Slice of Life: November 12th, 2018

Well this is a record; It’s been a full SEVEN WEEKS since I’ve cranked out a “slice of life”. This last quarter of the year has just been a-flyin’!

My last “slice of life” was supposed to be a two-parter, so this post was actually sitting in my drafts. I remember sitting down to work on it during some down time before we left for the airport back in September, and when I was about a quarter of the way through I heard Sadie barking the most croup-like cough in her room.

Cue Erica in a total panic that we are about to go all the way to Germany just so Sadie can get my niece and nephew sick with croup and our trip falls apart. Oy. (My niece and nephew both got croup the last time we saw them in May, so this is why I was extra panicked!)

Thankfully she kicked it pretty quickly (I was loaded up with coconut oil and essentials oils out of desperation to do anything to zap her cold!) and we were mostly good to go by the time we landed in Germany. That “slice of life” never happened though, so here I am mid-November with a fresh batch of pictures to share. There are sooooo many random things I’d love to share with you, but I’ll keep it semi-current and just grab a few. #yourewelcome

I get a real high from things being organized and having a place. I recently found a massive bin of old teaching supplies that needed some organizing, so I resorted to this  to organize a good bit of the school supplies in that bin.

We even organized crayons by color because I’m extra OCD the girls are always tearing through their massive crayon bin trying to find just the right colors, so now they can easily see what’s available and only pull out exactly what they need. I did this organizing about two months ago, and sure enough it’s helped tremendously with not having a zillion crayons all over the floor and our house in general.

Last month I attended my first Blush Night at our church, which is a semi-annual gathering for women at our church that involves worship, a speaker, and other various forms of entertainment. Lots of fun attending with some of my favorite people.

The girls’ dance studio recently had “Parents Week” where we’re allowed to be “flies on the wall” and watch what goes on during their weekly classes. Jamie was able to sneak out of work for both of the girls’ classes even though they fall in the middle of his work day, and they both just BEAMED when they saw him. I don’t have a picture from Hadley’s because Jamie had to leave a little early, but he really made them so happy. I’m kind of chopped liver to them since I’m there every week anyway. 😉

A couple of weeks ago I posted on my IG stories about how I’m incapable of being in my house and actually wearing real pants. I’ve always been like this. When I’m home, I like to be comfy. My DMs blew up in a record-setting way because apparently I am far from the only one who is like this. We all just live to be comfy apparently. 😉

One of my favorite things about having the girls in preschool is when the things they learn and do start subtly seeping into the things they say and the way they play at home. Sadie has been obsessed lately with taking all of our kitchen chairs and making various kinds of trains, which is something she said she does at school with her friends. So cute!

Other adults play with my kids in different ways than Jamie and I do or sing different songs than we do, which is why I think it’s so great to expose your kids to other family members, friends, school programs, etc. where they can pick up on different things than you may not have thought to do. Someone shared this wisdom with me years ago, and it was such an “aha” moment as to how beneficial it is to expose your kids to experiences and people outside of your home.

My poor Ted. We are struggling. We’ve always believed he is a chihuahua/pug mix, which means he’s just kind of an awkward mess. He’s around 11 years old, and his elderly joints are rapidly becoming his worst enemy. We’ve done two big surgeries in the last 20 months, so we know we won’t do any surgeries again. A few days ago we noticed him shaking, and it appeared he might have a bit of back pain. He’s doing well with some leftover pain medicine (instructed by our vet to give him), but it’s honestly so scary knowing that at any time he’ll injure himself again, and that’ll be it.

We are doing everything seemingly right with no intense activity, no jumping on and off furniture, etc. but we can’t wrap him in bubble wrap; there’s simply only so much we can do to prevent him from getting injured and still ensuring that he’s enjoying a great quality of life (a.k.a. not keeping him in his crate all day every day, because what kind of life is that?) Ah, it’s hard. The inevitable mystery timeline of when he’ll get hurt again is heavy, but we are committed to giving him the best life we can and soaking up however many days or months we have left loving our best buddy.

On a lighter note, I smiled so big recently when I noticed that my TimeHop picture of Hadley featured her in a dress that Sadie was currently wearing! Here is Hadley at 23 months old, holding an ultrasound picture of Sadie after we found out that Sadie was a girl. 🙂

And here is Sadie exactly three years later, coincidentally wearing the same dress. I rarely think they look alike, but these pictures make it totally obvious that they are sisters through and through.

Like so many of you, have become an absolute favorite of mine. I had to cut out my sugary creamer back in September when I started working with Coach Mark (it was sooooo hard!), but these flavored are program approved and divine! I order them from Amazon and absolutely love them. I’ll never go back to what I was drinking! If you’re interested in a healthier alternative to your flavored creamer, I wouldn’t hesitate to give these a go!

Any finally, we have a winner of the Pampered Chef pizza stone giveaway!

Erin, you are the randomly selected winner! I’ll be in touch to get your Pampered Chef stone shipped to you. Hooray! Thank you so so so much to those who gave this pizza dough recipe a whirl. I loved seeing so many creations on your stories and feeds!

Let’s chat!

Does organizing make you crazy happy like it makes me?!