Letter from TeriLyn – October 2025

I distinctly remember sitting down at the end of September to write the monthly letter, and I just couldn’t. September was such a hard month for so many reasons that I didn’t even want to re-live it. I tried to think bout just the positive things from the month, and even then, I was uninspired to write. So I didn’t.

Thankfully, October was a much better month. I started to get a rhythm with childcare, which made work easier. Charles finally got back on a somewhat normal sleep schedule after his hospital stay. And, best of all, my brother’s family came to visit from Utah.

LIFE

So many great things happened in October! Thomas turned 5, Tommy and I celebrated our wedding anniversary and my brother’s family visited from Utah.

We had the sweetest party with Thomas at a local gymnastics place. It’s basically a padded room where the kids can run around for two hours – ha! He had a blast and I loved that I didn’t have to clean my house up afterwards. I can’t believe he is 5. He is truly the sweetest, polite, funny kid and I feel so honored to be his mom. He’s not a chill kid, by any means, but I’ll take his little personality any day, even when it’s extremely challenging. (That dude is stubborn.)

I was so focused on planning Thomas’s birthday party and my brother’s visit, that I totally forgot our wedding anniversary that fell in between those. Oops. But every day I’m grateful for Tommy and that he’s who I get to parent with. He’s always so supportive of my work goals, encourages me to take care of myself even when I feel guilty about it, and takes such good care of the boys and me. Here’s some wedding pics if you want to go down that rabbit hole.

My brother, Roger, and his wife hadn’t been to NC since we got married and this time they came out with his two kids! He doesn’t travel much since he owns his own business and competes in a lot of rodeos, so it meant a lot that he took time to come. And it was a 10/10 visit. It didn’t even feel rushed or too busy, but we did a lot of fun things (including going to Boone) and it was so special to see how sweet his boys are with my boys. And Roger is such a good uncle – he’s really great with kids. And my sister-in-law is just so easy to be around and helped me with the boys so much, without ever being asked, and she’s a great mom. I can’t wait for them to come back – it needs to be a regular thing.

October wrapped up with some pretty stressful family things happening in Utah. I’m figuring out when I should fly home, but the timing hasn’t felt quite right yet, so I’ve been doing what I can to support my family from afar. I don’t mean to be cryptic, but it doesn’t feel like my place to share online. But I will ask for prayers for my family, especially my parents.

WORK

October was super busy with lots of small campaigns and a couple big ones. And, of course, publishing lots of fall content on my blog! Here are some of my favorite partnerships I had:

• Hatch – They have so many more products now than when Thomas was a baby. This cute little chubby lamp is my current fave.
• Nordstrom Beauty – can we talk about this lip set?
• Quince – I ordered a ton of sweaters for this content and they’re all incredible. (Here’s my Quince review.)
• Loft – I was shocked by how much I loved this trench coat from there
• Tuckernuck – These ballet flats are soooo good.
• J.Crew – their stuff has been shockingly good lately!!! So much better than previous years.
• Natura Bissé – I love their Vitamin C!
• ShopMy – it’s been a game-changer for my business, truly!

Tommy also had a couple of partnerships in October, which is always fun (and hilarious).

• Thomas Hill – because every man needs quality boxers.
• Holderness & Bourne – see his reel here.

November is also shaping up to be a full month. I love creating holiday content and helping y’all find the BEST gifts so I’m excited for all of it!! I’m also working on a Sezané review and placed a massive order to see if it’s worth the hype. Stay tuned!

Here’s some of the paid campaigns on my calendar.

• Petite Studio – this is a new-to-me brand that looks gorgeous. I can’t wait to try on everything they’re sending.
• Perelel – this is a repeat partnership which I love since I truly love their products. Their protein powder is the best ever. I also take their multivitamin, iron and Omega 3.
• RMS Beauty – I love their concealer and foundation, so it was fun when they reached out, considering I didn’t think they knew I existed. Ha!

HEALTH

I did a 30-day trial at Burn Bootcamp in September, mostly because they had childcare to be honest. And I do not function well if I can’t work out consistently. (It’s a major way I manage my anxiety.) And then, even after we had more consistent childcare in October, I signed a six-month contract with Burn because I liked the workout that much. It’s not as convenient for me as the gym that’s 5 minutes from my house, but I like seeing my friends, making new friends, and not having to think about what type of workout I want to do.

My joints have been relatively happy lately, but instead I’ve been having incontinence issues with anything involving jumping at Burn. The things women go through after having babies is wild (and often frustrating). So I’ve been going back to my pelvic floor PT to work on some things with that. My pelvis also rotates quite easily, which causes a leg-length discrepancy that then pulls on my hamstring, causing pain. So she’s helping with that, too.

I ran the Run for Joy 5K in October and even placed second in my age group with a 23:26 finish time. Considering I’m only running a couple of times a month, I was really happy with that! And I was very happy that I didn’t have any pain while running. It’s a special race to me since I’m on the planning committee, and it was a beautiful morning!

Alright, we’ll wrap this up! Thank you for being here, truly.