Moments of Musing

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2K Mother’s Day Giveaway

Filed Under: Uncategorized //

*This giveaway is sponsored by Chatbooks.* 

Happy May! 

I don’t know about you but I love printing photos–I just never get around to doing it much, so the easier the better! I’ve decided to finally print photos of our baby boy via a Chatbooks baby book to capture his first year, which has been my first year as a mom. I can’t even believe it’s almost been a year since he was born but it has been and it’s bittersweet … but much more sweet watching him grow. 


You too can make your own photo book or print photos for yourself, your mom, your grandma, your kids, etc. FOR FREE because I’m giving away $20 Chatbooks credit (which, for example, can get your a photo book + set of prints) to two lucky people!  That’s right– you have TWO chances to win! 

The rules are simple:
1. Follow me (@momentsofmusing) on instagram
2. Like the giveaway photo on Instagram
3. Tag 3 friends in the comments
* 1 BONUS ENTRY per additional friend you tag


As always, thank you all for following me along and participating.  

Each credit is worth $20. Giveaway closes May 8, 2017 at 11:59 PM EST. You must be 18 years or older and residing in the U.S. to win. This giveaway is not affiliated with Instagram. 

Good luck!

5 on Friday: Spring Blooms

Filed Under: five on friday, friday favorites, friday five //

Happy Friday!!!!!!!! This week has been a longgggg one. 4:45AM wake ups are not easy nor fun.

My plans for the weekend do not include trying the Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino (too much sugar and hype for me, though I did contemplate it). It seems like I might very well be one of the few in blogland who will not. I am, still, interested in trying the pink drink, though. …I digress… 

My weekend plans do include sleeping in until my alarm clock (baby) wakes me up. My husband and I can surely use the extra sleep.

Speaking of my husband (it seems like I’m speaking of him on here a lot lately, huh? lucky fella), he often jokes that I post so many photos of florals in the spring, and well, he’s right. If you take a look at my Instagram, it’s no surprise I’m a big fan of flowers, particularly the recent ones that have been blooming around New York City. In fact, I like flowers so much that my previous blog name was Just Bloom. There’s just something about flowers blooming that makes me happy… It could be

their beauty,

the signaling of warm weather upon us,

or a little bit of both (probably).

It’s been forever since I’ve done a linkup so, I figured what better way than a 5 on Friday to share some of my favorite flowers this season:

Follow me along on Instagram for more 🙂

**Photos to be used from this post for personal use only. For commercial use, contact jackiehlewblog@gmail.com.
All uses of these photos require attribution to Moments of Musing.**
http://www.smidgeofthis.com/

LDR? Go For It.

Filed Under: homecoming, long distance, love //

“Sure, there’s the loneliness, the longing, the enormous phone bills. But have you really lived if you’ve never searched for your beloved’s face at an airport gate?” – Meghan Daum 
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Homecoming photos by Endlessly Photography; Homecoming post here
If given the choice, I would never be apart from my husband and in a long distance relationship (LDR) again. Been there, done that. See, my husband and I were already were in one–and kicked butt while doing so, if I might add. 😉

Over the years, I’ve had people, some of whom were also in long distance relationships and some who were just interested, ask me how I did it. There is no simple answer, especially because every relationship is different (you know your relationship best). What I can wholeheartedly tell you is it will take a lot of quality communication, effort, trust, and love.

Before I jump into my advice about whether to pursue a long distance relationship, I want to let you know I am [cautiously] optimistic by nature. I try my best to view the glass half full and to find the good in every situation. And I am a hopeless romantic. I chose to enter into a long distance relationship when I met my husband and I chose to continue when he moved thousands of miles away. I chose to do so because I loved him too much to simply give up due to some distance.

If the prospect of an LDR is the current reality you’re facing, and you have strong feelings for your partner, I’m here to tell you to go for it. Follow your heart. Stop doubting. Take a leap of faith.
It’s okay.

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It’s okay — and very possible — to fall in love with someone who lives far, far away. Let yourself. Yes, there will be tears and lonely nights. But I promise it will be one of, if not THE most romantic, passionate love stories you can ever be a part of.

Now, unfortunately, I’m no relationship guru or fortune teller. The reality is your relationship might not work out. (If that happens, I’m truly sorry.)
But my goodness, it might. It just might.

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And then one day, you’ll wake up everyday next to your partner just like you’d dreamed of. You’ll live together. Get married, if you so choose. Maybe start a family. All in the same place, in the same city, in the same state, in the same country as one another.

And you’ll look back on those LDR days and you’ll feel like together, your partnership can conquer anything. You’ll feel stronger because of those days and have a solid foundation because of them, too. Because if you can live without your love most days of your dating days and succeed, together, you can overcome a lot.
After all, you’re together. Together, after all. 

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This post was inspired by my most recent post and my very own love story, which just happens to be my favorite.

Life Recently: Lots of Trips

Filed Under: life, Puerto Rico, vacation //

It’s been a while since I’ve written about what’s been going on in my/our life/lives. Well, March was a doozy. So much went on.
Trips to the ER, pediatrician, Michigan, urgent care… and Puerto Rico! 
Thank goodness we’d planned our vacation because it was so needed after the hectic month we’d been having.
All is, thankfully, well in the health department. Seb was just sick for the first time and it both broke my heart and almost gave me a billion heart attacks. Then, my husband and I got sick (it could have been Seb wiping his nose on me all the time and/or coughing into my mouth as I was holding him..) and I managed to get THE most painful ear infection that I can ever remember having. I was then extremely nervous to fly but decided to do so after being cleared by our doctor.
Of course, getting sick two days before we were about to leave was less than convenient and not ideal… Needless to say, this was the most last-minute packing we have ever done.
Life is still great, though. Because we’re healthy (the ear pain lasted under six hours thanks to trusty antibiotics and a heating pad) and amid the craziness, we got to visit my husband’s family in Michigan and make it to our vacation in Puerto Rico.
Before I share some photos from our vacation, I want to give you a tip: try to visit in the spring or summer! Last time we visited Puerto Rico, we went in November and we were unimpressed with the ocean. This time, it felt like we were on another island. The water was an amazing shade of crystal-clear blue.
And now, for the good stuff: the photos, most of which were taken on our trusty Nikon (another tip: invest in a good camera–the better quality of photos is worth it).
*Though I took photos, I did not take as many as I normally do because I unplugged.

How I Unplugged

Filed Under: life, Unplugged Puerto Rico, Unplugging //

As some of you might remember, I decided that I would (mostly) unplug while on my recent vacation. I say mostly because the reality is I still used my phone, posted, wrote, and visited social media. The bad news is I probably need to be somewhere without service and WiFi to completely unplug. The good news is I think did a pretty good job at staying off my phone as much as possible.

This is how I was able to do it:
I promised myself.
The plan to unplug came to me a few days before we left. I really wanted to stick with it and I knew if I wrote a blog post about it, I’d hold myself accountable. So that’s what I did. (This is the blog post I wrote.) Once it was out there, I knew there was no taking it back.

I detached from my phone.
I simply left my phone in the hotel room sometimes. Other times, I kept it in the stroller pocket or in a bag away from me. Honestly, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be to detach from the phone. I guess really enjoying life made it easy. I didn’t have a desire to figure out how to edit a photo or write a caption when there was so much beauty and love around me.

I optimized my baby’s nap time.
On the second day, I made the decision to try my best to wait until my baby fell asleep to get on my phone and that’s what I did. While he slept, or was preoccupied playing with others, I took photos, edited them, checked social media and emails, and wrote.
I was intentional about social media use.
Whenever I was on social media, I didn’t really just aimlessly browse. I visited blogs and pages I am interested in, commented on photos I particularly liked, and posted things I had prepared and planned for previously.

I reminded myself to be present.
What good would it be flying hundreds of miles away with my family to spend our time on my phone constantly? Whenever I felt the urge to go on social media, I reminded myself that being present was important. Not only for myself but for my family, especially my son. I didn’t want him to have memories of me looking down at a device while we vacation. I wanted him to have memories with me. In the pool. At the beach. Loving and laughing. Looking up at the stars and group-hugging his dad. I wanted to have memories together and that requires living in the moment, together.
I really am so glad I did this. I wholeheartedly recommend you doing it next time you’re away, as well!