catch the moment: week forty-three

Gallery posted on October 31, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

It’s been a very fun and festive week full of Halloween activities. This post is very fall-y. Unfortunately by this time next week, most of the leaves will probably be down and my world will be a lot less colorful! And thanks to Daylight Savings Time, my world will be a lot darker too. Boo.

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie for this installment of Catch the Moment 365. With only 9 weeks left, what do you think? Should I plan on doing this again in 2015?

295/365 – Wednesday, October 22nd: Just something pretty I saw on my drive home from work. This represents rural Indiana in the fall – farmhouse across from a cornfield with beautiful leaves drifting slowly from the trees.

296/365 – Thursday, October 23rd: A quick play date at the park after work with our sweet little friend.

297/365 – Friday, October 24th. Community Halloween party with another little pal. A pretty wild bunch!

298/365 – Saturday, October 25th: Another Halloween party at our friends’ house and Theo LOVED this Medusa decoration. He kept going back to it.

299/365 – Sunday, October 26th: Little buddy was proud of the pumpkin that he designed and helped me carve for him. I couldn’t get Dexter to cooperate for taking a picture with his pumpkin. Sometimes I see a photo of one of these boys and imagine myself looking at it when I’m older, thinking “I remember that day. He looks so little.” This is one of those.

300/365 – Monday, October 27th: I was backing out of the driveway when the beauty of this shot struck me. We have a lot of work to do on this house, but we’re lucky to live here. Seeing the trees getting more and more bare makes me sad. Soon there will be no color left in this scene other than the red brick on our house.

301/365 – Tuesday, October 28th: Overexposed but I don’t care – I love his little face to much not to share this one. We’ve recently started bathing them separately more than together and while it’s a sad sign that they are getting bigger, it’s so much nicer. Honestly. No fighting, no splashing. So what picture(s) do you like best from this week? I like them all. So there.

xo,

~C~

11 signs you are suffering from PVDD

Gallery posted on October 23, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

You might be suffering from PVDD (Post-Vacation Depressive Disorder) if:

You can’t stop looking at your pictures and videos from vacation. They might make you tear up just a little bit, but this is not required.
You can’t stop making other people look at pictures of your vacation. The sharing of said photos on social media applies.
You reset your computer desktop background image to a photograph from your vacation within 1 hour of your first day back at work.
You think/talk about planning your next vacation 4 times per day or more.
You replay parts of your vacation over and over in your mind and wish you were back in that very moment.
Similarly, you say to yourself or significant other (or even worse, acquaintances/strangers), “__ day(s)/week(s) ago, we were _______” (fill in the blank with a magical vacation memory).
You have only been home for 3 days and have already started a photo book or other memorabilia as a tribute to the beloved vacation that is now a part of your past.
You and your significant other make sad puppy dog eyes at each other when a beach is shown on TV or mentioned by anyone within earshot.
You seek reassurance from your children that they really did enjoy themselves by constantly hounding them to recall favorite activities from vacation.
You search job listings and real estate in the area where you vacationed so you can pretend you are moving there for good.
You spend more time than you ever thought humanly possible coming up with acronyms and lists about how you display your PVDD symptoms.

If you have experienced 6 or more of these symptoms in the week(s) following your most recent vacation, you should seriously consider consulting with a professional travel agent to book your next getaway as soon as reasonably possible.

xo,

~C~

summer wrap up: 2014

Gallery posted on September 11, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

High temps are predicted to reach only into the mid-60s this weekend, so the realization that summer is ending has become impossible to ignore or deny. I always say that Spring is my favorite season because of the awesome weather and – oh yeah – my birthday, but truly it’s my favorite because it renews my spirit and gives me something to look forward to…Summer. In the same vein, Fall is kind of my least favorite season. I hate winter more than Fall for a lot of reasons but it’s hard for me to get wrapped up in pumpkin-mania and chunky sweaters when all I can think about is the fact that Summer is over and Winter is chomping at the bit to get it’s claws on me. My disgust for Fall and is something I have written about since 2010. Nothing has changed.

I guess that’s not entirely true – what’s different this year is that we’ve had less than five 90 degree days and just as it finally started to FEEL like summer, it is ending.

Regardless…that’s not the point of this post. My intent was that this would be a happy kind of post. A reminder of how much fun we packed into this short, mild summer and how many firsts we experienced together as a family. If I had made a Summer 2014 bucket list, I think just about everything would be checked off!

– The unofficial start of Summer: Memorial Day. We took a road trip to Tennessee for the long weekend to visit my mom, sister, and my sister’s family.– Strawberry goodness: Strawberry picking and a few days later, a strawberry festival that we have gone to 3 years in a row.-Theo found his way into the spotlight, singing “Let it Go” at Karaoke night at our favorite local ice cream joint.-Simple Pleasures: Countless picnics and trips to the splash pad, pool, parks, and the farmers market.

-The YMCA: Soccer Clinics & Swim Lessons -Father’s Day weekend: Spent with friends at the lake. -Family: A very special visit from my mom and grandma. That’s four generations right there.-Sunflower picking. -4th of July/11th anniversary weekend. -Mini-vacation: We went with some friends to Holiday World for the first time. The boys and I camped in a camper for the first time. -Bliss: A beautiful backyard wedding. True Love. -First time bowling as a family: -Dexter started pre-school: – The Indiana State Fair. -Time spent with my long-distance BFF.-Fun celebrating a wonderful friend’s 40th birthday. -Fun with friends on the lake. – Fun with friends at the Luke Bryan show. – Fun with family camping at a Jellystone Campground + Resort and Mammoth Cave. Looking through these memories, it’s hard to believe we squeezed so much into three months. Summer, oh, summer. Why do you have to go?

xo,

~C~