Category: around here

around here // worn out
I’m reporting to you after what felt like a very long week, and rarely have I been more grateful for a 3-day weekend with zero plans.

Liam was sick with fever for two whole weeks. What started as a virus led to an ear infection and then to a stubborn sinus infection. I mean, 17-month-olds barely even have sinuses, but whatever Liam has wasn’t very happy. You can imagine that he also wasn’t sleeping well and was pretty fussy.

Thanks to incredible support from my mom, mother-in-law, and of course my husband, I only missed one day of work and went in late another day. It’s stressful because I have already been “verbally warned” about unscheduled days off at work even though I’m doing the best that I can with a son who has been sick literally ten different times in the past half year. Obviously, I am so grateful that his illnesses aren’t major and that I have a job – and my director is so understanding, she even hated to give me the warning but she has to be fair. So that’s been the undercurrent of life lately – classic working mom probs.

Some other stuff I’ve been thinking about…
- Establishing a solid strength training routine
- Meredith’s 4th birthday party – it’s just for family (25-ish people) at the park. What’s the cheapest way to feed everyone (no grills)?
- A good night’s sleep…I daydream about it.
- Ice cream. I want it all the time.
- How to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible.
Alright, let’s have a great, restful weekend and meet back here on Monday. Sound good? Okay!
July 3, 2015
around here // father’s day weekend

How was your Father’s Day weekend? Ours was incredibly full and busy – but so fun.

At the end of last week, Liam got sick with fever again. Poor guy seriously catches every little whiff of a virus. He still has congestion and low-grade temperature, but with the real fever behind him we’re just going on with life.

On Saturday, after chores and errands (and while David was at work), my good friend Lauren came over to help me declutter and reorganize the kitchen. I wanted to start there since I spend so much time in it, and I figured I’d get the most bang for my buck. Lauren was a big help in providing feedback, and keeping the kids distracted. I have a bunch of stuff to get rid of now, and I’m loving the extra space in my cabinets.

David and I had planned a date for Saturday night, but he decided what he really wanted to do was take Meredith to see Inside Out, so the three of us went. I tell you, they should shorten previews for kids’ movies because it didn’t start until 45 minutes later and 20 minutes into the movie Meredith had no more attention to give. We had to leave and I was so bummed not to be able to finish it! We rarely get to see movies, not to mention the waste of money. I guess that’s life with a preschooler, and we can’t even blame her.

Father’s Day was packed with seeing both of our families. I whipped up cute little cards for the grandpas using chipboard, stamps, the Instax, and washi tape. I ate my weight in barbecue, watched some Women’s World Cup, the kids played in the kiddie pool, and my mother-in-law busted out this amazing kids’ activity that I highly recommend. All you need to do is plan ahead a little bit, gather some bins, little toys, food coloring, salt, medicine syringes, and spoons and you’ll have the littles (ours were ages 1-6) occupied for at least an hour.

This week I’m intent on getting back to the gym, finishing my book club audiobook, and completing a Project Life spread using the app. I’d love to hear about your weekend and what your goals are for this week!

June 22, 2015
around here

Around here it’s been a fairly normal week. We are in money-saving mode and I’ve managed to trick myself into considering it a game to see how little money I can spend. I’m also planning a trip to Galveston (an island town about an hour away from us) for next weekend, and after that a big house decluttering. Both have me excited in different ways. :)

Around here Meredith is healing up from a dog bite she got last weekend. We know the dog well so we aren’t worried about rabies or anything crazy like that, but it was still scary. Dog bites can do strange things and hers sure enough got infected. It’s not healing quite like I want it to, so I’m giving it the weekend and if it’s not any better we will head back to the doctor.

Around here I haven’t been getting enough sleep. It’s taken a toll on me so we are all working on getting a better bedtime routine in place. My morning routine is definitely not as good when I get to sleep too late or wake up a million times at night.

Around here Liam has been healthy the past week after getting over a second virus in as many weeks. He followed up with the ENT and is clear on that front, thankfully. He does have a weird little rash on his face that has been there for weeks, though. For now I’m trying different OTC creams to see if anything works.

Around here I’m gearing up for a busy weekend with two kids’ birthday parties on the same day that David has to work. Other than basic chores I’m keeping my expectations low for what will get accomplished.

Around here I’ve been getting a lot of reading done (currently reading this and listening to this) but not much crafting. I did just place an order for prints from the Project Life app, and I’m excited to share those soon.

And around here I’ve been having so much fun posting to the new Facebook page! So far I’ve been using it to share links that I might normally save up for a link roundup. I’d love to get some discussion going over there soon.

Have an awesome weekend!

June 5, 2015
around here // unusual week

Around here it’s been a weird week because Liam was sick for five straight days. On Sunday night he got a fever of 105 which was causing just a little bit of internal panic but we managed to get it down pretty quickly with meds and a cool bath. At urgent care that morning they had claimed it was just a virus so we never did go back to the doctor. Each day his fever was slightly lower until finally yesterday it didn’t come back. In addition to that he has a particularly heinous cough, but nothing overly concerning.

Monday my mom was able to watch Liam, then I was home with him during the day on Tuesday and worked an evening shift in Pre-op, then I was home with him Wednesday and Thursday. David was out of town on a fishing trip (bad timing for my coworkers who probably got the worst end of the deal) but my in-laws were awesome about giving me a break in the evenings.

I’ve really enjoyed the special time with Liam, but it’s been a bit exhausting! There has been a lot of holding him, playing on the floor, running interference between him and the cats, watching Mother Goose Club, and peekaboo.

I did manage to get him to nap in the bed a few times (as opposed to my lap or the car) and I was able to FINISH my December album from 2014 which was a huge accomplishment for me. Now I’m completely caught up with scrapbooking projects, and to celebrate I cleaned up my crafting table and did a little decluttering of supplies. Feels so good! (Also, I pre-ordered Ali Edwards’ Week in the Life kit so hopefully by the time that happens late in the summer I’ll be ready to start a new project!)

I also did some work on my cross stitch sampler this week. I’m actually almost done with the house now, but this is the most recent pic I have. I’m definitely behind on the stitchalong, but I’m still making progress!

I got to do a lot of reading this week – finished two books! The Light Between Oceans for book club, which I am still kind of mad at for messing with my emotions so much, and Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I think I could dedicate a blog post to each and every chapter of that one (and I was tempted to!) but for now I’ll just say that I found it incredibly motivating and practically helpful. I do intend to make some concrete changes to solidify some healthy habits and I will share my action plan with you when I get it worked out.

This weekend I’m running a 5k, having a delayed family dinner for Mother’s Day, and meeting for book club. I have Monday off work so we are deciding if we should try to go on an adventure, although it is supposed to rain. We shall see!

May 22, 2015
around here

Around here I’ve been running really low on energy. I just want to go to sleep every afternoon and I struggle to make it through the evenings. I’m not sure whether to attribute it to the food I’m eating, low blood counts (I wasn’t able to donate blood recently due to anemia), or just bad sleep. Maybe a combination. My step count is abysmal and cooking is nonexistent. Most of my healthy habits have lapsed and although I’m not happy about that, I also can’t muster the enthusiasm to make big life changes, even though I know they’d give me more energy.

So I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin’s Better Than Before which is about habit formation, and I’m looking to make some small changes to my routine that may potentially have a big payout. The last few days I’ve started with my morning routine and it’s making a big difference in the rest of my day.

Around here I’ve been all over the place for work. I’m a fairly competent pre-op and radiation nurse now, I’d say. I still have my infusion patients. And I travel to the medical center about once a week. I got new clogs that make being on my feet much more bearable.

Around here the kittens remain adorable and fun, but I’m having trouble fully litter-training them. They use the litter box most often, but they also don’t. (Actually it’s just one of them in particular.) We have two boxes that I keep clean. I don’t know much about cats so I’m not sure what to do.

Around here I’ve slowed down on my cross stitching, but have still made a little progress. I’m in more of a reading phase lately, and I’m tending to pick up a book in my spare time. My library queue is a little out of control so that motivates me; I hate returning books unread and I hate racking up fines. Also, I’ve added reading for pleasure to my morning routine and it’s been amazing! I hope to share more about this soon.

Around here I’m brainstorming seven fairly healthy + easy dinner ideas that we can eat every week, inspired by Miranda. So far I’ve got: tacos, egg salad, taco chicken bowls, meatballs, and breakfast. What else should I add?

Around here Meredith and I went to our first movie in the theater together. We saw “Home” and it was super cute. Her tantrums have improved a lot over the past few weeks, but haven’t gone away altogether. When one comes, I still don’t have much patience so I’m working on that. But for the most part she has been incredibly fun and adorable lately.

Liam is in the cutest stage right now and I just want to squeeze him all the time. He’s not perfect though! He’s a hitter and a thrower and is very messy and loud.

Around here it’s been raining nonstop and my poor husband got caught in a storm with a broken window on his truck so he got soaked. We finally got it into the shop to get fixed, which needed to happen because he’s going out of town next week.

Today I’m working on my weekend plans: I want to get in the habit of having my weekend to-do list prioritized and planned on Friday, as well as my grocery list made. We don’t have any social commitments this weekend other than church small group, but it’s supposed to keep raining and David has to work again so I’ll have to get creative to keep those kiddos entertained.

Happy Friday! What’s going on in your world?

May 15, 2015