Flashback Fun

OMG how did she grow so fast?!  Today was a bad day. This post makes me feel happier.  I miss having a little baby but I love having my little girl too.

October 2009

October 2010

October 2011

Working Mom Magazine

Somehow I was randomly signed up for a subscription to "Working Mother" magazine. So strange, I never signed up for it, but it gets mailed to me each month now for 2 or 3 months. 

Today I was reading it while I waited for Mimi to fall asleep, because I can't do work while I can hear her tinkering in her room getting into trouble.  The articles were about "work life balance" and "dividing chores with your husband" "maximizing your morning routine" and other such multitasking articles.

After reading the article on "work life balance" I thanked god (and my husband) 1,000 times in my head that I don't have to find a "work life balance" anymore.  I think back on the days when I woke up and left the house before Mimi even woke up most days.  How I only got to spend 2 hours with her before she had to go to sleep.  How the weekends were lazily spent recovering from the mess of the week.  How we never had time to do outings or make it to storyhours.  How I never cooked dinner or even did the shopping.  How Mimi spent so much more time with my husband that she would call for him in the night if she awoke.  How I cried almost everyday at how unhappy I was.

I look forward to my next pregnancy, carelessly taking naps with Mimi in the afternoons.  I look forward to never worrying about "getting a spot reserved" at a daycare.  I look forward to bringing my next baby home (someday) and never having to leave my baby to go back to work.  

Having me be a SAHM takes a lot financial sacrifices for our family.  We don't go on vacations, or drive fancy cars, or live in a spacious glorious house, or go to nice dinners (or even not so nice dinners).  I wouldn't give up my new SAHM gig for any of those things right now.  Mimi and I have become inseparable pals.  I feel like I know her like no on else.  

I am happy that I did have to work full time for that year (well okay it was 11 months) because it makes me not take my new "job" for granted.  Who wouldn't want to get to sneak up on your kid quietly finger painting in her room?

Just a Normal Saturday...

Every Saturday we venture to our Farmer's market to pick up our CSA and get coffee and a bagel.  Lately we've been riding our bikes there, especially with the cooler weather. Today we picked up or veggies but the coffee lady was not there! It was a tragedy.  We were forced to get breakfast tacos at the place next store, which was pretty fun as well.

We stopped at the playground on the way back and let Mimi play for an hour. Now it's naptime.  Hope you're all having a great Satruday.

This is me no makeup, before coffee.

Hat:  American Eagle
Scarf:  Ebay Fake Pashmina
Shirt:  Target
Cutoffs:  Made from American Eagle Jeans
Shoes:  Target

Mimi
Hat:  Etsy
Shirt:  Gymboree
Pants:  Gymoboree
Shoes:  Striderite
Scarf:  Target
Attitude:  Negative

An Evening With Sophie

We were so lucky to get a night with our bud Sophie tonight. Her parents are here in town for a wedding this weekend and let us take her for an evening while they were attending to wedding stuff with their friends.  What a treat.

We intended to go to the bounce house place that I love, but with timing and traffic and such that didn't pan out, so we headed for the park and got in some beautiful fall evening playtime.  I purposely brought my camera to try to get some photos of the girls together. The lighting was perfect (in my amateur opinion) for those soft glowing fall pictures. The girls had a ball.

We picked up some pizza and had apples and pizza for dinner at the apartment.  I think it's funny that her daughter asked for more apples, my daughter asked for more pizza! Doh! They played and took a bath and cuddled up in their jammies until Sophie's momma came to get her.

It's weird, I haven't know Courtney for that long, a little over 2 years, but I feel like we're great friends from way back. I feel so comfortable around her, I can be myself, uncensored, opinionated, flawed and in sweat pants 99% of the time and I know she accepts me.  I feel relaxed around her (and her entire family) and never feel like I have to act different, or parent differently.  I thank god for putting such great people in my path, no matter how unorthodox that path is.

Ah...now for my jammies....

Sweet Potato Pie Virgin

Not only had I not ever baked a sweet potato pie, I had never even tasted one. With the abundance of sweet potatoes filling up our CSA box this past month, I couldn't resist but lose my sweet potato pie virginity.  That just sounds weird, but you get it....

I just googled a good recipe that I had all the ingredients on hand for (obviously other than the sweet potatoes) and went to town.  Here's the recipe I used.  I made some modifications.  I used a little over a lb of sweet potatos, used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white instead of 1 cup white, I also added two tablespoons of lemon juice and one tablespoon of flour.  I also cheated and used a premade crust because I am way too lazy these days to make my own crusts.  Those days I fear are long gone after having kids.....

Overall I found the recipe pretty easy to follow and it came out fine even for a newbie to this recipe.  I definitely enjoyed the piece I had the next day more after it had chilled overnight.

We all loved it, complete with homemade whipped cream of course.  I had to pawn off the rest to unsuspected friends and passers by to avoid eating it all myself.  Mimi of course loved it, as expected.

if your wondering about the hat, she chose this for herself, very stylish right?

In our "cozies"

The last two days I've been sick as a dog.  The kind of sick where you KNOW god must be punishing you for something.  The kind of sick where you care barely drag yourself to the bathroom.  The kind of sick where you force yourself to drink gatorade even though you know you'll probably throw it back up. Yeah. NOT PRETTY. Luckily no on else was afflicted.  lol "Afflicted" sounds so bad ass.

I survived it (and lost 3 lbs)!  My husband had to take off work to take care of Mimi because I literally could not get out of bed.  Thank god, otherwise I have no idea what I would have done.  After about 24 hours of feeling like death I was able to shower and eat some applesauce.

This morning I'd say I'm back to 60% and hopefully back to 100% tomorrow.  Today, still somewhat under the weather, I laid low with the Mimester here at home and we wore our cozies.  We call our warm comfy clothes (sweats, fuzzy socks, hoodies, etc) our cozies.  It was actually only 75 today (and about 50 this morning) so Mimi and I did manage to walk buddy in our cozies.

We ventured out to whole foods later in the day and made a delicious organic chicken soup and organic (from scratch) sweet potato pie which I'll share the recipe and photos to later.

Hope you all are well and in your cozies!

Day Trip to San Antonio

We had a friend come for a visit, then continue on to San Antonio for a conference.  We drove her down there and spent the afternoon.  My husband has to go there often for work so he knew his way around, which was nice.

We did the riverwalk and made our way to the Alamo.  Not as spectacular as I imagined, but free, so it was cool.  There was some sort of protest going on while we were there too.

We had lunch at the most amazing German deli.  This place is the cutest little diner.  It reminds me of a quaint diner in a small town but with the tast of a NYC deli.  I had the Reuben, while hubs had the split pea soup. Mimi has a hard boiled egg and some pickles.

We were home in time for a quick ride to the park before dinner.  What a great short Saturday trip.  I think I would drive down again just for the split pea soup lol.

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend.  I look forward to this week. I have no crazy obligation this week, so hopefully Mimi and I can relax, have fun, and I can get some work on done on my dissertation.  Talk to you all soon!