Friday Link Party

This is a perfectly good breakfast for an adult, right?

Ok, I hope it's obvious that this isn't a normal breakfast for me but I can't resist a good carrot cake with some coffee. It's a seriously amazing combination and it only happens on the rare occasion that we have cake. I have promised that this will be my last slice of my birthday cake. The rest will be disposed of today... maybe.

Have some links:

Amazing photos from the 19th century by Charles Marville. Sort of a before and after of some awesome spots across Paris.

I love books, I love libraries, and now I love librarians. Naughty, naughty, librarians.

I've never really thought about how other languages would interpret animal sounds. Bark, bzz, meow, quack.

Some of these seem insanely hard to do but I think I'll give a few a try. Which would you want to try?

I was allergic to avocados and now I'm magically not. I'm dying to try all of these recipes now!

Part depressing, part inspiring, fully beautiful.

Surely they love honesty from the parents.

Have a great weekend!

Thankful Thursday

*For Gibbie's school. She absolutely loves it there and has grown so much. Her speech has gotten so much better and she can now write her name. We've decided to keep her in pre-k one more year so she'll get to go to the same school next year as well. Her birthday is the day before the cut off date for kindergarten so we'd rather she be the oldest in her class instead of the youngest.

*Squish sleeping through the night! Every now and then we'll have an odd night of her wanting to eat at 3am but for the most part she sleeps from about 7:30pm to about 7am. I'm not sure how we total lucky but it's amazing and I love it. 

*Crochet. I've fallen in love with crochet in the past few months. It's so calming and a lot of fun for me. Right now I'm in the middle of a blanket and a rug. Here's a picture of me holding Squish while crocheting a rug:

Wordless Wednesday- So You Say It's My Birthday Edition

Hello April 2015

April 2015 Goals

1. Lose five pounds

2. Work out three days a week. 

3. Finish one book that I'm in the middle of. 

4. Start using Gibbie's chore and consequence chart regularly again. 

5. Do one thing just for me once a week.

This is my first time posting using the blogger app so we'll see how it goes! 

What I've Been Up To

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been MIA for a few months. I've been extremely busy making a human being! Introducing, Squish:

Squish is actually over three months old now and I've just been slacking on sharing these photos with the six people who read my blog. She was born just before Christmas which lead to the best Christmas of my life. Gibbie looks a lot like the hubs. Squish is a mystery. Sometimes she looks like me and other times she's just her own person. Some people say she looks like Gibbie did when she was a baby but I don't see it.

Gibbie is the best big sister. She helps calm Squish down when she cries (which is a lot) and will run and grab bibs and shake bottles when needed. She even asked to change a diaper a few days ago. Now that Squish is on the right formula things are awesome. It was a rough first few weeks because she cried all the time. It turned out she was having some reflux issues but life is good now. She does still like the sound of her own voice but it's nowhere near as bad as it was in the beginning.

One last thing. I went to Weight Watchers today and as terrified as I was to step up on the scale I did it and I'm at least glad I'm not back to my original weight!

I joined Weight Watchers the day after my 30th birthday. Tomorrow I will turn 32 and I'm nowhere near where I want to be. Of course, having a baby does give me a tiny excuse but now it's time to work.I hate work but I am much happier when I'm working out and eating right. I just need to remind my brain of that when it wants me to binge on Girl Scout cookies (freaking devils) and fried awesomeness.

40 Days of Lent

Somewhere 40 days got lost in translation. I'll just admit right now that I obviously don't get how those 40 days work (if you can explain it please do). From Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday is exactly 40 days. Holy week started yesterday but Lent doesn't actually end until after Easter service which is next Sunday. That would be 47 days. Apparently, some days don't count and therefore you end up with 40 days by next Sunday. I don't like numbers. Numbers make my head hurt.

Last year I gave up fast food. The year before was alcohol. Prior to that was chocolate. Before then I don't remember but the hubs said it was soda. This year I decided to trump all and give up the thing that so many people are addicted to. Social media! I have to say it hasn't been all that bad though. I'd say that the first week and a half was the worst. On day two I told the hubs that I was thinking it was super easy until I realized all I wanted to do was log on Facebook and brag about how easy it is! This was a sure sign of my addiction. At this point I can honestly say that I do enjoy Facebook (and Instagram and Twitter and Tumblr and Ello and Snapchat) I could definitely never go back and be happy. In fact, I don't know if anyone will even see this since I won't be sharing it online! I'm definitely out of the loop when it comes to events and special happenings in people's lives but I think if I made more personal connections offline it wouldn't be so bad.

With that said, I have noticed that I'm much lonelier without social media in my life. I've been a bit of an emotional roller coaster this Lent and I think some of it has to do with not being able to connect to people. I have been going to my bible study and MOPS but I usually don't have time for much socializing beyond that. I'm starting to feel like I need to find something to do for myself without any kids at least every other week. I'm considering Zumba or some other exercise class. It definitely needs to be exercise class because that's another thing I've been slacking on since I haven't been on social media.

Sharing my Weight Watchers weight loss with everyone I'm connected with definitely helps me stay on track. I've been so up and down that I've been embarrassed to go to meetings! I'm going tomorrow but I won't be surprised if I'm above my start weight by about a pound or two.

Finally, I know I'm just picking up like I haven't been MIA for the past several months but there's one big reason I haven't been writing. I have a terrible biological mother and I don't want her finding this blog and seeing pictures of my family. It's the stuff from soap operas. I don't think she'd do anything stupid but I don't want her knowing anything about me or my family. She doesn't deserve to. I'm debating on if I should overcome that fear and just post regularly like I've been dying to do for the past few months or if I should let her control me and just not post anything so she won't see this. There's some deep stuff for your Monday.

If I decide to keep going I'll be posting some pictures later this week. I haven't even introduced the newest member of the family yet!

Being a Mom is Tough

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine posted to her Facebook page that she was going to do a bible study called Am I Messing Up My Kids? and asked if anyone wanted to join her. I thought for sure she knew I was a terrible mom and posted this just to make sure I did the study. You see, I have this theory that I was lied to about the terrible twos and it's actually the threes that make you want to pull your hair out. I've had a few less than proud moments since last August when Gibbie turned three but I'm always striving to change my attitude towards her. This bible study might be just what I needed.

Here I am, a few days into it and this morning was the worst we've had in a while. I blame being 16 weeks pregnant and hormonal. I blame being over tired because instead of going to bed at a decent time I still think I can stay up as late as I want and function in the morning. I definitely blame not being able to remember the last time I prayed to God for help in parenting. I in no way blame my three year old for being a three year old. After my little break down Gibbie climbed up on the bed next to me, tears in both of our eyes and said, "Are you sad, mama?" I said yes. "I'm sad too," she said then wiped my tears away. It was one of those moments that make you realize that you must be doing something right as a parent. How did she become such a loving and kind child?

My goal in doing this bible study is to remember what it's like to be three years old, to remember to ask God for help, and to remember how much I love being a mama in those less than proud moments.

My family is perfect for me and here's proof of just how awesome we are when we all get along: