My 300th Milestone & Barre Beauties

So…about a week or two ago, I shared a more introspective post about life these days, and the fullness of it all—positives, challenges and everything in between.

Welp. For the past several years, my Barre community has been a major source of connectivity and friendship for me. I adore this boisterous and supportive group of ladies so much.

In fact, we often commiserate about the holistic health we receive from our class attendance. It’s so much more than the physical (though, goodness, it’s physical!). It’s mental, emotional—even spiritual, as so many of us are ladies of faith. 

We utilize our morning classes as therapy sessions, support groups, mood levelers, and just heaping doses of laughter and levity.

We do not suffer silently through our difficult classes (groaning or hollering out loud in misery always helps, ha), and we have a giant text chain for all sorts of odds and ends, so there’s a constant stream of communication.

Better, still—I have coffee and random celebrations with several of these buddies on a regular basis, and a few weeks ago, we managed to get together for an evening of Fall crafting!

In the past, I shared a post about a night Chica and I met friends out for a visit to this particular crafting place, and it was so much fun.

Basically, there are a gazillion projects and crafts you can select from and complete on site. On this particular night, we rented out the space, made it a little party with food and drinks, and had the best time laughing and crafting together. :) It was such a treat for the soul.

And this young lady—the noisiest and eldest among us—was celebrating a birthday, too:



It was such a joy to set aside just a tiny bit of time to spend together that we decided to have a Friendsgiving this year—and I offered to host. :) So in a few weeks, we’ll have another raucous good time, on my home turf.

In related news…the week before last, I hit my 300th class milestone. Woohoo!



Though it’s not an official milestone at the studio (I celebrated my 250th in June; the next official milestone is 500), I feel like it was a really lovely, round number to mark as a happy day.

300 is a lot of classes.

And a lot of time spent together with friends, keeping my body healthy and my mind stable.

I’m so grateful—every day, every class—for the way this activity helps to fill my cup, especially in these crazy months we’re experiencing. 

As a final-final side note: this time of year, the studio always hosts a 30 classes in 60 days Fall Fit Challenge. It’s a doozy, and probably the focal challenge of the year.

My first year at Barre, I completed 30 classes in 62 days (I missed the deadline by accident, thinking it ended on a Sunday; I was so bummed, ha).

My second year, I completed 30 classes in 58 days, and felt so proud to have made it in under the wire.

Now, this year, I’m completing my 30th class (tomorrow) in 45 days. :)

Two factors have contributed to my accelerated pace. 

First: a lack of sick days (I’m knocking on a GIANT piece of wood, here). The kiddos have stayed healthier this season…so far. OYE.

And, second: Chica’s middle school drop off (just down the street from my class) syncs up nicely. Sometimes I wish it didn’t so I could rest my body a bit more, all. But I guess I’ll take the convenience. ;)

Grateful for this outlet and these ladies. Life I FULL and busy. But so much of it is good.

Happy Hump Day, peeps.

Over and out.

P.S. Teaser alert: a major post is color tomorrow. :)