Hooray for the weekend!
820 Occupations and their salaries. I am clearly in the wrong profession. 😉
These rejected princesses would never make it into a Disney film… for very, very good reasons.
Ha ha, this is a fantastic ad campaign for a product geared towards young girls.
And a little something in case you’re also missing the Dowager.
Reading
‘Life After Life’ by Kate Atkinson. Right now I’m still getting into it. I picked it up because I thought the plot was interesting and I was curious as to how the author was going to handle it. Basically, Ursula dies over and over again. She is reborn and then typically there is at least one change that she makes that avoids the death she originally had… only to die again in some other way. Right now I feel like there is a lot of repetitiveness (which I suppose should be expected), so I’m hoping as it continues it will get more interesting.
Watching
The most recent movie we saw in the theater was X-Men: Days of Future Past and it was awesome. There were a few really great moments, and overall it was just very enjoyable. I like that it kind of fixed what happened in X-Men 3. As far as rentals go, we just watched ‘The Monuments Men.’ I loved the cast, and thought the story was really interesting. It was a tad on the slow side at times, but had more emotion to it than I was expecting from the previews. As far as how true to life it was… well, its film, they change things… it happens. I enjoyed it, but don’t know that it’s one I’d add to the collection.
Right now I’m looking for something new to watch. I just finished Season 2 of Orange is the New Black and while we still have our usual shows we’re working our way through, all of my other shows are in between seasons. I should probably take this time to not watch TV, but what fun is that?
Eating
We have a new Chinese restaurant in town (woot!), which is a big deal when you live in a small town and there are only like two places to go for take-out. I’m hoping they’ll eventually do delivery. Overall their food was pretty good considering as soon as they opened the entire town showed up. The rice was a tad overcooked, but I’ll forgive that since their wontons were decent.
Loving
Summer! While we’ve gotten more rain than we can handle, I also love that we haven’t had to turn on the sprinklers yet, so that’s saving us some money. In general, I just love warmer weather and longer days.
Thinking About
Getting healthier… I feel like I’ve said that about a thousand times, but this time I’m actually going to make it happen! Ha ha. I signed up for an online 12 week program that I’m hoping will work out okay for me. My biggest issue is my umbilical hernia and mild diastasis recti – thanks pregnancy! So because of those two things, not all typical ab workouts are good and can make the problems worse. For a while we were doing pretty good with not buying processed foods and doing a weekly meal plan, but that kind of fell by the wayside. So, we bought a new blender and are making more smoothies, and now my goal is to start doing the weekly meal plans again and keeping us all healthy. Enzo has been talking about bikes, so I think we need to go on some family walks in the evening (if we can keep the mosquitoes away) and just adjust dinner and bedtime as we see fit.
Every once in a while there are those moments when I miss being responsible only for myself. Usually when a new movie comes out that I really want to see, or when after a long day at work I’d really just like to go to happy hour and not cook or clean or do anything. It’s funny thinking about how much our lives have changed in just a few years, and in some ways it seems like such a long time ago. I wonder what I’d be doing if we didn’t have kids, and while I’m sure I’d fill my time with things, it’s hard to imagine myself as someone who isn’t a mom now that I am one.
I’ve embraced being a mom, and I like it. Sure, my life is crazier, noisier, and messier than it once was, but I’m adjusting. Being a family isn’t always easy since we all have our “off” days, but the good days more than make it all worthwhile. I used to sleep in as late as I wanted to, but now I get to wake up to at least one happy, smiley face every morning. (Enzo and Josh are not always morning people). I used to read A LOT, and while I do still read every day, it’s just more of a Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boynton variety now. I used to have time to be bored, but now? I don’t even know what boredom is… there is always something to do, and if I’m getting cabin fever, chances are the kids are too. It’s amazing how fast an entire day can go by when you try to get your entire family out the door for just a few hours.
Josh and I may have had more time to ourselves and together before kids, but now I think we appreciate those quiet times and dates even more. I don’t really miss going out as often as one would think either. I don’t mind waiting for movies to leave the theater so we can rent them, plus, whenever we miss bedtime (which isn’t often) I feel like I’m just missing something terribly important when I don’t get my hugs and kisses before the kids are asleep.
While I sometimes miss my old self, I wouldn’t trade the new me for anything. Sometimes I look in the mirror and feel frumpy and too “mom-like” but I usually don’t have time to dwell on it for long… often because I have a toddler using my makeup brush to wipe down the sink or a baby bouncing in a jumper in the doorway who has clearly pooped. I don’t even mind that we’re having conversations about buying a minivan because it would be so much easier for road trips and to fit more people. It’s funny because sometimes I feel like I can’t possibly be in my thirties, and then there are days when I feel so much older and “kids” in their twenties seem so ridiculously young.
I’ll just have to hope our kids are okay with their rarely cool mom who is usually in the middle of some sort of identity crisis. I’ll do my best not to embarrass. 😉
Weather in Minnesota this year has been… interesting. Winter seemed to drag, and we’ve been getting so much rain. I haven’t taken any pictures of the flooding, but we’ve definitely had to take several detours so far. It’s hard to complain about having too much water when other parts of the country are going through droughts… it’s really too bad we couldn’t just share. Aside from rain, we have had some really nice days, and we’re making good use of our deck considering playing in the yard hasn’t been much of an option because of the amount of mosquitoes. I think we’re going to have to call someone and just have the yard sprayed because it’s getting kind of ridiculous.
(Before plants)
Anyhoo, we have been able to take advantage of the deck, and are really glad we decided to get a larger table and umbrella for the space. Enzo still has plenty of room to run around, and it’s nice to have the option to eat outside. At the very least, having the umbrella means we can easily sit with Phoebe so that she can watch her brother splash around in his water table and not have to worry about putting sunscreen on her. Since she’s sitting up so well, we can probably see about just putting a blanket outside for her too. Our old deck didn’t have a lot of room, but we had a little tent that we’d put Enzo in if we were out on the grass. Granted, when we tried that with Phoebe earlier in the year, a TON of gnats got inside anyway. Definitely thinking about spraying.
Why one should always ask for a second opinion when they design something. Ack!
These IKEA hacks are awesome! Why am I not this clever?
Our entire life in weeks, in a simple grid, and why we should stay in the present.
These Super Hero texts are kind of awesome.
And, I bought an eggplant on a whim today, but have no idea what to do with it. Perhaps roasted? Maybe as fries?
And Wonton Makes Three 