Well hello there February!!!! Long time, no see.
We did it, we made it thru January. In my opinion it is one of the worst months of the year. You have the let down from the past two months of holiday excitement. It is ridiculously cold and everything is brown. At least in February we have Valentines Day, the Daddy Daughter dance, and Maddie’s birthday.
I am definitely looking forward to March. That is when I feel like we have really made it thru the winter and we are staring Spring in the face! We’ll finally have a few warmer days, which means friday afternoon happy hours and time with friends. The flowers begin to peek thru the dirt and the trees start to show a haze of green. I will welcome those days with open arms!
I am going to fill this post with summer flowers to give us all a little winter boost!
Here are a few things that got me thru this last week in January, gratefully:
Snapchatting with Maddie
When it comes to Snapchat I am definitely a 41 year old mom. I have no idea how to “post”, communicate, or see other people’s snaps on the app. The only thing I DO know is how to use the face filter to turn yourself into funny creations… a teddy bear with sunglasses, a rockstar, a dog with a long slurpee tongue, a zombie, etc… My kids love to use it to turn themselves into funny characters or swap faces with each other (btw, face swap is pee-your-pants funny!). It is an app that we use purely for laughter and fun.
This week Maddie and I were in her room looking at dresses for the upcoming Daddy/Daughter Dance. I broke out the snapchat app and we took funny pictures and did skits while recording with the voice changer. As we watched back the videos we would laugh almost to tears. I love moments like this with her. They are definitely not taken for granted. I know as she slips into her teens we will share fewer and fewer of these times.
This week I was grateful for 20 minutes of laughter and silliness with Maddie.
Ab App
Ab App, say that 10 times real fast!
I love to work out. When I find time I actually enjoy running outside and going to the gym. It makes me feel so refreshed and clear headed once the work out is done. While I am at the gym I feel super confident on the treadmill, the stairmaster, the bike, using the free weights or running the track. Where I run into problems is doing floor exercises on my own. I either feel like I look like a fool or that I am not doing the exercises correctly and onlookers are thinking “what in the heck is she doing!?”. So I have avoided doing core workouts all together. Which is a problem!
The other day I was browsing Instagram when a sponsored post showed up for something called “Abs Workout App”. Normally I would ignore this kind of ad but this one was right up my alley. It was exactly what I needed. ((Sidenote- do you ever feel like google can read your mind!!??? Creepy)) It is a free app that shows you (correct) workouts that help with core strengthening. I have been dealing with back issues for a while and I know it is due to my lack of core muscles (aka. muffin top). So I clicked thru to check it out and I am so happy I did. This little app is perfect for me. In one workout it takes you thru 14 exercises, 30 seconds each, for a total of 7 minutes. There is even a little person that shows you how the exercise is done. 7 minutes isn’t a huge time commitment so I know I will do it, even if I have to do it at home in my living room.
I am thankful for the Abs Workout App to help me strengthen my core, reduce my back issues, and help me not look like a fool at the gym.
Wrong Words
This is such a little thing but it always makes me smile so I think it belongs on my list of gratitude.
Kyle will say a lot of words wrong. As I think a lot of 5 year olds do. It’s not that he has a speech problem, I think he has heard certain words wrong and is then repeating them incorrectly. It’s like when you sing the wrong words to a song because you think that is what they are saying (lock the cashbox – rock the casbah, cheerio world – material girl, shy shockin’ sherry- I shot the sheriff , to name a few). Some of Kyles repeat offenders, that I have tried to correct, are knithe (knife) and breafask (breakfast). But, my favorite one that he said this week is mul-de-sac (cul-de-sac) and now our whole family says mul-de-sac. It’s just too cute and makes me smile every time he says it.
This week I am grateful for this little reminder of how young Kyle is and that he is still figuring things out.
Rest
As a mom I am constantly being pulled in different directions and am NEVER at a loss for things to do. My day is filled with grocery shopping, laundry, making beds, shuttling the kids around, picking up after the kids, making dinner, packing lunches.. you get the idea. There is rarely a moment where I sit down to just relax or put my feet up. Even at night I find myself catching up on things that didn’t get done during the day, getting ready for the next day, and carting the kids around to night time activities.
This week I had a few days where I was more tired than normal. No amount of coffee would perk me up enough. So I gave in and laid down on the couch to take a 30 minute nap before school pick up. It was only 30 minutes but it felt like 5 hours! I think sometimes mom’s get so caught up in the lives of the kids that we forget to take care of ourselves. We could all use a little more self care.
I was so thankful this week that I gave into my tiredness and took a little nap during the day. It definitely helped me be a better mom and wife.
A Game of Go Fish
This week Kyle found a deck of cards in our junk drawer. He was so excited at the thought that we could play with “adult” cards. When we play cards it is usually with like go fish cards or old maid cards. So we decided we would play go fish with the “adult” cards. We had a blast! Not to mention it was a great lesson in number recognition for Kyle. I love it when we sit down to play games together during the week. It’s like a little reprieve from the rush of activities. It’s the perfect way to wind down the day.
I was so grateful for the chance to sit down with my family and play a game at the end of my day. It was exactly where I wanted to be.
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