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food, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

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I’m a little late on my Currently this week, but here it is! I’m linking up as usual with Becky over at Choose Happy! Join us and let us know what you’re up to currently!

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Enjoying || a day at the lake! Hubby’s parents have a place on Lake Norman, which is about an hour from us. So last Thursday, we packed up and went down for the day to enjoy the sunshine! We are super excited to be going back this Thursday, also! 

          Writing || about pregnancy, delivery, and newborns. Some of these posts have already gone up (like this one on delivery), and some are coming soon! It’s been on my mind a lot, for obvious reasons, and writing about it for y’all helps me prepare myself, too! Since it’s my third time doing this, I’m not terrified or anything, but the more comfortable I am with the process of having, bringing home, and nurturing a newborn, the easier it will be in addition to keeping my older kiddos happy. It’s going to be a huge life shift (as it always is) to add another person to our family, so I’m preparing myself mentally and emotionally to make it happen!

Eating || the three meals from our free week of Blue Apron! My friend Lauren and her husband have been subscribing to the service for a few weeks, and had a free week to give away, so Hubby and I just finished our first round! For $59, you are sent every single thing you need to prepare three separate meals for two people each (or two meals for four people) and directions, etc to make it happen. They’re fairly quick (20-40 minutes prep and cooking time) and all three have been totally delicious! Our favorite thing about them was that we’d never have fixed those dishes or used some of those ingredients (I’m looking at you, ramps. What even are you, anyway?) except that they were given to us. We totally recommend it! 

    Thankful for || beautiful weather and kids who love to play outside! J runs toward the door every time it opens, hoping to catch a few minutes in the grass. When we pull in the driveway, he doesn’t want to go in the house… he just wants to stay outside! It’s great because they usually wear themselves out and nap really well – and who doesn’t love that?! 

      Well, that’s what we’re doing Currently in our family! What have you been up to?

home, mommyhood, random thoughts, travel

Currently – When In Rome (Georgia)

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Linking up again today (after a little vacation lapse last week) with Becky at Choose Happy and the other fabulous bloggers in my circle for this week’s Currently. Join us to make some friends and spread the love!

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Excited about || my first post published on Scary Mommy! That is a huge deal for me, as I haven’t been sure whether to pursue being published on other sites or not. I write this blog because I love doing it, and so being published elsewhere is really exciting, and opens up a new avenue for me. The fact that my first one is on Scary Mommy is an extra perk- I LOVE their stories.  Here’s the link to my post: 10 Life Lessons You Probably Learned in Your 20s

Traveling || to and from my parents’ house in Georgia. It was great to see my family, my best friend from high school (thanks for driving up, Lauren!), and just relax and let my parents love on my kids. The only drawback was a wicked drive on Mother’s Day (between traffic and cranky kids, it wasn’t pretty) and the fact that EK wakes up early to see my dad when she’s at their house. But they have a pool, so my kids got to swim, found a neat park, and we also spent one morning at the local strawberry patch. So fun! (Sorry I’m not sorry about the picture explosion that’s coming.)

The only moment on the way to my parents’ house that was peaceful.
Couldn’t get them smiling, but my cuties were enjoying some snuggles with Nana (my maternal grandmother)
Kisses for Nana!
EK is like a fish.
My dad and J, relaxing like bosses.
A sweet moment at the strawberry patch before they started fighting.
They might have been small, but they were packed with flavor! Yum!
EK helping my mom fill her bucket.
My boys wandering among the strawberries. (I can’t get over J actually wearing that straw hat!)
Hubs snapped this one while I wasn’t looking. It might be one of my favorites of the two of us ever.              

(Okay, so I included those last ones because they’re hilarious.)

Working || in the yard! I weeded and watered a bit in our vegetable garden, and then worked in the front yard. After being out of town, the weeds were getting a little out of hand, and it hasn’t done nearly enough raining around here. I think our plants were much happier after an hour’s work.

Indulging || in a pedicure. Especially after working in the yard (barefoot, obviously) I realized my feet had been lacking attention. Partially because I haven’t had time or cared enough, and partially because I can’t reach them very well (#pregnantproblems). So I managed to sneak out for a bit and get them taken care of. Phew!

Pregnant feet, pasty white skin… what’s not to love?

Visiting || all the local events this weekend! On Saturday, Hubby and I took the kiddos to the Children’s Home for their Farm Fest to see some animals and get some produce (and we also got local honey!).

Just hilarious. Typical.

And then we had lunch with some friends at the annual Greek Festival in our town. Just another reason we love Winston-Salem – there are always places to go, and things to see!

Thankful for || an amazing group of friends. We’ve got several couples that we can hang out with all together or one on one (or two on two) or with the kids included, and we always have a great time. I’m thankful for the fact that they’re supportive, loving, funny, understanding, and totally chill. That’s a big one for us. We love spending our time with low-drama, low-maintenance people. Thanks, friends, for being you.

Well that’s all for what’s going on with me… You’re all caught up! What’s going on with you currently?

health and fitness, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently

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Happy Monday! I’m linking up as usual with Becky at Choose Happy and the other great bloggers for this week’s Currently. I’m also joining Jenna and Anne for their monthly currently link up.We love getting to know new people, and hearing what’s going on in your life. Link up and join us!

  
Organizing || Our whole house, but a few projects in particular. I just finished organizing EK’s art supplies – which she has a lot of for a three-year-old. She’s quite the little artist!



We also just (partially at least) set up the still-temporary guest bedroom for my mom, who came and stayed with us this weekend. The guest bedroom has officially been four different rooms in our house. Sheesh.

As you can see by the art pile in the corner, it’s not finished… ha!

Craving || venti iced chai lattes from Starbucks (with four pumps instead of six). Now you know what my current craving AND current Starbucks order is! The weather is warm, I’m on a limited caffeine intake plan (because pregnant) and so I’m relying on these babies to get me through. And I can’t handle quite as much sweetness as they come normally, so I basically get a grande amount of syrup in a venti sized drink. Most of the baristas charge me accordingly, which is lovely of them!


This picture brings me to my next point…

Wearing || this gorgeous nail polish! It may be the only thing you see on my nails all summer. I grabbed it at the drugstore totally randomly because I love that super bright coral, and it’s Nicole by OPI so I knew it would be a good polish. Anyone else have the perfect summer color?

Working on || my fitness. I haven’t been doing a great job, y’all. Confession time: every time I get a compliment on how I look good pregnant, I’m reminded how it must be leftover from my running routine I had going before I got pregnant. I do yoga every week, once or twice, which is great, but the weather really killed me. When it was cold, I totally holed up at home and didn’t do anything. A-ny-thin-gah. Basically I let my formerly toned self turn into a slob. My eating habits have stayed alright, but I’m letting myself indulge a little more than usual. (I’m pregnant, right?!) So by telling you that I’m working on my fitness, I’ve had a couple of good days here, and my plan is to keep it up. Now that the weather is much more cooperative, I’ll at least be walking more often.

My preferred workout view… outside with my Kindle.
Reading || The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. I know y’all think I totally forgot about that whole reading challenge I started. Well, I didn’t. I just have been busy/crazy/lazy/tired. Yeah, those are all excuses, but it’s just my life right now. Anyway, I just started this book today, and I’m hoping to stick with it. In fact, when I’m done writing this post, it’s next on my to-do list.  It’ll fulfill the “classic romance” category of the challenge. I’ve read so many classic romances (Pride & Prejudice, anyone? I’ve read it 14 or so times.) that I wanted a “classic” one that was slightly less popular. So Edith Wharton it was.

Naming || our baby! I think I’ve told tons of y’all because you’ve asked me, but I haven’t really officially posted it up. So anyway, baby boy #2’s name will be Davis Ryan Hsu! I personally love it (obviously- that’s why I chose it) and I think it’s a lovely name. Davis we chose simply because we like it, and Ryan is Hubby’s name, of course. So there ya go – sweet little Davis will be making his debut sometime near late July.

Well that’s all about me for now!! What’s going on with you?

food, home, mommyhood, pregnancy, random thoughts

Currently

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Life is good, y’all. I’m at the end of my 26th week, and feeling really well! I’m tired, but hey- what’s new? Just a little exhaustion on the side of my normal life doesn’t seem that unusual. I’ll hit the third trimester next week, so I guess that’s why.

I already miss the warmer weather – here in NC we’ve had a little regression, between the rain and some cooler temperatures coming back in… and I’m not excited about it. I was LOVING wearing shorts and flip flops. Bring it back!

Anyway, I’m a day late, but I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy for her Currently link party. Join us! I love finding new blogs and hearing what you’re up to!

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Thankful for || a Hubby who let me sleep in this morning (yay!) and who is consistently the meal master at our house. He’s an amazing chef, who is creative and quick. What better two things could a chef be?! I also love that it typically means we have friends over a lot, to help us eat up the yums. It’s a win-win.

Baking || two batches of muffins on Sunday! One is technically a friend’s adaptation of an Against All Grain cupcake recipe, but because there’s no sugar and they’re gluten free, I’m calling them muffins and eating them for breakfast. The other batch was from Not So Desperate Housewife: Apple Pie Muffins. Let me tell you – also extremely delicious! The kids have been eating them up, too, which for me is a huge win.


Feeling || exhausted. I guess it’s pregnancy and two little crazies combined with a fierce desire to not be lazy and to still do all the things I like to do… which sometimes means I’m running around town all day and staying up late at night… aka not getting quite enough rest. Even if I’m not napping, I need to let myself have rests, and I’m not great at it. Here’s a little selfie of the big bump so you can see why I’m tiring a little more easily…


Needing || to slow down and chill out. This is piggybacking on my feelings… I’m also a little short-tempered right now, and every time I notice it, I hate it! But there are times that my mouth speaks before I’m able to stop it, or I let my feelings get the best of me. I know that stress is a little bit of it, going stir crazy on the days we’re mostly at home is a little bit of it, and I’m totally gonna blame a little bit on hormones. But I need to chill out – I know this. Doing it is just harder than admitting I need to do it.

Can’t believe || that my daughter is 3! We went yesterday for her 3 year check up, and she’s 30lbs, a little over 37 inches tall, and has only had one sick visit to the doctor in her life. I’m thankful she’s healthy, smart, and awesome, and if we could just get her potty trained, we’d be feeling 1000x better. I know… kids eventually potty train. But let’s be honest. If I’ve gotta buy diapers for three kids in July instead of just two, I may cry a little.


Well there’s my update! What’s going on with you currently?

home, mommyhood

Currently – the Blur That Was My Week

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Y’all, last week was a marathon of passing my kids around, unpacking boxes, snagging moments of peace and embracing the chaos. I leaned on my village to help get us through the crazy week. We’ve had an amazing transition into the basement (look for an update this week!) even though it’s still a work in progress.

But for now, I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy for another installment of Currently! Link up with us and tell us how your week/weekend has been!

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Excited about || Smooth transitions for both kids into their new rooms! They’re both napping and sleeping at night very well in their new spaces. J’s isn’t totally finished up quite yet, but it’s coming along! We are slowly bringing some toys downstairs (including their Playhut tunnel) and reorganizing clothes since it’s a season change. A work in progress, but slow and steady till we’re done!

Planting || Tomatoes and peppers and basil, oh my! We’ve got other things on the way, but we spent an afternoon with our whole selves in the dirt, planting and nurturing our summer garden!  

Thankful for || Beautiful weather! Anytime there is sunshine, I probably say I’m thankful for it, but it’s true! Weather plays a big role in my mood, so when it’s sunny, I’m happy, and rainy, I’m sleepy. I’m never that productive on a rainy day, so I love the sunshine for myself, my family and my house! I also love springtime views like these:

Working at || High Point Furniture Market this week! Saturday was my first day this season, and I worked today, and will work tomorrow. I worked one day at the fall market last year, so it was basically like a new job again this spring. I work in a showroom for a California company called Artistica. They have beautiful pieces, so get on the website and check them out!

Well, since I worked a ten-hour day today for the first time in a looooong while, I’m exhausted! Things have been crazy being away from home a lot. Off to bed for me.

What have you been up to currently? Join our link up!

home, mommyhood, pregnancy

Currently

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I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy and the other fantastic bloggers for another week of “Currently”, where we just talk about what’s going on in our lives. Join us, and let us know what you’re up to!

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Thankful for || my mother-in-law and our friends Lauren and Drew for coming over on Saturday to help us get things out of our storage unit and into the basement! My m-i-l was kind enough to play with kiddos while the rest of us made 400 trips from the unit into the house with our arms full of boxes or furniture. It was a lovely, productive afternoon!

Excited about || fully moving in, getting the rest of our furniture for the new space (and/or rearranging what we’ve got, and buying something new for an old space!), and getting ready to host the masses for EK’s birthday! My college girlfriends are coming to town, as well as my family, to celebrate EK’s third birthday the second weekend in April. The clock is ticking to get things ready for houseguests and a party!

Listening to || this arrangement of Give Me Jesus by Sarah Watkins and Chris Thile. I sang this song yesterday during church, probably a little less bluegrassily (yeah, I made that word up for this sentence), but I still thought it was beautiful.

Loving || the fact that J is singing wherever he goes, all the time. He sings mostly Happy Birthday and the Alphabet Song, with only two or three real words, but it is so heartwarming to see both my kids loving music so early.

Feeling || BIG feelings. No matter what my feeling is (happy, sad, angry, etc) I’m literally feeling it times a million. Thanks, hormones. Here’s to extra tears, random frustrations, and ridiculous laughter. Pregnancy – the struggle is real.

Thanks for following along with me currently!! Link up with us and join the fun!

food, home, mommyhood, random thoughts

Currently: Happy Spring!

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Happy Monday! I’m linking up again with Becky at Choose Happy and some more awesome bloggers for this week’s Currently. I love having this link-up every week to start my week off with a fun post. Join us! We want to hear what you’re up to!

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Watching || Gilmore Girls. I know I’m late to the party, but I’m pretty excited to be catching up with Rory and Lorelei. I’m digging all the scenes with Emily; she’s hilariously infuriating.

GILMORE GIRLS (Season 3)

Listening to || worship tunes to gear up for Palm Sunday and Easter. I want to make sure they’re topically appropriate but also good ones that people will know and love. Do you have any suggestions for Easter-y worship songs?!

Loving || warmer weather! I’m pretty sure I’ve said this every week, but every week it’s just been a tease. There are a few warm days, and then we go back into the cooler temperatures. I should be glad, because soon I’ll be complaining about how hot I am all the time. Ha! For now, I’ll be loving that I can wear dresses instead of squeezing my belly into pants.

Enjoying || my Jamberry manicure I did earlier this week! It’s springy and fun – a gift from a Mystery Mama! I’m part of a Facebook group (that I found through a blogger I follow) where we all swapped names and are sending sweet notes/small gifts over the next few weeks. I’m really enjoying it, on the receiving end AND the giving end! I’d tell ya what I sent, but I don’t want to ruin my MM’s surprises!  

Eating || some gorgeous tie-dye cupcakes! I found them on Pinterest, and told my baker friend Lauren about them, and we gave them a go yesterday! We actually used a Paleo chocolate cupcake recipe we had used before (because chocolate) but the dairy-free buttercream icing was the winner of the day. Especially since the EK-approved tie-dye colors worked out as perfectly as we had hoped! We will do them again in “princess colors” for her birthday in two weeks! I am SO happy with the way they turned out! 

Looking forward to || having my whole house back! We are officially at a countdown, folks. Carpet goes in today, stairs go in this week, as well as touch-up paint, and then it’s just cleaning up and moving back in! I can’t wait to be posting pictures of a finished, furnished basement! If you’d like to help us move furniture or play with my kiddos while we move it, or eat pizza and drink beer while it happens, give me a shout!

That’s my life in a little, teeny nutshell, y’all. Thanks for joining me! Now let’s hear what you’ve been doing!

home, mommyhood, random thoughts

First Ever Friday Feats and Fails!

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I found this link-up party through a blogger friend, and decided it sounded fun! Just summing up my week in a list of feats and fails – so naturally I love it. List-making + bragging + making fun of myself  = total win. (By the way, I want you to know that when I typed “win” just now, I typed “wine” first. My fingers know what I’d like to be doing right now.) It’s hosted by Ash at More Than Cheese and Beer, and Jeanine at Jsack Mom Blog. You should join us!

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Let’s get those fails out of the way first:

– I’ve been eating a lot of ice cream. At first, this sounds like a good thing. I promise you it isn’t.

– Besides ice cream, my main food groups this week have been tacos and pizza. I need to reign it in big time, or else I’m going to be a whale long before the third trimester.

– Because of the work in the basement coming into our hallway and living room, everything is covered in dust. EVERYTHING.

– I have overslept several times this week, which has been lovely until I’m running late for something… like church or preschool. Neat.

– Daylight savings time has thrown off my life by throwing off the lives of  my children. Why do we do this, again?

– Let’s be honest…that first feats and fails graphic is pretty bad. I’ll do a better one next time, ha!

And now for some fantastic feats:

+ Dinner out with both kids tonight went PERFECTLY. It was amazing – everyone ate well, there was no whining or tears, and we took a quick trip to the Dollar Store to get some shamrock necklaces to boost our St. Patty’s spirit tomorrow. FOR THE WIN!

+ Painting upstairs looks amazing!

+ The washer and dryer got hooked up this afternoon! Hellooooooo, laundry in my own home again!

+ My parents arrived for the weekend… bearing oatmeal cookies. Yay!

+ The weather this week was glorious. Kids played outside a lot, I/we got to go on several walks, and there’s been limited heat/air running. I call that a total feat!

+ Tomorrow is going to be one of my favorite days of the year! I LOVE St. Patrick’s Day! (I’d love it more if I could drink all the Guinness, but I’ll take it.)

MoreThanCheeseandBeer

What were your feats and fails this week?!

faith, home, mommyhood, music

Currently 

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Welcome to this week’s Currently! As usual, I’m linking up with Becky at Choose Happy and other wonderful bloggers as we share what’s going on in our lives currently. Join us! We love making new connections!

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Thankful for || lots of friends who let me do laundry at their place. The count of borrowed laundry rooms is up to five. It doesn’t sound like that many, but it feels like a lot. Thankful to have five places we can run to!

Loving || game nights with friends! Hubby and I have a few couples that like to play games with us on occasion, and they are some of our favorite nights! After our kiddos go to sleep, we play Taboo, Catchphrase, Buzzword, Heads Up, or spades (if there are exactly four of us). Looking at that list, it seems we like word games. Ha!

heads up

Excited about || leading worship at two services this week that are a little out-of-the-box for me. One is tonight (I’ve never even attended this one before!) and one is Wednesday. I’m excited to be worshiping with some different people in some other venues!

Listening to || 1989. I’m just now (kinda embarrassingly) jumping on the Taylor Swift bandwagon. I didn’t like her as a country artist, and I don’t like much current pop music, so I just sort of assumed that I wouldn’t like her any more as a pop artist. HOWEVER I do really like her new album. Must be her take-no-shit attitude and I-am-who-I-am sentiment in her music. Cue sheepish grin.

1989

Counting down || the 24 days (exactly) that I have till Hubby and I have iPhone upgrades. We got our 5s right when they came out two years ago, and we have loved them well. Mine spends most of its time in a Lifeproof case, because I’m clumsy and I have kids, but it still has a giant crack (read: shattered screen) and Hubby’s does too (read: one crack). The memory is full, upgrades take forever, and they’re just plain running slowly. I cannot WAIT to get a new-fangled, enormous iPhone 6.

iphone meme

Thanks for checking out my happenings currently! What are you up to?

home, mommyhood, pregnancy, random thoughts

Currently… – Back Again!

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If you’ve been following me for a while, I used to do a Currently series every Monday and link up with several other blogs. Well, that Currently series kinda tapered off, and I’ve been missing the weekly prompts. So, when I visited From the North to the South and saw her Currently post, I was ecstatic to join Becky at Choose Happy for her Currently link-up! So here’s my rebooted, brand new (again) Currently series kick-off!

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Thinking About || What to name our sweet (healthy!) baby. I feel like we are getting nowhere. We used family names we loved for our first two kids, and now there isn’t a name that I feel super strongly about, and I’m not finding inspiration anywhere else yet.

Reading || Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. It’s semi-historical fiction about architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the woman he had a years-long affair with. It’s actually a great read, despite the cheesy-sounding nature of it, and I’ll be sure to post a review when I’m done! It’s a little slower-going that the Divergent Series (I wonder why? Oh, teen fiction. Got it.) but I’m loving it all the same.

Crafting || Nothing. At. All. Y’all,  my crafting game has been out since Christmas. With this basement reno (they’re drywalling today! WOO!) my space has been more limited, we’ve been hopping around to friends’ houses to do laundry and avoid noise, and also hopping around to pick out cabinets, tile, carpet, etc. I feel like my “crafiting” has morphed into “interior designing” for the time being. And I’m totally okay with that! I’m sure I’ll find a lovely project for the kids’ new rooms that I can blog about.

Watching || The Bachelor! But I’m way behind, so please don’t post any spoilers. The next episode for me to watch is the fourth one… so I haven’t even seen why (apparently) I’m going to dislike Kelsey from now on. Sad times. Anyway, I’ve never watched a season of the Bachelor or Bachelorette, and so this season has been a new thing for me.

Excited About || A gal pal’s recommendation for Piko shirts. I’m pretty sure they’re going to change my life. I’d never heard of them until last night, when my friend Sarah was wearing one, and I knew immediately I needed to live in them for the next… rest of my life. I ordered two last night from Simply Dixie (very cute boutique, by the way!). They were reasonably priced and had tons of colors. I may be ordering… all of them.

Thankful for || A good report for my tiniest baby! A supportive, wonderful Hubby. Two (soon to be three!) healthy, adorable kids. LOTS of sweet friends and family who have loved us well, and let escape to their quiet houses to do laundry.

What are you Currently up to? Join the link up!