Simplicity

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I love to read.  Books let you escape reality and live in a little fairy land for a period of time.  We live in a crazy world with too much negative stuff going on and I need a break from that.  Anywho…I was recently at one of our local libraries and they had the Little House box set for only $5.  I read and owned ‘Farmer Boy’ as a child and remember really liking the book.  I thought it would be neat for Allison (my 4 year old) to have when she got older, but I wanted to read them too.  I started reading a couple of months ago and finished all 9 books last week.  Of course they were easy reads…I mean they’re meant for 10 year olds, but the stories took place where I grew up as a child.  The books really made you put things into perspective on how easy we have it nowadays.

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My sister-in-law sent me this at Christmas and I had yet to make it.  Well, I did so last week and it as delicious!  I did substitute skim milk for cream, but just added a little less.  The flavor was great and love me some rice in soup.  As an added bonus (for me), there is no chicken in the soup ;-)  Love getting little presents from ND – thanks Kristi!

Seven

Since finishing my other books, I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this one.  Ordered this for myself as a Mother’s Day gift.  I always order a book for Mother’s Day.  I always get asked, “What do you want for Mother’s Day?”  Me:  “Just a book.  Care if I order it for myself?”  Hubby: “Nope, go right ahead.  Books are lame.”  Someday that man will come around and learn to like reading ;-)  Back to the book…it started getting “popular” last year when I learned other bloggers were reading it.  I’m sure all the rage is over, but that isn’t stopping me.  So far, the book is great and I read it for 45 min every morning while walking on the treadmill (I’m oober-talented…not).  I highly suggest reading the book, if you’re into becoming a minimalist and doing some soul-searching.  In my older years, I’ve become wiser (I think?) and realized what is truly important.  I used to buy things just because we had a dual income and we could afford it.  I also worked at a place of business where dressing up was important, so I spent quite a bit of money on wardrobe.  Now I’m Super Mom, so I pretty much wear jeans, t-shirts, yoga pants and flip flops.  It’s no longer important to me to own a bazillion pairs of anything.  In fact, clutter really gets to me.  I go through my closet like every 3 months and get rid of tons of stuff.  Why keep it?  What am I holding onto?  If you’ve had something around for more than a year without touching it, go ahead and get rid of it.  I’m not really a person who puts sentimental value on many things. If we shall ever leave this house, I will be just fine with it.  I have pictures that have captured our memories.  A house is just a house.  Does it bother me that we have 4 (soon to be 5) people living in a 1500 s.f. house?  Some days it does and I think to myself, “Why can’t we have something bigger?!”  It’s not the amount of people that take up the space, it’s the amount of STUFF.  I know people who have storage units for their ‘stuff’ and it drives me crazy to no end.  I’m sure they don’t even know what’s in the storage unit.  If that’s the case, why not get rid of it and donate it to someone who can use it?  It definitely feels good to let go of things knowing that it’s going to someone who can use it.

UPDATE:  I finished the book last week.  It was a fast, easy read, but oh so good.  I let Allison pick out my next book from the shelf.  She chose ‘The Secret Life of Bees’.  I’ve made it through the first chapter and feel sad and a little uninterested.  I read the second and third chapters today and it’s definitely getting better.  Thankful for that because otherwise I wouldn’t finish it.  The only other book I’ve started but never finished was ‘MiddleSex’…horrible…just horrible. Please let me know if you have any book recommendations…reading really helps the time go by while walking :-)

Stay tuned tomorrow for a preview of the guest bathroom, which I kind of want to re-do.

Weekend Recap

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It never fails.  It seems that someone in my family always gets sick on a Holiday weekend.  My poor little man got the flu on Sunday night. He’s 21 months old, so doesn’t have a clue what is going on and is scared out of his mind.  I feel for the guy :(  I hate it when kids get sick.  The only good thing about it is the cuddles and that they only want mommy…great feeling :)  Anywho, it lasted all of Sunday night and all day Monday.  I’m definitely thankful that the hubby had Monday off for Memorial Day because I don’t know that I could have handled it any better without him.  He really took charge with the whole puke thing.  I tried my best to hold back and keep my cool.  I’ve never been the best at handling people get sick.  I usually leave the room, plug my ears and start singing a little song to drown out everything.  You can’t really do that when it’s your own child.  It’s even tougher on me this time because of being pregnant and certain smells just get to ya…like really bad.  BUT, I hope we’re on the mend.  It was a great night of sleep for everyone last night and the little tykes are still conked out as I type.  I give it 3 more minutes til’ they’re up :)

Consistency and Confessions

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For the past several nights, the kids have been waking up at 2am and 5am…not cool.  I haven’t figured out why the 2am, but the 5am is because the sun is coming up and apparently my children have inherited their father’s gene about only being able to sleep in pitch black.  I’m annoyed.  We have blackout curtains, blackened screens, the whole nine really.  BUT if even the littlest amount of light shines in, they wake up.  I have a feeling this is some sort of training program for me when baby #3 joins us in just 4 short months ;)  At least they’re consistent with 2am and 5am.

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I confess, I ate a chicken sandwich from unsaid restaurant at 9:30pm last night.  It was a craving.  I caved.  I should really learn to get over it, but instead I dwell over the thought of those extra calories (all 470)…and not healthy calories either.  Oh well, let it go Lisa…let it go.  I will live, life will go on, I know.  It gets kinda silly in that head of mine sometimes.  Instead of taking the day off the treadmill, I got on and did my usual 3 miles.  I also chose to eat oatmeal for breakfast.  See?  All is turning around already.  (Like this little pep talk I give to myself?)  And besides, I chase around 2 monkeys all day and today is going to be a whip-this-place-into-shape kinda day, so that helps too.  I’m sure that sandwich had something to do with it being fuel for me to have the energy to get up both those times in the middle of the night.  Am I still talking about this?!

Oh and on another note, I think I have to convince myself to get Lasik after I’m done having babies.  It’s hard getting up in the middle of the night and not being able to see what you’re doing.  Sure, I could reach for my glasses and put those on, but then I get this thought of “if I can see better, it will probably take me longer to fall back asleep…so I best not put them on”.  Does anyone else do this?

Happy Hump Day!  (Sorry for the poor quality phone pics…it happens :-) )