Life Lately

Life has been a mix of slow and fast lately.  Some days seem to drag on while others are gone in the blink of an eye.  Mara has been getting very mobile lately so I spend most of my day chasing after her.  It seem every time I turn around she's into something new and most of the time it's something she shouldn't be into!  BUT that's this phase of life and it's important for her to be exploring her surroundings.

Her and Buddy have been becoming the best of friends lately.  Poor Buddy is missing all the attention from Josh so he has resorted to Mara and I.  I love him but after being pinched, poked and prodded all day by Mara I just don't want to be touched anymore and he sees the brunt of this.  So he goes and rubs up on Mara.  She pulls his ears and fur.  He puts up with it for the occasional pat of his belly.

We've been getting together with friends when we can.  Just this weekend we participated in a multi-family garage sale and spent the morning making deals and organizing items.  I didn't bring that much to sell because frankly I didn't have much time to sort through anything.  I ended up selling a few clothing items and shoes which is great because I definitely needed to clear a little space out in my closet.

I keep thinking we need to get into more of a weekly routine around here.  Maybe find some play groups in the area or something.  It's been a little hard getting motivated to with our big trip up north coming up shortly.  I hate committing to things to only have to say, "Oh by the way we can't make it."

Mara and I are planning on going up north for a bit to spend some time with my family and Josh's.  I'm excited to see everyone and am hoping that this vacation will help make the time away from Josh go a bit faster on our end.  We'll be driving up there which is a whole new ball park for me.  Thankfully my aunt Mary is coming down to help (praise the Lord!).  She's such a trooper when it comes to driving distance that I know this trek is going be so much easier.

I've been thinking a bit about Mara's first birthday (how is my baby almost one?!).  My mom wants to throw her a party and who am I to say no.  :)  I'm thinking we'll do some simple decorations; ie I'm going to make almost everything.  Maybe Twinkle Twinkle star themed?  Star shaped food.  Star garlands.  Sounds easy enough right?

Otherwise life has been pretty much the same daily routine.  Yes it's different without Josh here and we've had to make some major adjustments but the daily household grind is the same.  The clothes still need to be laundered.  The dishes still need to be washed.  It's just not as much laundry and dishes as before.  I keep saying we're figuring out our new normal and we are.  We're not quite there yet but we're on our way.