Hi! It’s been a week over here. Not a bad one but just a lot of moving pieces. My biggest accomplishment of the week was getting my taxes off to my accountant. I always forget that business taxes are due a month before personal so I was scrambling to pull everything together ASAP. Taxes can be quite the challenge when you are self-employed and receiving income from various sources but I have a pretty good system in place these days to streamline the process a bit. 🙂

I have always been pretty reasonable and responsible about my finances but since Finn was born, I have felt extra motivated to get really serious about understanding and managing them. Being self-employed definitely adds a more complex layer to everything from taxes to saving for retirement to mine and Finn’s health insurance but I’m really proud to say that I am figuring it out. It feels pretty awesome to be standing on my own two feet and providing for myself and my child.

I wanted to share a couple of podcasts that have helped me lately with my money mindset:

• Oprah and Suze Orman: Live at the Apollo, Women and Money. Live show here, podcast here. I listened to this last fall on a drive to Tennessee for yoga teacher training and it is full of spot-on insight and useful takeaways.
• Zura Health Podcast: Selina Gray on Standing in Your Worth and Becoming a Money Boss. The Zura Health Podcast is hands-down my favorite podcast discovery of late. This episode on self-sabotage was incredible.

I didn’t mean to go on that tangent but I’m often surprised by how “the sprit moves me” when I sit down to start a post! I know money/finance stuff can be weird/hard to talk about, and extremely personal.

Speaking of getting feedback from you guys, WOW! I asked on Instagram this week if there are blog topics that you’d like me to cover and received well over 100 responses and requests. Not going to lie, they were very Finn/motherhood heavy but also lots of yoga/food/life stuff too. If you’d like to add a topic request, please leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list. 🙂

Ahh it’s taken me a while to get to what I actually intended to share in this post. How about some recent favorites? That was also a requested regular blog topic!

THE COMFIEST PAJAMA PANTS

I am wearing these crazy soft and comfy PJ pants as I type this post. I picked them up at Target about a month ago and have basically lived in them ever since. You can’t get much more comfortable than this for $19.99.

PIPES HATE WIPES

This section of Loving Lately is sponsored by Charlotte Water. 

The crew at Charlotte Water has been on a mission to educate our city that PIPES HATE WIPES and I love this campaign so much. As a mom, it’s relevant to me and I had no idea that wipes were so bad for our sewer systems!!! File this as a random but important blog PSA!

Some stats to back it up (haha, pun wasn’t intended):

• There were 164 sanitary sewer overflows in Charlotte last year. 40% of these overflows were caused by debris, which includes wipes. This number is increasing each year with more people in Charlotte using and flushing wipes.
• “Flushable” products like wipes do not readily break down upon flushing like toilet paper does and actually remain in a solid state while traveling through the sewer system. This can cause blockages and sanitary overflows on our streets, neighborhoods, creeks, and streams.
• Only flush the three P’s down the toilet (pee, poo, and (toilet) paper). Put wipes and other items like tampons, q-tips, and tissue in the trash.

Now you know! Only flush the Ps 😉

FINN’S NINE MONTH PHOTOS

A couple of weeks ago Finn and I had a session with Amanda James Photography for his nine month photos. Y’all…I want to share every single one of the 100 photos that Mandy sent to me with you but I will spare you. I feel so grateful to have connected with Mandy and that she has helped to document my first year with Finn in such a beautiful and true way. We have done newborn, three month and nine month photos together.

This was from our last photo shoot at three months. Gosh, look at how much he’s changed…and stayed exactly the same. This little guy has my whole heart.

ALL THINGS DAVE’S KILLER BREAD

To end on a slightly lighter note, I am so in love with all things Dave’s Killer Bread. I haven’t met a Dave’s product that I don’t like yet from their sandwich bread to their bagels to their English muffins. This morning I had a cinnamon raisin remix bagel with butter and cream cheese on my way to teach yoga. It was so good! I have also been eating their Rockin’ Grains English Muffins with butter and cream cheese this week.

One more because I just cannot help myself.

Have the happiest Friday friends! xxoo

Drop a comment below if you have topic requests. 

Anything you are loving lately? 

Let’s talk about money/finances? How can we better support each other around it as women?