Real life

This is real life, folks. Messy floors, overstuffed pantries, laundry all over the laundry room floor, snacks on the hardwood floor, babies with dirty bibs... This girl loves to be in the pantry, tearing the place apart, sometimes while grinding her snacks into the floor. She's exploring every nook of the house now, and nothing is off-limits. And she doesn't just play quietly when she gets there, she takes everything off the shelves, out of the container, rips things apart and destroys them. A room comes apart just like that when she's in it, so some days I just don't bother to pick up. So full of life, that one!

Some other things that have been happening over here lately:

I've been helping Ben and Mila with big school projects lately and spending time with Olivia before school, letting her practice reading and working on spelling words with the blending sounds they've been studying in school. I want to make sure she ends her kindergarten year strong. She's already such a good reader!

Our vacuum broke the other day, so we borrowed my in-laws' vacuum to use this week. One more thing on my to-do list.

I started running this month and I'm kind of obsessed with it. It's amazing that I can do it again after my arthritis diagnosis, and that's only because I'm on a mostly plant-based diet and eating as little meat as possible (I found that when I eat meat, my joints will always hurt the next day). I'm using the RunKeeper app to track my runs, and I'm loving it. I'm hoping to sign up for a 5K soon, and then do a 10K and see how my joints respond. I just wish I had a running partner...

I haven't made macarons in years but have been wanting to play around with different flavors and fillings for too long now, and yesterday I finally got a chance to try. I bought this macaron baking sheet to make them perfect, aaaaand...I failed miserably. They ran into each other while baking, were super flat, and stuck to the pan. Now I really need to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I have it in my head that I need to master macarons, and so I need to! :)

I haven't been very good about sticking to our budget and I've been horrible at saving money. My good start has turned into a bad situation quick. I need to double up my energy and focus on getting some money put away, especially since this laptop of mine is super slow and it feels like it's on it's last leg. That's one reason blogging has been overwhelming me lately. I would love to upgrade to an Apple this time, but that means I need to start saving for one asap.

Naomi understands so many things I say to her. It's amazing that she's 10 months and already responding to directions. She knows when I say "babuh" in Ukrainian, which means she's about to hurt herself. She stops doing whatever she's doing when I say it. She also knows owie, "idi syuda" (come here), "nimozhna" (you can't have that), "day tsyom" (give me a kiss), bye (she waves when we say it), and when we say "na," which means "here you go," she turns around to see what we're giving her. She knows "na hamu" means she's getting something to eat. I can basically say anything to her and know that she understands me.

I have periods where I don't care much about music and only listen to the radio, and other times where I want to listen to good music all the time. Right now is one of those times. I recently bought this CD and am waiting for the release of this one, and this one is in my Amazon cart.

The house has been taking shape the last couple months as I clean and dust and organize. I swear it never ends, and I feel like that's all I talk about--what I'm cleaning and what I just organized--but it really is a full-time job keeping this house in order. I feel like I've made progress recently, and the office, laundry room, linen closets, our walk-in closet, and some kitchen drawers have all gotten purged recently. This makes me excited, because it means I have more time now to work on projects that I've been neglecting for too long, like printing pictures and mending some clothes. I'm hoping to keep the clutter to a minimum from now on, and live with as little things in our life as possible.

I miss my husband these days. I feel like it's me and the kids in this house, and he's off somewhere doing his own thing, and it makes me sad. It's his busy season right now, so I'm hoping once June comes around we'll be seeing a lot more of him.

xoxo,
Tanya