sibling crew / backyard snowball fight with snowballs from Bahama Bucks (a sno-cone shop) / with Nana and Papa

Inspired by...

Better sleep! Sleep is everything and I'm so thankful to be getting more of it. And to be able to put Maeve in her crib for naps. I was starting to despair a little bit. With more sleep and some breaks during the day I've had more energy. This month that energy inspired me to go through my maternity clothes and the clothes that Maeve has outgrown (it happens so fast). I returned maternity clothes I was borrowing, put my favorites aside to hand down to someone else, and donated the rest. Same for Maeve's clothes. Chris and I were also inspired to organize the office which had accumulated clothes the boys have outgrown, accumulating art work, and other random things. I love a good tidying.

Watching...

While wearing Maeve for naps in the weeks before she would nap in her crib, I treated myself to watching the last two seasons of Sherlock. It was most enjoyable. Chris and I watched Coco over two nights (for the first time!) and of course we loved it.

Reading...

I had pre-ordered two books that arrived in August: The Fixed Stars by one of my favorite authors, Molly Wizenburg, and The Lazy Genius Way. The Fixed Stars was honest and beautiful.  I also enjoyed The Lazy Genius Way, especially the theme of "name what matters" when trying to address a challenge in your life. I've found myself thinking, "name what matters" several times since reading the book. Now I'm reading All Adults Here and am enjoying it.

Thinking about...

Our house situation. Namely, whether we should lean into our current house or consider moving to a bigger house with nicer finishes (flooring, countertops, maybe a pool?). Or even moving cities if Chris gets a fantastic job offer. (He's casually looking at jobs. We're not actually feeling serious about moving cities but it's fun to daydream.) I love having conversation about big life decisions with Chris and we enjoyed talking through potential scenarios this month. We love the location of our house and we love the community on our street and within the neighborhood, especially the fact that we can bike the boys to school. While our house is not huge and doesn't have the finishes that we would choose it works really well for our family and – importantly – the mortgage payment is very affordable. Plus it will be paid off in about 10 years. For now we've decided to stay where we are and make some improvements to our house so that we enjoy it even more. Also, the housing market seems really crazy right now – are we in another housing bubble?

Listening to...

A quiet house most mornings for at least 30 minutes while the boys are in school meetings and Maeve is napping. It is glorious and I try to take time to appreciate it every day. I've also been enjoying the podcast Comfort Food and listening to their archives. The podcast makes me feel more confident about how we approach food with our kids.

Dream life...

Recently, I dreamed that I was being taught to go through walls à la Harry Potter through Platform 9 3/4.

Researching...

House project costs for potential house updates. Also researching books for the boys to read. I bought Dash this A to Z Mystery and it's the first books he is truly reading himself! Mostly he is reading out loud to us but it's the first book he's consistently excited to read to us. I hope reading to himself will follow soon and I'm so excited for him. Also researching dental tools because I really miss going to the dentist and having really clean teeth (I do brush at least twice a day and floss daily).

Cooking + eating + drinking...

The most delicious thing I ate last month were giant Chunk cookies delivered to my doorstep courtesy of my sister. She sent them to me for moral support when we started sleep training with Maeve. It was such a thoughtful, delicious gift.

Most mornings I've I've been eating a salted, peppery fried egg (over hard, can't do runny yolks) on buttered toast for breakfast. We also found Impossible burgers at Trader Joe's and have had those for dinner a few times. We love them and the boys will often eat at least a few bites as well. My mom sent me a few packages of Somersaults in the sea salt and dutch cocoa flavors and I am obsessed. I love eating a mix of the sea salt and chocolate together. With a surplus of zucchini I baked two loaves of zucchini bread using the recipe my mom used when I was growing up (although I cut the sugar way down and still loved it).

Also in August eating adventures, to encourage the boys to try more food we put on a "family food challenge" one night for dinner. I prepared lots of different tastes of things including paneer, dates, peaches, pickles, an egg roll, and bread with pesto. Tasting was encouraged but not required. Overall they didn't like the new things they tasted with the exception of the peach for Dash and the pickle for Cedric. But even that was exciting given my selective eaters. I'd love to do a tasting challenge once a month.

Grateful for...

August was about getting better sleep and I'm so grateful to have more of it in my life. I'm so so grateful Maeve is taking naps in her crib now instead of us having to wear her. We worked with sleep coach Jennifer Heger to help us get on track with sleep and I would highly recommend her.

I'm so grateful at how well the boys are adapting to online school. I felt emotional at times during the first week of school seeing them on their classroom meetings. Especially Cedric, my kindergartner. This isn't what kindergarten was supposed to look like for this kid who has been so ready and excited for kindergarten. And yet here they are doing online school with very little complaining.

I'm also so grateful for a recent socially distanced park get together with three other mom friends. It was the first time I've seen these friends at all since the pandemic began

What the boys are into...

Rollerblading. Texting animojis (animated emojis) to me from Chris's iPad. Playing the math computer game Dreambox (as part of their online curriculum). The Humphrey series audiobooks. Writing notes and dropping them off at their friend's house.

What Maeve is doing...

Napping! In! Her! Crib! Gabbing at everything. Sucking on her toes. Rolling back to belly and sometimes belly to back. Trying to blow raspberries. Able to sit pretty sturdily on our hip. Little laughs and squeals. Will sometimes imitate us if we tilt our head to the side – it's so cute! Maeve is easy going and now that she naps I declare her the most perfect baby.

Missing...

Getting my hair cut. Going to the dentist. Date nights. Going to the movies. Orange Theory. Seeing friends.

Looking forward to...

Spending two nights at a local Airbnb rental house that has a pool! We're surprising the boys with the trip when they finish school on Friday. We'll have lots of pool time, watch a couple of movies together, and enjoying being somewhere different for the weekend. Plus, I have fun food including Cinnamon Toast Crush which I'm pretty sure will rock their world.

I hope you found good things in August. On to September!

prompts inspired by my It's Currently 2020 workbook by Tracy Benjamin