After several weeks of bragging on how well I was sleeping, stupid acid reflux reared its ugly head. For the last week or so, I’ve been waking up in a panic and can’t go back to sleep. The first several days I really tried to stay in bed and at least rest, but this week I decided to just get up and be productive. On Monday, I was wide awake at 3:18 a.m. and decided to get up and get started with my day sometime around 3:45. I made coffee, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and wrote a few blog posts!
I’m still really loving my mini bathroom makeover, although I hope to paint the walls black and all of the woodwork a different white, at some point in the future. The girls joke that you can see yourself from every angle, except when you’re on the toilet (thank goodness!).
We’re not quite back into a good school schedule rhythm, but we’re getting there. I know that things will change when I take my maternity leave and then again when I go back to the office after Thanksgiving, but we’ll figure it out. For now, the girls set an alarm for 5:30 and I have to leave for the office by 6:15. I try to be mostly ready by the time they wake up, so I can help with hair, lunches, and sign all the paperwork before I leave.
Work is super busy right now — with only ten days left in the office (WHAT in the world?!), I still have so much to accomplish! This is the spot where everything piles up: my massive to-do list, a book and my lunch for a midday break, all the water, baby gifts and my list for thank you notes, and tons of work (not pictured for obvious reasons!)
I made jambalaya the night before, so that Josh would have dinner for several days. I’m still not loving big meals at night and it’s hard to figure out how to cook for my family while avoiding the kitchen myself. I brought a small portion, some wild rice to mix in (I make it with riced veggies for him), and continued marking my days off of the calendar!
My gift card shower was the day before, so I brought all of the Target cards with me and strolled the baby aisle at Target between work and small group. I mostly needed things like body wash, diaper rash cream, and burp clothes, but I managed to find some really cute preemie sized sleepers on clearance, too. Sophie wore preemie sizes for about ten days, so I wanted to have a few things on-hand, without spending a ton of money.
I still had about an hour between Target and small group, so I ran through the drive through at Chick-fil-a and grabbed a sandwich and fries for dinner. Not healthy or glamorous, but I have craved CFA this entire year and it really hit the spot. I just sat in the parking lot nearby and had a moment of quiet — it was so nice.
I’ve been listening to this book for a little over a week, so I played a few chapters while I ate dinner. Guys — it is so good! I should finish up this morning and I can’t wait to review it for you. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the last several chapters, so I’m anxious to head into the resolution, but so far — I’ve really enjoyed it!
I could only stay at small group for an hour because I had to pick Ella up from the studio at eight. We technically aren’t meeting for a Bible study right now (our church is in between semesters), but we try to get together and fellowship a few times during the off seasons. The girls organized a clothing swap and everyone brought a few things to trade. It looked like fun, but I can’t purge clothes right now and obviously couldn’t fit into anything they brought.
When I got home, Sophie was in the living room working on a jigsaw puzzle. We’ve implemented a major reduction of technology time this week and the girls are having to figure out what to do with all of their extra time. I’ll share a blog post soon about what prompted it and what we’re doing, but it’s already working so much better for our family. We used to have a puzzle on our table at all times and we all stop for a few minutes as we pass through to put pieces together. Sophie has been the most interested, so it’s been fun to watch her skills improve.
I shared this on Instagram last week and got lots of questions, so I thought I’d share our favorite puzzle trick with you here, too. While Josh and the girls worked on putting the border / edge pieces together, I started sorting all of the other pieces by shape. It isn’t an exact science, but we create groups with similar characteristics and then lay them all in the same orientation. I think sorting by color works, too, but we’ve found that sometimes you know exactly which shape you are looking for and it’s easier to pick your color out of a category, than your shape out of a group that are all the same color. Sophie will carry a piece around from group to group, matching the color, which also works great when you can’t seem to quite match them. Trust me — this little tip is a game changer!
That’s where my photos for the day end, because I probably struggled to find a comfortable spot in bed and then promptly crashed. Ha! Head back to the blog tomorrow for our 36 Week Bumpdate (what?!) and I’ll be sharing what I packed in my hospital bag this Friday. Happy Wednesday, friends.
