Playing Catch Up

Wow! It seems like it's been over a month since my last update! We have not fallen off the face of the earth, we've just been really really busy! Let me fill you in on all of our "goings on"(Ok, this is about 4 posts worth of blogging all rolled into one Mega-Post! I'm way too tired to organize my thoughts at the moment. Bear with me):

Last week:

My grandparents came to visit us for about 5 days (and yes, they totally road tripped out here). It was a really great visit. We visited the National Mustard Museum, went out to breakfast at our favorite diner, enjoyed a tasty steak dinner, visited the arboretum, and enjoyed each other's company! It's always nice having visitors...but I'm always super exhausted afterwards! Today is the first day in about 4 days that I've actually been motivated to get things done around the house. They are now back in NY, safe and sound (and covered in snow).

Josie and I attended the "Baby's First Halloween" at the Madison Children's Museum with our friends. It was a fun time but WAY too crowded for our liking. We only stayed about an hour. I have to upload photos of Josie in her Monarch Butterfly Costume. She was super cute (as always)!

Last Tuesday night, I helped my friend Riley host a "Clothing Swap Party" with out HMN gal-pals. We all cleaned out our closets and brought items that we never wear anymore. We drank wine, ate tasty treats and "shopped" for new clothing and accessories from the selection of items we all brought. All leftover items were donated to GoodWill. I was too busy chatting with everyone to "shop" at all; but that's fine by me since I already have so many clothes (even after I cleaned out my closet!). I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in taco dip that night too...and have no regrets about it.

Last Wednesday, Tim and I went on our first official date in over a year! Our good friends watched Josie for us while we enjoyed a super nice dinner at one of the local japanese restaurants. I forgot how much I love sushi! To be perfectly honest, I missed having our little JBird with us. She's just so good to take in public, it's hard to ever feel like "Oh Em Gee...I need a kid-free night!" I am definitely looking forward to other date nights in the future.

I was asked to become a co-leader for my local chapter of Holistic Moms Network. I'm pretty excited about it! I just sent in my official application today. I have to go through an interview and training process, but hopefully I'll be up and running in that position for our December meeting. I'm trying to get some quality "volunteer" positions under my belt; So if I ever go back to work, I'll have something of substance to put on a resume (instead of 5-10 years of zero work experience). Plus, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this organization! Seriously, love them.

I finished reading the book Simplicity Parenting for my book club (complete with 12 pages of notes!). I totally read it in about 3 days (b/c I promised another member she could borrow my copy...and I procrastinated reading it). I found it comical that I was powering through a book designed to help teach us to slow down and not rush things. Haha...oops.

 This book is a definite must read for anyone with children (or anyone who feels their lives are too rushed). It's all about not over scheduling your kids (or yourself) and focusing more on enjoying childhood, together. I am really excited to start implementing some of what I learned from it into our everyday lives. We already limit TV exposure (since we don't have TV service; just a PC hooked up to the TV) but I would love to only turn on the TV on Friday nights (that way we would have a whole weeks worth of shows to catch up on. It'll feel like more of an event, something fun. Not just something to do b/c there's nothing else to do).

(and that, in a nutshell, was my week)

This Week:


Now that colder temperatures are upon us, I'm looking forward to only doing one "event" a week with Josie (ie: a playdate, story time at the library, trip to the zoo, etc). I felt like we were going-going-going all summer. Now, I'd like to take a step back and slow things down a bit. By doing so, I'm hoping this will get us into a better Monday-Friday routine (and will hopefully result in a child that is on a better sleep schedule again).

Tim is out of town from Tuesday-Friday. I am so looking forward to spending my nights cleaning the house and re-organizing various cupboards, drawers, shelves and closets. I hate wasting my time on these types of projects when he's home because I'd much rather spend my time with him. Since he'll be gone for about 4 days, that'll give me plenty of time to accomplish all my tasks I've been putting off for months (AND keep me busy).

Alright, I think I've sufficiently caught everyone up with some of the major things that we've been doing.  Phew! I can finally get rid of some of this "blogging guilt" I've been lugging around.