a little bit of life

Ah.  Wednesday.

I love Wednesdays.  1.) no rushing off to preschool.  2.) my house is normally in some sort of order by this day of the week, so I can get on to other things than cleaning.  3.) its "no weigh wednesday" at the local frozen yogurt place.

really, #3 alone is enough to make Wednesday a great day.

Anyway, I've had a good week!  As usual, this will just be full of random stuff based off of the random pictures I took and uploaded, ha ha.

Hailey started crawling this week.  She is all over the place now!  Luckily, she is super great at just playing with her toys, and I am very thankful for our big open space by the kitchen so she can explore and I don't have to be on her tail all the time.  I can't believe how big this girl is getting though!  It is happening way to quickly!

Ok this is kind of a gross and weird picture, but I painted our windowsill this week.  It was just a natural wood before and had ring stains and stuff, so I grabbed out the white paint and put a few coats on it.  I know, this looks gross, but in real life it makes me much happier when I'm standing at the sink doing dishes.  It is clean, I have some of my favorite things on the windowsill and it makes me want to clean my kitchen more.

This was my catch up with life list.  I was so determined and got it all done in one day.  Phew.

I have been able to mostly stay on top of cleaning this week.  I have been able to get back into my routine (a little bit ) of using my daily checklist, and it has helped the mornings start better when I make sure everything is done quickly before going to bed.  Also, I got that Ikea high chair at Goodwill for only $5 the other day!  I was so happy I found it - Hailey started eating solids (she looooooves eating with the family) and I was putting her in her flimsy bumbo chair on a chair at the table.  Totally unsafe and scary and impossible because she doesn't really like that chair.

Its also great, because she will just sit and play in it for a long time while I'm cooking or doing dishes, and that way I don't need to be constantly making sure Shea isn't squishing her.

Ok, why random pictures of my hair?  I have stopped shampooing my hair.  Yes.  No, I haven't stopped washing it.  I have been reading for the past year about people going "no 'poo" and I have always been a little concerned about the chemicals in shampoo and don't have money to spend on the all-all natural stuff, so I decided to try this method out.  Right now I am washing my hair every 4-6 days.  I use baking soda to clean it and then apple cider vinegar to condition.  It doesn't smell weird at all.  And already I've noticed a big difference in my hair!  It was pretty greasy at first, which is why I have been wearing it back a lot, but now I think I've started producing the right amount of natural oils for it to work.  I haven't bought laundry soap in a year.  This year, I'm planning on not buying shampoo/conditioner.  Hippie much?  Jeremy even agreed to doing it once our shampoo runs out, because I told him I wasn't buying anymore, ha. And the kids will too.  I'm trying to reduce our waste, and so I'm looking at all the things I buy on a regular basis and seeing if there is any way to cut back.  Plus, this seems much healthier for my hair.  (Don't worry, I will not start advocating at you to change your hair washing habits.  You're just some of the people I can tell who will be nice to me about my weirdness.)  I've had fun doing things with my hair lately, anyway!  It's finally long enough again to do some of my favorite styles, and its actually a little easier to style slightly "dirty".

This is possibly the worst picture of me ever.  I took it last night after doing this workout.  I honestly didn't think it would get me as sweaty as it did, but it was pretty good!  I love kettleball work outs.  It takes a lot of concentration, because the form is very important, so it goes by so quickly.

And now, just pictures of my cuties from this week.

Someone doesn't like to get his picture taken anymore.

This was at the church winter auction last week.

Lastly, I have a job update!  I met with Stephen (the lead pastor) yesterday for a more "formal" interview.  It was totally natural and easy and I think it went really well.  I am going to guest lead worship for two weeks in a row on the 24th and the 3rd (which they are paying me for - I wasn't expecting that), and then I guess we see from there if I get the job or not!  We are getting more and more excited about it.  I've kind of gotten past most of the grieving of leaving here and feel really ready to begin something new in Fairwood.  I mean, it still comes down to whether they like me or not on those Sundays.  I think as far as clicking with him and the leadership and our philosophy of ministry and such seems really good.

Oh and Angela - Shea is begging me like every day to go visit your house again, because he wants to play with toy story toys again haha.

Oh I forgot one more thing that happened this last week...or maybe its been two weeks now.  Anyway, my mom had two strokes.  She completely lost the use of her left leg, which is the only reason they went into the hospital.  She was at Swedish for just under a week and now is using a walker.  We are going out there today to visit and see if I can help with anything around the house for her. She seems pretty much herself, but my mom is a doer, and not being able to do the things she is used to doing.

And I ordered my bridesmaid dress for my sisters wedding.  She was going to do all different dresses, but ended up finding one she loves on Modcloth.  It is SO very Kaitie and it was only $42 !  so yay.  I'm glad that is over with.

So that's life recently!