Author: Kathleen

quick takes

Posting my quick takes a day early because tomorrow we’ll be headed to the hill country for our anniversary mini-trip!

one

This will be my first time away from Meredith overnight, and although that may seem like a long time I am glad I waited. I don’t know if she and I would have been ready before this, but now I know we are. When she is picked up by her grandparents from daycare and we come to take her home she usually throws a fit. She has also fallen asleep at their houses during babysitting so I really think she’ll be fine and happy. As for me, I KNOW that I could really use the break, especially with this baby coming. And my husband and I could benefit in a huge way with some more togetherness, so our marriage and family will be all the better for it.

two

I’ve made a lot of progress on my niece’s stocking, but it’s all been on preparing the pieces so I don’t have any pictures to show. But really I am to the point where I can basically just start appliquéing the pieces down and I plan to work lots on this during our trip (mostly the drive, but probably some while we’re there too). I am excited to see it come together and although I have loved working on it, I will be glad to finish so that I can get back to my cross stitch and maybe even some other holiday crafts.

three

My second trimester of pregnancy seriously flew by but now that I’ve hit the third, time has seemed to come to a screeching halt and so has any semblance of comfort. I’ve been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for a couple of weeks now, my energy level has dropped a lot (which is probably mostly because of work being crazy + toddler), I get short of breath, and the latest fun development is a pinched nerve in my upper back. I got an emergency massage yesterday which felt good but now today my muscles are just sore in addition to the shooting pain still being there. Plus my mouth sores have returned after being gone for six months which is almost worse than anything else. I am wondering how I’m going to make it three more months at this rate.

four

Follow me on Instagram to keep up with my “from where I stand” photo a day project during November. So far it’s been fun!

five

The other night Meredith was in the shower with me. She soaped up her hands and then rubbed them on my belly. “I washin baby brudder!”

six

I’m going to just end this now on a high note before I start back on the complaining again.

November 7, 2013
a fun local outing

When I think about making my money matter, I really love to spend it at local, independent places instead of chains when I can. It’s so important for the community and small businesses, and I’ve found that the services and atmosphere they provide are incredible. For example, this past year we decided to switch from a bank to a credit union, we have a local car mechanic that we trust (sooo important when you don’t know anything about cars!) and I’m super excited that I just found a natural soap maker who is one of my patient’s daughters!

Anyway, over the weekend we wanted to spend a little extra time as a family so we decided to visit a couple of our favorite local places.

The Bagel Cafe is tucked away in a corner of a strip center and is easy to miss, but once you discover it you’ll be going back. It’s delicious, the employees are always friendly, they have great coffee, and it is Christian-based which I love.

Meredith’s sandwich on the left, my meal on the right.

Of course she was only interested in my food.

Trying to pose and all she wants to do is eat.

After we fed our faces we went to our awesome local independent bookstore. They have this semi-annual sale that is amazing and to my delight it was still going on!

They also have kids’ toys and sell other local vendors’ goods like candles and jewelry.

I found three copies of one of my favorite books in the sale pile – only 75 cents each! People need to come snatch these up. I ended up purchasing used copies of Beautiful Ruins and The Shadow of the Wind, both on my to-read list, for a grand total of $1.61. Total score.

It was such a fun family afternoon! What I really want to find now is an awesome independent cafe. I only know of one in our area and I didn’t like the coffee much which was a bummer. I admit I’m a little bit hooked on Starbucks right now!

What about you, do you have favorite local places? How do you make your money matter? Have you thought about seeking out independent shops?

***

This post is sponsored by Make Your Money Matter, in association with PSCU, though all views expressed are my own.

November 5, 2013
list 10 : road trip must-haves

At the end of this week my husband and I are taking a road trip to the hill country to stay in a private cottage in an adorable town for two whole nights alone. I chose this month’s topic in honor of that!

a good audiobook or podcast queue

snacks: something salty + sweet

stitching (if I’m not driving)

water

GPS

The Instax photo is of our street, and I chose the background patterned paper because it reminded me of tires and wheels.

Next month: I’ll be posting on December 2 and if you want the topic in advance, let me know!

***

Confused by Book of Lists? Read this post! See all of my lists here.

November 4, 2013
november goals

I thought that today I could share cute photos of our Halloween adventure, but remember how Meredith is two? Yeah, the evening was a little rough. I barely got any pictures at all and let’s not talk about how hard that is for me to let go of. Moving on, and instead let’s talk about monthly goals.

First a recap of October’s goals:

1. Make a fall garland: did it, and shared it.

2. Go thrifting: did it, only found a few small things but it was fun.

3. VBS: did it and didn’t miss a single week.

4. Choose blanket colors: did it, and my mom purchased the yarn & started crocheting!

5. One craft just for fun: did it, but it didn’t turn out quite as good as I planned so I didn’t blog about it.

On to November!

Holiday minibook: I want to get all my supplies in one place and the minibook put together before December so it’s easy for me to just add photos and extras as I go.

Photo a day: I’ve been slacking on taking photos so I decided to do a photo a day challenge. I love the “from where I stand” photos so that’s what I’m going to do, starting with day one as you can see above. I’ll post them all to Instagram and hopefully it will get me thinking creatively regarding pictures again.

Day in the life: At the beginning of the year I intended to do this once a month but it only happened twice before I got pregnant and since then I haven’t picked it back up. I want to do it again this month and evaluate how often to repeat it.

Dresser situation: We need to play musical dressers around here. We need a new one for our bedroom so that we can move our current one into the guest room and use it to store extra baby stuff. So part of this goal is also to reorganize the toddler and baby clothes I have to make space for baby boy’s things.

Bedroom: A few nagging tasks need to be done in the bedroom, putting up the curtain rods and installing new outlets. This isn’t hard to do, and I have all the supplies, but it is kind of tedious and annoying.

And that’s all. Once again there is nothing life changing here but mostly fun stuff as I get back into the habit of monthly goals.

November 1, 2013
project life 2013 : weeks 40 – 41

Weeks 40 and 41 are from September 30 to October 13. I did an insert for our visit to the pumpkin patch, but above you can see the spread without it, and below with it.

During this time was really when fall began around these parts, so I went with the color scheme. I usually stick to more neutral colors but this was just perfect for right now.

I’ve been working hard on my niece’s stocking and I wanted to show the progress, but the bright Christmas colors would have really been out of place. Solution: turn it black and white!

Another adorable video had to be included! Also note that a bunch of these journaling and filler cards are from the Midnight edition. I can vouch for the fact that it goes perfectly with the Seafoam cards and I’m so happy I get to use it.

Nothing super exciting going on here, just mostly photos and labels.

Now here’s a closer look at the insert:

And that’s it!

October 29, 2013