playdates, new furniture, & date nights| wk. 43 recap

These weekly recaps force me to look back on the events of the week and reflect on what was accomplished. Sometimes the things that I did during the week directly impact my work and show achievements that way, and other weeks the achievements come from the quality family and friends time we have. It’s truly a balance, and not a single week is the same. Kids have really changed my life in that way because b.c. (before children) I would have had similar days and weeks and just trudged through my normal routines. But since having children I cannot plan for hardly anything, routines are nearly nonexistent, and each day and week is definitely not the same anymore.

I love going through my pictures that I randomly snapped on my phone during the week and looking at everything that I found special enough to take a picture of. This past week showcased tons of photos from playdates with friends, a few cozy vibe photos that really embodies the fall weather we’ve been experiencing lately, one single picture from a date night that Trevor and I went on, and some really exciting photos of our new storage furniture that I built while the kids did crafts and baked cookies at Nana & Papa’s house.

Here’s a look at those photos from the week:

🎉 No more separation anxiety

In case you missed my previous weekly recap blog post, let me fill you in on how a friend of mine and I have been trading kids every week. “On Tuesdays she takes my boys, and then on Thursdays I take her boys. So every single week her and I get one single day of peace and quiet, or time to get work done, or a trip out of the house without kids, or whatever we want." This was the second week doing that, and we all had so much fun. I love that our kids get to play together and socialize, but I also love that each kids is learning how to follow house rules set by different people and respect the differences of others. Since both of us moms have the amazing privilege of staying at home, it can be easy for our kids to fall into a rhythm with us, but I find that these playdates ensure that they’re still learning important socialization skills. Not just skills about playing with friends their age, but skills regarding following others’ rules and engaging with different adults too.

Before doing this kid swap plan with my friend, we had tried taking Greysen to a local daycare a couple times. He absolutely hated it! After having constant one on one attention with only people he knew and trusted, just dropping him off at a daycare with LOTS of wild kids he wasn’t comfortable with and adults that he didn’t know at all was actually really traumatizing. We dealt with SEVERE separation anxiety that we had never seen from him before during the time. It became such a problem that not only would he start having panic attacks at the mere mention of daycare, but he also started to freak out everytime I left any room without him. This became really really hard when I had to leave for evening photo sessions, and even though Greysen was being left with his dad, he was still panicking that I would never come back. Long story short, we stopped the daycare and switched to this kid swap plan. It’s taken a couple of weeks, but Greysen is finally back to his normal self and not expressing any separation problems when we leave him now!!

🍂 Fall cozy vibes

My cute little small town is feeling all of the fall vibes right now. The leaves are mostly all changed and the colors are simply gorgeous. We have mostly all tree lined streets and that makes this time of year just so magical. Also, we’ve been having a lot of gloomy days, which I don’t mind for fall at all. It makes me feel like it’s reading weather. I love to open the windows, listen to the rain and watch the leaves fall to the ground as I read a really good romance book.

🍸 We’re initiating a date night

I mentioned in my last weekly recap blog post that I was really excited about this upcoming date night. It said, “We’re implementing a date night again 💕📅 It’s been on our calendar as a recurring event for probably over a year, but while the event is a great reminder for us to spend some time together, we haven’t actually taken the time to go out on too many dates. I talked with my sister though, and she said she’s free to watch the kids, so we’re going to get out. I think we’ll just wind up going to a local restaurant, but being out of the house spending intentional time together is going to be so nice. My goal is to make this a bi-weekly thing!”

This week my sister came over and watched the boys while we left for a date night at a local restaurant literally only minutes away from our house. When we left Forrest had already been put to bed, but we told my sister that Greysen could stay up and watch movies if he wanted. We knew since we were local that we wouldn’t be home that late.

It was so nice to have a drink with dinner, eat some good food, and just chat with my husband in a unique space without the fear of kids interrupting or causing distractions. We were probably only gone from the house for an hour and a half, but that intentional time together felt really rejuvinating.

When we got home we were surprised to find that Greysen was in bed now too. He had told my sister “I’m tired, can you take me to bed.” Which is sooo adorable—but what normal three year old says this?! We have such a good boy. 💙

📚 New storage furniture

This new furniture was much needed. I was able to take a trip to Indy during the week when I had a session in the area and stop by IKEA to get a couple of pieces of storage furniture that I had had my eye on for a while. We love IKEA and have a lot of their stuff in our house already (our bed frame, dresser, the boys’ cribs, their dresser, all of my bookshelves, our large mirror, our coffee bar, and probably more that I’m not thinking of). The reason that I say that this furniture was much needed is because these two areas in our home were so disorganzied before. Firstly, my work space was just a dumping ground of random papers, camera equipment, mailing supplies. etc. and it was so overwhelming. But now that I have this bookshelf/cabinet system I feel like everythig finally has a place. Secondly, the homeschool cabinet (whcih was actually an old TV Stand) was overflowing with craft supplies, curriculum books, and more. I wish I would have taken a “before” picture to just show the mayhem. We got this 4x4 Kallax cube system, and I installed some of their drawer and door inserts to really make it look more clean and organized.

It took me all day to put this furniture together! Thankfully this was all done on a Sunday which is the normal day that the boys get to spend with Nana & Papa. While we were home building these new storage cabinets, they were making a really cute fall leaves craft and decorating cookies for Halloween 🎃👻

🔮 What am I looking forward to?

Okay, so now, let’s look ahead. I wanna get hyped about what’s coming up. Here’s what’s got me feeling excited in my life:

1) Halloween. This year Greysen has committed to wanting to be a chicken. I asked him a few weeks ago what he wanted to be and he said “ummm… a chicken!” And has stuck with that plan ever since. It is actually going to work out really well because we planned already to get Forrest a bull costume since his 1st birthday theme is “First Rodeo.” So it makes since for Halloween now too since we can all be farm related—mommy & daddy will probably be cowboys.

2) Christmas 🎄☃️ I know, how cliche. I mean it’s still a ways away, but recently we started making our Christmas lists for family… and it just got me all excited. Not for the gifts for myself, but for the magical moments we will get to create with our kids this year. Greysen is at a really good age for Santa, so I am very excited for how fun all of the festivities will be.

Lastly, here’s what I’m currently consuming:

📖 reading- Business Casual (Lovelight, 4), by B.K. Borison

🎧 listening- Disease, by Lady Gaga

🖥️ watching- This is Us on Hulu

🍿 eating- popcorn every single night

☕️ drinking- coffee (this will probably never change every week)

And that’s it for this week’s recap. What are your thoughts on the new blog? How are you enjoying these yappy posts? Be sure to follow me on my socials and DM me on Instagram to let me know what you think! But for now, bye critters!