Fresh

Monday. Olivia. Life. Perspective.

Flashback Friday

I can safely assume that most of my Flashback Friday posts will be of Olivia. So I don't think it will hurt to start with me.

Sara, age 18:

Sara, age 28:

My, my how things have changed :-\

This is 28

(28 and the way I typically look - with half my makeup on ;-)

Today I am 28. Women have told me that your 30's are better than your 20's. I have always hoped that was true. Over the last few months, I've kind of had a preview of what's to come, and am starting to believe the best is yet. Not so much because my 20's have been bad. They have brought me a lot of wonderful things, and have been whole lot of fun. But because I have spent the last 6 or 7 years in limbo about who I am. My decades seem to be alternating. I was a shy and insecure (but happy!) child, and a very outgoing and confident teenager.  My 20's have been spent feeling incomplete and unsettled; wandering from idea to idea, and not understanding what people meant when they said, "Find yourself. Be yourself..."

I have started to feel different in the last few months. The first part of Olivia's life was spent learning about her. The last few months, she's made it more and more clear to me who I want to be. For her. For myself. A sense of self, if you will.

I am starting to feel more sure about what makes me complete and what makes me happy. I know what I want from life, and --this is a big one for people in their 20's-- am beginning to see what I want to give back to life.

In short: I feel good. I feel young. I feel happy to be celebrating my 28th birthday.



--End of typical twentysomething melodrama--



I sneaked in (okay, walked in and turned on the light and she never moved a muscle) to take this picture of my sleeping beauty this morning.

♥ Love ♥

Wordless Wednesday

Kitchen Work

We're still chipping away at that kitchen remodel. Yes, the one we started October 16, 2011. It's mostly done, and the finishing touches are going up now. Chris is never home, and there are some things I simply cannot do, so we've hired someone to finish things off. He's going to put up the backsplash (::sob:: I really wanted to say I did this on my own, but between work and the baby and everything else, I just don't have time) and the cabinet crown molding.



Backsplash tiles:

The kitchen is in use, and the handles are installed. So you know what that means?!?! I'm MOVING ON IN, baby! I started putting shelves in last night. These shelves are permanently installed or covered yet, but everything is in the new pantry with room to spare:

And your daily dose of cuteness:

Peanut Butter Breakfast

The Tester Child

I am not an artistic person. Those genes skipped straight to my brother and sister. I want to be, and I try to be, but the idea in my head rarely plays out. Case and point: Valentine's Day Cake. I saw an awesome post on Pinterest about how to make a heart shaped cake.

Well. First of all, make sure your pans are both the same size. I'm just going out on a limb here, but it might make things more difficult if you use an 8 inch square pan and a 9 inch round pan.

Also, two things about coloring your cake: Yellow cake does not dye well, and make sure to remember to color both cakes.

Thankfully, I have a tester child with which to practice my creativeness, and she's still too young to remember the lopsided, poorly iced, poorly decorated cakes her Gigi and I made.

Also being tested on Olivia: My observation skills. On Wednesday, when I started vacuuming the rug, she was sitting on the kitchen floor with a closed makeup bag. When I finished vacuuming, I found her outside with one of my makeup brushes, sitting in a chair contemplating life peacefully watching the sunset. I thought for sure she'd have been streaking across the yard after a dog, as she's apt to do. Instead, I found a little angle basking in our beautiful Texas weather.

Something else I need to work on: her hair. It's always in her face. It took me about 25 years to figure out how to make my own hair semi-presentable. I feel the need to get better at handling hair for this poor child. Last night, we practiced pig tails. They weren't perfect, but they were damn cute. And so were her glow in the dark Halloween PJs.

A Little Inspiration for Your Wednesday

http://www.kellehampton.com/2012/02/bloom.html


This is Kelle Hampton's plug for her new book, but the video in the blog is wonderful. Warning: Have some tissues handy. I'm at a very different crossroads in my life than her perspective here, but the message is universal and heart warming.

“You cannot control the things that happen in your life, but you can certainly control the way you spend your life.”

 "On that day when I thought my world was collapsing, really it was just expanding.”

“Grasp the message of embracing all that life offers, grief included, and making something grand of it.”

~Quotes from Kelle Hampton

Copy Cat

Olivia is repeating words right and left. She doesn't always understand what they mean, and she rarely repeats them when we haven't said them yet, but she can imitate us so clearly that it's strange. Cold, Yah, and Blue Green just in the last few days. She picked up Kitty Cat (and it's meaning) real quick when she met a kitty cat (wait, did I already talk about this?). Her favorite word right now is Good. She nods her head "Yes" one time and says, "Good!"

Since we've been on a cake making binge, we figured we may as well make a Valentine's cake. No Valentine pictures yet, but I do have cake making pictures! Mom of the year, I gave my child raw egg (in the form of cake batter). And she loved it. I really don't give her sweets very often, so she goes nuts when we do.

She's been testing the waters with everything lately. She knows what she's not supposed to do, so she goes over and does it while we're watching. She's watching so closely to see how we react. I've learned about myself that I have more patience than I thought.

Speaking of things I've learned about myself ... I need to work on my laugh. Liv copies it and it's mortifying! Do I really sound that ridiculous when I laugh? Sheesh.

It's actually gotten COLD here, so we busted out Liv's one and only winter coat. She was the hit of Costco. One guy even spoke to her in French, which I thoroughly enjoyed.



All's Well

How long do you think it takes a toddler to make this mess? If you answered the same amount of time it takes an adult to go pee, you'd be correct!

But, always one to please, she cleaned up her mess with me. Later that night I said, "Are you ready for some milk?" She ran ahead of me and crawled into her chair. She always amazes me by how much she understands.

When she gets a bath at Gigi's house, she always gets her hair done afterwards. I need to find one of the blowy curly thingies for home!

We had a beautiful visit with Grandmother for Superbowl weekend. Liv just loves to sit in Grandmother's lap and cuddle. Melts.My.Heart.

Unfortunately, someone came back from Grandmother's house with a black eye. She was a little too excited to play with the dogs. No, no one bit her, she just walked into the middle of play time and got a bit knocked around. All's well that ends well.

Back home, making more messes. Tea bags are wonderful sensory items. They smell great, and she loves to put them away (after she's rubbed them all over herself and the floor. Chris won't mind).

We went to Ikea for the first time. I wasn't overly impressed. Some cute things, but I am not so sure I'd want to buy my furniture there. Liv had an excellent time, though! She insisted on shopping with her shirt half off, but in a store full of parents, no one minded.