I’ve been meaning to write my 3rd quarter posts of the year, but every time I thought about it, I haven’t felt like it. I’ve written goals on my blog for forever, but the reality is I get stuff done now that I have a kid. Honestly, at this phase, the big improvements I need to make are with exercise and to finally get the thank you cards out for having a baby (!!!). However, I don’t feel like tracking it as much on a blog. Instead of posting quarterly goals here, I think I’d rather make family goals on our fridge for us to do together.
So, I guess this is my post where I say I’m going to stop doing goals formerly on my blog. Maybe it will be short-term or maybe it will be forever. Who knows? I already track baby’s milestones and developments privately and plan on making a book for at the end of each year for her, but I do know though is that I’d like to get better at documenting my life again. As a stay at home mom, my life with baby is very intertwined. However, at the end of the day I’m still an individual and I feel like I need to keep nurturing that while maintaining her privacy.
While I’m sure I’m missing a lot since my last life lately update on here, I can only remedy that by just starting now!
We celebrated my birthday!
Devin’s Mom came into town which meant that I really caught up on sleep, we organized A LOT of stuff, and we went on our first overnight trip without baby (she slept the whole night for grandma which made us laugh).
For birthday festivities, we decided to treat it like a mini family vacation. We went to DC on an especially hot day and ate an amazing French breakfast, visited the Smithsonian American Art Museum in the city, walked around embassy row (really amazing architecture), went to Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, ate at Shake Shack, and then went home because I had a killer migraine. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but I love living near DC and all of the free stuff we have. We had talked about traveling somewhere for the weekend, but I honestly am really happy to just go into the city here. There are so many things we haven’t seen yet still!
RELATED // our Washington DC bucket list
Additionally, I talked about it here, but the ladies at church threw me a birthday party. I’ve been really floored by everyone’s kindness at church. I love that we could literally walk to church from our house and the ward boundaries are only 2.5 miles big, but what makes it really special is that I feel like everyone has been so mindful of me (even when they don’t know me well). I’ve been given service when I haven’t asked for it, I love seeing people love my baby, and people have just been very thoughtful in general. My doorbell rang all day on my birthday because people dropped off treats or and little “thinking of you” presents. I’ve honestly been floored, but I’m grateful.
I organized my closet + a lot of other things.
This happened while Devin’s mom (Barb) was in town. I listened to audiobooks, sorted through clothing that I’ve realized aren’t as conducive to this phase of life. As it turns out, I never wear blue jeans or pants without stretch in them anymore because I’m always up and down off the floor. I boxed up maternity clothing and some sentimental clothes from high school and college. Barb is really talented at organization and I am not. So, I was very proud of spear heading our closet by myself haha! She organized our basement storage rooms and we were in owe looking over all of the baby’s clothes that we sorted and put up.
I went consignment shopping for baby + me.
I’ve always loved Thredup, which is an online consignment store. Since last year I was pregnant and I bought very minimally for maternity wear, I decided I would like some updates since we also moved somewhere that is cooler in the winter. I took some of my blogging paycheck and bought some clothes!
The cardigan below is from a previous Thredup order and the teal shirt I’m wearing is from this order. 👇👇
This is the same cardigan as above, but the tunic is new to me from Thredup. 👇👇
The cardigan and teal shirt are from this Thredup order. The pencil skirt is from a previous Thredup order!
If you’re looking for affordable clothing to be mailed to you, Thredup is a great option! My only thing I didn’t like is they now charge a $1.99 restocking fee which was annoying. However, it is still cheaper and less time consuming than leaving my house to shop. I also feel I get higher quality clothing consignment than I normally would. I’ve never tried their service for children, but they have the option. They have such great consignment sales in the area for children that I like to go with a friend; my friend L and I picked up baby clothes for cooler weather.
I enjoy putting clothes in my closet for me, but it always feels bittersweet to put a bigger size of clothing in Evie’s closet. I’m not ready for her to grow up even though she seems to be even more fun the older she gets.
I got a really amazing haircut.
My hair has been a mess postpartum with hair loss from stress, my thyroid issues, and just being a new mom. My hair is really coming back in and I knew I needed to get something done with my hair… it wouldn’t hold any style.
I got my first haircut in six months and was really happy with the lady who did my hair! She styled my hair really weird in the salon, but I know I always panic when my hair looks different so I always tip well and say I love it. However, I knew I had a great haircut for me as soon as I left and restyled my hair. It has allowed me to have pretty close to a wash and wear style… this has been essential for me as a mama! I’ll definitely be going back to her!
My baby started sleeping through the night.
The first night she slept through the night it took us all by surprise because she slept in until 9 am!! It has been months since she slept completely through the night! We’ve had to start waking Evie up or she naps when we would normally go and see her friends, but it is excellent to really start sleeping well. She still wakes up sometimes for food, but that’s fine; she makes up for it by being very charming.
I finished 21 books since my last book update.
As a family, we go to the library a few times a month now and it is my favorite. Evie has perused over 70 different books now with us and I’ve been putting her book updates here.
I’ve become really into audiobooks because I can listen to them while I’m cleaning or doing things. I used to kind of loathe audiobooks, but they feel like a serious luxury now. Our library has an amazing selection + has other services that allow you more audiobooks. I need to do some updates here, but I bumped up my book goal for the year.