Babies Don't Keep...

Each night as I get in the shower, I start to pray... I thank God for my precious baby girl, my wonderful Husband, and our truly blessed life, and yet somehow each night, my mind wanders to the lists of things that I "need" to accomplish the next day, or didn't accomplish today, who I need to call, who I've failed to see lately, what I haven't finished, or started or done well enough...

I need to work on Hannah's baby book, her photo book, call, visit or have lunch with several people since it's been months, work on all the unfinished crafting and sewing projects, start the Christmas gifts, Christmas cards, blog about recipes, or blog in general, keep up with the house work, cooking, baking, my bible study, my emails, thank you notes, weekly dinner menus, bills, errands... It goes on and on, and then it starts to feel so very overwhelming.

While I was driving home from an impromtu few hours of "Mommy Time" that involved a trip to Starbucks and Anthropologie, (LOVE my dear Husband) I started to realize how big and out of control this self-imposed fear of not getting it all done really is! Why do I feel like I need to get all the things that I, myself, put on the "to-do" list in the first place. Talk about pressure. It's pretty darn exhausting y'all.... and it needs to stop.

I was reading THIS post from Ashley Ann, and it really reaffirmed for me that my most important item on my "to-do" list is to be a GOOD MOM. To hold my sweet baby girl and love on her and enjoy her while she's still tiny. I've been loving this poem for a while now, and I thought I'd share it...

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.


Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.


Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo


The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.


The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

                                       -Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

So I'm going to work really hard in the next few weeks, with God's help of course, to put down all the things I need to do and just enjoy my sweet girl. Life's just too short to make myself miserable trying to do it all, and missing the good stuff in the mean time. Can I get an "Amen" from all you Mamas out there?

Of course, I can't leave without showing y'all some photos of my "Chickie" on her first Halloween!

Picture Project Weeks 13-16 and an Update!

My Lovebug is growing up so very fast! You never really believe people when they tell you that the first year will fly by, until you look over at your baby and she's rolled off her play mat and is inching across the carpet. Crazy! She is just the sweetest little thing! Still rockin' her 0-3 month clothes at 18 Weeks (over 4 months) She's teething all the time and will put anything and everything into her mouth to chew on. She sleeps soo much better now that she rolls all around her crib and can get all comfy. She'll pull herself into a sitting position when she's at a bit of an incline, and I swear this child wants to get up and walk across the room! She definitely jumped out of her bumbo today... seriously. She yells at her toys when they don't do what she wants them to do, and she keeps Bri and I laughing all the time... especially when she giggles at something. I'm so very very in love with my baby girl... I love to hold her during her afternoon nap and cuddle. I just don't want to miss a second of this sweet, sweet time! Here's the latest pics...

Pumpkin-y Deliciousness!

I don't know about y'all, but I am just so stinkin' excited about fall this year! Probably because I'm back home home in the midwest and the leaves are turning gorgeous colors, the weather's cooling off, and we're headed to the Pumpkin Patch this weekend and then to a small town to celebrate Halloween the weekend after that! Have I mentioned I LOVE Fall? Well I do. Last Sunday, Bri was cuddling with my sweet baby on the couch and I had a hankerin' for baking something pumpkin-y and delicous! While perusing the web, I came accross a recipe for Pumpkin Bread with Streusel Topping and Maple Glaze over at Tasty Kitchen. My mouth was watering. I decided to simplify the recipe by using my Great-Grandma's pumpkin bread recipe, found HERE, modifying it by adding Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of cinnamon, and then adding a Pecan Streusel Recipe by modifying a few I found online. Thus, this doosy of a recipe was born...

Here's what you'll need...

Pumpkin Spice Bread with Pecan Streusel Topping                                                                                                                           Your's Truly

Batter:

4 eggs

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 Tsp baking soda
3/4 cup canola oil
2 Tsp cinnamon (This time I used Pumpkin Pie Spice)
15oz pumpkin
Streusel:
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup roughly chopped pecans
1/3 Tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp cold butter
Pinch of salt

Grab a small bowl and beat your eggs. Then add sugar and oil and mix well.
Mix the dry ingredients and add to previous mixture. Add pumpkin, mixing well.
Pour batter into greased and floured aluminum pans. (I used 2 medium non-stick pans)
Bake the batter at 375 for about 30 minutes...

Meanwhile beat together all the ingredients for the streusel until pea-sized crumbs appear.
Add over the bread after the 30 minutes and then bake for an additional 15 min or so until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Now grab a hot cup of coffee, or a Pumpkin Spice Latte (YUM!) and enjoy!

Happy Fall!

Picture Project: weeks 9-12!

Our Sweet Lovebug is doing great! She talks all the time now... in her own little language. She loves to grab her toys and puts everything in her mouth now! She's still such a tiny little thing. At 15 Weeks, we tried to switch her up to size 1 diapers from the newborn ones.... yeah, she's swimming in them. When I'm out in public with her, people often mistake her for a baby whos a few weeks old, not over 3 months. She has great neck control, and we got her a Bumbo to sit in now! She's working on rolling over and likes to sleep on her side now (of her own free will.) She's been eating every three hours for the past 2 months, and nurses like a champ! It's so nice that she'll take a bottle if need be, but she definitely prefers the other... making life so much easier for Mommy! She's a very cuddly baby and doesn't like to be left alone. She giggles when you kiss her feet, and smiles all the time! We love her so very much and are enjoying every minute of this precious time with our little girl!

Here are her 9-12 week pictures!

Getting this SAHM organized!

A while back, (Sorry about the total lack of blogging from this lady!) I posted a bit of encouragement HERE. Even with a pretty easy baby, there are days where I feel like I get NOTHING done. Between changing my clothes that have been spit-up on, trying to keep up with laundry, cleaning, cooking, feeding lovebug, and having somewhat of a social life, it was starting to feel overwhelming. Now, I totally understand that I am VERY blessed to stay home with my beautiful little girl everyday... so this in no way negates the fact that I am one HAPPY Mama! I just need a little help getting back on track and having some order in this house.

I had seen a few ideas on Pinterest for Household Management Binders... even though I am a total orgainization freak, I wasn't sure I wanted to go that far.  So instead of a whole binder, I thought I'd start with a daily/weekly schedule to keep me on task and to break up the menial tasks that can pile up and feel like TOO much. I found a template online and personalized it according to what works around here. I've already tweaked it according to what worked the first few weeks.

The template is from moneysavingmom.com

It may seem like some of the things I put on there are very menial, but with a newborn, sometimes if I don't remind myself to do things, they just don't happen. It also feels so much less overwhelming to break it all up. There are a lot more daily outings that I haven't added to the daily schedule, but I feel like that leaves room for flexibility. Money-saving Mom is a wonderful resource as well as THIS one.

So how are y'all staying organized? How to you keep your household running smoothly? Until I can get a few more hours of blog-post writing, I'll be doing this...

Have a great weekend!

Picture Project: Weeks 4-8!

Our little lovebug just loves to wiggle... making her weekly picture a bit difficult to get without a very blurry hand or foot! We just love her sweet little face and those cheeks are finally filling out! She had her 2 month appointment yesterday... she's 9 weeks and weighs 9lbs! She smiles and laughs and talks to us now! If she gets any cuter... I may never get anything done (which is fine by me for a little while.) Here's her most recent pictures...

Have a great weekend y'all! 

Finding Encouragement...

Just stopping in to tell y'all that we're doing okay! Lovebug is 9 weeks old.... boy time flies! We're getting plenty of rest... up to 8 hours most nights! She's really a dream baby. So sweet and happy. Her little smiles melt my heart! I was really encouraged by two blog posts recently and thought I'd share. They definitely brightened my day and helped me to realize that soon, very soon I'll be feeling a little more like myself and that things will start to come together. Maybe I'll even have a few weekly posts on the ol' blog! For now, I'm rereading THIS post from AllisonO and reminding myself of this...

Thank you Julie! (From Joy's Hope)