What I'm Working On

Since the baby was born, it's like I have this extra little burst of enthusiasm to get stuff done around the house. It kinda started with my clean kitchen obsession and has spread to other areas of the house. I even printed out this fantastic planner set to help keep me on track. At the moment, I'm working on a few little projects, to help spruce things up.

In the past, I never really had any interest in keeping up with our yard. We have flowerbeds around  the entire perimeter of the house, but since we live on post and this house isn't really ours, I never took an interest in maintaining them more than I had to. After starting our little vegetable garden, I realized how easy it is to dig up a few weeds and plant something else, which is exactly what we did over the weekend.

The girls planted sunflower seeds in mason jars a while back. We took the spouts from those and planted them along the back wall of our garage. So far, they're thriving. I'd be super happy if they would grow six feet tall with huge bright flowers.

Another little project that I've been working on is my photo wall. Each time my mom has visited, she's helped with it. It's finally getting to the point where it looks close to complete. I got on Shutterfly yesterday and ordered a bunch of free prints (promo code: laborday101 [or click here for 101 free photos from my referral page]). So far, I love how the wall looks. It'll be a work in progress, and I'm sure huge changes will be made each time we move as well as when the girls get older.

This last project isn't really home related, or even a project really.. Actually, I've been attempting to put together a mini homeschool curriculum for the girls for the days that they're not in school. It's taken a lot of Pinterest searching and some creativity on my part, but it's coming along. I've found some great homeschooling resources and have taken little bits and pieces from everywhere. I even fired up the Cricut for some extra fun little projects. Today will be the first day that we'll be following somewhat of a lesson plan instead of just randomness that I print from the internet. Wish us luck.

I Just Started Typing

It wasn't that long ago that I was hating Tuesdays. I still have to wake up earlier than usual to get the girls ready for school, but since I'm no longer doing gymnastics after preschool drop off, my day goes much more smoothly. Last week was the first Tuesday since Juliana was born that it was just her and I running the errands. It wasn't perfect, but I'll take whipping a boob out in the middle of the commissary over chasing a cranky toddler between beams and bars.

I wish I could say the boob thing was an exaggeration, but sadly it's not. As we were searching for the perfect tomatoes for BLTs last week, Juli started getting irritated. I tried to calm her in her carrier, but nothing I did seemed to work. In an effort to not be that mom with the screaming kid (although the store was pleasantly empty at 8:30 am) I took her out of the wrap and carried her in my arms. Didn't help. Five aisles later, I decided I was going to have to feed her if I wanted her to be quiet. I slipped her back into the wrap and let her go to town. Surprisingly, it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I was expecting. No crazy looks from strangers, and she just nursed while I shopped.

Today, I'll probably nurse in the car before heading in. I spent the weekend planning the menu and putting together the perfect shopping list, so hopefully it's a quick trip. I can only hope.

Speaking of planning, am I totally crazy for already having my Thanksgiving menu planned out? It started with dinner last night. I was stacking dirty dishes and I really looked how one plate looked on top of a larger plate. Which led me to thinking about how the bowl would look on top of that, and how perfect it would be filled with soup for Thanksgiving dinner. From there, my mind took off and the menu was planned. I was even trying to figure out what I would cook extras of so that I could drop off dinner for the MPs working at the gates. And how each gate is going to get their own pie. Yep. I've officially lost it.