wednesday check-in

Life has been up and down lately, which I suppose is how most people's lives are! The sun was shining brightly today, and I turned off the heat in the car while I ran errands, and even rolled down the windows to let some fresh air wash over me. As of this week, we have a very sweet babysitter named Jenni to watch the girls each Wednesday for a few hours. I was getting in over my head and told Brett I needed help, and he was so supportive and on-board with the idea, and thankfully we found lovely Jenni who goes to our church. Today I went shopping for clothes, picked up a couple things for Grace at Babies R Us, and got some groceries at Trader Joe's and Lakewinds. No sooner than Jenni left did the cat puke in three places on the carpet downstairs and Grace had a blowout and peed on herself as I was cleaning her up after the blowout. I just had to laugh. My life is so glamorous!

I tried on some clothes while shopping in Maple Grove, and it didn't go so well. I am still very much down on body image ever since becoming pregnant last year. Ugh. I hate this. And I hate that my injured toes are still hurting so I can't exercise the way I want to yet. I need clothes, but I don't want to spend money on them if I'm going to be losing pregnancy weight. It took me about 9 months to lose the weight after having Stella. It's a lot more slow-going this time as I recover from the foot injury and it's the dead of winter whereas I had Stella in June and got to get out and take walks (not to mention the winter of 2011 pretty much didn't happen, so I was able to go on walks in January and February and it was in the 60s!) I'm trying to give myself grace, but I'm awful at it.

Grace may be teething lately - she's drooling like crazy, fussy, still waking up a couple times per night, and gnawing on her hands and fingers. I try not to compare her to her older sister who was sleeping through the night by this time. She is a really good baby overall, but I really miss getting quality sleep. Being sleep-deprived really makes you view things in a more negative light.

Last Saturday night my BSF group got together at a restaurant. We had a great turnout, and it was just so fun to eat good food and spend time with other women and laugh and talk.

This Saturday I'm hosting an Usborne books party at my house for my friend Audra who is a consultant for Usborne. I hope a lot of women show up. I feel a little self-conscious of the house not being more decorated or put together since we moved last July, but it is what it is! We still don't have any artwork hung up yet. The rooms just look unfinished and bare. It bothers me, but it's hard to get anything done in the home improvement and decoration department as Brett works so much, and by the time the weekend arrives, we are tired and are playing catchup from the week.

In spite of the usual monotonous/domestic challenges of life, things are going well. I'm looking forward to Spring. I feel motivated to lose weight and eat healthy. I love my girls and being with them. I love my husband and wish we had more time together. I love my family. I love my BSF friends. I love my church. I love that I have help with watching the girls so I can get things done without having to bundle up the girls and bring them with me. I love that I have lots of friends who are pregnant, especially this one. My cousin Bethany is due at the end of the month; another friend is due April 1st. God is truly so good.

I love her dress, but I am getting so tired of her wanting to wear it every single day.

Sweet Kelli and me at the BSF outing. The lighting wasn't very great. I really wish I had taken more pictures, though!

She fell asleep cuddling with Susie on Sunday

"What did you say?"

Haircut on Monday!

This is probably why this swing doesn't work well...