As of lately...

 

 Babies change everything. We know that. Everyone says it. But you don't really understand it until it's your reality. When I thought about blogging again, I tried to think of something creative and deep to share. Then I realized that my life right is my kids. So an update on how they're growing and learning is really a journal entry about how I'm growing and learning, too, right? Cue obligatory pictures and updates.

 Cana Ruth

 Cana weighed in at a healthy 17 lbs this morning at her six month checkup. She's moving right along as expected in growth & milestones and screamed when she got her vaccinations (some of you may have cringed). Already, her personality differs so much from her brother, who, I remember at his appointments loved to charm and show off his early conquests of baby milestones. Cana, however, in true female fashion, suspiciously eyed the nurses and doctors as they came to poke and prod. Call it female intuition, but she never seemed to keen on any of them. Shots came, her glares turned into "yelling" spits when any of them came into sight and she held fast my shoulder until we left the office. Nonetheless, she's a pleasant baby who has turned out to be a great sleeper, eater, roller, teether, sitter, etc.

   

 Isaac

 Isaac is recently potty trained! I literally think about how grateful I am for this milestone every. single. day. His personality feeds off accomplishment and the approval of his daddy, and when he decided he was ready...it just happened. Now I officially admit he's a "big kid" and we see it more every day in his capability to learn new things, crave independence, and put Godly character to the test. I've also never experienced a longer winter season than I have with a three year old boy. Good grief. Influenced or not, Isaac has also shown a strong interest in any sort of sport. This, I'm afraid, I cannot be responsible for. One day, we're playing basketball in the house, and the next we've donned every piece of clothing with a soccer ball, kicking a ball around the house, and asking when he can play on the big field. He knows Tim's his favorite team's names, checks out Cincinnati Reds books from the library, and plays sports games on the Wii. I've enrolled him in gymnastics preschool coordination class (let's be real) gymnastics in town, and he loves being active, focused, and challenged. Now if I would've only thought of that, oh, four months ago. This summer holds so much for him as far as exploring our woods with a little bit more freedom, imaginative play with Cana, possibly helping us garden, and more focused schooling activities. Dare I call it homeschool? (That's another post, Court.)  

 Our babies are growing before our eyes, and trying to capture it all is overwhelming. In the meantime, we anxiously wait for spring and kick soccer balls in the living room until our next bike ride.

2012 in a nutshell

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spring fever

Yes, I realize it's February. Only Groundhog Day, actually. And apparently that clever little groundhog thinks we'll have six more weeks of winter. Ugh. So not what I wanted to hear.

I'm itching for warmer weather and springtime turning into summer. I always considered myself a winter lover with the snow, cozy fires, holiday, etc. And then I had a toddler. Now winter = cabin fever, bundling up, running out of cheap/free activities to do around town and LOTS more energy (uh, him not me).

Now that we have our own place, Tim and I are both excited about making the outdoors our own. I have plans for a porch swing on the front of our cape cod and painting the shutters dark grey and the front door a playful colonial yellow (something on houses I've always envied).

Well, that's just the front. One of the big perks of this house was that it was already landscaped. So nice. Just making it our own personal style is the ticket for getting us to do any sort of "home project".

Of course, Tim is loving the idea of a sweet deck out back, complete with grill and outdoor seating. We L-O-V-E grilling. I actually cook so much more in the summer because I can send Tim outside with a few things and the fresh produce is endless.

A built in fire pit is definitely going to happen. Who doesn't love a good fire in the summer while kids run around and get dirty catching fireflies?

The biggest project (besides the deck of course, which I plan on having very little to do with:)) would be a vegetable garden. Since we've rented for so long, the idea of investing time and money into a garden was silly. I tried my hand at a few container herbs here and there, but we've always loved the idea of our own garden. Tim's not so much a huge veggie lover, but I definitely am - especially home grown. We get all starry-eyed thinking of our family working together in the garden and our kids learning the value of working with your hands. I'm sure it'll turn out that perfectly. :)

Until then, we know we're going to join the local CSA for the months of April & May when you wouldn't be getting too much out of your own plot anyway. Lots of greens & root vegetables. Yum. I enjoy the surprise of different produce each week and having to figure out how to prepare it. Last time we did this, we got some pretty interesting things, tryed lots of new veggies and learned a lot!

I'm always good at making lists and then just looking at them. Hopefully, we'll get some gumption and actually get around to all of our big plans. But right now, it's February. Hm.

Pinterest balance

I probably spend more time pinning ideas on Pinterest than I should. It's a great resource for inspiration and tutorials. The problem is: I've maybe done less than a handful of the projects I've marked.

You're probably thinking, "Court, what's the problem? You don't work, you have a new house, blank walls, a creative mind, and Pinterest as your resource! Get going already!"

Those are exactly the problems. Along with knowing I'm one of the most indecisive minds I know of. And the notion that now that we own our home, I have to decorate everything like I've always wanted to. That puts a lot of pressure on me.

In my own mind, of course.

I'm easily overwhelmed.

I want every space to be perfect.

I want to be incredibly, cutely organized.

My taste and style changes almost annually.

*sigh*

You know it's bad when my DH is kindly suggesting, "I'm ready for this house to finally get put together."

I know, I know! Meeeeee too.






I'm having a brain fart.







I need to take it one week at a time, maybe one project/improvement a week. That's going to require planning, doing, budgeting, and deciding. Oy.

We're also in transition in this house since we decided to shuffle some bedrooms for the new baby coming in August *eeee!:)* and that has led to closet purging, reorganizing, possible paint color changes, and really wanting to give attention to our master bedroom. We have a pretty small living space in the main part of the house, so some innovative toy storage is underway as well.


In reality, it's a productive day for me if I a)keep Isaac entertained/happy/learning, b)my family fed with healthy meals, c) laundry, dishes & regular household chores maintained, and d)my sanity with keeping up with Bible studies, blogs, Zumba classes, and just SLEEP.


Now my conscience kicks me in the rear and says, "What about all this simple living mumbo jumbo you preach about?"

You're right. It matters no more that my house is perfectly decorated, organized, or updated. I shouldn't worry about the way the house looks as long as its walls are filled with laughing people and great food instead of professionally framed photos.

Balance.


I've got to find a way to balance my creative energy and desire for aesthetically pleasing spaces with the true beauty of a home: how its inhabitants use it.

December in Our Home

Isaac turned 2! We celebrated with a baseball party and Mexican food (duh).
Made some fun keepsake ornaments with the bean's profile & super easy Scrabble ornaments for anyone I could think of.
Ugly sweater Christmas party with the youth group. I'm usually so proud of my husband. *sigh*
Craig & Lindsay came to visit.
Flew to Virginia for Christmas with my family.
Took lots of goofy pictures of a goofy kid making goofy pictures. I do NOT know where he gets that.

November In Our Home

Clif notes: We moved into our OWN home, Tim turned 29, we were out of town for 3/4 weekends of the month, Ministers & Wives retreat, Thanksgiving in TN with family, where I ran my first 5K. All of this and somehow we managed to "flip" a bathroom.

Dangit, Katie.

Alright, I didn't feel so bad about being so behind on blogging since I'd at least blogged in the last few months. But, like Katie, I've had a few gentle nudges to keep blogging and keep my long distance family up to date with more intimate moments besides, "Well, let's see what else is new..." phone conversations. In true orderly fashion, I'm going to have to update you on November-December but that will be quick seeing as I don't really remember much!

Funny things, blogs are, because they tend to weigh more heavily on the writers themselves when they're not updated regularly. Like we've made some sort of virtual commitment to journaling our life and sharing with others. It's half and half with me. I write to appease my readers - let's be honest, my mother and sisters - but I trudge along knowing that I would regret not capturing these days with pictures and thoughts.

So Katie, thanks for getting the ball rolling and back into blogland. I also love reading your posts and you are an encouragement to me - even miles away and with a fairly fresh friendship! (Say that three times fast.)

October In Our Home

Wow, I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! I look forward to this season every year with the anticipation of the seasons changing and upcoming holidays. This year, I realized that Tim and I have never put up a Christmas tree in the same place twice since we've been married. Phew, am I tired of moving!

October was a fun month for us, full of firsts. It was absolutely beautiful, weather wise, here in central Indiana. It seems like the leaves just took their sweet time changing colors and held on for dear life, giving us a good month to enjoy them.

I'm a sucker for seasonal traditions and the person who is caught saying, "We HAVE to go pick pumpkins-we do every year!". We didn't exactly pick pumpkins this year...the traditional way, at least. We didn't make it to the pumpkin patch before it closed for the day so we took Isaac to the "patch" at Home Depot. He loved it just the same, and whatdya know-cheaper pumpkins. We did, however, make it to the apple orchard. I can't believe I've never picked apples before! (Mom? At least I don't remember?) The day we went, it was actually too warm to really enjoy it, but the cider slushies were a huge hit. Isaac picked a ton of apples, but he had a blast pulling the wagon and having Aunt Sarah lift him way into the middle of the trees.

Look at how much he's grown in a year! In the first picture, he's really just propped up against the big wooden apple and I jumped away quick enough for the picture.

Next up was the big wedding day for Tim's brother. I was excited about a fall wedding (I've secretly always wished we'd gotten married then) and our whole family was very involved. Sarah and I *successfully* baked, iced, transported, and displayed all 200 cupcakes for the wedding - go us! For real, though. It was no small task. Tim and I were both in the wedding party and Isaac was the ring bearer. Well, at least he was acting the part. He made it down the aisle carried by Tim (not the original plan) and then screamed as my mom took him off the stage for the duration of the wedding (also not the original plan). Oops. He cheesed it up big time for pictures and danced like a fool at the reception, so I guess nobody has any proof that he was a mess during the actual ceremony. Well, except the videographer. My parents flew out for a long weekend for the wedding, which was so nice. They were a huge help with Isaac and it was fun for Tim and I to have both our families to celebrate a great wedding.

After things calmed down a bit (and we finally finished the leftover cupcakes), I grabbed a borrowed chicken costume from a friend and took Isaac trick-or-treating while Tim was in bed with the flu that I'd had a few days before. Isaac caught on really quickly and he even had to be reminded that we don't need to say "trick or treat" whenever we want something. He was hilarious dressed as a chicken (as I would think most people are) and it was actually the first time I'd been trick-or-treating since I was probably his age.

That same day, we closed on our first home.

Let me repeat that.

*Ahem*

After almost 4 years of renting 5 different houses, we finally bought a house. The one we'd always wanted.

And we are SO. EXCITED.

Prepare for more "in progress" pictures and posts to come *hopefully*. We're already moved in and starting to slowly chip away at our loooooong list of things we'd like to do to the house. It has great bones and no major things that have to be overhauled, so we're just basically making it to our liking.

Ya know, the fun stuff.