Category: Random

Bear with me

Please bear with me while I take a (hopefully) short ride on the struggle bus with my blog – I decided to switch to a self-hosted blog, and while many sites promised the transition to take just five minutes and be as easy as a few clicks, that has not been the case for me!

I’m currently missing about 30 posts (I don’t know which ones) and my galleries within posts are no longer formatted the way they used to be, so some things look a little wonky and not the way I planned. Changing this blog over to self-hosted is turning out to be a mess-and-a-half, complete with tears at 2am when I couldn’t even access my blog.

Here’s to hoping that things only get better & more beautiful!

Bit by the travel bug

Throwback Thursday turns into me looking through all of my old photos on Facebook, and reminiscing on all of the incredible travel opportunities I’ve had – which just makes me want to pack up a suitcase and hop across the pond. I’ve been bit by the travel bug & I don’t want to find a cure!

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The Emerald Isle

Validation & the sharing of feelings

If you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that I like to write about my feeeeeeelings.

I spend a lot of time thinking about everything. I find it helpful & important to give myself time for reflection and connection to my thoughts and feelings, and to get those jumbled-up words on paper & onto my blog. It feels like meditation to me, and helps me come to terms with what I’m feeling as well.

And sometimes, when I share those feels here on my blog, I end up feeling validated as well.

My heart was overflowing with looooove after my post on friendship, because as it turns out, my feelings are shared amongst the military spouse and general twenty-something-lady communities that I’m a part of. I was reassured by Facebook friends and people that I’m just getting to know that I’m not alone in my worries and sentiments. I was reminded that though it can appear as though some people make fast friendships based on certain identities, like religion, it’s not always easy or instant. A lot of what I like to write about, like this topic of friendship, is personal and close to my heart. Friendship is a personal thing, and the way it appears on the internet may not be what it’s like in real life. There are quiet, ever-present friendships that don’t need to be shouted from the virtual rooftops, and there are loud, exciting, I-need-everyone-to-know-how-much-I-love-this-person friendships that just need to be shared. And then there are some that are just in between. Different people get different things out of friendship, and that’s a beautiful thing.

It just felt so good to be understood and heard by others, and to give others a chance to let themselves be heard as well. Maybe I was even able to help them put their feelings into words, and for them to feel a sense of validation as well.

As with most blog posts, I don’t know where I’m going with a post until I’m writing it – definitely a metaphor for how I live my life – but with this one, I just wanted to express how grateful I am for this platform to share my feelings and to get validation back from it. We build relationships by being vulnerable, and that’s what I’m trying to do here. I am appreciative for all who make themselves vulnerable right back by reaching out or sharing their own thoughts. If you’re reading this, you’re awesome, I appreciate you, and thank you for being here.

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Happy fall, y’all

Fall is my favorite season, yet the leaves always seem to change color and disappear so quickly. So when it’s 20 degrees and snowy, or 95 degrees and humid, I think I’ll look back on these photos to get a taste of those cozy fall vibes! Plus, a lil cat pic for good measure.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

As you may have noticed, my blog is looking a little different these days!

One of the biggest changes?

THE NAME!

I’ve been struggling with my blog’s name ever since I made it. I wanted to get off the ground running with my blog when I started it way back when, but I couldn’t think of a good blog name, so I just used my Twitter handle, margaretfogs. It just started to feel safe and boring to me, and doesn’t really say anything about what my blog is. I’ve been trying to think of new names for the blog for years, and it wasn’t until after I finished my first round of the Whole30 that it came to me, thanks to a chat with my husband – Wholly Margaret.

This blog is here for me to share my thoughts, ideas, photos, opinions, recipes, and stories as I pave my winding path through life. As a twenty-something who is right in the middle of that good ol’ post-grad identity struggle, I have never been able to nail down exactly what my blog is about, since my life isn’t really about anything in particular! I’m not a mom, I don’t have a job that I’m crazy about, I’m not great at cooking or developing recipes, and most of my passions are just hobbies. This blog is like a metaphor for my life – all over the place, and not fully defined. Yet, I am wholly me through all of this, or at least I hope to be. Wholly, utterly, entirely, fully Margaret.

Now that I have the name locked down, I am hoping that this will help me blog more confidently and frequently. I’ve got at least 20 unfinished drafts of blog posts saved up through the years, and I want to see lots of these ideas through to completion. I am so excited to see where this will take me!

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The lost photos of Ireland 

Two years ago, I was lucky enough to spend the summer living and interning in Dublin, Ireland. It was an unforgettable few months and I miss the city every day! If I could live there again, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Being surrounded by the beautiful green countryside, friendly people with great accents, and a city full of life was incredible – I felt so alive in Ireland. But anyways, enough of me professing my love for the country.

After my program ended, Ben came to visit me for a week and we took trip allllll the way around the coast of Ireland, stopping each night at a B&B in a different town. It was magical. And what made it even more magical was that he proposed to me right in the middle of the trip, on August 6th, at the Cliffs of Moher! It was a complete surprise and he even hired a photographer to capture the moment. (another anniversary in August!)

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Credit to http://michellebgphotography.com/

I loved having those photos of us, and I took photos with my DSLR the whole trip as well – it’s so nice to have those to look back on, and to have prints of them around the house. Like all millennials, we have lots of phone pictures too, but the quality of those just can’t compare. On top of all of those photos, that took me so long to go through, it turns out that we have even more Ireland photos – from Ben’s camera!

Continue reading “The lost photos of Ireland “

Our Dayton Bucket List!

My husband, Ben, is an officer in the Air Force, which means we’ll be moving every few years as he gets new assignments. His last base was Hanscom AFB, right outside of Boston, and it was a perfect place for him to be stationed as a young officer when we were first dating. Boston is a city filled with young people and lots to do in the downtown and surrounding areas. We packed so much into those 4 years while he was stationed there and while I was in college at Wheaton. We even made a Boston Bucket List, but not until we had about a year left in the area, and between me finishing up college and us planning our wedding and move, we definitely didn’t check off as many places as we had hoped.

During the winter of 2014, we found out where he would be headed next – or should I say we, since we were engaged and planning our wedding. He had applied to AFIT, the Air Force Institute of Technology, what seemed like AGES ago, and got the call one evening that he had been accepted to a program to get his Masters in Engineering! We were thrilled! But then came the realization that we would be moving to Dayton, Ohio.

I’ve grown up on the East Coast and near big cities my whole life, so when I heard “Ohio” my mind immediately went to: Midwest, cornfields, empty, sad cities past their prime, economically depressed, old houses, no fun, nothing to do!

And while there are plenty of cornfields out here, I could not have been more wrong about Dayton. Continue reading “Our Dayton Bucket List!”

An ode to Thrive Market

Recently, I got an email offering me a free 30 day trial membership to a site called Thrive Market. The email also offered a free jar of coconut oil, so I thought, why not? You can never really have too much coconut oil, and this site looked pretty cool. It claimed to offer savings of 25-50% on all of these natural, healthy, and organic food and other products. Sounds like a pretty big claim, right?

As I browsed through their offerings, I saw items that I already have sitting in my pantry and fridge, and items that I also just used up and had on my shopping list. And the prices? I work at a grocery store, so one day on my break I walked up and down the aisles and price checked them. Even with my employee discount, Thrive was cheaper.

It all just sounded too good to be true. All this food, which is really great quality, for these lower prices, and you don’t even have to leave the house? Yeah, I was curious, and had to try it.

After a lot of opening of tabs and reading of reviews, of putting things in my cart and taking them out, I settled on my first order. It was a weird conglomeration of things I knew I needed and things that I wanted to try, as most of my shopping trips consist of. Here’s a little peek at some items that I purchased:

 

mesaNature’s Path Organic Mesa Sunrise Flakes Cereal 

My mom used to get this cereal all the time when I was living at home, and it was always a tasty snack and quick morning breakfast. So when I saw the big bag of this listed online, I added it immediately. It goes particularly well with…

 

Pacific Foods Oat Milk 

oatI’ve been wanting to follow more of a vegan/plant-based diet lately, and needed to find an alternative to dairy milk. Almond is alright, I’m trying to avoid too much soy, and coconut weirds me out. A coworker recommended oat milk to me, and at first I thought she was a little crazy, but this stuff is AWESOME. It’s naturally sweet, free of too many additives like carrageenan and flavoring. I’ve been loving it with the Mesa Sunrise cereal, on its own, and in cold brew coffee. Continue reading “An ode to Thrive Market”