Things I Love
1. I love that too-warm weather means t-shirts and gDiapers.
2. I love that my mom made Ethan this gorgeous quilt (and then kept forgetting to give it to us...she's been trying to get it to us since he was born, haha) and that my brother Sam gave him a stuffed animal to match. And that we have three copies (one large, two small) of The Hungry Little Caterpillar. We didn't really have a theme for the nursery (white furniture, green decor, some Winnie the Pooh stuff) and this one was kind of forced on us, but we don't mind. It's pretty cute! He also has way more books than we know what to do with, so I guess the theme of his nursery is children's literature.
3. I love this! It's in Ethan's room. There is a children's hymn we sing in my church called, "I Am a Child of God" and if you're Mormon, you know it. :-) The lyrics go, "I am a child of God, and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way..." etc.
4. I love that Ethan now has curtains! For the last little bit, we've decided the blinds weren't cutting it and he needed his room darker to sleep longer. So Ry would pin up dark blankets. I hated it. I felt gross and depressed every time I walked into the room. My thing with how my home looks is that I want to be able to go into each room and be really glad to be there. I want to WANT to walk into the room. Not only that, but the nursery is also Ry's office, and I hated that he was spending so much of his day in this ghetto-looking room with tacky blankets covering the window, held up by push pins. I am not very demanding or picky. Almost all of my furniture was free, or a wicked good deal. I don't go out and spend lots of money on home decorating. So I decided that this one time, I could put my foot down and say, "We're spending money on this, and we're going full price." I didn't even shop around. I went to one store, found fabric I could live with, and got it done. Okay, had husband get it done. :-) It wasn't that expensive anyway, about ten bucks for each curtain panel (so $20 since we needed two) and about $13 for the rod. The curtains hit the floor and we didn't want Ethan pulling them down, so we pinned them up. It helped make the room darker to pin them up, anyway. I feel much lighter and happier when I walk into the nursery now. Thirty-three dollars well spent for my sanity. Thank you Husby for getting it done.
(The only picture I have of the curtains. And that blank CD is the only way to distract Ethan enough to get him to lie still during diaper changes, since the fondest wish of his heart is to dive headfirst off the changing table.)
5. I love it when my son laughs.
6. I love Yurbuds. I can run, and I can run for a long time, and I can enjoy running. These are the only earbuds I've ever found that stay in my ears. Thank you Yurbuds! And thank you Ryan's discount so I didn't have to pay a whole $30 for them.
7. I love this fun newbie in my kitchen. I painted that shelf ages ago (it was pink and I got it for a couple bucks at a thrift store) and recently decided to hang our aprons from it and line up all my cookbooks on it with bookends. Borrowed bookends from my sis since she was leaving on her mission anyway. Well, Ry busted out his drill and got it all hung up for me, and guess what...the cookbooks totally don't fit. I never thought about how long the books are, spine to edge. Aw geez. So bummed I was about this shelf that was now drilled into my wall and had nothing on it. Ry suggested pictures of us. Nah, we have lots of those up around the house, and I wanted something KITCHEN-y. And red. Most everything in my kitchen is red. Sigh, what to do. Heard that Hobby Lobby had a 65% off home decor sale going on, so off I went. Found this in the non-sale section, but with the 40% off coupon, it wasn't a bad price at all. A mere $6. Again, worth it for my peace of mind, as I was very disappointed about my cookbook plan fail. And they are pretty cute and fun, no? Especially when seen with the view from the hallway:
Now isn't that a kitchen you want to walk into? A menu, a sign saying the kitchen is open, and letters commanding you to eat? I like it. Makes me cheery.
Although from where I currently sit at the table, it sure looks like that sign says "Fat."
8. I love productive days. Yesterday was one of those. But in a good way. Sometimes a productive day means I worked with Ethan on developmental stuff or what not and really paid attention to being a mom all day, but my house looks trashed by the end and dinner is thrown together without much fanfare. Other times a productive days means my house is spotless, dinner is gourmet, but my child is crying and wanting attention. Other times, a productive day means I actually put on makeup and wore something besides sweats. But yesterday was my favorite kind of productive day, because nothing was neglected. Ryan was there to help all day, and these are some of the things that were accomplished:
Diapers were sewn
(a couple of mine had tabs or velcro fall off, my neighbor has a sewing machine, we got the job done)
House was cleaned
(we thoroughly cleaned Wednesday before we had guests for dinner...I mean thorough. Like scrubbed the fridge and organized all the magnets, little details, so this time it was just a re-cleaning of a mostly clean house)
All laundry was done
Almost all laundry was folded
I got a massage (my last one of my three from Christmas)
Ry went to the library and studied for the GRE
I went to Mother's Circle and it was amazing
Stayed and had a long talk after Mother's Circle with some friends
Ethan was not neglected: he was bathed, we read stories, we played fun games, etc.
Took Ethan on a walk
Ran errands at some stores
We all ate three healthy meals (E always does, but I struggle to get all my meals in)
Dinner was delicious (lemon pepper shrimp pasta and fresh organic green beans)
Ethan's curtains were hung and pinned up
Ethan managed to pee into his pouch while sitting up on his changing table (I'd already removed the insert) so when I pulled it out from under him the way you pull a tablecloth off an already set table...pee was flung all over the nursery. So the nursery got cleaned and Ethan got bathed
While bathing, Ethan pooped in the tub. So he was re-bathed, and the tub was bleached and scoured
Amidst everything, we were still able to have our family prayers and scripture study, Ry had time to go have a fun water gun fight with the neighbors, and I even got to read some of a book.
Productive but not stressful. Fun breaks and moments in between. Didn't feel like a neglectful parent, wife, friend or citizen.
That is my kind of day.
Well, there are lots of other things I love, but that is all for now.
2. I love that my mom made Ethan this gorgeous quilt (and then kept forgetting to give it to us...she's been trying to get it to us since he was born, haha) and that my brother Sam gave him a stuffed animal to match. And that we have three copies (one large, two small) of The Hungry Little Caterpillar. We didn't really have a theme for the nursery (white furniture, green decor, some Winnie the Pooh stuff) and this one was kind of forced on us, but we don't mind. It's pretty cute! He also has way more books than we know what to do with, so I guess the theme of his nursery is children's literature.
3. I love this! It's in Ethan's room. There is a children's hymn we sing in my church called, "I Am a Child of God" and if you're Mormon, you know it. :-) The lyrics go, "I am a child of God, and He has sent me here. Has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way..." etc.
4. I love that Ethan now has curtains! For the last little bit, we've decided the blinds weren't cutting it and he needed his room darker to sleep longer. So Ry would pin up dark blankets. I hated it. I felt gross and depressed every time I walked into the room. My thing with how my home looks is that I want to be able to go into each room and be really glad to be there. I want to WANT to walk into the room. Not only that, but the nursery is also Ry's office, and I hated that he was spending so much of his day in this ghetto-looking room with tacky blankets covering the window, held up by push pins. I am not very demanding or picky. Almost all of my furniture was free, or a wicked good deal. I don't go out and spend lots of money on home decorating. So I decided that this one time, I could put my foot down and say, "We're spending money on this, and we're going full price." I didn't even shop around. I went to one store, found fabric I could live with, and got it done. Okay, had husband get it done. :-) It wasn't that expensive anyway, about ten bucks for each curtain panel (so $20 since we needed two) and about $13 for the rod. The curtains hit the floor and we didn't want Ethan pulling them down, so we pinned them up. It helped make the room darker to pin them up, anyway. I feel much lighter and happier when I walk into the nursery now. Thirty-three dollars well spent for my sanity. Thank you Husby for getting it done.
(The only picture I have of the curtains. And that blank CD is the only way to distract Ethan enough to get him to lie still during diaper changes, since the fondest wish of his heart is to dive headfirst off the changing table.)
5. I love it when my son laughs.
Click to view6. I love Yurbuds. I can run, and I can run for a long time, and I can enjoy running. These are the only earbuds I've ever found that stay in my ears. Thank you Yurbuds! And thank you Ryan's discount so I didn't have to pay a whole $30 for them.
7. I love this fun newbie in my kitchen. I painted that shelf ages ago (it was pink and I got it for a couple bucks at a thrift store) and recently decided to hang our aprons from it and line up all my cookbooks on it with bookends. Borrowed bookends from my sis since she was leaving on her mission anyway. Well, Ry busted out his drill and got it all hung up for me, and guess what...the cookbooks totally don't fit. I never thought about how long the books are, spine to edge. Aw geez. So bummed I was about this shelf that was now drilled into my wall and had nothing on it. Ry suggested pictures of us. Nah, we have lots of those up around the house, and I wanted something KITCHEN-y. And red. Most everything in my kitchen is red. Sigh, what to do. Heard that Hobby Lobby had a 65% off home decor sale going on, so off I went. Found this in the non-sale section, but with the 40% off coupon, it wasn't a bad price at all. A mere $6. Again, worth it for my peace of mind, as I was very disappointed about my cookbook plan fail. And they are pretty cute and fun, no? Especially when seen with the view from the hallway:
Now isn't that a kitchen you want to walk into? A menu, a sign saying the kitchen is open, and letters commanding you to eat? I like it. Makes me cheery.
Although from where I currently sit at the table, it sure looks like that sign says "Fat."
8. I love productive days. Yesterday was one of those. But in a good way. Sometimes a productive day means I worked with Ethan on developmental stuff or what not and really paid attention to being a mom all day, but my house looks trashed by the end and dinner is thrown together without much fanfare. Other times a productive days means my house is spotless, dinner is gourmet, but my child is crying and wanting attention. Other times, a productive day means I actually put on makeup and wore something besides sweats. But yesterday was my favorite kind of productive day, because nothing was neglected. Ryan was there to help all day, and these are some of the things that were accomplished:
Diapers were sewn
(a couple of mine had tabs or velcro fall off, my neighbor has a sewing machine, we got the job done)
House was cleaned
(we thoroughly cleaned Wednesday before we had guests for dinner...I mean thorough. Like scrubbed the fridge and organized all the magnets, little details, so this time it was just a re-cleaning of a mostly clean house)
All laundry was done
Almost all laundry was folded
I got a massage (my last one of my three from Christmas)
Ry went to the library and studied for the GRE
I went to Mother's Circle and it was amazing
Stayed and had a long talk after Mother's Circle with some friends
Ethan was not neglected: he was bathed, we read stories, we played fun games, etc.
Took Ethan on a walk
Ran errands at some stores
We all ate three healthy meals (E always does, but I struggle to get all my meals in)
Dinner was delicious (lemon pepper shrimp pasta and fresh organic green beans)
Ethan's curtains were hung and pinned up
Ethan managed to pee into his pouch while sitting up on his changing table (I'd already removed the insert) so when I pulled it out from under him the way you pull a tablecloth off an already set table...pee was flung all over the nursery. So the nursery got cleaned and Ethan got bathed
While bathing, Ethan pooped in the tub. So he was re-bathed, and the tub was bleached and scoured
Amidst everything, we were still able to have our family prayers and scripture study, Ry had time to go have a fun water gun fight with the neighbors, and I even got to read some of a book.
Productive but not stressful. Fun breaks and moments in between. Didn't feel like a neglectful parent, wife, friend or citizen.
That is my kind of day.
Well, there are lots of other things I love, but that is all for now.