Category: personal

instax home life / 2

Continuing on with my little Instax mini project today. I’m not taking pictures every single day but that’s okay. :)

>dirty dishes in the sink
>making eggs as usual for breakfast
>sitting up and sucking his thumb

>putting stickers on the potty chart
>playing with toys in bed
>reading books on the couch

>making a mess in the craft room
>quilt in progress
>Liam was screaming whenever David made a growling noise

>photo cluster on the wall
>playing in the kitchen while I made breakfast
>little toys on the toddler bed

August 27, 2014
on contentment
Contentment is one of those things that you never really master, is it? It seems to come and go. Right now I’m searching for it.

There has been a lot written on the internet about fighting comparison. Sure I deal with that from time to time: wanting my life to look a little more like hers, wishing my blog was as successful as that one or that I had the resources to pull off that project.

I’m searching my heart, though, and I think that I’m being truthful when I say that I don’t really play the comparison game too much. I know that we all have different struggles and we are all coming from totally different places and we all have different strengths. I actually love who I am and I love my life.

Sometimes I do fight off discontentment within myself, though. This is so silly, but usually it’s because there are things I want to spend money on that we can’t afford. For example, here are some specific things that if we had the extra funds, I would purchase:
- a real camera
- new workout clothes and shoes
- yoga mat + carrier
- weekly swim lessons for Meredith
- a good blender/food processor
- supplies to do a small reno on our kitchen & half bathroom and several other smaller DIY projects for the house
But the truth is that this is the most expensive time of life for us right now. We have two kids in daycare full time. We have a mortgage, student loans, and two car payments. We have good jobs with good benefits (which I am SO grateful for!!) but we aren’t raking it in. We are constantly trying to save money here and there, but in the end there isn’t a whole lot of saving going on. It is frustrating.

Over the weekend David and I went to tour Costco to see if it would make sense for us to join. We decided that if we had more freezer space it totally would. We have an extra fridge + freezer in our garage but the outlets don’t work there and never have, along with all the outlets in the bathrooms, so we were thinking that it would be worth it to hire an electrician. As we were pulling up at home later we saw some big tree branches down in our yard and realized that we also really need to get our trees trimmed.

“That’s another thing that costs money,” I said. “Everything costs money!”

“What do you mean?” David prodded.

“The electrician, the trees, a camera, and everything else I want.”

“Maybe we just need to work on not wanting so much,” David suggested gently.

I knew he was right. How do you do that, though? I’m not asking rhetorically. I really don’t know.

For me it seems to come and go in cycles. I try to focus on what I have and stay busy and eventually I get to a place where I feel fine the way things are. Prayer helps. So does going outside.

How do you fight for contentment?
August 19, 2014
currently

Genius: Meredith has been in swim lessons the past two weeks. It’s every day at 6:15 p.m. I usually don’t make any plans on week days due to the stress factor so this has been kind of crazy for us. My genius, though, was to simply delegate the whole thing to David. That way I can nurse Liam and make dinner peacefully while they’re gone, we eat as soon as they get home, and then it’s bedtime. Easy.

Fail: Weekend naps continue to be a sticking point for us. They never happen in an orderly or easy fashion and we routinely suffer the consequences. Last Sunday, Meredith started dozing off on the way home from church. She woke up when we arrived at home, but we were desperate for her to take a good nap so Liam and I got out and David took her driving in hopes that she’d fall back asleep in the car. She did, eventually, but kept waking up and whining. A couple hours later when she was awake for good, we realized that she was hungry. Yeah – feeding her would probably help, huh?

p.s. – if it seems like all my genius & fail moments are to do with Meredith, that’s because, in my experience, toddlers are way harder than babies.

Currently:

thinking of joining Costco.

excited to finally attend a Houston Modern Quilt Guild meeting tomorrow.

wondering if I’d be any good at cross stitch pattern design.

starting on my advent calendar.

wishing it was cool enough to run outside comfortably.

signed up for another half marathon only two weeks after the other one I’m training for.

feeling sore from yoga + running outside in the heat & pushing M. in the stroller.

needing new workout clothes.

giving this nutritional replenishment program a try.

joining this Bible study discussion group.

saving for a new camera.

delighted that when I bought new mascara yesterday, it came with a free sample of lip gloss.

cooking breakfast tacos for David every morning so that he’ll actually eat breakfast.

finishing my summer epic novel and coming up with a loose reading plan including an unofficial YA book club with a friend.

relieved that it’s the weekend and I don’t have to cook tonight (Friday night dinner with my parents for the win).

August 15, 2014
liam’s stocking

Liam’s stocking is done!

This kit is called Snowman Games by Bucilla. None of their kits are particularly “simple” but this one seemed to be much easier and faster than the one I made for my niece last year. I know part of that is because I have some experience now, but I also chose this one partly because it had less intricate parts. So if you are a beginner and you want to try it out, I do recommend this one!

Next on my crafting plan is finishing the quilt I’ve been working on forever, and then I’m moving on to this advent calendar!

August 13, 2014
my new life management notebook

I think I’ve finally found a life management notebook that is going to work for me. If you’ve been reading for any amount of time you know that I love digital management for the big stuff (mainly iCal for my planner and the Things app for my to-dos and project tasks) but I also find paper and pen very helpful for some things. That led to me trying out a bullet journal, which was pretty effective, but it wasn’t perfect for me.

Enter the Discbound system from Staples! I totally researched and purchased all of this on my own but I’m loving it and want to share. So the cool thing about this is that it is flexible like a 3-ring binder (meaning you can take stuff out and put it in) but it functions like a notebook, making it easier to write in, hold, and manipulate.

There are a bunch of different notebooks that use this system, but I have this one. I also have these dividers and this hole punch.

Here is how I’m using each section of my notebook.

Monthly

First of all I created a section that I check in with every month. It has a list of special dates, so I know whose birthday is coming up and I can order gifts and send cards. I also put in some copies of my “how am I doing” self-check worksheets, which I like to fill out monthly to make sure I’m not neglecting one area of my life. And then I have some blank paper where I am planning on documenting my monthly goals.

Meal Planning

The second section is for meal planning. I am using this printable calendar which is just so simple and functional. (Note that we eat the same thing almost every day for breakfast and lunch so I don’t really need to plan those meals. And I write my grocery list on a separate piece of scratch paper because I give it to David and he does the shopping.) Behind that I’m keeping a list of go-to dinner ideas.

Bullet Journal

Next is where my bullet journal lives! And I still use it in pretty much the same way as I wrote in this post, except that I decided to separate out the stuff regarding faith and creativity to be their own sections.

Faith

So far I mainly use this for sermon notes, but I also used it for notes for a church women’s book club I lead, and I’ll probably use it for my women’s Bible study notes as well. (I have a separate journal for my personal daily devotions.)

Creative

Lastly I have a section devoted to anything creative which is most of my hobbies. So right now I have a “to do someday” list, house project ideas, and homework from the Blog Life e-course I’m working through.

I love this notebook so much you guys. The only drawback is that it’s not small. I debated on whether to get this size or the smaller one, and I went bigger because I wanted the room to write and I wanted to be able to easily put in 8.5×11 sheets of paper. But you could definitely do the same thing with a smaller size!

So what do you think? Do you do anything similar?

August 11, 2014