Confession Session vol. 9

You know the drill. This is all in good fun, so don't get your yoga pants in a bind. That is, unless we disagree, in which case you're dead to me. (Look! I'm a poet and...)

Does anyone watch the show Scandal? I don't think I've ever had a guilty pleasure that really was quite so guilty. I'm not caught up on the current season, but I've been watching on Netflix sometimes in the evenings while folding laundry or nursing J, and I really just can't even with that show. I have a serious love/hate relationship with it. It's totally ridiculous and so unbelievable, and all the characters are just too much sometimes with their highly questionable moral ethics. But on the other hand, it's totally ridiculous and unbelievable and that makes it kind of fun. I don't know.

Speaking of shows. Game of Thrones. Jordan and I are both really grouchy about this. OKAY. You people act like you've discovered something. Game of Thrones! It's the new hit happening show of the year. Except did you know the books have been around forever? Like, seriously Jordan read them in middle school so we are talking decades of waiting around for good ole Georgie to publish the next book in the series so we can find out what happens. And here you TV people come and swoop in with your advanced plot lines and your acting like you run the place and ruin everything.

I can count on one hand the number of times I go to Starbucks in a single year. I do like their chai tea lattes, and in the winter I enjoy the occasional peppermint mocha, but I think their drinks are outrageously expensive (nearly $5 for a tall that it takes me less than six minutes to drink!) and the line is always super long and they are always so slow good grief. I also think the online world is has an obsession with Starbucks that I will just never understand. If I had a dollar for every blogger who posts about their daily Venti-sized Starbucks, I would be able to quit my job and sit at home drinking chai while waiting for my groceries to be delivered.

Speaking of getting groceries delivered.... okay, I will just say this. Unless you have had some type of procedure wherein you are physically unable to move from your bed and/or you are blind and your caretaker has gone on vacation for a month and your bread is starting to mold, paying to have your groceries delivered is ridiculous. And I get that loading kids to and from the car and carting (pun intended) everyone through the aisles is an odious task for most, but still. Ridiculous. And I don't care if it's "really not that much extra." Ridiculous.

I said it last year, and I don't think I've changed my mind on the subject: pictures of babies screaming their heads off while being held by Santa are not funny. Raise your hand if you are shocked that a tiny baby is scared when suddenly handed over to a large man with a hat and white beard. And hi, who wants to put up a picture in their house of a complete stranger??? I mean, if they're at Disney World and you take a picture with the Easter Bunny who is wearing a fake head so you can't see the person's actual face that's one thing. Otherwise no.

Speaking of Christmas things I will not be taking part in this year. Elf on the Shelf. Is that even still a thing? No.

I successfully didn't eat any dessert in the month of November except for Thanksgiving (duh), and I gave myself one other cheat because Friendsgiving (obviously). But before you get too impressed, I should tell you that yesterday I had four cookies for lunch.

Speaking of cookies, I ate some for dinner too. Just making up for lost time over here.

p.s. More confessions here.

Potato Feet: Our Favorite Baby Shoes

I received a pair of shoes for J in exchange for this post. However, I purchased a pair myself  before he was born that he has been wearing for the last four months. I loved them so much that I reached out to see if I could collaborate to share about them with you! All opinions are mine.

Before J was born, I came across Potato Feet booties during one of my trips down the Instagram rabbit hole (raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about). He was born over the summer, but once it started being cold outside consistently, they were the only thing I ever wanted to put on his feet, and five months later, that's still true! (You can see him wearing them in this post.)

Every time I go out with J, I get compliments on his shoes and people ask me where I got them. I tell them to check out Potato Feet. If they look warm and cozy, that's because they absolutely are. AND I am here to tell you that these shoes actually stay on his feet. All the praise hands.

I had the hardest time with R because she always kicked her socks off, and I couldn't find anything to keep on her feet that would be warm enough in the winter. I would have loved to have a pair of these two years ago!

J is a little over five months old and about to need a size up from the 0-6 size he has been wearing (these), but that just tells you that these run true to size! I am excited about the two-tone 6-12 booties that Potato Feet was kind enough to send me. If I had a girl, I really love this minted lace bootie or just the baby pink.

Perfect for a baby shower gift or maybe a Christmas present for your little, you guys need to check out Potato Feet. They have loafers, moccasins, and accessories too! J hopes you love them as much as he has! 

p.s. If you check them out on Instagram, they are often having sales, so be sure to follow!

So Much to Give Thanks For

We had such a lovely Thanksgiving weekend, and there is so much to give thanks for! I know that so many people have a hard time over the holidays because being with their family is stressful and not very fun, and I won't pretend like my family doesn't have our share of fights and stressful times, but overall I truly love when all of us are together, and I don't take it for granted. Jordan and I are both so blessed to have parents who have been married for 30+ years and grandparents who were married for 50+! God has been good to our family.

This year we hosted the 7th annual turkey trot in my parents' neighborhood! Seven years ago we held the first race with less than 200 runners, and this year we had just under 1,000 people register and another sellout! We have a 1-mile fun run/walk and a 5k run/walk. We get shirts, medals, timing chips, and it's crazy that this is the 7th year in a row to do it. All the proceeds benefit a local nonprofit, Dare to Serve. 

We all get up extra early on Thanksgiving morning (like 5:30) to get everything ready, and it's all over by 9:30. After that we head back to the house to start preparing for our Thanksgiving meal! My aunt and uncle live just up the street from my parents, and my aunt is the best hostess and always has everything decorated so cute!

It used to be really stressful for my mom and aunt to make an entire Thanksgiving meal for 20+ people, but a few years ago we started delegating items to each person/couple, so now everyone brings something and it's the most delicious potluck.

My grandparents, aunt, and cousin drove down from Illinois, and we had a mini birthday celebration for those who have November birthdays. My mom got these cute turkey cakeballs!

J wore a onesie that said "Gobble til you wobble," and that's exactly what we did. On Friday, Jordan and I drove with R and J to Babe's Chicken House (SO YUMMY IF YOU ARE EVER IN TEXAS EAT THERE) to meet up with a friend of mine who lives in California but was in Dallas visiting family for Thanksgiving. We have been friends since middle school, and it was so fun to see her.

R and J slept pretty much atrociously at my parents' house, and I might have had a bit of a meltdown at one point because I. was. so. tired. I know it's just a phase, but that is of little comfort to me right now. Sleep, where are you? The Risen Motherhood girls were doing an Instagram live video and answering some questions a week or so ago, and one of the questions I saw was someone asking: How do I keep being a nice person when I'm so tired? That made me LOL because YES. Sometimes I feel like I am killing it at life, and sometimes I am definitely not. But I suppose that's what it feels like to be normal! ha.

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. There is really so much to be thankful for, and even though of course we should be thankful all year round, it is nice to have a small break and a chance to really focus on it. 

This time last year, J was just a tiny bean inside me, and we were only just announcing my pregnancy to people. We didn't know who he was, and now he's here and the best addition to our family!

p.s. Read last year's Thanksgiving post here. At the end I link to a video I made from behind the scenes at the turkey trot if you're interested! Also, in that first photo at the top of this post, J is wearing the same hat that R wore last year! 

Happy & Healthy Baby with Evivo Probiotic

I am so thankful that I have been able to breastfeed J without any issues for five whole months now. Believe me, friends, I definitely don't take it for granted. I'm starting back in the office at the beginning of December, and although I will try pumping at work, I have no idea how that's going to go for me. As you know, it didn't work out so well for me the first time. But I am thrilled to have made it this far exclusively nursing, and I have almost 300 ounces in my freezer! Such a great head start for going back to the office full time.

Even though I know J is getting solid nutrition from my milk, I am always interested in anything I can do to help him grow strong and healthy. That's why I was excited to have the chance to learn about Evivo. J is coming off of two rounds of antibiotics for an ear infection, so this couldn't be more timely. I can just tell he's not the same happy and, um... regular baby because of the medicine taking a toll on his insides. I actually remember looking for a probiotic to offer R when she was an infant, and I wish I had known about Evivo! It is a powder that you combine with pumped or expressed breastmilk and feed to the baby every day that helps develop their metabolism and immune system.

Most American babies appear healthy, but many end up with metabolic and autoimmune issues later in life. Research confirms a specific type of good gut bacteria called B. infantis has gone missing in many present-day U.S. babies, causing an imbalance in the gut that isn’t always visible from looking at someone from the outside.

The presence of B. infantis (the good bacteria) reduces potentially harmful bacteria linked to eczema, allergies, diabetes and obesity. Evivo is the only probiotic that’s clinically proven to restore baby’s gut to its natural state. It transforms special carbohydrates found in breastmilk to promote the growth of the B. infantis bacteria.

If you click this link, you can learn more about Evivo, and you can use the following coupon codes for a discount! It isn't even that expensive at all. Just a couple dollars a day, which seems well worth it to get your baby started off toward a healthy life!

Get $10 off an Evivo starter kit of 4 weeks or more with the code BLOG4041
Get $20 off a 12-, 20-, or 24-week starter kit with the code BLOG4042

*Each code is valid for the first 50 uses. They expire on Tuesday, January 30, 2018, or after 50 redemptions.

Book Review: The Gospel-Centered Mom

Hey, guess what? I finished a book! 

It only took me three months, but that's not the point here. 

A few months after J was born, I picked up The Gospel-Centered Mom from Blogging for Books. As I've mentioned before, I've started listening to the Risen Motherhood podcast and been so encouraged and challenged to think about motherhood in light of the Gospel. This book was the perfect companion to what I've already been learning lately. If you are a mom who desires to explore how the Gospel impacts and connects with our parenting, I think you would enjoy this book.

It didn't feel particularly dense as far as difficulty of getting through it. Even though it took me a while, that is only because I'm having a hard time finding concentrated time to read (and not fall right asleep). The author's tone is pretty conversational, and I would consider it an easy read. Sometimes I found the author's tone a bit too conversational and it annoyed me, and some of her personal stories were either hard to relate to or just kind of odd. But her overall message about how the Gospel applies to motherhood was great and gave me some things to think about. 

I just wish they had included a hyphen to make the cover grammatically correct. 

BUT ANYWAY.

My favorite part of the book was the chapter where she talks about a few lessons she learned from reading George Muller's autobiography and the connection she makes to motherhood. I definitely want to go check out Muller's book now! I also loved the last chapter, where she recaps the book in a short paragraph form, because she shares the basic truths of each chapter. There is also a discussion section with questions that a leader could use for a book club or group study.

I marked a couple of places and wanted to share one of my favorite takeaways with you, which kind of sums up the book's subtitle: The freeing truth about what your kids really need. 

"Enough will always be out of reach. We never arrive or quit needing Jesus. What's more, the effort of living up to what the world calls enough is exhausting, impossible, constantly changing. It sets us up for failure over and over again. We cannot be enough for our kids. Instead, we must rely on God to meet our needs 'according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 4:19). When we do this, we're living as an accurate representation of the glorious God who created us and highlighting His glory and power to a watching world." (pg. 197)

As I've done in the past with some of my Blogging for Books books, I would like to mail my copy of The Gospel-Centered Mom to someone who is interested reading it. If you would like to check it out, leave a comment on this post, and I will randomly choose a winner in a couple of days!

I received this book from Blogging for Books, but all opinions are mine.

Matte Finish

After church last week (before lunch and naps, etc., but before the meltdowns), I forced Jordan to go with me and the kids to a field across the street from our neighborhood so I could take some pictures of the three of them. I wanted to bring my tripod and get one of the four of us, but it was windy and cold and also the post-nursery meltdowns were looming, so I just took some of my crew, and (in my opinion) they turned out really lovely.

It's been years since I saved up and bought my DSLR and taught myself how to use Photoshop, and I still don't think I've settled on one type of editing that I really love as my "style." I like to try out different things with different photos, and sometimes I see something online that someone else has done that looks really cool, but when I try it myself I don't like it at all. 

I used more of a matte finish than I normally do in a few photos I took of R, and I'm a little obsessed with them. And to be honest, I'm kind of obsessed with her too.

Sometimes she'll wake up while I'm still sleeping. She'll open her door and come across the hall to our room. She'll climb up in bed and say, "Oh hello," like she's surprised to find me there. "Dada at work," she says. "Mama wake." If she hears J babbling, she'll say, "J wake." Then she climbs down, goes to the side of the bassinet, and reaches in to grab one of his hands. Then she holds out her other hand for me to take. 

And just for a few seconds, the three of us make a chain of hands. Then the morning rush begins, and at some point one of both of them is crying and I'm running around like crazy. But man, those few seconds melt me.

My days have been absolutely flying lately, and J turns 5 months this week. I can barely stand it. Jordan asked me the other day if I realized that I will have spent almost half of his first year with him full time, and to be honest I hadn't thought about it that way before, but, friends, what a blessing. I can honestly say it's been a grand privilege of my life to have been able to spend so much time with both of my babies during their first few months of life.

Would you believe I sat down to write a Confessions or a Currently post, and this is what came out? I had one of those hand-holding moments this morning and just over two weeks left until I go back to the office, so I think I'm feeling sentimental. 

Okay I know I'm feeling sentimental.

Insert a moment of silence for my emotions.

Now then.

As I said, J turns 5 months old in just a few days. He's rolling over (from to back) but still not even sort of sleeping through the night. I suppose you win some, lose some. Jordan and I were both (me moreso for obvious reasons) frustrated and a little bitter about the fact that I'm still only getting 2-3 hours of sleep at a time, but then J had an ear infection plus what we think was RSV and a truly terrible two weeks of sleep, and now that he's back to his regular sleep pattern, I've decided it really isn't so bad. Perspective!

I have a few other things to talk about, but I'll save those for the confession session post I'm working on. At the rate I'm going, it will be finished sometime in 2023. 

I don't remember just wanting to sit around holding R like I do with J, but I honestly can't get enough of his chunky, dimpled self. He's up to 16 pounds, 10 ounces, and I'm officially moving all the 3-6 sizes out and the 6-9 month sizes in. Once you hit adulthood and stay the same size forever, your closet gets boring. I literally have shirts and pants from a decade ago. But babies size up every few months, and it's so fun to get to open up boxes and find an entirely new set of clothes! Although somehow, R is fitting into most of her winter stuff from last year, and it's nice because I don't have to buy her new winter coats or jackets! She's not small for her age, so I don't get how it's happening, but I'm not complaining. 

And speaking of clothes, I mentioned on Instagram that I decided to completely stop eating dessert in November until Thanksgiving. I was in a bad habit of eating a cookie or ice cream or chocolate chips after dinner almost every single night, and so I'm detoxing a bit this month, and it's been actually really nice! I was telling Jordan a few days ago that while I don't have any hard evidence like measurements or numbers on a scale, I feel like I've slimmed down a bit in the post-baby stomach flab area. I can wear pretty much all my pre-pregnancy pants now! Hurrah! I have no idea if it's related to the dessert thing, but I'm telling myself that it is. If nothing else, I've learned that I don't, in fact, need cookies after dinner to make life worth living. But sometimes after a long day I feel like I deserve them, you feel me?

On a semi-related note, this might need to be an entirely separate post of its own, but the short story is that I basically hate my entire closet right now. It's not that things don't fit, but I just feel so uninspired and blah about all the clothes I own. I strongly suspect it's a postpartum thing, because normally I don't care about clothes all that much, but I'm having a hard time finding outfits that I feel really good in. I'm not a fashion blogger AT ALL (don't look so shocked), but if I had a place in my house where I could actually take well-lit, full-length photos of myself, I might actually share some outfits with you guys and ask for help. But I don't, so never mind. I just feel like everyone is cuter than me and I actually want to do something about it, but I don't know what. 

I still say StitchFix is outrageously expensive (and I don't understand how people get box after box like they do!), but I almost think something like that would be fun and necessary for me right now. Collecting donations! 

Okay that's all I've got for now. If you survived my rambling and have arrived safely at the bottom of this post, hello! I hope you have a great rest of the week and a weekend filled with all the fun things and possibly definitely hopefully a nap.

Why I Write about Working Motherhood

Since starting back to full time work after having R, I've written pretty regularly about the topic of working motherhood. And to be honest, over the past two years, sometimes I've wondered if I'm hitting the working mom angle a little too hard. Like, maybe I'm being obnoxious or whiny or making a big deal out of something that really isn't that big of a deal. 

I know this is my blog and I can write about what I want to write about, so it's not really about that but just more that sometimes I wonder if it's all a little too much. I know that not every mom who works feels similarly to me about how hard it is, and sometimes I wonder if maybe it's just hard for me because I'm focusing on it more than I should.

In my seven years of blogging, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had trouble thinking of a blog post idea. Titles and topics just come to me, and oddly enough, the ones that are the most vulnerable or the most controversial are often the easiest to write, the words pouring from my fingertips and basically writing themselves.

I had no idea when I became pregnant with R that I would end up writing posts about being a working mom, but clearly I have a lot to say about it. I consider myself pretty active in the online world, at least as far as blogging goes, and when I was having such a hard time returning to work after my maternity leave, I wanted so badly to find someone who could share my struggles. I wanted to find someone writing publicly about what it was like to be a working mom, what it was like to have their child in daycare, and I either found nothing at all, or I found negativity. We were going to place R in a traditional daycare setting, and everything I found online about what it was like just made me feel like a terrible mother for even considering putting my child somewhere like that.

Blogging for me has always been a creative outlet and also a cheap form of therapy, helping me sort through my own thoughts and emotions about big life events. If I were to sum up my goals in writing about my experience being a working mom, I would say it's these: 1) to encourage other working moms that they aren't alone, 2) to spread positivity about different aspects of using childcare and being a working mom, and 3) to give other people insight into the life of a working mom and ways they can be supportive even if they aren't in our situation.

Because I wish that three years ago, I could have read something encouraging about working motherhood and daycare instead of just horrible stories and layers of guilt, and I want to offer other moms in my situation some hope and positivity.

I will also tell you that I personally feel like God is leading me to write about working motherhood. Maybe that won't totally make sense to you, but I just feel strongly that writing about working motherhood is important and that God has given me a (small) platform from which to share and the ability to put my thoughts into words that others can hopefully connect with.

We've probably all heard the saying about how when you're out in public people aren't really paying as much attention to you as you think they are. And that's true. People are often too wrapped up in their own lives to pay too much attention to things going on around them. However, I also am a firm believer in the fact that you never know who is being influenced by you. You never know who is paying attention or how one small action on your part can affect someone else in a big way.

Occasionally someone will send me an email or come up to me in person and tell me that they shared one of my working mom posts with a friend/sister/cousin of theirs who is a working mom. They tell me that the person was encouraged by what I wrote, and that makes me so happy.

A little over a year ago, a friend of mine mentioned to me that her sister had recently returned to work after her maternity leave and was having a hard time. "I shared your blog with my sister," my friend said, "and she's thankful to have someone to relate to." A couple of weeks later, my friend mentioned that her sister would be in town and attending our church that coming Sunday. 

After the service, Jordan and I were walking through the parking lot back to our car, when I saw my friend and her sister walking a little ways ahead of us. I sprinted after them (naturally), and when I caught up, I immediately pulled my friend's sister into a hug and said, "Hi, fellow working mom." Then I properly introduced myself and explained that her sister had told me about her, and I said I knew how hard it was, but she was doing a great job and it was so nice to meet her.

I walked away and felt completely ridiculous.

If you know me at all, you know that I try to avoid hugs at all costs, and initiating a hug with a complete stranger is unprecedented for me. "She probably thinks I am a total weirdo!" I told Jordan. "What on earth was I thinking?"

Fast forward a year later. I had written a post on working motherhood a few days prior, and I got a message on Instagram from my friend's sister. She thanked me for the blog post and for being so encouraging through my writing. Then she said this:

"The first time I met you, you hugged me because I'm a working mom too, and it meant the world to me! Now when girls come back to work from maternity leave, I just hug them and tell them that it sucks and only us working moms understand."

I couldn't believe it. That awkward stranger hug? The one I had felt like such a dork about? It had been encouraging, and not only to her, but now she is an encouragement to other working moms because of one small thing I did. 

I say that not to pat myself on the back but to tell you how encouraging it is to me to be able to share my stories with you. I do sincerely hope that people can read my posts and be encouraged and informed on this topic in a way that I don't feel I was able to be when I started this journey.

And I also want to let you know that I so very much appreciate all the comments, emails, and messages over the past few years as I've shared about working motherhood. I want you to know that it's been a huge encouragement to me. So thank you.

Find all the posts I've written about working motherhood here.

an outfit that is basically a mullet

This weekend was a busy one! We went to a wedding on Friday for one of Jordan's cousins, and then on Saturday I took J with me to the wedding of a coworker. After being really nice most of the week, Friday was cold and overcast. At first I thought that was a huge bummer because it was an outdoor wedding at a barn, and I knew they weren't going to be able to get any awesome sunset shots or anything like that. But, the setting and the wedding colors and the grey sky are going to make for the most amazing photos. The wedding details were all so cute, and I'm obsessed with it. Jordan and I got married before Pinterest was really a thing (hi, I'm old), and weddings like this kind of make me wish I could do mine over again! So stinking cute.

Plus, hello man crush every day. I am trying to sort through J's clothes and see what we have in the next size up since baby sizes are so weird and he can randomly still fit into some 0-3 and some 6-9 and why can't all the stores just use the same sizing guidelines for the love of sewing. Anyway, I happened to find a green, button-down, collared onesie and a vest, and I basically couldn't handle the amount of hearts that exploded from my eyes. We did take a family shot also that was pretty good, but since I might end up using it for our Christmas card, I want to keep it under wraps for the time being. Suspense!

I have three loads of clean laundry to fold and could only find one pair of pants for J and they have a turtle on the butt, so his outfit is basically a mullet: business up front and part-ay in the back. R had a cute black dress on, but since it was kind of chilly outside she never took off her bright pink coat, so with her purple tights and pink shoes, she looked a bit like a character from Willy Wonka. 

On the somewhat literal bright side, since it was so gray outside and everyone was wearing blues and maroon, she was so easy to spot running around. That girl walked every.where. and Jordan and I took turns following her around while J fell sound asleep on the shoulder of one of Jordan's uncles. 

After skipping her nap on Friday (legit would not lay down or do quiet time of any sort), she ran and ran around the wedding until well after her bedtime. I was following behind her, when she suddenly took off sprinting across the field shouting something I couldn't quite understand. I caught up to her and made her stop and asked her where she was going. 

"I go home," she said. "I go home."

"Are you tired?" I asked her.

"Yes."

ABOUT TIME.

So we got Jordan and J (who had just woken up and gotten scared when he realized he was sleeping on a large stranger with a red beard and a bald head), said our goodbyes, and left. Because when the toddler tells you she's ready to go home and go to sleep, you do what she says.

Pumpkins and Other Things

Last night we went to a Protestant Reformation party. It's okay to be jealous. Hashtag my friends are cooler than your friends. I made homemade Luther bread from a recipe my friend found online, and it actually wasn't terrible and I ate the leftovers for breakfast this morning.

We were supposed to dress up, and Jordan and I wanted to go as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his finance Maria, but in true form we thought nothing about costumes until four hours before the party. I really want to be one of those people who is creative and fun for costume parties (and Halloween), but I'm just not. Jordan went to five stores looking for small wire-rimmed glasses, but since stores like to, you know, carry things that people in 2017 will actually buy, I told him not to expect much. In the end I just printed their faces out, and we carried their heads taped to straws. We wore black and white because photos from back then are usually in black and white. Effort.

Yes, I have a picture. You're welcome to pin it for later.

It's so fun seeing all the Halloween costumes people posted on social media. I normally don't care too much for Halloween or (gasp!) October (minus the weather because hiiiiiii), but this year I was totally into it. The pumpkins of all shapes, colors, sizes, and textures. The trunk-or-treating and the fall festivals. Plus seeing R in a busy bee costume and J as a cuddly lion was kind of the best thing ever. I bought both costumes at a consignment sale for $14 each, and we one hundred percent got our money's worth since we wore them multiple times!

I know November and December are magical months, but I was actually loving October this year and I'm sad to see it go. Plus November is my last month of working from home. The last four months have absolutely flown by.

This past weekend I took R and J to Texas to visit my parents. It was my second road trip with just the two of them by myself, and the drive there wasn't awesome, but we survived. It took a full hour longer than the usual three hours due to a diaper change, a nursing session, and a certain toddler who refused to keep her seatbelt buckled and kept undoing the chest strap and then getting her arms out and leaning forward. I had to stop five times to get her back in her seatbelt. Threats mean nothing because obviously while I'm driving I can't actually do anything to enforce my stern reprimands.

But.
We had such a lovely weekend! On Saturday we visited the pumpkin display at the Dallas Arboretum, which was a Wizard of Oz theme. We got there at 11 and stayed until 3:00! It was just gorgeous weather and both kids did pretty well. We had a stroller, but I ended up carrying J in the Ergo for the last hour or so.

Then on Sunday we went to my brother and sister-in-law's church in Fort Worth, where they were doing a trunk-or-treat! The trunks were legit, and most people were giving away full-size candy bars! It was gorgeous weather, so we stayed way past bedtime and I had a blast with my busy bee and little lion cub. Plus two of the cars were giving out books. Books! Best Halloween candy ever.

Our church had a fall festival on Tuesday for Halloween, but we ended up just staying at the Reformation Party (IT'S NOT NERDY IT'S COOL) and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. R had such a blast. which was unexpected but adorable. She would stand at the door holding the bowl of candy and saying, "Here go, evbody." I'm a huge fan of this age where she's old enough to get excited about holidays but still too young to actually care about the mechanics of candy or gifts.

I think that's about all I've got for the moment. Thanks for checking in even though I'm a super sporadic blogger right now. I hope you had a lovely October, and happy November!