No breakouts and less friction and pressure on my skin. They are a plus, in my opinion. Although the ones above are sold out, here are some similar that are a bit more pricey, but contains the exact same shaped contour brushes as pictured above.

5. These Boxes.

Kiwi Eco Box and Kinder Beauty, two of my current favorite subscription boxes. I love that the Kiwi Eco Box came with a seed calendar and I love that the Kinder Beauty box came with cream blush and face mask. This time of year it's important to keep the skin hydrated and I love that the Kinder Beauty box contains all cruelty-free products. You can snag the Kiwi Eco Box here and the Kinder Beauty box here.

Positive affirmations this week:

Some days I wake up and I'm overwhelmed with a spike of PTSD, depression, or a sense of sadness. I end up on those days laying in bed and crying. Not just tears, but a full on cry that actually hurts to let out. Some of those days I cry for almost an hour. I end up feeling the reason of why I am actually having that moment. My PTSD and depression seem to go hand in hand. I wasn't born with depression, or anxiety, but life sort of dealt that hand to me throughout my life. After the hard cry I got up, took a shower, got dressed, put on make up, ran several errands, baked some cookies with Skylar, made dinner, went for a walk, and the day seemed to correct itself and ended up being an alright day. Either a correction, or a moment that I gave to myself when I needed it. No one was there to comfort me during that moment, but I got through it. There is no shame in having those bad days. There's no shame in crying. There's absolutely no shame in having rough starts to your day. We deal with it, we press on, and we heal. We can do this!

Have a nice weekend.

Hello.

Here are five things this week.

1. This Wreath.

This wreath has been many years in the making. We always pick up a few "treasures" when we go certain places and over time I wasn't sure what to do with them all, until the wreath. I shove whatever it is we found right into the wreath. It has changed so much over the years and right now I really like how it all fits together. I'm sure it will continue to transform as the years go on, and it will always be special to us. We call it our foraging wreath.

2. This Kid.

Skylar had his first week of work and the above pictures are of his first day. I took him to work and we had a good talk in the car about growing up and having to deal with the public. It makes me sad to know that my little boy is now 18, has a job, and graduating high school this year. His first week went well and he is looking forward to growing and learning from AutoZone. Working with the public is tough, but it's a good stepping stone of a job.

3. This Movie.

We went to the movie theater to watch the new Scream movie. I am a huge horror fan, and a huge Scream fan, but this one fell short for me. It followed the Scream movie line and a lot of the main characters were seen throughout the movie, but something was missing for me. I enjoyed the movie overall, but definitely save your movie and wait to see this one once it's out of the theaters.

4. These Masks.

We switched up our mask game this week and changed out our surgical masks for N95 ones from 3M. With the new variants and not really sure what is the truth we will continue to wear ours. Science, or not, as an introvert with high levels of anxiety I enjoy hiding behind a mask. You can get these same masks here.

5. This Warning.

This warning scared me a lot this time. Although nothing happened, it still sets me on high alert. All these years of talk of The Big One, every time we get a warning, or even a slight change in the shifting, it worries me. I was on edge all day and into the next day because of this one. There were coastal warnings here that I've only heard one other time since I've lived here, because waves were up to 15 feet for a time. I am glad it didn't create anything significate, but because of the wildfires in 2020, we are always extremely alert to anything like this and have our go-bags ready. Hopefully, we won't have to use them anytime soon, or at all, but just in case.

Positive affirmations this week:

Work on selfcare this week. Here are some of my own selfcare ideas to help get you started. Although not all of these need to be done every day, picking one or a couple a day can help you stay focused on your own self-improvement. You can edit these options, or copy them down for yourself. Keep in mind, you need to do what's best for you, overall.