top five friday {3.7.14}

soooo...it's been a while since i've done a top five friday. partly because life is busy. and partly because i've thought that i really don't have much to share. then i decided that last sentence was stupid, because dang. i have a freaking awesome life and i guarantee that there are always five things in a week that can be celebrated. so, i'm hoping to keep this up again. after all, it used to be my favorite post of the week on this ol' blog, so maybe it'll give me something to look forward to! anyway. let's begin.

1 - planners. i've sucked at using a planner my entire life. my entire life. my freshman year in college, my friend gave me a planner for my birthday {because she knew how much i needed it. i'm the most disorganized/forgetful person ever.} and i was super pumped to use it and after about a good solid week, i stopped using it. cold turkey. i've just never been good at writing things down. that was until i bought a new planner last month. i think my problem with planners is that i usually get the week by week ones, so the amount of space to write down my to-do list for the day is no bigger than the size of my thumb. granted, i do have big thumbs {stupid man hands}, but it still just didn't cut it for me. this new planner is a day by day one and i literally have a whole page to write on! it's awesome. since acquiring this planner, my house has never been cleaner, i've never had so many posts written on my food blog and i've never worked out more in a week. it has made me so productive! i'm the type of person that needs a goal to work towards and attain, so being able to cross something off my to-do list every day makes me feel so accomplished. even if sometimes i do something and then write it down, just so i can cross it off. it still feels awesome. my goal is to cross off everything i've written down by the end of the day. i still have yet to do that.

2 - painted toenails. and sunshine. going along with number 1, because the house was clean one day this week and i had already worked out and such, i put addi down and found that i didn't have a whole lot to do. i have had "paint your toenails" on my to-do list for 3 weeks now {it always seems to be one of the things i can never get crossed off} because i have had the same smidgen of toenail polish on my feet since i painted both mine and addi's toes before halloween. don't judge. anyway, i sat down and painted those babies and as i laid on the bed, waiting for them to dry, i was seriously overcome with what a gorgeous day it was and how good life can be. yeah. i get giddy over lame things. but to me, they're awesomely lame things!

3 - date night. i've always loved going on dates with zach, but since we have had addi, it hasn't been as much of a priority. not because we don't want to go out by ourselves, but because leaving your kid with a babysitter is stressful. if i'm not worrying about whether or not she will be okay without me, i'm worrying about the person babysitting her and imagining addi screaming her head off the whole time and not wanting to take a bottle or nap. it's hard for me to let go of. luckily, we have some really great friends here that have helped us out though and have put us at ease. i don't think people realize how freaking lucky they are to have family living close by. some days, i'd give anything for it! i'm so grateful for friends that can be like family to us. anyway, we have tried to make it a point to go out every thursday now. last night we went to a local place called 'the chocolate cafe'. umm, is there any possible way a date could go wrong at a place with the word 'chocolate' in it? no. the answer is no. not to mention, they had the best bread pudding i have ever had in my entire life and i don't even like bread pudding. 'nuff said. i love being able to get away and share a few hours with my main squeeze!

4 - adelaide is officially eating solids. willingly! i know. i never thought i'd see the day either.

i tried so hard when she hit six months and she refused. it actually made me kind of sad to be honest. i wanted to try some baby-led weaning, where she could basically just eat table food from the get-go, but after a few episodes of dry heaving and full on puking, i decided that maybe that wasn't such a good idea. i think she doesn't know what to do with a chunk of food on her tongue, so it triggers her gag reflex. so, purees it is. but at least it's a start! if anybody has some good recipes on homemade purees, send them my way!

5 - i attended a blog conference last month and had so much fun that i wanted to go to another one. there is one called blogher foods in may and it's geared just towards food bloggers so i really wanted to go, but i knew there was no way we would be able to afford it, considering that it's in miami freaking florida. then, i got talking to my friend, hayley, and she encouraged me to try to get sponsored. so, i asked around a little bit and what do you know? the company that makes candiquik {that dipping chocolate you see in like, every grocery store? yeah. them.} is totally going to pay for me to go!! i was super excited about it and still can't believe that this blog has taken me to places like this. i have a problem with comparing it and its size to other people, but ya know what? i've worked dang hard at getting it to where it is and i'm totally proud of it. regardless of whether it's smaller than other people's blogs. that's all.

well friends - same time. same place. next week. {actually, probably not the same time because ain't nobody got to worry about writing a blog post at the exact same time every week. but, you get the point.}

-the mrs.

a jumble of thoughts.

i've sat down to blog about a dozen times in the last two months and it's like i have a billion things to say, but for some reason, i can't get the words formulated into sentences without completely boring myself to death. i've never seen myself as a creative person, but i feel like i'm losing what creativity i did have and i'm at a loss on how to get it back. i used to scan pinterest for hours, looking for all things diy and now all i look for is food. i feel like i can be creative sometimes when it comes to my food blog, but as far as making things for myself to like i used to, it's basically non-existent. i just want to make pretty things for my house, gosh dang it! i realized that back in the day, when i was writing on this blog consistently, i was also making some kind of craft like every other day. it sounds weird, but i'm wondering if the two things go hand it hand. i've heard that if you want to become like a legit writer, then you must write every day, not matter how long or short, meaningful or pointless. maybe that's the same with me and writing on this blog. so im going to try to up my crafting game and see what it can do for the ol' brain. my first attempt was last night when i decided on a whim to make addi a new crib sheet.

when i started piecing together her nursery, i was bound and determined that it was going to be gray and white with a soft, light pink touch to it. that sounded awesome until i found that the cheapest gray rocking chair in like the whole wide world, was no less than $600. umm, no thank you. so i settled for a $200 dark brown recliner and themed the nursery around that. where that recliner is super comfy and pretty much perfect - it's still brown. which means i settled. i hate settling. so, i've talked zach into letting me revamp the nursery in the near future and making it exactly how i want it to be! i bought some fabric last night and went to town.

i'm pretty much in love with it and want to make like, 10 more. i found the tutorial on how to do it from danamadeit.com. I'm pretty sure you need to visit that place right now. it's a wonderland. and you should make like, 10 of these too. if not for you, then for someone you know. or for me. that's fine too.

along with not feeling creative, i know that the only thing i would ever write about is addi. which isn't bad, but i keep thinking that there are only so many posts about addi that i can write before this blog gets a tad bit redundant and boring. then i realized how stupid that sounds. you learn quick as a mom that you seriously eat, drink, and sleep baby mode. if she's sleeping, i'm checking the clock to see how long she has been down. if she's asleep for too long though, then i'm peeking through the crack in the door because i'm almost positive that she has passed out in her sleep or something, which in turn actually wakes her up. then i'm torn with the emotions of 'dang it, i should have let her keep sleeping!' and 'thank heavens, she's okay!'. when she is awake, i'm making sure she is entertained so that she doesn't become dumb like all the parenting books tell you will happen if you don't spend enough time interacting with your kid or i'm thinking about when the next time she needs to take a nap, or the last time she ate, or worrying about why she hasn't rolled from her back to her belly yet and don't even get me started on crawling. she's only 7 months old, but she hasn't even started trying to crawl, which makes me envision taking care of this full-grown adult that doesn't know how to walk and can barely sit up. yeah. all of that runs through my head. every day. being a mom gives you a crazy, busy mind. so, sue me if this blog ends up turning out to be more about the little miss and a lot less of the mr. and the mrs. someday, i'll have my brain back and will be able to form two thoughts that don't have to do with my kid. but, today is not that day. and i'm completely okay with it. 

i recently read this article actually and i thought it summed up my current feelings on motherhood pretty dang well. sometimes it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel where you don't have puke on your shirt, or you don't have to fight your child every time they take a nap or you don't have to carefully plan out getting ready for the day so that you can shower and blow dry your hair without the baby around because she screams every time you turn the blow dryer on, or when you can leave home by yourself for longer than three hours. who knows when that won't be my life anymore, but as for right now, i'm trying to soak it in because one day my baby won't need me, and only me. she will have someone else to complete her just like zach completes me now. and that makes my heart hurt already. 

at the beginning of the year, i opened up an email account in addi's name and i have been sending her a picture or herself every day, along with what we did that day. sometimes, i write her letters and just tell her how i'm feeling or thinking and little bits of information that i think she needs to know. i haven't decided if i'm going to tell her about it before i give her the password to it, but either way, i'm excited for all the memories it will keep for us. i look at her hands and feet and they still look so small. i know it's ridiculous, but i've honestly wondered if her feet have grown at all since she was born, because they still look so tiny! then we took some friends some dinner last week. they just had a baby and holy toledo. addi looked like a giant compared to their baby! you may think that sounds stupid. like, duh, sarah. what do you expect from a seven month old? they can't stay little forever! yes. i know that. but when you see them every day, you don't realize how big they truly are. my baby is literally growing right before my eyes and i wish time would just slow the heck down so i can soak up every little moment and memory. i'm really hoping that this whole e-mail thing will help preserve as many memories as possible. after all, i'm only going to be a first time mom once!

anyway. long story short, i'm feeling kind of nostalgic tonight and i'm missing this space here on the internet that was once my spot to write everything down and share every little thing. maybe it's because we are finally settling down a little bit, so we don't get out and explore as much, so i don't feel like i have much to talk about? i don't know. if that's the case though, then it looks like we need to do some adventuring to keep our life not so boring! oh, summer time. you can't come fast enough. until next time, friends!

-the mrs.