State of the Blog
The blog has been slow going lately mainly for a very good reason which has caused extreme fatigue which you will learn more about below. I have decided to shoot for one blog post a week until further notice. That way I am still making progress but in a more realistic manner.
Our Exciting News
We have some exciting news to share!!
Yep, we are expecting our third baby in May and we are all so excited!
Fatigue
Because I am in the first trimester, I have been experiencing extreme fatigue. I realized I need to be reminded of my own advice. My house and car are suffering a bit as a result which of course is normal and fine but I definitely feel better mentally when those things are in a better state. So, instead of reinventing the wheel all the time, I decided to find a good printable to laminate and use a wipe-off marker with. This one is broken down into small chunks room by room and even if I only do one task each day it’s more than I’m doing now, which is the very basics. I definitely don’t complete everything in a given week but I am making so much more progress which feels good.
Currently Reading
As you probably know by now, I always have a few books going!
- The Fringe Hours – This book I read on the Hoopla app. You can check out e-books and audio books for free from your local library!
- Heaven is For Real – My in-laws recently received a stack of books which they passed on to us. I heard of this book before and I was intrigued, Definitely amazing to see the miracle this family witnessed!
- Better Than Before – My friend recommended this book and I found it to be excellent. Instead of taking a one size fits all approach to building good habits and quitting bad ones, Gretchen Rubin proposes knowing yourself and she came up with the Four Tendencies”.
Semi-DIY Halloween Costumes
I love to do DIY projects, but the main driving factor being making all or part of my kids costumes myself is simply to save money. Necessity is the source of all invention, right? I made certain aspects of our Halloween costumes, and other ones I bought. Here’s what we did:
Our First Weekend Getaway
Nathan surprised me with our first weekend getaway since becoming parents, for my birthday. My wonderful in-laws took our kids for the night and most of the next day. We stayed in an Airbnb in Carmel Valley which I had never explored before. And of course, we had to visit Carmel-by-the-sea. Carmel is my favorite place by the seaside. It is just so romantic and quaint.
Where we stayed. 
A nice lady and her beautiful therapy dog sat down to chat with us. 
A secret garden among the shops. 
Me in the “secret garden” enjoying my special green juice.
48-Hour Power Outage
We had a 48-Hour planned power outage. It was as inconvenient as it sounds. The worst part was having to throw away quite a bit of food, but thankfully since it was planned I postponed my weekly grocery shopping. We kept some basic things like milk in a cooler and just kept replacing the ice. I bought a food thermometer so I can feel more confident about the temperature that the food is actually at since power outages are very likely to happen again.
Fun Family Activities
We have been busy doing fun things as a family too! We went to:
- Cover’s Apple Farm
- Pumpkin Patch
- Cousin’s wedding
- Kid’s Halloween Party
- Trick-or-treating in our friends neighborhood
My Rewards List
Gretchen Rubin inspired me to make a list of rewards to purchase for myself periodically that will reinforce positive habits and hobbies like cooking at home, exercising, and memory keeping. It works! And list-making is just fun to do in general.
Fall Decor and DIY
I don’t like to have a TON of seasonal decor as room to store it all is limited. I did, however, purchase some faux fall flowers this year from the Dollar Tree, as well as a leaf garland, and some frames to put some cute fall printables I found.
P.S. I made this one.