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Browsing Tag: This Is My Life
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Minimalism sounds like a scary word. When I first heard it, I imagined having to give up everything. As I sat surrounded by all of my unnecessary stuff, I quickly dismissed it as a nutty idea for hipsters and hippies alike. Who wants to give away their clothes and childhood mementos?
But then something changed. I had a daughter and all of my priorities shifted. I want to spend my time with Mac, not working to pay for our house and all of our possessions. So I have slowly been going through my things and getting rid of what I don’t need.
Recently, I was given a copy of The More of Less by Joshua Becker to review. It has totally rekindled the spark of minimalism within me. Right away, Becker introduces his journey to minimalism by using the phrase “You don’t need to own all of this stuff.” What a powerful phrase! Right when I read it, I knew this was the book for me.
This is my favorite picture of my family because it really captures our true essence. Believe it or not, there was quite a perturbed photographer who took this picture out of frustration at our lack of listening skills. Anyways, my family is quirky just like me and I figured I’d tell you a little bit about them.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you buy through my link, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. For more information, see my disclosure page here.
A while ago, I posted about trying to tidy up my house. (Read about it here.) I have been re-reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo and attempting to apply it to my life. So I think it is time for an update.
Overall, I feel like it is going really well. But decluttering is a slow process. Kondo recommends doing it all at once, but I just can’t do that. Not only do I work full-time and have a daughter and a house to care for, I also spend a lot of time working on my blog. When the weekend comes, I feel like we can either have a fun weekend or a productive one. And most of the time, I will pick a fun one. But I was finally able to be productive and start in on the second chapter of the book: Finish Discarding First.
See that giant, stuffed full bag of clothing? I donated that. Plus 3 other boxes of stuff! (And P.S. to anyone who might not know, keep a list of things you donate and you can write them off on your taxes.)
Motherhood looks like a grumpy baby with a runny nose who is practicing putting on her own socks.
My baby sister Molly celebrated her 21st birthday on Saturday. When she decided to rent a party bus for the night, Andrew and I decided to try to be young and carefree again for one night. We dropped our babies off (Mac went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house while Ralph stayed with Aunt Jo) and then we hit the road.
After a barbecue, we walked in the cold to Hardee’s to catch the party bus. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve really ever been on a party bus before. I’m not a goodie goodie (anymore) but I’ve just never really been to an event where we rented one. But the one we got was a lot nicer than what I had been imagining. So the first thing we did was drive to the Catholic church to pick up my mom. Typical.
Today was a conference day at my school. I spent all morning in conferences and then a staff meeting. A wonderful parent brought us a tasty lunch to eat while we chatted. I came home, put Mac down for a nap, put in some laundry and drank a latte while I worked on blog stuff. We had homemade fried rice for dinner and after Mac had a bath and went to bed, I had a glass of wine while I typed up this post. Not all days go this well. But this is just a typical day in my life.
Also, I was really feeling my outfit this morning, so I took a picture. Today instead of changing poopy diapers and crawling around on the ground, I sat in meetings all day. Although I did clean the fish tank in this outfit. This was the best picture I got because Mac and Ralph really wanted to get themselves in there too.
So, today is Throwback Thursday and I thought I would tell the story of the time I cracked my head open while doing a waterski pyramid. As most people haven’t done any show skiing, I have a little explaining to do. And as an aside, the pictures I am posting will be a little blurry for two reasons: 1) They were small pictures that I blew up and 2) I try not to post pictures of people who don’t give me their express permission, so I blurred these so you could get the general idea without seeing the other people clearly.
I spent 6 years skiing with a show team in my home town. We were a family oriented team who competed, but were more into creating a fun show for all ages. I wasn’t great on skis myself, but I did a lot of other things like climbing pyramids and doing doubles routines along with land acts like acting and dancing.
Today is my sister Molly’s 21st birthday! So we celebrated yesterday with a simple, family party. It was incredibly windy and Mac was not feeling good, so it could have turned out terrible. But instead we were able to pull together a fun little get-together to celebrate her. We even managed to Facetime with Mason in Germany, but we were so excited to all talk and give him a tour of the new living room arrangement that we forgot to take pictures of it.
This was the not feeling good I was talking about. She wasn’t sick, but she certainly wasn’t herself. She was mad about the wind and mad because I dared set her down when she asked me to.
See, she did okay most of the time. Mac had to bring her Clifford to go meet the other dogs at the party. Jojo looks thrilled, obviously. BFFs fo sho.
My dad (or Chief, as Mac calls him) was helping Jojo and Maclaine compare bellies. Beware, if you are around Mac, she may demand you show her your belly.
The big girl insisted on her own chair. Of course, the queen gets her way at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.
I’ll narrate Molly’s thoughts in this collage: (1) What the hell is Bob doing? (2) I thought it was weird he had to leave so suddenly. (3) Oh god, did he go buy me a present?
The last-minute shopper that he is, Bob left the party to buy Molly’s birthday present. Thankfully, she had already opened the present from us, so he could just reuse the gift bag.
Here is Maclaine, showcasing Molly’s new shoes that she got from Bob. If anyone wants to book Mac for some catalog shoots, let me know. She is obviously great at showcasing products.
Mama and Maclaine bonded.
Maclaine loved being a free range baby. We live in a townhouse, so we don’t have a yard that she can wander around in. She loved following the dogs around the yard.
Mama had a great time indulging Mac’s every whim.
Halfway through the birthday celebration, Mac decided she needed a nice outdoor nap. Of course she had to have it cuddled up to her Mommy because she didn’t feel well.
Mama’s first selfie!
We busted out the bocce ball on this beautiful day. In true mommy form, I played with my baby strapped to my chest.
Sometimes I ask my sister to take pictures and I mostly get selfies of her making dumb faces. And sometimes I get cool pictures like this one.
We were all super concentrated on the game.
Like I said, it was windy.
But Mac still enjoyed her first s’more!
By this point, Mac was pretty clearly wanting us to wrap it up and go home. So we did. Stay tuned for Birthday Adventures Part 2: Party Bus Edition, coming next weekend. Keep me in your thoughts as us old people attempt to keep up with the youngins.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am totally a Christmas fan. I wait all year for the holiday season and then I decorate to the max while watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate. So other holidays pale in comparison for me. Now that I have a baby, though, it is important to me to make all holidays special in some way. Easter was no exception. I put up some Easter decorations and even found an Easter special on DVD at Target. But as with most things, I had a bad mom moment along with some good mom moments.
My brother Mason is leaving on Friday to be a professional water skier in Germany for 8 months. I know that sounds like I am making stuff up, but it is true. It is going to be such an awesome experience for him, but we are going to miss him an awful lot. So my dad decided to put together a little family party for him.
Of course, my family never plans anything in advance, so on Saturday afternoon, I received this as a picture message.
Because my family is awesome, we all automatically RSVP’d without even thinking it was weird in any way. We also clarified that this could include snow sculptures and that my dad was the judge. Andrew and I put on our thinking caps and came up with a plan for our sculpture.