Living in the Moment

Sometimes I find myself dwelling on the past, or stressing about the future. Honestly, there's really nothing to dwell on OR stress over BUT I still find myself doing it from time to time.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what the next few years have in store for us. Now that Josie is (almost) a year old, we're trying to figure out when we'd like to have another baby. Should we keep them closer in age? Should we let her be an only child for a few more years? (These are both rhetorical questions and I'm really not looking for answers or input). Also, we know it's a very real possibility that we might be transferred to Delaware (in 2-3 years time). I cannot emphasize enough how much we love Madison and the thought of leaving is pretty heartbreaking. Besides that, I just don't fare well in hot and humid climates :)

Needless to say, these thoughts have been running through my mind over the past few weeks (ok, that's a lie...I've been thinking about this for months now).

Today, I received an email from a blog that I'm subscribed to (Simple Mom). The post was all about "cutting the bungee cords" (so to speak). When you keep yourself tethered to the past or focus too much energy on what the future has in store, you're missing out on the present. Also, when you're constantly obsessing over the past or the future, you end up harming the ones closest to you (since you're not really thinking about them and what they might need *now*). Simply put: stop dwelling, start living.

Umm, yea...I needed to hear that. Message received, universe!

Now, I feel at ease. If we move, we move. We'll have a baby, when we have a baby. No worries. (Now, let's see if I still feel this way tomorrow).

Random Photo Session

Prepare to by annihilated from cuteness!

That is all.

Roseola

Yesterday, Josie woke up from her nap and was covered in a splotchy pink rash. I called her doctor's office and got us in for a late afternoon appointment. Truth be told I was a bit freaked out to see this mysterious rash.

I texted Tim to let him know what was going on (I had the car since he rode his bike to work). He wanted to go to the appointment with us; so I picked him up on the way (which was nice because he always calms my nerves).

While waiting to leave for the doctor's, I googled (of course) images of "splotchy flat pink rash" to see what exactly I might be up against. I made my diagnosis that it was Roseola (or sixth disease....as it's the sixth rash causing virus commonly found in children).

Since our normal Dr was out of town, we saw her fill-in (who we've met with before). After examining Josie, she too thought it was Roseola (Go me!) but was glad we brought her in since there was a possibility it could be measles (apparently there was a confirmed case of measles this week in Milwaukee) OR chicken pox. Luckily, it is neither; just Roseola.

By the time we got home, Josie was already back to her normal, babbling self. All morning and afternoon she had been eerily quiet (which freaked me out too).

We're not completely out of the woods yet but if the rash goes away by tomorrow, it was definitely Roseola. If it doesn't, then it might be something else. Luckily, Josie seems completely unphased by the whole ordeal.

Happy Wednesday!

Wow! It's Wednesday already! Hooray for the week almost being over!

I feel like I've been moving non stop since Saturday. Mainly, I've just been trying to take care of a "sick" baby. Josie's been having a dreadful time teething this week and has been completely not herself. Luckily, last night she returned to "normal". She's currently cutting 4 (maybe 5) teeth at once. Poor baby. On top of that I think she had a touch of some sort of virus as well. Needless to say, I've gotten very little done this week (so far).

On Monday, Tim and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary. I made strip steaks, roasted potatoes and "dessert" eggrolls (chocolate banana AND apple cinnamon)...more on that later. The dinner didn't turn out quite like I had hoped; but a sick baby wasn't in the original "plans" anyway. Tim bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers...and whiskey. Steak and whiskey...now THAT'S how you celebrate an anniversary.

I am currently in the process of buying the domain name for the feel good foodie and switching from being Wordpress hosted to self hosted. It's not nearly as complicated as I thought it was going to be (thankfully). I'm also in the process of designing a logo. I've been sketching some ideas but I'm still not 100% sure what I want it to look like. After the first of the year we'll start the Trademarking process on both The Feel Good Foodie name and logo design. We're slowly (but surely) becoming a brand. Exciting (and terrifying)!

I'm also toying with the idea of another website/blog called The Feel Good Family. It'll be a place where I can share natural/holistic parenting information with other interested and likeminded folks and also chronicle our family's life. If The feel good family comes to fruition, then it will replace The Chaffee Chronicles. However, this won't happen until next year. One blog at a time.

This weekend, we are going to build the playroom furniture for Josie; or at least start the building process. Tim is going to be constructing a sensory table (with removable tabletop) and 2 toddler size Montessori bookcases (possibly with a built in puzzle shef). I have to work on more wall art for the playroom and start work on Josie's Halloween costume (a chicken!).

Did I mention that next Tuesday is Tim's birthday? Not only do I need to figure out what to make for dinner BUT I need to figure out what I should get him for a gift.

Phew, Is it nap time yet?

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Fun With Photobooth

Yesterday Josie and I decided to play around with some photo apps on my phone. Here are the results:

gotta love the iPhone4

Happy Campers

Last Thursday we left Madison and headed East, to Delaware, OH for a nice relaxing mini-vacation with our close friends The Prochazkas. Our trip was roughly 11.5 hours, which is pretty good considering we hit some serious traffic outside of Columbus, OH. About 5 hours into our trip Tim remembered that our tent poles were sitting on our deck...and not packed with the actual tent in the cargo box. I, of course, that this was hilarious and SO something that I would do (but it wasn't actually me who forgot something "big" this time). No big deal, we decided to take a detour and swing into a Gander Mountain to buy a new tent (we needed a bigger one anyway). It's just not a vacation until someone forgets something.

We rolled into our campsite around 5pm on Thursday evening, set up camp and grilled up some spiedies before nightfall (but we still managed to eat our dinner in the dark...like we do every camping trip). The first two days of our trip were UNGODLY hot (with temperatures near 100°and about 90% humidity...kill me now). The third day brought some serious thunderstorms in the evening. Our tent was actually lit up all night from the lightning, it was pretty darn awesome. Of course, Josie slept through the the storms (Tim and I? Not so much). Our last day there, after The Prochazkas headed back to NY, was absolutely perfect camping weather; roughly 65°, overcast and breezy.

While were were in the great state of Ohio, we managed to check out some local attractions; including some Indian Caverns and the Columbus Zoo. The caverns were a great reprieve from the oppressive heat, but not nearly as impressive as Howe Caverns (but then again, what is?). The zoo was UNBELIEVABLE! I'm pretty sure it's one of the top zoos in the nation. It was ginormous! We were there for 6 hours, and still didn't see everything. Fun fact: Jack Hanna was the director at the zoo for a number of years, and made it the great attraction it is today. Go Jack! It felt more like a super clean amusement park then a zoo. There was also a HUGE water park attached to the zoo (but of course the day we went it was rainy, which is fine by me since Im not a fan of water parks anyway). We had no idea that these attractions were within 20 miles of our campground when we made our reservations. It was quite a pleasant surprise.

Josie was a great little traveler and slept for the majority of the trip (both ways). It wasn't until we were about 15 minutes outside of Madison that she started FREAKING out.

Hopefully, we'll be able to take a short weekend camping trip in October (when the air is cool and crisp). Before that happens, we'll have to return the *new* tent we bought since it didn't stay all that dry during the rainy days (Oh look! A pool of water where my bag is! Awesome!). I guess it's not as "hurricane proof" as we thought. Luckily, things like that don't bother us; it's all part of the experience!

There is about 2 tons of laundry calling my name...so I should probably go tend to that.

Here are a few shots from the trip:

Happy Camper

Sleeping next to Daddy in the tent

playing Peek-a-boo in the car (reflection in the backseat mirror)

Outdoor bath time! Little hippie!

scowling at me as she attempts to open our water jug

standing up like a Big Girl (Gah! Stop growing!)

our campsite

Bear Butts! Taken at the Columbus Zoo

**By the way, the meals I prepared and froze ahead of time worked out wonderfully! I will definitely be doing that again for our next camping trip**