Hi, it’s me! I’m still here, just not as frequently as I used to be. I’m constantly up moving around making bread, doing the Peloton, out on walks, at the park, doing laundry, gardening, and the list keeps going! I need to get better at pouring myself a cup of coffee and sitting on the couch to blog. I can’t do it at night because my brain is mush, and I traded in my morning blogging for the Peloton, so I need to hop on the computer during my son’s long nap. The good news is that I am here to catch you all up (even if the laundry is overflowing and the counter has things that don’t belong there all over it!)
One thing that has made me so happy recently is the weather and all of my spring flowers peeking out of the mulch. This photo was taken a few weeks ago, so it’s even more now! Some of my hyacinths are even blooming. I need to get out this week, prune my roses, cut the top of my hydrangeas, and clean up the old leaves in the flower beds. Spring is around the corner. Even trees are budding here! I pray we don’t have that last frost late in the season. I did purchase everything I needed to start indoor seeding this week! I’ll be sharing all about it. I cannot wait for my vegetable garden this year.
I have so many recipes in the camera roll I need to get up on the blog soon, especially the marble chocolate chip cookies for Valentine’s Day.
This weekend, we are going to pick out the rocks for around the garden bed and start digging the area! Make sure you’re following me on Instagram for gardening updates! I share weeks ahead of time over there!:) And if you’re interested in some of my favorite garden finds or seeds, check out my Amazon shop!:) I keep that updated daily!
One of my favorite go-to breakfasts/or dinners lately has been eggs, avocado, and roasted potatoes! 😋 It’s so easy to throw into a bowl and eat while I’m feeding dinner to my son. I try my best to eat with him! He’s in the mimicking stage right now, and I love it! He claps when you clap, says “mama,” pulls himself up to stand, can crawl at a fast speed, got his first tooth, sleeps through the night, eats more solid foods, and even climb up the stairs without assistance! I’ll share a video on Instagram later because it’s incredible.
I am so proud of myself because I made a promise that I’d stick to doing something active every single day, along with riding the Peloton 4 to 5 times a week. I made it through January, and I feel AMAZING. I’m starting to physically feel like my pre-pregnancy self again, and I’m happy I stuck with it. I am getting much stronger and better each time I hop on the bike. I hit a PR the other night doing 17 miles in one hour! The reason I share my Peloton username (hellotaralynn) is that it holds me accountable, and I love seeing a lot of you jump on the classes while I’m on and love all the high fives. Last month, I had 31 active days, 52 workouts, burned 12,200 calories, worked out a total of 31 hours, did 28 cycling classes (some were cooldowns or warm-ups before the long class), did 7 stretch videos, 25 walks, and lost a total of 5.5 pounds. I had been stuck on a plateau since early November, and it felt so good to see progress when I stepped on the scale at the doctor’s office yesterday. I haven’t been dieting but trying my best to eat better and drink more water.
There are never easy ways to transition during these recaps, so now we will chat about lemons! My lemon trees are starting to flower, and they are flowering more than they ever have! We’ll get a lot of lemons this year, which means all the lemon olive oil cake! This is one of the best recipes, and it was so fun to make it with the lemons from my backyard. I keep my lemon trees upstairs in the guest room because it gets so much sun!
My sourdough bread journey is still on the rise (no pun tented), and I’m making loaves daily. The Jalapeño cheddar is one of our favorites. I have my bread guide all written out in a PDF, but I need to figure out how I want to transfer it all to the blog.
Kyle worked for the past few weekends on a new underground trench to direct the water flow away from my garden area. It’s fun to watch how invested he is in this project. I’m always so impressed with his woodworking skills. He built these in a day!
I met up with my girlies last weekend for brunch at The Goodyear House. The last time I had eaten there, it was inside one of those igloos. The food was OUTSTANDING, and the service was 10/10. Although I promised myself to dine out less in 2023, I would still like to try out new restaurants in Charlotte once in a while. I tend to stay in my Fort Mill bubble a lot. 
We shared the butter bean spread and the sweet potato fingerlings. The sweet potato fingerlings were one of the best sides I’ve had in a long time. I cannot believe how delicious! I want to go back just for a plate of those!
I ordered the Good Salad with lettuce, onion, parmigiano reggiano, and herb verde dressing with chicken. Not a drop was left on my plate!
A week of bread-making was in full swing! I tried a few new methods until figuring out how to make the absolute PERFECT loaf!
I made several loaves with whipped honey cinnamon butter for Kyle to bring to work.
My goal is to do 16 to 17-mile rides on the weekend. I love starting the weekend with a long ride! (Chicken Caesar salad wrap recipe.)
We try to get out daily when it’s not raining. February is our rainy month here in South Carolina. We get the spring showers ahead of time.
Link to his favorite toys! + his coffee cup! 
I know this is so silly, but I love imagining and daydreaming about what this is going to look like in the summer.
In true Taralynn fashion, I’ll do coffee and garden walks around the backyard each morning.
Rainy days ♥️
Last week, I tried the viral Big Mac salad all over TikTok. Honesty, ehhhhhhh didn’t care for it. Taco salads are superior. My dad was over and LOVED this recipe, so maybe it’s for the Big Mac lovers. I think it was the pickles that threw me off.
Sixteen-mile bike ride and a grocery trip with my favorite 💜 He’s obsessed with cart rides. He laughs the entire time!
I’ve been having this combo after my early morning biker rides lately! 
I tried the TikTok viral video of painting bread. It was cute, but colored bread still weirds me out. 😂
You can find my favorite bread accessories on my Amazon shop!
Trench work!
Would you believe me if I told you I made over 12 loaves of bread last weekend? 😆
WE HAD A WIN FOR THE EAGLES! WOOOOOO! I cannot wait to see them play in the Super Bowl.
Most people train their dogs to get off the couch, but we’ve been trying to train Tux to get up on the couch. He’s not sure how to do it yet, but once he’s up there, he nestles up and falls asleep. He reminds me so much of Grumples when he’s on the couch. We will keep working with him because I can tell he likes it!
I made some yummy oatmeal and banana fruit bars for Bug’s breakfast! He LOVES them. I cut them up into tiny bite-size pieces, and he eats them all so fast. I’ll post this recipe soon. 
Yesterday was my birthday, and I enjoyed spending time with my family! We did a park date, shopped at the garden center, walked, and had a yummy dinner at home! 
It’s been MONTHS since having Crumbl cookies. I used to love them, but our store always gives us cookies that are so raw…I still enjoy making The Fresh Cooky’s Crumbl Copycat cookies much better! 
We had air-fried salmon, smashed potatoes, and lemon parm Brussels sprouts 😋 
My favorite birthday so far. 💜
Questions for you!
- Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions (if you made any!)
- What is one thing you’re looking forward to this summer?
- Do you grow anything indoors?
Happy Birthday Tara!!
I’m SO EXCITED FOR SUMMER! And I am so excited to watch your garden grow. I’ve got a big garden project going on as well, and I need to learn how to plant trees! I want something similar to what you and Kyle have I think next to your fence but I want to make sure I do it right!
Thanks, Jennifer!
I HIGHLY recommend getting your trees from a local nursery and not somewhere like Lowes or Home Depot. They take out a lot of the tree’s root system when transferring them to the stores and they end up dying a few weeks later once you plant them! We have to replace so many of them!
that is so incredibly helpful- THANK YOU! I had no idea about that – I got a couple of hydrangea and an azalea from home depot last year, so I guess we will see what happens with those, too!
My hydrangeas from Lowes were fine! 🙂 just literally everyone who got trees from there in our neighborhood had to replace them and it doesn’t matter how well you plant them or take care of them 😢
Hey Taralynn,
Can you share the chicken recipe from the top photo please.
Your dogs are both so cute thanks for sharing pics! 🙂
It’s nice to see that you are buying organic seeds. Last year, some local heirloom tomatoes from the health food store were amazing, wish I knew what brand they were. Be sure to update here on your tomatoes you grow.
Hi, Valerie!
The chicken had chives, dill, caesar dressing, pepper, and parm on top! Then I baked it at 375 for about 16 minutes 🙂
Oh I’ll be updating all the time with my vegetable garden!! 🙂
Love the Tux pic on the couch! How did he do with getting neutered? Our rescue pup is going in for this on 2/14 and I’m nervous about how he will do. He’ll be anxious in a place he doesn’t know without us!
Hi, Kayla!
It was SO SAD to drop him off that day. We protect him with everything and knowing he was alone crushed me. BUT…he did AMAZING!!! I was so scared because he was older than the typical neutered dogs, but he’s been himself, playful, and now cuddling more, and I think it has helped with anxiety/hormones. They medicate your dog as soon as they get there, but I feel so happy we did it. Now, we can feel better about him not getting cancer in the future.
Happy Birthday Taralynn! I hope you had an amazing day with yout family 🙂
I keep up with my NY resolutions of eating more healthy and doing excercises at home!
This summer I am looking forward for our trip to Mauritius. It´s the first time for us as a couple to go that far away and I am super excited! We have traveled a lot here in Europe for the last few years but this is going to be totally different 🙂
I am also excited for our new chapter because we are in the process of buying a apartment in a small town close to Barcelona. I am excited for out uptown life and all the changes, for all the renovations, decorating and so on! 🙂
Can´t wait to see your vegetable garden!
Hi, Milena!
Thank you so much 😊
I love all of your travels and adventures! So fun 😊 It Sounds like you have so many incredible things happening! So happy for you!!
I’m very excited for the summer! We’ve played around with building some raised flower beds too this year since I’m apparently in my crunchy-peanut butter mom homestead stage of life. Not to mention we’ll get our pool up in the backyard for L to play in and OF COURSE baby 2 making their grand arrival <3 .
Hahaha I’m making my way to the crunch homestead (even in the suburbs) 😆
Can’t wait for baby #2 for you!!!
I love this! You look so happy! I love reading your recaps.
I cannot wait for summer! It has been in the single/negative digits where I am and I can’t stand it!
What are you putting in your planting beds to fill them? I want to start one this year, but don’t know where to start!
Thank you, Aimee!!
Ohhh gosh that is so cold. Luckily, we have had a pretty mild winter!
We are having a company come fill the beds with organic soil and compost, and then I’ll probably mix in a few bags of sand for drainage. I’m going to follow the guide from the Gardenary book 🙂
Happy birthday!! I have a 5 month old and I was wondering – when did Bugs start sleeping through the night? Does he have the same schedule (nap times) every day? Would love to hear about that and his solid food journey!
Hi, Kelila!
He had a terrible sleep schedule at the 4 month mark. I’m not sure if it was a regression, or just not being in a comfortable sleeping set up. I was also rocking him to fall asleep at night, which I had to stop doing because he wasn’t able to soothe himself back to sleep when waking up.
As soon as he was able to roll over both ways, we put him in his room in a light sleep sack with the nanit band. We did the ferber method for about a week, and he learned super quick. He was able to self soothe and put himself to sleep at night (after our bedtime routine) and now when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he just puts himself back to sleep instead of crying for me. Around 6 months, he started sleeping 11 to 12 hours straight. He likes to sleep on his stomach, and I think that’s why he wasn’t sleeping well before. He does stick to the same nap time schedule pretty much everyday, and he always shows signs of tiredness by rubbing his eyes or being irritable. If he doesn’t nap during the day, bedtime isn’t as smooth, so it motivates me to stick to the nap schedule!
I do have all his food documented and need to take some time to write it out )
Ahhhhhh thank you so much for the detailed response!! I’m going to keep all this in mind when we approach moving him to his own room 🙂
Hi Taralynn,
Happy belated birthday!!
1. Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions (if you made any!)
last year I had a goal of reading 15 books. Since becoming a mama, I NEVER had time to read anymore. I ended up finishing the year with 31!! I attribute that to finally getting a library card again and downloading the libby app. I listen to audio nooks when I take the kids for a long walk and I make it a point to read something every single day, even if it is only one chapter. My new goal this year is 40 books…so far I’m finished with 4, 60% finished with an audiobook, and just about halfway with a physical book! It helps now that the kids are 4 and 20 months…they entertain each other, which gives me time to actually enjoy a HOT cup of coffee and read my books!
2. What is one thing you’re looking forward to this summer?
Getting back in my garden and going for walks again! I am a new gardener since we just bought our house last Febraury. I’m looking forward to seeing what survived my novice skills and trying new things! I can’t wait until the weather warms up again too for walks. Up here in MA, it was -6 yesterday…brrrr! but tomorrow it will be back to 50 again. Welcome to New England!
3. Do you grow anything indoors?
I have a few orchids indoors and my amaryllis was just trimmed back. All my herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) were moved indoors for the winter and I’m currently working on a few more. I’ve got green onion leftovers from the grocery store growing on my window sill and I just planted basil, cilantro, and chives yesterday. My goal is to never need to buy herbs from the market again. Most of them get trashed after my recipe because I never need the whole package. I want to stop throwing my money away! Fingers crossed!!
I loved this post so much, friend! Everything looks so amazing, from the gardening (Kyle did amazing on those garden beds!), exercise (you’re killing it!), and yummy bread (they look like masterpieces!). I really want to try to make bread, but I’m a little intimidated, haha. Yours look so phenomenal and you’re so sweet to share them with your neighbors!
Make Life Marvelous
Thank you, Ashley! You’re so sweet!!
Do not be afraid to do it. My first few loaves were a flop but every time I do it, it gets easier and I keep learning so many new techniques.
For the new year I wanted to comb my dog every day (his hair become matted very, very fast). Apart for a few days, I sticked to this habit!
I can’t wait to go on long runs this summer, go on walks with my dog, eat zucchini and tomatoes and cucumbers. I want all the fresh food when it gets hot!!
I grow some plants inside, but I’m thinking about a little herbs garden, like mint and others. For all the salads I’m going to make this spring/summer, of course ^^
Hi, Nina!
Long-haired dogs can be hard to keep up with! We have to get our groomed every two months because of mats.
Those sound like perfect summer things!! ahh can’t wait.
Definitely do an herb garden!!
Love the garden beds!! Excited for all of the gardening updates!