Tag: momming

Opening the door…

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It’s interesting how things play out sometimes, and how one simple act can start a domino effect to something bigger.

I took the kiddos to the indoor play place today because the weather was crap and we needed something to do. Afterwards they wanted to go to Panera, which I am always happy to oblige because y’all know I love to eat. Ha! We went in, and walking in I saw the cutest kids with their mom by the door, and I told them both I loved their hair, especially the colors in the girl’s hair.

We walked up to the counter, ordered our food – the clerk asked dine-in or take out and I said dine-in. He responded that the restaurant was currently full and that there would probably be a wait to find a table. Not a problem, we don’t have anywhere else to be.

The kids and I stood around for 5-10 minutes, me eagle eyeing for an open seat or two, when I finally spotted a group of teens getting up from a table in the back, so I ushered the kids over and we grabbed our spot to eat. On my way to fill my drink, I notice the same mom and kiddos (adorable baby not pictured) glancing around the still packed to the gills dining room so I mention to her that I have a 6 person table I snagged in the back, and she’s welcome to sit with us, that we weren’t creepy (that I know of, LOL) – she accepted and we all sat down to eat.

It took about 3 minutes for the little boy to turn to Wyatt and in the sweetest voice offered to share his tablet, and within seconds the little girl sitting next to Tatum offered the same with hers. I sat there making some small talk and watching the kids happily play together like life-long friends and thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if us adults could make friends so easily?? At which my next thought was, well, why the heck can’t we??? So I looked up at the mom and said, “You know, I’d be happy to share my phone number with you if you’d like to set up some play dates or something” at which she laughed and said she had just been thinking of saying the same thing.

Turns out they moved here mid-last year and haven’t had the chance to make many friends yet with everything going on and her kids were super excited to meet some other kids their ages (much like mine always are!!) that they could hang out with.

So, now we have a play date with new friends scheduled tomorrow, and the moral of the story is, I don’t really know what – but sometimes just a simple thing can open up the door to some great new friendships! So good to meet you and your adorable kids, Ashley! (I won’t tag you though until you decide if you actually like me or not with my no-filter random self. LOL!!)

Opening the door…

admin

It’s interesting how things play out sometimes, and how one simple act can start a domino effect to something bigger.

I took the kiddos to the indoor play place today because the weather was crap and we needed something to do. Afterwards they wanted to go to Panera, which I am always happy to oblige because y’all know I love to eat. Ha! We went in, and walking in I saw the cutest kids with their mom by the door, and I told them both I loved their hair, especially the colors in the girl’s hair.

We walked up to the counter, ordered our food – the clerk asked dine-in or take out and I said dine-in. He responded that the restaurant was currently full and that there would probably be a wait to find a table. Not a problem, we don’t have anywhere else to be.

The kids and I stood around for 5-10 minutes, me eagle eyeing for an open seat or two, when I finally spotted a group of teens getting up from a table in the back, so I ushered the kids over and we grabbed our spot to eat. On my way to fill my drink, I notice the same mom and kiddos (adorable baby not pictured) glancing around the still packed to the gills dining room so I mention to her that I have a 6 person table I snagged in the back, and she’s welcome to sit with us, that we weren’t creepy (that I know of, LOL) – she accepted and we all sat down to eat.

It took about 3 minutes for the little boy to turn to Wyatt and in the sweetest voice offered to share his tablet, and within seconds the little girl sitting next to Tatum offered the same with hers. I sat there making some small talk and watching the kids happily play together like life-long friends and thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if us adults could make friends so easily?? At which my next thought was, well, why the heck can’t we??? So I looked up at the mom and said, “You know, I’d be happy to share my phone number with you if you’d like to set up some play dates or something” at which she laughed and said she had just been thinking of saying the same thing.

Turns out they moved here mid-last year and haven’t had the chance to make many friends yet with everything going on and her kids were super excited to meet some other kids their ages (much like mine always are!!) that they could hang out with.

So, now we have a play date with new friends scheduled tomorrow, and the moral of the story is, I don’t really know what – but sometimes just a simple thing can open up the door to some great new friendships! So good to meet you and your adorable kids, Ashley! (I won’t tag you though until you decide if you actually like me or not with my no-filter random self. LOL!!)

Road Trippin’

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This is the year I officially hit middle age… the big 4-0. A couple months ago I decided there was no way I was turning 40 just sitting in my living room so I planned a trip to Galveston Island with hubs, the kids, and my parents. Fast forward to today and we’re in the car, road trippin’ for the next 4-5 hours with a 6 year old and a freshly potty trained, almost 4 year old, and I’m wondering WTAF was I thinking?

We’ve gone from this…
To this…

We had a few blissful moments of the youngest sleeping, but of course he knocked off about 10 minutes before we stopped for lunch so that was short-lived. After lunch we endured about 30 mins of arguing, an hour of ridiculousness, a stop at Bucees, 10 more minutes of cranky fussing, and now I have this mean-mug burning a hole in my from behind.

Pray for us, we are not ok…. 🤣🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Road Trippin’

admin

This is the year I officially hit middle age… the big 4-0. A couple months ago I decided there was no way I was turning 40 just sitting in my living room so I planned a trip to Galveston Island with hubs, the kids, and my parents. Fast forward to today and we’re in the car, road trippin’ for the next 4-5 hours with a 6 year old and a freshly potty trained, almost 4 year old, and I’m wondering WTAF was I thinking?

We’ve gone from this…
To this…

We had a few blissful moments of the youngest sleeping, but of course he knocked off about 10 minutes before we stopped for lunch so that was short-lived. After lunch we endured about 30 mins of arguing, an hour of ridiculousness, a stop at Bucees, 10 more minutes of cranky fussing, and now I have this mean-mug burning a hole in my from behind.

Pray for us, we are not ok…. 🤣🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

You win some, you lose some…

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Apparently I’m really lame at this whole blogging regularly thing, but I feel like the “Mom Blogger” title still fits me, because when do Moms have the time to do anything, much less actually post a blog regularly. So I am still going to call myself a blogger, even though I suck at it. LOL!

This little monkey had his first ENT visit this morning, which considering he’s almost 4 and his sister had ear tubes by the time she was 18 months old, I consider this a win! He was WIRED FOR SOUND in the waiting room, but once we hit the doctor’s exam room he had settled considerably. He was UBER interested in the buttons on the side of this chair, and kept asking the nurse how to make the chair fly. When she told him he had to “use his imagination” he retorted “Well, I don’t have one of those.” ha! I love things kids say!

I’m still plugging away at the planning and bullet journaling – my current setup includes my beloved B6 Bullet Journal that is my “daily catch-all” for my desk and memory keeping. I generally have my daily tasks and hourly setup on the left side page and do a little journaling about my day on the right hand side. Other than that I carry a Hobonichi A6 Techo in my purse, and there’s a HP Mini sitting on my personal desk for weekly and other crap. 😉

  • Rainy Day Succulent
  • We’re Expecting!!

There’s been some interesting things going on in the garden as of late – the rain has been EPIC and never-ending, so much so that a she turtle from the pond down the street has decided our landscaping is probably the driest place for her to make her nest and lay her eggs. She dug herself a nice muddy hole and has been “populating” her nest all evening. I hope it’s not too wet/muddy for the eggs to survive. We’ll have to be really careful not to disturb the nest or let the kids bother it. It’s been getting super “National Geographic” over here!

The plants are still struggling between recovering from SNOVID (the freak snow/ice/blizzard event back in February, which wiped out my entire succulent collection and I had to start from scratch) and the ridiculous 10+ inches of rain a week we’ve been having for months. Truth be told, it’s getting old out there Mother Nature, so cut us some slack, m’kay?

In other news, I turn 40 on Thursday, FORTY. I feel so freakin’ old. I’ve been going through my mid-life crisis since about November, and apparently it’s been my “thing” to collect tattoos, which I’ve gotten three new ones in that time. (That’s a post for a different day, for sure) I guess at least I haven’t bought a convertible or run off with a dude half my age. Probably a good thing I don’t even care for millenials that much. ha ha ha! Just kidding, my hubby is the best – even if he IS a year older than me. 😉

SNOVID-21

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Well, it officially happened last week…. Hell froze over.

A small lake near my home in Texas, TEXAS y’all, that froze over so thick you could walk on it (not that I’d recommend that, of course.)

The snow started last Sunday evening and it all went to heck in a handbasket from there. SO MANY lost power and water, including my In-laws who finally gave up after three sleepless nights of below 40 degrees in their condo and braved the roads to make it here where we were lucky enough to have not lost power. The lakes froze over so thick people were actually ice skating on them. Stores, if they were open, quickly ran completely out of milk, eggs, water, bread, and meat. Maybe y’all think we’re a bunch of weenies if you live up north but the fact of the matter is Texas is, as a whole, completely unprepared for this kind of disaster. Tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, fires, we have the resources to deal with those. -2 degrees and a snowmaggedon? Nope. It just never happens down here, until now.

Wildly enough, the snow began to melt Friday after over a week of sub-freezing temperatures and by Saturday afternoon is was mostly gone… leaving behind a path of destruction in the form of previously frozen water pipes bursting like balloons. It’s not good…. so many homes and businesses are still without water, or have had to shut it off to minimize the destruction. It’s insane. Also insane? It hit 73 degrees here today.

Can’t go -2 degrees to 73 in one week, you say? Texas says: “Hold my beer.”

In the meantime I entertained myself by working a 60+ hour work week completely in panic mode alongside my team (also in panic mode), arguing with my kids who were batshit crazy from being cooped up, and taking pictures of the cats snuggled up together for warmth.

But today it was positively decent outside, and we started to assess my succulent gardens, which I’m super sad to say did not survive. I’m going to have to completely redo them this year. Honestly though, in the grand scheme of things we’re extremely lucky to have had heat and water the entire week, so there’s no way I’m going to complain.

And now I’m back to planning a normal week full of grocery runs and swim / art lessons and it’s weird, honestly, after the cluster that was last week but here we are, and it’s Texas, and like they always say….

“If you don’t like the weather here, wait 5 minutes…”

Thinking inside the box…

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Leaving my Target run and as I’m loading my things on the belt at the register I start thinking to myself, this is weird, literally every single thing I am purchasing is in a cardboard box. Right about the time I’m thinking this through the cashier looks up at the belt and says, “Wow, everything you’re buying is in a box!” and gives me a funny look…

What can I say, at least I’m consistent in my weirdness. 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤣

I can… and I will.

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It’s been a hot minute since I posted here, almost two months in fact. What’s been holding me back, you ask? ME. I’ve been holding me back.

A friend and I were talking at lunch today, and we were discussing motivational issues (mostly mine). She was giving me some tips and tricks on things that helped her stay on task, and it really started to perk me up. “That sounds pretty easy”, I was thinking to myself, but in reality it’s not. Focus and discipline are hard work, but if you put into it what you want to get out of it, then it will become as natural as breathing.

While we were tossing ideas about, we both kind of stumbled on a phrase I found really important, and I think this phrase can apply to ALL creative types, regardless of genre: Creatively Overwhelmed.

I think this is an important phrase to describe where I frequently find myself in life. I have all these great ideas floating around in my head, and I KNOW the things I am good at and COULD be GREAT at if given the chance, but especially as a mother I frequently find myself distracted, straying away from those ideas, or even forgetting them entirely in lieu of something else that popped in at the last minute. Can anyone else relate? It happens to me all the time and it’s really starting to get me down.

I Can… and I Will…

People made a big deal this year about “One Word.” One word that describes your plan for the year. I feel like ONE word for the entire year may be pushing it for me. Maybe smaller goals, some that will push me a little but are otherwise easily achievable, might be MY answer.

So starting August 1st (well, if you want to be technical about it, August 2nd), I’m going to focus on “One Word” a month. One word that showcases or encompasses the goal I have for myself that month. One word for one goal that I CAN, and I WILL achieve. One thing at a time.

This month’s word is “MOTIVATION” – and this weekend will see me writing down and brainstorming answers to the question: “How do I MOTIVATE myself each day to get both the tasks I NEED to get done for both my business and personal life, as well as a couple tasks from my WANT to get done list?”

How do YOU get your MOTIVATION in check? I’m a planner by nature, so my first thought is better scheduling for my “free” time. Even though I don’t have a “real job” per se, I need to schedule myself hourly as if I do. Plan a set amount of time to focus on ONE task and not get sidetracked. Treat both my craft business AND my blog like a “real job” (because I WANT IT TO BE, so why shouldn’t I work for it?) and prioritize my day.

I’d love to know, though, how my readers get it all done! What have you found helpful in scheduling both your personal and professional life? What tricks do you use to MOTIVATE yourself to strive to be your best? Leave them in the comments, and I can’t wait to hear!

I’m kind of a big deal…

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Me in all my nerdy glory

Well, not really, but after THIS INTERVIEW with me from Kristin from Exploring Domesticity came out on her blog today I kinda feel like it.

(If you can’t get that link to work here it is in all its glory: https://exploringdomesticity.com/jamies-mom-life)

Seriously y’all, after a really tough, trying day with both kids (the boy in particular) I actually needed to read through this interview again myself and remind myself all of the little joys in parenting and ALSO to stay as low-key as I possibly can. Believe me, it’s hard enough sometimes taking my own advice, but it’s fairly sound….. I think.

Make sure you take a look around while you’re over there, such a fun website full of awesome tips! <3

I came, I worked out, I might die.

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Yesterday Wade made fun of me when I invited him to do day 2 of 21 day fix with me. He laughed at my silly workout, but he did it. 1/3 of the way through he got real quiet, 1/2 of the way through he started grunting and moaning, and by the end he was toast. I’m pretty sure he went off to the living room to cry after that. #LegDay 😂

BUT.

He showed up today, and worked out with me again.

After leg day it was hard enough just squatting down enough to make it to the toilet seat without groaning, and now with Upper Fix and the “Bonus Abs” I feel like raw meat. 😂😂😂

Also, I went to Sprouts today and came home with a much better selection of healthier foods and produce, and rid our pantry of most of the items that would cause me to stray off-course.

I CAN do this.

Dinner tonight:

-Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs trimmed of fat, with a citrus poultry spice blend in the air fryer (I ADORE my air fryer!!)

-Brown and Wild Rice Blend

-Avocado

-Banana for a nighttime snack. ❤️❤️❤️