1. I'm working!
My good friend Adrian is a WAHM with a cloth diaper business called String Beans that she has been running for several months now. They are my favorite fitted cloth diapers and I've been using them on both Lucy and Ruby.
Awesome, huh?
She had two other mamas helping her out, but one of them has been on maternity leave and the other just moved out of state after her husband got out of the military. I was over there for a playdate one day when she mentioned that she was looking for another helper. Since I'm at home most of the day with nothing to do other than clean my house (which, let's face it, I'll take any excuse to get out of), I happily volunteered! Not only does it give me something to do, it also gives Lucy time to socialize with other kids as Adrian has three little ones at home with her during the day. These few hours spent around other kids has helped Lucy IMMENSELY with both her social skills as well as her (completely unfounded) fear of dogs.
No longer terrified!
Of course, she's still a toddler and has normal toddler outbursts, but she's also getting better about sharing and interacting with other kids without just screaming in their faces when they look at her. We were also able to go to a different friend's house this past weekend whose dog she was previously terrified of. It used to take her an entire day-long visit just to get to a point where she didn't cry and scream at the dog to go away as the dog lay sleeping across the room. Last weekend, she barely noticed the dog and when she did, she gave her a nice pat on the back. Anyway, I've been doing simple tasks like cutting fabric and snapping and I've really enjoyed helping and the time we get outside of the house. Being over there just leaves me less time to edit during the day so I got behind on that with my last batch of 365 photos.
My first stocking day! We try to stock diapers in the online shop every Friday. This particular stocking day was three adults vs nine kids under five. It was CRAY-ZY!
These diapers are amazing!
Ignore the angry toddler. Who knows what she was upset about? Life's tough when you're two.
Lucy and one of her friends.
Things I see at work:
2. I'm Photoshopping!
I've had Photoshop on my computer for over a year now along with a full library of actions and I've yet to actually edit any photos with it. I've stuck with Aperture because it was familiar to me and I'm able to edit quickly (because it's familiar to me). It's a fairly simple program and almost all of the photos on my blog were edited with this program. Lately though, I've felt stuck in somewhat of a creative rut and have been wanting to do more with my photos than Aperture was allowing me. I had opened Photoshop a few times over the past year that I've had it and I always ended up getting overwhelmed and closing back out of it. I finally sat down one night, Googled some tutorials, and played around with it. I'm still far from a pro and I'm still learning how to navigate around the program, playing with different actions, and discovering all of the different ways I can customize my photos. I'm getting better though and at least to a point where I can edit photos with it. Learning a new program meant sometimes spending hours working on just one photo to see what all I could do with it which, of course, set me back. The only way I learn though is by forcing myself to sit down and do it over and over and over until it becomes familiar. So that's what I've been doing! Editing the photos that I've already taken rather than taking a ton of new photos (unless you could iphone photos) so unfortunately Project 365 kind of got put aside. I've still been documenting the important events in our lives and I figure that's what's most important along with working on getting my editing where I want it to be.
Some of my test edits:
And some of what was supposed to be Week 8 of Project 365
Practicing the back carry!
Lucy's Valentine's Day outfit that I never got around to posting a photo of.
Silly Lucy.
Sisters
Ari, the morning after her very first sleepover at her dance studio. She had a BLAST! There was pizza and ice cream and dancing and a movie and she got a brand new sleeping bag to sleep in!
She did NOT want to be in the car that day!
3. I'm Me-ing!
I don't think me-ing is a word, but it should be! In other words, I'm working on me. I've spent the past six years being a mom and the past four months being a mom of three. This past year was hard with Jon being gone 90% of the time, Ari having a full schedule, and welcoming a new baby to the family. Three kids has been a bigger adjustment than I ever imagined. It's rewarding, for sure, but it has taken a lot out of me and I haven't really made any time to focus on myself (and I've paid for that in many ways, though I won't get into them here). I've spent a lot of time focusing on what I'm putting in my body (which has meant less quick, fast food and more time spent in the kitchen cooking real food), how I'm spending my spare time (a daily workout and a weekly relaxing bath have been added to my routine), and taking better care of myself mentally and physically.
If I look pissed off, it's because I was.
This is the worst shape I've been in in a long time. I've had a few people say, "well you just had a baby!" which is true, but this is not the result of being pregnant. This is the result of choosing fast food over taking the time to make good, wholesome meals. The result of staying up late, having to wake up early, and then being too tired to even go on a walk let alone do a rigorous workout. I'm trying to find a balance in my schedule to include these important things so as I've been cooking more and working out, again, I just haven't found as much time to work on photos.
These are my Day 1 photos:
Les Mills Combat is what I'm doing!
And it's a good workout!
Just an example of clean eating: buffalo chicken lettuce wraps! It's shredded chicken flavored with cayenne pepper and onions with a cabbage slaw, a sprinkle of cheese, and a drizzle of hot pepper sauce.
Not 100% clean (the bacon was nitrate and nitrite free, but for truly clean bacon, you should really get in from a farm or a butcher), but I've been trying to find ways to make veggies more appetizing for Jon. I think this is definitely going to replace mashed potatoes as a side for our meat!
We've been cleaning up the kids' eating habits too and I swear it has already made a difference in their behavior. This is actually quite a big lunch for Lucy as I wasn't sure what kind of meat and cheese she was going to prefer. A more typical lunch is one slice of ham or turkey, one slice of American cheese, one piece of fruit (most often a cutie orange), a rice cake, and an organic yogurt if she's still hungry after all of that. Ari gets four slices of ham or turkey, two slices of cheese, a rice cake, a fruit (apple or orange), and a veggie (carrots, green pepper slices, celery, or cucumber slices).
Stopped at Lush and got some goodies for my baths!
Through all of this, I've still been posting a lot of photos from my phone. I do still want to stick with my resolution to keep using my Canon more so don't worry, this short little break from photography and blog posting won't last much longer. Just working on prioritizing the new routine. Here are some photos that I've taken over the past month of our various activities :)
Arianna worked two cookie booths this cookie season. I am so proud of this kid, let me tell you! The second day we worked booths, she set a goal to offer cookies to every person who passed her and to get at least ten of them to buy. She did indeed talk to every person and 11 of them bought cookies! She set this goal completely on her own, without me prompting her at all.
Lucy helped me break in my new wrap!
Jon and I took the kids to Sweet Frog, but declined sweets for ourselves in an attempt to stick with our healthier diets.
Ohhhh, this child!
I'm pretty sure the ipad has just become an extension of her arms.
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