Coffee Talk
The thing about “maternity leave” when you’re self-employed is that it doesn’t really exist. It’s just uber-prioritizing so you get what you HAVE to have done, don’t lose your sanity, and still get baby snuggles. So yeah. That’s where I’ve been – baby snuggling {and doing the work I really have to do…which is not this}. This actually started as Coffee Talk // March, but here it is May and I’m just getting back to it… I’ll try not to make it ALL baby-related.
// But might as well get the baby stuff out of the way. He’s 3 months 5 months old and just as sweet as can be. You can read the baby details over on tiny sneakers, but the main reason there hasn’t been any new recipe-related content here is that I had to do an elimination diet to help pinpoint babe #2’s food allergies. Luckily this wasn’t my first rodeo and I handled it much better this time. Needless to say though, my food was not share-worthy for awhile there. {Although I have been refreshingly reminded that sometimes simple is just as good, if not better, than elaborate when it comes to food.}
// Ok I said I wouldn’t make it all baby but now I’m realizing I pretty much don’t have anything else going on in my life…
// I’ve made it to a couple Pure Barre classes and some Burn Bootcamp pop-ups, but since I can only go on the weekends when I have childcare it’s not making for a very consistent work out routine. I keep saying I’m going to start doing Barre 3 and/or 21 Day Fix Extreme at home but I keep not doing it. There goes the fitness and the food of this food and fitness blog…
// KB is playing baseball for the first time this spring. He loves it and I love watching it. I thought it was crazy talk when I heard it was coach-pitch baseball even at the four-year-old level but you’d be amazed how often they can whack the ball. I wish it wasn’t over so soon.
// We went SWIMMING last week. As in outside. In APRIL. Ok, KB went swimming, I watched precariously from the edge holding a baby hoping he’d remember how to swim. The pool opened the first weekend of April then we had at least 3 freezes so the water temperature was less than stellar…but the 80 degree days were just calling us to dip our toes in the pool. {aaaand now it’s 48 degrees as I type and I’m wearing a hoodie…}
// One of the benefits of being self-employed is getting to control your own time. Last week we used that time to go tour a local brewery with out of town friends, and yeah, we brought the kids. {In our defense the brewery was closed and our friend is the brewer.} The beer was insanely good and KB thought the big brewing tanks were awesome. If you’re local, get your butt down to Brown Truck Brewery, you won’t be disappointed!
// I hated Snapchat when I first joined but I did it because you know, keeping up with the times and all. I eventually deleted it from my phone but I added it back now that you can actually chat back to people and it’s kind of my new favorite. Does that make me old? {Psst. Snapchat –> sideofsneakers} Also, I’m doing this month’s fitness and nutrition bootcamp using Snapchat and it’s going to be epic. Yeah, I said it.
// Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m turning 27. *wink*
// Reading all that nothingness was totally worth your time this Saturday am, wasn’t it?
Thoughts
I just about let September coffee talk slip on by me. Probably because it still feels a lot like August? We had a few mornings that were slightly less than 80 degrees if you got out nice an early, but even that simple luxury seems to have slipped away for the meantime.
Anyways, if we were having coffee, here are some things I may ramble about:
// Preschool starts next week and I’m actually super sad about it. KB is at an age that’s really fun and knock on the wood in the world, kind of easy. Since nothing lasts with kids, I’ll miss having him with me every minute. I don’t think I’ve been away from him for more than 2 hours since May. {Should I have admitted that?}
// Speaking of school, it’s probably good that it is starting even though it makes me sad because the self-employed work/be a mom balance gets a little crazy in the summer. I wouldn’t change it for the world, but it’ll probably be good for my professional life to have a few dedicated work hours consistently back in my life that don’t happen in the wee hours of the morning or past my self-imposed bedtime. I’m in the process of reworking my current nutrition programs to broaden the scope of my offerings and I’m pretty excited about it. {Side note: if I talked more about working at home/ being self-employed, is that something you’d be interested in? I get a lot of questions about it…}
// Pure Barre. If I knew I’d still be obsessed I would have laughed at myself. It’s such a good workout for me and luckily has continued to be during pregnancy. I haven’t been going quite as often and I’ll probably wait til after baby to renew my package when it runs out {maybe, we’ll see if I can resist}, but I’m so glad I tried it in the first place. I think the focus on the tiny muscle groups helps keep me injury-free {and I’m super injury-prone so that’s a huge bonus}.
// House. We live in our new house! It’s mostly unpacked {except for all the boxes still pushed in corners that I’m ignoring} and we’re starting to get used to it. We still have some work to do, but it’s nice to start to feel settled. Not knowing where we were going to live for awhile there was driving me about bonkers.
// That’s it. What are you up to this weekend?
*PS Excuse all the blog formatting and commenting issues. I’m having lots of technical difficulty and haven’t had the time or knowledge to sort them out properly yet. {See school comment #1.
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linking up to the Ultimate Coffee Date – swing on by!
Other, Thoughts
//We moved! Well our stuff did anyways – it’s not quite ready for us just yet. After three weeks of projectsand fixes {that luckily other people did for us}, we finally reached move-in stage. There’s still some work to be done but the rest we can do while living there and can do most of ourselves. Good thing I’m a fan of projects.
//Amazon Prime. Have you heard about Amazon Prime Day? It’s supposed to be like Black Friday but in the middle of the summer {7/15}. I’m seriously considering doing all my Christmas shopping in July so I can check it off the list. Family and friends be warned, tell me what’s on your list now or forever hold your peace.
If you use Amazon at all, stop trying to make your shopping cart equal $35 by ordering extra stuff and just fork over the money for Prime. I’m a cheapo at heart and I promise it’s totally worth it to have stuff show up at your door two days later. {Ooooor you can just sign up for a free 30 day trial and make sure it includes July 15th. Sneaky sneaky.} <~ not an ad, just seriously excited. Probably because we have a lot of stuff to buy for our house projects.
//Cracked pepper popcorn. I’m not really a pepper or a popcorn girl, but for some reason this hits the spot for me. I found it on the clearance rack at Homegoods of all places and went back to buy three more bags.
//Spafinder cards. No, I’m not a spa girl, but these gift cards are the best because they can be used in a million different places including a bunch of fitness boutiquey places. They are the sole reason I can afford Pure Barre classes and my mom’s the best because she just bought me some more because she loves me. 
Time to go move some more stuff…
Thoughts
It took me forever to title this post because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what day it was. I spent the first half of the week thinking it was almost the weekend and the second half thinking it must be closer to Monday. As long as I keep my deadlines straight I’m perfectly ok with not having any clue what day it is. C’est la summer. Anyways. I have so many posts in drafts but since I rarely get to my actual computer {or more accurately, rarely does it work in the moments I have on it} those drafts are doing me little good. Sooo here’s a little catch up post of things that have been happening lately. A little glimpse at every day life. * First and foremost, we found a house!! These past few months of transition and ‘not knowing’ have been rough on me. I’m not 100% in love with the house yet but being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel has been amazing for my mental health and sanity. Right now it’s just a house we picked out of thin air, but I know soon we’ll be able to make it a home –our home- and I can’t wait. 
* My little guy has been a trooper through all of this. I’m so proud of him. Three can be a tough age but he is so so much fun. Summer has only just started and we’ve pretty much done nothing at all but I love just hanging out with him. I’m soaking up all of the days with a nearly empty to-do list before things get a little crazy next week with moving, painting, and projects.
* I had a hard time figuring out how to fit my exercise routine into our new daily life when we moved. We’re about 25 minutes from everything we used to do and trying to figure out how to balance everything and make it all work without dragging the kiddo around all day long was tougher than it should have been. It’s still a work in progress but I’m moving in the right direction. The three year old still protests gym childcare with a vengeance {but we’re working on it} and it’s nearly 100 degrees outside already {literally}, so I’ve been turning to Pure Barre and at-home workouts to get me through. I’ve been toying with the idea of seeing if a different gym will give us a better experience but I love my gym {and the price} so I haven’t made anything near an actual decision yet. I’ve put in a request for our new place to have a little room for some workout videos without kicking fans and coffee tables – we’ll see how that goes. 
* I tried to get KB in swim lessons before summer but all the classes were full. I finally got him in some classes across town but it’s worth it. Plus they’re indoors which is nice because we don’t have to worry about it being hot or slathering on sunscreen. He used to love the water but over the winter decided he was against it if it had anything to do with his face or head. He’s enthusiastic yet resistant. My goal for the end of the two-week lessons is for him to just put his face in the water already! {Which he had no hesitations about last year!} 
* I’ve been using these hot summer days as an excuse to test out all the different ways to use Starbucks’ coconut milk in iced and frozen concoctions. Some are winners; others not so much. {Spoiler alert: frapps are winners, lattes & macchiatos are not.} 
* For probably the 100th thousandth time, I love working from home. Especially during the summer, despite the sometimes craziness that goes along with it. So so grateful.
That’s all for now. 🙂
Workout
it’s 4:45 on a weekend morning and I’m awake and alert. No amount of wishing and willing is allowing me to go back to sleep. Not because I had something responsible to get up for like working out or actually working, but because it’s the first night in a week that I’ve slept for more than 2 hours straight thanks to a sick kiddo. {He wasn’t sick that long, but nights take forever to get back since he hates them in the first place.} I could decide to do something productive with the extra time but I’d rather sit here with my mug of steaming hot coffee and a few minutes to myself before the chaos of the day starts.
Plus I’m waitlisted for an early morning barre class and I need to be available to constantly hit refresh on my phone to see if I made it in. Yes, for the record, I’m obsessed. I never thought I’d say that about something like Pure Barre but I did a free two week trial back in the fall and quickly became addicted. A single class costs more than my monthly gym membership {which in all fairness is ridiculously cheap}, but I begged politely asked for classes for Christmas and was lucky enough to receive some. I’m not sure what draws me in more: the fact that it’s an awesome workout {once you know what you’re doing} or that the kiddo will now actually go to the daycare that partnered up with them. It took awhile, but now he loves it, which is way more than I can say about the gym and our two and a half year ongoing battle with that. The idea that he’ll go and be happy and I can actually workout somewhat consistently is almost worth the pricetag.
Getting back into a regular workout routine has been refreshing in about a thousand ways, but especially because I’ve started wearing a fitness tracker {Garmin’s vivofit from a Fitfluential campaign} and it tells me all the time how lazy I’m being. Barre classes don’t exactly add a lot of steps but it makes me feel better.
Anyways. We move out of our house in two weeks. TWO weeks. I’m mostly sad {nostalgic-ly, not upset-sad…mostly}, but it’s harder to actually feel sad because umm two weeks to pack up everything we own and have accumulated over the past six years and the addition of an extra human being and all his stuff. And the husband will be out of town for most of it. My house went from being as clean as it’s ever been in the history of ever to a complete disaster zone. It’s slightly unavoidable since I’m being a bit ridiculous in making sure the boxes are being packed in some semblance of an order since they’ll be in storage and it could be awhile before we see them again. Eventually I’ll cave in and start throwing kitchen equipment in with office supplies and baby socks, but until then, I have half-packed boxes and piles everywhere.
Aaaand of course I spoke a bit too soon, as the little one has decided he wants to start his day with me too. Still beats his record for the week by a long shot.
