About Me

I’m Jessica, a wife, mom, and adapting perfectionist, excited to share and blog about the people, places, and things that inspire, encourage, and motivate me to be a better person and to live a more intentional and passionate life.

 

Now, when I say recovering perfectionist, you probably imagine an overachiever of some sort, but I’m quite the opposite. Because I’ve always wanted to do everything right and perfect before putting it (whatever “it” is) and myself out there, I have held myself back in so many ways; everything from making new friends, attending social events, finding a hobby, decorating rooms in our home, craft projects, education, career opportunities; if you name it. I would plan and study but never follow through if I didn’t feel like I could get it right, make it right, handle it right. If I couldn’t do it perfectly, I procrastinated it or avoided it all together. In hindsight, I can see that this has been a recurring theme in my life since I was a teenager, maybe younger.

  

Mixing Life Up is all about building a community of people that are working to create a life they love, full of imperfectly perfect days, a life that you’re excited to wake up to, where your heart and soul are overflowing so much that you can’t help but encourage and inspire those around you by your energy. It is a place  to be vulnerable and open about the things you’re working towards changing in your own a life, knowing there is no judgement here, just support.

 

My hopes and intentions is that this site will be a place you can turn to for inspiration, where you’ll feel encouragement through reading our experiences and our stories and that you’ll feel reassured that it’s never too late to change or grow, and that you, too, can make it through difficult times and become a better and stronger person because of them.

 

 

 

I decided to start this blog, because even though I have so much gratitude for my blessings, most specifically, my husband and children, our life has been virtually turned upside down over the past four and a half years, and wasn’t a cake walk before then either. I spent a long time thinking life was never going to work in my favor no matter how hard i tried to do the right thing and be a good person. After fighting through all of the challenges and chaos, I’ve really had to look within and examine my life. You see, somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t really living. Until this year, 2019, I was simply putting one foot in front of the other to get through each long and stressful day. I was physically and emotionally depleted. Running on empty.

 

I have been fighting hard to change that, to have a growth mindset, to be more intentional with my life, with each new day that I’m blessed with but it is a process and requires deliberate time and effort. This blog serves as an accountability partner of sorts, where I can share my growth as well as encourage others while I Mix Life Up and work towards building the home, relationships, and daily life that I know I, my family and friends, and each of you deserve.

 

 

 

They’re all pretty darn terrific!

 

Again, my goal is that this site will be a place you can turn to for inspiration, where you’ll feel encouragement through our experiences and stories, as well as a place where I can learn from you, too, through your comments and engaging. So, please, don’t be shy about commenting or giving us suggestions for topics that you may be interested in learning more about or would like to see discussed.

 

You can also find me posting and sharing everyday tips, encouragement, and the topics I cover below on social media as well, so join me there to stay up to date.

 

 [DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]

 

 

At Mixing Life Up you can look forward to reading and learning about the following topics and stories:

 

Emotional, and Mental Health| This one’s a doozy for our family. Besides sharing what I learn about fighting a perfectionist mindset, and mindfulness in general,  I will be sharing our story and information on an uncommon emotional/mental disorder that affected my perfectly healthy teenage daughters ability to walk, talk, caused temporary blindness, amnesia, and an array of other scary “side effects”, called Conversion Disorder with PNES. As well as my own and my children’s individual challenges with anxiety, depression, ADHD, and learning disabilities.

 

Physical Health and Fitness| I am a dancing yogi at heart (is that even a thing?!). Seriously, I aspire to be strong, flexible, and centered. I’m a total newbie when it comes to being truly healthy, I’m completely out of shape and at least 30 pounds overweight, so I’ll be sharing what I learn and what I find works for me along the way. I foresee yoga and dance classes, or Zumba, along with cleaner eating, being my outlet to get me to my goal of losing 30 pounds.

 

Infertility in my 40’s| Yep, you read that right. We started our infertility journey almost 3 years ago after trying for 6 months on our own. My amazing husband, Bryan, hasn’t had the blessing of having a child of his own and I want it so much for him, for us. He is so wonderful with my children, with the little ones we teach at church, and our little family members. We have felt inspired from the moment we knew we wanted to be together forever that we are meant to have a child (or two) together. It’s been a journey that has so far included medications, awkward and highly uncomfortable examinations, and an invasive surgery that required 6 weeks of recovery time for me.

 

Home and Family| Everything from self care, parenting, finances and debt reduction, organizing, D.I.Y. tips and hacks, crafting, recipes, budget friendly meals, minimizing our home and life, products I love and anything else that I come across that I feel you could benefit from me sharing. I guess you could call this my catch all section.

 

Utah Living and Travel| There is so much to see and experience in our beautiful home state of Utah. We enjoy spending time outdoors hiking, camping, fishing, picnicking in parks and just being in nature. There are also so many fun events, activities, and restaurants to enjoy and make memories at if you prefer indoor fun. As a relatively new family, which until recently had a family restaurant to run, we haven’t ventured off to do much travel yet, but we know that is the direction we are heading with our goals and dreams. We all love to explore and learn.

 

 

Come and Mix Life Up with me and enjoy each Imperfectly Perfect day.