Mondays

The Benefits of Childcare

Wow! I am a little lost for words today. I have discovered how productive a day can be when you have childcare! As I may have mentioned previously, my mum has moved up to Kamloops into the suite that we created in the basement of our home. It’s a darling little suite too. Self-contained, all new finishings, really quite perfect. Many parts are nicer than my place! Most importantly, it’s a place for mum to live that is closer to her grand-babies. Lots of boundaries in place for herself and I of course hah! Anyways, one amazing part about having her so close is that I have a very willing babysitter downstairs. I have decided to take advantage of this every Monday so that I can do housework, blog, do Rodan + Fields work, book appointments, keep my sanity, etc. You know, all the usual stuff you need to do on a Monday. Having never really been without Hallie for an entire day, I was not sure how this day would go. Well let me just share how productive I was on the cleaning front! My entire home got a deep clean. A deep Spring clean! My oh my did it feel good too. Being six months pregnant I probably should have taken a few more breaks- I am severely paying for it now at dinnertime. So sore! But my house is spotless and smells incredible. I must have covered almost every square inch with my favourite cleaning buddy, Mrs. Meyers. If you can get your hands on these products I highly recommend it. I used to get my supply at Target but unfortunately, Canadian Targets closed down. I have not seen it anywhere since so if you have any leads, help a girl out! This stuff is the best. It smells amazing, cleans like a damn and is au natural. I have also worked some Honest Company multi-surface cleaner into the mix, especially for all of those baby-accessible areas. You never know when your toddler is going to try and suck on a piece of furniture or window sill. This way I do not have to worry about poisoning her with Lysol. I may not have done much other than clean today but it is going to be so nice to have all this free ‘me time’ on Mondays! So lucky to have Grandma around. Not to mention when babe number two makes his grand appearance. Something tells me I will be grateful for the help then too! So tell me fellow stay-at-home mommas- do you have a day to yourself to do whatever you like, toddler free? If so, what do you do with all of that time? Next week I plan to finish the housework in half the amount of time, and maybe even get my nails done! Happy Monday friends! Hope you too had a productive start to the week.

The real heroes…
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With my spare time I also managed to do up these quick cereal mix jars. Who wants just one type of cereal anyways? In our house we like the variety of mixing a few together! Perfect for on-the-go snacks too in these Mason Jars.
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Hallie not really caring that I just made the bed perfectly.
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Manic Mondays

Ah Mondays….Seriously though, don’t you just want to start the day over sometimes? Even if the sun is shining, Mondays sometimes have a gloomy cloud hovering over them. I named that cloud Murphy, for Murphy’s Law. Anything that can happen, will usually happen. When it does, thank god for deep breathes, counting to ten and Starbucks drive-though. This morning consisted of a few mishaps. First off, thanks to my darling hubby’s snoring, I did not get even remotely enough sleep. It’s also quite common when you wake up in the middle of the night, your mind will race over EVERYTHING that worries you at that time. I must have spent over an hour at 3am just thinking, and contemplating, and worrying about things I had no control over. Especially in the middle of the night! I think the lack of sleep was making me nauseated so I popped a Gravel- thankfully it has a dual purpose of knocking you out! Next thing you know, the whole family has slept in and we are now running very behind. I made it out the door in record time and scored a really good parking spot at the swimming pool. As I tried to carry our swim bag, Hallie and my coffee to the parking pay station, I managed to bop her poor head on the pay station and spill coffee all over myself. Thankfully the little knock didn’t seem to phase her but I was sure soaked and upset. The swim lesson was great, probably our saving grace of the morning. Upon getting changed I discovered I had brought a diaper bag that contained ZERO diapers. Cue me begging another mom in the group for her size 2 diaper; Hallie is a size 4. I prayed for no poop explosions as we wrapped up our errands and headed the heck home! It may be small stuff, and in the grand scheme of things, not important at all. But sometimes, every now and then, shit just feels like it is never going your way. Thank goodness no major tantrums entered the realm of the morning. My sweet girl seemed to be oblivious to all these ‘mom problems’ and gleefully carried out the morning with a smile on her face. I love that girl. I hope you are all having a much better Monday! Though it seems to be picking up. You can’t really complain after an afternoon of baby snuggles on the floor watching Mickey Mouse Club & Curious George. Not to mention the impromptu kitchen dance party after lunch. My daughter LOVES hip hop. She is a total gangster… Happy Monday friends! Now here are some fun photographs that are unrelated to this post, but I simply had to share.

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Hubby finally finished some wood for me to hang as a shelf on my Anthropologie Brackets! Also a great Rodan + Fields display area!
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The importance of saving money…
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What do you do when your baby finally takes a nap? Why you make a Valentines heart garland for her bedroom for of course!
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Bump Progress! On the left, I am pregnant with Hallie at 20 weeks. On the right, that is me NOW and bump is almost the same size… 15 weeks! Bump number two proves to be growing a lot quicker.
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Weekdays With Babies

I am just loving my maternity leave lately. Of course I have loved being off with my baby since she arrived back in October. It is however getting to be more fun though as each day passes. The older Hallie gets, the more personality she has and the more things she enjoys doing. (more…)