Wringing Out My Sponge: May 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Upcoming Adventures and a Trip to the Zoo!

It's been a crazy past couple of weeks, but things are calming down and we are getting back into a more calmer routine. This weekend my younger sister turns 30! We are going to Kansas City, MO for the weekend to watch a Cardinals baseball game and do some partying. I am excited. I am a little nervous too. It will be my first weekend away from the munchkin, and I am going to miss her, along with my husband, terribly! Hopefully, I will be having so much fun it won't bother me too badly. Only 2.5 more weeks until our family vacation in Michigan. We are renting a house on the lake and will have a whole week to just spend with each other and forget about everything else. My sister Amy and her family will be going along as well. I can't wait. We haven't gone on any real vacation in a really really really long time. I just need to get out of town for a little while!

I have started getting a little baby fever recently. We are not quite ready to start trying, but it could be pretty soon! I am nervous about being pregnant again, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would like to say that I did. Don't get me wrong, there are moments I loved. I loved feeling her moving inside of me and knowing that she was growing and would be with us soon. I love the anticipation of her arrival. What I did not love was getting so huge and uncomfortable! I was also very overwhelmed with the infant stage and have been really enjoying the age the munchkin is at now. Starting all over is a little scary to me, but I am still excited none the less. I am hoping the next go around will be a little easier. I am excited about adding a new little baby girl or boy to our family and giving the munchkin a sibling. I also follow so many pregnant bloggers right now and its a bit contagious!

We took the munchkin to the zoo this past weekend. It was cold, rainy and yucky but we still had a good time. It was her first time going to the zoo and it's been a while since I have been there myself. If you are ever in the St. Louis area, you should definitely check out the zoo. It is one of the best zoos in the country AND it's free!! My girl Anna, her hubs and little boy met us there. We hoped the rain would pass over us eventually, but it never happened. Luckily, we had our umbrellas, so we soldiered on. I didn't get very many pics under the circumstances, but I grabbed a few in between raindrops.

I have been trying to keep up with all of the blogs I follow, even if I haven't been keeping up with mine. I have some new recipes I want to post soon too! Hopefully I will be adding them in the near future.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year was pretty wonderful. Certainly a huge improvement over last year. I was in a completely different place then. I didn't even blog about it last year because it was really hard for me to find any spare time for blogging and I wasn't always in the best spirits. When you have a baby that is most likely crying and screaming whenever she is awake, blogging just isn't easy. Plus we had just moved for the 2nd time in 4 months. Things were just crazy! I would say though, it was right around Mother's Day last year, when things were starting to shift. It's been getting better ever since.

Even with everything that is going on now, and with as busy as I have been, this year was much more relaxed. I woke up in the morning to a card from my hubby and one from the munchkin that she even signed herself (well scribbled on anyway), along with a nice bottle of wine. I also slept in late. After I woke up, I had breakfast, packed up our stuff and we headed over to my parents' house. We hung out, visited, grilled steaks and let the kids run amuck. I felt so happy to be a mom, to be with my mom, and to be able to appreciate my sisters as mothers too.

I am lucky to have such an amazing mother, who is also one of my best friends. I am also lucky to have such a wonderful grandmother. Each generation helps to mold and shape the next. It was so much fun to have all the cousins together, playing in the yard, and enjoying each other.

I really felt grateful for what I had and where our path was leading us. It was a very special day.

Afterwards, we came home and I got a few things done around the house. I roasted a couple of chickens for my dad to have for the week and will make some more food for him in a couple of days. He came down about an hour before they were done to just visit and hang out. It was nice. We are getting into a better groove with all of his food and things don't seem as crazy. He is finishing up the introductory part of the diet and will start full GAPS next week. Things will be even easier then, because he will be eating a diet much more similar to the way I eat anyway and can just join us for dinner on some nights.

On a side note, I have now successfully fermented, carrots, green beans, cucumbers (for pickles) and salsa. I have been really surprised at how good they all taste! My dad's favorite is the salsa. He's been adding it to everything! Next up is beet kvass and kimchi!

He is still getting better and better. He spent all day Saturday helping my mom get ready for the party. He told her that a month ago, there is no way he could have worked all day like that. He also cleaned up most of the kitchen and washed all of the dishes after we ate on Sunday. This is not something that happens! He seemed in really good spirits and had so much energy.

It's so good to be getting my old dad back. I had really missed him.

I took a gazillion pictures. Here's some of them.