Progress Report... So far in 2013

So as I posted back in January, I have a LONG list of goals for myself this year. I truly believe that this is a big year for me. 2012 was probably the year that saw me make more dramatic changes in myself and my life that any year previous or going forward. I truly became a new person. There are SO many things that I learned about myself and so many things that I am changing about myself, and 2013 is going to be the year that a lot of it starts. So yes my list is long, but it's because I have a lot of growing up and catching up to do.

Here is a little progress report of my goal list so far:

1. Journal daily. // Have done better than I have in the past, still not journaling daily, tho. It really stresses me out that I put it off like I do because I am so terrible at remembering all of the sweet little things that happen every day. Still striving to get better at this one.
2. Only use reusable shopping bags. // Haven't only used reusable bags, but I have about 90% of the time. I am content with that. :)
3. Only have one U-Haul and one truck load on moving day. // Haven't gotten there just yet, obviously, but it's looking like it may actually be likely.
4. Get Casen potty trained! // He isn't all the way there, but he is doing a great job. I really think it's more my fault than his that he isn't 100% yet.
5. Cook at least 3 nights a week. [And plan ahead for leftovers.] // Not doing a good job with this one, just being honest :/ Not even close...
6. Family breakfast every morning. // Most mornings we are good about this. I'll be good about it for a week or so and then I'll slack again, but I'm doing a lot better than in the past. I am not used to making breakfast for myself to be honest, so this is a really hard habit for me to develop for me, much less our whole family.
7. Develop and stick to a family rhythm. // This one somewhat corresponds to the answer above. I didn't really grow up with much of a rhythm or routine, so, unfortunately it is extremely difficult for me to get one going now. I am really really working on this one, tho.
8. Get outside for at least 30 minutes a day with the boys. // Some days are better than others. Hopefully once the weather gets pretty we will be out more than in! Can't wait!!
9. Blog at least twice a week. // That one I have obviously not done. Although, I am planning on keeping this blog up to date and not letting it fall to the wayside as it has before. This habit, like the journaling, is very important to me. I just really need to have more discipline! :)
10. Try to read something whenever time allows. // Thanks to my wonderful iPhone, I have been able to do this whenever time permits. I have never been a huge fan of reading anything but a hard copy book, but sometimes, when it makes more sense, you just gotta do what you gotta do.
11. Daily creative/activity time with Casen. // Not everyday, (see #7), but we have done a lot more hands on crafty things than we have in the past. It is very difficult with Anders being so needy tho.
12. Sew/create at least one project a month. // Not quite.
13. Just do it. Don’t put it off. It meaning anything... // I've been doing remarkably better lately than I have in the past.
14. Finish Nathan’s stocking. For reals. // Haven't touched it..... -___-
15. Get efficient! // I believe I am doing so more and more every day.
16. Get rid of all unwanted clutter and things we don't need or love. // So far so good. We have gotten rid of literally hundreds if not thousands of things. I constantly have a bag ready to take to the thrift store, or to consign. Last weekend we took SO MUCH CRAP to a local kids consignment sale. It was repulsive to see how much stuff we'd accumulated. Granted, 90% of it had been stored in boxes waiting to be moved on. (None of it having been purchased by us, just fyi.) I finally got a handle on the junk when we moved it out of here. It was literally like 10000 lbs had been lifted off of my shoulders. Now to just wait and see how much we make off of it all. That will be the fun part! Whatever doesn't sell goes straight to Goodwill!
17. Make quiet and/or personal time for myself daily. // For a while I was intentionally waking up around 6 a.m. to have a little bit of personal/ quiet time for myself. It was great for a few days until little man started waking up about the same time and demanding all of my attention, meaning, bye-bye early-morning-mommy-time. That's okay tho of course. Since then I have been trying to make the time elsewhere in my day and I haven't really been able to find the right time to just spend time with myself. I may just need to start waking up at 5!
18. Read with boys before bed every night. // Most nights we are good about this.
19. Write and give someone [anyone] at least one handwritten note a week. // I've done MAYBE one or two... I'm really bad about notes to people, be it a thank you note or a birthday card, much less a random one. Hence the reason it's on my Resolution list. Haha. I WILL get better at this one too! :)
20. Start learning to play the banjo. // Not yet.
21. Sew a quilt. // Not yet.
22. Create and stick to a budget. // We have dibble dabbled, but haven't set anything in stone yet.
23. Do not tolerate being treated poorly by anyone and do not do so to others. // Taking it one day at a time.
24. Be mindful and present for every moment. Stop trying to do everything at once. // Trying so hard. This is very very important to me.
25. Live intentionally. // It's a journey and we are taking it. I love it so far.

october already?!

via.

I couldn't think of a better way to start of the month of October than with a rainy Monday. It is so yucky and dreary outside, but that means that we get to be that much cozier inside, and we know what that means! Books, blankets, sweaters, and slippers! Woot woot! There are a ton of things that I am planning on doing this fall with and without mi familia. 

• start and finish a book
• have candles burning day in and day out
• make sure the house always smells good
• take a hike [which shouldn't be hard, given we literally live a half mile from a state park, but you'd be surprised...]
• take the boys on at least one train ride here 
• pick pumpkins and go on a hay ride
• decorate said pumpkins
• go to at least one Auburn home game
• make the house feel as warm and cozy as possible
• watch hocus pocus
• make caramel apples and s'mores
• bake a peach cobbler and an apple pie
• make something in the crock pot at least once a week
• take lots of pictures of my bundled up babies
• go to a corn maze!
• take the boys trick-or-treating
• find a pile of leaves for Casen to play in
• take it all in.

I'm the kind of person that will forget to do things until it's too late-- no matter how badly I want to do them-- unless I have them written down or in a list of some sort. So I will be referring back to this list often over these next few months. I may have to print it out, frame it and hang it on my ceiling so I see it when I wake up every morning if that's what it takes. Yep. That's what I'll do. 

10 baby items that have saved my sanity

I have always been told that you are given the easy baby first so that people don't talk themselves out of having more. So I was pretty worried that number 2 would be more difficult, and in a way he is. Not in a negative sense whatsoever, it's not so much difficult as it is different. It really is interesting to see how different babies are from one to the next. For instance, Casen used to be perfectly fine when left alone, and he wasn't a huge fan of being swaddled. He didn't do a whole lot of crying and when he did it was pretty easy to get him to stop. Since he wasn't terribly needy, we didn't wear him all that much, just a couple times when we went out. Nursing was hard on the both of us, as I was highly sensitive in that general area and I was back at work the day after I got out of the hospital, so I didn't stick with it quite as long as I had wanted to and gave up sooner than I should have. I will be the first to admit that the necessities from one baby to the next can vary pretty significantly, and it goes hand in hand with how much experience you have in the matter. Obviously with Casen we had had zero experience. Anders, on the other hand, LOVES to be swaddled and held and carried and worn and nursed all of the time and a lot of the things on this list would not have been on my list had I made one when Casen was his age.

Here are 10 things that I absolutely could not live without this time around.

1// Baby Wraps and carriers. I seriously don't know how I would get anything done if it weren't for my sleepy wrap. And I mean that in all honesty. I do the laundry, I vacuum, I play with Casen, I make dinner, I shop, and do pretty much anything else you can think of all while wearing Anders in this thing. It's awesome, too, because he can nurse while he's all snug in his little pouch. :) Plus I love the closeness it brings. There's nothing like a baby sleeping on your chest. It's the sweetest thing. We also just bought a Snugli so that Fico can wear Anders as well. I think the wrap scares him. :P

2// cloth diapers.  Obviously everyone isn't going to use cloth diapers and obviously there is nothing wrong with that, but I personally prefer them. I did not use cloth diapers with Casen (although I considered it many times before he was born) because I thought that it would be too much for me to handle. Boy was I wrong. It really isn't much more work than using disposables, although it does require you to run an extra load of laundry every couple days. It is more expensive up front, but it truly is cheaper in the long run, and it saves on so much unnecessary waste. They are cuter, softer, drier, gentler, cleaner, healthier, greener, etcetera, etcetera. I know that they don't appeal to everyone the way the do to me, but I still think that everyone should try them out. There are so many different ways to cloth diaper and Jillian's Drawers is a great website that allows you to figure out which way is best for you for just $10. You get 6 styles to try for 21 days to help decide which style works best for you and your baby, if cloth diapering is going to be your thing at all. They have a newborn trial and a normal trial. Check them out here. We decided to go with bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diapers. (You can choose from tons of colors and buy them here.) They grow with baby all the way from 8-35+ lbs. So you can truly buy all of your diapers up front and never have to buy more until baby is potty trained, which is statistically sooner for cloth diapered babies. (We were also gifted a couple gdiapers which we like, too. I like that they have the option to use either reusable cloth inserts or biodegradable disposable inserts.) There are still times that we use disposables like when Anders is with a babysitter or all of our diapers are in the wash. I keep disposables in the diaper bag, too, whenever we leave the house just for convenience. 

3// swaddle blankets. Like I said before, Casen wasn't big on being swaddled, but Anders is. With Casen, we just used the blankets that we stole from the hospital, but those are super easy for babies to bust and kick out of, so this time around we are using muslin swaddle blankets, and I love them!!! They are awesome. They keep him swaddled pretty much until we unwrap him. We use them as burp rags, too, since this little one does a whole lot more than "spitting" when he spits up. It's more like barfing up everything he just ate... But that's another story. We use this brand and this one. I love them both equally. I also use them as an extra layer to lay on at night to remove if the bed gets wet or dirty, or as a nursing cover while we're out. 

4// Breast pump and booby shaped bottles. If you are breastfeeding, this is an obvious necessity. I was fortunate enough to have a good friend give me her breast pump and I don't know what I would do without it. The electric ones are quite pricy but it's cheaper than you would end up spending on formula if you chose to go that route. My pump is a lifesaver. Anders has not taken well to normal bottles and nipples, so I had to do some research to find what bottles were best for breastfed babies and this is what I found. They are meant to mimic a natural breast. He took to them as easily as he takes to me and they really do reduce spit up and gas when he drinks from them. I really can tell a difference. 

5// Cloth nursing pads  I used disposable nursing pads during the few months that I breastfed Casen and that felt just as wasteful as throwing out disposable diapers. So this time I use these cloth nursing pads which I actually like better anyway. They are softer and more comfortable and I don't feel bad throwing a barely used pad in the laundry hamper rather than the trash. I only have three pair and just keep them rotated. nursing cream. Every nursing mom needs nipple cream. I use medela tender care lanolin. When you first start nursing, nipple cream is an absolute necessity. As time goes on and you "toughen up" you won't need it as often, but every once in a while you still will. 

6// Infant gas drops. Poor little Anders has the worst gas and he gets so upset when he gets gassy. Like I mentioned before, he spits up so much and he rooty-toots like a grown man. It makes him so uncomfortable and these drops make all the difference in the world. (It's actually about time I order more. We've used it so much.)

7// Dry shampoo. Not even kidding. I would walk around with wet and/or greasy hair most days if it weren't for dry shampoo. It's one of the best inventions ever. 

8// Baby swing. Our baby swing is our secret weapon when it comes to getting Anders calm. I swear that baby could stay in that thing all day if he never got hungry or soiled his cute little britches. We found this swing at a garage sale for $20. I know... I know!

9// Stroller. This is one of those things that actually wouldn't have been on my list had I been making it when Casen was a baby. I didn't do much going out when he was little and we very, very rarely ever used a stroller. This time though, sticking both boys in their two seater stroller has proven to be necessary quite a few times. Even just to get out of the apartment and take a little stroll. It's really a win win win because it calms the baby, it gives Casen a chance to run around like the toddler he is or just chill and take a ride, and it gives mommy a little bit of a break to get out in the fresh air and see something other than the boring walls of this apartment and the monotony of folding clothes and doing dishes. I wrote a post a while back about how excited I was to have found our stroller at a Kid's consignment sale here. The stroller that we have is currently out of stock on Amazon but this is the next step up from that one.

10// Naps. No explanation required. I try to fit in a nap as often as possible.

This list obviously doesn't consist of everything you'd need for baby, and every Momma has her own personal preferences. These are just the things that I personally could not live without. Since this is my second stroll through the park, it is easier now to narrow down the things I truly need and the things that aren't 100% necessary. You don't need a duffle-bag sized diaper bag, just big enough for your diapers, wipes, a burp rag, and an extra outfit. And it doesn't need to match all of your baby items, make sure it fits your style since you are the one that will be lugging it around! I, personally, refuse to use diaper bags, I just use small purses. You don't need 30 pairs of socks, five is actually pushing it. You don't need 75 outfits for your newborn. Just a few since they aren't very tiny for long. They grow through clothes so fast! 

These are pretty much all of the things that I couldn't live without when it comes to being a mom and staying sane. Although my husband may never understand, I know that as a mom, I am not alone in hanging onto my sanity by a string! 

What are some of your necessary baby items that you could not live without??

Happiness is...

1. Kissing sweet, soft baby lips and cheeks. 

2. The moment you crawl into bed at night after a long day.

3. Finding a SUPER bargain at a yard sale or thrift store.

4. Crossing everything off of your to do list.

5. When you walk outside and you can feel summer turning to autumn.

6. A blank journal just waiting to be written in.

7. Fresh flowers.

8. Taking a walk in the morning before anyone wakes up. 

9. Spying on little ones while they sleep.

10. Fall scented candles!