My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2016

This year has been a whirlwind! Despite all the busyness, and in many cases because of it, I’ve been reading. A lot. I’ve been reading to escape, to learn and to challenge myself. I’ve read more this year than I’ve ever read in a single year before. I read a grand total of nearly 60 books. Nearly half were nonfiction. Two were crazy-long books that I’ve been putting off for years (and didn’t love). The more I’ve read, the more I want to know, to explore and to expand my world.

In the first few months of this year, my sister showed me how she mapped her reading for the year in a gloriously nerdy Excel spreadsheet. I immediately adopted it as my own and added more columns, plus some simple formulas. Mapping some seasonal selections, but leaving room for change and new releases, significantly increased the total number (and breadth) of books I read this year. Instead of having a book hangover or waffling between book selections for a week, I simply went on to my next selection on my predetermined list. Or, I deviated entirely. Or, I skipped ahead to something from the next month. Either way, the selection time (and waiting time from the library, when necessary) was streamlined, and I made a bigger dent in my reading pile.

Some friends have asked for my favorite books of all time or from what I’ve read this year. A single favorite, even from just this year, is a bit too hard to pick. It somehow feels disloyal to all the other great books. But, I did read some really enjoyable books this year, so if you’re looking for some book ideas for 2017, I invite you to consider these fiction and nonfiction favorites from my 2016 reading.

Happy reading!

Lil’ O’s Firefighter 4th Birthday Party

My sweet little boy is now four years old. He is sensitive and kind, silly and wild. He is book-ish and loves to pretend; mostly he runs and pretends he’s coming to save the day in some capacity. Lately, he’s really into firefighters. Our new route to preschool each morning must pass our local fire station in hopes we get to see the firefighters and one of their fire engines. Thankfully, it’s only a block out of our way, so doesn’t add too much time to the mad dash of our mornings. So, when looking at possible party themes, it was a natural fit to give our little man a firefighter birthday.

Parenting Encouragement Book and Blog Reviews

Parenting is hard! I know that’s not a news flash for many, and the wealth of books, blogs and resources out there to try and guide each of us on the journey is a testament to how lost parenting can make us feel. There are hot topics that seem to be found in too many parenting article headlines, and there is judgement, real or perceived. Honestly, sanctimommy is even a term! Enough! We’re all in this together. Let’s instead become a village of moms, dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles together. Let’s support each other. Let’s lift each other up.

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

In my quest for encouragement and resources, I’ve found some inspirational women on Instagram to brighten my feed and have been wading through a variety of books, articles and blogs. Below are some of my better recent finds. Do you know or have you read any of these? What were your thoughts? Please share here in the comments.

Lil’ Chica’s Nautical First Birthday Party

Lil' Chica greeting her guests.

I’m still adjusting to the idea that my sweet little baby is now a toddler. She’s had no trouble adjusting to the new title and is toddling and climbing all over the place! Lil’ Chica started walking just before her first birthday and has her big bro’s constant shadow, as best as she can keep up. To celebrate her first year we threw a big party. After all, we had celebrated with Lego mania for Lil’ O’s first birthday, so it was only fair to do something similarly big for our little girl.

Party Planning

Husby and I aren’t big fans of princess stuff, but I need a theme to keep me focused. I love all the nautical stuff that’s in style right now, and don’t anticipate ever having an opportunity for an overtly themed nautical shindig for adults, so I figured Lil’ Chica’s first birthday was just the thing. I’ve always wanted to run with this theme and she’s too little to tell me otherwise. First birthdays really are more for the parents.

The catch this time around, though, was that we needed to also make it fun for Lil’ O, who is now three and a half and full of opinions. To help with the fun factor, I invited some of his closest friends from preschool and went on a Pinterest hunt for something fun for the older kids. When I stumbled upon this pin from Parents.com for a homemade sailboat, I knew we were in business. Let the pinning and party planning commence!

Farm-to-Fork Dinner

Last weekend, to close out my birthday celebration, I got to check off an experience from my bucket list. Yippee!! Ever since I learned it was a thing, I’ve wanted to have a lovely, gourmet, communal outdoor farm-to-fork meal. I pictured a long rustic, yet polished wooden table set for a full dinner for anywhere between 30 and 100 people. This vision was very likely inspired by some piece of marketing by some winery or other that we toured before kids.

Despite the winery influence to my daydream, all the pairing dinners that we heard of by us were inside, usually in a barrel room, and lacked the rustic charm I’d envisioned. Them, a couple months ago I heard of a dinner that seemed to fit the dream perfectly. Our current CSA* (they deliver to our door!) was hosting a farm-to-for dinner at a local farm with proceeds benefiting the San Diego Food Bank, a cause I truly believe in and want to support in a more hands-on way in the future. So, we eagerly purchased our tickets, arranged for my parents to watch the kiddos and ventured to the farm.

Reflections on the Past Year

There’s so much to do, and so little time that it’s often hard to stop and reflect. In preparation for the start of my 34th year, I wanted to think back on some of what I’ve learned with balancing now two littles with my hubby, working, managing the house, and trying to keep my adult relationships (family, friends, preschool teachers and parents, church acquaintances, etc.) all intact. I’ve always wanted to have a list that matches the number of years for that birthday, and had the realization this year that it was only going to get harder as I keep adding a year. So, then, this is the year! Here we go! So, 34 years, 34 personal truths. 

Grilled Cheese Bar Birthday Party

Birthday celebrations are fun, but can sometimes bring challenges. In my family for birthdays we tend to get together for dinner – either out to eat at the birthday person’s place of choice or dining in with a favorite meal – give gifts and eat cake. It’s a great formula for birthday success! This year, I felt home bound by our adorable kiddos. Dining out is just not much fun these days, so I didn’t want to get everyone out just to be forced to wrangle kids in an unfamiliar-to-them environment and be stressed through all of dinner. But, what to eat?! After much deliberation and restaurant take-out research, I landed on a favorite childhood meal, but with a twist.

Enter the grilled cheese bar. My mom makes a mean grilled cheese, so I wanted to take advantage of her mad skills, plus see how we could adventure to make new, maybe more adult grilled cheese combinations. I Googled this grand idea, and sure enough, it’s a thing! Bloggers and celebrities have shared the idea, so I took what I thought would work best for our family and pitched the idea to my family. Thankfully, they were game. And, we had quite the spread!

Grilled Cheese Bar Spread

Gear Up! Nursing Essentials

Breastfeeding is hard. There, I’ve said it. It’s true. It’s a challenge and it’s not for everyone. No judgement here. I didn’t end up breastfeeding Lil’ O, but have been able to stick it out with Lil’ Chica. It’s different for every mom, every child, every life situation. Part of finding balance is picking our battles. For those determined to give breastfeeding a try, bravo.

If your breastfeeding journey is like mine, and I sincerely hope it’s much easier, you may benefit and find encouragement in gearing up for the task. Through much trial and error, here are the products I’ve found to be essential on my journey. I hope other moms find this useful.

The Rocky Road of Breastfeeding – My Breastfeeding Trials & Triumph

Lil’ Chica is now eight months – eight months! – and through some strong determination, coupled with the grace of God, I am still breastfeeding her. It has been far from easy, but she and I persevered. If I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that stubbornness can sometimes be a virtue. My crazy goal was to breastfeed her for six months. We’re already passed that, so everything now is bonus.

Sometimes struggles turn into personal journeys. We persevere, we grow, we learn.

Staying Positive – This Week’s Pick-Me-Ups

This week has been the usual grind of kid care, house chores, errands and more. So much to do! Maybe it’s that we’re getting into a pretty set rhythm, so it feels like we’re just coming up for air, but I feel so behind! And, so tired. Now that we’ve managed the basics, there are hobbies to pick back up, blogging to do, Lil’ Chica’s first year baby album to compile, family memories to capture, and friends to catch up with. Phew!

I’m trying not to get overwhelmed or bummed out by it all. In that effort, here are some of the fun things that are getting me through this week.

Celebrations: Lil’ Chica’s Baby Dedication & Lil’ O Turns 3

So much to celebrate! We’ve just concluded a jam-packed two weeks of festivities, complete with Grandparent’s Day at Lil’ O’s new preschool, Lil’ Chica’s baby dedication at our church, and all the birthday celebrating we could muster for Lil’ O’s transition to the big three. (I should probably stop calling him a toddler now, hmm?)

G'pa, Lil' O, G'ma and Meema. G'dad behind the lens. Of course.

OH Grands Visit

As they do each winter, Husby’s parents, Meema and G’pa, came to visit, fleeing the Ohio winter and celebrating Lil’ O’s birthday. This time around, since we had lots of advance notice, they extended their trip slightly so they could attend Grandparent’s Day at Lil’ O’s school. They joined my parents, G’ma and G’dad, giving Lil’ O his full cadre of grandparents at his whim for the morning. The program was reportedly a bit long for the preschoolers, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the special day.

Returning to the Kitchen

When a new baby arrives, all eyes are on that adorable babe. And, for new parents, all their attention and energy go to that little wonder. It’s amazing and utterly exhausting. At least this is how it was for Husby and me with both Lil’ O and Lil’ Chica.

We’ve just recently crossed the line with Lil’ Chica (now a whopping five months!) that we can reintroduce our own hobbies. The precursor to this has been the return of regular sleep. Hallelujah! I’d still like more, but I can mostly count on a six hour stretch at night; and, compared to those early days and nights of two hours max at a time, six hours is simply glorious. Now that Lil’ Chica is mostly on a schedule, I also know what windows of time are available to me to get anything done.

The laundry, tidying and cleaning is unending, but Husby and I have gotten to a balance that we can start to think beyond basic home and kiddo care. For him it’s the return of his MBA classes this week. For me, it’s mostly the idea and goal of cooking more. I’ve been happily reading a Christmas influx of cookbooks and dreaming up how I can more regularly return to the kitchen. Cooking dinner falls exactly when I’m nursing Lil’ Chica, so I’ve been out of commission and we’ve all been relying on multi-talented Husby to get dinner on the table each night. I’ve cooked up some breakfasts and other things, but dinner has been eluding me. No more!

Baby + Toddler Thanksgiving Survival

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! The past holiday weekend included a few milestones, including our first flight as a family of four. Happily, Lil' Chica did well and nursed or slept much of the four total flights we took to get from San Diego to Ohio and back. Traveling and the holiday with baby AND toddler was significantly more challenging, though, than when we simply (ha!) traveled with Lil' O as a baby. Oh, in hindsight, those were the days. Admittedly, the kiddos were angelic on the airplanes. In the case of Lil' O, this was mostly thanks to copious screen time, something that we limit at home, but that he constantly asks, begs and bargains for. Keeping him wrangled and with us in between flights was the challenge. He wanted to run and we tried to encourage that, but he also wanted to run AWAY. That was less than angelic. How do parents with three or more kids travel?!

Aside from chasing our toddler, though, the holiday weekend went quite smoothly. So smoothly that it must be commemorated. Here's what helped us get through the holiday and even enjoy the company of family.

Mommy Alone Time

My wildest introverted daydream has now been realized! I am home alone. Alone! There is nobody but me in the house. Sigh, it’s glorious. Mommy alone time is a coveted thing for all moms, especially those of us who are introverted. There’s no escaping children. Those adorable chubby hands reach for me when I’m in the bathroom and Lil' O has even begged to join me in the shower. (It’s in these moments that Husby thankfully runs intervention.) But, still, the best alone time I get is late at night when everyone is asleep. It counts and it’s wonderful. I get so much done! Now that I’m back to work, I also get daytimes at home with just the dog. So nice, but even still there’s always someone to interrupt my train of thought, to take care of, to be sure I’m not literally tripping over or walking into. Really, this pup is constantly nearby! You'd think he was a herding animal.

We started this week sending Knute to doggy daycare during the day. He’s been at this facility when we’re out of town, but today is his first daytime-only visit. To start, it’ll be once every other week. Poor pup desperately needs to socialize with other dogs and while we have been taking care of new baby and juggling Lil’ O, he has fallen to the bottom of the priority list. Sure, he’s still walked once a day and gets to hang with us, but it is so clearly not enough for our high energy, high anxiety dog.

First Week Back to Work

Baby #2 is here and I’ve now been back to work a full week. It’s high time I updated the blog! And, finished up things like sending out birth announcements. Hmm, whoops. Go figure, having a newborn in the house made things a bit crazier and has allowed for a lot less sleep.

Going back to work was at least easier with Lil’ Chica than with Lil’ O. I think that is largely due to it just being the second time around. My maternity leave with Lil’ Chica, while it of course had its ups and downs, was smoother than with Lil’ O. I think I realized more of what I needed to do (and not do) to stay sane. As a result, I did things like getting out of the house more and caring about mess and schedules less. I also mostly persevered with breastfeeding – more details to come – and that made it easier to be mobile than with Lil’ O. (Since I had early supply issues with him that the doctors were concerned by, he got a bottle really early, never looked back, and I took to pumping. Being tied to a pump is extremely limiting!!)

So, going back to work…I’m happy to report that I did pretty well. Monday was the most difficult day, but I put aside my missing Lil’ Chica and really, really focused on the new assignment I’ll be spending my days on with work. I love a new challenge and it helped that I hadn’t been at the computer much during my leave. So, coming back to strategic thinking and writing felt refreshing. I did sneak some breaks to look at pictures of my little girl, though. She sure is a cutie. Each subsequent day this week got easier and I'm grateful that I already have assignments coming in and deadlines to meet, all of which will help keep me focused.

Welcome Lil’ Chica, A VBAC Birth Story

She’s here, she’s here! Lil’ Chica *finally* made her grand entrance one week and one day after her much-anticipated due date. Later than anticipated and still right on time. And, once she decided it was time, she came pretty quickly! Maybe a little too quickly.

It all started the Tuesday after my Friday due date. Got that? Four days after my due date I finally got a sense that something was happening. Turns out, it was what’s called “false labor.” I don’t like this term. While it didn’t progress and bring my baby rushing into the world, I still think my body was working and preparing. So, sure, not the labor I was looking for, not as intense as it’d get, but also not “false.” Bah.
 

Since my due date came and went, and because I refused to schedule an induction, I got the lovely addition of nonstress tests every few days to be sure Lil’ Chica was still doing well. All looking good! Despite these assurances from the tech, I did ask about the position of the baby. This came following prompting from my doula who thought the baby might be slightly twisted, which would explain some of my start and stop labor nearly every day. (When the baby isn’t quite in position, contractions can start and stop to help the baby make the turn and get into the best possible position of birth.) Sure enough, though Lil’ Chica’s head was obediently down, her face was looking right at us, meaning she was posterior, or sunny side up, and needed to turn around. Ugh! That was Friday morning, one full week past my due date.

Following the news of Lil’ Chica’s posterior position, Husby and I went that same day to a specialized acupuncturist to hopefully get labor going. I was convinced from talking to my doula and friends that after one session, I’d be in full labor. Sadly, that wasn’t quite accurate. I mentioned to the acupuncturist the baby’s position and they added a couple needles to help her turn. All of this was meant to “open me up.” It worked at least in part. My mucus plug was lost later that afternoon. Wow, that thing is gross! Following acupuncture and Lil’ O’s bedtime, I also then did a circuit of exercises to help turn baby into position. Brutal, but it seemed to do the trick! Contractions that I could tell were the real deal started at 4 a.m. We waited until 6 a.m. and called our doula to come on over. We were going to have another baby!

The Power of Nesting

I have just a few more weeks before the supposed arrival of our baby girl. Crazy! She could of course deviate and not come punctually on her due date like her brother, but the guess date is the best we have at this juncture. I’m both geared up for birth – I’ve been doing lots of prep in anticipation of what I hope and pray is a successful VBAC attempt – and not quite ready for a newborn. Yet, I know the time is coming to a close; and, due to depleting energy stores, some of my late night surges of productivity have been recently replaced with reflections on the wonderful life God has given me with Husby, the joy that Lil’ O brings and how life is about to change. I’ve also taken to wandering our little home and noting all the things we’ve gotten accomplished these past few months as Husby and I have nested and made our home ready for our baby girl. Some completed projects are of course bigger than others and we certainly enlisted help, but I’m proud of all we accomplished, big and small. Below is the tally, plus some pictures.

Projects Completed

• Decorated and transitioned all of Lil’ O’s stuff to his new big boy bedroom.
• Prepped nursery for arrival of Lil’ Chica, complete with baby gear and freshly laundered clothing, swaddling, accessories and more. 
• Home contractor crew built new backyard shed and Husby built a stand to store firewood.
• Home contractors installed new kitchen shelf for my cookbooks, which I’ve since maximized and started to decorate.
• Husby installed insulation and flooring in the attic to maximize attic storage space and ease of use.
• Hung pictures in main bathroom.
• Installed new home office.
• Rearranged some furniture as we explored what to keep and what to purge.
• Donated clothing, too-big luggage, filing cabinet and small bookshelf.
• Recycled various dead electronics that had been collecting dust in the garage.
• Planted some new edibles.
• Purchased bench and planted a new aloe plant alongside the side of our home for a bit of added interest.
• Cleaned and oiled the kitchen cabinets. 
• G'ma deep cleaned some of the house in need of extra TLC.

The nursery, now ready for Lil' Chica

New shed, mostly for yard tools, but also serving as Lil' O's toy "garage"

Goodbye ugly over-sink lamp, hello recessed lighting & cookbook storage

New Craigslist bench and aloe plant

Yet More Remains…

I’m really proud of all we’ve accomplished, especially because it’s so hard to get ahead of routine maintenance with a toddler. Along these lines, I must confess that much of what we did finish was through teamwork – often one parent entertaining Lil' O while the other did some house task or by enlisting help – and/or completed after Lil' O's bedtime, often in the wee hours of the night. And, despite our best efforts (and lack of sleep!), this list is not meant to imply that our place is pristine. Far from it! In fairness, below is a short list of what more we could do, but likely won’t before baby. We’ve simply run out of oomph.

• Install more sprinklers and refresh plants in the front yard. Curb appeal is not the best right now.
• Install drip sprinklers in the backyard to ease vegetable plant watering.
• Plant grass in our backyard's "bald spots" and fertilize the full lawn. The whole scorching summer heat has kept us from this one, so maybe next spring we'll tackle this one.
• Add attic insulation – another task that requires waiting for the summer heat to break.
• Add curtains to Lil’ O’s room – I have no idea what I want there!
• Sew curtains for our master bedroom, which is honestly sad since I have all the stuff (minus thread) and this would take maybe a half hour. Ok, probably an hour since my sewing machine and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms.

Hmm, there’s probably more, especially when it comes to cleaning and organizing, but this will have to do. Baby countdown is in full effect.

Lil’ O’s Transportation-Themed Big Boy Bedroom

My sweet little boy is now fully transitioned to his new big boy bedroom. Sniff! He started sleeping in his new big boy bed in mid-June, but we only completed the finishing touches to his room this past weekend. It’s great that he’s sleeping in there, but that has certainly made it harder to get into his room to add any final touches. As I suspect is true with most parents, the majority of our time to get much of anything productive done is while he’s sleeping. But, not to be outwitted by a toddler, we got it done nonetheless! Muwahaha!

Without further ado, below are the grand reveal pictures of Lil’ O’s new transportation-themed big boy room. My goals was to play up his natural love of cars and trucks and make the room kid-friendly so he’d be excited by the transition, but also hopefully spark his curiosity and inspire adventure. We’ll see about that loftier adventure goal, but he at least likes the room. Phew!

Closet organization triumph

The transition itself went really well. We talked it up for a month or two before it was actually time for Lil’ O to move from the nursery to the big boy bed and room. I think that helped a lot to make the transition go smoothly. By the time the ceiling was fixed, he was very eager to sleep in his new big boy bed. As the protective mama, though, I thought he might still get scared. Nope! We moved his stuffed animal friends from his crib to his bed and he felt right at home. He didn’t even get out of bed to explore after we tucked him in. I credit this last piece to his nap routine at daycare, but I was still quite impressed and sad as I watched the video monitor and whispered goodbye to my baby. I’m so proud of my little boy and excited by who he is becoming, but these transitions are making this pregnant mama sentimental.

Preparing for Baby – The Looong Purge

Forward momentum in Operation Big Boy Room was halted due to a leaking pipe dripping onto the ceiling of Lil’ O’s future room. Bah! We had a friend, who is happily also a plumber, come by to fix the offending pipes, but due to their placement in the attic, he had to cut into the ceiling. Attic insulation raining down was not exactly the décor or vibe I was going for, so the big move for Lil’ O was put on hold.

We were really grateful, though, that this all happened before the big transition. It would have been much more confusing for our little guy if he moved, had to go back to the nursery, and then made the transition a second time to his big boy room. There’s a silver lining in everything and we count our blessings.

Despite this ceiling mishap, my nesting instinct has remained in high gear. I am not to be thwarted from making our home ready for baby’s arrival! Sure, I need to hold on Lil’ O’s new room transition, but there is still so much to be done.

So, I switched gears. In place of moving big items out of our catch-all room so it could become fit for a toddler, I spent the last month (yes, it sadly took that long to get our go-to handyman out for the ceiling fix and some other projects) going through the smaller items, mostly files, that had been languishing and collecting dust. I found old pictures, files from college and a whole host of papers I no longer need. Most files were shredded or went straight to recycling, but there may also be a healthy crop of Throwback Thursday pictures coming soon. ;)

I also spent some time researching how to best organize Lil’ O’s new closet, since I will be keeping half of it for some of my things. Toddler clothes aren’t that big, right? Sigh, we love our house, but getting ready for kiddo #2 is definitely stretching my ability for creative in-home storage. I mourn our lack of a coat or linen closet. If we ever move, we’ll look a bit more closely for those closets.

Stay tuned for the big reveal of Lil’ O’s new big boy bedroom. It’s nearly done and he’s sleeping there already since he was really eager for his big boy bed. He was pretty patient as we waited to get the ceiling fixed, so I can’t blame him for eagerly making the new room his own, despite its lack of finishing touches. His move is also making it easier to prep for Lil’ Chica since I now have late-night access to the nursery. All will be ready soon. Six more weeks until Lil’ Chica is due to meet the world!

Resolutions Report Card

While it’s officially spring, it’s been crazy hot and dry this week, causing numerous wildfires throughout San Diego County. While the rest of the country seems to be basking in their first rays of spring sunshine, we’re battling scorched plants and worse. Thankfully the fires haven’t gotten that close to us yet, so our focus has been on staying cool and trying to keep our sad little plants alive through the heat. This focus on the outdoors (and the seasonal gardening section at Target) has reminded me of my somewhat neglected New Year’s resolutions. That’s because one of my main resolutions was to plant something, ideally something edible, each season. I haven’t failed entirely in this as we did plant a persimmon tree, strawberries and a couple gardenia bushes this winter, but as I’m nesting inside the home, gardening has hardly been my focus of late. 

So, with this admission and self-inflicted kick to the backside, I’m evaluating the progress, or lack thereof, of all of my supposed New Year’s resolutions. Below is my self-graded Resolution Report Card.

Keep a Thankful Jar: C

Ok, so I haven’t done diddly squat with this yet. But, I have things in my head! That counts for a something, right? Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened so far this year that I’m super thankful for, and may even someday soon get put into a jar, so we can remember all our blessings come New Year’s Eve 2014. Or, maybe I’ll just keep a list; that seems more realistic…

• I’m Pregnant! Yup, that’s right, prego with #2. Super blessed and all seems to be going and growing smoothly J
• New Job! Lots of changes afoot here. This new gig is more hours, but allows me to work from home and realize a full-time salary. Since we’re expecting #2 per above, these are both great perks. Plus, I can now officially put on my resume that I’m a writer! Pinch me, the dream is alive!
• Husby Promoted! I know, it just keeps on coming! It’s a miracle our heads aren’t still spinning from all the changes that took place in January and February.
• Influx of 2T and 3T clothing for Lil’ O from gal pal Jay, my sister-in-law and a wonderful grandma in my church community. I even called Ms. E over to share in the bounty of 3T goodies as there’s no way Lil’ O can possibly wear all of these awesome items.
• Birthday visit from Meema and G’pa. The Ohio grandparents came out for about 10 days around Lil’ O’s birthday to soak in some sunshine and celebrate with us. It was such a joyous time!
• It's a girl! We decided to find out the sex of the baby this time around and the verdict is that we’re expecting a girl. We’re so excited to meet her!
• Maternity clothes from a lovely, fashionable neighbor. I don’t need much, but am of course pregnant in the warmer months this time around when most of my previous maternity wear is geared toward winter, so some super cute, new-to-me pieces are a total score!

Plant Something (Edible) Each Season: B+ 
As I mentioned above, we did plant things this winter, so we haven’t failed yet. Those plants are even still (mostly) alive! I have a plan of the plants we want to plant this spring, and we’ve got a few new edibles planted in the past few weeks, but I don’t have much of a plan beyond that yet. Hopes are high, but I need to find a local nursery that’s better stocked than our local Home Depot and the heat is already taking a toll on the grass and some of the things planted this winter. Gardenias, I’m especially looking at you! The one positive, I suppose, is that Lil' O and Knute do really enjoy when we bring the watering can or hose out for some manual plant watering.

Allow Myself More Grace: B 
Happy to report that I’m doing ok here. Trying not to be quite so Type A and hard on myself, but to shrug a bit more off and let things go. There is a toddler pretty much running this house after all. I’m still striving, but if things slip I’m working to just say “oh, well” instead of beating myself up over whatever it may be. Progress, solid progress.

Did anyone else make New Year’s resolutions and even moderately stick to them? I’d love to hear more about your goals and progress, remembering of course that self-grace must be doled out heartily. No guilt trips!