Roadtrip Review

Aaaaand, we're back!

Our summer vacay was anything but relaxing.
We took a road trip, yes as in driving with a baby and a child, to Spokane, WA to see my fam. There were aunties, uncles, cousins, and baby cousins. We ate, laughed, swam, shook dice, went on roller coasters, and whacked a pinata. We saw mountains, lakes, fields, monuments, and wildlife. Uh, yeah, we made some serious family memories.

And I learned some lessons... here are my top ten:
1. Your baby will not sleep well in a pack 'n play. He will not want to nap, he will go down with a fight and he will wake up in the middle of the night every night. Yawn.
2. Stay at the cheap motel on the first leg of your trip, and the nice hotel on the way home. It's the "best for last" philosophy that I will be sure to follow next time.
3. You will return chubby. No biggie. But I'm glad we don't have Taco Time and/or Sonic anywhere near my home.
4. Not everyone who brings their child into a truck stop at 2 a.m. and buys a Mt. Dew and an apple fritter is a drug addict. The Mt. Dew was for my husband, not my child just to clarify, thank you.
5. Over-pack. Sophie and I both brought 4 pairs of shoes each, and we both ended up wearing rubber flip flops the entire time. But just knowing those extra shoes were there was worth it. Fo sho.
6.  If given the choice between a national chain or mom and pop ice cream shop, go with mom and pop. You will be handsomely rewarded.
7. STOP! Get out and breathe, stretch, shop for horrible souvenirs, take pictures in front of over sized statues. It makes the next stretch of driving so much more tolerable.
8. Send post cards. Friends/family back home get a kick out of it.
9. Our children were made for life on the road. Very few peeps out of the back seat.
10. It's hard to have to leave to go home, but it's even harder when you have to say goodbye to people you love. Awww. Sweet.

If you need me I'll be doing laundry.
xoxo

A Midsummer Break

Shhhh.
It's so quiet. In the house, in my brain, and in my Etsy shop.
I decided I better take a little break for the summer, so Sweet Baby Dolly is in vacation mode, not listing any items, and not taking any orders (I'll reopen mid-August).
With my Sweet Girl home from school for the summer, and the addition of Mr. Baby I was finding it, um, difficult to balance. If I'm working I feel like I should be playing, and if I'm playing I feel like I should be working. Even as I write this (both sweeties are sleeping) I feel like I should be folding laundry, or creating a pattern, or maybe try putting on some deodorant. If you are a MOM (or DAD!), and you stay at home, work from home, or work outside the home, you know what I'm talking about. Your list is never ending, you struggle with staying present, you sacrifice yourself, it's so hard to find that balance.

Mae Gordon's Original Balancing Cyclists by curiousprints on Etsy

A few minutes ago, I came across A Cup of Jo's series on that very topic... balance. The series features outrageously successful and brilliant women and how they (try to) make it work. It's nice to know we're not alone, and if they can do it, we can too!

Little Geeks on the Prairie

Last weekend we decided to get our Laura Ingalls Wilder on. The birthplace of the pioneer turned author is in Pepin, Wisconsin. It's about an hour and a half from where we live. Ok, two hours if my husband is driving. He likes to take the scenic route.

Hold your horses, that's not actually where she was born. It's a reproduction built about 40 years ago on or near the land that was owned by Charles Ingalls, aka Pa. We all decided we wanted to live there. The inside featured 3 rooms, a loft, and a fireplace. Pimp it out with some plumbing and electrical and I'm pretty sure we'd manage. What? You don't think we could do it? It was fun to think about.

Sophie was in Heaven and did not want to leave. When she started begging us to buy her a bonnet at the gift shop in town we decided we better scram. And looky what we found on the scenic route home... an intersection with my initials!

Next on our Tour de Prairie: the banks of Plum Creek in Walnut Grove. YES!







Chop-Chop

How's your hair? Mine is driving me ca-razy. Like bushy-fro-homeless person-jungle woman crazy. I have what you call volume. I have a hair surplus. I'm Hyper-follicular.

 It's time for a haircut which means it's time once again for me to attempt to pretend I'm remotely close to thinking about maybe chopping it all off.

Yeah, pretty sure I'm not going to, but that doesn't stop me from Googling images...

Someday I might just start to think about possibly doing it. Maybe.

Sweet Native Girl

My sweet Soph is obsessed with Native American history. I know. She's six. It all started at our favorite county park where she read a monument which said that the land was formerly hunted by a native tribe. She wanted to know more, so we Googled. Images and stories that we found naturally led to a fear of these feather wearing, buffalo hunting historical figures. But the more she learned,  more her fear turned into fascination. We just returned home from our first summer vacay trip to the library with a stack of books about... mmm hmmm. So here's a little treasury I put together of the sweetest of the sweet little native inspired finds.

1.oneeyeddog  2. Babyccino 3. Gingermelon 4. pretty little things 5. RiverLuna 6. FletcherandFox

Fab Foto Friday: Nap time

I need a nap, how about you?

Confessions: I'm that lady

I'm that lady you saw at Target picking up the trail of grocery store coupons that I dropped all over the store. When I noticed they were gone, I'm not kidding you, I almost started to cry. My whole grocery list and meal plan revolved around those suckers (YES; once in a while I have my act together).  So I retraced my steps and found one, and another, and another...
I'm the same lady that finally got to the grocery store, completed her list, arrived at the checkout and realized she had lost them all again. Thankfully the sweetheart cashier punched in the codes for me.
Perhaps a paper clip attached to my shopping list is not the most effective way to tote my 'pons.

photo from couponing101.com article: How to Organize Coupons

I guess I've got aome reading to do?