It’s been a while since I’ve shared a little “The Week’s End” post. If you are new around here, this is just a little update post, where I share a little bit about my life lately and sometimes some fun things I’ve found on the internet that I think you should check out.

The last 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. I’m sharing pictures of snow in Sequoias here, but I’m actually enjoying the tropics here in Costa Rica as I write this.

So, here’s what we’ve been up to:

Two weeks ago we drove up to Sequoia National Park for just the day. California has not had any rain or snow and we finally got a dump. It was gorgeous. Beautiful fluffy new snow, redwood trees, and sunshine – you couldn’t ask for a nicer day. We really live in such a great location. We have very mild winters, but if we want to visit the snow, it’s less then 2 hours away.

And then the very next weekend, we woke up early Saturday morning and decided to head to LA, (which is also less the 2 hours away). I decided I wanted to check our Emily Henderson’s Rummage Sale, just for kicks. Olivia and Dylan went with me. We arrived a few hours after the sale had started, so a lot of the REALLY good stuff was gone. But, I did score a pair of West Elm chrome wall sconces (brand new, in their boxes) for $15 each. And….. a got an awesome midcentury style globe lamp for $15 as well, but the best part is that it came from Kim and Kanye’s house. I think that’s hilarious. I’m totally NOT a fan, but it’s pretty fun to say that a lamp in my house came from theirs. And since we had driven all the way to LA, we decided to head over to LACMA for a couple hours and then grab a bite to eat at the LA Farmer’s Market.

Last week we hosted a Brandwell Meet Up and it was a success! So many local folks came out and chatted business and branding. Brandwell is still keeping me very busy. It’s exciting to see this new venture of ours grow. We have so many big plans and dreams for Brandwell, in addition to the workshops, we are planning some online courses so that we can help businesses beyond just Bakersfield.

The flu finally hit our house last week. My poor husband and son were sooooo sick.  I was panicked that Olivia or myself would get it before or even during our trip to Costa Rica. I credit my recent healthy eating (I’ve been on a 28 Day Reset with Reformed Metabolics), overloading myself with Vitamin C and zinc, and sleeping in a different room from my husband for the last 3 days to staying flu free.

Speaking of the 28 Day Reset, it’s been hard to keep up the healthy eating here in Costa Rica. We really don’t get a choice of food, we kind of just need to eat what is put in front of us. I’m doing my best, eating lots of fresh papaya and trying to limit how much rice I eat (even though it’s served with almost every meal). Don’t get me wrong, the food is really good, it’s just not very low carb or as high in fiber as I’d like it to be. It’s just a week, I’ll get myself back on track as soon as I am home.

If you are interested in our Mission trip to Costa Rica, I’m sharing details from our days here on my Instagram Stories. Saturday was spent mixing a lot of cement, today we went to church, played with kids and then got to visit a little market. Tomorrow – we are back to mixing cement. It’s not glamorous, but I feel like we are helping this little community. They are building a dining hall to help feed local kids. Many of the children in this area are from Honduras and they are being raised by single mothers that struggle to find child care and put meals on the table while working to try to earn a little income. I’m so impressed with this local church and their vision to help their community. They don’t have much themselves, but God is really using them in a big way.