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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
what i wore : coffee at blacksmith

Photos by Uncork

Over the weekend I met my friend Christie for a coffee + blogging date at Blacksmith in town. It was such a treat for me to do something like that – two hours of leisurely chatting, sipping lattes, & writing in a new-to-me coffee shop with no kids! We decided to try and make it a monthly routine so I’m pumped about that.

I wasn’t planning on taking outfit photos, but Christie offered and I decided that even though I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt it was pretty representative of my style in general. My husband made so much fun of me for using the word “momiform” but…that’s kinda what this is. :)

I actually love everything about this outfit except the jeans, which are old (I’m talking pre-kids) and really need to be upgraded to a higher-waisted version. The rest are the simple, quality type pieces that I can wear over and over, mix and match, and that suit me. I could have easily accessorized to take it up a notch but I didn’t because, well, I’m kinda lazy about fashion.

What’s your favorite weekend uniform?

shirt: Everlane
jeans: Mossimo (from Target, old)
shoes: Birkenstock
bag: Madewell

May 12, 2015
currently

recommitting to getting 10,000 steps per day. Especially since it appears I’ll only be going running 1-2 times per week.

finishing the audiobook Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty and really enjoyed it. The Light Between Oceans is on deck.

planning a coffee & blogging date with my friend Christie.

making My Sweetiepie ABC’s sampler and keeping up fairly well with the stitchalong.

cooking as little as possible lately. Thank goodness for in-laws and leftovers.

wanting a couple great summer dresses.

needing new work shoes and scrubs, and probably abnormally excited about getting them.

looking to make a solid budget and financial plan for the future. #grownupproblems

playing with the kittens every morning and night. Also: cuddling.

wearing Birkenstocks and getting what all the fuss is about. They are totally worth the money.

wondering what to get my mom and MIL for Mother’s Day; I definitely procrastinated this time!

hoping that my kids stay healthy and in good moods forever. Is that too much to ask? ;)

feeling in the best mood I’ve been in a long time.

Have a happy weekend!

May 8, 2015
LIGHT : april (one little word update)

I don’t have a whole lot to report about my journey with my word for the year except that for most of April I was definitely not feeling light. It was a super hard month of parenting and I wasn’t feeling proud of the way I handled the stress.

However, having the word “light” in the back of my mind allowed me to make the decision toward the end of the month to let some things go and release a lot of the pressure I put on myself. I had to get back to the root of why I chose my word: “light” is how I want to feel on the inside. Sure, I would love to completely declutter our house so the space is lighter. I’d love to get back to a frequent exercise regimen so I’m literally lighter. But with all I have going on right now worrying about those things (and others) was just stressing me out so that I wasn’t able to cope with challenges in motherhood, which is a priority.

So far the shift in mentality has been incredibly helpful, but I’ll report back. :)

This month’s prompt was to capture our word through photography. I simply went back through my photos from the year and chose nine that represented an aspect of what “light” means to me. (Also, to get this done I tried printing my photos on cardstock and they came out really terrible. Old me would have trashed them and ordered new ones, but new me is saying they’re good enough.)

Top left: this is one of my favorite recent photos of me and Meredith. It was a happy day and I want to focus on the good times we have.

Top middle: I love being outside and seeing the beautiful skies, and attending Texas Style Conference was such a positive and uplifting experience for me.

Top right: Liam is at such an adorable age and I want to soak it all in.

Middle left: Updating the kids’ room with string lights made me happy.

Middle middle: This is a photo of me at TxSC where I was really feeling lighthearted.

Middle right: I started a fun little cross stitch project, and as long as I don’t pressure myself to finish in a certain amount of time, this is the kind of thing I want to be able to do and enjoy.

Bottom left: Running is so good for me! I need to do more of it.

Bottom middle: Eating real food contributes to lightness of body and mind.

Bottom right: Our new kittens are so playful. They are what I didn’t even know I needed. :)

I debated giving up on the One Little Word project when I was deciding what to let go in my life right now, but it has been helpful for me so far and even keeping up with the prompts hasn’t been hard. If any of them are too involved I’ll just modify it and make it simple. I’m still really connecting with the word “light” and look forward to seeing how it changes for me.

May 6, 2015
project life 2015 : april 1

Today I’m sharing one spread with you, from the first half of April. As I mentioned in this post, I’m at a place where I need to simplify my life to relieve some stress, but instead of giving up on Project Life altogether I am transitioning to using the app. I wanted to share my first spread using the app in a separate post which will be coming soon.

Anyway, this spread from April is one of my favorites, I think. It’s just so springy and happy. Granted, I wasn’t always feeling happy during this time, in fact there were some pretty tough days, but this time I chose to save those for my journal.

I had a ticket stub from a musical David and I went to, but it was bright red. Visually it didn’t fit at all, but I still wanted to include it. So I just took a picture of it on a white background, converted it to black and white, and printed it.

Two date nights in two weeks!!

And just a few photos from Easter and a journal card. In the past I’ve done whole inserts for the holiday but I just didn’t feel up to it this time and I think this is a nice little summary.

I’m a little bit sad to be losing the process of putting these spreads together, but I was able to see some printed 12×12 spreads that used the app and they look great. I think it’ll be totally worth it to gain a bit of time!

May 4, 2015