12-Minute Memoir: Summer as a Working Mom

Summer is officially in full swing, and in Oklahoma that means 90+ temps and lots of sweating. Also my air conditioning went out in my car yesterday. It’s the most wonderful time of year! 

I wanted to write a shoutout post for my fellow working moms, specifically those of us who work “traditional” hours and aren’t teachers. This post is for you, friend. I can offer nothing more than solidarity and a hug across the computer screen.

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I’ve never cared that much about not having the summer off until I had kids, and I’m going to be honest: it’s taking a lot of mental effort on my part to not get majorly bummed out when I see people posting about all the fun times they are having with their kids at the pool and the zoo and the splash pads. First-world problems? YES. But nevertheless it's the truth.

J's 1st Birthday Party

In the eight years I've been blogging, I don't think I've been as bad of a blog writer (or reader!) as I have been for the past month. The end of May and June so far have been absolutely nuts and so full of friends and family, and I love it.

Over the weekend we hosted family for J's first birthday party! So far I haven't gone huge on either of R's birthday parties, and we didn't for J either. Just family and no themes. Maybe I will get more into themed parties once the kids start actually caring about things, but for now I've stuck with just a color theme, which has worked really well. Although I love seeing themed parties other people do!

I wouldn't exactly say J's birthday snuck up on me... maybe more that I was in denial. We set a party date back in April, and I had invitations printed out from Shutterfly and mailed a long time ago, but that was as far as I got until a week before the party. R's first birthday was pink & gold, and for J's I went with blue as the "theme" to center my crafting around. 

Happy Birthday, J

For the last few weeks everyone as been asking me, "How you do you feel about J turning one?" For some reason it's been absolutely impossible to put into words. It feels like surely it can't have been a YEAR since he joined our family. And yet here we are, and he's more toddler than baby.

Everyone--literally everyone--who sees him comments on how smiley and sweet he is. He's super chill (unless you're taking too long bringing him food), and still so so snuggly and loves me the most (it's the truth!). 

I am beyond grateful and thankful he's here and that we are his parents. It's just such a joy.

Happy birthday, sweet J! We love you! More 1st birthday party pics and stories to come soon(ish) :)

p.s. If you've never read it, J's birth story: part 1 / part 2

Stitch Fix #3

Last week I received my third Stitch Fix box, and it was another great one! All the pieces were completely my style, although I ended up only keeping two things. I am so far 3 for 3 with great boxes! I also appreciated the prices of the items. Everything minus the maxi dress at the bottom was $38 or under!

Just a reminder you can try out your first box for free using my referral code. You will only pay for any clothes you keep, and you can cancel after that if you don't like it!

I'm going to show you what I got, but first a disclaimer. I took these pictures quickly in the morning before I got kids up. It's dark in our bedroom, and R colored with crayon all over the bottom of my mirror. Fashion blogger, I am not. I also need to clean more. 

Now, then. Here's what I got in my box!

Seaside Mix Material Knit Top // August Mist

May 2018 in Photos and Short Stories

First things first. It has come to my attention that blogger comments are acting up, and I missed email notifications from most of the comments on my previous post! If you commented and I never responded, I wasn't ignoring you. I'm actually glad to have a legitimate reason for noticing a drop in comments and wondering if everyone banded together and decided to abandon the blog. Turns out it's not me, it's blogger.

That said, I would understand if you did decide to jump ship, seeing as how I can't get my act together lately to write a post. But it's not for lack of things going on. In fact, I'm having the opposite problem and have too many things. This is only the beginning. From two weekends ago through the end of June, we have something scheduled every weekend, and to top it off, the next two weeks I'm taking R to swim lessons at the community pool in the evenings after I get off work. AND I picked now to try and start waking up early to hit the gym for a workout and shower before getting the kids up for our morning rush to daycare/work.

So basically what I'm saying is it was nice knowing you, goodbye.

Also, due to the fact that I keep adding things to the kitchen wall calendar, if you happen to stop by the house, please don't judge the Amazon jungle that has become my front landscaping. Somehow weeding is on a constant rotation to the back of my list every single day and never gets done. It's straight up thick grass and dandelions at this point, and I'm contemplating just setting fire to the entire area if it weren't already 100 degrees outside and consequently a major fire hazard.

Before my list of things to recap on the blog gets any longer, I thought I would do a quick run-down of events/happenings for you! If for nothing else than to get some of these photos to see the light of day and so I can remember what May 2018 looked like for us.