Mama Stress

It's been a stressful day, so here's a picture of my baby to make me feel better. I think you'll like it too.

My mind is trying to process, like, four or five blog posts all at once. They all want out right. now. So I'll try to make this as coherent as possible. I work best in lists so I'm going to write this post in that format, and then maybe come back at some point and write a blog post to expand on it.

1.) I've been debating on writing a blog post on my experience with breastfeeding. Nursing hasn't been easy and I think that other mama's out there could understand or relate to what I'm going through, so I think I should write it. I just don't know.

2.) Today has been one of those days. One of those stereotypical days of a mama you see in commercials and movies. My breakfast is half eaten and cold, baby need something and everything all at once, the cat is going crazy bonkers because why not, I exercised while baby was napping, baby won't nurse or play with toys, I'm freaking out because I feel like all the clothes I own extenuates my tummy rolls, it takes me four hours to take a shower and get dressed (Aaron called me while I was in the middle of the shower [which, of course I answered because that's what I do, lol!] and then he called me over an hour later and I was just then getting to curl my hair), I'm crying on the phone with Aaron while he's super busy at the store... *breathe* *breathe* *breathe* I mean, this is not a typically day for me, so I was overwhelmed.

3.) Is it worth writing "Mama" posts? I mean writing in depth posts about my experiences and lessons on being a Mom? It's been such a great 10 months for me, and I've learned SO MUCH. Would other ladies and mama's enjoy reading it?

4.) We went to Seattle last weekend for the Mariner's FanFest and we ended up carless. It was quite the trip!

5.) Pumping at work is so stressful! It totally wrecks my body and my milk supply.

6.) I've been working out to WWE FitSeries and I've loving it, and I'm feeling results but I want to SEE results. I want to SEE, like, 4 inches off my belly. Today. *sigh* Patience, patience. Hopefully by my birthday in March I'll start to see results. Here's to hoping! x^.^x

Anyways, all stressful days come to an end and I'm pretty excited for that. So smile everyone, because each day is a blessing. Even the stressful ones.

What's In My Bag?

Purses have always been a weakness for me. Chunky handbags, chic clutches, sleek cross body bags... I love them all. Over the course of the last decade or so I have collected so many different purses. Some gals collected shoes, I collected bags. One type of bag that I kept coming back was the cross body. I love having my hands and arms free, and not having to worry about my stuff.

I've always been on the look out for the perfect purse. Currently I have the perfect clutch, tote bag, mini travel purse, and special occasion purse. The special occasion purse is actually the perfect purse ever made, but since having Dean I've been hard on it and I don't want to ruin it, so it's now the special occasion purse instead of my every day purse. The purse I am using right now is one I found on a whim at Target a week ago. It was in the clearance section with no price tag on it, and it was the only one. So of course I grabbed it and bought it. And I love it. It's big enough for my essentials and little more but not too big it gets in my way getting in and out of the car, and carrying Dean around.

My essentials:
1| Kate Spade planner. 2| diary. 3| binky wipes.
4| mini pouch- anti nausea wrist bands, military coin from my Dad's Green Beret unit,
and good luck charm form my Mom, a little key that says "compassion".
5| my favorite lip gloss and lip balm. 6| coffee cup cozy. 7| tissues. 8| wallet.
Funny little story about this military coin. My sisters and I all received one on the day my dad retired from the Army. I was a senior in high school at the time. After the ceremony my dad told me to walk over to where a bunch of the "younger" guys in my dad's unit were chatting (and by younger, I mean younger than my dad- I'm sure the youngest was in his 30's), and drop my coin on to the floor by all of them. Me being me and totally niave, I did just that and I looked up at them and smiled big like I was in on something cool, not knowing I really was a butt of a (playful) joke. All the guys looked shocked and slightly embarrassed, looked from me to my Dad and just started laughing. Hard. Quickly I realized this wasn't just a cute thing I did. I had essentially just told them they were all buying me drinks. It's a thing in the Army, I guess, that in a group of people whoever drops their coin last buys drinks. So I had initiated something that I wasn't even able to do and with all the dudes who worked under my dad. Hahaha, I was so embarrassed at the time but I look back on it fondly now. It really was funny!

1| Sailor Moon keychains. 2| Sailor Moon pocket watch.
Anyways, that's all that's currently in my purse. I have a feeling pretty soon here I'll be dropping the diaper bag and adding a few of Dean's necessities in there as well.

Do you have have anything special you carry around in your purse?

2015 Planner Details

Last July I decided I needed to finally get organized. Adding the baby on top of owning a business (and on top of me being a space cadet) made me realize just how much I needed something to keep all my bills, appointments, work schedules, and everything in between in one place where I would remember it. So I bought myself a little planner from Office Depot. A few months into using, I knew I was going to stick with it so I invested in a Kate Spade zipper planner.

This was a small fortune ($120 on Ebay), is my first "designer" item, and it was worth every penny. I l o v e it. One reason I chose to invest in this one was because the one I was using was getting pretty loved from being lugged around in my purse. The corners were starting to bend and the pages inside were getting banged up a bit. The Kate Spade has zips around so everything is safe and sound inside. At a glace, on the left I have a gift card I need to send to my sister, two cute little cards that make me happy (and I haven't decided what to do with yet), a business card for my store, and a copy paper clips.

On the right hand side is a little tab I made that says "AaronlovesSarah", pictures, and a big note card of happiness. The pictures are from my IG account and had printed at Office Depot for a whopping total of 29 cents. The pages for the pictures I found at Craft Warehouse for $4 and had to cut and re-hole punch to fit on the rings.

The calendar part of the planner I'm using is a week on two page format calendar I bought of Etsy and had printed at Office Depot. It turns out the Office Depot Copy Center is pretty amazing. You can just email them what you want to have printed out and then they'll print it, cut it, hole punch it, basically whatever you need. If you are a small business and apart of the Chamber of Commerce you get a small business discount. What would have cost me $35 ended up costing me $14 after the discount. So yay for small businesses!

I really liked the "life mapping" color coding system so I continued with that. This allows me to see anything major at a glance without having to even open up my planner. Pink is anything having to do with Me, Aaron, or Dean. Orange is family related. Yellow is work related. Green is bills. Blue is general fun things. Purple is friend related.

After my calendar I have a few small sections for various things like Dean's sleeping and food log, store related notes and ideas, and then a section for the fantasy wrestling league that I'm apart of. As I'm writing this, I realized I don't have a section for the blog, oops! I'll have to fix that asap.

There are tons of different ways to set up an organizer but this works for me. I've found that my planner is most effective when I keep it out someplace visible. That way the moment I think of anything I need to add or check on it's right there for me. In addition to keeping work schedules and bill dates in my planner, I use it to keep track of what workouts I'm doing, small grocery lists, and projects I'd like to work on.

What do you do to stay organized? Do you use a planner? Your phone? Post-it notes?

Outfits

One of my favorite Christmas gifts is this WWE Fit Series: Stephanie McMahon workout video. I'm a cheesy big wrestling fan so when I heard this was being made I just had to have it. Aaron surprised me with it after going on and on about how he couldn't find it. Great surprise is great! It came with a monthly work out guide which Aaron and I have been sticking to so far. We started on the first and my thigh are still a bit sore from that workout!

Flannel - Target | Black tank - RedBubble | White tank - Target | Pants - Target |
Shoes - Amazon | Necklace - Bead'all Bug Beads
Working out has been making me feel pretty good about myself and thought I'd start taking outfit pictures again. (Gotta love those good endorphins!) I went through my closet and got rid of 75% of my wardrobe and paired down to minimum. Now I only have clothes that fit me right now and clothes that will fit me great when I lose weight. No more putting clothes on and then feeling bad about how I look. Everything I own fits me in a way that I'm completely happy with.

Cardi - Old Navy | Black tank - WWE Shop | Red tank - Target | Pants - Target |
Shoes - Target | Necklace - Bead'all Bug Beads

Typically I use PicFrame for my outfit pictures but I recently started dabbling with Petapic and I like it a lot. It has a ton of cute backgrounds and styles which is really fun to play around with. Since the collages are rectangles it won't work for Instagram but I think it'll work perfect for the blog.

Cardi - Forever 21 | White tank - RedBubble | Black tank - Target | Pants - Target |
Shoes - Toms Shoes | Necklace - Bead'all Bug Beads
Right now I'm really liking black and white tanks layered with colored tanks and cardis or flannels. While I've always loved wearing layers, I think seeing all the cute pics of Kkarmalove on her IG account brought it to a whole new level. Since I started following her account I've purchased five or six black and white tanks. To be honest, I really should buy some of her white and black shirts from her shop!

Cardi - Ebay | White tank - Target | Green tank - Target | Infinity scarf - Target
Pants - Target | Shoes - Target
In addition to Kkarmalove, Kayla from Love.Sparkle.Pretty is easily one of the pretties ladies I've ever seen and her style is so effortless looking and elegant. Even when she's dressed casually, it's stunning.

What styles to you like? Is there one type of style that defines how you dress? Are there bloggers who inspire you? If not bloggers, who else inspires your fashion?

33 Books In 12 Months

Books were my drug of choice last year and man, oh man, was I addicted. Over the course of the year I read a total of 33 books!! Everything from knitting murder mystery, magical cat murder mystery, coffee house murder mystery, cupcake murder mystery, magic potion murder mystery, and Star Wars. Can you tell I'm really into mystery books? Star Wars also, but mostly mystery books. Especially ones with the main character in her late 20's/early 30's, really into silly hobbies, and with a frustrating but exciting relationship with the local detective, lawyer, sheriff, or construction guy/architect. Mmm mmm!

Here's the big list of all the books I read in 2014:

All In 2014

Knittedfox's favorite books »

A few of these books I was pretty obsessed over. The ending of the sixth cupcake book, "Sugar and Iced" got me so worked up I felt ill and couldn't sleep. I ended up reading the ending four times before Aaron woke up in the morning. That might be a little cray-cray but oh my gawd what was Joe thinking?!

The writing and characters in "Star Wars Hard Contact" and "Star Wars Into the Void" were so cool I named my Pokemon after the in the Pokemon game I'm playing, haha! What can I say? I'm probably the biggest dork who's blog you've ever read.

Aaron was such a good sport listening to me talk about all the exciting events and character relationships and plot twists. When Dean was two or three months old I would read aloud to him at bed time and Aaron could tell when I was on a different book. I like to think that we all enjoyed all the books I read.

Now that Dean isn't up every few hours to nurse, my reading time is slowly dwindling. Pretty soon here I'll have to move my books from Dean's room back to my room. Tonight I finished my first book of 2015, "Star Wars Millennium Falcon". Since I've caught up with all the murder mystery book series I liked I'm going to read all the Star Wars books Aaron got me for Christmas (which was, like, five or six of them)!

What have you been reading lately? Any books or series that have you completely drawn in and addicted? Are you on Goodreads? If you are add me as a friend!

Bullet Journal Diary

Back when I was doing a ton of research on how I wanted to get organized, I ran across Bullet Journaling. It's a very neat and versatile way to keep track of things. While I knew it wasn't the right fit for me as far as a planner goes, but I really enjoyed it's process and the look of it. So when Aaron got me a couple of journals for Christmas, I knew that I wanted to somehow change up the BJ format to a more of a diary format. Since the BJ format is very flexible I knew I'd be able to come up with something that would work for me.

For me, personally, writing in a journal or diary is a bit intimidating. Especially when I read about people who have been doing it forever, are consistent with it, and have kept their journals. I just haven't had the drive or desire to keep with it mostly because I tend to over think things and I don't think my life has been interesting enough to write down. I mean, I have been blogging for the last 10 or so years, but that has been on and off too.

My plan for this journal is to not over things, to not write big entries- just thoughts. I created a whole bunch of different bullets to signify which topic I am writing about and this just plopping down my thoughts. No strict rules, just whatever I want to write about. Mixed and matched topics. I write whatever is on my mind when it's on my mind. Regardless of what is it.

I started it on New Years Eve and I have written something every evening since. So far I haven't found it intimidating and I actually look forward to writing in it. We'll see how long I'll stick with it, but I see myself keeping up for a while. Do you keep a journal or diary? Do you have a special method of writing in it?

F A B U L O U S

2014 was quite a year! Last January I did a post about my word of the year and now it's time for a new word~

FABULOUS

def: extraordinary, especially extraordinarily large.
I think that the word "fabulous" is exciting and inspiring and will be a fun word to hang on to this year. 2015 is going to be a fabulous year for me, in all aspects of my life. After having spent a year focusing on one aspect of myself, I'd like to focus on all of me, the whole package. My health, appearance, love, family, relationships, creativity... everything.

A few things in particular being:

~ Loosing baby weight and getting fit (for realzies this time)
~ Cooking and enjoying food more
~ Balancing time between Aaron and Dean
~ Blogging more
~ Drinking more water
~ Not being lazy at night and washing off my makeup
~ Doing more with less

This last one is a big one for me. Last month I cleaned out my closet and got rid of about 75% of my clothes and shoes- no joke- and I'm less stressed in the mornings and more happy with my clothes. Funny how that works huh? Pretty soon here I'll be getting rid of all my pots and pans and then buying one soup pot, one frying pan, and one cookie sheet. Currently, I don't use more than those three things anyways so why do I have cupboards full of things I don't use?

These first five days of 2015 have been good and I look forward to creating a fabulous year. Do you have a word for yourself this year?

I have a crush on 2015

There is something about the idea of 2015 that gives me butterflies in my tummy. Makes my heart flutter. Dean will turn one, Aaron and I will celebrate 14 years together, our store will turn 4, we're going to visit my sister and her family. I will grow even more as a person, mother, wife, daughter, and sister. It's nothing but exciting! 2014 has come and gone, along with it's ups and downs, frustrations and celebrations, partings and introductions. I look forward to every single thing 2015 has in store for me and my family.

It's been so long since I've posted on here. I just didn't know what to write. Would anyone care to read what I wrote? What was my goal with this blog? I didn't know anymore. Not really sure I do right now. Regardless, I'm here to try to figure it out. Or at least, I'm here to get my blog juices flowing. Or something, haha!

Right now I have to admit it's pretty hard to blog or even think where the little one is jumping up and down at the end of the couch right next to me whining. Maybe I'll just call it good for now. That'll give me a good excuse to come back at write more. <3