Category: around here

Things I did this weekend:

>Chores & laundry

>Finished a Project Life spread

>6.2 mile run

>Attended a birthday party for one of Meredith’s old classmates

>Pushed through M’s meltdown during said birthday party

>Met a friend for coffee sans kids

>Took the kids to the park

>Finished reading Attachments

>Planned dinners for the week ahead

>Cooked chicken

>Went to church

>Drove across town & back for a Halloween party

>Attended book club

>Church family life group

>Crafts with Meredith

Things I didn’t do this weekend:

>Vacuum

>Any cleaning other than the bare minimum

>Make a homemade dessert to bring to life group

>Open the computer even once

>Have any time to myself

>Or with my husband

>Or see the rest of our family

>Eat paleo

I overbooked myself this past weekend. I knew it, I admitted it, I was annoyed with myself about it, but I had a plan and for once the plan worked and thanks to David’s help and support I was able to make it to all my commitments and enjoyed most of them. At the end of the weekend I was exhausted but pretty happy about how it went.

We’ve got a fairly normal week ahead of us. Liam is following up with the doctor for his 9-month “well check” today; it’s in quotes because his breathing still sounds bad to me, but I think his infections are gone, at least. Meredith woke up happy and independent today, so for that I am very grateful.

I decided to go ahead and attempt week in the life after all, even though I’m intimidated by it. I’m in full-on documentation mode now, and so far so good.

Here’s to a lovely week. :)

Every Saturday morning I sit down and plan out my weekend and usually make my grocery list at the same time. It’s one of my favorite things. (Also: more on how I use the bullet journal, and that pen is amazing.)

This is how I get almost all my chores done really quickly on Saturday mornings. She’s watching Mother Goose Club YouTube videos, FYI.

It’s so nice that Liam can sit in the high chair now! (This is the one we have and it’s pretty great.) I wanted to see if he’d be interested in that banana, but it eventually just fell in his lap and that was the end of that.

I went out to eat with a friend and had to just order a big veggie salad and add egg because the grilled chicken was marinated in canola oil, which I can’t have. I’m ready to be through with restrictions like that, plus I had to bring my own dressing. The salad was good, but not worth the money.

Coffee and cakes being served up. The pretend play at this age is so fun.

Started my new Bible study! I have so many thoughts about this right now that I’m going to have to write them all in a separate post. But for now, let me just say how much I adore Beth Moore’s studies, and I’m so glad I started another. I am doing a combination of her study, plus a little extra research on my own, and journaling. I have to wake up pretty early to get it all in, but I really look forward to it.

Made a huge fruit salad to take to our church life group. I’ve gotten really good at chopping produce over the past month. :)

Some other thoughts to start out the week:

• Meredith turns three next Sunday! This week I’m ordering her presents and planning the details of her party.
• I’m very excited about a couple new blog series in the works. Lately I’ve had a lot of inspiration for this space.
• I’m in the mood to start a new photography series for Instagram, something that will be ongoing, not necessarily daily but it could be. I’m brainstorming ideas.
• I started a savings account so that I can eventually buy a real camera. My old point and shoot broke, so now I just have my iPhone. It’s fine most of the time, but I’m itching for better!
• What’s your favorite blog of the moment? I’ve loved discovering new ones lately. Here are three recent favorite new finds: Green Fingerprint, Roots, Wings, & Wanderings, and Create, Share, Love. That last one just started today but it’s obvious she planned it well and I’m excited to follow her! (Love her on Instagram too.)

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Around here messes were made. While I was in the shower Meredith decided to empty all of the drawers and shelves of their contents. Miraculously though, she helped clean up!

I took my last splurge weekend seriously.

We did a little crafting for daddy.

“Take us a picture!”

I was able to work on a few things around the house, including styling our dresser. More books were needed (an obvious solution, I thought) so I stacked a Stephen King illustrated companion (my husband’s favorite author) with some House Beautiful magazines and a pretty copy of The Hobbit. I never could get a clear photo of it since it’s right in front of a window. But I do hope to share this finished wall of our master bedroom soon!

I made a serious grocery trip. It took forever because I had to read all the labels and pick out produce that I have never bought before! Kind of sad, but I’m making positive changes so no feeling guilty about the past allowed.

For Father’s Day we met my family at a sports bar…my dad is a huge soccer fan so we watched a World Cup game and ate delicious appetizers.

Then we we had a big dinner of fajitas with David’s family! Meredith looks unhappy in this picture but she was actually in a great mood all weekend! I was so proud of her, she didn’t take a nap because of all the activity and was still SO well-behaved, even when it came time for bath and bed. This is definitely not usually the case so it was a gift all in itself.

And finally let’s talk about how I have the greatest in-laws ever. They saw how much I wanted this advent calendar and completely surprised me with it!! So now there is a chance that I can have it finished by December!

What a great weekend. And now…it’s whole30 time! I woke up several times last night with nerves but no turning back now! I’m sure I’ll be mentioning my progress here and I’ll definitely do a wrap-up post at the end, but if you want to follow along more closely I’ll be posting pics of some of my meals on Instagram.

Have a great week!

Around here it was a pretty busy weekend. Meredith is entering the age of birthday parties and we had two to attend. I actually enjoy them, and she does too, but they ARE exhausting, especially since I generally let her eat all the treats so there is a resulting sugar high/crash involved.

Also this weekend there was book club, dinner with family, cleaning, shopping, playing…the usual. But very little downtime. I got one project finished at the end of last week (that stitched table runner for our dresser) but didn’t quite get my Project Life spread done, or make any progress on anything else. It’s okay.

My Whole30 start date is a week from today, so I’m a bit consumed with that at the moment. I’ve been having a lot of headaches and stomachaches lately so this is coming at a good time. Apart from that I’m going to try and take a step back from all my other projects. I need to focus on my family and my health a little more.

It’s technically been a short week but it’s also felt long. We’ve had a lot of rain and even flooding. One day they couldn’t keep the water out of the infant room at my kids’ daycare, so I had to take Liam to another facility. That was a crazy morning.

Meredith has been in one of her difficult phases. I don’t even know how to describe it and I don’t really want to try, but I have felt sorely lacking in patience this week. However, she has also had a couple days of being extremely sweet and cute, so I never know which version of her I’m going to come home to. It’s exhausting.

Tonight we have our weekly dinner with my parents, and Saturday we have no plans so far. Sunday is church and small group in the evening. That leaves plenty of time to do other things, and this is what’s on my list:

• weekly chores
• plus one deep cleaning item (I’m thinking I want to clean the water deposit buildup on our fridge dispenser)
• meal plan + grocery trip
• take some specific photos for future blog posts
• baste together my quilt sandwich (still haven’t decided whether to machine or hand quilt it)
• at least start working on a runner I’m making for our dresser
• work on Liam’s stocking
• try to get a workout in
• something fun with the kids – I’d say the pool but it’s supposed to keep raining

What’s on your weekend to-do list?