family – WamiesWorld

13 things to do unplugged with your spouse

Published on March 4, 2019July 17, 2019 by Jamie Shugart1 Comment

Is your love language quality time? Is your spouse’s love language quality time? Do you hate how much time we spend staring at our phones instead of being present with one another and fully invested in the moment? Friend, I am here for you!

But first thing’s first—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!

Friend, today I have 13 fun and unique things to do together with your spouse that do not involve social media, computers, or screen time of any kind. Put those phones away and stare into each others eyeballs for a sec, okay?

Let’s get started.

#1. Make something together. Whether you just picked up a new piece of furniture that has much assembly required or you want to repaint a dresser you picked up at a garage sale, get to work together!

#2. Have a picnic in your backyard. Spring is springing, the grass is greening, and the sun is shining. Break out your biggest floppy hat, spread a quilt on the driest patch of grass you can find, and have no fear of drinking wine outdoors. It’s your private property, after all! And no one has to drive! Don’t forget the sunscreen, though. Winter has left you pale and vulnerable.

#3. Break out the instruments and have your own concert. Will and I play piano, guitar, and all manner of brass instruments. I love having worship nights together. Print those chord charts or piano music ahead of time and put those phones away. This is time for just you two.

#4. Bake something! Make banana bread, cheesecake, or all manner of unhealthy treats. You can share them with friends, or be greedy and enjoy the whole thing together. Bonus points if you enjoy the fruits of you labor by candlelight.

#5. Prayer time. Write a list of prayer requests and pray over them together. Pray over your marriage, your spouse, your family, your house, your dog, your cat, your jobs, etc.

#6. Create a vision board for your marriage. This is about your vision, your goals, your mission statement, and your desires that you create together for your marriage. Like I desire regular date nights with each other, no matter what season of life we are in. Side note: if you are NOT crafty—like me—you can just create a fancy list or excel spreadsheet. It’s basically the same, right?

#7. Go on a leisurely walk (don’t forget to bring the dog). Whether around your neighborhood or a nice nearby park, pick a sunny day and take a long walk together. If you’re on the east coast, don’t forget that bug spray. The mosquitoes are coming!

#8. Have a double date and go try a new local restaurant or ask your friends where their favorite place in town is. Don’t forget to splurge on dessert. It’s the little things.

#9. Have a bonfire, roast s’mores, and tell ghost stories. Bonus points if you camp out in the backyard afterwards.

#10. Game night! Whether you play Nertz, Monopoly (not suggested for sensitive/competitive souls such as myself), or some crazy deck building game, make sure there’s a prize for the winner.

#11. Couples who work out together stay together. If you’re both active, create a workout plan that combines both of your favorite moves and techniques that you can do at home. You could go on a run, or complete a squat and pushups pyramid challenge. Will and I enjoy showing off our best ab moves to each other.

#12. Go out to the ball game. Eat a hot dog and cheer on your local team. Make sure to dress in team colors but watch out for the kiss cam.

#13. Have a coffee date on your front porch. Watch the world go by and just enjoy the moment with each other.

The world is so busy and fast! We sometimes forget to just slow the heck down and enjoy the little things. Even if you literally need to schedule a block of time to be with each other and enjoy each other, DO IT. It is so very important.

Do you have any ideas that I didn’t mention? Leave them in the comments below! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a like and don’t forget to join the family and subscribe if you haven’t already.

Until next time,
Jamie out

it didn’t feel like Christmas

Published on December 28, 2018 by Jamie ShugartLeave a comment

This Christmas hardly felt like Christmas, at least not in the traditional way my Christmases have always felt. There was always time to clean and decorate and make everything just so. And while Will and I were able to attend every party, donned our ugly Christmas sweaters, and decked the Christmas tree with all of the ornaments, it was a different kind of Christmas this year.

We wrapped presents just two days before Christmas (which is extremely abnormal for me), we barely decorated even our living room, and the only photos I have of our tree were taken with my iPhone. Despite all of this, I recognize how much progress we have made in replacing furniture after losing everything. I recognize how much more our house feels like a home. I recognize how far our puppy has come in the month we have had her. And I recognize that we had my whole family over for Christmas Eve and it was great—and hosting people is one of the things we really want for our home.

Home Life

This month we almost finished furnishing our house. We feel pretty excellent about this, considering we still have not received the insurance money for all of our losses. Our friends gifted us a mattress so we were able to assemble our bed, and the rest of our bedroom set arrived the week after Thanksgiving. Our home is definitely coming together!

Our kitchen faucet was very leaky, so we decided to upgrade to a beautiful Moen piece. Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of the finished product, but Will and I still talk about how much we love it.

Our biggest project this month was installing shelves in our laundry room to make a pantry space off the kitchen. Will was able to complete it right before Christmas and it has made everything so much cleaner and more organized! I am in love!

Next up in our home improvement saga is painting all of the things! Can you guess what color scheme we are going with?

#everydaymoments

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Full of coffee, working from home, and the inevitable indulgence of delivery pizza (our favorite). We were also gifted these end tables from a sweet woman I used to work with!

Every Sunday we have dinner with my family and my nephew James is a riot. He can’t speak words yet, but that doesn’t stop him from talking and gesturing. He loves music, drumming, and the piano. Clapping is also pretty cool, and he has basically mastered walking now that he is almost 11 months old.

I am still trying to make it through Eragon! We love reading before bed, but these days it has been time to crash by the time we crawl under the covers. Also, shoutout to North Carolina for having gorgeous sunsets, and to my RAV4 for hitting 44,444 miles. Too bad it wasn’t also 44 degrees outside.

Christmas

Christmas is absolutely my favorite time of the year. From apple cider and Christmas cookies, to parties and productions, I love everything about it. Our Taco Tuesday crew had a great “Friendsmas” and gift exchange this year, complete with the traditional gift of something Jeff Goldblum related given to our friend Nick.

2018 is the year of the table top tree. When we assembled it, our puppy Blue was still very young and didn’t have a lot of self control when it came to chewing on things. Instead of teaching her not to chew on my tree, I opted to put it on a table this year to make our lives slightly easier. It was kind of funny, and I never really want to do it again, but at the time I would take anything to make fur-mama life a little easier.

Early this month we were super grateful to be able to get out of the house and see The Singing Christmas Tree with our family. It is a traditional choral production that a local church does every year (and perhaps several other southern churches do the same thing).

I attended a grand total of four ugly Christmas sweater parties this year. I’d say the fad is still going strong. We borrowed some sweater vests from our friends and put them to very good use.

Christmas Tree and Tea. We wrapped our presents just two days before Christmas and enjoyed the view while we had it. I will blog about Christmas day in another post!

Blue’s December

Blue had a pretty great December. You can read her most recent update here. She met some great puppy friends, some aunts and uncles and cousins, and lots and lots of friends. She does not like the vet, but is getting used to the car, and is growing faster than I thought possible.

Along with all of the growing comes a lot of napping. I read somewhere that puppies can sleep up to twenty hours a day. That’s crazy! But after I have seen how much she has grown the past couple weeks, I absolutely believe it. Her legs are starting to get long and a little gangly. Her ears are the size of her head. And her paws are getting a little ahead of themselves.

One of Blue’s favorite things is rough housing with her dad. Will is very good with her. He is super passionate about training her and is completely smitten. She is going to be super spoiled, but also hopefully super fit and well trained. She is getting really good at only chewing on her own toys as well! Seeing how much she has grown since we brought her home at eight weeks has been insane. She has gained over ten pounds and there is nothing stopping her!

Here’s to hoping you had a great December! That you got to create memories and take a minute to slow down and enjoy life.

Thank you for everything this year, with the first few months of Wamies World and the great adventures we have already been on. Here’s to 2019 and the new year!

Until next time,
Jamie out

our puppy is a genius

Published on December 26, 2018 by Jamie Shugart1 Comment

Blue update #2—Weeks 10 & 11

In the past two weeks we dog sat another puppy, marveled at Blue’s genius, and had a potty training regression.

My favorite things about the past two weeks:

Transitioning to only getting up with Blue once every night.
Getting lots of good puppy snuggles and kisses.
Watching tiny Blue climb up and down our stairs.

My least favorite things about the past two weeks:

The great potty training regression of 2018.
Hand bruises from sharp puppy teeth.

Things I have learned:

That Blue is really really smart.
That Blue is already great at posing.
That Blue loves to please us.

Blue has gained over five pounds since we brought her home. At her eight week vet visit she weighed 10.8 pounds and at her 11 week vet visit, she weighed 15.8 pounds. We feel pretty good about her size and are hoping she is right in the sweet spot when she is an adult, which should be between fifty-five and sixty-five pounds. She is happy and healthy and still learning daily. It is amazing to watch her pick up on things.

For the most part, things got easier for us as a family these weeks compared to the first two. I have definitely grown more attached to our high energy fur ball and absolutely love her snuggles and puppy kisses. She is really good at hugs and snuggles, especially when she is tuckered out after playing with a puppy friend.

On the weekend Blue turned 11 weeks, we dog sat our friend’s puppy who is one month older than Blue and twice her size. He is a shepherd mix—a herding breed—and is much more calm and less high energy than our girl Blue. He is also better at sleeping through the night than she is. And while they were both mostly house trained in their own homes, this weekend turned into utter chaos that caused both dogs to regress a little bit.

Our visiting pup wasn’t sure how or where to potty at our house, so he decided that inside was the perfect spot. We had a lot of accidents the first couple days, especially because he refused to go outside. At first Blue just observed this, but eventually she started to go inside as well. As you can imagine, this got pretty frustrating.

The short story is, we got the dogs on a strict schedule for going outside. If they weren’t in their crates, they were going outside every twenty minutes, whether or not we thought they had to go. This cut down on the accidents dramatically, and improved our relationship with them as well.

Dog sitting also emphasized repeatedly how intelligent our Blue is. Not in comparison to the other dog, but just in the way that she would help him when he didn’t understand. For example, he was terrified of going down our stairs, so Blue got right next to him and went down every step with him one at a time. He also kept chewing my carpet, so Blue finally laid a chew toy across his paws and showed him to chew on that instead. I have never been more proud in my life.

We are growing closer daily, and as Blue learns more and more, Will and I enjoy her more and more. Often times before bed you will find the three of us sitting on the floor and playing with a ball or rough housing. By the end of week eleven Blue weighed in at almost 19 pounds. It’s safe to say she is heading into a big growth spurt! She is still fearless and resilient. We didn’t go a lot of places during these two weeks and she is definitely learning that the house is her den. We still keep doors to a couple rooms closed to avoid temptation for her, but in the rooms she is comfortable, she is great at only chewing on her own toys.

Until next time,
Jamie out

Read more:
Weeks 8 & 9, Bringing Blue Home

the pitfalls of potty training

Published on December 12, 2018 by Jamie Shugart2 Comments

Blue update – Weeks 8 & 9

If you didn’t know we got a puppy, go read this blog post ASAP!

Being a puppy mom has been incredibly hard and incredibly rewarding at the same time. Blue is a smart cookie. I can tell when she’s just ignoring me, or when she’s sneaking off to do something she knows is naughty. But I also rejoice with her as she begins to get it. As she begins to ask to go outside so that she can “go potty” and as she obeys when we say “come” and “sit.” I am so surprised that at nine weeks old she knows so much. Obviously there is still a lot to learn, for BOTH of us.

My favorite things about the past two weeks:

When Blue learned to go up and down the stairs to the bonus room. She’s still so small that she looks like a bunny hopping up the stairs, and I have to encourage her down every step when we go back down. It’s adorable.
The first time she asked to go outside to “go potty.”
Watching her grow right in front of my eyes.
Her play date with our friend’s three month old puppy where they played until they literally dropped.

My least favorite things about the past two weeks:

Her tiny sharp puppy teeth as she grabs onto my hand and won’t let go.
How dry my hands got from cleaning up pee accidents inside and washing my hands afterward.
How much she cries at night and how much we had to get up with her the first week.

Things I have learned:

It is okay to change your mind and do what is best for your family and your pup.
She is really really smart.
If she is acting “bad,” it is most likely my fault, not hers.
I cherish my sleep.

Her first week here was hard on all of us. We coddled her a lot at night and she struggled to sleep. We got up with her seven or eight times one night. She learned that crying would be rewarded, so in her second week here we had to try to unlearn that. We all lost some more sleep. But we are confident it is what is best in the long run. We want her to be comfortable and confident when she is home alone and when she is sleeping at night.

It was our intention to not crate her, however after having her for a week we caved and got a crate. She went in voluntarily on the first night to go to sleep, but after that it got a little harder. She is attached to the stuff IN her crate—like her blankies—but she isn’t so keen on the crate itself. As her fur mama I know that she is safe in her own little den while I am gone, and I have peace of mind that my home isn’t being destroyed while I am at the grocery store. And I am certain that she will grow to love her place once she realizes it isn’t a punishment and she isn’t lonely.

Potty training is no joke. We are finding a better routine and schedule that we can all adhere to, but as our days are never the same as one another, that can prove challenging. After four or five days of training she asked to go outside. A week after we got her she asked us three times in one night to let her out. This is where I feel the rewarding aspect of training—to finally see results of hard work.

She is super smart and Will loves putting her brain to work to train her and then practice things they have learned. We got her a puzzle ball we can put treats in to help her work her brain also. A tired puppy is a good puppy, and even though she is very high energy, tiring out her brain is just as important as tiring out her little body.

Or not so little body. Two days after we got her I took her to the vet and they weighed her at 10.8 pounds. By the end of week 9, she weighed a little over 13 pounds. She is going to be too big to pick up and carry in no time so I am enjoying the lap snuggles while I can.

With full disclosure and honestly, we did not enjoy our first week with Blue. We were very sleep deprived and potty training proved to be very stressful. Once we got the crate, things began to improve and I started to get attached. We made a plan for taking her out at night that would negate some of her crying and got us all on a better schedule.

We are so excited to watch her grow, to learn with her, and to be the best fur parents we can to this little ball of energy. Stay tuned for the perils and pleasures of puppy ownership as I take you along for the sometimes bumpy ride over the next several months. There is so much that we will all learn and experience.

Do you have any puppy advice for me? The biggest one right now is how to make her happy with her crate and cut down on the crying. Please leave any knowledge in the comments below! If you enjoyed this post, please give it a like and don’t forget to subscribe to join the family if you haven’t already.

Until next time,
Jamie out.