catch the moment: wk 37

Posted on September 18, 2015September 18, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

What an exciting week full of new beginnings it has been.

253/365: Thursday, September 10th. Baby Ryan is not a fan of the paparazzi. I got to spend some time with my friend’s 1 month old precious tiny baby boy. I so loved soaking in those newborn smells and snuggles and the way it feels to have a little bundle sleeping on my shoulder.

254/365: Friday, September 11th. When a friend cancels her dinner party due to going into labor, you make do. You have your own mini dinner party, complete with shirtlessness and sprinkle-covered candy apples.

255/365: Saturday, September 12th. The day a sweet baby named Charlotte came into the world. We had a busy day with haircuts and some forest exploration before cleaning up and going to a wedding a couple of hours away. A cousin of Ryan’s started his new life as a husband and it was a lot of fun to see relatives from near and far.

256/365: Sunday, September 13th. A couple of years ago I had a series of hashtags on Instagram: #bitesizedsunday. I would create a meal out of appetizers every Sunday during football season. Or every Sunday that we were home anyway. This football season I thought I would try this new challenge: make and share a different soup every week with the hashtag #souperbowlsundays. The first week was Cheeseburger Soup by the Recipe Critic. It was delicious, but it was basically just a homemade potato soup with some ground beef added to it. I ate it leftover for lunch on Monday and Tuesday. It was a hit with Dexter and Ryan-Theo wasn’t as crazy about it but he’s kind of a lazy eater and soup is a lot of work. Might be a long football season full of Sundays for him.

257/365: Monday, September 14th. It’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing for them and a curse for us – Ryan and I just can’t hardly pass up a good deal and we took a family trip to Barnes & Noble only to discover their huge 50% off toy and game sale. Not lame toys and games – playmobil, Melissa&Doug, good toy sale. Ryan and I couldn’t resist buying a couple of playmobil sets at half price. If they hadn’t been with me, I probably could have done half of their Christmas shopping there between all the books, toys, games, and puzzles that were marked down.

258/365: Tuesday, September 15th. My kids have little to no interest in doing just about anything physical that requires practice and determination. They will run around and play games created from their imaginations, hunt for bugs, go for walks, and race across the yard 10 times over, but if it requires determination, they bail. Ryan and I struggle with this and don’t know how to solve it. Sometimes we think maybe if we had more neighbor kids their age, the peer pressure would get to them. Regardless-I’m not above bribery. I got Dexter to practice and sort of halfway try to ride the bike for about 10 minutes with the promise of a Starburst candy. He might have cavities in all of his teeth, but he will ride that bike, darn it.

259/365: Wednesday, September 16th. I had some time to waste before meeting friends for the Taylor Swift concert on this day so I stopped by my new favorite coffee house – Coffeehouse Five – for an iced mint tea. My favorite drink ever, at my new favorite place. I love supporting local businesses!

I’m just salivating over that picture of tea-too bad they aren’t open late at night! Hopefully this weekend will include more starburst bribes and sunshine.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: wk 36

Posted on September 10, 2015September 10, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

It was refreshing to have a 3 day weekend. We soaked it up with a good mix of housework and fun. Our weekend quickly filled up with plans and like always, the time just flew by. There are 2 weeks until the first day of Fall and I’m hanging on to every last second of summer for dear life. Pumpkin spice everything is all around me as well as Halloween decorations. It does make me want to get a Fall mantle going and I’m itching to continue moving forward with our home remodeling projects. It wouldn’t be a project around here without some large stumbling blocks slowing us down, but I’m still hopeful to get a good amount of work done by Christmas when we host my family from Tennessee for a few days.

246/365: Thursday, September 3rd. A quick pitstop on my way to work to capture the wildflowers in front of a barn out in the country (a barn that has appeared in a handful of my catch the moment posts over the past year and a half).

247/365: Friday, September 4th. Our wonderful friends invited us over for dinner and a bonfire. The boys enjoyed roasting marshmallows – maybe more than they enjoyed actually eating them – while I stared at and held sweet 3 month old baby Kennedy as much as humanly possible. 248/365: Saturday, September 5th. Theo has a new friend at school. New friend had a birthday party and invited Theo. It put me in an awkward position. Do I ask to bring my other kid? Do I stay home with my uninvited kid? Do we skip it altogether? This was our first party invitation where the birthday child didn’t know / invite both kids. Dexter was really sad at first but I think he enjoyed the extra time with me. Theo asked Ryan to take him to the party and while I felt I was missing out on being nosy, it was nice to focus on just one kid for a couple of hours. We cleaned the library (then played school). We went out for a donut. We took a trip to Target that resulted in a new Imaginext Batman toy. I’d say all in all, he came out ahead.

249/365: Sunday, September 6th. We worked around the house most of the day then my friend and I took our kids together to see Disney Presents Frozen on Ice. It was really fun. I would have gone with or without kids. The boys’ favorite parts were seeing Olaf and the Ice Monster. I have to admit-I loved Elsa’s on-ice rendition of Let it Go.

250/365: Monday, September 7th. Labor Day. All play and no work on Monday. We went to the lake for one last hurrah. Our last swim of 2015. Sad day. A good day, but a sad one no less.

251/365: Tuesday, September 8th. Since the cotton candy with an Olaf hat was $15 and the one with the tiara or crown or whatever it is was *ONLY* $12, I opted for the sparkly jeweled crown. Why can’t you just buy cotton candy for like $2.50? Anyway…Tuesday after school Dexter decided to decorate it with little jewel stickers that came with it.

252/365: Wednesday, September 9th. Picture Day at Montessori School. What happened to my little babies?Why’d they have to go and get big on me? Favorite picture this week? Favorite moment this week? I dunno-I kind of liked them all. Life’s good.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: wk 35

Posted on September 3, 2015September 3, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

I feel like a broken record – it’s been another busy week. I can’t believe it’s almost fall. I can’t believe I have a kid in Kindergarten. I don’t want winter to come. I can’t believe how fast time goes by. I wish I had time to do it all. Every week I find myself making plans to do better at fitting it all in next week. I felt like I was at the gym too much during the week so I’ve been spending more time at home. Now I feel gross and tired and out of shape, but I’m enjoying more time with the boys. Where’s the balance? Can I just request 4 more waking hours in every day? We have some big fun plans coming up in the next couple of months so plenty to look forward despite dreaded fall and winter lurking around the corner.

The boys and I snuck off to Tennessee for the weekend to visit my family while Ryan did some demo work at home. I relished the family time and tried to soak up every minute with my nieces and nephew, my mom, my sister, and my brother-in-law. Seeing them just makes me that much more homesick, wishing we had more time to spend together. I had a big WHOA mommy moment while on the trip. My kids are getting older and more mature. I was worried about managing the 5.5 hr drive alone, but they were perfect angels. They were wonderful at my mom’s. It was more than doable, it was completely 100% absolutely enjoyable. A new phase of motherhood- fantastic! A feeling of increased freedom and confidence. At the same time, I can’t help but still have that WHOA feeling…it’s clear that they really are growing up.

239/365: Thursday, August 27th. Sometimes the best you can do is a POV picture while watching your guilty pleasure trashy TV late at night.

240/365: Friday, August 28th. Dexter was eating within 5 minutes of arriving at my mom’s. Three words for this boy. Human Garbage Disposal.

241/365: Saturday, August 29th. My 10 year old nephew, Mal. Seriously one of the kindest, gentlest, and coolest people I know.

242/365: Sunday, August 30th. Our trip was a whirlwind – we were barely gone for 48 hours. Sunday we said goodbye to my family before niece Penelope jetted off from my mom’s – don’t get your knickers in a bunch, it’s only 100 feet to their house.

243/365: Monday, August 31st. While we were gone, Ryan tore up the carpet – yes I said carpet- in our kitchen. Decisions, decisions! We finally narrowed it down and selected tile for the kitchen and powder room.

244/365: Tuesday, September 1st. Speaking of that powder room, here’s what’s left of it. I can’t wait to replace those 1983 touches with modern ones. Goodbye disgusting bathroom!

245/365: Wednesday, September 2nd. What would I do without these two? All in all a great week! I have been hoarding my PTO at work all summer so that I can take off when the boys have school breaks, so I’m really excited to have a long weekend to celebrate Labor Day and hang out -mostly at home- with my guys.

xo,

~C~

mommy in the midwest

Project 365

catch the moment: wk 37

catch the moment: wk 36

catch the moment: wk 35