Done!

I decided yesterday that I'm finished with blogging for this current phase of my life. I guess I barely picked it back up anyway but honestly, there are SO many other ways I'd rather spend my time and that take priority. I also have the major battle of trying not to post things that are too personal or that I shouldn't be sharing about my kids for whatever reason. Right now I cherish my free time and I like to watch tv, veg out, read, email/facebook and at the moment one of my girls is awake from her nap.

So... thus ends my blogging career. If you want to continue hearing about my world, become my friend on facebook or contact me directly because I love to talk with other adults, especially since my days are filled with little ones.

My "real" life

No, I don't have a hidden occupation you aren't aware of... my "real" life is a mom. I call this my "real" life because it's not all about the smiling pictures I try and post. Let me tell you about the other night:

Monday - Mark has a major class assignment due at the end of the week so needs extra work time and I had to do a couple things at church so we decided to merge them so Mark could work late. I took the girls for a quick stop at the church office in the afternoon and then we met Mark for dinner. It went pretty well except that Sophie wanted to eat when dinner was just over (keep in mind, we've only been there for like 30 minutes at a sit-down place). I took her to the car to nurse (I could have nursed at the restaurant but that didn't seem as comfy in our tight booth with people watching, as the privacy of the car). Mark and Millie followed shortly after once they had paid.

Sophie ate, Millie played, and then we took Mark back to work. On the way home Millie started crying. I'm still not sure why. She cried the entire way home. We got home and I took Sophie out of her car seat and sat with her on the couch motioning for Millie to come sit next to us. The crying got worse and she pointed at the bouncy seat indicating she wanted me to put Sophie in there. So I did (poor kid hardly gets held it feels like). Millie proceeded to cry hysterically for the next like 30 minutes. I'm still not sure what was going on. She was upset about nothing and everything. She wanted everything and nothing.

After handling the day really well (first day back with the girls by myself after vacation), the night crashed. I called Mark in tears saying I was at the end of my rope, he left to come home.

Today, we spent 30 minutes in tears, again. This time she was super tired (having fallen asleep on the way home) and wanted her pacifier (I gave it to her when she said she wanted to nap without eating lunch), but once she had it, wanted lunch. So I told her she had to leave it in her crib if she wanted to come down for lunch. She wouldn't do it but didn't want to go into her crib for nap time... 30+ minutes later she was finally crying herself to sleep. I gave her more than enough chances and she didn't cry for too long before she fell asleep. She proceeded to take a 2.5 hour nap when she's an hour long nap kid.

That is my "real" life.

I've been spending part of Millie's nap time reading up on my parenting books and journaling. In other words, my devotional time. I figure that spending my days with a toddler means I need to be all juiced up on Jesus so I can make it through the day. I'm trying to keep a big-picture perspective and remember that this time is short compared to all of life and I'll look back on these days with wonderful memories and wish I had more patience. Today I was glad to have had more patience and kept my cool. My nap-time-Jesus-time helps I think. Although as much as I love my daughter I'm sometimes surprised at how glad I am when 8pm bedtime rolls around ;)

I'm trying to decide if I should have a chocolate pudding treat or fold laundry before Sophie wakes to eat and go to bed. Think I'll go with the pudding and see how I feel after that ;)

What a difference 2 months can make...

Tomorrow (7/6) is Sophie's 2 month birthday. Seriously can't believe how fast it has gone! The fun thing about my second child is I'm more relaxed and not so stressed out and am enjoying every stage a little more, but also looking forward to what is coming and seeing who Sophie will become ;) I find myself wanting her to grow up and not wanting it at the same time.

So... I'm in my 3rd week of trying to count calories and getting back into working out. Well, the 3rd week technically starts today. After the first week I lost 5lbs! Which was awesome since I'd had zero weight loss in about 3 weeks.

I haven't weighed myself this week because I'm not home with my usual scale. From my best guess, the weight loss is not that great. Partly because we're at Mark's Parent's place and... well... lets just say my mother-in-law knows her way around a kitchen! I'm trying my best but also being realistic and not obsessed. The good news is that I've already worked out like 4 times in the 5 days we've been here and saw improvement from my run/walk on Saturday to my run/walk on the same route on Monday. I was pretty excited about that! Now when running I don't just try and keep from dying but actually find a good pace and feel a little better.

Below I've included pictures of myself (the best I could find) from 2 months ago to today. I'm still 2o+ over where I was before getting pregnant with Millie but hoping that with the calorie awareness and workouts I'll be down there eventually, preferably sooner than later. But I do have to say that you really have to eat a stupid amount of food to be nursing, working out, chasing a toddler around AND not losing any weight ;)

5/6

7/2

Year in pics... week 5 & 6

This week we are enjoying some R&R at Mark's parent's place on Whidbey Island in WA. Mark had to return to work for a couple days but the girls and I are sticking around for a while longer.

Week 5: This picture was taken last Saturday at the local 4th of July fair. Millie's first time on any rides and she loved them!

Week 6: Today Millie played for a while with water on the back deck. SO cute!! I selected this picture because it has Jean (my mother-in-law) in the background smiling at Sophie.

Week 6 #2: Couldn't resist including this one for the week. Check out that beautiful smile! I LOVE this face!! There were like 12 pictures in this series and I had to keep pretty much all of them because I want to always remember the many faces of this adorable baby!

My first experience with Collard Greens

Also in our first week of the farm box was collard greens. I have NEVER even eaten them before and kind of pictured something southern and pickled (hate anything pickled). We get recipes with the produce each week but I didn't like the one included so found a new one online. And it turned out fantastic!! That's what I love about getting the farm box each week, I don't control what I can't and I have to figure out a way to make it work ;)

First I cut the stems off and cut the leaves into 1 in pieces.

Then you boil the leaves for 20 minutes.

Then saute in butter and garlic... I figured that you couldn't really go wrong with butter and garlic ;) Although I couldn't really picture what it was like to saute leaves, but it worked!

I may have over-cooked a few of the leaves but otherwise they were super good! I think I would actually buy collard greens just to try this recipe again!

And of course, trying to do all this was in between kids crying, trying to climb up on me, upset she can't sit on the counter while I chop and cook... what looks like a simple process was full of tears, lots of patience and a little "tuning" it out on my part ;) And that is why I rarely cook much more than what I can pop in the oven or boil or something really simple!

Year in pics... week 3 and 4

I know I missed last week so here you are... the pic that represents last week:

I know I already posted this pic, but when I looked back on last week's pics I liked this one the most as a representation of our week.

And here is week 4's pic:

Sophie has been smiling for a couple weeks and we have yet to capture it on camera. Actually, we haven't had a chance to try. So yesterday after she ate (when she's the happiest), I propped her up and pulled out the camera. Of course, Millie wanted to be part of the fun. She won't pose for pictures these days but I managed to capture some really cute shots of her interacting with Sophie. I love this one because Sophie is really into Millie, who is doing something she thinks is pretty fun ;)

Here are some of my other favorites from that series:

What's going on today

I don't have a picture for the week yet. And to be honest, if I took one right now it would look EXACTLY like my week 1 pic because that is what we are currently doing.

But here is what is going on this week:
- Last week I didn't care when/how Sophie slept as long as she napped. This week I feel the need to train her to nap in her bassinet vs the bouncy seat. It normally takes anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes swaddled with the pacifier propped in her mouth (with my close supervision) to get her to sleep in there and it lasts anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. Interestingly she sleeps great in there during the first shift at night. I try watching for her sleep queues but I must not be doing it right or something because after about the first yawn I wrap her up and put her in a place to nap and it can take her another 30 minutes to nap... or more. Sometimes I feel like I spend half the try trying to get her to sleep. Any suggestions? It feels kind of weird to be back here again ;)

- I've started 2 things this week: 1) running (ya!!) and 2) counting calories. After not losing ANY weight for over 3 weeks I decided to try something new and after 1.5 days of using myfitnesspal.com on my phone, I'm really enjoying it! This afternoon I find myself constantly wanting to grab for a snack only to realize that if I eat something now it's fewer calories I get later for my dinner out with some mom friends. Although we're going to a place that is known for their desserts so I can't decide if I should spend my calories on a healthy dinner or yummy dessert. I'm leaning towards dessert ;) I couldn't find their nutrition facts online so am hoping they have some there because it would be nice to get the exact amount.

I ran a few spurts during our family 4 mile walk on Saturday and felt pretty good so after not making it to the gym at 5am Monday morning (that was just too ambitious), I opted for a run after Mark got home that night. It was almost 3 miles and felt FANTASTIC! I run a little over half. I was sore yesterday and did the same run again but instead of it feeling fantastic it felt HARD. Of course, I was still sore from the night before and it was pretty warm out. Today I'm just really sore so am taking the next couple days off. Friday morning I'm hitting a Zumba class at the gym for the second week in a row (wow! is that fun and fast) and Saturday morning we'll do another family walk. Super glad to be back into it and realized that this time around I'm doing it almost more for sanity and time alone as for exercise.

Okay, that's all I have for now. Will try and take a pic to post this week.