Somewhere Between Excess and Minimalist

I have a confession:  I am a consumer.  Not in the sense that I need the best of everything or the nicest brands, but I enjoy shopping.  I enjoy purchasing.  I enjoy "stuff."  The problem with being a consumer is that you are never satisfied.  You get in the cycle of thinking: "If I had this, then i'd be happier."  I never thought of this as a problem until I was home for the summer and maternity leave.  That totaled four whole months where I was not working and my mind and time (and money) was free to wonder.    I literally online shopped almost daily.  Daily.  I'd get new makeup in the mail, use it for a couple days, then tuck it away in a drawer and never look at it again.  All the makeup and cloths I bought brought temporary joy, but it didn't make me any happier, prettier, or healthier in the long run.

I want us to live simpler, to not consume so much. This may have hit me as I was (and still am) organizing the kid's playroom.  The amount of toys we have is absolutely ridiculous.  Liam maybe plays with a handful of things in that room and the rest is left untouched.  I'd rather have a select few quality toys for the kids, rather than piles upon piles of junk.  In the process of this "clean out" of the playroom, I started to look at myself a little closer.  Just like Liam and Eva's playroom was filled with junk, my own closet and makeup drawer was filled to the brink with crap.  Looking at my makeup collection alone puts my stomach in knots over how much money I've wasted over the years.  Instead of the joy, which I felt initially when I made these purchases, I was feeling guilty and even a little anxious. 

While I don't necessarily desire to live a complete minimalist life style, I am striving to simplify.  I want to spend less, declutter, and maybe in the process detach a little from life's distractions, like social media and television.  I decided it might be fun to document my attempt to simplify and declutter my family's life and share my experiences.

While I don't have a set plan right now, or really know where I am going with this, I did jump start the whole process by reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (I still have a few pages to go).  To forewarn, I am not a black and white or all or nothing person.  So, given that the book has very specific instructions on how to achieve this goal of decluttering and organization, there is a high chance that this lady will not being following these rules exactly as stated.

The Pumpkin Patch

Yay for more fall activities!  Last year we took Liam to the pumpkin patch late in the fall and it was freezing, so we decided to go early this year while it was still somewhat warm.  Since Liam is old enough now to really get into holidays and activities, we really had some fun this year.  In true Iowa fashion, he got to play in a box of corn kernels, go on a hay-rack ride through the corn field, and go down the plastic tube slides.  Eva slept through the whole two hours we were there, which made life a little easier (and a little snugglier for me).  

They have a huge corn maze, which we didn't want to tackle with a two and a half year old, but you can even go at night with flashlights.  I told Greg that would make such a fun date night, to which he said:  "Ya, teenagers would really have fun doing that."  Or for almost 30 year olds, but whatever, Greg.

Also, if you ever wake up on a Thursday morning and decide that it's a good idea to go get your bangs cut, just don't.

That One Night We All Slept

Let it be known that on September 16, 2015, both kids slept through the entire night and in their own beds.  I woke up at 6am realizing that I, myself, had slept through the entire night, which by the way hasn't happened in about three years, and thought the worst.  Did the kids run away?  Did I leave them outside yesterday and forget to bring them back in?  Kidnapped?  Alien abduction?  Nope, just slept, like normal human beings, through the night, in their own beds.  Bliss.

Eva Updates

Little miss Eva had her two month check up last week and she is still a peanut, weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 14 oz, falling in the 10th percentile.  Liam always measured 80-90th percentile for weight and height, so Eva is a bit on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to her size.  She is barely fitting into her 0-3 month clothes, but is getting there.  A lot of the clothes I bought her for summer will probably go completely unworn because by the time she fits into them it won't be quite warm enough to justify wearing them.

She really makes you work for those smiles, but does smile a lot at the sound of Greg's voice.  I love hearing her giggle in her sleep, but she has yet to giggle when she's awake.  She's not an extremely high maintenance baby, but also not super easy going.  It depends on the day whether she prefers to be held all day or is fine to be left playing on the floor or swing.  Kind of like her personality, her sleeping is a bit sporadic.  Some days she literally sleeps all day and will also sleep fine at night, other days she sleeps for a total of two hours.  I've tried to get a consistent routine and schedule going, but it's difficult to keep a tired baby awake and have just allowed to sleep and play whenever her little heart desires.  On a typical  night she goes to bed between 8-9pm and will get up once to eat, usually around 4am, but she has slept through the night a couple times and has also had rougher nights here and there.  Again, very sporadic!  Just like her brother, she loves car rides and often falls asleep on the drive.  It's a pretty consistent occurrence to arrive home and have both kids snoozing.

We love her to pieces and love that she is getting to an age where she is a little more interactive.  

I am off now to go blow on Liam's soup since he apparently cannot fill up his lungs and blow air out his mouth.  Toddler meltdowns are real.  

First Fall Happenings

The weather the last two days has been incredible.  I'll repeat that so you fully understand how I feel about this weather...IN-CRED-IBLE.  I'd be happy to live somewhere that stayed in the 60's and 70's year round, but in Iowa we only really experience that kind of weather for two weeks between a humid summer and snow storms in the winter, so we have to take advantage of it while it lasts.  We are lucky enough to live in a community that's pretty family focused, so there are always lots of activities to do with the kids.  The local "historic village" (I will call it that because I really can't think of another name for it) holds hay-rack rides and bonfires every other Wednesday of the month, so we took the kids to the first one this week.  Liam is obsessed with anything on wheels, so was all for the tractor ride.  Eva and I stayed behind and took a little stroll through the community.  It was a bit of a bumpy ride with the brick sidewalks, but she didn't seem to mind.  I couldn't help but smile because her chubby little cheeks were bouncing with each bump as we walked.  After the hay-rack ride, we went over to the bonfire and made some s'mores...yum.  By the way, how clever is it to use fudge cookies to make the s'mores?  Genius.  It is really getting me tempted to buy my own portable fire pit so we can make bonfire style s'mores at home.  I don't think Greg would mind if I came home with one...

How Today's Going

At approximately 7am, Liam comes into the bathroom as I am washing my face to hand me an object that appears to be a button.  Once he places it in my hand, it uncoils and ends up being a gigantic centipede.  It's funeral was held at approximately 7:01am at our master bathroom toilet.

Fast forward to 10:00am, we are all still in our pajamas and I'm itching to get out of the house as Liam is running back and forth in the hallway singing.  I pile myself and the kids, all still in pajamas, into the car for a Starbucks run.  I have to convince Liam to get in the car by telling him there are bugs on the floor and I need to carry him.  It works.  I can't even wear sunglasses to disguise my dark circles and lack of makeup because it's cloudy out.  We are now officially the hot mess express.  

It's now 10:10am and I'm still not ready to go home, so I take a drive a little out of town to look at some house lots and daydream about building a new house.  I peek in the review mirror and Liam is sleeping and realize i'm screwed the rest of the day.  If Liam sleeps for even just 5 minutes in the car he is recharged for the whole day, but will still be cranky in the afternoon due to lack of sleep.  

At 12pm, we are all still in our pajamas and Liam has eaten a chocolate cake pop from Starbucks and is refusing to eat real food for lunch.  As a healthy example, I have consumed my salted caramel frappuccino as my lunch.

Just wanted to give you a glimpse of a morning in the life of the mother of the year.

Pajamas at 5pm

Happy Labor Day!  We are doing absolutely nothing, with is a-okay with me.  If the weather cooperates, we may grill out, but that's about the extent of our celebration.  Greg's grandma, Mary, sent us home with some apples from her apple tree yesterday, so Liam and I made apple crisp this morning to eat after dinner tonight and we are all trying to muster up some self control so we don't eat all the toppings and crust before it's time to dig in.

Liam is obsessed with his Halloween pajamas, so Friday evening, we put pajamas on early (as in 5pm early) and I snagged some pictures of them both in their Halloween gear.  I think freshly bathed kids in pajamas is one of my favorite things about being a mom.  I will be so sad when the kids get older and don't want to wear fun pajamas anymore.  On another note, I think Halloween will be a blast this year.   Liam is finally old enough to pick out his own costume and really enjoy trick-or-treating.  I am so tempted to coordinate Liam and Eva's costumes, but will most likely let Liam pick his own and settle with anything that will fit Eva.  She's still quite the peanut.

I will have to close here, as Liam is demanding I sit with him while he drinks his milk.  

Hope you enjoyed the long weekend!

Random Updates

It's been awhile since I've written on here, but I wanted to get back in the swing of things.

Here's what we have been up to the last several weeks:

Eva started to smile at 6 weeks and it is the goofiest smile ever, but also the cutest.

For a whole week in August in Iowa the weather was cool enough to go outside in long sleeves and hats and it was everything.

Liam is still obsessed with drinking milk.  Here is documentation of him loosing it because I wasn't able to get him milk right that second.

The apple orchard is open now and life is now complete.

I went for my first outside jog since having Eva and learned two things.  1.  I'm starting running from scratch.  2.  Liam has outgrown the jogger.

We went to brunch at a winery with both kids one Sunday and it wasn't a shit show.  Success.

I've become one of those moms who coordinate their kids' outfits.  This happened.

 Eva turned two months old.  She loves being talked to, looking in the mirror, and tummy time.  I've gotten in the habit of calling her "Eva Diva" which is exactly what I feared people would call her if I named her Eva.  Fail.