Worry

"As usual, the things that cause me worry are not the things that require worrying about." -Erin Loechner, Chasing Slow

It was a Sunday night.  It had been a particularly stressful few weeks with the holidays and my Dad being in the hospital.  We had spent the day traveling with the kids to visit him and then spent time swimming at the pool in the hotel where my sister was staying with her family.  It was a good day, but I just couldn't seem to just enjoy it. 

Sunday night is my grocery night, and we pulled back into town at about 7pm (the kid's bed time.) After the kids were in bed I looked at Nathan and said, "You know, I think one the hardest parts about parenting for me is the constant feeling of being rushed.  I feel like I'm always rushing around and thinking about what has to happen next and I can never just enjoy the moment."  This surprised him and he told me I do a great job of hiding it. This response shocked me because just last week he told me that I act like it's the end of the world if things aren't going well.  Example: if we're running late to something, which we are 99% of the time. 

Some things that make me feel rushed:

• Worrying about getting the kids a meal on time if we're out somewhere
• Worrying about nap time if we're out somewhere
• Worrying about one of them having to use the bathroom or having an accident
• Getting home in time for bed time
• Getting dinner made by myself with all the kids having meltdowns
• Cleaning the house
• Getting them to and from school on time

Anyway, we brainstormed ways to help with this, ways for me to feel more in the moment and not constantly planning or thinking about what's coming next.  For the next few days he'd text me from work with suggestions.  Here are a few we came up with:

• It really is not the end of the world if we're late.  We will get there and it will be fine. 
• Make a "schedule" of household chores for the week.  That way there are only a couple things to do each day and it's not so overwhelming.
• Pray
• Don't worry so much about getting dinner done at a specific time.  If we're a little late and the kids go to bed a little late, it's ok.  Also, try to meal prep as much as I can before.  
• Trying to be mindful and really just focus on what I'm doing at the moment.  This is especially true when I'm playing with the kids.  The rest can wait, this is the important stuff.  

I knew it was/is going to take a lot of practice to not be such a nut case all the time, but come Monday morning I was ready to give it a go! I did such a great job of not thinking about what was coming next that I completely forgot that E had a Dentist appointment the next day, even though they called to remind me the day before.  And guess what!?  The world did not end.  I beat myself up about it for a few minutes, and then I called the Dentist Office to admit that I had simply forgot and moved on.  

Now obviously I can't just not plan/think ahead because I do have 3 children and my household would implode if I just decided to go on strike like that. BUT I could definitely afford to chill out a bit.  It's a work in progress.  I'll try to save the worrying for things that really need to be worried about.  Like when one of the kids sleeps later than normal and I wonder if they're still breathing.  You know, normal Mom stuff. ;) 

If you think my hands are full, you should see my heart.

First, insert clever line here about how I haven't blogged in years.  Ok, moving on.

The "New Year" has had me doing a lot of reflecting.  To do a very brief recap of my life:  I now have 3 beautiful (and demanding) children; E, I and O.  Go ahead and sing the song in your head, you know you want to.  "Old McGodin had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."  It's actually more like a zoo than a farm, but at least we don't have to worry about being bored.  They are each two years apart.  E is five, O is three and a half and I is one and a half.  They are my purpose in life for sure, even if it does seem to be chaos 98% of the time.




Back to the "reflecting."  I just finished a book called "Chasing Slow," by Erin Loechner.  This book is about so much and is so incredible, but if I have to sum it up in a few sentences I'll try.  In Erin's words, "This book is about slowing down, about stripping the excess, about refusing to amass in a world that shouts for more." For me it was also about accepting yourself, gratitude and being happy with what you have.  It's about not needing "things" to make your life better.  This is going to sound a bit dramatic, but this book changed my life.  How many times have I bought something because I thought it would make me a different person.  If I buy hiking boots that will make me an outdoor person, right?  If I buy these new sneakers they will turn me into a runner. Spoiler alert, they didn't.

I've been hearing all about how people like to come up with a "word" for the New Year.  I will admit I thought that sounded a bit too trendy for me, but then I started thinking about it.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked it.  I've decided that my word for 2018 is "Acceptance." I'm going to try so hard to accept myself and stop being so hard on myself.  I'm going to accept my life for how it is instead of wishing for bigger and better. Seriously, I have a pretty wonderful life.  I look around and I am one of the lucky ones.  I have a husband who loves me, three healthy children who I love more than I can explain, a beautiful home, wonderful friends and family.  Why on earth would I wish for more than that? Just be happy, Brandi.  Be grateful. Just be.

I think that blogging and getting my feelings out is going to be one way to help me do that.  It will also help keep me sane because if we're being honest here, I feel like I should be in a straight jacket most of the time. What will the blog be about? Life.  There will probably be a lot about parenting and kids because that's my life, but I'm sure there will be a bunch of other stuff thrown in there.  So, welcome back.  Thanks for coming and stay tuned.

A little Monday afternoon humor.. :)

If you're like me... it's hard getting in the groove on Mondays.  Sometimes you just need to take a moment, step back, and browse Pinterest for a some laughs. It's like my weekly time with the "shrink," only the shrink is free and comes in the form of an extremely addicting wonderful website.  I may actually need a shrink to deal with the fact that i'm so addicted to Pinterest, but we'll save that for Tuesday.

Anyway, here are few of my favs that will hopefully make you giggle just as much as they did me! Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

Breaking the Blogging Block...

Whoa... I fail.  It's been nearly a month since I posted, and with each day that goes by it seems harder and harder to figure out what to post about! So i'm just going to dive back in!!

Now, let's see... what have I been up to? I feel like it's got to be something super exciting to explain my lack in posts, however I fear it's the complete opposite.

In January I....

... Spent a few days in Boston for work.
... Made the best ribs I've made to date and ate them with some of my very best friends.
... Had lunch with my family for my Grandmother's 85th Birthday!
... Re-watched almost the entire series of Greek (because once just wasn't enough).
... Bought a new TV because Nathan zapped our old one. Score!
... Found a super awesome Garden Planner and starting planning our veggie garden.
... Took care of Nathan while he had the flu.
... Let Nathan take care of me when I got the flu.

So, needless to say, it hasn't been the most exciting month.  I'm ready to get back in the game and back into blogging. Promise!!

Giving it another go!

If you remember this post you know about my love affair with fabric flowers like these, these and these! You also know that my first attempt at making them wasn't exactly picture perfect.  Since the last time a very dear friend bought me an awesome hot glue gun, so I was ready to get back on the horse and give it another go.

I had some strips of fabric left from last time so we (Lynsey and I) just started off with those.  I pulled up this tutorial and turned the glue gun on to get started.  Oh I also might mention that while we were getting all crafty our boys were at the shooting range trying out Nathan's new gun! Talk about opposite ends of the hobby spectrum.

Round Two:

First we started by just taking a little bit of the fabric in your fingers.  Then you twist the fabric and start twirling it around the first little piece. Kind of confusing... but we placed a dot of glue every now and then to hold it together.

Lynsey twisting the fabric

The hot glue really helped keep the twisted fabric together.

My finished product of rosette numero uno.  

With the added embellishment glued to the middle.

Felt glued to the back to hold it in place more.

I decided to make a barrette out of them!

Taaaa daaaa!

In the mean time, the boys returned home after 2+ hours at the shooting range! They decided to clean the new "family gun" at the table while we finished our craft project. :)

So... turns out Lynsey is like Super Woman when it comes to crafts! She finished all this while I finished my two for the barrette.  I especially liked her take on the little green leaf :)

And then Super Craft Woman Lynsey developed this seriously smart and super quick way of make the rosettes.  Take the fabric strip and fold it in half over your finger like this:

Then start twisting like this:

Once you've twisted take it off your finger and twirl it around the spot when you originally draped it over your finger resulting in this:

We still used the hot glue every now and then and this time I used a little ribbon I had lying around in the craft supplies.  This took literally about a minute or two!  Then I made more and decided to make it into a pin!

I was very happy with the outcome and it is now on my coat! :) Here are the rest of the flowers we made:

Lynsey's bracelet!

Finished products! :)

Needless to say I'm extremely happy with the outcome of this try!  The more you make, the easier it becomes. I can't wait to go shopping for more fabric and to make more! I think next time I'll find some "fancier" fabric and try to do some really pretty ones like these that I found here at etsy:

Happy Crafting!!

A little planning goes a long way!

Whoa.... it's been far too long since my last post and I apologize!  I actually wrote this post on Christmas Eve but never got around to publishing it. Woopsie!

Close your eyes... imagine it's Christmas Eve. OK? Now you may read:

This year will be the very first time I've ever spent Christmas anywhere but my parents house, and that is because for the very first time I will be hosting it at my house! Exciting? Yes! Scary? Yes!

Both my parents and their spouses, Nathan's parents, and two of his three sisters (and possibly their boyfriends) will be joining!  So instead of driving to three different places on Christmas day, we get to enjoy it in our own home with the company of our wonderful families.  This will be my first attempt at a large holiday meal, and as though that wasn't enough to make me a bit nervous, we're also having 10-15 friends over that night for a party.  Me=nervous, but excited! Having trouble picturing this? This may help:

When it comes to this sort of thing I'm very very anal.  I'm not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kinda girl.  For the last few weeks I've been thinking and brainstorming ideas for the day.  I've got an entire board dedicated to the "Christmas Party" on Pinterest. I've done my homework.  This week I decided it was time to really start focusing.  I went online and found some AWESOME tools to help me:

I found a free printable Holiday Menu Planner here.  It gives a column for each part of the meal, where you found the recipe and who you have delegated this too.  I've been told in many different situations that I am not great at delegating, so most of these things say: Delegated to Me :).  Then I found a super awesome Christmas Dinner Checklist from Target.  THEN... (yes i'm seriously still going with this) I typed up a quick excel spreadsheet check off list specific to the foods I'm making and what I still have to do.  Here it is:

Remember when I said I'm anal? You believe me now, don't you?  Just to add a cheery on top of the obsessive compulsiveness that is my Christmas Dinner planning, I spent about 2 hours making my shopping list Friday morning.  I made sure I had all the recipes I was using (either on hand or found them from my Christmas Party Pinterest board), sat on the couch with my freshly brewed Green Mountain Coffee and got started.  First, I made a rough list of what I needed for each recipe.  This, as you could imagine, was seriously unorganized and if I would have taken that first list to the store I would have probably done about 300 laps before I was finished.  Instead, I separated my list into each section of the store moving from left to right: produce, meat, "middle," frozen, baking, dairy, Wine and lastly the Liquor outlet in the grocery store.  I only backtracked in the store once or twice and felt like a pro!  **I also actually remembered my reusable bags this time.  I felt seriously accomplished, but seriously exhausted.

Yay Groceries!

This post has seemed to go on forever, so I'll cut to the chase and "share" the menu with you now.  I'll post details and pictures after Christmas on everything I made!!

Apps: Cocktail hot dogs(Mom), celery with cream cheese and olive spread, caramel nut Brie, goat cheese/sun-dried tomato/pesto Torta (still not quite sure what Torta is, but it's basically a dip or spread for bread or crackers) and other various cheese and crackers.
Soup: Butternut and Apple Bisque
Salad: Tossed
Entree: Traditional Glazed Ham
Side: Garlic Mashed Potatos
Side: Coleslaw (Nathan's Mom)
Veggies: Corn, and roasted broccoli and Brussels sprouts
Bread: Rolls (Pauline)
Dessert: Sugar Cookies, Lemon Squares, something delicious from Pauline and Peanut Butter filled Chocolate Cake from Nathan's Mom.

OK! Open your eyes! We are back in the future!  Here are some photos of how the day turned out!! It went as close to perfect as it possibly could have.  

Cookies & Lemon Squares

Table... obviously. :)

Torta

Caramel Nut Brie

The friends :) And Nathan's new jammies!

The cat's new "Kitten Condo" from Uncle Joel and Aunt Lynsey :)

Ohh.... and while we are re-capping the holidays: this is the only photo I have of New Years Eve.  A picture's worth a thousand words.

:)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I wish everyone a sincere Happy New Year! 

Christmas decorations are NOT practical with 3 cats in the house....

The bad news: The cats destroyed the Christmas Tree

The good news: I got some great photos of the tree before the cats destroyed it (see last post).

I don't know what they do while we aren't here, but branches are definitely going in directions that they were not originally.  The evidence:

Full shot of the "hot mess" 

Close up of the damage... notice Meredith lying all innocently in the background.

Yup... no more bow on that gift.  Apparently the cats cannot read because it says "DO NOT TOUCH."

I suppose it could be worse.  It sort of adds character right?  No? OK. Well we do plan to trim the branches on the bottom that are sticking straight down before the whole family arrives on Christmas day! While we're on the subject of the cats, here are a few shots of them recently:

Meredith lounging on the couch.

Sam looking super unimpressed with Nathan.

Meredith "helping" me plan Christmas dinner (more on this later)!

I know what you're thinking... "where the heck is Bubba?"  Recently Bubba has been a wee bit camera shy.  We (and by we I mean I) think he may be having an identity crisis, but he refuses to talk to us (and by us I mean me) about it. We I will keep you updated. 

I know I've completely lost it, but if you had the day I had you'd understand my madness! 

Love Always,

The 24 Year Old Crazy Cat Lady

The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear!

Well... for once in my deeply procrastinated life, I've followed through on something I said I was going to do.  I had a weekend jam packed full of all things Christmas.  Nathan and I don't really get into the whole buy each other a million things for Christmas.   Rather than the immense amount of stress many people feel, we just enjoy getting into the spirit.  It was quite the coincidence that today at Church we were reminded to take a breather and remember what Christmas really is about.  It's not about getting up at 2am to stand in line for a toy that is soon going to be replaced by the next best thing, or about how many lights you can string outside your house.  I'm not saying you can't do that if you enjoy it, but that doesn't sound like fun to me.

I will now stop my rant and give a rundown of the weekend. Saturday consisted of a lot of gathering supplies and Christmas music.  We also watched Garfield Christmas and Elf with Joel, Lynsey and Ella.  Today was when it all came together.  The following a is a pictorial timeline of the weekend! :)

The House

The front yard of the house with snow!

The Happy Little Farmhouse in the winter! Yes, that's our tree on the front porch. 

The lovely wreath we got today!

The Decorations

       

 

              Just some candy in jars I made pretty with all the ribbon leftover from last year!

The DIY centerpiece... a separate post on these will be coming soon!

The stockings were hung by the chimney staircase with care... :)

Bubba Clause... :) 

The chalkboard turned Christmas! This might be my favorite decoration of them all! 

The Tree

Love this one! 

The Village:

If these photos don't put you in the spirit I don't know what will

Merry Christmas!