currently link up | hello march!

Currently is a weekly link-up hosted by the smokin' hot super mom ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am super happy to be co-hosting the series with her. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. This week, around these parts, we have been...

Visiting about the best and worst parts of our day. Every night at Otto's bedtime we cuddle and talk about our favorite and least favorite things that happened that day. I love to hear about his golden moments at school, usually playing pirates or superheroes (but sometimes they play "rat face dogs" o_O? ) with this friends. His favorite is often just whatever he had for dinner or whatever game we played that night, which makes me smile. His least favorite tends to be some moment when one of his playmates shoved him, knocked him down, declared they were no longer best friends, or otherwise did him a disservice (those preschool kids are drama)... My favorite is usually the time we spend laying there talking about our days.

Working a lot a lot. I've been at my new job for a month now and am still getting a feel for the place, the people, and the role. It's stressful and I feel ungrounded.

Creating sleep. That is a fancy way of saying I've been passing out with Otto during his 7pm bedtime all week. I think the past month with its new job-ness and everyone in the family contracting the plague-ness finally caught up with me. I do still wake up about 3 times a night with Loretta and then up for the day between 4 and 5 am every day so it's not quite as indulgent as it sounds, but still, it's been a lot of sleeping this week.

Loving my family but for the love, would they just come together for a cute sibling shot every ONCE IN A WHILE? Oh, the answer to that is, "Ummmm, no."

Missing my best friend. We are supposed to book club (by phone) once a week but one of us always passes out asleep before our scheduled times. We are making slow progress through the book but I still love that we have an "excuse" to talk regularly. She has a 5 month old and a 5 year old... so between us it's difficult to find a non-exhausted moment but we are trying.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes:

eating, drinking, listening, reading, thinking

ready for spring and things

image via Made4uByMagic Etsy shop

How ready are we for Spring (plus loads of sunshine and minus the ever-present rain) around this house? We are all stir crazy with the inside but a few choice days lately have already allowed us to take an after-dinner walk around the block or spend some minutes in the front yard chalk drawing or kicking the soccer ball. Those outside moments are like a huge breath of fresh air. A restart! Being outside is so amazing. It's so funny how much it can improve your outlook and mood.

So... I am waiting a few more weeks and then we'll start our first real garden this Spring. The first one that has any hopes of turning out edibles, anyways. In Tucson our gardens withered and died again and again. I am looking forward to gardening in a place where it isn't an uphill battle. So we'll see how that goes. Because blueberries! I love the idea of my kids running around their backyard, perfectly at home being muddy and dirty, playing in the sprinkler, and picking fruits and veggies right from the garden (then me efficiently rinsing them off because squirrels have rabies) and gobbling berries and rhubarb and snap peas and carrots and whatever it is, fresh as you please, farm kids-style. Love it. If that is my fantasy then I think I deserve to get my wish, don't you?

ps. Look at this adorable collage Otto's Nana put together. Bask in the radness!

baby juggernaut

This girl of mine... it's not that I don't think every child is an amazing force of nature because I do. But this girl, well, she takes my breath away every day, every minute. I find myself exhausted, nerves fried, completely overwhelmed, and at the same time just in awe, just delighted, just knowing we will have our hands full with this one. This epic daughter.

This girl who squeals in delight and who laughs loud and heartily, guffaws really, and flashes the most delicious gap between her two front teeth when she does.

This girl who yells, always. A loud yell for yes and a loud yell for no. Yell just means, "I feel strongly about this!" which she feels about just about everything.

This girl who stands and, instead of taking one tentative, gentle test step, throws herself forward taking three or four wild, ungrounded steps before slamming to the ground again and again. Scream, cry, laugh, up again, always moving forward, towards the action.

This girl who purrs when I pet her face with feathery fingers. Who closes her eyes and smiles and nestles close.

This girl who has no patience for teething. Who is so physical and forceful and so grits and grinds her teeth through a runny nose. Grunts and squirms and puts so much static energy into fighting the discomfort. Can only rest and relax on mommy's weary chest. And so we sleep on the sofa. Or one of us does. The other one watches Project Runway and kisses a soft, warm head and realizes the tiny warm body resting fitfully on her chest is quite big these days and won't be able to sleep on a chest comfortably for much longer. Sleep becomes a welcome sacrifice to these midnight moments where I am needed and so I am there and so she rests, nearly peacefully, building up the energy for another powerful day.

currently link up | cut yourself some slack ♥

"You can do anything, but not everything." image via Pinterest.

The theme of this week's currently, at least over here on my keyboard, is cutting yourself some slack. I came home in tears last night, frustrated with every hurdle in my life and Rob said to me (paraphrased), "you are awesome, you are doing the best you can, you expect too much of yourself, cut yourself some slack." And then I promptly got mad at him, ha! But then after simmering down I appreciated his words, because it's true. We are our own worst critics. We suck to ourselves! Every one of us needs to take a moment to pat our back for all the things we're doing "ok" instead of criticizing ourselves for not being voted Rock Star of the Planet... maybe on the day all the laundry gets done my kids don't get to do a three-hour craft project while dressed like Gwen Stefani's kids and all of that during a nature hike. OH WELL. As long as they grow up to be decent, thoughtful people and as long as they love me (yes, Just Bieber ruined that line for me too) I am stoked on life.

Currently is a weekly link-up hosted by the sweet Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am super happy to be co-hosting the series with her. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. This week, around these parts, we have been...

Taking a break from pumping. A forever break. No wonder my emotions are boiling over! I am transitioning Loretta (who will be one in 2 weeks) to organic whole milk while at the sitter's. She is still free to nurse away, night and day, when I'm around but I needed that extra hour back in my day so when the last of my pumping bags ran out, that was that. As you can imagine, my feelings are mixed and muddied. Milestones of babies turning into toddlers are always bittersweet.

Giving pesto a chance. One of our meal plan ideas this week was "pasta with meatballs" this was Otto's suggestion. But poor Otto has eczema that tomato-based sauces really makes angry. When we were at the market I saw a section of locally-made organic sauces (yay for local small businesses) and snapped up the pesto alongside some veggie meatballs. We'll see if Rob goes for it. He is very loud about not loving pesto, although what's not to love? Pesto is all good things!

Teaching myself not to judge myself so harshly. A lesson I've tried to teach myself again and again in life. I wonder if I'll ever learn?

Learning ::question mark:: see "Teaching" above.

Looking at my beautiful daughter as she stands! She is now officially a stander and so proud of herself, clapping all the while! Looking at my beautiful son as he navigates, with some frustration, THE POWER OF FOUR. He is learning that politeness gets you everywhere. He is fighting the whine. He is frustrated often and sometimes downright sneaky. These are things he has to go through to become an awesome person. Our tactic is to try to not get impatient with him. He is, after all, four.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes:

visiting, working, creating, loving, missing

i think i'll go for a walk outside now...

This weekend the sun made more than a few brief appearances ♥ It felt like springtime in a state that isn't Oregon. I couldn't love it here more in the summer, but every other season I could definitely love it here more. Grey skies and drizzle day after day after day can really make you feel trapped and desperate for sunshine. But I'm not here to complain about that because this weekend was lovely and we made sure to get outside and enjoy it while it lasts.

So even though we are all still suffering varying degrees of headcold (my miracle elixir seems to have worked on me; I took it two mornings in a row and my horrible cough is now nearly under control, heck yeah!) we couldn't resist spending some time in the front yard. Otto broke out the sidewalk chalk and busted out an amazing Mike Mazowski that kind of blew my mind. Who is this kid? I mean really, check it out (above). Then we all bent it like Beckham, including little miss. We let the chilly sun bathe our poor, paste-y ass faces and it was just super super nice.

Loretta has been standing for longer little bits this past weekend too. She wants so badly to run with the bulls. The bulls being Otto. I kind of guarantee I'm the only one on the planet calling Otto a bull, by the way #Ferdinand :) anyways... She will now get up from sitting to standing all by herself and wobble there for a few seconds before sitting back down. She took a single step towards me on Saturday and a single step towards Rob yesterday. Walking is just around the corner and I'm really excited for her. She's already the fastest crawler I've ever seen. She crawls Japanese horror movie-style. It's going to be so great to see her running around with and after Otto. I can't wait for the real warm weather to come (in July) and let these two sweet gooses loose at the park, the beach, etc.

And as you can see I'm in the pic! I hate pictures of myself probably more than most people but I do realize the mom needs to stay in the picture every now and again. Looking at this one, though, I see that I need a haircut more than I thought I did. And lip-stain. I have no idea how to wear lip color but as I've gotten older I guess my face is losing its rosy-ness. I'm going to have to teach myself to add a little color or I'll end up looking like a piece of printer paper all the time. I swear the mirror likes me! Pictures always freak me out. I looked like that?! Le sigh, haha, it's a good thing I don't really care that much. Do you have a lipstain you like that isn't too BOOM? I'm so not a boom person :)

a miracle elixir

In the past few weeks my small headcold has turned into an endless throat tickle and irritating little sinus drip. This seems to have settled in for the winter and has me fighting a cough throughout the day and sipping hot water in between ricola drops. No fun. My new boss, Caroline, suggested this miracle remedy which doesn't taste as bad as it sounds and already has my throat soothed. If you wanted to try it, the ingredients are simply 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 squeeze of lemon, and 1 cup of water at any temperature.

currently {link-up} cupid, not homemade pop-tarts

This homemade pop-tart thing was happening (in my mind) until about 9pm last night. I was in my kitchen, standing, staring at the pop-tart recipe and it looked easy enough, and they looked yummy and all that, and I realized there was no way I was going to make homemade pop-tarts... at 9pm... on a Wednesday night. Instead, I watched American Idol and then ran up to the grocery for the makings of a Valentine's breakfast for Ot. A ridiculous cream puff, kiwis cut into heart shapes, strawberry pretzels, raspberries, organic lollies, a pink smoothie, and some red flowers that might secretly be a little gift to myself. I'm excited to wake him up for this fun breakfast in a couple hours!

Currently is a weekly link-up hosted by the sweet Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am super happy to be co-hosting the series with her. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. This week, around these parts, we have been...

Loving watching Otto as he put together his homemade Valentine's for his class. A three day process, quite impressive for a 4 year old! He was so meticulous decorating each and every one and then hand-writing everyone's name on the back of their card. He wrote "Otto to Rio" on one without even looking at the name list. Reading and writing, people! Oh Em Geeeeeee!

Dreaming of summer and sunshine and picnics and warm skin. Dreaming of stealing Otto's cream puff that won't stop staring at me as I type... but I won't. But I do wish I'd gotten a second for Rob and I to share. Also dreaming of finding some vintage Frye boots (brown, campus style) for a steal on Ebay. That last is a pipe dream, it seems I am not the only one dreaming that dream and they are going for $150-$200/pair, yeeks! That is so far outside my budget I can't even cry about it. Perhaps I will get lucky at the thrift? One can only hope.

Admiring the fearless. How vague is that? But really, I've been inspired to take on some new challenges and launch some new projects by looking at the people around me who've gotten to amazing places in their lives. There seems to be a few things they have in common, fearlessness being at the top. I could use some fearlessness plus a side order of confidence. Working on this.

Kissing my loves. Loretta will lean in for a kiss now if you say, "kiss?" and open her lips just slightly. If she is grumpy, she will rudely reject any kiss requests! It's super cute.

Gifting well because we are still rocking this "nothing new" thing I tried to keep my Valentine's gifts strictly in the food world this year. I cheated a little on the potted plant, but I know that little guy will bring lots of brightness into our kitchen until I somehow manage to kill it with my black thumbs of tragic plant death.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes:

taking, giving, teaching, learning, looking

Little Note: something seems to be going wonky with my linky. If you enter your URL and the link doesn't show up here, visit http://harvestingkale.blogspot.com/ and it should show up there. I've re-installed the code twice, but alas! Sorry #s 7 and up!

11 months, 1 week

Some years go by more quickly than others. Some are bigger roller coasters. Some are more epic, more fun, more exhausting, more amazing than you could ever imagine. Some have you reminding yourself almost daily, "this too shall pass." Or wishing every second would hang around just a little longer. And some are a little bit of all of that.

Love you so much, Miss Loretta. Can't imagine life without you.

-Mommy

love notes

These two ♥

I am trying to think of something sweet and meaningful and EASY and not expensive and yet fun and wonderful to do for these two for Valentine's Day. Ideas? What are your fun traditions? It's a weekday this year so making an ombre pile of pink to red, heart-shaped pancakes or anything like that is kind of off the table at Chez Muth. Loretta wakes up about two minutes before I leave for work in the morning, Rob about five minutes after, and Otto is a crap-shoot.  Maybe a special lunch with a special love note inside for Otto and then something fun in the evening for the fam? My thinking cap is on... I have been meaning to make homemade pop tarts for a while, perhaps this is the right moment to make heart-shaped ones the night before? I think it may be.

This weekend Otto is painting a Valentine's painting (pictured above) for his classmates. We'll take a photo of it today and have prints made for everyone in his class. We got some washi tape and puffy sparkle paint to decorate each print... they'll be craptastic and (hopefully) amazing.

This will be Loretta's first Valentine's. My little sweetheart. She is 11 months old! Pushing the boundaries of babyhood more and more every day.

And after what feels like many months of jam-packed crazy, this weekend has been pleasantly blah. We did a trip to Target, cleaned the house (a bit), made veggie tacos and playdoh pizzas, and walked around the block after dinner yesterday. Today will be for more cleaning, a fundraising walk in the park this afternoon, and maybe even finally cutting and dying my hair! So boring. So nice! Boring is so nice sometimes.

currently {link up} back to mellow

Currently is a weekly link-up hosted by the lovely Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am super happy to be co-hosting the series with her. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. This week, around these parts, we have been...

Wondering what fun projects we should plan for spring. The air is warming up a bit and I want to plant a blueberry bush (or three or four) and basil and garlic and green onions and and and... out back but am waiting because it will definitely frost again. I also want to dig through my basket of fabric and come up with a project to use it all up! And this canning thing I pretend I'm going to attempt each fall needs to seriously happen this year, by the way. Canning in 2013! Whoot!

Loathing head colds. Head colds can suck an egg. Let's all make out with our neti pots and agree on this.

Cooking spaghetti pomodoro, taco salad, salmon with baby red potatoes, homemade pot pie, avocado turkey burgers, and semi-homemade pizza ← our meal plan this week, not too shabby!

Reading two books and so far I would suggest either of them because they are totally interesting. The first one I'm doing as a book club with my best friend so we have an excuse to talk to each other every week or so, it's called The Omnivore's Dilemma and it's all about the industrial food chain and where the food on your fork really comes from. It's inspiring. The second one is for a book club at work and is called The Power of Habit and this one is also inspiring me to improve the way I live. What a book clubber, eh? I'm excited to see what you all are reading. Which reminds me that I also need to read everyone's currently posts from last week and now this week too! Sorry I'm so behind, life kicked us all in the face last week and we're just now getting our shit (or sheet or ish or shiz) back together. Que sera sera!

Listening to Otto say, "What?!" for no reason, when nobody said anything, all the time lately. This is not an annoying habit. Lie.

That was this week. Here are next week's Valentine themes:

loving, dreaming, admiring, kissing, gifting

let's all get our sheet together

Well I was going to call this "let's all get our shit together" but that sounded crass... but then I was just thinking that no one would realize what I was doing there now, in the title, because sheet? What? And now I've over-explained it (or did I?) and also --> no one cares. But here's what really matters: LORETTA IS FEELING BETTER.

Dudes? I have a tropical storm of a daughter and I absolutely love every undelicate hair on her powerful, demanding head but for reals, when she feels like hell, so does every person in a fifty food radius. This week all I want to do is recover from last week. We are so boring around here and it feels incredibly amazing. We will do laundry! Cook the meals on our meal plan for the week (boring meals, hurray!). We will file, recycle,tidy, and generally clear the house of the 50,000 bookmarks and torn paper treasures of the artist formerly known as Otto.

I may even indulge in a little potato-ing of the couch and dive into Downton Abbey. I have it on pretty great authority that it is, in fact, that good. 

I'm also really excited to read all of the posts from everyone who participated in Currently last week! So many!

And lastly, if you have a second, I have a little plug. Please head over to Brandy's lovely lifestyle and kids fashion blog Heart and Habit. I adore Brandy and have for a very long time. She's probably one of the first moms I really connected with via this blog world. She's stunningly beautiful, has great, understated street style, she's fit but also drinks way too much coffee, she uses the foul language just often enough to make me smile, and she adores her babies and dresses them like mini look books and takes ahhhmazing photos! Anyways, I was pretty flattered when this dynamo(m) asked me to participate in her Mom Time Out series (yay!) and I had a lot of fun putting together the perfect clothes and trappings for a fantasy day to myself, which is posted here. What do you think of my fantasy day? Amazing yes? I was even thoughtful with a math bath for the hubs because I'm super nice like that. ps. I for reals for realzzzzz want that Pendleton blanket! If blanket drool were a thing that is what I would have for that blanket.

Ok, I hope your sheet is all together this week too. Because potato chip high five!