Category: Living Life with Will & Jamie

#coffeechat with Jamie

Published on by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

Hi friends, long time no talk!    As I sit here in my cozy home with a hot coffee complete with pumpkin spice creamer, I felt the need to update my friends on all things Wamie!

Since becoming a Beachbody coach in the spring and devoting more time to my health and fitness, life has become a bit overwhelming and, well, here we are, five months after my last blog post.  And I am oddly at peace with that.  Life is not linear.  It has its ups, among the peaks of dreams and accomplishments, and its valleys in the troubles or sadness or growing pains of life.  And while WamiesWorld and sharing our story will always be a part of us, it will share in our peaks and valleys as well.

In the past five months, we have had our fair share of highs and lows.  We traveled to the Outer Banks in April to celebrate our first anniversary.  It was an amazing weekend, with an adorable hotel room right on the beach, plenty of shrimp and seafood, exploring lighthouses and National Parks, and time away just the two of us.  I cannot express how blessed we were by our first year of marriage.  We were able to spend so much time, just the two of us, to grow and learn about each other in marriage.  If you have the opportunity to move away from friends and family in your first year of marriage, I am all for it!  You will grow in ways you wouldn’t have had you stayed in your same routine!  

In June we were able to take a week and go to Walt Disney World for one of the most magical vacations of our lives!  It was Will’s first time (my fourth), and let’s just say that he has completely bought into the experience.  He would love to be an annual pass holder (wouldn’t we all!?) and never vacation anywhere else again!  We met a wonderful woman at our hotel who visits WDW every year and takes her grandkids.  Can you say goals?  

Following our phenomenal week in Florida, we flew out to Utah to spend some quality time with Will’s family.  We were able to see two of his siblings and their families, and spend a lot of time with his parents.  We explored a piece of Bryce Canyon National Park—a natural wonder of southern Utah that has some of the least amount of light pollution in the continental US—followed by a dinosaur museum and animal style burgers at In-N-Out.

My sister and their family moved away to Tennessee around the fourth of July, where they bought a house and started new jobs.  We have enjoyed road tripping through the mountains to see them and explore their new home.

We are currently in a season that requires a lot of dedication and sacrifice for Will’s work, and although we cannot discuss further details online, we ask that you keep us in your prayers for the next severallll months.

Rapid fire questions:

  • What are you reading? The Anne of Green Gables series.
  • What are you watching? Grey’s Anatomy, Friends, and Big Brother.
  • How’s Blue? She’s great! And huge. Her first birthday is very soon.
  • What workout program are you doing? LIIFT4 is a program that combines lifting and high intensity interval training and is four days a week.
  • What is your favorite meal prep meal lately? Burrito bowls! Guacamole multiple times a week? Yes please!

If you want to follow along on our adventures, turning a house into a home, and all of the highs and lows of everyday life, click the subscribe button on the right.  It doesn’t send you crazy stuff or give your information to anyone—it just sends blog updates directly to you!

Until next time,
Jamie out.

3 reasons to simplify your life and what that means

Published on by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

When you think of the word “simplify,” do you think of minimalists?  People who own like one pair of socks and a sweater, or people who are downsizing to a house the size of a match box?

That’s not what I’m doing.  When I set out to Simplify in 2019 (read that blog post here), it wasn’t my intention to throw out all of my possessions.  I already did that last year, unintentionally, and while that gave me a bit of a head start on decluttering my life, it was just the beginning of simplifying.

Before I get ahead of myself though, if you want to follow along with our adventures of newlywed life, turning a house into a home, and all of the highs and lows of everyday life, click the subscribe button on the right (or at the bottom if you’re on mobile).  It doesn’t send you crazy stuff or give your information to anyone—it just sends blog updates directly to you!

My beginning of simplifying was this: I really just wanted to slow down. 

To get my priorities in line.  To save time on tasks so that I had more freedom in my life.  

I don’t know about you, but I dig the idea of freedom—freedom in my finances, freedom from being overwhelmed, and the freedom of a healthy schedule. 

Sure, part of simplifying can be to own less, to declutter, and to donate half of your wardrobe if it doesn’t bring you joy.  But the other half of the equation is to make decisions easier, to learn to say no, and to spend more time with the people most important to you.

Basically, simplifying is identifying what is most important to you and then eliminating the rest.

Here’s why that might be beneficial for you.  

#1.  You will be less overwhelmed.

There will be less to clean, less to do, and you will understand how, when, and why to say no.  You will bring an end to overcommitment and stop being a slave to obligations.

Practical steps to get you started:
1. turn off notifications for basically everything on your phone so that you only see the important things. 
2. have a calendar that you stick to and do not overbook.    

#2.  You will be more in tune with your needs vs. your wants.

Understanding your priorities will help with this.  It will help your decisions become clearer—is this task, item, or activity going to help or hinder your priorities?  

Practical steps:
1. make a list of 4-5 priories or things most important to you (and to your spouse/marriage).  Put them in order of importance. 
2. make a list of your commitments and then put them in oder of their priority.

For example, Will and I prioritize God, followed by each other/our marriage, our family, and THEN the other things in our lives, such as work, friends, serving at church, and other areas that can eat up time and resources.  

#3.  You will have time to pursue your passions and to travel.

With less clutter, fewer things to take care of, and a better handle on how to manage your time, it will be easier to find time to pursue passions and projects you may have had to avoid otherwise.  You will also hopefully have a better handle on your finances and fewer things to take care of at home so that you can go on a vacation now and again.

Some seasons of life are much more busy than others.  Priorities are not set in stone, and although your top tier will probably never change, the others on your list might.  Bringing home a new baby, starting a new job, or buying a house are all things that will be an adjustment.  Aiming to simplify can definitely provide solutions and freedom as you go through these transitions.

Y’all, simplifying is not the solution to every problem, but it has already been an amazing word to focus on in my 2019.  I am so excited to continue this mantra to see where it takes us this year.

How do you feel about simplifying?  I want to hear all of your thoughts in the comments below!  If you enjoyed this post, please give it a like to let me know and don’t forget to join the family and subscribe!

Until next time,
Jamie out.

big moves & half birthdays

Published on by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

Over the past few weeks, a couple super awesome and fun, life changing things have occurred which I would love to share with you. In fact, both things began or happened on the same day. 

Before I get ahead of myself though, if you want to follow along with our adventures of newlywed life, turning a house into a home, and all of the highs and lows of everyday life, click the subscribe button on the right (or at the bottom if you’re on mobile).  It doesn’t send you crazy stuff or give your information to anyone—it just sends blog updates directly to you!

The first thing that happened is that our girl Blue turned six months old and we celebrated with a family photo session on the bed. 

For a pup who is not allowed on the furniture, that is quite a big deal.

She still loves the outdoors, probably even more than me, and would love nothing more than to spend all day, every day outside.

Which she can’t really do at the moment because she is recovering from being spayed. That cone of shame is legit.  She is so confused by it.  You are more likely to find her completely stationary, whining in confusion than anything else.  

Related Post: Oasis

She likes chicken in her food better than beef, she loves learning how to heel, and she thinks that working out with mom is super fun.  She recently chewed through her first rope and loves getting balls stuck under couches… until she realizes that she can’t get them back out again.

My other piece of fun, exciting, potentially life changing news news is that I signed up to be a Beachbody health and fitness coach and I’m super excited!  I am working on my website, learning the business, the lingo, and mostly just enjoying myself so far.  I was already on a path of discovering my own fitness journey while sharing it with others, so I decided to jump in and try coaching!  

I have been telling anyone who breathes about Beachbody since I started using it a couple years ago because I have major heart eyes for the programs.  They also have superfood smoothies and other products that I am fast falling in love with.  

Needless to say, we have some exciting things happening in the Shugart household this year.  I thought 2019 would pale in comparison to 2018.  Boy was I wrong.

If you have any questions for me, like what I do as a coach or if you want to know my fave workout programs, I’m down to talk about it any time.

Until next time,
Jamie out.

mucinex

Published on by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

Sickness has struck the Shugart household.

Well, mostly it has struck me.  Will had a cute little cough and then was over and done with it.  I, on the other hand, self-diagnosed from the first spike of fever that a sinus infection had taken me down, post-migraine.  

I write to you now from the comfort of my bonus room couch, with my steaming mug of chamomile tea and my chick flicks and Grey’s Anatomy on repeat, having missed publishing my first Monday blog post since launching Wamie’s World last July.  And while I have no photos to share today, from a typically photography focused blog, I feel that sharing using the written word can just as powerfully convey the clouded vision of a sickly blogger.

I was conveniently taken down by a virus passed on by my loving family on the busiest work week I have seen since the Christmas holiday family photo session explosion of 2018.  I curled up in an armchair for two days straight, editing my days away while clutching my box of tissues.  I spent the nights clutching my eyeballs for fear they might pop out of my head due to the pressure building up behind them.  And I coughed my way through work, popping cough drops like they were candy and huddling in my corner so as not to breathe on anyone.

Conveniently, all of the websites say that you might have a sinus infection if your symptoms persist for more than two weeks.  

As a woman who has had far more than her fair share of sinus infections in her life, I would have to disagree with whomever invented them.  More than two weeks is far too long to put up with this nonsense.  Can I please just return to my normal programming?  

Should you be happy and healthy today, enjoying the full use of your vocal cords, please appreciate your pressure free sinuses, your vertigo free days, and how little you require tissues on a minute by minute basis.  I will be here, attempting to live a normal life while contemplating removing my sinuses from my body.

Until next time,
Jamie out.