Weekly Wins: Heatin' Up!

Hi friends and happy Friday!

This has been the longest short week ever it seems. With all of the snow days/delays we had (which were wonderful in their own right), getting back to work and getting caught up on scheduled meetings, testing and just my regular responsibilities has been busy busy busy! Definitely ready for the long weekend ahead!

With any week, I'm celebrating the wins, big and small!

~Ella's return to daycare has been pretty good this week. She's eating more foods thanks to other friends who offer her things like graham crackers (she loved, even though she could only really gum it haha). Ella is living her best life on those days for sure :)

~We have lots of plans Saturday: a baby shower for my friend/coworker, and then the Eagles game at our friends' new house that we'll get to see for the first time! 

~We had another instant pot success with making zuppa toscana on Sunday. It was super tasty (I'd never had it before), although I will say, it's better as a side instead of a main course. Ella even liked the potato and sausage in it!

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~The temps have finally risen above freezing, and today we are in the 60s! It's been nice to be able to get out of the house and not totally bundle up and rush from the door to the car, and back again. Plus, Ella's little chapped cheeks will hopefully get a chance to heal up with the higher temps, too.

~I've stopped my morning pumping session after nursing Ella. This may sound like a weird win, but it's been SO nice to have that 15-20 minute window back in my morning, and get to sleep in a few extra minutes every morning. This was a decision made easily once I was only pumping 1 ounce in 15 minutes which did not seem like a good use of my time. Down to 3 pumping sessions a day now instead of 4 (on workdays).

~MG and I have a date night on the books for next weekend with a friend to babysit lined up and I'm excited for another parents' night out, just us!

Hoping that if you have a long weekend, you get the extra time to recharge a bit!

WHW: TBB Asks

I'm coming at you this Wednesday on the first non-snow day or delay morning in almost a week! Craziness. Definitely time to get back into a routine and actually get my work done haha

I saw the TBB Asks questionnaire earlier this week and wanted to join in, so here goes:

1. Resolutions or No Resolutions: No resolutions. I think it's great to have goals, and those are things I try and set for myself throughout the year, not just in January. 

2. Love Snow or No Snow? Well, I've always liked snow because of snow days. And especially now that I have Ella, I look forward to them because it just means an extra day and extra hours that I get to spend with my girl.

3. Name a new place you want to go this year: Hmm, I'm not sure how much travelling is in our future this year, and if we go anywhere it proibably won't be somewhere new, but if we did, I'd love to go to somewhere like Boston, Nashville, Savannah...somewhere cool and fun to explore!

4. Would you rather have a new hair cut or color? I think a new hair cut

5. Name one special thing you want to do for yourself this year? Make more time to hang out with friends for things like happy hours etc without Ella in tow. Just normal, adult, non-mommy time.

6. Least favorite thing about January? Hmm I don't know if it's January or just Winter, but I HATE the early darkness at night. I feel like I get home from work and the sun sets a minute later.

7. Most favorite thing about January? Post-holiday sales hahah, and getting to use/wear the things that we got for Christmas :)

8. When do you take down your holiday decorations? Usually the weekend right after Christmas, or when we get home from visiting family for the holidays.

9. Do you diet in January? No

10. What are of your home do you want to organize the most? Well, we've been working on getting everything a little more organized now that Ella's toys and things seem to have taken over our house. I'd say we've done a good job with the living room. Maybe a good closet clean out and organization would be nice!

11. Favorite Winter comfort food: Soups soups and soups! Especially chili!

12. Favorite Guilty Pleasure? Other than reality tv, hmm...food-wise I'd say ice cream or chocolate. Otherwise, perhaps a good Loft sale lol

Now it's your turn to share what's hap-"pinning" with you!

Weekending: Brrrrrrrr

Happy Monday!

I'm coming at you from another day off of work/school because we are suppose to get freezing rain this afternoon during the kids' commute home. As my friend said "I love snow days, when there isn't any snow" haha.

One way or another I'm gonna need to get out of the house with Ella today--we are getting a little stir crazy in here since it's been SO cold (temps in negatives with wind chill).

Our weekend wasn't too exciting, but it's basically been since Thursday. Lots of playing at home with Ella, watching tv/movies, reading (I finished my book on Friday and started another one!) drinking wine, and snuggles with our bear in cozy clothes...

my MIL bought these pants in Alaska this summer and they finally fit Ella--just in time for the cold temps!

On Saturday we were supposed to go to my principal's house for an after holidays party, but I had a migraine and ended up skipping it. 

Our big outing was to the mall this weekend, and it seemed like us and everyone else had the same idea to get out of the house because it was PACKED!!

We tried zuppa toscana in the Instant Pot last night and it was reeeeeally tasty!

Oh, and if you follow me on Snapchat, you probably saw that Ella has started clapping now which is super adorable!

So, yeah, the weekend was pretty low key, and light on the pictures. Hoping your weekend was warm and cozy!

Weekly Wins: Snow Day Edition

Happy Friday, friends!!

I don't have a long list of weekly wins for you this week, even though it's been a great week!

My biggest win this week is that we got a snow day on Thursday due to some snowfall and really cold temps with the windchill. And THEN we got another one, mainly due to the below 0 temps with the windchill around here. So I had a 2 day work week, and a 4 day weekend ahead, which means 4 straight days with my girl! Biggest win ever!

The other smaller wins for the week include getting my office furniture after a semi debacle leading up to everything, and actually feeling like my office looks/functions better than before.

Ella did really well at daycare this week (the two days) which we'd all been a little nervous about because of the separation anxiety we were dealing with over the holidays. Now that she's able to sit up and move around a bit more, she's interacting with the other kids more and I think having a lot more fun being able to really "play" more.

With the additional time off from work, I've gotten to breeze through my current book, Ready Player One, and should finish it today or tonight! I've prioritized reading over other things like The Bachelor (which I'm not that excited about anyway, sadly), and I feel a lot better for the choice.

Another small win was that MG got a 2 hour delay yesterday morning so we had a nice little family breakfast together, and some play time before he had to go to work.

I'll be bundling us up at some point today to go have a little playdate with our friends (somewhere warm), which is how every Friday should be, I think!

Hoping you're staying warm where you are, and to my friends in the NE, please please stay safe and warm! I know you're getting hit pretty hard!

I'll catch you all next week!!

Dear Thursday...

Dear Thursday, it's been tough getting back into work mode after having 2 weeks off of work for Winter Break. Boy did I enjoy that time off with my girl, and MG for a good portion of it! Makes me wish even more that we could swing me being a SAHM for a little while, but it's just not in the cards right now.

Dear Weather, OH MY WORD it is COLD outside! And, I'm sorry, if it's going to be in the negatives with the wind chill, I want some freaking snow so that I can get off of work and be home with my baby! We have 13 snow days built in to our schedule (that we don't get back if we don't use them which is frustrating) so, it'd be nice if the school system took some pity on the poor kids who have to stand at bus stops and gave us a day off #justsayin

Dear Kindle, oh how I missed you, and am so glad that this Winter Break gave me a chance to get back to you again. I started reading Ready Player One and it's pretty good so far. I'm half way through and definitely want to try to rip through the rest of it this week/weekend. If I could just stop falling asleep on the couch at night....

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Dear boobies, could you please start producing a little bit more milk? Between Ella eating more solid food, and being in a weird schedule over the last two weeks, plus basically solely pumping at work before break and now, my ladies don't know what's going on, and are decreasing their output a bunch. I'd like to make it to a year with breastfeeding (we're already supplementing with formula), but it may not be in the cards.

Dear Instant Pot, you are amazing! So far I've made 3 dishes in you (potato soup, chicken tikka masala, and spaghetti and meatsauce) and they've all been good if not great! I look forward to finding more delicious recipes to try out, even though you still intimidate me!

Dear Ella, when did you become such a big girl? Sitting up, attempting to crawl, drinking water out of a sippy cup without help? I love that you're growing up and turning into a little person, but don't do it too quickly, ok? Mama still needs her baby to stay a baby :)

Dear New Office Furniture, you were kind of a rollercoaster getting here (not sure what I was getting, last minute packing up of things I was told I was losing, etc), but it's turned out pretty nicely and now I have more storage (that looks nicer) than I did before. 

Dear 2018, I'm interested to see what you have to bring. Hopefully it's lots of good stuff!!

Dear blog friends, thanks for coming back around after my little hiatus! I missed you!!

{WHW}: Winter Break 2017

It's been so long since I've been here because I was soaking up my Winter Break and enjoying baby snuggles and play time, not working, visiting family, and Ella's first Christmas!

Here's what we were up to (be prepared for pics and cuteness):

~HH with my friend--so nice to get out of the house, and MG handled bedtime alone, like a champ!

~Before the weekend, my mom came over and we did an early Christmas with her including opening Ella's presents and going out to dinner. Someone was very excited about her new toys, and the new chair she got from us (so cute)!

#likeaboss

~Saturday we drove up to PA in the morning. Luckily it was overcast which made for good napping weather for Ella.

~On Christmas Eve we had lunch with MG's good friend from HS and his son, and found out that they are expecting their second in June!

~That evening, we attended Christmas mass, and Ella managed to keep it together for the whole thing, and then we headed to MG's aunt's house for a short bit just to see some extended family, but we pushed Ella's bedtime and she was letting us know about it haha.

~Christmas morning was so fun--we woke up and went over to my SIL's house and opened presents. Ella was wide eyed at everything, and enjoyed opening her presents (read: attempting to eat the tissue paper lol). She got a lot of cute outfits, new toys, and books! Spoiled for sure!

~We came back to my SIL's that night for Christmas dinner with the rest of our family and opened more presents, played, ate (my BIL is an amazing cook), and then we had to head home early because of Ella's bedtime. She also started having separation anxiety so I had an extra 16 pounds on me the whole night lol

~We stayed in PA until Thursday morning. It was nice to casually hang out with the family, run errands, go see a movie--my first since before Ella! (We saw Jumanji and I we all really liked it). All too soon, we were packing up our car (to the gills because of all the stuff!!!) and heading home. 

~MG took off the whole week so we got 10 whole days together which was incredible. We had a dinner time playdate at my good friend's house, and went out to dinner with our friends who have almost 2 year old twins on New Years Eve (it was a 5pm dinner lol).

In between all of that, Ella turned 8 months old. Not sure how that's possible, but she is starting to make moves to crawl, eating 3 meals a day (now that I was home to try and do it, and she wasn't sick), rolling around, smiling up a storm, and just being the best little baby we could ask for.

Otherwise, we've just enjoyed our time away from stress, work and sicknesses! Hoping we can keep the sickies at bay for a while!!

Link up with Jessi and I and share what's been hap-"pinning" with you lately!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year friends! It's been a bit since I've been around these parts. I was fully soaking up my break from work, and my uninterrupted Ella and family time which was amazing.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of everyday life but I'm going to try and be back tomorrow for WHW!

Hoping your New Year has kicked off with a great start! I've missed you all!