Operation: Visit All the Parks in Austin

On a recent weekend, Matt was out of town, so the boys and I came up with a fun idea: make a goal to visit all the parks in Austin (over time, not all in one weekend).

Here's how it has worked so far:

• We were picking up food from a drive-through salad restaurant. We did a google search for the closest park and ended up eating our lunch at Wooten Park. Henry met an older girl to play with and reports that this was his favorite park yet. 
• We ate Easter brunch at a restaurant and then did a google search for the closest park. It looked so tiny on the map that I wasn't sure it was going to have a playscape. It turns out it has the most amazing playscape with web-like things to climb! 
• We drove to our favorite vegan bakery to pick up a treat for the boys because they had gone to a birthday party the day before and weren't able to eat the cupcakes. We searched for the closest park and tried it out. 

Once we return home, we pull out the map, fine the park we visited, and put a circle around it. It's fun to have a real map in our lives (we've found our house and our school), and I love the adventure of trying out places we've never been. 

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Gardening in the Front Yard

I apologize in advance for writing this post every year. Sometimes two times a year. It's just so fun to have a front-yard garden!

We planted our Spring/Summer garden over Spring Break. Here's what we have growing:

• Cucumbers
• Mint
• Watermelon
• Artichoke
• Bell peppers
• Beans
• Tomatoes
• Cantaloupe
• Pomegranates
• Figs

A front-yard garden is a lazy gardener's dream. I am forced to walk past it at least two times a day. It's very easy to weed when you are walking by and spot something. 

Walking by the garden at least twice a day ensures that we notice things as they progress. It's so fun to stop briefly to notice the tendrils of the bean plant reaching to climb up the cage or the tiniest bell pepper that's starting to form or the bean that's ready to be plucked. 

Having it in the front yard keeps it away from our dog (and chickens, when we have them). We don't seem to have a problem with other animals attacking it in the front. 

The trick to making the garden manageable is the automatic irrigation. It makes it possible to have a full-time job, a full family, and a garden. 

I love that our children get to experience the cycle of life through the garden. So fun! 

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Documenting Our Children's Lives

There's a lot I don't know about parenting (seriously, I wish there were more longitudinal studies about how to be an effective parent!). But there are two things I did know from the start:

1. I wanted to document my children's lives for them in a way that would make them feel loved and cherished.
2. I needed the easiest and least time-consuming way possible. 

Enter The Easy Peasy Scrapbook. 

I did not make this thing up. I think I may have gotten it from Amy over at Progressive Pioneer (when she was actively blogging). 

The idea is so stinking simple: one binder + white card stock + sheet protectors + double-sided tape. That's it! That's all I use to put together a scrapbook for each of my boys. 

I religiously printed photos during their first year of life (so easy to print from Instagram to Walgreens), and then just added stuff after that: class photos, letters on their birthdays, report cards, etc. Now that I started printing photos to celebrate their birthdays, I'm going to add photos from every year. The card stock makes it incredibly easy to jot down a few notes--an explanation, a date, an age, etc. 

The page featured on this post is literally the fanciest page I've ever made for one of their scrapbooks (see yesterday's post about how life is getting easier!). But even this took only five minutes. 

The boys already love looking through their scrapbooks. I love oohing and awwing over how cute they were as babies and how much they have grown. It's a really special time. 

All that focus on babies has left Tate wondering, "Who took care of the everyone when everyone in the world was a baby?"

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Setting and Tracking Family Goals

I am enjoying my family so much right now. I know that sounds weird to say. I have always loved my family, but we are getting into the stage of life when I really enjoy our time together. We are out of the breast feeding stage and the napping stage and the diaper-changing phase. We are in a phase when the tantrums are decreasing and the conversations are increasing. We generate ideas together and make plans. We play games and read and ride bikes and hike and do art. And swim. How could I forget that one?  Tate is now swimming completely independently so being around the pool is more fun and relaxing. 

Our Family Goals are taking on more meaning as Henry moves into what Maria Montessori calls the "second plane of development." He is building a reasoning mind. And he loves making plans and going on adventures! 

He's excited about and invested in our goals for this year:

1. Host 10 Saturday Suppers to build community.
2. Save up enough money for a hot tub and new deck railings to replace our temporary ones.
3. Volunteer at least twice.
4. Become a gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free family.
5. Read three chapter books.
6. Take three awesome vacations. 
7. Hang out at the creek.
8. Attend two theatrical productions. 
9. Go camping. 

It's fun working toward these things! Last weekend we went to the theater. We also hosted our third Saturday Supper. Good times! 

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Hiring Help in the Kitchen

When we found out about all of our food sensitivities a couple months back, I immediately posted on our neighborhood list-serv to see if anyone was interested in coming over on Sundays and helping me do meal prep for the week. I was thinking it would take 1-2 hours per week (depending on whether we worked together or they worked alone). 

I was able to find the most amazing woman, but we weren't able to make the first couple weekends work with her schedule, and then I fell into a groove on my own. 

But then I went to my friend's house and learned that she also hires someone to help her prep meals for the week (which she explained as she served us the most delicious Indian meal!).

So I'm back to being eager to get help with meal prep. I think it will help us make more interesting meals. I can find more complicated recipes that can be made on Sundays and heated up throughout the week (such as recipes from this book!). 

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My New Favorite Snack

Stocking our pantry with gluten-free, vegan, and dairy-free treats is no easy feat. It helps that we found Larabar: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Here are the ingredients: cashews, dates, chocolate chips, sea salt. 

It takes so indulgent! 

I'm probably one of the last people to discover these bars (I really shouldn't be a blogger--I'm not trendy at all!), but if there are any of you who haven't discovered them yet, I highly recommend them! 

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Reflection & Rejuvenation: May

This is the time of year when I just hang on to my seat for dear life with regard to my job. 

I'm realizing more and more than I have to maintain equilibrium in my life to 1) enjoy life 2) be a good mother and partner 3) be effective at my job. So I'm working really hard toward my goals for 2017 that relate to equilibrium:

1. Run at least twice a week and do yoga at least once a week. I'm consistently running, even though I never want to...Yoga is still a struggle. 
2. Eat in a balanced and healthy way. I'm doing much better! Salads for lunch! Smoothies for breakfast!   
3. Continue my daily meditation and gratitude practice. I'm continuing to do guided medication using the Insight Timer app. I love it! I do need to work on my gratitude practice. I think first thing in the morning in the shower would be my best time. 
4. Stop working at 8pm to create two hours of free time for myself each evening. It's been really hard, but I'm stopping by at least 8:30pm most nights. This is a must! 

As far as my other yearly goals go: 

1. Attend therapy every other week and attend leadership coaching every other week. I thought I found a therapist on Breakthrough (I'm going to do it over the computer for more convenience), but she is all full! I'm still meeting with my leadership coach regularly, and I love it. 
2. Take a pottery class. Later in the year...
3. Host a Sunday Supper at least ten times this year. Hosted another one this month! Will get one scheduled for next month right now...oh, wait. We have to host a lot of other stuff this month: a swim party for a school raffle winner, one or two end-of-year class parties, and a party for the children I'm tutoring. Okay, that's enough hosting for May! 
4. Religiously use Mint.com to track our expenses. We are not doing this! I hate when we fall out of the habit. When I'm not doing something that I want to be doing, I try to make a plan for it by specifying the day and the time. I'm going to do this while I'm brushing my teeth each night instead of looking at Facebook. 
5. Restore our house each night. Better! 
6. Go on a retreat by myself. Later in the year...
7. Go on a trip with Matt. Later in the year...

Things that weren't on my list but I did anyway:

• Went camping with the Upper Elementary

In terms of May, let's see. 

• Make our deck much more comfortable and inviting for the summer. 
• Build a cut flower garden, following the advice in this book.
• Take Tate to get genetic testing to see if he needs a prescription of folic acid like Henry does. 
• Plant non-invasive, clumping bamboo in our yard to create more privacy against the two-story house that is being built. 

I'm going to stop there because I do not want to overwhelm myself. 

Wishing you a happy and healthy May! 

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