I know my life is not glamorous by any means, but I love it. This is just a really, really sweet time in our lives, and it was actually a lot of fun to record all the little details of the day. I wish I had done this at different points of my daughter’s life to look back on (and probably cry). I feel like as a parent I just crave cementing memories in my head. I can’t slow time down, so I just want to hold on as long as I can. Ok, deep thoughts, let’s get going on Thursday’s recap:

6:57 a.m.

Wake up when I hear Cecelia. Head into her room and scoop her up from her crib. I want to bring her back into my bed to snuggle (and so I can doze back off for a few minutes since she woke me up during the night), but she is requesting oatmeal so we head straight to the kitchen. Once I get going, I’m awake and feeling good. She has Trader Joe’s blueberry oatmeal with sliced bananas and I make some coffee and wait to eat since I’m not hungry yet.

That mug was a little memento from our anniversary trip to Sedona, AZ. It makes me happy.

I start putting away dishes and get out some steak to marinade. Cecelia sees it and asks, “Is that watermelon?” (pronounced “wagermelon.”) I tell her it’s steak and she replies “I love steak.” Haha.

Once she’s done eating I clean her up and start a load of a laundry.

Laundry detergent on the left, and Nature Bright stain removal on the right.

While I do laundry, C starts cooking in her kitchen. A sweet friend handed this kitchen down to us, and since our home is small, it ended up in the laundry room, which actually works out great.

I make the bed

and ignore the sight of the other side of the room (piles of mail, clothes to go through, bags of goodwill stuff, etc.)

8:00

I’m hungry now so I make a bowl of 2% Greek yogurt with blackberries, strawberries, sliced almonds, chia seeds and some raw honey. I think I’ve bought raw honey before that wasn’t so hard, but this just wasn’t runny at all. Can I warm it up so I can drizzle it, or does that defeat the purpose of it being raw and retaining the nutrients? Need to look into that…

Several years ago, Joe and I put this little food station together. When you don’t have a ton of space and storage, you have to go vertical, and it is just so handy to have some of these things easy to grab (chia seeds, nuts, craisins, chocolate chips, quinoa, brown rice, etc.)

Of course someone else wants some yogurt as well…

So I make her a bowl with organic whole milk yogurt, chia seeds, blackberries and honey. We both take our vitamins.

Mighty Smarts aka “fish oil chewy” and Incredivites for her. Note the tiny fingers trying to grab the bag.

Vitalizer for me (this contains fish oil, multivitamin/multimineral/antioxidants, and probiotics). FYI if you purchase Vitalizer you automatically get membership for free ($19.95 value, no renewals or minimum purchases) and can save you 15-25% off Shaklee products. 

I get Cece dressed and notice her plant is looking dry, so I water the plants around the house.

I need to take a shower since I didn’t take one the day before, so I turn on some Daniel Tiger for C to watch and move some laundry along as well. 

Throw on one of my “mom uniforms” aka t-shirt and jeans (it pretty much alternates between that and yoga pants and a zip up). C and I head outside to play. Katie drops off my niece while she gets her haircut, and the girls turn my heart to mush as they play.

Before walking to the park, I grab a bar to snack on.

We play at the park for awhile and it is such a gift to be enjoying the warm weather, watching these two girls giggle and listening to them sing as they swing. Just so, so thankful. Also, C has her daddy’s agility and climbs up everything like it ain’t no thang. I drill in her head a million times how I need to be standing right next to her when she climbs. Oy.

The girls play for awhile and then we head back home and the girls play with bubbles and chalk. We sit and talk with my wonderful neighbors for a bit, and then head inside for lunch.

This picture KILLS ME.

The girls have these hot dogs, frozen peas, and a pear. We do not eat completely organic so I won’t specify everything that is organic and what’s not since it just seems silly. They see me cutting up a bell pepper and cucumber and want some of those as well. I also make a green smoothie after lunch (unsweetened vanilla almond milk, plain yogurt, spinach, a banana, frozen pineapple and frozen mango). In my opinion, Trader Joe’s has the best frozen pineapple and mango. The girls love to sip the smoothies out of tiny plastic tea cups.

Katie is back so I make us a big salad. Spring greens, cucumbers, avocado, carrots, bell pepper, pecans, feta, and turkey. I sprinkle on a little garlic powder, sea salt and black pepper, and drizzle in some balsamic and olive oil.

1:15

The girls head home and it’s nap time. We read some stories from Cecelia’s High Five magazine and then we sing and I lay her down. She wants me to hold her hand until she falls asleep and I agree.

Once she’s down, I finish eating my salad while standing at the island and checking facebook and instagram–I know, not good. I wash the dishes from breakfast and lunch, fold a few loads of laundry, drink the leftover green smoothie, change into workout clothes, and then head outside to finish pulling the insane amount of tiny maple trees and weeds that are growing in our mulch beds. I can’t believe how just 48 hours before, we were wearing coats, and now I’m sweating in shorts and a tank top. May is by far my favorite month of the year. 

Before:

After:

I cannot wait to get fresh mulch down and plant some flowers! After spending a little over an hour cleaning out most of the beds…but procrastinating on the back of the house because that area has WAY more issues than a few weeds…I head back inside.

Super refreshing iced matcha tea goes down so easily. It was 90 degrees outside!

4:30

Cecelia is awake! When I come in her room she says, “Look, you don’t have clothes on.” I had on shorts and a tank top-she cracks me up. She gets changed into more summery clothes since it’s so hot, and says “tank top like Momma.” I ask if she wants a snack and remember she had requested almond butter the other day, so we make some in the food processor.

And take some selfies while we wait…

Her kisses are the SWEETEST.

Cecelia gobbles almost all of this up (plus more almond butter-she loves it). 

5:00

Yay! Dada’s home already! He showers and then we head to the store to grab another propane tank, some guac and beer (you know, the essentials). My dad is coming over since my mom is out of town visiting my grandparents, and Katie, Sam and my niece come over as well.

This is Cecelia’s pear tree we planted the spring she was born. I love when it blooms!

Little tree hugger.

Papa and the boys entertain the girls and Joe handles the grilling while I put together the sides for dinner.

We have steak (that sadly, I didn’t love), grilled pineapple, barbeque chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, and a salad.

Katie brought some treats from Trader Joe’s for dessert. I enjoy a few of these yummy banana slices.

C takes a shower and gets into her ballerina nightgown. Papa does puzzles with C while Joe and I clean up.

8:30

Joe gets C down for bed while I put laundry away, wash the dishes, and make his lunch for tomorrow.

Sandwich with ham, pepperjack, spinach, mayo, and spicy mustard on whole wheat, with pineapple, blackberries, chips and guacamole, and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. Every morning he drinks a protein shake.

Cecelia is having a hard time going to sleep so Joe comes out and I take his place. For the past month or so she has not been wanting to put herself to sleep a majority of the time, especially at bedtime. I don’t know if it’s a developmental thing with having new fears (she tells me, “Cece won’t hear noises,” like she is reassuring herself). It’s tough but also a very tender time to pray with her, sit in the glider and just snuggle and sing. Sometimes we’ve let her cry it out which is really hard, and other times I feel like I’m going to go crazy–just to keep it real. She finally falls asleep, I head to the couch and work on this post for a little bit, and then hop in the shower since I was feeling gross from sweating most of the day. Joe and I head to bed and I read “Power of a Praying Wife” for a few minutes before I shut off the light at midnight and fall fast asleep. Thankfully, C sleeps through the night (yeah…not an every night occurrence), and I wake up at 7:00 the next morning while she snoozes past 8.

Life isn’t perfect, but I pray I don’t take it for granted. Some days I eat a bunch of garbage, and then feel like such. Some days I feel like I got nothing accomplished. Some days are exhausting or frustrating, or… you get the picture.

But today? It was a really good day.