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Category Archives: Regular Life

4/4/2012

I really need to get in a rhythm…..

Here is my Holly, hamming it up with her favorite pose of late. Such a cutie….

I am in need of a few days alone to brainstorm and plan, but with a nursing baby girl that’s just not going to happen for awhile. I have so many ideas I want to share, and things I want to implement here on the blog…..I just can’t seem to get “ahead” enough to get it started! I am sure that everyday will be the day I can get it together and then BAM. Baby refuses to nap. Preschooler throws a tantrum. The house is a mess. Need I go on?

We’ve had an interesting week here thus far with each of my girls going through their own struggles. Holly FINALLY gave up the bottle a few nights ago, this was a long time coming and was NOT an easy thing for her to do. We had a few tears and a few fits, but now that we are on night three it seems to be going okay. Marie is still my happy little girl, rarely fussing at all. Somedays we seem to be turning the corner on the whole sleep thing and she naps really well, and then there are days like today when I think she slept an hour total throughout the whole day. These types of days are really hard for me…..I get nothing done, and I get REALLY tired. Man am I getting old!

On the creative front I am excited to be starting Jessica Sprague’s Art of Design class next week. It’s going to be so fun to learn HOW to make digital products–I have so many ideas on what I want to do!

On the home front I have quite a few projects in motion. Check out this list:

  • Two oval frames for the mantle wall were delivered today. (They are going to be perfect for silhouettes!) I also bought a cute piece of subway art at Homegoods last weekend along with a few ceramic pieces at a little shop here in town called Patina. Everything is leaning on the mantle right now as I sit with it all and decide if I like it. So unlike me to do this–I usually dive right in.  (And consequently make mistakes/move to fast and then change it up again a few months later because I don’t like it!) Hopefully by taking my time, the design will stick!
  • The dresser drawer insides are painted a bright berry pink, just waiting for the wind to die down around here before I paint the outside sunny yellow. I have the primer and the paint and I can’t WAIT to get started–it’s going to look so cute yellow. I debated a long time about whether or not to paint the outside of the dresser, it’s not that I didn’t want to…I am just not the best at finishing up painting projects. (My master bedroom dresser has sat half-painted for about three years now.) No more I say. I am determined to get it together at this house once and for all!
  • The puzzles are not hung yet, but everything is now ready for them to be. I was actually waiting until I found the perfect dresser top lamp before we hung them. (I think this is the merchandiser in me…I always get hung up and obsessed about negative space within a vignette.) Target did not disappoint me yesterday! I found one in the exact style, height, and color I wanted so bring on the hammer and nails!
  • I decided on the art/photo for above our end table in the living room. (We have been here since June and nothing is on the walls.) No picture of this to show you yet, I will try and post later this week. It’s an odd space, so finding something to fit there had been a challenge. (Discovering I already owned something that would work was an unanticipated bonus:)
Whew. I am tired just reading all of this. Off to bed I go.  Goodnight friends!

 

 

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3/28/2012

So Much Going On…..

So much going on in my head that is, not so much my day-to-day life…yet! But read on for what I’ve got cookin’……

As a family we are constantly striving to eat better, which in the end (we know after several runs at this) always makes us feel better. That point has hit home with us even more since we have had children, especially since they are both girls. One of the things I struggle with the most in my own mind is how to teach them about food without making it about guilt, shaming, or any of the truckload of emotions I often attach to it. I find myself talking to Holly a lot about protein and fiber, desperately trying to stay away from words such as “good,” “bad,” or the worst one CARBS. (Carbs receive so much abuse in the “diet” world in my opinion, which I think overshadows the fact that you really do need them. Just maybe not a whole loaf of them a day!)

As most of you know, I use Weight Watchers as my guide for portion control, but as far as the actually eating goes I really strive to eat well–not just less. Food has to be flavorful, and well…delicious..for me to want to eat it.  You won’t find rice cakes or melba toast here! Nope, I believe that you can eat well while at the same time eating less. (And funny how when I do eat well, by design, all of the fiber and what not does actually end up in my eating less!)

These thoughts were on my mind today as I drove past Eggplant, an urban farm supply store here in town. I have wanted to stop in and check this store out for close to a year now, but up until today I hadn’t made the time. What I found when I was there was nothing short of amazing! I expected to find seeds and planters, but I didn’t expect to find a canning section (canning is on my forty before forty list so you know I was all over that), a cheesemaking section (wasn’t on my list before but might be now), a children’s gardening section, and loads of loads of beautiful books. Honestly if I had had my wallet with me we would have been in some serious trouble! Here is a photo of the shop:

 

Holly and I are so excited for gardening season to begin, she is slightly obsessed with Okra for some unknown reason, and I was excited to learn that Eggplant offers a class on how to incorporate vegetables into your landscape. (When you have a city lot, and a smaller than average city lot at that, you have to get creative.) I find myself now hunting for graph paper so that I can lay out the yard and get planning. Veggie beds, flower beds, new patio, a trellis, window boxes…oh the projects/posts that are going to fill up this blog this summer!

So…we’ve got canning and planning going on in my head. What else? Well….I am thinking of signing up for Jessica Sprague’s Digital Design class (another thing on my 40-B4-40 list is to learn how to make my own digital scrapbooking kits) and on the organizational front I am working on a functional and workable (for me) way to menu plan.

On top of all of this I am in the midst of getting Marie’s sleep schedule going again now that the pox has finally vacated the building. Today she would only take one nap…but, to her credit, she really is still quite happy even when she is tired. Both Holly and Marie are out cold for the night already (it’s nearly 7pm) and I fear I am not far behind. I have been staying up way too long lately playing around on pinterest. That site is just too addicting!

And with that I am signing off. Look for a post later this week, or perhaps the weekend, regarding steel cut oats. I have found that I love them, I just don’t love how long they take to make each morning. Do you know there is a way to make them ahead of time and freeze them in muffin tins? I had a “frozen puck” for breakfast this morning that took only 3 min to microwave!  LOVE. I didn’t get the least bit hungry for hours…now that’s my kind of breakfast!

***Incidentally, I realize I have been referencing the 40-B4-40 list a bit the past few weeks. I am working on the list–it’s still not quite ready for the blog so don’t worry if you think you missed it. Turns out thinking of 40 things is rather time consuming. Hmmm…wonder if this is some kind of harbinger of how hard completing the whole project is actually going to be……

 

 

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3/26/2012

Weekend Recap

Here is what this weekend was all about–

the park! We were there three or perhaps four times…I sort of lost count:) It’s so amazing to see how much Holly has grown; she was doing things (like scaling the poles above) that she couldn’t do a year ago when we moved here. Love love love how close the park is too. So much easier to fit all of this in when it only takes about a minute and half to get there.

In addition to the park we had a walk to Trader Joe’s, complete with a banana snack.

And of course we made sure we had time for a photoshoot along the way

When we got home Marie showed off her newest move–spinning her high chair wheel! When did my baby get so big? (And so intent…check out that stare!)

All in all a perfectly normal weekend in the life of a family with young ones. Marie is recovering nicely–although it seems like her teeth are really bothering her now. I can see two white buds on the bottom. Poor girl is probably thinking enough is enough!

My Project Life pages are done already for tomorrow, so I think I am going to finish the night off watching The Voice and working on next week’s pages.

Have a great night!

 

 

 

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3/24/2012

How My iphone Makes Me a Better Mother

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have spent the last few weeks or so working with Marie on establishing a sleep schedule and routine. This equates to a lot of time rocking back and forth in a dark room as I try to soothe her to sleep, which leads to a lot of time for me to think and play around with my iphone. Sometime yesterday it struck me just how powerful that little piece of equipment is, and how it helps me be a better mom. Because a lot of you out there are mothers too, I thought this post might be helpful. Here is just some of what it helps me do:

-Track how long I nurse, how many diapers I change, how much medicine I give (really just about anything child related) with the ibabylog app. This would have been particularly helpful at the newborn stage, wish I had discovered it then!

-Log naps and graph sleep patterns with the Weissbluth Nap App. Again, so helpful!

-Food Journal with my Weight Watchers Mobile App. The better I eat, the better I feel, the more energy I have. Any mom knows that the more energy you have the better!

-Create grocery lists with the notepad. If I am being really energetic, Weight Watchers has a Kitchen Companion app that creates grocery lists instantly for me based on my menu planning for the week with the click of a button. Like I said, this works only if I am energetic enough to meal plan. (It should come as now surprise that this has not been the case lately.)

-Entertain a preschooler when she is past her limit out on errands. We love the Monkey Lunchbox App, Preschool Memory, and the Jumpstart Preschool App. I am ready for some new, more challenging ones though. If you know of any appropriate for a 4 1/2 year old leave me a comment:)

-Capture lasting memories of my life and kids, I LOVE the instagram app.

Couple these apps with the whole facetime capability of an iphone (my family is all 1000+ miles away)…and well I am sold on the iphone…FOREVER. Love my technology!

 

 

 

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Helen - LOL – as an iPhone-owning mother of a 5.5 and 2 year old, I can relate ;)

3/21/2012

Round Two

Here is my baby last week, enjoying the beautiful spring weather! Sadly this is NOT how she looks today. (And the smiles and giggles? Gone baby gone for now.)

It seems my immunity worked only so far for little Marie so she now too is battling the Chicken Pox. Last night was a particularly rough night, but so far today she seems a bit better. (Or at the very least isn’t unconsolable.) I found that Baby Einstein videos are working wonders for her….she is completely enamored right now with the Old MacDonald One.

I had a host of posts for this week planned but they, like my ability to track my food, is sort of going out the window as I tend to the babe. I don’t know about you all, but I am going to be REALLY glad when March is over!

The plus side to all of this rocking and holding of Marie? Catching up on Revenge! I had not watched the show yet this season, but heard people talking about it a lot, so we subscribed to HULU for a month. Totally addicting show for me, kind of like SMASH.  LOVE that new show too. Can you sense a theme this week–it’s TV! TV! TV!

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