Nest Full of New

 

Hi, Impact!

 

I’m Tracy and I’m so excited that you stopped by today!

Nest Full of New is a space created to allow exploration of new experiences and to share and learn with friends.   Here, you’ll find everything from recipes (new to me and tried-and-true,) to excursions and travel to products that enhance life to issues that I’m passionate about like diabetes and healthier living.  I’d like to learn more about a sustainable lifestyle, aka “living as our grandparents did.” I’m also fairly crafty and have Pinterest boards full of stuff waiting for me to try!  I will share what I learn in this trial-and-error life, creating my Nest Full of New stuff along the way.

How the Nest was built…

I started building this wonderful nest in New Orleans where my beautiful daughter was born.  She and I now live just outside of Atlanta, Georgia with my hubby, Bean the sassy cat (brand new in 2021!), and a silly dachshund named Flash. Dear daughter kept us busy for years with Girl Scouts, band, drama, and all the other things that seem to consume every waking moment when you have children.  We were always on the go and always had someplace we had to be – often requiring that we be in two places at once.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, it happened…she abandoned me left for college. At first, it was so hard not seeing her every day. I could actually hear the silence in the house and felt the “empty” part of “empty nest.” I felt proud and crushed at the same time.  Sort of like this.

 (thank you Cathy Heck!)

I know…the drama, right? In the rational part of my brain, I knew she’d be fine and could actually function without me. This stuff really isn’t for the faint of heart. All the emotional mommy stuff aside, I instantly had so much free time to fill.  That’s where the refilling of this nest begins.

A little about me – the chief architect, builder and engineer of the nest…

I’m a few years past the half-century mark now and this is typically the time that many use as the deadline for attaining a variety of goals or crossing off bucket list items. I haven’t established any of these, yet.  Maybe this blog with help me identify some things I want to do with my life. Is that something that everyone does? I mean, really officially like that?  We’ll work on that.

I’m a bit of an introvert who is outgoing once comfortable, a procrastinator, and I play on a pretty competitive trivia team (read “cutthroat.”) My family is extremely important to me and, though we’re spread out from Texas to Lousiana to Georgia, we still get together a couple of times a year at Mom’s house in Austin, Texas.  I have probably eaten more Cheetos in my life than one should ever admit (you didn’t hear that from me)…often while watching my favorite guilty pleasure shows –Amazing Race, Grey’s Anatomy, almost anything on the Food Network and So You Think You Can Dance.  Some of my favorite things are coffee, Bon Jovi, fruit as fresh as it can be, road trips, mason jars, musical theater, vintage measuring cups and spoons, college football (Geaux Tigers!) anything coconut, oofos (trust me) and board games. My favorite flowers are carnations, gardenias, wisteria and hydrangeas.  I consider myself to be a pretty darn good couponer, born out of the need to save money when DD went to college. I am a little obsessed with food trucks crafting and DIY right now, and we’re almost always planning our next travel adventure or two.

The most beautiful place I have ever been is probably the Grand Canyon – there are no words for its overwhelming awesomeness.  My daughter and I took our first trip to Europe in 2015 and the beauty there was overwhelming, as well.  La Pieta made me cry. Really.  And words can’t describe the majesty of Niagra Falls.  Now that we’re coming out the other side of the pandemic (fingers crossed!), I hope to add to my list of beautiful places in the coming months. Hey, there ya go!  My first goal. See more beautiful things. I will strive to find beauty for the rest of my life. OK, that makes me happy.

 

My husband’s name is Bill and he’s an unapologetic New Yorker who thinks I’m Miss America. We met in Atlanta in 1999 and married in 2002 before God and our nearest and dearest.  He’s always involved in my shenanigans, whether willing or not, and does it because it makes me happy. He recently indulged my desire to repurpose everything by salvaging old tabletops and some perfect pallets from a restaurant remodel without one complaint (ok, maybe one…) It’s also handy that he’s tall and strong.  He is a true savant when it comes to sports and retaining every bit of sports trivia.  I wish sometimes, that he’d empty out a few bits of 1977 baseball stats from his brain and replace them with, oh I don’t know, maybe where the mixing bowls go or how to cook something besides pasta and scrambled eggs. Love him!

Why am I blogging about this stuff?

By day, and often by night, I’m a grant writer for our local school system.  It’s a very formal, technical writing style that is bound by an infinite number of rules and parameters, both written and unwritten.  I spend a crazy amount of time checking and double-checking margins, numbers of pages, font size, and line spacing, in addition to the accuracy and completeness of the content. I love grant writing, but I also want to indulge my inner freestylin’ chick and write what I want, the way I want to. (I would never end a sentence with the word “to” in a grant application, for example.)

Another reason for the Nest Full of New blog is to capture and slightly organize my exploration and discovering what kinds of new things I want to add to my life.  It may be that the journey itself is the filler…hmmm. It will also help me to share it with friends and get some feedback and new ideas.

Finally, I began guest blogging for my sister-in-law on What Mommies Need in January of 2013. I enjoyed the work I did for Renee and was invited to attend the annual Reviewer’s Retreat in June. I became so inspired and motivated that Nest Full of New was hatched in July of 2013. I fully expect blogging to be a gift of confidence and creativity, and hope it will connect me to a community of friends who inspire and encourage me on a daily basis.

The best ways to connect with me are through the comments on my blog posts; I do my best to respond to each and every one.  You can reach me by email at nestfullofnew@gmail.com or follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Thanks again for stopping by and I look forward to getting to know you, too!

Visiting from a brand? I enjoy doing product and travel reviews and would love to chat! Please connect at nestfullofnew@gmail.com.