Around Here Week Nine: 02/27-03/05

A look into what it feels like to live in our home right this second.

Intentional Hours Outside: 17.5 hours (of 1000)
I did great this weekend and the early start of the week, but then winter came a'blowin' back in and took the wind right out of my outdoor sails.  The girls and I got out despite the high 30's in the beginning of the week (I got in some outdoor book reading!) but then we had appointments and the cold and I sort of bailed come mid-week.  So...see next point...

Awaiting spring.  I KNOW.  I am trying to be better about embracing winter, and it really has been a mild winter this year - but the cold.  I just can't.  We get these little tastes of sunshine and warm every few days and then we wake up like this morning and there's snow on the ground and it's freezing outside.  Stop teasing me nature!  We are ready for blue skies and warm breezes and wide open spaces to run off all this cabin fever pent up energy!  Get me outside foreverrrrrrrrrr.

Making a wet mess one night this week when Grey decided he wanted to have a squirt gun battle with Brandon.  He got the idea from watching Fuller House (we are loving it!) and then we set out a full squirt gun for B on the porch so they could battle as soon as he got home late one night from work.  It was hilarious and the two boys were cracking up and chasing each other everywhere joyfully. The girls and I were following them around and laughing too (Gemma was so worried though someone was going to get their feelings or body hurt of course, our sensitive little lamb).  It was such fun and ya know what, water dries - so whatever to the mess.

Extending patience to Violet who moved to a toddler bed this week and hasn't quite gotten the handle on staying in her bed during naptime.  Night has been going great, but naptime has been a struggle as she bang, bang, bangs on the door and yells at us; not crying more like, "MUM! Memma!" to try to convince us to let her out.  When I go in to check on her after she's quiet, and she's asleep on the floor right next to the door so I can't open it more than a smidge.  It's both pitiful and sweet, but she'll get there.  The other two moved at 17 months too because of their climbing genes, and plus I'd like her to be well adjusted before June and the new babe comes.  It's also part of our very slow transition from big kids sharing a room to gender rooms!

Preparing for Easter by decorating our little tree out front with Easter eggs and starting to put together some Easter basket gifts with an online Usborne book party (so fun!) We're planning to keep it pretty simple this Easter with just candy and one book each - but it feels good to know that we're mostly ready already as the kids continue to color down their Lenten charts each day.

Calling off the whole evening of activities on Wednesday after I decided the baby bump and I were just too tired and it was just too darn cold to try to get everyone loaded up in the car for Gemma's gymnastics.  Instead, everyone got long baths, a hot homemade dinner (see Baking below!), and an early bedtime.  It was actually blissful, and although I hate cancelling plans - this night was definitely worth it.

Baking these three-ingredient muffins to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday and then real live homemade bread...like no bread maker, with my own two hands!  It was delicious and went perfectly and so deliciously with this Loaded Potato Soup that left our dinner table silent for a few minutes as everyone just ate and enjoyed.

Praying.  It was a heavy hearted week as we shared the burden of sorrow with some of our friends through their sadness.  a son gone far, far too soon and a mother's light who is now missing from this Earth.  if you have extra prayers to give, please pray for peace - both in the world and for those who are suffering and mourning.  One of the most helpful tips I've read is from this article about being there for others in moments of sadness.  Basically, you figure out where you are in the circle of suffering and then only pour love into the circle (to those closer to the center of the pain) and dump out all of your own sadness (to those who are even farther away from the center of the pain).

March Meal Plans

It's another month and I've been working on both putting together our monthly meal plan and sticking to our first month of Dave Ramsey style monthly budget.  To be able to do best as I could, I made sure to do a serious inventory check of all we already have in stock, especially stuff that's been hiding in the back of the fridge freezer and deep freezer.  We also have our quarter of a cow meat arriving today (yay!)

This year has been going fairly smoothly with meal planning and I always contribute some of that to my frequent use of our crockpots.  yes, I have to slow cookers because that's how big of a fan I am, hah.  Sometimes we use it twice a week!  It is a big relief to me come dinnertime to know that most of the meal is already done and it's just a matter of throwing together a side and tossing it onto plates.

Logistically speaking, I'm the queen of the kitchen (grocery shopping, cooking, and usually cleaning up) because I'm the one that's here (#sahmprobs) and also, I know what everyone likes and won't eat (or at least will complain about it) so I bear the dinner load (and breakfast and lunch loads - HAH).  

But, thanks to an awesome suggestion from my friend Haley (hi!), Brandon and I have been working on a 'Daddy dinner' days.  In the past, I have tried to just leave it wide open like - 'yo, B, you're on dinner duty next wednesday' but then next Wednesday rolls around and because of both of us we realize too late that neither of us really has a plan about it.  But, after talking to Haley about what she does, we've started flagging some days of the week as that the plan is as it is, it's just that Daddy is making the meal.  Seems like a duh, but somehow wasn't for me and so thank you Haley for sharing the tip!  We've done it twice last month and it's been a real treat for me to be able to use that dinner-making time for something else (shower? one-on-one time with a kid?) 

Here's what the Studers have on March's mealplan schedule.  What do you have a'cookin' over at your place this month?

3/1-3/4
T: YUM chicken sandwiches/wraps
W: Loaded Potato Soup and Homemade Bread
R:  Taco Pasta
F: Baked cheese Ravioli 

3/7-3/11
M: chicken & zucchini casserole
T: restaurant-style steaks
W: 'please make me' meatballs
R: fried rice (daddy dinner)
F: crispy shrimp pasta alfredo

3/13-3/18
M: chicken & gnocchi soup
T: Enchiladas (with my mom - 100 small things task #26!)
W: slow cooker three packet roast
R (St Patrick's Day!): chicken, stuffing, and broccoli casserole (daddy dinner), Lucky Charms treats
F: meatless spaghetti, salad, & garlic toast

3/21-3/25
M: slow cooker cream cheese taquitos
T: smoked kielbasa alfredo bake (not as spicy as last time!)
W: slow cooker BBQ pork chops
R: chicken & wild rice soup
F (Violet's half birthday!): pierogie lasagna, chocolate chip cookie cake

3/28-3/31
M: Coconut chicken tenders
T: crockpot beef and broccoli over rice
W: chili over mac&cheese (daddy dinner)
R: burgers on the grill!

my favorite photo from 2015

There are all kinds of mommas out there.  Some of us are really great at helping out at school and bringing in the best classroom snacks.  Some of us moms can clean and organize like nobody's business.  Some of us plan amazing parties, and some of us seem to balance it all effortlessly.  It takes all kinds of us mommas - so be proud of whatever it is that you bring to your village!

Personally, I'm the kind of mom that has her camera or phone out to snap pictures of the big events and of the everyday normal, boring stuff.  Our family yearbook is one of my very favorite things to create and is the biggest motivation to have my camera ready to snag the photos of what our days feel like right in this moment of very young kids where the days pass by in a bizarre and loud blur.  I'm the girl receiving regular reminders that my phone storage is low due to photo capacity.

When I was happily browsing Social Print Studio and daydreaming about my next purchase, I started wondering about choosing a single favorite photo from 2015.  I mean, could it even be done, just one single favorite photo?

I took a lot of photos that I really love over the course of 2015, it was a big one for us, after all.  We traveled to the Dominican Republic for a family vacation, we celebrated our baby's first birthday, our son started Kindergarten...it was a record year!  Even though I have loved tons of pictures from last year, it didn't take more than a few minutes to zero in on the number one favorite capture.  Out of all of those major events, my favorite photo actually comes from a regular moment on a regular day with our two girls.

I am one of three sisters, and for all my life, I will be grateful to be a sister of sisters.  For all my life, I will be grateful to be a mother of sisters.  A complete dialogue of a secret, silent language occurs within a glimpse between sisters.  Our husbands sit among us with furrowed eyebrows as the three of us hold entire conversations without ever finishing a sentence in it's entirety.

As with all siblings, there is a loyalty that runs deeper than comprehension, born into our bones through shared DNA and childhood memories.  But with sisters, that loyalty is laced with understanding and empathy and forgiveness.  I see this already in our girls at only four and a year and a half and my heart swells with joy and relief.  They will always have each other, and hopefully they'll also adopt their, future cousins and sisters-in-law into their little circle of giggling and shared desserts and unfinished sentences.

That's what this photo shines out for me; that secret language between sisters.  The mutual admiration and love and reverence that sisters extend to each other.  I imagine I will spend the rest of my life looking out at our two girls sharing a glance just as this one and I'll understand that secrets are being passed, even though I'll never quite know exactly what those secrets are without asking.  And that's just fine, because I'm content in knowing that they have each other, that I have a lifetime of motherhood to watch their relationship grow and flourish.
Our girls.
I will love this photo forever.

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I have been a fan of Social Print Studio for a few years now, they have excellent products and make ordering prints of all of those instagram photos that tend to get stuck in cyberspace rather than printed super easy.  For two years, I have created and printed a collage of twelve of my favorite photos for the year to display in our staircase photo wall.  And the mini square prints are perfect to tack into our kids' baby books of all those magical little moments that is kind of what instagram photos are for.   One of my favorite and most unique Christmas gifts was the tearaway calendar that my brother in law gifted me once.  All of these thoughts are my own, and seriously, check them out - I can promise you that SPS is awesome.


ps. scf, i love you.