currently {link up} mark it with a bookmark

This week we are getting back into routines and celebrating an unglamorous life full of non-holidays... until Otto's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese this weekend that is. I am sure that event will fill his head full of more hot air for a while. Oh boy! But really, he is coming back around from his super-spoiled winter holidays and has been spending much of his time in the evenings working on tracing letters and copying words and otherwise melting my heart with "important work" that reminds me how much he is just like I used to be. He continues to make bookmarks (see above) to mark his favorite page in every single book.

Currently is a weekly link-up hosted by the lovely Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am super excited 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...

Missing sleep. Dear Loretta, bless her intense little heart, is having a hard time going back to sleep after each sleep cycle. So every 90 minutes or so, every evening, she's been waking up and tearing the house a new one. Since what she really wants is a little minute or two of nursing and snuggles, this means I am in high demand and as much as I love cuddling with that lady I also am looking forward to her moving along onto the next phase in baby sleep drama. May that phase please be the one where she sleeps for such long stretches that we can hardly believe our eyes!

Thinking about everything that is and was and needs to be and all of the things that need to be done and kind of freaking out about how much of everything there is! I saw this on Pinterest and it sums it up, including giving me some really good advice about how to deal with my overactive brain. Image via.

Except I would add to the word "create" other words like "parent, live, work, enjoy, calm down, watch Justified"

Considering how much I love meal planning and why I never thought of it before. You guys, I invented this genius thing called meal planning where you write down what you are going to make for dinner for the coming week, go grocery shopping just for the things you need ::hand smacks head:: and then make those things and have rad dinners and save money. Yes I invented it; you're welcome! We haven't ordered out once in 2 weeks. That is literally a world record. Look it up.

Moving things from boxes to the places they go. Yep, having lived in our house for 4 months now we decided it was finally time to start tackling "that room" that has all of our extra things like our photos for the walls. So as-of last weekend it finally looks like people live here with pictures up and everything. My next project is organizing my work/sewing station and making some upcycled sweater pants for Ms. Loretta using this pattern from my rad sponsor Adirondack Patterns (not a sponsored link, just a true story).

Playing the Scooby Doo version of jenga that Otto got for Christmas. I am absolutely terrible at it so it's probably important that I continue to play it enthusiastically and with a smile and practice both my hand/eye coordination and showing, by example, how to be a good sport when you LOSE EVERY TIME.

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

growing, making worrying, dancing, laughing

Wordless... Every Day Is The Best Day; Every Day Is The Worst Day

I stole that title line from my friend Kate's insanely insightful 6 year old. She came up with that sentence on her own for a story she was writing/illustrating. Her name is Zora and someday we all will probably work for her :) So here was the highlight and lowlight of my day Wordless-style (happened already and it's 8:30 am)...

Highlight...



Lowlight...

xo,
Lindsey

Nothing New - My Resolution Challenge-y Thingy

Outside of finally making out with George Clooney (why can't the universe just get on board with this one already?) and trying to remember to wear deoderant every day, my New Years Resolution list "2011 Edition" is pretty slim pickins. I can't think of anything. That's how awesome I am I guess --> no room for improvement outside of the whole "forgets to wear deoderant and then smells bad" thing. But I have this idea (that I really like). I think I'm going to try to buy Nothing New in 2011.

Obviously groceries, tooth brushes, and toilet paper are exceptions. But nothing else. No new clothes, no dollar bin crap treasures from Target, just... nothing new. Like if I can't stop dreaming, drooling over, and fantasizing about Pottery Barn's Mum Garden bedroom set (wouldn't it be so pathetic if this was all I could think about ever since I saw it? What a loser I would be then.), well... I guess I would just have to wait for my May birthday and hope some generous soul gifts me with it, or that I stumble upon a mysteriously donated set at the thrift store. Because I ain't buyin it new! (Not even on credit, not even if I really, reallllllly want to.) And I do. Can you blame me?

I'm thinking, "I can do this!" "It'll be a challenge." "But it'll be fun (right?)!"

Whatever. All I know is we need to get our credit card debt under control. We need to build up our savings. We need to minimize the crap treasures in our house. And we're moving in like 7 months, so we need to get these things done sooner than later. Nothing New sounds like the plan to help us get there.

I'm a little scared. What do you think? What are your New Years Resolutions? Maybe I'll do one of yours instead!

-Lindsey

CLOSED - CSN Stores $35 Gift Card Giveaway!

So my dream kitchen (which WILL HAPPEN one day and for which I have a scrappy notebook full of clippings from Martha Stewart Living and the Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn catalogues) is big and open and "in the French style" with huge, individually-paned windows looking out onto a big back yard where there is a cherry tree & it's always spring and drizzling and the tree is always blooming. It's verrrrry shabby and fairly chic and the focal point is an oversized island where my family can gather around & chat while we each sit on a gorgeous, antiqued (or antique) bar stool, and I can roll pie dough while I guzzle apricot ale & gaze outside through my giant paned windows while someone* else cleans it. (*I don't know who, probably George Clooney, and he also gives me back rubs.) It looks something like this:


I found this image on the blog Dream Within Reach and, well, I die!


But wait, I need to focus - This is a CSN Stores Giveaway! 

That's right, the lovely people over at CSN Stores have offered TidbitsParenting readers an opportunity to win a $35 Gift Certificate! The winner can use it towards gorgeous bar stools like these...

Or cool wooden kids toys like this set I recently ordered from CSN Stores for Otto (getting a jump on holiday shopping for the first time in my life)...

Or anything else they may find. The CSN Stores world will be their oyster.

How to Enter The Giveaway...

Many Entry Opportunities (none of these is mandatory; pick and choose the modes of entry that you like, and enter as many times as you like!):

- Tell me what you think you might get from CSN Stores if you won the gift certificate

- Follow CSN Stores on Twitter (2 entries)

- Follow TidbitsParenting via Google Friend Connect (see right sidebar) (if you already follow that counts too) (2 entries)

- Follow @OttosMomBlogs on Twitter (if you already follow that counts too)

- Tweet the following and in your comment, put a link to your tweet (up to 3 bonus entries per day / 1 per tweet / 30 min apart or more please):

Win a $35 @CSNStores Gift Certificate - ends 11/11 http://tinyurl.com/2eu5qsg @OttosMomBlogs #Giveaway !

- "Like" TidbitsParenting on Facebook (if you already like us that counts too) (2 bonus entries)

- Grab the TidbitsParenting badge (on the right) and in your comment leave a link to your badged up blog homepage (3 bonus entries) (if you've already got the badge that counts too)

- Vote for this blog on Picket Fence Blogs (by clicking the Picket Fence Blogs icon in the right sidebar) you can do this once per day (unlimited bonus entries, well ... 1 per vote til the contest ends)

Please Note:

Remember to leave a comment for EACH entry. For example, if you follow CSN Stores on Twitter, since that's worth 2 bonus entries make sure you leave 2 comments for that.

Make sure that I can reach you if you win - please put your email address or Twitter name in each comment so that I can reach you if you win. I will contact the winner at some point on November 12 and they will have 48 hours to claim the prize or we will choose a different winner.

Giveaway will be closed for new entries at 11:59pm Pacific Time on Novem

ber 11. Open to US & Canada. I will use Random.org to choose a winner and will verify that the winning entrant has played by the rules so it only makes sense to be honest! Note: I was in no way compensated for this post other than CSN Stores generously prov

iding a gift certificate to the winner. The opinions are my own.

CONGRATS TO JUDY, WITH COMMENT #222 YOU ARE THE WINNER OF THIS GIVEAWAY!