Hi friends,
We’re coming to the end of our one-month stay in the US.
Don’t get me wrong — I love coming home to see friends and family, living with the convenience of Amazon, and being able to buy basically any ingredient I want at the grocery store.
But I cannot wait to drag this dry, scaly skin and permanently runny nose (ughh) straight into the Caribbean Sea when we return next week.
But before I can trade the wooly socks and turtleneck sweater for a bikini, we have a family wedding to get through.
Which leads me to this week's story, Adina requested to be the flower girl in this upcoming wedding.
The bride and groom weren’t planning to have any kids at the wedding, but I think our cousin was impressed by the sheer boldness of the request and happily agreed.
Adina was a flower girl at her uncle’s wedding back in the fall and took the role extremely seriously. I have multiple videos of her practicing her perfect step… toss… flower-release form. I have never seen anyone more dedicated to the art of gracefully throwing petals.
So when she heard about another wedding in the family, she immediately offered her professional services.
Which brings us to the problem.
I’m writing this two days before the wedding… and we still do not have a dress.
The requirement: a formal, black flower girl dress.
Easy, right?
There are approximately seven million of those on the internet.
My plan was simple. Order one on Amazon. Better yet, dye the champagne-colored dress she wore in the fall. That’ll be a fun little DIY project
Except none of the Amazon dresses could arrive in time. (And no, I did not wait until the last minute — I tried ordering them a month ago.)
Fine. I’ll dye the old dress.
The formerly champagne dress turned… light grey.
Okay. Pivot.
Did you know they make fabric spray paint? I did not. But the store had three cans left, so I bought them all and began transforming this dress into a um, erm...masterpiece.
I got through most of the front.
And ran out of paint. Not to mention, the spray paint made the dress so stiff, it no longer requires a body to hold it upright.
This was Monday.
The wedding is Saturday.
There is not another can of fabric spray paint anywhere.
Also, this is the United States. Why can nothing get delivered on Amazon on time?!
Tuesday and Wednesday I checked more stores for dresses or paint. Nothing.
Wednesday night I ordered every black dress I could find on Amazon with next-day delivery.
Now here I sit on Thursday, (you get to read this on Friday) patiently waiting for at least one dress to arrive.
At this point, it does not matter what it looks like. I will put this bold little flower girl in anything that remotely resembles a black dress.
Also, a key detail: she refuses to wear tulle. Which eliminates approximately 97% of the flower girl dress market. (Newsflash- Every dress available for next day delivery contained tulle.)
Do we succeed in this little life problem?
Honestly, I have no idea.
I’m writing this newsletter a day early because tomorrow I’ll be busy with weekend wedding festivities. So we’re all going to find out together next week whether I had to drive hundreds of miles and spend hundreds of dollars to outfit my tiny professional flower girl.
But this whole saga did remind me of something.
Sometimes the answer isn’t more effort.
Sometimes the answer is a different approach-a theme that keeps coming up time and time again with clients (and my own body as well).
“I’m still working out… but my body just isn’t responding the way it used to.”
More effort.
More discipline.
Less return.
If you’re somewhere in your 40s or 50s and your workouts suddenly feel like they’ve stopped “working,” you’re not imagining it — and it’s not because you’ve lost motivation.
Your body is changing, and the model you’ve been using for exercise may no longer be the one that works best.
So on Monday, March 23, I’m hosting a live, zoom workshop called:
“Why Your Body Isn’t Responding to Workouts Anymore — And the Strength Model That Fixes It.”
I’ll break down what’s actually happening during hormonal transition, why the workouts that used to work start falling flat, and what a smarter strength approach looks like instead.
I’ll send the registration details next week. But if this topic hits a nerve, keep an eye out.
And wish us luck in the search for the elusive black, non-tulle flower girl dress.
Coach Joanie
A formerly champagne colored, but not yet black, flower girl dress. Wish us luck.
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