Blog-tober Day 6: Currently ...

Currently ... 

- I am reading the Selection series and it is fun. 

Kind of like the Ester story and the Bachelor all rolled up in on.

- I am watching Downton Abbey, The Good Wife and Parenthood.

- I am stunned that our baby will be one tomorrow! 

- We are trying out a new, lowered budget and it has been working out okay. 

- I am excited for dear friends visiting tomorrow!

- I am loving the cool weather and the leaves turning color.

- I am snuggling with our old, sweet dog after the baby has gone to bed.

-I am excited for Zoe to dance at a family wedding in a week and a half.

- I am working up the courage to go and start a new bread recipe.
One can never go wrong with America's Test Kitchen.

- We are working through our garden produce.
Squash, pumpkins, eggplants and carrots. Oh my!!

- I am excited to go and pick lots of apples so we can can them for the winter.

Blog-tober Challenge

I am breaking the radio/blog silence to link up with Brave Love's blog-tember challenge (but since I'm doing it in October, would it be Blog-tober??), inspired by my cousin Anne @ Under the Brella (who is also a main reason I am reading more books).
We should live closer.

Anyhoo, lets see if I can revive this small space
(or maybe decide to hang it all up). Time will tell!

Even though it is already the 3rd,

I'm going to start day 1: "About the Author"... like the front cover of a novel

"Rachel is a wife and new mama who works part time as a nurse to pay the bills. She lives in Milwaukee with her husband, a brilliant PhD student, their beautiful one year old daughter and a fluffy black cocker spaniel. Rachel enjoys gardening, sewing and spending time near any body of water."

Not all days are good.

We all have good days - the days and moments that fill facebook and instagram. They look like this: 

yes, I know, ridiculously cute!!

But not everyday can be good because then you wouldn't recognize the good ones. 

There are also days when the ridiculously cute baby thinks that naps are optional, when Mama doesn't feel good and the pile of clean laundry waiting to be folded gets bigger because the baby puts everything in it. (That is where the remote went!)

And that is okay. There will be bad days, there will be days when you don't have time to shower. There will be days when the only way to make dinner is with the baby strapped to your back playing with a DQ spoon because, you know, a blizzard fixes almost everything. 

There are days when you sent out emergency texts to good friends looking for encouragement and when you feel better knowing that many people either are exactly where you are or have been, recently. 

So, have your blizzards, send out those emergency texts and then put the sleepy, clingy, snotty baby to bed and know that tomorrow will be another day!

We are nine months into this adventure called parenthood. If I could go back to those newborn days (daze?) this is what I would tell myself:

"It doesn't last forever." The sleepless nights, the crying, the exhaustion ... it does end. The newborn snuggles, the loooooong breastfeeding sessions, the limp baby sleeping on your chest and through church and in the car. It does end. There is another stage coming; this one is fleeting. Enjoy it.

Related: You WILL sleep again. (And you will miss when she used to sleep anywhere during the day!)

"It takes awhile to feel normal again." Let's face it: you created life, grew it for 10 (yes, 10, don't be fooled!) months and then birthed a baby with a head in the 99.7 percentile WITHOUT ANY DRUGS! You are a rockstar! It takes awhile for your body to feel right again but also for you to get used to not being able to leave the house without your baby or your mind ticking down the minutes to when you have to be home to feed the baby. It takes awhile but you will get there. Soon, you will look for her in the back seat when you are driving alone and you will miss her when she begins to sleep all night. Your body will follow along; give it time.

"You are doing a good job. Zoe is doing great." Tattoo it on your forehead, write it on the mirror or the crib or the fridge. Whatever it takes. You are doing good. Keep up the good work!!

"Have patience with yourself, Zoe and Christopher. I am learning that patience and grace are more important than how we feed her or what type of sleep training we do or what kind of discipline we use. Exercise patience and grace daily!

"It IS hard work but it IS worth it!" 

Do you wanna see some cuteness:

 

Five Minute Friday: Mess

I'm breaking my seven month bloggy hiatus to write a five minute Friday post because that seems like a good place to start. 

MESS

Life changes drastically seven months ago with the birth of our beautiful daughter, Zoe. Our small house has been engulfed in a baby mess ever since. Some days are easier than others to look past the mess and gaze into the blue eyes that stare up at me as, once again, my body gives life to hers. Some days it's hard to overlook the rattles, animals, diapers and tiny socks that are strewn all over. When I do, however, I begin to see the many lessons my daughter has been teaching me. She hears her daddy talk and stops whatever she is doing until he comes to her. She knows when her guardian, Loki, is climbing the stairs to her room. She enjoys morning snuggles before starting her day with gusto. She likes to read in the quiet time before bed. She smiles big in the morning and every time we get her from her crib. 

The most important thing in the world to her is us. We are her center and her compass ... given her as a gift to teach, guide and laugh with/at while she grows. 

And the mess? It doesn't really matter.