Blog Challenge Day 13: Life Outside of IF

Sometimes it really doesn't seem like it, but I have a life outside of infertility!

I'm not the best at keeping up with hobbies, mostly because I've really been neglecting them lately - I need to fix that, pronto.  This year, I started a Project Life photo album - I try to take a few fun photos throughout the week to document the different things we've done, then I journal about them and stick them in a pocket scrapbook.  Or I would if I actually got my pictures printed frequently.  I'm currently a few months behind (it's really bad, I need to set aside a few days to just work on things), but I keep up with planning pages to remind myself what we've done during the week, and I add the photos I plan to use in the album to an app called Collect, and that helps me stay somewhat on track.

I also really love to draw, and have been practicing hand lettering quite a bit.  I love the creative chalkboards that people make with quotes and such, as well as creative envelope addressing.  For a few months, I created a new drawing  every couple of weeks on our kitchen whiteboard (whiteboards are nice because it's easy to change and fix mistakes), but I've been a slacker and haven't updated the board in a while. It's definitely overdue, as the current doodle says "fun in the sun" (along with some messages my sisters left when they were at the house while we were away) which no longer applies, as it's feeling very much like fall lately.  I'm going to have to sketch up some ideas, hopefully I can find some inspiration.

I also consider updating parts of our house a hobby, but it can be quite an expensive one, so those projects are usually few and far between.  Right now, I have a few things that need to be completed - the coat hooks to finish our front entry, a new towel hanger for the downstairs bathroom, putting the final coat of paint on the trim in our garage entry, painting the garage entry ... I'm hoping to get the coat hooks and towel hanger done soon, the other projects probably will have to continue to wait.

One hobby that I always make time for is listening to music (yes, that's totally a hobby).  Most days, when I'm not working, I spend more time with my phone playing a Spotify or Pandora playlist than I do watching TV.  It's the easiest way to manipulate my mood - if I wake up feeling like crap, I play songs that perk me up; if I need to be productive, I turn the music up loud so I can dance around like an idiot while I get things done.

I've been noticing, especially now that we're in the middle of this IVF cycle, that I haven't been paying attention to the things I enjoy doing, so this has been a great reminder to step away from Dr. Google and the infertility forums and work on fun projects.