1. Insanity- 3 weeks in. 1/3 done. Fighting the middle blues. Nutrition choices are the hardest part of this. Five small meals a day of equal calories goes against EVERY pattern of food consumption I hold. It’s a work in progress for sure. The workouts rock. I have gotten over the lack of good music. I don’t have the energy to even worry about it. Every single part of me is needed to complete these work outs and push myself harder every time. They are awesome.

I had a brief scare of a neck injury when I forgot my daughter was 8 and not 3 and I tried to fly her over my head. She had other plans and my neck was her crash landing spot. Strange twinges, wow. We are both fine now. The crisis was averted and I was thankful it was an Insanity recovery day. I have not missed a workout yet.

2. My daughter had her last soccer game of the season over the weekend. It was POURING rain. Some kids were crying, but not my girl. She was in her happy place. I actually saw the twinkle in her eye and she scored one goal per quarter for a total of FOUR!  Her team finished the season strong and swiped first place overall for the season. #totallyasoccermom

There is nothing like watching your child find their thing. Ya know?

I could barely grab a couple of pictures. The camera had to go back to the car to stay dry.

Someone takes after his older sister. He could have cared less about the wind and rain and cold. He was all over it. #gimmieapuddleplease

3. This little dude is having a love affair with all things train. Choo Choo rings through my house in many forms for a lot of the day. It’s fantastic.

4. Levis baby butts are spectacular.

5. I am excited to be joining in my sweet friend Carlie’s A COOKIE A DAY TIL CHRISTMAS SERIES. Fabulously delicious stuff going on. You definitely don’t wanna miss that! I will be giving the recipe for White chocolate cookie dough truffles.

6. My camera strap was falling apart and looking pathetic and sad. THEN I got an email with a special on some fancy ones. Lulu and June on Etsy. Cuteness galore. GREAT customer service. Isn’t she pretty? I’m in camera strap heaven.

 7. This morning I received an email from a fairy godmother, I am pretty sure. She saw some of my photography on a friend’s Facebook page and wanted to let me know of their location. Her email involved words like horses, Victorian couches, barns, acres of natural and prepared backdrops. I think my heart stopped for a brief moment. Next week I will be touring this new photo location and trying to act all cool and grown up like while doing so. If Victorian couches are involved it might be difficult to contain my composure.

8. Still trying to work on getting myself into pictures. Good grief it’s harder then it seems. Yucky phone pic in the dark watching Polar Express is all I managed this week. I love my boy.

9. I feel a photo shoot coming on. I know a cute blonde who happens to wear a 2t pant and his mama found a pair of green skinny jeans at Target. Ha-le-lujah. #GreenJeansPhotography

10. In just a couple hours the Christmas decor is coming out. Shawn is at a Niners game with some friends in San Francisco. I’m totally like 70% happy for him and 30% jealous. I am going to not cook, order the kids pizza for dinner and start deckin’ my halls.

xo

1. It’s going to rain this week. I am conflicted. While I have been secretly begging God for rain, it is scheduled to come on the day of my costume photo event. Hmmmm. Wet soggy costumed kids in muddy winery fields. Not fun. I feel a reschedule coming on.

2. I attended a women’s retreat at this last weekend. They had a trail mix bar that was open all weekend. A table full of a ton of containers of different ingredients- gummy bears to wasabi peas. Oh, the combinations. Morning, noon, and night the crack was available to us. I discovered a beautiful combination. Dried pineapple, sunflower seeds, and Heath bits (you know the kind that you buy by the chocolate chips). Trail Mix is not healthy – don’t be fooled. It was delicious, but now I have to kick box for like ten extra hours and go through trail mix withdrawals. Those evil little retreat planning genius people.

3. Speaking of our retreat, I learned a new card game. Egyptian rat slap. I suck at it. I lost big. BUT the upside is you get to scream and slap things. I do both of those things really really well.

4. One more piece of retreat news. Very VERY rustic settings make a great home for the fake centipede on the rim of the toilet seat trick. There was a lot of nervous pee-ers in Berry Patch #8, thanks to the adorable tiny retreat goer and my new friend from the cabin across the way. She shall remain nameless.

5. We’ve been busy with soccer. A good busy. My girl gets on the field and goes to her happy place. She’s scrappy, that one. It’s so fun to watch her. Her team and her coach are fantastic. This soccer mama is sad that we only have four more games.

 6. I have discovered the best time to paint your nails. Get all of your kids buckled in their seats. Turn the car on. Paint away while resting your hand on the steering wheel. Now you have a good 10 minutes or more for them to dry while you drive. Make sure and put your own seat belt on first.

7. I learned a new word today in the sermon today at church.

Chagrin. disquietude or distress of mind caused by humiliation, disappointment, or failure.

8. Today is the end of the first quarter of school. Can’t believe it. We have quarter tests, oil painting projects, and a movie on the agenda. The coming rain will require a fire and pumpkin spice hot chocolate to accompany my afternoon of grading papers and issuing progress reports for my three little students.

9. Have you seen Leap Year? Amy Adams is quite fantastic. It’s a couple of years old, but I just discovered and I love it.

10. When things get tough…  ”God, I love you. I don’t love this situation, but I love you. Therefore, I have everything I need to keep putting one foot in front of the other and walk through until I get to the other side of this.” -Lysa TerKeurst.

11. I will leave you with two of my favorite images from this past week. #thankful

Happy Monday.

1.

 Thank you Word Press. I needed the encouragement today. I AM better, faster, and more attractive, thank you very much. So very nice of you to notice.

2. My daughter’s soccer team had their second game last weekend. It was like a bad car wreck. You almost couldn’t turn your head away, but you almost couldn’t look either. They were a different team from the previous Saturday. The other team’s goalie could have taken her bff out to lunch and had a mani and pedi during the game and it really wouldn’t have mattered. We only used half of the field. Every last inch of everything involved was an uphill battle. We lost 8 to zero. My week has not been much different. Nothing intensely earth shattering, really, just nothing is coming easy.

I stood there watching the soccer game and remembering that victories are not nearly as fantastic if you don’t have to go through the trenches. It’s just like pregnancy, I’ve decided. Nine months of agonizing everything all leading up to that one unbelievable moment where they place that new little lump of heaven on your chest. It would not be nearly as fantastic without all the suffering to get there. That’s my theory and I’m stickin’ to it. If you have had a trouble free pregnancy and you were a size 2 the entire time with no side effects, you are not allowed to weigh in on this conversation, o.k.? OK!

3. Green Jeans is coming along fantastically. I have 13 sessions scheduled in the next two months, a costume photo event, and I am working with a 90 family preschool to provide Christmas photos for their families. You really can pinch me now. I was nervous the night before I launched this baby thinking, what if no one wants me to take their pictures at all? What a blessing this has been so far, that has far and above exceeded my wildest expectations. It is meeting some very deep needs in my family. I am so grateful and look forward to continuing to grow and learn and receive my new lens that is coming soon!

If you have an extra minute or two, head on over to my Facebook Page and like Green Jeans! Thanks! I appreciate it!

4. We are continuing to learn more and more about eating healthy, unprocessed, real food. I decided to begin posting once a week about some aspect of eating and what we used to do, how we fixed, and why. You know like cereals, breads, oils, etc. I am no expert by any means, but I am taking time to continue to learn and will drag you all, as my fabulous friends, right along with me. It’ll be fun, I promise.

5. We have mice. Did I mention that? They are the teeniest tiniest of mice. The fact that I have enough mice experience to know that these are tiny is somewhat disappointing. The thing that I have learned about mice is you can’t hardly catch them. It’s rare. You have to figure out where they are coming from and cut them off at the source. More money than I care to add up has been spent on mice trapping extravaganza’s. It’s kind of a joke. A couple of nights ago I sat on the kitchen counter drinking a spice pumpkin hot chocolate and hoping to catch a clue as to where they were coming in. The house was quiet, except for the mice. Who needs cable? I sat there and watched the mice cleverly avoid our traps and continue to monopolize my house like they owned it.

Last night it all changed as one lept forth from the grate under the fireplace. They are in for it now. Steel wool is my new best friend. Sorry Jack and Gus Gus. You outta here.

6. Dollar Tree. Fantastic Contact Paper. My bathroom shelves are pretty once again.

7. After much consideration, I have chosen my little guy’s Halloween costume. It’s beyond. Pretty soon he is going to have an opinion, so I have to savor these choices while I can still make them. I am going to create it tomorrow night. Wish me luck. The sewing machine and I have a love-I loathe you type of relationship.

 8. Sometimes, I really do wish they could just stay little.

 9. Happy Monday Tuesday.

1. Monday was a holiday. I took full advantage, but now I am going to be up WAY too late getting ready for Tuesday.

2. If this were a painting on a wall in a museum, it would be titled SIX PEOPLE, ONE STARBUCKS, AND A DOG.

3. Happy Birthday Dear Mommy. She’s 65. I’m going to age well, it’s in my genes and totally unrelated, hopefully I will figure out how to take pictures with my phone in low lit restaurants soon.

4. I started my two oldest kids on the couch 2 5k program today. With swanky new running shoes purchased by the pretty lady above, we busted out week one, day one. I wasn’t sure my 12 year old would survive, but she proved me wrong and ran it out no problem. I love doing this with them. I can’t wait to let them experience the thrill of finishing their first 5k in about 2 months.

5. My friend gave me these cubbies. After a couple of cans of spray paint and some contact paper {which I already had both at home} I have a fabulous place for all of my little monster’s toys.

I love free things and free makeovers. AND I love Little People turned superheroes. You can count on the fact that I will be buying my child the Little People Wonder Woman Invisible Airplane for his second birthday. I don’t care if he’s a boy. He can have the plane and I will have Wonder Woman. It works.

6. Cutest. Frame. Ever.

7. I found two yards of adhesive ribbon for .97 cents. My candles got a 60 second makeover. Just in time for fall. Which I realize is kind of a ridiculous statement because this ribbon, in fact, has nothing to do with fall what so ever.

8. Tonight was an emotional night. We had to say goodbye to some very dear friends. She held my baby boy the whole first night after he was born in between feedings, so I could get some sleep. I sat with her while her third born came into this world. I held her in the hall when her fourth child almost left this world. We do holidays together, we do parks together, we do Panera together, we do middle of the night car rescues together, we’ve done many, many memories together. I am going to miss them. They are off to a new adventure in Texas and I know will have the time of their lives. BUT goodbyes suck. They suck bad. Because their adoption is not yet final and they can’t post pictures online, I can’t show you the fun ones we took tonight. Instead, I will show you this one Ashley took of one of her twins, which may be even be more fitting. We love you guys and send you off with happy and heartbroken hearts. Yeehaw.

9. School work is calling. I have a class full of four little lovelies arriving in just a few hours. Oy Vey.

1. The first day of school. Somebody needs to write a catchy song about it. I’d sing it loudly. Oh wait, come to think of it, I think Nemo took care of that…

 2. We are getting our family photos done tonight! I can’t wait. After 3 months with my photography business officially opened, I have learned that I am not the only one that doesn’t enjoy being in front of the camera. However, having pictures of my sweet family all together will be worth it. We haven’t had a family photo done since 2002. Shame.

3. I dusted off the sewing machine. Our new classroom does not have overhead lighting and so we had to go with a plug in style of light and well, there is cords. My sister suggested a long cord cover of multiple fabrics. For $10 the problem is solved. If it can’t be hidden, flaunt it. Amen?

4. Pinterest taught me how to clean burner thingys. Turns out that Pinterest is a useful site for more than just pinning. Carefully pour 1/4 cup of ammonia in a big ziploc bag. Put the burner in there and seal that bad boy up. Leave overnight. DO NOT LEAVE ON AN OUTDOOR WOODEN TABLE because something funky may happen where the ammonia might start to lift up the stain. Hypothetically speaking. Once you pull the burner things out of the bag in the morning, the goop wipes right off, with no scrubbing. The fumes is what does it apparently. There is no need to soak the burner. Ammonia is powerful stuff, the fumes will kill ya, but it’s worth it.

5. I love the people where we live and I am grateful for my home BUT somebody needs to talk to somebody about the people who build the stuff where we live. Its itty bitty strip mall after itty bitty strip mall. Completely void of color or interesting things to look out. The houses are pretty much the same with the exception of a couple of neighborhoods. I was home in the bay area recently and even this parking garage looked fun. I swear I almost went in, even with no need to park.

6. Shark Tank. I’m totally addicted.

7. I updated my About Me page. Check it out on the upper right hand part of your screen.

8. I love this boy. I  C A N  N O T   B E L I E V E  he is almost 2. Seems like yesterday.

Happy Monday.