Slice of Life – September 8th, 2017

TGIF! Whew.

Even though this week was a short one, it was pretty wild around here. Certainly not bad, but just a totally different pace than what we’d gotten used to this summer. We went from zero to 100 from last week (still summer) to this week (full-blown fall) as far as activities/commitments go for Hadley and me specifically, so we’re really looking forward to and welcoming a weekend with just a couple small things on the docket. Aren’t those the best?!

Sharing a little slice of life today full of recent happenings, favorite things, and a couple bloggers doing/talking about things I think you should absolutely check out. Have a beautiful weekend, friends!

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We’re technically in the dreaded pre-deployment phase, but since Jamie’s only going overseas for a few short months, we thankfully don’t feel nearly as panicked or grumpy as we usually do during the “final countdown”. It kind of blows my mind how accustomed we’ve gotten to saying lengthy goodbyes. Sad, right? We usually try to pack the calendar with memory-making activities to make up for the time we’ll lose as a family while he’s overseas, but this time we’re just going about life as usual, knowing that Daddy will be home to us before we know it!

We sure do love this guy.

On Wednesday our big girl started year #3 at her preschool! She has always always always loved school, so Wednesday was like Christmas morning for her.

Jamie went to work late so that he could come with us to drop her off, so she got some of Daddy’s homemade pancakes in the morning to fuel her for her big day. She also let me curl her hair for fun. 🙂

She’s been a part of the Child’s Day Out program the last couple years, so she was excited to graduate to the official preschool program and be upstairs with the big kids. 😉 We are hoping she has the very best year!

After we left Hadley in her room, we headed downstairs to the Child’s Day Out area for Sadie’s open house. She’s heading to school too! We met her lovely teachers and let her bop around the room playing for a little bit before heading home. She’ll start next week just one full day per week, and we are hopeful and expectant that she will thrive and love her first structured school experience.

Jamie got home unusually early (3ish) on Wednesday, so after eating an early dinner we leashed up Teddy and headed to the nearby Marlatt Park to let everybody get some energy out before bath time. The girls love going on nature walks. Good, clean, healthy fun like this is, without a doubt, my favorite way to start or end any day.

Because this blog is also going to be Sadie’s baby book one day (ha – sorry Sadie girl), I need to document that the word “shoe” was one of Sadie’s first words a couple months ago, following “mamamama”, “dada”, and “hi”. It’s fitting that shoe was one of her first words because this girlfriend is obsessed with them. Obsessed! She loves watching other people take them on and off, carrying them around the house, and racing to put them on when the time comes each day. It’s so funny to see kids’ natural interests come out and take shape. I’ve said this several times, but we just know that Sadie is going to be a funny one to watch grow up. She’s so silly and mischievous!

Since both girls will be eating lunch at school this year, I recently ordered a few more of that we’ve been using for the last year or so. They’re around $13 for a set of four, and considering I just ordered more of them, we’ve obviously been pleased. 🙂 They’re dishwasher safe, fit in standard lunch boxes, and are super durable.  Since they have three sections, I usually do a sandwich and two little sides. I’m not sure how spill-proof they are since I don’t usually send soups, but we have put dressings in them many times and we’ve never had any kind of leak whatsoever.

Have you ever used the website Take Them a Meal? I’ve used it probably a half dozen times in 2017 already and wanted to share it in case someone hasn’t heard of it. Take Them a Meal makes organizing meals for loved ones so stinkin’ easy! The coordinator creates an account, selects the desired days that the recipient would like meals delivered, and then emails the site to those interested in helping out. People then select a date to bring food, optionally type in what they’re bringing (so that others can also see and not frequently duplicate meals), and get all the info about the recipient’s allergies, dislikes, and address. The recipient can also see this list and know who to expect when. This site is easy for everyone and makes the gift of meals even more of a blessing.

Tip: Have a friend who’s having a baby or big surgery soon? Ask him or her if people have offered to bring meals, and if so, see if he/she can collect their email addresses for you so that you can make your friend a site on Take Them a Meal. This is so helpful so that the new mama or recovering patient doesn’t have to spend time on the phone fielding texts or calls about when to bring a meal, what time, what he/she likes to eat, etc.

I have to brag on my friend Sarah who was so brave recently in sharing her journey with IVF. I knew Sarah in college and have enjoyed keeping up with her via her blog the last couple years. I had no idea she was struggling with infertility until she shared her journey (just another example of how you never truly know what people are carrying around). She wrote about everything so eloquently, and I can only imagine how many people she encouraged simply by being as relatable as she was. If you’re suffering from infertility or in the thick of IVF, I’d highly recommend Sarah’s initial post and the posts that have followed. Now that she’s opened up about this journey, she has continued to share tidbits as she walks through what’s happening currently.

Another blogger who has something big going on is this girl right here, Helene! She has been so fun to follow the last few years via her blog Helene in Between, and now I’ll get to see her on TV soon because she and her husband will be the subject of a House Hunters International episode! They moved to Germany last year, and she frequently documents their journey living aboard. It’s fun to keep up with!

And finally, last but certainly not least, I want to wish my beautiful, strong, generous, loving mom a very happy birthday! You are a wonderful mom, supportive MIL, and the most phenomenal grandma, and we all love you so very much.

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