catch the moment: wk 15

Posted on April 16, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

It’s been a good week! Busy, but good. Seems like all of the sudden lots of appointments, plans, and obligations popped up out of nowhere and they are keeping us running from one place to the next. It’s going to be like that for the next couple of weeks so we’ll just roll with it. Thank goodness for Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday huh? We really recharged this past weekend. We had beautiful weather, accomplished a lot at home, spent good family time together, and went into Monday ready to face the week. Now? Well…I’m looking forward to the weekend again.

Linking up with Mindi at Stavish Stills Photography, Carrie at My Life, Our Journey, and Stephanie at Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

099/365: Thursday, April 9th. Our monthly moms-night-out dates have gotten a little more sporadic, but Angie and I still make a point to get together for dinner when our schedules allow. Thunderstorms were predicted but we ended up with a gorgeous warm night with clear skies. We enjoyed a long talk at dinner and a long walk afterwards.

100/365: Friday, April 10th. Dexter Jay was not impressed by the dryers at the car wash. He requested that we never, ever go through the car wash again. Anyone else’s kid terrified of loud noises? Diesel trucks…hand dryers…automatically flushing toilets…hope he grows out of this soon.

101/365: Saturday, April 11th. One of the tasks on my to-do list (that I was actually looking forward to) Saturday was to add up all the money in our Disney savings jar. After just a little over 6 months, I was excited to find out that we’d saved almost $300 (okay a good bit of it was generously donated – thank you, friends and family). We’ll use this money for snacks and souvenirs. It may not go too far at Disney World when we’re there in a few weeks, but every little bit helps!

102/365: Sunday, April 12th. Loungin’ around in the evening after bathtime. We spent a lot of time outside playing and working and eating and exploring …as the weekend was winding down I felt a little sense of desperation. It was SUCH a nice weekend at home and I didn’t want it to end. I’d really been missing my kids during the work week and they were super fantastic to be around all weekend (which we all know isn’t always the case with 3 and 5 year olds). It was just what I needed.

103/365: Monday, April 13th. Indiana knows sunrises. And sunsets.

104/365: Tuesday, April 14th. After school Lego play time.

105/365: Wednesday, April 15th. (Happy Tax Day!) We actually received these last Friday but I didn’t get around to taking a picture of them with my DSLR that day. The boys were so excited. We talked about what the MagicBands were for. We are definitely counting down the days until we return to Walt Disney World. And does anyone else in the world have a 5 year old child who requests gray when given a variety of bright, fun colors to choose from? No? Just Theo. Okay…We are enjoying this time of year and looking forward to vacation. Current drama…our childcare plan for the summer fell through so we are currently in the middle of trying to figure out (AGAIN) what we will do. I’m actually not freaking out too hard, surprisingly enough. I know it will work out. I don’t necessarily believe that things happen for a reason, but I do believe that sometimes things work out the way they do for the best. Hopefully I’ll be able to cross this big question mark off my list soon.

Which photo is your favorite? None of them are amazing but I like them all because they represent a good week. A solid, good week in 2015. I’ll take more of those, please.

xo,

~C~

catch the moment: wk 14

Gallery posted on April 11, 2015April 11, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

This week has flown by! Usually I am writing this post on Wednesday or Thursday night, and here it is Saturday morning. I’ve been gone so much this week and haven’t had the energy when I get home late at night to pull out the laptop. Ugh, I’ve been struggling these last couple of weeks with finding balance. Work-family-self-home-friend balance. And I have been wanting to write about it all just to process and see if anyone has any feedback that’s helpful but like I said…balance. Or lack of. It seems like I’m having a hard time getting it all done lately. More on that later. (Maybe.)

Linking up with Mindi at Stavish Stills Photography, Carrie at My Life, Our Journey, and Stephanie at Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

092/365 – Thursday, April 2nd. Oh, April and her showers. We sure are looking forward to May’s flowers because the last two weeks have drowned us in rain. It looked somewhat promising for a long neighborhood walk this night so we grabbed the strollers and went for it. Thirty minutes in, the sky unloaded buckets and buckets of rain on us but we were very lucky to be on the backside of our neighborhood just where we could run through a couple of unsuspecting neighbors’ yards to get back home. The boys thought it was quite an adventure, getting all wet and muddy and sneaking between the houses. I wouldn’t have been as worried about it if I hadn’t had my DSLR with us. It was kind of fun though.

093/365: Friday, April 3rd. I see Spring things happening! That rain really is good for something.

094/365: Saturday, April 4th. Finally a clear day! We visited Ryan’s parent for Easter weekend. It was chilly but the boys loved running around outside. See that dock there? Yeah, that’s the one that Dexter stepped off of on Easter Sunday in the afternoon…it was about 55 degrees. Ryan was right beside him and got him out within a few seconds, but he was frozen and drenched from his shoulders to his toes. The water is shallow here but it was scary for all of us!

095/365: Sunday, April 5th. Easter (a few hours before Dexter fell in the lake!) with Nana, Pop Pop, and cousin Spencer. A few of the boys’ favorite people in the world. This was not the first Easter that Dexter made more more exciting than necessary…remember THIS?

096/365: Monday, April 6th. Late night after the gym and this was about the only willing and awake subject I could find. Big fat Niko waiting for me to turn on the faucet after my shower.

097/365: Tuesday, April 7th. I came home from work and put on my pajamas and Theo said “Mommy, you’re not going to the gym tonight?! You’re not going anywhere!?” Cue my heart breaking. Yeah. Balance.

098/365: Wednesday, April 8th. Midway through another week of nothing but rain. This week my favorite pictures have to be days 94 & 95 – our time at Nana and Pop Pop’s for Easter weekend. So lucky to have such wonderful in-laws! Hope you had a nice Easter weekend.

xo-

~C~

catch the moment: week 13

Gallery posted on April 3, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

This week was a mix of BLAH-ness and goodness and some kind of feeling in between. I am excited for this time of year, looking forward to summer, and happy that winter is over. At the same time, I felt like I was in a funk all weekend. I was restless and itching to go do something, but didn’t really feel like I had the energy or motivation. I quit feeling sorry for myself on Monday and kicked my exercise routine and healthy eating back into high gear and I feel MUCH better because of it. Ryan and I enjoyed a rare Wednesday night date for frozen yogurt and bowling while the boys spent the night with my in-laws. I finally got a Fitbit, which I’m really excited about, and I’m looking forward to Easter weekend. No more feeling frumpy or grumbling about nothing because, guess what? I have nothing to grumble about. Nothing. Life is good.

Linking up with Mindi at Stavish Stills Photography, Carrie at My Life, Our Journey, and Stephanie at Behind the Camera and Dreaming.

085/365: Thursday, March 26th. I needed a little afternoon pick-me-up and to polish off the last $4.something on a gift card. This grande skinny iced caramel latte was only 80 tiny, delicious calories and worth every single one. Good thing I’m not really into spending $4+ on drinks on a regular basis or this might be a new obsession.

086/365: Friday, March 27th. A little bedtime silliness with daddy.

087/365: Saturday, March 28th. I took the boys to this indoor playground about 30 minutes from home while Ryan worked on our sloooow kitchen remodel. It was PACKED but I love this place; it’s so cool and the boys had a blast climbing up this giant structure. They are so brave!!

088/365: Sunday, March 29th. Playing Eye Found It before bed.

089/365: Monday, March 30th. A tiny glimpse of my Easter mantle. I didn’t really put it together intentionally this way – I just started several weeks ago by placing vintage Easter decorations up there that we owned with plans to rearrange, take things away, purchase some new items, buy a wreath to hang in front of the mirror, etc. Instead I’ve slowly removed items and sat them in other spots around the house and replaced them with things we’ve made (handprint bunnies and handprint flowers) and purchased (tiny decorative Easter eggs). It’s a hodge podge but I like the colors and I think it looks kinda cute.

090/365: Tuesday, March 31st. My mom sent them some money to pick out a new toy for Easter the day before, so I’d promised the boys that we would go to the toy store after I picked them up. They’d been very busy little guys, climbing trees and playing in dirt all day and weren’t really presentable for going shopping. We hurried home to clean up – that’s one way to get the to comply with taking a bath! Every time they take a bath together, I am very much aware – and make sure they are too – that this is likely their last bath together. They are just getting too big to share the tub and half the water ends up on me. They were super silly and wound up after getting out. I had so many funny face pictures to choose from but thought their expressions were both so comical in this one.

091/365: Wednesday, April 1st. No foolin’, Spring has finally arrived!! I stepped outside to take a picture of my Fitbit (which I was proudly and excitedly wearing for the first time ever) when I noticed these beauties blooming in the woods behind our house. So gorgeous and such a sigh of relief to feel like Spring is really, truly, FINALLY here!!

My favorite pictures this week are the last two, those silly faced boys and the pretty daffodils blooming at home. Hurrah for cuties and beauties. Which photo(s) do you like best?