Category Archives: home

food, home, mommyhood, My Big Jesus, random thoughts

Currently

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Hello, friends! It’s time for another Currently! I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy and our other friends to bring this week’s update. Join us!

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Hoping || that EK gets back in a rhythm here at home after her weekend away. I think she was tired and a little off-kilter, because she was tantruming like a champion yesterday afternoon and evening, and wouldn’t nap. That’s a little unusual for her… she likes her sleep typically. Anyway, I’m hoping she’ll figure it back out soon because it was a tough night last night, and this morning was still a little off.

Watching || Lost. I know, I know… I’m years behind on the Lost train, but it’s never too late to watch a good show, right? No spoilers, but tell me what you thought of it if you’ve seen it! I’m about halfway through the first season. I’m loving Jack, I like Claire and Charlie a lot too, and I have really enjoyed learning everyone’s back stories.

 Eating || a snack that for some reason popped into my head after not having it for years. In college, I nannied for a family of four boys, and they and their mom would sometimes have a snack of graham crackers with vanilla icing  – just the stuff from the can. It seems so simple and unremarkable, but it’s actually quite good, and made it into my “comfort food” category. It’s sweet, but not the worst thing I can think of to eat (I don’t like too much icing on mine) so the other day, I finally broke and bought the can of icing and box of graham crackers. I’ve really been enjoying myself! 

 Enjoying || some morning and evening family walks. Before it gets too hot or after the sun starts to set are the only times we can really stand walking with all of us – probably because it’s a heavy stroller with two, and wearing a baby is extra toasty. But we’ve been enjoying the family time, and the exercise… or the glass of wine while we stroll after dinner!

Loving || the new My Big Jesus website! I love writing for the site every week, and I’m glad their site has had an overhaul! It’s faster and looks better now. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know that I post for them every Monday. If you’ve never gone to visit the real site and check out the rest of the material, make sure you do it! It’s a great, encouraging and entertaining operation.

Well, that’s what’s going on with me right now. What’s going on with you?

home, mommyhood, random thoughts, siblings

Currently 

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Hey, y’all! I might be a day late on joining my usual Currently link up, but better late than never, right? I’m joining Becky at Choose Happy and the other fabulous bloggers to bring you this week’s Currently. Join us to let us know what’s going on with you currently!

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Enjoying || some sweet moments between all the siblings. EK and j have been getting along a little better (I’m scared to type that for fear it’ll make it stop) and D has been getting some incredibly sweet snuggles from both of them. Lots of hugging and kissing around here, y’all.

  
  
Hoping || to get a few specific pictures this week. As of right now, the only picture of the five of us is yesterday’s epic selfie (below), and I’ve only got one (okay) picture of the three kids. Part of me is saying, “Eh, there’s a lifetime to get those pictures.” But the rest of me wants at least one while D is still tiny! Here’s hoping I get a better one than this:

 Trying || to stick to a schedule. Having a newborn is tough when they’re supposed to eat every two hours. Try keeping up with that while also making sure the other two are entertained and have what they need, as well as pumping a couple of extra times a day to keep my supply up? Bordering on impossible. To heck with laundry and dishes. Yikes.

Thankful for || an incredible husband who’s been taking a late-night shift with D to let me get some sleep early on in the night. He’s a rockstar, y’all.

Reading || the last bit of the Maze Runner series. I’m in the book that is actually a prequel to the rest of the books… so I’m getting that back story I was craving the whole time! When I finish this, I’ll be working on Loving the Little Years  and starting something else to be my “pleasure reading”. Do you have any suggestions for me?

Well, that’s all for now. Please comment and let me know what you’re up to!

home, mommyhood, random thoughts, siblings

Currently… Introducing Our Newest Addition!

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I’m linking up this week as usual with Becky at Choose Happy, bringing you the most exciting news I will likely have for a long time!

Introducing || Davis Ryan! Born last Thursday, very early in the morning, after a hard albeit short labor and quick delivery. He weighed 7lbs 15oz, and measured 21 inches long (the same length as his brother and his sister). A full birth story is in the works, so look for that next week. For now, here are a few pictures of our little guy! We are so in love!


  

Appreciating || so many friends and family members who are already feeding us, helping out, and loving us as a family of five! Thanks, everyone! Your support and love means so much to us.

Surviving || as well as I can on very little sleep. Last night was our hardest night yet, and we are hoping not to have another one quite like that. I don’t want to add too much caffeine back into my diet (I mean, I didn’t lay off of it completely but I had scaled it way back) until I know how D is gonna handle it. So for now I’m trying to survive on little sleep and little caffeine. Phew.

Learning || how to balance my attentions and my focus between my three kids, my husband, my house, etc. I have a feeling this may be a long journey to finding out exactly what’s best. EK is in camp again this week in the mornings, so that is a fun thing for her to do that helps me out as far as maybe sneaking a morning nap or getting some housework done. J also enjoys the break from EK, since they often like to play with the same toys. He likes a little time to be the main man around the house!

Enjoying || watching my kids love on each other. J and EK are both enthralled with the baby, wanting to kiss him and snuggle him and tickle him. It’s pretty darn cute, folks. And as always, I’m loving watching Hubby snuggle that tiny child. He is always so gentle and dear with a newborn, and it literally melts my heart to see him with one of our own little newborns again. Am I allowed to say that I wish we could have a tiny one all the time? Ha!

Well, I will try to update as much as I can through the busyness of this season, but if you don’t hear from me, don’t leave me! I promise I’ll be around on Facebook and Instagram, if not the blog. Look out for Toddler Tuesday tomorrow, because it’s coming for sure!

Please leave comments and tell me what’s going on with you currently!

food, home, mommyhood, pregnancy, random thoughts

Currently

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Happy Monday, everyone! I won’t lie… I was hoping to be in the hospital with a baby or something right now, but since I’m not, I’ll tell you what I’m up to instead! I’m linking up as usual with Becky at Choose Happy, and some other wonderful bloggers to bring you this week’s edition of Currently…

Picking || tomatoes and more tomatoes! And also some peppers. And cucumbers and zucchinis. And even a couple of eggplants and one squash (finally). I know I keep talking about it, and I guess I should dedicate a whole post to it, but I LOVE our garden this year. Every year I’ve gotten a little more involved with it, and this year I feel like I’ve been growing those vegetables right alongside growing my baby, and it’s been so fun! It’s therapeutic, it’s a great way to get outside, and it’s fun to teach the kids about it, too. If you’ve thought about doing a garden, but haven’t done it yet, I encourage you to do it! It’s so rewarding!!

  
Finishing || the nursery. I think I might’ve said it was finished before, but I must’ve lied. It’s actually done now. We rearranged furniture, cleaned the rug, hung the drapes with dark backing, put sheets in the crib (ahhh!) and books on the bookshelves. Y’all, we are ready for this baby. 

   
We also did some finishing up in our closet/office. One of the upstairs bedrooms in our house is dedicated to the rest of our clothes (the master closet is dreadfully small) and a desk to work at (you know, if I ever want to blog from NOT the couch). It only needs curtains, and it’ll be all ready to use. Right now it’s the cleanest it’s ever been, but being on the west side of the house, the afternoons are awfully hot in there, so we don’t spend any time in there yet. Curtains and then finished! 

 Cooking || a big pot of spaghetti sauce! We had so many tomatoes that needed to be eaten, and I had gotten a text from a friend who said she was using the tomatoes we’d given her to make a pot of sauce… so I decided to do the same! We used about ten tomatoes (all different varieties and sizes) to start a huge pot of sauce. We aren’t actually eating any of it tonight (we’re also making French onion soup right now – Hubby’s craving!) but I’m going to freeze it to have it ready to go when I need a quick meal that will make my whole family happy.

Enjoying || time with my babes. I’m trying to have time with them together and one-on-one so that I can truly savor them before the baby gets here. I don’t want them to feel they’ve been neglected or abandoned (I know, worst case scenario, probably, but still) when I am gone for two whole days, and come back with a new baby! I want them to have their love tank all filled so they know how much they are treasured and loved. It’ll be a transition for everyone, and I want to start it off on the right foot if I possibly can.

Well, there’s what’s happening with me currently! Don’t worry – I’ll keep you posted when the big day arrives!

food, food, home

Nesting Means Baking!

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Apparently, when I get into nesting mode, I just can’t stop baking. I had a day last week that I made several batches of muffins to freeze, and here I am, at it again!

I’m still working on that enormous zucchini I mentioned – which is a damn shame, because today I picked another huge one (also hiding). It’s been in every smoothie and several recipes now, and I’ve still got about two cups left of the other one. Sheesh. Anyway… Since I had so much still, this baby STILL has not graced us with his presence, and because Hubby and EK were out visiting this morning, J and I got to baking.

I chose two Paleo recipes, one from Against All Grain and one from Detoxinista. It’s a battle of the zucchini bread, y’all.

Against All Grain Zucchini Bread (Muffins)



  

Detoxinista Zucchini Bread


The main differences were almond flour vs. coconut flour, and honey vs. maple syrup. Both recipes turned out incredibly moist (yum) and obviously delicious. While waiting for the loaf to bake, J and I ate three muffins. Obviously nothing wrong there!

All in all, I’d say they both turned out well enough for me to do them again! The Detoxinista recipe was so sweet that I think if I do it again, I’ll lay off on the maple syrup just a bit. But folks, they’ve been eaten right up, so I’ll say they were a success!

food, home, mommyhood, pregnancy, random thoughts, siblings

Currently 

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Happy Monday! I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend! I’m joining Becky at Choose Happy again this week for her currently link up. Lots of pictures in store for you today – I hope you enjoy it! Leave a comment or join the link up and let me know what’s going on with you!

Loving || Our finished shower! We chose a dark grout (it matches the wall color we chose almost perfectly!) to offset the white subway tile, and I really like the effect. We don’t have a door quite yet, because our old one is now too big, so we aren’t able to use it till we get one. Otherwise, I’m really happy with it! We need a little paint touching up in a few places, but it looks awesome.

Still undecided on the mirrors… there are two of those and they’ll be almost touching. What do you think?



Eating || at the Honey Pot! It’s a local restaurant here, and the chef is actually a friend of Hubby’s from high school. It is AMAZING. The food is fresh, mostly local, and really creative. Most of all, it’s plated beautifully and it’s outstandingly delicious! (If you’re local, check out their website here.) I wish I had taken a picture of every dish, but it was too good to not just eat it immediately. However, this dessert – a Georgia peach tart, with basil crema, accented with tiger lilies (who knew you could eat them?!) – was so beautiful I had to take a picture. And folks, it was as good as it looks. Really.

Growing || tomatoes and peppers! I mean, we are growing other stuff too, but those are our most fruitful plants at the moment. We’ve had one eggplant and some cucumbers and an ENORMOUS zucchini (I talked about that here) as well. Here are a few pictures I snapped last night as I was harvesting…



  


 

Planning || A baby shower! My sweet friend from college Melissa is expecting her first baby (a little girl!) in a couple of months, and my friend Lauren and I are throwing her a shower. We had a planning session this afternoon, and I can’t wait to post with a bunch of pictures after we shower her with love on Saturday!

Enjoying || this little series of photos. The first picture is the night before I had J… EK sprawled across my belly, the tiny little thing that she was, in her mismatched Christmas jammies. I’ve always loved that photo, and so now while I’m not so far away from having baby D, I thought it would be fun to try to recreate the moment with my two older sweeties sitting on top of their little brother!


 

Well, that’s about it in my world. Just waiting on baby D to get here! I have a post coming soon about how I packed my hospital bag – look for it this week!

What’s going on in your life currently?

 

 

food, food, home, mommyhood, pregnancy

Muffins For Days!

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Y’all… I’ve been losing my mind. I’ve not necessarily been any busier than usual, but I’ve been the most forgetful I think I’ve ever been, and the most distracted. I can’t seem to get my normal rhythm going. And on top of that, today I had the pregnant rage of a total crazy person. Poor family. Anyway, sorry for the blog lapse. It was unplanned, accidental, and so sad! But here’s a good one… now on to what I’m actually talking about!

A couple of days ago, I finally acted on my idea to make several batches of muffins so that lots could be frozen, and I could use them as easy breakfasts for the kids and me when baby D gets here. I chose several different recipes, including one adapted by a friend. They’re all gluten free, and fairly healthy – no added sugar! I’m not a very good food photographer, or else I’d have taken some awesome pictures. I apologize. There are pictures that accompany the original recipes that I’ve linked for ya.

Strawberry Shortcake Muffins

I first found out about these on my friend Melissa’s blog (One Mother to Another) although they’re originally a Dashing Dish recipe. They. Are. Delicious. I basically just made these because I wanted them. I wasn’t sure how they’d freeze, so I only froze a few from the batch and will let you know how they warm up later. (By the way, I did what Melissa did in her original post about them, and instead of a dry sweetener like stevia, I used 1/2 cup of honey and just cooked them a minute or two longer than the recipe suggests so they were cooked through. STILL DELICIOUS.)

Paleo Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

These yummy little guys are actually mini muffins, so I doubled the recipe for good measure. Hubby had just picked a HUGE zucchini from our garden (we lost it underneath the squash plants that were growing all around it) and I had to figure out how we could use it. He grated it and we are adding it to basically everything. So naturally, I googled around a bit for a recipe! I wanted muffins instead of the usual zucchini bread because I wanted them to freeze well. I let Hubby choose between two recipes, and he obviously chose the ones with chocolate! (By the way, I didn’t have any grapeseed oil, so I used coconut oil instead. It worked just fine!)

Carrot Cake Muffins (adapted by my friend from Against All Grain’s Black Forest Cupcakes)

These babies have shredded carrot added in, and some cinnamon instead of the cocoa, and they’re delicious! Technically they’re cupcakes, but I didn’t ice them and I figure they’re so healthy I’ll just call them muffins and eat them for breakfast! Also, if you like chocolate, I suggest making the originals, too!

What are your favorite muffin recipes? What else do you stock your freezer with?

books, food, home, mommyhood, pregnancy, random thoughts

Currently

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I’m linking up this week with Becky at Choose Happy for her Currently link-up! If you’ve never joined us, you should! I love reading what everyone is currently up to. What’s going on with you?

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Reading || I actually finished The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton! I’ve been working on it for an embarrassingly long time… but I’m done! I loved it, I just didn’t have much time to be reading. Anyway, I’ve just started the first book in the Maze Runner series. So far, it seems like the Hunger Games or the Divergent series in that it’s a dystopian society and there are a lot of weird things going on. It was on my “recommended books” list from Amazon based on what I’d read, and was rated pretty well. I’ll let you know how it is!

age of innocence

maze_runner

Watching || The Harry Potter movies! We finally got them out of storage and are watching them! We’ve watched the first two, and my withdrawal is finally satiated. Hopefully we’ll get through the eight movies before the baby gets here, but who knows!

ravenclaw

Loving || the new tile in our bathroom! Everything is supposed to be finished and put back together by the end of the week, so naturally I’m really excited to use my own bathroom again. It’s been interesting either going to the hallway bathroom or all the way downstairs (to the newer, nicer one of course!) to do everything, and I’ll be glad to be back in my regular routine… upstairs.


Preparing || our freezer and our nursery! I’ve got everything to make two recipes worth of muffins, and enough frozen fruit to feed 1000 people breakfast smoothies! I wanted to at least have some breakfasts taken care of so that the morning routine with the kids wouldn’t go awry if I could help it. Having a healthy breakfast is a priority for me, and starting the day smoothly helps the rest of the day stay along the same lines. When my kids are throwing their breakfasts in the floor or refusing to eat them (because that obviously happens sometimes – FOR NO REASON AT ALL) it can throw my mood off. I planned for smoothies they love and muffins they devour that are also healthy! I’m excited about it. The nursery is now clear of bathroom stuff (even if our closet isn’t) and has been rearranged. The floor is super clean, the drawers are full of clean clothes, and I even have some diapers! I call that progress! Now if I could pack a hospital bag, I’d really be in business.

I mean, it’s coming along, right?
Messy but it’s happening!

Coveting || this Lily-Jade diaper bag. I saw it on Instagram a while back, and have been looking at it again and again ever since. It’s beautiful, flexible, and well-made, but totally out of my price range. The SALE PRICE is $295 and I just can’t justify it. But it sure is one beautiful bag!

ELZ1-BRANDY_GLD-2T

Celebrating || the Fourth of July! We had a day of eating red, white and blue donuts, and spending time with friends! Not many photos, but it was a good day! We even let the kids stay up for the local fireworks, watched from the elementary school in our neighborhood- the perfect spot!  IMG_1716

This girl loves donuts!
This is J’s only patriotic swag. (Sorry Hubby, for posting this photo bomb, but I was only trying to get the photo of J!)
If you’ve got a couple of toddlers, you know how tough it is to get a family photo!
The only photo from the fireworks… J sleepily snuggling my friend Lauren and loving his glow sticks! They are a must for fireworks, am I right?

Well, we’ve had a busy week, and things just keep getting busier as we prepare for our little guy! What has been going on with you? What are you preparing for? Link up and join us!

food, food, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Why We HAVE to Buy a New Espresso Machine

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Naturally, as a parent, I need some caffeine. Hubby and I are constantly feeding our addictions. We wouldn’t survive a moment without it. So we have a percolator, a Keurig, a French press, and an espresso machine. And a grinder, of course. Between these things, we usually manage to survive on our coffee intake without having to go out and get it from somewhere (although we have a few choice places around here we like to go if, you know, we’re already out).

But recently, our beloved espresso machine is doing this thing… It’s like it wants to explode a little. We aren’t overfilling it, or letting it run out of water or letting it run too long. Truly, I think the machine is just old. It’s about 20 years old and we are the third owners (all in our family – it’s not from Craig’s List or anything). But anyway, it’s put a serious kink in our routine. 

 We like to have a cup of coffee, or even two, in the morning, and then about lunchtime we like another little punch. This is usually in the form of a beverage from the espresso machine. Hubby typically likes a straight up shot (or four). He likes to do the least amount of sipping with the most amount of power. I go back and forth… I like regular espresso, but I also like to make fancy drinks or iced lattes when it’s hot. This blast to push us through the afternoon is crucial. If we don’t get it, we don’t get anything done during naptime (like gardening, bill paying or house cleaning) and we are in terrible moods the rest of the evening. If Hubby has to go into work late, it takes another round of caffeine shots. It’s like a vaccination against tiredness. 

 So, in light of our addiction, our broken espresso machine, and our upcoming addition to the family, we pretty much know that we’re going to need a hasty replacement or else we are IN FOR IT when Baby D gets here and is waking us up at all hours of the night. I know we’d survive, but I don’t think I’d remember anything. I use caffeine as a motivator, an encourager, a Rememberall (a little HP reference for those of you fellow nerds), a communicator (often I let it speak for me), and a peacekeeper. I’m less annoyed, more able to function and generally happier if I’ve got a little caffeine flowing through my veins. Okay, fine. It does sound like I have a problem.

home, mommyhood

Currently – Late but Great!

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Prepare for a picture overload, because I’ve got some to show off today! For this week’s Currently, I’ve got lots of updates for ya. We had a busy week with visitors, Hubby working overtime, and new things going on! I’m linking up as usual with Becky at Choose Happy! Join us!!

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Doing || a surprise bathroom renovation! This was a little dismaying, because we hadn’t planned on doing anything to our upstairs since we just redid the basement, but when the shower in the master bathroom started leaking (onto the new ceiling and flooring downstairs!) we knew we had to take care of it. Because the shower was tile, we had to completely tear it out and start over. We’d already had a patch job, and that was what leaked this time around. So we’ve picked out new tile, and are redoing the floors and repainting the walls while we’re at it. No better time than when you’re already gutting it, right? Here’s the shower all taken out… you can plainly see the water damage we’re dealing with.

Damaged wood (some of it had already been ripped out) and straight up drywall from the ceiling downstairs just exposed underneath our tile. Clearly whoever redid the shower before we bought the house didn’t do a great job.

 

This is what we’ve picked out for the floors and shower… White subway for most of the shower, mosaic for floor tile and accent strip, and that big tile on the right will be the bathroom floor – it was freeeeeeeee!
Current situation in the nursery… sorry Baby D… the drawers from our vanity, as well as everything else stored in the bathroom has made it into your room.
Current situation in my bedroom… the actual vanity, and yes, the toilet, are at the foot of my bed. I keep them there as a reminder that my middle of the night pee must take place in the hallway bathroom. HA!

Growing || Tomatoes and peppers and squash, oh my! Those three things are the most common item in our garden, but we’ve also got some eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, and several herbs as well. We finished up our third bed yesterday, so the new wave of tomatoes should hit after our other one is almost done. We tried to time it right!

Tiny cucumbers!

 

EK trying out the first fruits.
Gardeners in training. You can tell this was before we finished the third bed on the left.
Driving around with the truck full of dirt. I was stopped at a red light, FYI 🙂

Enjoying || the fact that my mom was able to come for a nice, long visit this past week or so! She came up to keep the kids since Hubby and I had a wedding on Saturday, but we ended up getting a lot of work done while she was here, and also an extra date or two, since our anniversary was Saturday!

Celebrating || Speaking of our anniversary, we celebrated 6 years together this weekend! 6 years, 2 homes, almost 3 kids, 1 home renovation (unless you count the bathroom as the second!), and a thousand happy memories already. I love that guy! He surprised me with some gorgeous earrings that go with my necklace and ring that he’d gotten me over the past 3 years. He’s so thoughtful! And GREAT at getting gifts 🙂

The fabled chef’s hat. Adorable, am I right?

Going to || Summer camp! EK’s first week of summer camp is this week (she’s got one more week the wee of my due date) and she’s loving it! The theme is cooking, so naturally she is enjoying herself immensely. She also comes home SUPER tired (or at least she did yesterday and today) and takes a long nap, so that’s a second reason we love it! She misses school I think, and we all need a little break from the norm (and our brothers!) sometimes, especially when summertime means we are all together all the time. She got in the car today with a giant grin on her face, and a toddler-made chef’s hat on her head. It was basically hilarious! Final perk to summer camp? It’s happening at our church, which is where she’ll go to preschool next year (different than this past year), so she’s spending time with some of the teachers and kids she will be with next year. Yay for helping with transitions!

The fabled chef's hat. It's adorable, am I right?!
The fabled chef’s hat. It’s adorable, am I right?!

Well folks, that’s about it in our life. Hope you enjoyed the long, photo-logged update! I want to hear what’s going on in your lives… anyone redoing a bathroom? Growing tomatoes? Celebrating an anniversary?! Tell me about it!