September 2017

I love produce from the farmers market. Especially those carrots. Yum. Alaskan farmers market (or garden) carrots are the best. I’ve been making more of an effort to buy our produce from the market because it 200x more delicious and 2,000,000x healthier and more sustainable and all sorts of good stuff. And the price is very comparable with the grocery store. I realized this and realized my love for the farmers market and so, yeah, support local is maybe what I want to say. Delicious and nutritious.

To counteract the healthy goodness of food I make with farmers market produce, there’s chocolate, and slices of fat olives pizza. Too much chocolate and too many slices…

So basically I’m proud of the good food I’ve made lately, and of all the good produce in my fridge, but I’m not proud of all the chocolate I ate today. Shoot. Chris brought me some chocolate and flowers yesterday which was a really lovely surprise, but now the chocolate is gone… and now that Apollo is asleep I’m thinking about what I want to do for Chelsea time and I’m thinking of making cookies. Or I could put away my Costco groceries that I’ve been moving from counter to table to floor, the ones that have been out for three weeks or so. I just need a place for them!

Marie Kondo says that things don’t get cluttered or messy as long as they have a place to go, and as long as it sparks joy, or something like that.

Hmmm… what else…. oh! I could share some family pictures that our good friend, Sara Reed, took for us! She took pictures at our wedding too. Btw, I made some of these black and white. I don’t really know how to edit photos too well or what coloring looks best, but to each their own. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But our family pictures are very lovely and make me happy! I love looking at them. Good pics are worth it.

 
This is cropped from a picture, and omg, seriously, so cute. I just think he’s the cutest. His face, his ears, his fuzzy hair… he’s perfect to me. 
Family friendship bracelets for the win!

I love my family and I’m so glad to have Chris and Apollo and our home and our animals. Glad Sara could document some of these precious moments for us! Now I need to print them and splatter them all over all walls.

Also, I love Chris and Apollo and our home and animals, BUT I do get bothered by them, sometimes, except not really Apollo, and not really the cats haha. But the love is still there! Even, or maybe especially, amidst the ups and downs.

I’ve been kind of holding on to summer, not ready for it to be over. I think because there’s plenty of things on my summer bucket list that I didn’t complete and because I didn’t adventure as much as I wanted. Buuuut maybe I should just turn my summer bucket list into a fall bucket list and add to it. That sounds like a good plan, Stan. I also need to finish blogging some summer fun we had.

Apollo’s first summer. It was great and thankfully we did a little bit of everything and got to spend time with lots of our loved ones. My dad was home most of the summer which was awesome. It’s always nice to have him around. And my mom, Holly, and nieces live here, so that’s lucky! And my brother is in Kenai, but I didn’t get to see him enough this summer. My sister Stacy and her boys came up and visited for about a month. “A month!” and I loved that. Chris’s mom and her husband came and visited too. And mine and Chris’s BFFs also visited at different times. Soooo good times in AK with some of our favorite people.

Chris and I spent a bit of time in Utah, Wisconsin, and California with family and good friends, which took us out of state for most of July. Summer is not the time to leave Alaska, but we had great trips out of state anyway. And here it is September and the weather is changing. Adios summer. You’ve been good to us.

A couple days ago it was still very nice and sunny and Apollo and I played outside with the neighbor boys for a while, and enjoyed our trampoline. It still felt like summer. And it felt like it was the end of summer. Especially since I FOUND TWO FOUR LEAF CLOVERS, which a big item on my summer bucket list. It was so awesome that I found them, or maybe they found me. :)

And then yesterday, it was very very fall-y. Gray, crispy weather, with yellow leaves falling and wind blowing. My nieces walked over after school and I had a great time hanging out with them. We worked on fall bucket lists and ate some chili that I whipped up supa fast. I’m now accepting that fall is here and embracing the new season.

Some carry over items from summer bucket list:

make bread, hand lettering, summit pass?, build something, walk Bishops to Diamond Creek, continue to minimize and simplify, grow something, Book of Mormon

Some new items on my fall bucket list:

temple, new passports, build a fort, go on a picket with a basket, do Homestead trail, weave something, make pumpkin pie, DIY Halloween costumes, make more musics, AK staycation, Captain Cook state park, drink lots of tea, yoga class, get Apollo’s birth certifico :), and clean the garage!

AND SUMMIT PASS, one of my favorite places in all the world… I’ve been going there for a loooong time and we haven’t made it yet this year. Not sure if I should give up on that Summit Pass dream till next year or still try to make it happen in the next couple weeks… decisions decisions.

Apollo is normally napping twice a day for an hour or so each time. Sometimes he naps for two hours and sometimes 20 minutes. Naptime is a special time – an important reset for me and the boy. 

Today he napped for just over two hours! Wowie! I did a lot and enjoyed myself and Apollo woke up a happy boy, after crying and cuddling for a couple minutes. :)

Our Amazon order came in today too, so now Apollo has more drool bibs, and an amber teething necklace, and a thermometer, and a run on sentence, and some stain/odor remover, and a deshedder for animals, and some dog food, and yay. Apollo is enjoying playing with the little boxes and things that came with the order. And now he’s enjoying playing with the lid topper from his baby soap. 

Apollo and I made banana cookies this morning. Yum. I like them with lots of chocolate chips and he gets them without. 

Aaaand it’s been very rainy lately. 

And! It’s my dad’s birthday! He’s the best and we need him around. I’m lucky and blessed to have him!

How did it become September? I feel like summer has flown by pretty quickly, probably because I spent most of July out of the great state of Alaska, and maybe because I haven’t done too too much adventuring. But maybe I’ve adventured more than I think. I better go back and look through my instagrams to realize all the great times I’ve had this summer summer. Or I could go back through Apollo’s Instagram and just see how precious he always is! Goodness, that kid has my heart. I adore him completely.

Apollo is asleep right now and I’m enjoying some Chelsea time. I’m listening to the Awesome with Alison podcast, which is always fun and inspiring. What a character she is and she and her husband seem like a great team. Tonight I’ve been listening to them talk about gratitude practices and I did that tonight on a walkie! It was a game changer and so enjoyable. <3

It’s been rainy today, which is totally fine, but I spent lots of time inside today and needed some nature therapy. I do loooove to be in my home, but I often focus too much on the negative things here, like things that are dirty or messy. I especially focus on ways the animals, specifically Edel, have worn down our home. It’s frustrating. BUT it’s best to focus on the positive and realize all the good around you! So my walkie was really helpful in changing my perspective and helping me recognize many of the blessings around me. And… CATS.

In the gratitude practice thing I listened to for part of my refreshing and delightful walkie, Alison said to take deep and slow breaths, lengthen your stride, and focus on some things your grateful for. Be grateful for them. If you can’t think of anything or negative thoughts creep in, focus on your surroundings, be grateful for the trees, the air, the grass, the earth… go through your body and be grateful for your toes, feet, heels, ankles, and all the way up to the hairs on your head. We have so much to be grateful for.

And she referred to Tony Robbins and how he said to say “I LOVE MY LIFE.” And to say out loud things you love, or things you want to love or need to love more. For me, I deeeefinitely need to currently love our dog more. And saying these things I love/want to love is what really made my walkie superb. Say it loud and proud, sister!

I LOVE my life. I love my life. I love my life. I love my body. I love my home. I love my community. I love my animals. I LOVE my boy. I love my husband. I love my family. I love my in laws. I love my God. I love the Lord. I love my calling. I love the earth. I love my room. I love the food. I love my stomach. I love my mouth. I love my hair. I love the trees. I love the water. I LOVE the air. I love my hands. I love my feet. I love my nails. I love my skin. I love my appliances. I love having carpet. I love being a mom. I love being a woman. I love my life. I love the Lord. I love September. :)