Life Lately

I haven't done a "general update" type post in awhile, so I thought that I was due for one!  We've been kind of crazy busy, it's funny, our time has been filled more since our music group dispersed than it was before - maybe even too much so.  Nate even said the other night that we leave on vacation in two weeks and maybe should think about not planning anything in that amount of time.  I think he has a good point.  I'm not going to lie, I'm a little burned out right now.  This upcoming three day weekend is going to be great I think.  We do have one barbecue planned to visit, but other than that the weekend is our oyster and I think we'll all benefit from keeping things low key and calm. Anyway, enough of my whining about being busy, here are some other current happenings round our house:
-Nate successfully transplanted our tomatoes a few weeks ago to pots outside and so far they're doing really well.  Our herbs are taking off too and we've even been able to cook a bit with some of them already.  We put some fresh basil on a pizza this weekend and it was delightful!

-My "project hair grow" has continued to go well.  I had it cleaned up a little bit just over a week ago and it's working so well for me now.  I am constantly getting compliments on it (sorry that sounds vain!) so I guess I'm doing something right!

-Ollie's language is expanding by the day.  I don't even know how many words he actually knows at this point.  He's a little chatterbox.  He's also a parrot - he repeats a lot of what we say now even if he doesn't comprehend it.  A couple of his newest favorite words?  "Dance" and "Run".  We get a lot of exercise at our house!

(These moments are rare these days - sitting on his Elmo chair 

playing with a badge I made for him at work)

-We started watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on Netflix a couple of weeks ago and I see what the hype has been all about, I am in love with this show.  Sometimes at the end of a long day you just need something light and fluffy and this show totally fits the bill.  
-I'm contemplating doing another "no-shop" summer.  If you're new to this blog, I did a no-shop summer experiment last summer to see if it would help our finances enough to maybe allow me to go part-time and spend more time with Ollie.  In the end we realized sadly we just couldn't make it work even with the money saved in three months for me to go part time, but it was still a beneficial exercise.  So I'm thinking again about how I'm really going for a "less is more" approach to our house and our "stuff" and I'm thinking, maybe another no-shop summer would be good for me.  I also had tried to embark on a project "use it up" back before Christmas - use up all my bath/body/makeup items before buying new ones and I will admit right now, I fell off the wagon on that.  If I did another no-shop summer it would really help me get back on track with that.  So stay tuned, I think this is something I'm seriously going to be attempting again.
-And as I mentioned above, we're actually just under two weeks to our big summer vacation for the year.  We'll be staying in a cabin in Itasca State Park which is about four hours north of the Twin Cities.  I'm over the moon excited to finally introduce Ollie to a place that means a great deal to us - it's where we spent our honeymoon nine years ago that same week.  And while it was fun to take Ollie to St. Louis last summer and spend time with family, I am also just so excited for our first true vacation as just our little family of three.  But let me tell you, even if it's still about two weeks away, I'm mentally already checked out.  Work is a struggle right now and even blogging is a slight struggle too.  If my posts slow down a bit in the next couple of weeks you'll know why.  I think this mama just needs a break and getting away from it all is just the ticket.   I need to recharge, refresh, reflect and renew.  I think I'll come back with a new energy.  I will have a couple of posts that will run the week we're gone so you'll probably even hardly notice I'm away!

-Beyond our vacation and plans to go to All Pints North in Duluth in July we really have no plans for our summer yet.  And I'm pretty ok with that.  I think it will be nice to take things as they come, maybe even be a tad spontaneous here and there.  I'm pretty sure on the nice days we'll be outside from sun up to sundown.  I hope to fall into bed on the weekends smelling of sunscreen, chlorine, and bonfire smoke.  It's going to be a great summer no matter what happens.
And on that happy note I'll end this post for today!  What's new in your world?  What summer plans do you have?

A good life

Do you ever have one of those moments of pure clarity, where you realize something and just everything suddenly makes sense?  And does it happen at the most random of moments?  It seems that way for me and I had such a revelation this weekend.  At the swimming pool of all places.  
It was while I was watching my husband and son playing together, laughing and enjoying themselves so much that it came to me.  This is a good life.  My life is a good life.  I am content.  I have inner peace. I am truly happy. So simple yeah?  There's a bit more to it than just that.
I realized - what looks like a good life to me might not look like a good life to someone else.  You might look at my life and see the messy things, the challenging things.  Maybe you shudder at the idea of chasing after a busy almost 1 1/2 year old all day long.  Maybe the idea of having sticky floors and toys all over the house makes you want to run away.  That's ok.  I will say I don't love every single solitary aspect of parenthood - there are plenty of very ugly, very real truths about parenthood.  I will also say that marriage by itself, even without children, isn't all sunshine and roses one hundred percent of the day either. For me though, at the end of the day, it's about love. I wouldn't have it any other way. This is my purpose, this is where I'm supposed to be.  My life with my two boys is good. I couldn't possibly imagine being happier than I am right now.  
So now you're going, ok, what's your point?  Well my point is, it's ok if what makes a good life to me wouldn't be a good life to you.  Maybe your idea of a good life is a house full of many children, where I'm content and happy with my one.  Maybe your idea of a good life is no children at all, the freedom to do what you want, when you want it, and I totally respect that.  Maybe your idea of a good life is spending your life with someone, but you don't need the "marriage" label to be happy, and that's cool.  I guess what I'm getting at is, find what makes you happy and just go with it.  Don't let others get you down or let you believe that what you're doing is wrong.  And the truth is, I have been having trouble with that for a little bit.  But I'm kind of just in a place now (thanks to my working hard on my "let it go" mantra of the year) where I'm like hey, you do you and I'll do me.  I respect you, please respect me.  And I think by getting to that point, I have finally let myself truly be happy. I'm settling into that happy place and it just feels so good.  Peaceful.  Content.
The world may try to beat us down, but I still believe that it's a good life.  Go out and live yours. However it makes you happy.  We only get one. 
"You see caution lives far from my mind, and this life of mine, makes me smile sometimes"  - This Life of Mine, Jason Falkner

Life Lately

It has been awhile since I've used this space to ramble about what we've been up to so for lack of any better ideas today, that's what you're getting!
We've been making the most of the spring weather that we had been having up until it snowed yesterday.  Last week I had a chance to shop the Just Between Friends consignment sale and picked up some new clothes for Ollie, but also a new outdoor toy.  They didn't have as many toys as I was hoping for, so I guess we'll have to possibly shop regular retail or maybe wait for some garage sales. In the meantime, he'll have fun "mowing the lawn" with this!

We played outside a long time on Friday waiting for Nate to get home from work.  During the week I pretty much give Ollie his dinner as soon as we get home and then Nate and I tend to eat our dinner after Ollie goes to bed, but on the weekends we're trying to make sure that we eat as a family, so I was trying to stall him as long as possible on eating dinner so we could all eat together.  Outside was the best place to kill time!  And of course we had to do our Friday Mom/Son selfie tradition.

We checked off one of my Spring bucket list items already over the weekend.  Even though it was chilly, it was sunny on Saturday, so finally got back over to the Como Zoo.  It's been awhile since we had been there.  Oliver loved getting out of his stroller and running around.  He's still not super interested in all the animals, though he really enjoyed the primate house and kept going up to the glass and calling some of the smaller monkeys with long tails "kitty."  Before we left, we found the turtle statue.  Last year at this time we visited the zoo for the first time with Ollie and just parked the stroller next to the statue.  This year Nate was able to help him sit on it.  "Turtle" is one of his favorite words right now thanks to a book we have, so he was pretty excited about the statue!

Saturday afternoon found us in our quest to get Nate a different car.  He has something specific in mind and I think we'll be leasing, but the salesman we were working with (whom he had already met with once) was trying to swindle us we think.  Nate's going to meet with a dealer his sister really likes and see if they'll give us more of the deal we're looking for and we'll go from there.  Even though things didn't shake out quite how we wanted, it was a ton of fun test driving a couple of different cars. I love my car hardcore, but it will be fun to have something new, even if it will be primarily his vehicle!

On Sunday Nate made his traditional Russian Sausage with his dad that we'll be enjoying for Easter. I got a little preview taste and it was amazing.  Might be the best batch they've ever made.

I'm continuing to work on Project:Organize and Project:Get Rid of Excess Crap at home.  I spent some time cleaning out and organizing my makeup drawer and I tell you, sometimes it's the little things, but it's so much better than it was.  I took my empty boxes from Birchbox and used those to create little compartments in my drawer.  Everything has a place now and I don't have to dig through tons of stuff when I'm getting ready in the morning!  I have also sold some clothes and purses I no longer was using on ThredUp.  I'm pretty excited about that!  Finally, I also dropped off some items of Ollie's at the Just Between Friends sale and I've been watching all weekend as stuff is selling and I am pretty pumped about how much I think we're going to yield this time.  It was a lot of work getting ready for that sale, but as I learned the last time, it's so worth it.

And looking ahead on my calendar I'm really excited, I have some super fun things coming up this week including a ladies night at a brewery and a favorite things party with a bunch of other MN bloggers, so I'm looking forward to all of that!

That pretty much catches us up I think.  What's new with you?

Weekend Update

We're off a full but rather satisfying weekend.  We've been so go, go, go lately that it was nice to have time to catch up on some things we've both been needing to do and wanting to do.
Friday night Nate had to work a bit from home sadly, but it was mostly stuff he could start running off of his computer and then leave running, so he was able to enjoy a walk with Ollie and me before we put Ollie to bed.  Ollie and I kept our tradition of a Friday evening mom/son selfie.

Looking at this picture you'd never guess that Ollie was actually a little under the weather.  He ended up not sleeping super great Friday night, he was not only cutting his upper molars but he had a little runny/stuffy nose.  Poor kid.  Even though he had woke up a bunch and was a little on the cranky side on Saturday morning, we moved forward with plans we had made for the day.  First we dropped off Nate's car to get some tires put on it.  Then we stopped off at Caribou Coffee to fuel up for the day. After that we headed to the mall to do some walking and then stopped at Stride Rite to get Ollie some new shoes.  It's hard to believe, but the nice pair I bought him right after Christmas already no longer fit!  I'm pretty excited about the new shoes we bought - they have Kermit the Frog on them.  I didn't force him to choose these shoes, but the minute we put them on his feet, Ollie started running all over the store rather confidently, so we knew these were a good choice!

We brought Ollie home after that so he could get a nap.  Nate picked up his car and then helped his sister with some stuff for awhile and I worked on tagging items for the Just Between Friends consignment sale I'm hoping to sell some of Ollie's old stuff at this coming weekend.  After Nate got back and Ollie got up, we decided to get out of the house again and get some fresh air since Saturday was a gorgeous day.  We took Ollie to a park for a little bit and then out to an Italian restaurant we enjoy and haven't been to in quite some time called Donatelli's (they've been on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives before).  We had a nice family dinner, Ollie loved their food!
After dinner we headed home and Ollie totally crashed, it was a good thing since he had slept so poorly on Friday night.  Nate and I just opted for a couple of TV shows instead of a movie, we were both tired from Friday as well and Nate wanted to get up early on Sunday to start smoking meats in his meat smoker so we made it a pretty early evening.
While Nate smoked his meats on Sunday morning, I took Oliver to a friend's house for a play date with one of his little buddies.  My friend's youngest son is just four months older than Ollie and we've tried to get them together a few times, especially now that they are older.  Ollie had a blast playing with him and his older siblings too.  We stayed for lunch and then went back home for Ollie's nap. Nate's dad was hanging out with him while he smoked his meat and I kept working on stuff for the sale.  Later in the afternoon Nate's mom and sister also came over so they could enjoy all the smoked meat with us.  We had a nice visit with them and a very delicious dinner!  This was one of Nate's best attempts at meat smoking to date.  Lots of leftovers too, can't beat that!
After his family left and we got Oliver off to bed we crashed with another couple of TV shows and then hit the sack ourselves.  Very full, somewhat productive weekend, but a pretty good one in spite of Ollie being a little owly at times!  I'm looking forward to a pretty quiet week this week and probably a slightly quieter weekend next weekend though!  How was your weekend?