homegrown {oktoberfest zinzinnati}

September in Cincinnati means Oktoberfest! To kick off the weekend's festivities we headed downtown to Fountain to have Henry run in the Wiener Dog Race. It doesn't get much cuter than 100 dachshunds dressed in buns running across the square.

He didn't win or even place in his heat but as always Henry ran with heart!  Next year he'll be 9. I think he's got one more race in him before retirement.

the heart of life

There were times after my divorce when it felt like the kids and I were this very small, very select army-us against the world. It was that way for a long time. And then I became obsessed with giving them the "nuclear family" experience I thought they were missing. Since I like to make unrealistic demands on myself I arbitrarily decided that if I wasn't married again by the time I was thirty all hope of creating this family would be lost.

What's that saying...life happens while you are busy making other plans. I didn't even meet my future husband until shortly after my thirtieth birthday. We dated for nine months before he met the kids. After another year and a half we moved in together. And it took another five years for us to get married.

During this time we became a family. It wasn't always easy, particularly between him and the girls. Tween and teen girls...oh man...they aren't for the faint of heart!(#thestruggleisreal LOL) I think a lesser man might have bolted at the thought of all of those hormones raging at the same time. He loves them and they love him. But, we always knew that we wanted to have a baby. We struggled for three years before getting pregnant with Rowan. One of my worries with having another baby especially with such a big age difference between them was how the older kids would react.

Considering that they're old enough to know how babies are made their reactions were better than we expected! I wouldn't say they were deeply interested in the pregnancy but they asked how I was feeling, dutifully looked at sonogram pictures, reassured me that I didn't look like a whale and weighed in on the name debate. What more could you ask for from a sixteen year old boy and his sisters? 

When we brought Rowan home my youngest daughter fell for him instantly but he was so small that Zachary was too nervous to even hold him. The older two weren't living at home so their interest was more perfunctory. A few months ago Logan moved back home and she's quickly become smitten with her baby brother. Over the weekend he charmed his oldest sister. She's definitely not a baby person but even she couldn't resist loving on him!

It's strange(unexpected and delightful) but I think that we feel more connected to each other as family. After Doug and I got married I wasn't sure that it would feel different, but it did. It felt deeper and more substantial. That's what I feel Rowan has brought to us. Having this new baby has made us a stronger family and the house has a lightness to it that wasn't there before.When I see my oldest son playing with his brother or listen to one of the girls talking softly to the baby in his crib my heart melts! This thing, family, it's sometimes difficult and complicated, but it's a good thing!   

family

This past weekend there was a party to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday. The oldest of our girls is in the navy and stationed in Virginia Beach. We haven't seen her since she graduated from A School and left for east coast in March. She surprised us all by coming home and she finally got to meet her baby brother for the first time!

Her overnight visit was way too short and we hated to see her go, but fingers crossed she'll be able to get home again for the holidays!

I'm not sure when it happened but all of sudden my kids are so grown up. I know that my job is to raise them and send them out into the world but letting go is so hard.  

My mom, the birthday girl, and dad. They're both in their 80's and pretty damn awesome!  

homegrown {the city flea}

We've been trying to do as much as we can this summer. I foolishly thought we would keep our usual summer schedule, but you know with a baby in tow. Ha! I don't know if it's my age or what but the idea of packing up Rowan and all of his gear and getting ourselves ready seems a little daunting most of the time.

The weather has been kind of meh. Alternating between cool and rainy or sticky and humid. A few weeks ago the stars must have been in perfect alignment. We had energy to burn, the weather was glorious and we actually remembered there was something fun happening downtown that weekend. That something was the City Flea. The City Flea is a curated outdoor market in Washing ton Park. There are all kinds of artisans selling everything from handcrafted soaps, jewelry, and wooden toys to beard elixirs, vintage clothing and original art. And of course my favorite part, food trucks.  

august reads

I used to read all the time. There were always books in my purse, in the car, on the night stand. All waiting for me to finish one and move on to the next. Then I got lazy. I started spending more and more time surfing the internet and zoning out in front our television. A few months ago I realized it had probably been close to a year since I read a book. That's an embarrassing confession! Last  month I rediscovered the joy of my library card and I managed to read seven books-can we say amen to the babe sleeping through the night!

My favorite of the bunch was Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith. This was actually written by JK Rowling under a pen name. Please tell me I'm not the only that didn't know this. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy a good mystery-Agatha Christie is my jam!-and this was a good one. I think I read over the course of two nights. It's an easy and engaging read.  

My least favorite was After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman. It's not a terrible book. I actually breezed through it in a few days but by the end of the month I'd forgotten that I read it. So, yeah, I didn't hate it but I didn't like it enough for it to make any sort of impression.

 I've picked out some interesting books for September that I can't wait to start.

on to the next one

Saturday I turned 41. I think I'm okay with it.

My thirties were fantastic! I met a man that would become my husband. I saw three of kids graduate from high school and start the next chapters of their lives. I started a blog and a business.

The year I turned forty I was blessed with healthy baby boy.

So, yeah, I have a feeling the my forties are going to be pretty great!

Cheers!

monthly manifesto {september}

Despite my best attempts to go with the flow, I'm not that person. But, I'm not particularly "Type A". Basically, I operate best when I know what's happening around me. I'm a list maker and a planner at heart so I'm not sure why I try to fight it as much as I do. Maybe because it seems so rigid. Inflexible. Babies require a certain degree of flexibility. I think it's safe to say that it's necessary in order to survive those first few months.

We've started to establish a bit of a routine. And now it's time for me to ease back into real life-accomplish more in the day than showering(which make no mistake about it is a huge victory for new moms!).

There are days when I think, "I should work on..." and I look up and it's two weeks later! Oh, where does the time go. Setting monthly goals will be a big help for me in terms focusing on exactly what I want to do and tracking my progress. I'm hoping that it will also ease some of the anxiety I've been feeling lately.  

So here we go September...

1. Figure out a blog schedule that works for me. I'm really happy to be blogging again but I don't want to stress myself out with feeling like I have to post something, anything. I want this space to feel authentic and not forced. Ideally I'd like to post three times a week. We shall see.
2. Writing|editing|scheduling. I think carving out time to write,edit and schedule posts will be the most helpful in keeping the blog up and running.
3. Unplug! I spend a lot of time on social media and looking at various devices. It's really important to me that we raise Rowan in a way fosters creativity and independent play that comes from actually doing and not simply staring at screens. We need to model that behavior for him sooner rather than later.
4. Read. Read. Read. At least four books this month.
5. I'm not happy with the shape my body is in right now. The only way to remedy it is to clean up my diet and exercise. I'm challenging myself to workout for the first fourteen days of September. Consistently. No rest days. Once I've made it through those two weeks, it's four times a week until the end of the month. No Excuses!
6. Menu planning. I hate the daily what do you want for dinner text messages. Right now we go to the grocery several times per week. It is the worst!! My goal is to plan for the week so that we can go to Findlay Market on Saturday or Sunday and then supplement our list with things we need form the grocery store once a week.
7. We haven't had a night out, just the two of us, since we had the baby. Time to get cleaned up, put on a pair of heels and go out with my husband.
8. I have lots of thoughts bouncing around my head for the business. Some of them more doable than others. This month I really want to flesh some of them out a bit and create a timeline of when I can potentially execute some of these ideas.  

                  

Ok, September, let's do this!