Weekend Things.

Weekend Things.

On Sunday afternoon I sat underneath this Japanese Maple tree in my parents yard and looked up.

It made me think a little bit.

You can choose to look a lot of ways. You can choose to look down at your phone and see all the things you need to do on your iCal, all the people that you compare yourself to on Instagram, or all the time you can waste play Candy Crush. Or you could choose to look around you, and see the many many things you "need" to do - laundry, to-do lists, cleaning, work email, etc. Or you could choose to look up. Look up and notice the sky. Feel the quietly warming air. Notice the birds that are soaring freely above. Notice the Japanese Maple blooming right before your eyes.

It was a little bit of a wake-up call.

I think I'm gonna start looking up more. It's really so very pretty to look up.

A few fun things from the weekend:

It Is Written.

I found out that a blog post I wrote a while ago about Mompetition was quoted in a parenting round-up article by the USA Today Parenting Community! You can see it here (I am #74, haha, it's a small quote in an obviously ginormous article - BUT STILL.)

Chew.

Everett got a package in the mail from his friend Elias from ALASKA. Well, they haven't exactly met yet, even though they were born on the same day. They're birthday buds. Anyway, he got the raddest toy with his name monogrammed right on it and he hasn't taken it out of his mouth since then. I am officially obsessed with Bannor Toys. Thank you so much!

Burpees with Baby.

A snapshot of my view doing burpees by the lake. Everett kind of smirks at me while I do them, and if I'm not looking at him I'm down on the ground looking at the lake. It's kind of brown. Because, Georgia. PS if anyone has any tips on losing baby weight and getting back into shape, I am all ears! I can't seems to shake off these extra lbs. pooling around my waist, hips and thighs. I know, I know, I had a baby and "things will never be the same", but I've been working hard to get back at it. And at this point, I'm doing all I know to do and my old tricks aren't having quite the same effect that they used to.... thoughts? Hacks??

Spring!

Spring. We've been waiting for you. Even though you come with the pollen (my solemn foe), you also come with blooms and humidity and saturated colors and I CAN TAKE MY BABY OUTSIDE. Praise report. Because staying cooped up with him is torture for both of us. So thank you, dear spring, for forcing your way upon winter. I welcome your bravery.

Hot Date. Like, Picante.

We went on a date the other night. It wasn't the kind of date where you dress up snazzy and put on perfume. It was more like, the baby is down for the night, hand the monitor over to my mom... and then what? We debated even going, because of the exhaustion. But gosh, we are tired each and every night so that doesn't seem like a good enough reason to crash into bed and binge-watch Netflix AGAIN. So we decided that good southern Mexican food (which Boston and New York could never offer good versions of) sounded so delicious. I have this rule about Mexican food places though. I don't like smelling my purse the next day. So we dressed down into our sweats and went "casual" AKA I didn't brush my hair and I got to pull out my "Jenny from the Block" sweat suit that everyone I know hates. Seriously. But its so comfyyyyy. And anyways I throw everything in to the washing machine the second I get home because I have a crazy nose and can't handle it. But the margarita is so worth it! Also it was my first marg in 18 months. Yes, you read that correctly.

Presents!

Last week's winner for the Milkmaid Nursing Pillow giveaway has been announced (you can still use the code OYKRISTEN for 15% off on the site!), but there is still a giveaway going on for the Baya Diaper Clutch. Make sure to enter now, it closes Tuesday at midnight!

Have the happiest Monday :) What are you excited about this week?

Slice of Life.

Slice of Life.

Life has been fast and slow lately. Winter feels endlessly long, but I feel like there are enough things going on in our world to keep us occupied (and exhausted!) by the end of the day. Is anyone with me? It's like that saying, "The days are long, but the years are short" - I am really starting to feel the impact of those words! So true in this season of my/our life. These are the things happening in our corner of the world lately:

1. I started a blogging course.

And I LOVE IT A LOT.

I am so, so excited about this one. I just started taking the A Beautiful Mess course called Blog Life, and I am a little bit addicted to it. I took one of their courses two and a half years ago when I started this blog (what - it's been that long?!) and it really helped kickstart my ideas. I am ready for more with the blog, and I have been throwing around a few ideas about how to grow it. If you are in a similar place, and you're interested in growing your online business or blog, taking this course is an awesome place to start. Be ready to do quite an alarming amount of soul searching, some semi-time consuming imagining and some creative mining in that brain of yours. But I can personally tell it's going to be worth it! I am feeling those creative juices flowing and it is really fun :)

2. We started feeding Everett solids.

Omigoodness. WHAT A CHANGE. This has probably been the biggest shift in my personal world lately, because feeding my sweet 6-month-old son real food has most definitely impacted his sleep schedule. Which has impacted my sleep schedule. Can I get a hallelujah amen? People - this child is sleeping more than EVER before. Some of you have been mentioning to me for months that I should start feeding him real food, but I wasn't ready to take that step. We started him on solids a few weeks ago, beginning with banana, avocado and sweet potato. It has been quite an experimental process so far, since I've been making everything that he eats, but I love trying to figure out the best things to feed him. It's been a super big learning curve for both of us, but he LOVES eating and I really really love that his sleeping has improved so much - so we are going the distance on this one. I'll share more about our experiences in the baby food department in the coming weeks.

3. I'm drinking a grandmotherly beverage.

This might seem really dorky. But my favorite hot beverage this year has been the most home-made drink in the world: hot water with lemon and honey. Not a fancy latte. Not a holistic tea. HOT WATER. Squeeze in some lemon. Stir in some honey. Bam. It warms me to my toes and it has gone hand-in-hand with my blog course. Give mama a little "me time" and this is what she will be drinking. The times are wild over here.

4. Still saturating ourselves with some good old fashioned family time.

(While we use store products and don't purchase them.)

This picture just makes me laugh. Last weekend Stevie and I were browsing through a very female-ish store, where he was attempting to pick something out because he had a store credit (it's a long story, but yes, it was HIS store credit. To One Magnolia Lane. Hahahaa.) We were joined by Stevie's bro, and we found this darn cool iPhone Selfie Pole, which we used to take this picture. Of course, after two takes, we were good. Selfie taken. Stevie bought some honey instead.

It's cold outside. Go make yourself a grandmotherly beverage, you won't be sorry :)