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catch the moment: week thirty-five (Labor Day)

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We went to a concert, visited with Ryan’s family, and worked hard in the yard over Labor Day weekend. All in all, it was a good mix of being home and getting out on the town. Time with friends, time with family. No complaints from this gal!

Linking up my week 35 of Catch the Moment 365 with Mindi from Simply Stavish, Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming, and Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer.

239/365: August 27th – I got the boys some sleeping bags for an upcoming camping trip and they had fun testing them out in the living room.8-27-14

240/365: August 28th – We took the boys to a local cupcake shop to reward Dexter for an accident-free week after struggling with adjusting to pre-school. They were proud of their “big bellies” after eating their treats. 8-28-14

241/365: August 29th – Feeding the ducks and fish some bread after pick-up from the babysitter.8-29-14

242/365: August 30th – Tailgating with our good friends before the fantastic, wonderful, fabulous, oh-so-fun Luke Bryan concert.8-30-14

243/365: August 31st – We woke up Sunday morning and Ryan mowed while I de-weeded part of the jungle that has taken over our front beds.  The summer has been pretty mild and wet – usually by this point in the summer the grass is dead and weeds aren’t much of an issue.  As you can see, a month of ignoring the weeds didn’t really work this year. It started pouring rain so we called it a day and went to Ryan’s parents for most of the day Sunday and spent the night.8-31-14

244/365: September 1st – Labor Day.  We left Ryan’s parents around 11am and got back to work at home.  After more weeding, digging up a dead bush, and ripping out very stubborn ivy, I could barely walk the next day. Our house, from the front anyway, looks a million times better. Now we just have to stay on top of it and keep working on getting rid of that ivy. Who ever thought that crap was a good idea???9-01-14

245/365: September 2nd – Our long weekend came to an end as we transitioned back to normal life. Preschool, work, dinner, baths, and bedtime stories.  I feel like I repeat “not right now” too many times when they ask for attention because I’m “busy” cooking, cleaning, working, or otherwise occupied with day to day necessary tasks.  I really treasure story time and bedtime (even when it drives me crazy) because that’s at least 1 hour when they have our nonstop, undivided attention.  I love that we reconnect as a family at the end of every day.9-02-14a

Shoot, I know I shouldn’t like my own pictures this much and I feel like a broken record saying I can’t decide which I like best, but I can’t help it. Every picture means something to me. I love my silly boys at the cupcake shop (240), the concert (242) and both before and after progress shots of our landscaping (243-44). Oh right, and the bedtime one (245). So yeah – like I said… I suck at this.

Since I’m biased, you tell me. Which picture(s) do YOU like best?

xo,

~C~

catch the moment 365: week thirty-four

Gallery posted on by mommyinthemidwest

Whoa, this might be a new Guinness Book world record for fewest pictures in a week of my boys…

Linking up with these lovelies for week 34 of Catch the Moment 365:

  1. Mindi from Simply Stavish
  2. Sarah from Nurse Loves Farmer 
  3. Stephanie from Behind the Camera and Dreaming

232/365: August 20th. The sun trying to bust through a very foggy morning on my drive to work.8-20-14

233/365: August 21st. Watching a little Disney Jr before school.8-21-14

234/365: August 22nd. A 40th birthday party for our good friend Alfredo. I just love this picture of him and Brandy.  You’d never know these lovebirds had been married for 13 years. Such a sweet couple and some of our closest friends.8-22-14

235/365: August 23rd. And we got to watch their youngest daughter for a few hours on Saturday, which meant a fun trip to the splash pad on a hot, hot Saturday.8-23-14

236/365: August 24th. Our good friends took us out on their boat and after another long, hot day of being in the sun, this was about as good of a picture as I could get of these three pals. We had a blast!8-24-14

237/365: August 25th. The boys preschool schedule has my work schedule a little upside down, meaning I go in earlier on Mondays and Fridays to make up for going in later the other three days.  The advantage is that on Mondays and Fridays, I’m able to see sunrises like this on the country backroads as I drive to …..8-25-14

238/365: August 26th. Franklin, Indiana. I had planned on getting a picture of this cute area of downtown Franklin and just as I took out my camera, this stretch rolled up and got in my shot…I didn’t have time to sit there and wait for it to move on so here’s a random moment in downtown Franklin for you. 8-26-14

 

So weird to only have three pictures of the boys this week! My favorite three pictures this week are day 234 (Brandy and Alfredo), 235 (because she’s so pretty), and 237 (that sunrise).

How about you – which one do you like best?

xo,

~C~

2014 resolution check-in

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My three resolutions for 2014 and my progress towards them with two-thirds of this year behind me…

1. Stop Yelling.

I decided to try to go an entire year without yelling at Theo and Dexter.  It wasn’t long before I had a couple of relapses and I quickly noticed a pattern.  It wasn’t them – it was me.  I was yelling when I was tired and/or PMSing.  I never put it together before until I started tracking how long it’d been between my meltdowns where I totally lost my cool.  My tolerance and patience is sliced in half when I’m hormonal – who knew?  I know that shaming my kids is not okay. Humiliating them with my size and power is unacceptable.  I’m not doing that anymore, so I call this an overall success so far in 2014.  Not perfect by any means, but better. While I can’t say that I haven’t raised my voice out of annoyance or frustration, I’m MUCH more aware of my own mood and how it impacts my parenting. The result at this point is that I am noticing a calmer tone in the home.

2. Run 300 miles.

Pretty much a major fail. My plan was to run about 2 miles three times a week all year.  Lofty, but that’s what dreams are, right? I blame the practically immediate demise of this dream on an uncooperative body.  I had two bouts of strep throat, a stomach bug, and THE flu in the first 6 weeks of 2014.  When I tried to get back to running in February, I had intense knee pain.  I injured myself somehow, to the point that standing up from a chair or walking from one end of my office building to the other was painful.  I had pain-free days here and there into the springtime, but I averaged just a handful of runs per month.  August has been my best running month all year with my longest run ever – 3.55 miles.  The day after that, my knees and ankles told me to back off and then the humidity here got ridiculous. I have slacked waaay off the last couple of weeks, but I’m looking forward to getting back into my routine of three runs per week soon. Not anywhere close to reaching my goal, but it hasn’t been completely forgotten.

3. Take a photo every day and document them weekly on my blog.

I have completely kept up with this. I have take every picture I have posted and every picture has been taken with my DSLR. No cheating! (This is not a requirement of the project, but a challenge to myself).  I can’t wait to compile the year of photos into a little book. The bonus is what I hope is an improvement in my photography skill and knowledge. My interest for the hobby has certainly grown, if nothing else.

So there you have it — did you make resolutions and have you kept them? I guess you could say I am at about 1.5 out of 3?

xo,

~C~