The Lovely Years: Thoughts to Wrap It All Up

I was looking through old entries, and it seems like the first 2-1/2 months of the year are just rough for me. Now, it's not all bad, but I never seem to have a smooth start to the year. By St. Patrick's Day, or even right before my birthday, things finally start looking up. Here's hoping history will repeat itself :)

We had a really stressful situation regarding Phil's job last week. We were not sure what the end result would be, but it did resolve. We're still a little on edge, but we are praying about it and keeping a good thought. Any extra prayers and good thoughts are always appreciated :)

I'm also waiting for some family changes to get resolved. I'm not sure when everything will be decided, but it will hopefully be within the year. Overall, the changes are good, and positive, so no worries there. Of course, I am known for my patience for things to be resolved *coughcough*

We've all had a cold at some point all month long. I'm so ready to be done with this winter. It is incredibly cold one week, then balmy the next. To top it off, any time I've taken the kids with me to a store, (any store), one of them has caught a cold. Even if I wipe down the whole cart, someone gets sick. Ugh!

Also, between the sickies and the awful weather, people around here have just been rude! When I'm driving, at the store... it's almost an epidemic in and of itself! I've been nearly rear-ended on the highway a dozen times, gotten rude stares just for being in the general area of a person's existence, and forced to wait 20 minutes while everyone pushes their way through to whatever item they need at the store because they couldn't possibly wait in the formed line like you're supposed to. {Am I being too nice by not behaving this way? I'm pretty sick of feeling like the only patient and decent human being in public!} I know we're all grouchy, but could we be a little nicer? No?

We enrolled Jillian in a two-day preschool program at our church this month. We had to let go of some things to be able to afford it, but I know she'll really enjoy the change. She will still go to the class she is currently attending with me on Wednesdays, Listening for Littles (or L4L), but she will also go to class at our church on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm not sure how much of my reservation is actually sound in terms of her adjusting to a class not geared towards children with hearing loss, or if it's just me being a mom who's first baby is going off to school without her. My prayer is that she thrives in the school environment, and will adjust relatively easy :)

We finally quit the gym, and we got rid of our cable/phone bundle. We are currently using Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant Video through our Xbox as a way to keep up with our favorite shows. So far, the transition has been relatively smooth! However, a few of my trashy shows can only be watched by purchasing them on Amazon. I get that cable providers are trying to team up with certain networks so people won't cancel subscriptions, but I am still a little ticked about the situation. Basically, you have to sign-in through your cable provider to be able to watch new episodes online. Smart for them, but a hassle for us. At least it's saving us exactly the amount we need for Jillian's preschool class!

With that being said, I have officially decided to give up on Dance Moms. It was interesting in the beginning, but it's gotten more and more hostile and ridiculous. I think Abby Lee is so obsessed with being famous that she'd rather smear her integrity and good name than be a decent human being. It's sad really, but someday she'll learn that she's not untouchable. Even if it's all staged, I have a headache by the end from all the yelling.

I keep trying to get a video of David laughing, but I haven't gotten it yet. Plus, both of my kids seem to know when I'm recording them. Time to be extra-stealthy!

Can you believe David will be 3 months tomorrow?! He's an infant now, and I miss my squishy newborn. Luckily, I can still remember how fun infancy can be as he learns new things. If we could just skip the toddler phase, that'd be nice...

As of this week, Jillian's attitude is changing. She's doing more "Mine!", throwing mini-tantrums, and just not listening to us at all. Hello there terrible twos! I was hoping to have a little more warning, but I guess I was expecting too much :-/

Despite this change, her ability to say "I love you", or "You make me happy!" at random moments really makes up for all those other moments. And those hugs around my neck where I feel her squeezing? Those are the best :)

Phil and I went on a date in January, but my phone died as we were leaving :( So, I just got the photos onto my computer, and should be doing a recap of it soon!

I started a new way of losing the baby weight as I hinted at here. It was going ok, and I was feeling good! Then, I was having some system issues about 2 weeks ago. After things started to settle down, I must have gained water weight because I had gone back to my weight before David's arrival! That was NOT ok, and I had barely eaten so I couldn't have possibly gained 8 pounds in 3 days. That really upset, and embarrassed me. It's slowly going back down, but I'm going back to a more traditional way of losing weight. Hopefully that'll help for the beginning of the journey.

The last month of so, I have been really hitting home runs with some new recipes I've tried! I didn't take pictures just in case they didn't go well. Now that I know they're yummy, I'll be making them again and doing posts to share. A few of them have been paleo/gluten-free recipes FYI.

I love all the babies being born both in the bloggy world, and my IRL world! It just melts me to see those sweet faces :)

Now that I've updated almost an entire month in one post... How was February for you? Anything you're looking forward to in March?

The Lovely Years