Saturday, March 17, 2012

Simple Days

Ok, so simple may not be the best word for the title of this post, but I’M GOING FOR A THEME, PEOPLE!  Obviously, I have problems.

What I’ve been up to…

I think the last couple weeks can pretty easily be summed up by adventures in obsessive party planning.  I’ve been making soap for favors, making yogurt by the drum, making SIX DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CUPCAKES, making 6 different trips to 4 different grocery stores, and overall making myself crazy.  But I *think* it’s in a good way?
While I know I sound like a lunatic going to these great lengths for a 3 year old’s birthday, I really do enjoy the process.  At least most of the process.  It’s my one time a year to go balls-to-the-wall crafty.  When I can astound family and friends (and myself) with my mad Martha skillz.  And that is hella awesome.  Even though the knowledge of a sixth dimension of crafty that includes printables exists taunts my need for perfection…  But I’m just not ready for that yet.
While party prep has been taking over a large portion of my days, it’s not the only thing we’ve been doing.  Last Friday night, Matt went to an old sand mine in Herculaneum, MO that has been converted into a rec center of sorts.  He’s a disc golf player and they have a 9 hole course underground.  Next time, we’re all going to go because they have barge tours and other activities as well.
Then Saturday night we went to our neighbor’s house for a while to hang out while our kid was asleep.  It was a good break from the cupcake recipe testing that had broken my brain.  I love that we have cool neighbors because we can be social without having to get a sitter since we can still monitor the house closely.  It turned into a fairly late night and tacking on the time change made for a rough start to Sunday.
Daylight savings is always best enjoyed the next day…  After I get home from work and it’s still light out.  I love that.  I wish it was that way all year round.  So on Monday, I said the hell with cleaning the kitchen and we packed up after dinner and got ice cream.

Tuesday night was a bit of a “fuck it” night, too.  After Allison’s hair cut, we came home (after going back to Trader Joe’s to pick up the forgotten items) and invited some neighbors over for a bon fire.  What can I say?  We like fire.
Finally on Thursday we went out for one of my closest friend’s birthday.  It is an annual tradition to spend it at Schlafly Bottleworks, a local brewery specializing in local ingredients.  I usually get the field greens salad that was the inspiration for my vanilla bean vinaigrette, but this time I got a bison burger.  It was good, but someone else’s plate of pistachio ravioli make my burger look a bit less impressive.

What I’ve been doing around the web…

Sarah from Clover Lane is one of my favorite parenting bloggers.  She always makes it look so easy, but this week she lifted the veil on “doing it all.”
Ever try to share a blog post link on Facebook and you get a generic thumbnail and excerpt?  I was pulling my hair out about this just the other day.  Then Blogging with Amy shared a great tip on a plugin that can fix it!  It was like the Blogging Gods were listening to my prayers!  Or my complaining…
I recently stumbled upon a site called Homemade Frontier and FELL IN LOVE!  And as I was talking to my mom the other night about Allison’s party plans and she was telling me she didn’t understand why I go to so much trouble, this post played through my head. Because it’s not just about making things.  It’s about making memories.
Hope everyone has a great St. Patty’s Day! 

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

First Haircut

Allison was born with a good head of hair (especially considering both her parents were bald babies).  And as she grew, it grew out so beautifully in these sweet wavy layers.  I never wanted to cut it because some people pay lots of money for hair like that.
But as it got longer, she became more and more resistant to me brushing it, screaming, “I’ve got to run away!” every time I can near with the comb.  And pretty soon she started to look a little homeless.
So we figured that it was time and in preparation for her 3rd birthday seemed like a good opportunity.


 I had no idea how she would react to someone messing with her head, but apparently Dora on tv and sitting in a train chair is sufficient distraction.

She even followed direction!  I think I need one of these train chairs…


No nap + Dora = zoned out.


Pretty!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Simple Days - 3.7.12

Simple Days ~ 3.7.12

My intention was to get this post up over the weekend, but with Matt’s schedule being all wonky these past couple weeks, I’m totally off schedule and out of my groove.
But he has THE ENTIRE WEEKEND OFF this week, so we can plan some fun things to do around town (read: get things ready for Allison’s birthday party the following weekend) like maybe visit the Arch or if the weather holds, the zoo.
It would definitely be nice to do something different, however, I do really love our times at home.

What I’ve been up to…

The weekend before last was the perfect mix of work and play.  We met friends for dinner on that first Friday of Lent for a Catholic fish fry dinner.  Allison always loves seeing her favorite friend, Shelby.  It was a great time until we got home…  And Allison had a meltdown because WE WENT IN THE WRONG DOOR!  The Horror!  I’m assuming she was just really tired and it was a timely trigger, but that set the pace for the evening.  She wasn’t playing well and sharing was practically an impossibility.  She also seems to be getting a thrill out of defying us these days, too.  I don’t know why they talk about the terrible 2’s because 3 is shaping up to the tough one.
Saturday started out not much better with more tantrums.  But she finally crashed out for nap and I did manage to get our desk cleared off after watching two episodes of Hoarders.  Maybe not ideal motivation, but whatever works, right?  The nap helped and after Matt got home from work, he baked cookies with Allison, which always makes her happy.  She loves to bake.  But perhaps we gave her a few too many cookies because she was still awake at 10 o’clock.  Finally asleep, we grabbed some beverages and our neighbor came over for a highly competitive game of Scrabble.  I won.  Of course.  :)

Sunday was a lazy day of errands then we met my cousin and her family for dinner at Bailey’s Roast.  The food was good, although next time I’ll choose a different burger and we were actually able to conversate even with the kids around.  Miracle of miracles!  We wrapped up the weekend with a bonfire at our (other) neighbor’s house after Allison was in bed.  We are so amazingly lucky to have such wonderful people living around us.
Last Monday through Friday are a blur.  I guess because Matt was gone most nights.  I do enjoy working on the blog when he’s not home, so I installed a new theme and so far I’m lovin’ it (once I figured out how to use it)!  I still have some tweaking to do, but I think it looks pretty sharp so far.  We had our regular dinner with friends on Thursday, but I totally slacked and we ended up going out to eat instead of me preparing the meal I had planned.  Perhaps some of my lack of motivation was due to the fact that I didn’t run at all last week due to a quad injury…  But I did “play yoga” with Allison a couple of times.   I was able to notice the difference running has been making on my overall health because I was achy from just sitting at my desk all day.
Since I’m behind and this is getting long, I’ll go ahead and stop here and pick up where I left off on my next post.

And now a little game of ‘Pass it On’

Jill at Mommy Inconsistent challenged me and a few fellow bloggers to play along.  And I like to be a good sport.
Here’s how it goes…
1) Answer questions asked of me by the blogger that tagged me.
2) Create a list of questions and tag a few fellow bloggers, hoping they want to play the game too…thus…
3) Passing it on.
1) What’s your favourite childhood memory?
I’d have to say that my favorite childhood memory is of the band that my cousin and I started when I was in elementary school.  Not because it was awesome (although it was) but because she hates to acknowledge it happened.  This went on until I found the notebook with all of our song lyrics written in it a few years ago.  For a gift recently, she conceded to the existence of The Band.  Best. Gift. Ever.
2) Who or what inspired you to start your blog?
One day I stumbled onto The Pioneer Woman and just fell in love with blogs right there.  I loved her writing voice and breadth of topics.  It opened up a new world to me.  Since then I’ve found so many amazing bloggers that have taught me so much and I am really thankful for how blogging has enhanced my life.  Corny, but true.
3) What’s the best advice you’ve ever received about blogging?
Although not from one particular source, the best advice I’ve received is to throw yourself out there.  For a long time, I was intimidated by bloggers that seemed totally out of my league and I got in the way of my own self by refusing to guest post or even comment on their sites.  I’ve lost a lot of time and missed many opportunities due to my own insecurities.  While that is something that I still struggle with, I have been making a greater effort to get over my fear and get out there.
4) What’s your most embarrassing moment?
Ugh.  I blush really easily, sometimes for no reason other than being the focus of someones’ attention.  I hate it.  If I could change one thing, that would probably be it because it can be crippling in social situations.
5) What melts your heart?
My daughter.  She’s everything I ever dreamed of having and more.
Now, because I’m nosy, I don’t want to just tag 5 people to answer my questions.  So anyone that wants to answer, feel free to link up a dedicated post or just write them up in the comments!
1) What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
2) If you didn’t have to work (in home or out), how would you spend your time?
3) What is one thing you would tell your childhood self if you could go back in time?
4) What is your favorite blog to read?
5) Salty or Sweet?
 
Happy Wednesday!