What I Learned in January

It's quiz time on Spill the Beans this week! Have we ever...cried our way out of a speeding ticket? Broken a bone? Been in a talent show? Turns out we ever learned a bit about each other in this episode!

 Listen here!

Tomorrow is the last day of January, but it's also Walk a Mile in My Shoes Wednesday, so I'm taking today to share what I've learned in the month of January! It's been a very educational month. :)

1. Our alphabetical dates ended up being one of the most fun projects we have ever done as a couple.

I know I already blogged at length about this, so I won't rehash it too much, but I really, really loved our alphabetical date project. I am so glad we did it, and I'm so thankful for the fun and unique experiences we had throughout the last year while we dated through the alphabet!

2. Washing my face at night really is better.

This item probably falls under things I shouldn't admit publicly. :) Until sometime in my twenties, I was a night-showerer, mostly because I hated mornings. But along the way, I switched to morning showers mostly to benefit my hair. (Bed head is no joke for some people.) When I did that, I also switched my face washing routine to the morning. I have heard a million times how terrible it is for your skin when you sleep in makeup, but I never switched my routine. This month, I decided to try it, just to see if it helped. (I did so mostly because the moisturizers I now use don't have time to fully soak into my skin with a morning face washing routine, and it was making all my makeup brushes gunky.) Turns out, it really does make a difference. I was skeptical, but I see a difference! (And not just in brush gunk. My skin is actually firmer and happier.)

3. The "Flabby Abby" routine is actually helpful.

When I put together the January-inspired Pinterest board I shared with you a few weeks ago, it included a calendar for a quick daily ab workout. The actual name of it is "Fab Abs," but one day I couldn't think of that and called it Flabby Abby by mistake. That stuck, and we now call it the Flabby Abby workout. Anyway. It involved sit ups, push ups and planks, starting with a small amount and working up to a higher number by the end of the month. I did this in addition to our regular workouts. I was skeptical, but within a week, I could feel my flabby abbys tightening! Now don't misunderstand me: I'm not transforming into a swimsuit model or anything, but it is helping! (Probably would have helped even more if I'd not lost several days due to illness.)

4. "Walking the Beans" is a thing.

When Ryan offered a podcast tribute to his grandfather earlier this month, he talked about some of his memories of working the farm with his grandpa. Specifically, he mentioned "walking the beans." I asked him if that was like walking dogs. Do you put a leash on the beans and take them for a stroll around the field? Apparently it means walking through the rows looking for rocks and weeds. Who knew?

5. Ryan and I enjoy reading the Bible through together and discussing it.

This year, Ryan and I are doing a read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. This has become our devotional plan for the year, and we are really enjoying it! We read our chapters on our own every day and discuss them at the end of the day. We are learning from our observations and the study notes in our Bibles, and it's been a great bonding experience for us!

6. You can order things from the Dollar Tree online - in bulk.

I was looking at a blog post (educational in nature) and found these foam blocks with dry erase sides. Obviously I don't need them for teaching but I thought they could be fun for other games, so I clicked the link, and that's when I found out you can shop at the Dollar Tree online. WHO KNEW?

7. Ski lodges in movies do NOT accurately represent ski lodges in real life. 

When we went to the ski resort earlier this month, I expected to find a cozy mountain lodge, with couches in every nook and cranny and giant fireplaces hidden in stone. What I found was an enormous building that reminded me more of an airport at Thanksgiving than a cozy scene from a Hallmark movie.

8. I finally found a cough medicine that actually works for me.

Since my childhood, I have never had a "normal" cold. I can shake everything in a normal time frame except the cough. I can be done with runny noses and sore throats and all of that, but the cough can hang on for weeks. And I'm not talking an occasional cough. I'm talking all.the.live.long.day.from.the.moment.i.wake.up.until.i.go.to.sleep. It's horrible. This time around, while I was at the doctor, I mentioned my ridiculous cough, and he prescribed some cough medicine that has an eight-mile-long name. It costs about a million dollars, but it was so worth every single penny. 

So there you have it! What did you learn in January?

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