Tag Archives: link up

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?

mommyhood

Currently

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Hey there, Monday… you really flew by! I know I’m late on my Currently link-up, but the day just got away from me. I’m joining Becky at Choose Happy, like always, and I’m glad to let you know what I’m up to currently!

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Excited || for preschool to start for my two oldest babes! I know it seems early, as there are a couple of weeks of August left, but I know EK is excited for school, and I have some trepidation with J, but I know he will be fine after the first few days. He’s a trooper, and I’m sure he will have fun!

Loving || having my wardrobe back! There are of course a few things I can’t quite wear yet, but I’m ecstatic to have more than two colors of each article of clothing! I’ve got some summer dresses I’m dying to wear before Labor Day!

Wearing || My baby. Everywhere. Often. D loves being snuggled close to me, and I love our Boba and our Ergo! I have a woven wrap (Easy Care Rainbow – gorgeous!) that I want to try to get good at when D has some more head control. I got fairly good at it with EK (a different woven, but still) but for some reason I never got great at wrapping J. Hopefully D will love being up in it! (And also J gets a little jealous so I’m wearing him, too!)

 Visiting || our pediatrician… a lot. D has been like J was, and is gaining weight a little slowly. We’ve been supplementing with some formula and he’s doing much better now than in his first week. I’m actually in the waiting room for his check up as I type this. Good thing we really love our peds office! (Update, 6 oz past birth weight! Yay!)

Thankful for || my mom, who has done our laundry, washed our dishes, snuggled our babies, and taken care of us in every possible way over the last two and a half weeks. She’s a great lady, y’all, and it’s been incredible to have her here helping out. I’m sad to send her home soon!

 Well, that’s what I’m up to! Please join us in the link-up, or leave comments and tell us what you’re up to currently!

mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

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Hey everyone! I managed to remember today was Monday, so here I am with my edition of Currently! I’m linking up as always with Becky at Choose Happy, and also the August link up at Gold & Bloom on Wednesday! Join us to share what’s going on with you currently!!

Working || in the garden! I’ve slacked off a little (I mean I just had a baby) but the garden grows on! The kids got outside with us this morning to do some pruning and picking. They love it!

   
  

That orange cherry tomato is officially my new favorite color.  

Attending || Vacation Bible School this week. Last night was the first night, and I must say, my kids did well considering it ended at their bedtime. I was afraid of meltdown city, but it ended up that they got to bed late, then slept late. I guess I’m fine with that!
Excited about || the amount of sleep we got last night! D slept from about 2-8am, and I feel like a new person! I’m not foolish enough to think this is the new normal just yet, but I sure enjoyed it! Thanks, little guy!

Creating || some semblance of a schedule, hopefully to make last night’s six-hour stretch happen again. In trying to feed D every two hours, pretty much on the dot (or more often if he in hungry) to make sure he gets most of his calories during the day. It also helps him to not sleep as much during the day and sleep more at night. It worked alright for my first two, and hopefully in another week we will see some progress!

Watching || the Wet Hot American Summer series on Netflix! Hubby and I have long been lovers of the movie (and obviously the entire cast) so when the series hit Netflix, we got right on board. It’s a little strange, because it’s a prequel to the movie but everyone is obviously old(er), and I’m not sure if the plot is… existent… But we can’t not watch it, ya know? The actors jumped back into their characters pretty seamlessly, so that was nice.  

 

Well what else is going on? Anything new I should watch? Any tips on getting a 3yo, 19mo, and a newborn on schedules together? Yeah right, I know 🙂

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!

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

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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!

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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!

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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!

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!

mommyhood, random thoughts, travel

Currently 

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Happy Tuesday, everyone! I’m linking up (belatedly) today with Becky at Choose Happy for another week of the Currently series! I love linking up and reading what everyone is up to, so join us or comment and tell us about what’s happening in your life!

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Traveling || to Blowing Rock! We took a last minute trip up to Tweetsie and stayed at the Green Park Inn! That’s why my Currently post is just getting up on Tuesday. Here are a few pictures:

Family selfies are hard to capture…
The kids loved the rocking chairs on the Inn’s front porch.

We had a great time riding the “choo-choo train”, rocking on the front porch, enjoying the perfect weather, and strolling around downtown BR.

Eating || peaches! I got a dozen peaches at Costco a few days ago, and we’ve been plowing straight through them! The kids and I just eat them as I cut pieces off; they don’t even make it to the plate! I’ve considered making something with them, but every time I pick one up, I just eat it instead. (Prego problem?)

Missing || the fact that I haven’t binged on Harry Potter in months! (Major nerd alert.) When we packed up the basement, we packed all our books and DVDs, so I haven’t see either set since January at least! That’s the problem with unpacking slowly, haha. But I can’t wait to find them all and binge it up! I think I’m going to read the books again, too, if I can mold them into a category for my reading challenge.

http://www.spuce.com

Well, since I’ve been out of town and I’m already late on this, I guess I’ll wrap it up! Hope y’all have had a great Tuesday! Let me know what’s going on with you!

food, mommyhood, travel

Currently 

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Happy Monday, everyone! After a lovely weekend of being away and unplugged (aka bad internet connection and no blogging) I’m back to the real world! I was glad to be back and see my kiddos, and I’m excited for a full, busy week this week. I’m linking up today with Becky at Choose Happy, and some other fabulous bloggers, to bring you this week’s edition of Currently.

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Celebrating || Hubby’s cousin Parker and her new husband, Charlie! Two of the sweetest, most genuine souls you’ll ever meet, they are dear to our hearts. Their wedding was a beautiful weekend in the mountains, with delicious food and fun family. We were able to stay in a beautiful, old hotel in Blowing Rock, NC, called the Green Park Inn on Friday night. It was charming!

Exploring || the Appalachian mountains! Hubby and I spent Saturday before the wedding driving and walking up Grandfather Mountain, driving through several small mountain towns, and seeing the gorgeous colors and lines that are made up by the Appalachians. The weather was perfect, and the setting was incredible. We couldn’t have asked for a better day! It was a perfect “mini-babymoon”, and we’ve also decided we are taking the kids back really soon to take them to Tweetsie Railroad! I’ve never been- have you?

Here are a few pictures of the afternoon. You’ll have to pardon that they’re just of me. When there’s only two of you, it is difficult to get a picture of both of you! 

It doesn’t swing much anymore, but it sure was windy up there!
  
I was literally on top of the world. At least for a few miles.
  
Couldn’t you just look at that for the rest of your life?
  Thankful for || my mom, who kept our kids Friday and Saturday while we romped in the mountains. She was totally willing to drive up from Georgia and snuggle my babies all weekend to let Hubby and I get away, guilt-free!

Craving || donuts! Friday (National Donut Day!) was a little too hectic (trying to pack, make sure the kids had what they needed for the weekend, and get out the door on time to make it to the rehearsal dinner) for us to make it to Krispy Kreme to get donuts. So now I’m craving them after seeing everyone’s pictures and posts about it! My absolute favorite is a chocolate iced donut with sprinkles, followed closely by a chocolate cake donut. What’s your favorite?

This baby is SO calling my name.
This baby is SO calling my name.
Excited about || submitting my writing to several places, and actually getting chosen to be published! The first piece to be chosen and published was my list of Life Lessons You Probably Learned in Your 20s on Scary Mommy last month, and I have another piece that’s being published on a different site in July. I am so excited, especially being fairly new to blogging and writing, that I have some good stuff in my brain that I can get out with the right words, and pass on to others.

Well, that’s what’s going on with me currently. Link up or comment, and let me know what’s going on with you!

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

Currently – Thank Goodness It’s Summer!

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Hey y’all! I hope you had a great weekend, and happy Monday! Can ya’ll believe today is the first day of June? It’s blowing my mind that 2015 is half over, I’ve got less than two months till baby #3 gets here, and that preschool is over and summer is in full swing!

I’m linking up again this week with Becky at Choose Happy. It’s her twentieth week hosting the link-up, so join us to celebrate!

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As for me, this is what I’m currently up to:

Watching || Movies! It’s summertime, and TV has come to a halt. I’m catching up on movies that have been out and I haven’t seen them yet. Let’s be totally honest: all you parents know that going to the movies is an expensive date night, since a movie ticket these days is anywhere from $12-15 right off the bat, and that’s not counting snacks or dinner, or a babysitter! So naturally, we don’t go very often. We love to just catch things when they hit Redbox or Netflix. Anyway, the two I’ve seen most recently are Wolf of Wall Street (totally awesome movie but not for the faint-hearted, due to sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll), The Duchess (historical fiction, Kiera Knightley, wonderful costumes, enveloping story, and winner on Netflix), and Big Hero 6 (so much awesome that I can’t fit it into a description). I really enjoyed them all! What’s something that’s come out in the past year or hit Netflix recently that I should see?

Eating || Tomato sandwiches! This is my favorite summertime staple. Of course, my favorite way to do it is go out to the garden and hand-pick the tomato is like on my sandwich, but since we aren’t quite there yet, I’ll settle for heirlooms from here and there. Delicious!

Pretty soon these babies will be sandwich ready!

Excited about || This coming weekend! Hubby’s cousin is getting married up in the mountains, and so we are packing up, totally kid-less (thanks, Mom!) and spending Friday and Saturday in the mountains, celebrating and relaxing! It’ll be the only time we “get away” without the kids before baby #3 arrives, and so I’m really glad that we had an excuse (and a good one at that!) to get out of town, even just for one night. And it’s really nice that my mom was able to come up here and stay with the kids… that way they’re at home in their comfortable space, and with someone they know really well.

Preparing for || baby #3’s arrival! I guess I’m always doing this off and on (well, I’m always cooking a baby), but this week I’m really planning on doing some work in his nursery and with the clothes, etc that I have for him to use. I’ve already got some size 1 diapers (leftover), crib sheets (shared from J) and clothes (hand me downs, of course!) I need to get organized and put away. It’s totally coming soon – less than 9 weeks till my due date! – and I want to be ready if possible. Also, with my third, it’s a little more likely that he’ll be a day or two early, so I want to be ready for that, too.

Feeling || energetic (finally!) and productive. I have a long but needed to-do list (see above) and I want to do a few workouts this week as well. I’ve been enjoying working outside in the garden (having had a green thumb a day in my life) and calling it exercise, but I need to be walking, and visiting the Y also. Here’s to a great week ahead!

That about sums up what I’ve got going on. What about you? What are you currently up to?