What's On Your... {July 2013}

I shared a "What's On Your..." post back in April and thought it might be about time for a new one!

A thoroughly accurate representation of what's on my living room floor.

Vanity | I don't have a "real" vanity. My dresser is in the exact same state that it was in April. I literally have not organized a thing. It's getting on my nerves, but I never seem to be in my bedroom during the day anymore (especially since the shower is broken), so I never see it until Addie is asleep in my bed and it's too late to do anything about it.

Perennial To Do List | Hm, this hasn't changed a lot either. Still need to edit videos - they are weighing on my mind a lot lately. I'm really striving to get the Etsy shop up and running, but there aren't enough hours.

Refrigerator Shelves | Leftover pizza meatloaf. Blueberry Lemonade. Red Diamond Sweet Tea. Lots of string cheese. GoGosqueez applesauce. Probiotics. Cottage cheese for Lincoln (yuck).

Itinerary | Family reunion with my mom's siblings in early September.

Fantasy Itinerary | If someone told me they would take us to Disney, I think I would cry for a week. And then I would hire a vacation nanny.

Playlist | A Child's Gift of Lullabies (the kids never sleep, so I hear this a lot as I try to get them to bed). Josh Groban inspired radio on Spotify. Original Broadway Cast recordings of new shows I don't get to visit NYC to watch (Newsies, Cinderella).

Nightstand | Two boxes of wipes, a stack of American Girl books, two half-empty bottles of water, a mini tub of coconut oil, a piece of toy railroad track, "I'm a Police Officer" board book.

Workout Plan | Sigh. If I ever get to workout again, I think I'll be really excited. My muscles miss feeling the post-exercise ache.

Phone | Over 1,000 photos in my camera roll. Instagram. Wunderlist. Disney's new Mickey Mouse cartoon app (a certain little person steals my phone to "play" cartoons and would watch all day long), a bunch of voicemails from a window company that we would love to hire but really can't afford.

Top 5 List | Sleep. Snuggles. Air-conditioning. The end of a drama semester. Target.

Bucket List | This hasn't really changed. Musical theatre (need to play a Sutton Foster character before I'm too old).  Europe.  More babies - and maybe adoption.  Disney with the kids. Write a book. Right now I would give up these dreams for a couple of nights of completely uninterrupted sleep.

Mind | Parenting stress. Finances. Housework. What on earth should we eat for dinner this weekend that tastes good enough I want it more than takeout. Can't wait for my mom to come home from vacation.

Blogroll |  MommaB & Baby Boys. Notes from Nessa. Spit & Sparkles. Phase Three of Life. Supermommy! ...Or Not.

Walls of Your Favorite Room in Your House | I hung some new frames with family photos in the living room recently. Love them.

Last Credit Card Statement | Oh, so much. More takeout than budgeted. Quite a few cloth diapers. Groceries.

Screensaver | A picture of Rapunzel and Flynn and the floating lanterns. Lincoln keeps calling them "Mama" and "Dada" - what??

TV Every Night | Well "every night" is a little too generous - when we can (three nights a week?), we are watching every superhero movie we can find.

A Little Update on Life

Disclaimer: no, this is not a pregnancy announcement, or anything remarkably exciting like that!

I just realized that I've been posting a lot of content that is fun, but not necessarily relevant to my family's life at the moment.  And the point of the blog is that in twenty years, I would love to have another way to look back and see what we were up to during these crazy, exhausting baby years.

So, in no particular order, here are a few snippets of our life right now!

-I haven't been "done" with laundry since before Addie was born.

-We may or may not laugh when Lincoln responds with a resounding "no!" to everything we ask.

-I haven't left the house by myself with both kids in probably a month.

-Lincoln randomly opens the fridge throughout the day, climbs up on the ledge, and sighs, "nummy, nummy, nummies!" several times a day.  I think it's cute so I don't work very hard to stop this habit.

-The sleep situation around here is still terrible.  It's currently taking me about two-three hours to get Addie settled down for the night.  This ordeal includes nursing endlessly, bouncing, rocking, multiple wake-ups, and more.  I'm at my wit's end.  I feel like I'm creating another terrible sleeper like Lincoln, but I can't/won't let her cry it out, so I have no idea what to do.

-Because it takes so long to get her to sleep, I have literally no time to do anything without a child hanging on me.  The house is getting dirtier and my sanity disappears a little more every day.

-Lincoln seems to choose the times when I am nursing to wreak as much havoc as possible.

-I'm planning to open an Etsy shop soon, and there are craft supplies everywhere.  I'm so excited about this because I love to create.  But I worry that no one will want my creations.  Or, that so many people will want them, I'll have to give it up for lack of time.

-I'm trying to reduce the amount of junk food I consume.  I threw out some candy and am attempting to eat fruit or drink infused water whenever I crave sugar.  This doesn't really work.

-I have a massive to-do list, huge number of drafted blog posts, and about 15 videos that need to be edited.  I never thought that I would be this far behind on everything. :(

-I have a tandem double stroller for the kids, but I've decided I really want a side-by-side.  And that's definitely not in our budget right now.

-I feel guilty that we don't have more playdates and that Lincoln doesn't really have that many friends his age - but I am so tired all the time that I can't fathom trying to make new friends right now.  Does this make me a terrible mom?

-I'm supposed to be offering summer drama classes as I have had a lot of requests, and it would help supplement our income - but I haven't even begun to plan them yet and the class information really should have gone out several weeks ago.

-I'm trying to grow a chocolate mint plant on my kitchen counter.  I've never grown anything before and I'm afraid it's dying.

-I really, really, really miss reading.  And I'm sometimes really jealous that my husband reads what seems like all the time.  I would give anything to just curl up in bed with a book and read it from cover to cover.  Having my arm hurt from laying on it while reading sounds better right now than having my shoulder ache because I have been holding one child or the other for 17+ hours.

-I've always thought I would be a fun, energetic, exciting mama.  About once a week, I feel like I might be headed toward that goal.  Then, usually, we have a night where no one sleeps, and I'm back at square one.

-Two weeks ago, I decided I would send some random notes to friends via snail mail - because I used to be a letter writing madwoman.  I got out five notes that day.  I've sent one.  In two weeks.  Not my greatest turnaround time.

-I baked a pan of brownies about 25 hours ago and literally ate all but about three bites myself.  Already.


This wasn't really supposed to turn into a rant about all the things that are wrong right now - but that's what it kind of seems to be!  Sorry about that.  In all honesty, life is a bit frustrating most days lately.  I'm trying to increase my patience times a billion, and am hoping that one day I'll be able to function like a coherent human on the very little sleep that seems to be normal anymore!

I'm surviving on sweet baby smiles and snuggles - and even though I get frustrated, I wouldn't have it any other way.

What's On Your... {April 2013}

I found this lovely list of questions on two of my favorite memory-keeping/scrapbooking blogs this week - Ali Edwards and Stephanie Howell - and was inspired.  My quest in memory-keeping for our family is to remember little things, just like these.  I don't know if I'll remember, but I hope to repeat this post every few months...or at least a couple times a year.  I know I'll enjoy looking back at these little moments!

Photo originally shared on Instagram

Vanity | I don't have a "real" vanity, but my dresser is a disaster of jewelry (like my Chewbeads), tights, and lip gloss that all needs to be sorted and given a new place.  I'm very much at a place of re-organization right now.  There are also a handful of things up there so that they are out of Lincoln's reach (batteries, small pieces, etc)

Perennial To Do List | Edit videos (I'm years behind).  Plant a garden.  Get the piano tuned.  Catch up on Project Life.  Get items ready for upcoming consignment sale.  Open Etsy shop.  Plan drama classes.  I could go on.

Refrigerator Shelves | Leftover fried red potatoes.  Cheese and yogurt for the toddler.  Lemon, lime, orange, and strawberries for water infusing experiments.  Panera Asian salad dressing. 

Itinerary | Nothing, unfortunately.  We're toying with the idea of a trip to the Omaha Zoo, but have some other pressing house issues that need to take financial precedence. :/

Fantasy Itinerary | Disney World.  DisneyLand.  Disney Cruise. Do you see a theme?  I'd settle for Silver Dollar City or would love to go up to New England to visit my brother. 

Playlist | Consistently listening to Disney inspired radio on Spotify for weeks now.  I blame the 30-Day Challenge.  Occasionally, Lenka or Mindy Gledhill is my choice (usually after the kids are asleep and I'm trying to seriously work).  Andrew's been on an Irish Tenors kick. 

Nightstand | A couple of diapers, box of wipes, 6 Hot Wheels cars, a book about ladybugs, a bulb syringe, a NoseFrida, a washcloth and a bottle of water.

Workout Plan | Teach children to sleep.  Then workout.  Actually, I plan to start attending a free stroller fitness class next week.  I've gone in the past and it usually about kills me.  Haven't worked out since I was about 14 weeks pregnant with Addie, so...we'll see how it goes.

Phone | Instagram, Pinterest, texts from Andrew, Mom, Dad, Andy, and Laura.

Top 5 List | Loving my babies.  New York City.  Creating.  Watching movies and TV shows with Andrew (rare these days).  Capturing life - with photography, scrapbooking, blogging - whatever I can fit in.

Bucket List | Musical theatre (need to play a Sutton Foster character before I'm too old).  Europe.  More babies - and maybe adoption.  Disney with the kids. Write a book.

Mind | Responsibility of raising these kids. Finding time to craft.  Trying not to stress out when things don't go as planned.  Lack of sleep.  Money. 

Blogroll | Growing Up Geeky.  Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke.  Stephanie Howell.  Simple As That.  Moments That Take My Breath Away.  A Beautiful Ruckus.  Chocolate-Covered Katie.  Birth Without Fear.

Walls of Your Favorite Room in Your House | Nintendo World mural in the nursery.  The castle  is my favorite part.

Last Credit Card Statement | More than I would like.  Groceries, eating out, Shutterfly, Target, craft supplies.

Screensaver | Alternating first baby photos from Lincoln's birth and Adelaide's birth.

TV Every Night | Andrew and I have been trying to watch The Hobbit for over a week now.  The bedtime ritual is making this somewhat impossible to accomplish.  Once that's done, we'll be back to reruns of Parks & Recreation or How I Met Your Mother.

ouch.

My left foot is really sore today. I have no idea why. But it's now at the point where I'm limping. I'm hoping it goes away overnight. I have too much to do at work to even think about calling in sick.

I was supposed to spend this evening on video edit projects, but had so many things come up that by the time I could have started working...it was 9pm. I knew I wouldn't get much done, so I just decided to wrap up my latest sketch challenge from Studio Calico. Here's the result.

"Crazy Mess"
(documenting the state of our house during Little Princess / Secret Garden at BSCT last year)

The photo is blurry because my foot hurt too much to carry the page and the camera to better lighting. Sorry. :\

Loving that I am consistently making at least 1 scrapbook page each week. It might not seem like much, but it's a huge improvement and the sense of accomplishment (on something other than work, classes, cleaning, boring life stuff) is amazing.

PARKOUR!

This is why I love to edit video.



Now, to get to all those wedding videos. I have some really patient friends. They have no idea how grateful I am that they don't call me every two days and say "where is my wedding video?!" It is on my to-do list. I am working on it. It will get done. And it will be before 2011. Absolutely.

Welcome 2010!

I've never been much for resolutions.

I have a list on my refrigerator from this day last year. It has my list of 2009 resolutions. It only had 10 things on it, but do you know how many I actually accomplished? Zip. Nada. Zilch.

Sure, I put up a fighting effort on some - like "Get up earlier - by 6:45 at the latest." I had a streak for probably half the year when I got up early to do laundry and accomplish projects before work. By far, they were the best days, because I had more energy and felt like I had done something productive. But by no means did I manage to meet this goal every day.

I would love to say that I actually made myself "Exercise at least 3x a week." I think I averaged once per week for the whole year. But hey - once a week is better than not at all, right?

Then there are the others, like making a new dinner every week, swiffering the kitchen weekly, taking vitamins regularly, and making breakfast smoothies and keeping them in the freezer - which really didn't take off at all.

So now it's 2010. I'm going to give it another shot. I think I've gained a lot of perspective about how I handle life in the past year. And I'm going to make my new resolutions reflect that as much as I can.

My overall goal for 2010, as mentioned in my previous post, is CALM. I want to slow things down, have time to breathe, and give myself a chance to do the things I care most about. I'm thinking about some creative ways to remind myself of this word when things get crazy.

In the spirit of CALM, here are my other goals for 2010:

• SAY NO. This will be the biggest change, and the hardest to implement. I'm realizing that I cannot do everything. So SAY NO. The world won't end, and I won't be stuck in situations I don't have time for, or can't stand, or whatever.


• Make meal planning less stressful. Plan weekly? monthly? whatever it takes.


• Exercise to get back to wedding-status! Mix it up so it doesn't become a chore.


• Continue to get up by at least 6:45am - try to push this to 6:30. Go to bed early!!


• Make a cleaning strategy and don't let everything pile up until state of disaster becomes reality.


• Really, actually, start taking vitamins.


• Don't drink soda. At all. Really, what possible excuse is a good one?


• Get back to daily devotions. I'm sure this is one of the best ways to promote CALM.


• Keep up with Project Life. Don't fall behind even one day, or that one day may become two, then three, then twenty...


• Finish 2010 with NO outstanding video projects. This first day of 2010, I have 7 projects that people are waiting to see, not counting things I've filmed just for my own benefit. This pressure causes a lot of my stress.


• Play the piano for fun, and enjoy it. This means yes, call the piano tuner, already!


• Pay down the mortgage principle so that we can refinance.


• Take dance classes.


• Make someone's day brighter and send birthday cards through the mail. Or anniversary cards. Or random no-purpose cards. Or cookies!

And one just for fun...

• Bake at least 20 batches of cookies by December 31, 2010!

Whew. That's quite a few things. But right now - I am determined that they are possible. And by this time next year, I will be happier, healthier, and feel so much more CALM that I will hopefully only have a handful of goals for 2011.

it's almost done!!

Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pretty excited. I only have FIVE (count them - one, two, three, four, five!) pages left to create in my honeymoon album! This project has been so consuming of my free time for the past few months, I can hardly even imagine moving on to something else - but soon, I will be doing just that!! Come to my house and I will show you my beautiful glorious album. I am perhaps a little too proud of this book. But I just can't help it. ;)

Other news -

• Planning a Twilight Ball at work. I am getting paid to make dozens of Team Edward / Team Jacob buttons, and for the actual ball, I get to dress like Bella, eat food, and watch the movie. It's gonna be fabulous.
  
• Audition week is done. We're currently trying to find a Santa Claus for our production. Sadly, if we don't find one by next week, we're going to have to cancel the show. :( I'm messaging everyone I can think of.
  
• AGDT is currently in the 5th week of practice. That means I have 3 weeks left. That means I seriously need to get some costume and prop work done. I have done practically nothing for these plays. Yikes.
  
• People are starting to think I will never finish the AGDT Spring and Summer DVDs. Hey, I'm starting to think I'll never finish them!! I have a day off next Saturday when I will be home by myself all day. I'm thinking...I should probably have a video edit marathon.
  

That's about it. Hopefully next time I update...the honeymoon book will be done! :)

will it never end?

The video project goes on. and on. and on. The weekend was definitely productive as far as the project goes...no surprise, considering I put in probably 15 solid hours of work. My best guess is that I have another 5-6 hours of icky sound check and menu creation before rendering. I'm hoping to get it done in less time than that, so that it can be done TODAY. I doubt things will go quite that smoothly, but I can always dream.

Who would've guessed that I would still be dealing with Little Princess / Secret Garden in SEPTEMBER? Wow...we're coming up on a year of work on this project. Pretty sad.

there are some things...

...that I truly enjoy.

• ...the 5 hours I spend off work on Monday afternoons (during the very short break between AGDT classes - this semester it's 4 weeks, 2 of which are now gone, and 1 of which is Labor Day and doesn't really count). It's the one time of the week when I feel that my house is not a lost cause, I might eventually catch up on the laundry, and there is hope for all of the never-ending projects.
  
• ...finding that there is a new specialty scrapbooking store in downtown Lees Summit, less than 5 miles from my house. It was especially nice to find that they carry a lot of specialty papers that I previously had to drive to Archiver's to acquire. I hope that someday I can have my own little business in a quaint little shop on a downtown street. Such fun!
  
• ...Date Night with Andrew. Sure, I might accidentally leave my delicious leftover Zio's on the table (along with the picture that he drew me with crayons on the tablecloth), and I might be horrified that some Hollywood genius picked Eric Bana to play Henry de Tamble in The Time Traveler's Wife movie adaptation, but... Gap's 40th birthday party meant piano music, free cake, bottled water, and M&M's at the checkout counter, PLUS $20 off delightful new jeans and an additional 15% off my total purchase. Eric Bana may be a crummy actor, but the story was still beautiful and I cried through the last half hour of the movie. Plus I spent time with my amazing man, without worrying about any of the silly projects waiting in my house. Yes, date night is a good thing.
  
• ...the feeling of accomplishment when I finally finish - or even start - a project. I put together the preliminary stuff on the AGDT Spring 09 DVD today in about an hour. That's a really good feeling.
  
• ...having my iPod at work. Really, what's better than being able to tune out the world around you and surround yourself in Josh Groban, fantastic Broadway (Little Mermaid, Shrek, Young Frankenstein and more), Coldplay, Owl City, and random old favorites from Straylight Run, Snow Patrol, Augustana, and Sarah Brightman. It really makes life much more bearable.
  
• ...eBay. There's something remarkable about online shopping, but eBay really takes the cake. I mean, you can find some amazing deals, interesting and exciting things that are either not available in America or out of print altogether, or just about anything. There's really nothing quite like the thrill of winning an auction in the last 5 seconds of bidding. And on top of all these good things, when it's all said and done, you get a surprise package in your mailbox containing these amazing purchases a few days later! It's all around just a good thing. And hey, if you have time and inclination, you can even make money selling things on eBay too. :)
  

That's it for now. What do YOU truly enjoy? Make time for one of those things...it's always worth it.

sick days are no fun.

The plus to a sick day is that I get to stay home, sleep, be productive, and do things I normally can't even dream of doing (scrapbooking, watching chick flicks). The downside is that, well, I feel awful. I guess it's the price we have to pay.

I'm plodding away at this LPSG DVD. Roughly 18 minutes of footage is done. It's going a little faster today, but my eyes are starting to hurt, so I'll probably take a break soon.

Saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the crazy busy midnight opening! I have heard a lot of mixed reviews, but I thought it was one of the best as far as adaptation. I'm now reading book 7 for what I think is just the second time. The book was released back in 2007, about a month before I met Andrew and became really busy falling in love. :)

Yesterday I had a really bad craving for cupcakes. Someone brought delicious chocolate ones to work, but I ended up leaving work early and so only had one. When I came home and was wearing pajamas, I felt inspired to cook the one remaining cake mix in my home into red velvet mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I'm now living entirely on those. We have no groceries whatsoever. It's pretty sad. But I don't feel well enough to put on makeup and brave the grocery store. My wonderful husband has volunteered to do the shopping tonight while I am teaching my AGDT class.

I know no one reads this, but come see FOOTLOOSE next week at BSCT!! I'm dressing up in crazy 80's fashions just to sell concessions and tickets and StarGrams, and it'd be a real shame for you to miss seeing me with a scrunchie-bound side ponytail. It's pretty fantastic. And the show's good, too!

That's about it for today. Sorry I'm a bore. But wait - no one actually sees these posts! I guess we're okay then. ;)

weekends are just not long enough!!

I could use another 2 days of rest, as my weekend was really not that relaxing and I accomplished practically nothing on the never-ending to-do list. It seems far too soon to be back at work starting another week. *sigh*

It was a fun weekend nonetheless, with a 4th of July wedding and spending time with some friends who were visiting from out of town.

CONGRATULATIONS to Eddie, Christi, and Peter Parker on the birth of baby Liberty last Wednesday!! She is beautiful and Auntie Jewels is really excited to meet her. I don't know when this will take place...but hopefully soon. :)

Harry Potter update... I'm about 450 pages into Order of the Phoenix. I've started having treadmill/reading marathons in an attempt to get the books done in time. I think I can make it. Unless something drastic happens.

I've been working on the BSCT Little Princess / Secret Garden DVD project. I'd forgotten that it's a lot more difficult to edit a video with 3 takes than it is with just 1. I have promised so many people I would have this project done by now...I feel guilty, but even my guilt does not provide enough time to get the project under control. I'm averaging 3 hours editing 10 minutes of footage. At that speed, for two hour-long shows, you can imagine the dark scary path that lies before me. ugh. Editing is a full time job and I don't have that many hours left in my life!!

So far most of my flowers are still alive. My thumb may not be completely green, but at least it has a hint of color in there somewhere. :) The roses, unfortunately, seem to be the choice snack food of some pest living in my yard. We've talked about working on a solution, yet haven't had time to go to the store to search for something yet.

And that's about it. Hard to believe summer is half over already...it feels like I should have a nice big vacation here sometime soon. Oh well...