Doing What I Have Never Done Before...

As you may recall, I started a new direction for this blog a few weeks ago (original post here). The goal was to explore the interesting, frustrating but never boring world of being ADHD. I touched on it one or two more times after the inital post, but I haven't continue to write like I had originally wanted to. I think that I started to get a little nervous about opening up & talking about things that I struggle with. What if {fill in the blank} reads this? What if someone reads it & thinks differently of me? Or what if.....? The list kept growing and I started to doubt what the point of writing it all down was in the first place.



Then I remembered that I want to improve my life and figure out what I am made of. Part of that is to do things that I have never done before. I feel like I am always trying to get better at the things that I am not that great at and I never feel like I really get anywhere, no matter how hard I try. My friends & family will always say, "yea, but look how far you have come..." Yes, I have come far, thanks entirely to becoming reacquainted with my Man, Jesus & becoming a mother. Both of these relationships have brought me more joy, love & happiness than I could have ever imagined. I was a little, ummm, rowdy before I had Reese, so when I became a momma, I had to figure out what kind of mother I needed to be to be a good one to Reese. I stayed home all the time and I loved it (I used to be the person who was never home, always out). I think that I used that time to try and "get organized" because I would be a better person if I was organized. I wouldn't be late for work if I was more organized...you get the idea. I have become much more organized in the last couple of years, but at what expense? Staying home all weekend, trying to get laundry done, bathrooms cleaned, food made for the week, finances in order, dust, change the beds because if my house could just all be cleaned and organized and put away, like magic, I would finally be organized. If I was organized, then I would use my day planner religiously and never be late for work again. Right? Wrong. I have to come to some sort of agreement with the ADHD. I know that I have to find my own kind of organization and be confident in it because it works for me. I am always apologizing for and making fun of, my own problems with organization, when I am actually good at organizing things. {You should see my linen closet!} I do feel that "the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over & over and expecting different results" is happening before my very eyes. This happens to me a lot. I look back & I see the same mistakes made then are some of the very same ones that I continue to make today. So, what to do? Let's go on an adventure and do what we have not done before, in order to go where we have never gone before...who said that? I don't know, but it is the truth.

Who is in?

I am.

I am going to have to think about how to articulate what my goals are for this year. I make them every year and never write them down and keep focused on them. This year was a little different. I planned a wedding {loved it}, got married {love it}, my baby started kindergarten and we bought a house. Those things all required planning and organization. But it is time to do some things a bit differently this year when it comes to making changes. I am going to keep track of my goals on my blog and see what happens.

sweet. it's on....










{This is actually a t shirt...funny}

Product Review Friday : An Ode to my Favorite Food Group: Cereal

So, I thought that I was going to give a review about something hip in the design world, but let's face it, I have nothing to give a review about in that area this time around. I will do my homework for next week. So, I have to write about something that I know about and I know that I love me some cereal. When I was a kid, my Mom was a natural foods kind of Mom...hmmm, sounds familiar. There were no Lucky Charms to be found in our pantry. My Dad used to joke that when my Mom made cookies, she went around the house and found all of the dust bunnies from under the beds and put them into the batter. Gross Dad! She didn't really, but she did grow her own bean sprouts. Way to go Mom! I remember once my Mom went out of town and my Dad took us grocery shopping. My sister and I put all sorts of things that my Mom would have never bought in the cart and my Dad was like, "sure, those look good." Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch...yesssss.

Anyway, my tastes have changed but I am still a Cereal Connoisseur. I have taken after my Mom and I buy natural cereal for my little family. However, I am not blind to the expense of buying boxed cereals. Holy shit. $4.99 for an 10 ounce box of cereal goodness? Uh, no thank you. So, I clip coupons and buy what is on sale and I always pay close attention to the ounces in the box. But we are not talking about the cost or coupons in this post. This post is dedicated to My Favorite Cereals (in no particular order):

{1. Peanut Butter Bumpers}: This was the food of choice when I was pregnant with Reese. I would buy a couple of boxes at a time. The ingredient list is about 4 ingredients, with nothing artificial, plus pregnant women find it delectable.

{2. Kashi Heart to Heart Oat Flakes and Wild Blueberry Clusters}: Wonderful & Scrumptious, with just the right amount of blueberry-ness and not too sweet. Definitely one of my all-time favorites!

{3. Yogi Cereals}: OOOO.M.G. These are my new favorites...the Walnut Spice Crunch is especially delicious. I bought them on sale at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago and I think that I have a crush (or would it be a crunch? hahahaha) on this brand of cereal. The ingredients are simple, natural and just plain good. Instead of adding in vitamin C, they add in goji berries, which are very high in vitamin c and antioxidants. I wish more food companies thought like this.

{4. Mom's Best}: One day while shopping at my conventional grocery store, I stumbled upon this brand while shopping in their "Natural Foods" department. I almost cried when I saw the price...$1.99 for a 13.5oz box! I bought 2 of both kinds and my 5 year old and my husband loved both kinds. Now, on the box it says "Family-Owned for Four Generations" and " Mom's Best is named for our mother who taught us the importance of good food and good value." The family that owns this company is the same one that produces Malt-O-Meal, also known as MOM. Get it? Because I didn't until I read this blog, Locally Grown Northfield (as in Northfield, Minnesota). Malt-O-Meal, MOM, Mom's Best. The company really is owned by decendents of the founder of the company, who started it in 1919. I learned that here. Their cereal really is good & you can download $.75 coupons on their website.

{5. John McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal}: I love oatmeal. But Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal? Deeelicious. Steel cut oats are made of regular rolled oats that are put through a cutting machine that cuts each oat into about 4 pieces. When you cook them (and they do take longer to cook, but totally worth it), they have a very different texture than typical slow-cooked oatmeal. They sort of have a creamier texture. McCann's use non-GMO oats, as these are not allowed in Ireland. Their oats are grown by farmers who grow them specifically for McCann's. Try them, you'll like them!

{6. These are really good & MUCH better for you than P*P Tarts}: No artificial colors or flavors. No partially hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup. Enough said.

{7. Kashi Go Lean Crunch}: Tasty...but Google "Kashi Go Lean Crunch" and look at the second option when the drop down menu appears. Be careful not to eat too much of this cereal. I warned you!!

This is one post that will emerge from the drafts...

Hi. I have started writing at least 5 posts, never to finish a single one. This is not entirely my fault...We have been doing some office renovations at work and I haven't had time to do anything else. Sometimes I eat at my desk and blog, it just seems to work better than trying to write at night. What I really need to do is purchase a used laptop or an inexpensive one, and sneak off to Starbucks on my lunch. I go crazy if I am here and don't leave all day. Josh has a laptop and we set up my own user account, but it just isn't the same. I need a place to organize all of my craft & design porn! I really enjoy writing and finding things to talk about isn't a hard thing for me to do, that is for sure.

So, a few months ago, I came across this lovely blog Little Green Notebook, which is the blog of Pearl Street Interiors. The woman behind both is the incredible Jenny. She has great style and has a great sense of hmor, too. She is expecting her 3rd baby girl and judging by her last post, she has most likely had the baby by now. Anyway, she is AMAZING at refinishing furniture and looking at creative ways to breathe some life and style into existing furniture. Here is a taste of some of her work:

{Before}

{After}

{I know, right?!?}

Love it! I recently acquired some chairs and 5 file cabinets that are begging to be refurbished. They were going to be thrown away by my office and so I was able to get them for free. Lucky for me, my husband is all about refinishing furniture, so we will keep you posted on what happens to them. Soon, he will have Sundays off of work, so we will actually have a day off together!! This is the first time that we will both be off on the same day since, well, ever. The only time we both have a day off is if one of us is taking a vacation day. Sooooo excited! We have a bunch of projects that we can't wait to work on, namely the sanding, painting and reinstalling of our baseboards that we took out in order to put in our new bamboo floors.

Well, that does it for me...I will see you again soon.

A Few Random Facts...

Inspired by my friend Maria at the lovely blog Little Things Are Big, today I am going to share some random facts about myself:

• I love re-reading books that I read as a kid. and as a kid, I often read the same books multiple times. I think that I have read Pippi Longstocking at least a dozen times.
• I do not like the word "Clog." As in clogged drains, etc. Coincidentally, I wear a pair of black clogs almost daily. even just typing it made my throat feel funny.
• I don't like when my hands are dry. Therefore, I put lotion on about a million times a day. That feeling of dry hands...yuck.
• I used to wear wool socks with my birkenstocks and I had no fashion sense whatsoever. None. Zip. Just ask my friend Andrea, who had to walk to school with me every day.
• I had arguably the worst haircut of all time in the beginning of the 8th grade. It was so bad that my Dad had to hide a smile when he saw me. He wasn't being mean, it was a "Oh, I feel so bad, but it is a really bad haircut" kind of a smile. He reassured me that "no one will even notice." He was right, no one noticed. Until I got on the bus the next day and the first thing a kid said to me was "Nice haircut!"
• I love getting in to a bed with clean sheets. Nothing like crisp sheets.
• I have skydived and I have the video to prove it.
• I used to be a High Ropes instructor at a camp. I sat on a platform in a tree 40' above the ground and put kids on to the longest zip line in Colorado.
• I have traveled across the country to see the band Phish.

In January...

This will always be my very own blog, where I can give my two cents on various topics or bore you with getting batteries for my watch (still wearing it- yessssssssss) and entertain you with my triumphs and yes, mishaps in parenting. However, since we have bought our first house and got married, all in the same month, Josh and I have started a new blog where we will document our adventures in renovating our 1957 ranch. We are working on some of the first posts and getting all of our photos organized, but here is the link in the meantime:

Knox Court {A Mid-Century Modern Makeover}
A Young Family's Adventure Renovating Their 1957 Ranch

We love our new/old house so much and I knew it was our house when I pulled up on a rainy afternoon this summer, 2 days after it was put on the market. I knew when I realized that the house had a mail slot next to the amazing sunburst front door that this was the house for me. I am not one to be happy in a super suburb and I love a house with some history. We put an offer on it shortly after that and after a few bumps in the road, we closed on it and moved in at the very end of August...

So, when I somehow stumbled onto the Dude Craft website and found his link to Curbly and their new Make it! Mid-Century Modern book release party and the amazing ottoman give away, I had the perfect intro to our new blog. Here is a photo of the ottoman:

{Pretty sweet, huh? Looks like this book that is going on my wish list!}

Well, I hope that you will check out our new blog in January. I have posted one post and will post a few pictures of our house as a little teaser. I think that you will agree that our front door is "boss" as my Dad used to say (and sometimes still does)...

{This door had me at hello}