Camel Rides, Fat People Crying, and a New Belly Button (7QT)

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Baby Audrey is 8 weeks old! Read her birth story if you're into that sorta thing.

So...the blog has been quiet other than the [video] House Tour I posted earlier this week. Enjoy these quick(ish) takes of how I spent my 2 months of maternity leave.

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My husband did his annual "2-weeker" for the Navy Reserves back in May. That's in quotes because it actually was 19 days. I remained with both kids at home and only lost my ish a few times. I spent Memorial Day weekend at my in-laws' house to regain my sanity. (I basically just nursed baby, slept, and watched Netflix while my MIL handled Cora. It was glorious.)

Daddy and his Purple Ladies

B visited Pompeii during his time in Italy. His thoughts: "It's like going to the zoo, except if all the animals were dead."

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In other big news, Cora had surgery this past Wednesday. She has had an umbilical hernia since birth that never closed (and never will--it should have closed by 2 years old), and that's something that apparently is better to get fixed now before she starts school. My kid now has an innie belly button, but it still looks a little weird to us. :-/

The idea of surgery freaked me out since I've actually never done one. Even my wisdom teeth were taken out under just local anesthetic (it really wasn't bad!). So her surgery was probably harder for me than it was for her. It was a quick procedure and we were home for dinner that night. She's doing fine, and you would never even know it happened except that she's refusing to bend over sometimes. But for the most part, she's back to her semi-obnoxious 'threenager' ways.

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I go back to work on Tuesday. I like my job, and boy do I neeeeeed a break from the 3-year-old, but I'll miss my little peanut. I was somehow handed the World's Easiest Baby. Seriously. She even sleeps for an 8-hour stretch at night right now. (I'm currently waiting for the other shoe to drop because this must be some sort of dream.)

B will be a stay-at-home dad this summer, and I'm hoping he can bring everyone for lunch some time. Food Truck Thursday picnic?

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This past weekend our town hosted a [very] small Arab Fest, and I dragged B and the girls so they could get in touch with their heritage. (I'm half-Lebanese.) Cora rode a camel and made a bracelet and I ate kibbe.

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One of my favorite summer shows is Extreme Weight Loss on ABC. B has dubbed this one (and all weight loss shows) as "Fat People Crying." Have I ever mentioned that B has a type of blunt honesty about him? It's not always endearing. But on the topic of weight loss, check out this awesome article at Patheos by Rebecca Frech on her weight loss and why she's ticked that people keep asking her what her husband thinks about it.

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I celebrated my 31st birthday last week on the 1st! It was the day after B got back from Italy. Our original plan was to hit up a baseball game here, but it was too cold! (A June birthday should never be 'too cold' on this continent, but it was.) I did however to my annual birthday freebie spree, and I will be sharing my favorites with you soon. Here's a preview to tide you over.

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum

How to Do Laundry Only Once a Week (7QT)

When I hear that some people do laundry every single day, you should see the odd sideways glance I give them. Actually, no, you shouldn't. I'm probably a jerk. I don't care how many kids you have, once a day is too flippin' much. Our family, with 2 working parents and a fully(!) potty-trained 3-year-old girl does laundry on Saturday. And only Saturday. (I will admit when I stayed home full-time, we did laundry on Tuesday AND Saturday. But we could have gotten away with just Saturday.)

Side note: Cloth diapers don't count as laundry, so none of this applies to those loads. Also, if you have an infant under 6 months old, I wouldn't even attempt any of this. Carry on.

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Know that you'll be doing more than one load on laundry day. The most I've done in one day is 4 loads. (But I think that actually included diapers, so maybe only 3.)

B and I have one very full basket, Cora's basket is half-full or a bit more. (Kids' clothes are small!) For us, that's usually 2 full loads on laundry day.

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Have only 1 child. Don't know what you'll do with the rest of them. Ship 'em off to somewhere sunny and let them run around naked, I suppose.

*I'm pretty sure I can maintain this once a week thing with 2 kids (after the 6-month window). Time will tell. After 2 kids, maybe we'll bump it up to twice a week.

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Live somewhere so cold that you're inside all winter. Make sure that winter lasts at least 9 months.

Read: no mud stains to sort out. Snowsuits and coats don't get washed until June, of course.

None of this is laundry.

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Have LOTS of clothes. Too many clothes, actually. Especially underwear and workout clothes. Your drawers need to be full of drawers--enough undies for everyone in your family to be able to go 2 weeks if it came down to it.

[I say this, but I'll also claim that I only have enough maternity office clothes to last me about one week right now. And yet we still make it work.]

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Get a HE (High-Efficiency) washer. Our top-loader HE fits an entire basket full of clothes in it. Make sure you have a dryer with similar capacity. I don't know why top-loading HE's aren't more popular--they're only a bit more expensive than the old-school kind. This puppy has probably paid for itself in the 4.5 years we've had it.

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DO NOT separate your colors. No. Just don't. Segregation is over, didn't ya hear? It's unnecessary. Separate your laundry by how it needs to be washed. Which, for us, is 2 things: hot water/high heat dry; or delicate/cold water/low heat dry (or hung). If you're afraid of your colors running, maybe try a color catcher thing. But I don't use 'em. (We also don't use bleach or fabric softener, so no need to separate towels or whites or do any of that nonsense.)

The 'hot wash' (don't-care clothes) are in the washer and the 'delicates' are standing by

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Lower your standards. This is probably the most important step. Bed sheets get washed once a month. Maybe. When's the last time that bath towel was washed? Meh, keep on using it unless I have some spare space in the 'hot wash' load. The only thing I really make sure gets washed are washrags and kitchen towels, because ain't nobody got time for salmonella. And Shout totally works on weeks-old stains.

On that note, don't pre-wash anything unless you got it second-hand. This tip especially applies to brand-new baby clothes. Because if you don't take the tags off and baby never wears it, you can totally re-gift it.

For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't the Lyceum

7QT: 35 Weeks and Scatter-brained

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I've felt the urge to blog for the past 2 weeks, but after staring at a computer all day at work, I just can't bring myself to type something up. Sigh. I've also been going through some type of sluggish/manic cycle, where I go hours or days too tired to get anything done and then get a wave of energy and knock a bunch of stuff out in the course of a few hours. Is this a pregnancy thing? I'm blaming it, regardless.

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Speaking of that, I bought some stuff to make some adorable baby headbands and bows that I saw on Pinterest. I'm of course excited to do it . . . I just have to muster up the energy this weekend to bang a few out. Even Cora is excited about this, so I guess I should just suck it up buttercup. (Cora can't really help too much since it's pretty much all hot-glue-gun work.)

Life Unfluffed's tutorial for these puppies

I could probably pin cute hairbows and headbands all day long. I never really did like the ones we put on Cora as a baby (the crochet headbands were just too big for her little head).

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Another 'manic' thing I've been doing when the energy hits is some freezer meal prepping. I had never really done much of this until my book club friends had a freezer meal swap night back in November. We each made 3 of the same dinner and brought it, then went home with 3 different meals. We also talked about strategies and favorite recipes that night. One gal brought copies of her favorite freezer meal recipes (I think they're from a book), and I've been using some of those, along with this Aldi freezer meal plan from the blogosphere.

It's not much to some people, but that's 4 meals: baked ravioli, mac & cheese, Souvlaki chicken, and alfredo sauce

I'm not sure if these will make it to "new baby" time, but with both of us working, freezer meals really are awesome. B just pulled out the bag of Quesadilla Casserole filling Thursday night (we just assemble it the night of, unlike that recipe I linked), and last night I made a double of the Alfredo sauce from the Aldi plan (one to eat now, one to freeze). We still have enough of the casserole left for at least another dinner.

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I had a 2014 resolution to kick Cora's picky eating habits. It never happened.

But then.

But then she turned 3 about a month ago. And guess what--someone's picky little tot learned the benefit of 'cause and effect.' I know, I know, I'm not supposed to use sugary foods and desserts to get her to eat her dinner (says all the scientists and child nutrition experts). But goshdarnit, it works!

She also responds to a bribe for her beloved cottage cheese, so all is not lost?

We enjoyed some (fake...microwaved) s'mores for dessert Wednesday night, because I was craving one and she'd eaten all her fish and some veggies.

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My hometown in Georgia got some snow this week, and I have a lot of friends with school-age kids and even more friends (and family members) who are teachers. Everyone was so jazzed about the snow and school cancellations.

Then Thursday, we had a bit of snow here, and I heard the DJ on the radio say, "Yeah, there's some snow, but amazingly no delays or cancellations today." I'm pretty sure every parent in this city breathed a collective sigh of relief that morning, since they cancel/delay school a lot here.

And that's the difference between Georgia and Indiana. (Not saying one is better than the other, although I wouldn't mind just getting a few inches of snow once a year and being giddy about it . . .)

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So Lent started last week. For accountability's sake, here are my Lenten resolutions:

1. Go to Stations of the Cross at least once. (Yeah, I haven't been in YEARS and don't even remember what happens at this.)
2. Floss my teeth every night. (Sounds odd, but so does giving up chocolate, right?)
3. Read/pray the daily devo from Blessed Is She. They come straight to my email, and I'm really liking these!

If you want to join the Lenten bandwagon, I found out about this cool website/Twitter account called What to Give Up that gives you a new challenge each day of Lent. I told B he should do it, but not sure if he will.

Fri, Feb 27 - Set a reminder so you go to bed an hour earlier than usual. http://t.co/7e2zn5SfmR
— WhatToGiveUpForLent (@WhatToGiveUp) February 26, 2015

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Next week I'm going to hang out with awesome people for a day! I'll be attending a Catholic Women's Blogging Conference on the campus of Notre Dame. I'm probably nuts for doing this at 36 weeks, but oh well. I'm a bit intimidated, since I don't live and breathe blogging, nor have plans to ever make any money from it, but hopefully I'll learn something and chat it up with homegirls like Grace and Bonnie and Sarah. (I've actually had dinner with Sarah before, so I'm excited to see her again!)

For more Quick Takes, visit Kelly at This Ain't the Lyceum

7 Quick Takes: Working for the Weekend

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I'm alive! (Always a good thing to celebrate, right?) I started my full-time big-girl job (career?) last week and have gotten into a bit of a groove with it. Still a lot to learn, but we at least have our daily family schedule working with few hiccups.

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Cora is absolutely LOVING daycare! This child is very social, so I never had any worries about her. We both went to drop her off on the first day last week, and she just marched right up to the breakfast table, pulled out a chair, and sat right down. Hardly looked back at either of us. Her teacher said it would be okay to call them to check in that first day, and that most parents do. B and I looked at each other and both said, "Yeah, we probably won't."

We didn't.

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First day of school picture? Yeah, I took one.

That's her "daycare bear." She still does not know how to name things.

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And here's my first day of work selfie, in my car because I got there a bit too early:

And my building:

I'm in the top floor of the building on the left.
The smaller building on the right is a long-standing novelty shop/Fort Wayne institution called Stoner's.

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This downtown-working thing is . . . quite interesting. We had a bomb threat in the building the other day and had to evacuate. There was a gas leak evacuation last week that I somehow just missed having to deal with. My parking is about a block away. Fine for now, but we have really long and snowy winters here, so I will have to wear boots and tights and bundles, and then change and look presentable once I get in the building. Can't wait. (Except that I can.)

The good news is that I work 8-5 and most of my co-workers are 8:30-5:30, giving me a full half-hour to shake the snow off. But then if I want to go out for lunch? Suit up again and hike it around town to get some food. This is probably why Waiter on the Way is so successful around here, now that I think about it.

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Okay, enough about work. My brain is too mushy to think of anything else halfway-interesting to say, so please enjoy this silly song about pants:

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I got nothin'. If I think too hard about this, I'll never hit the Publish button.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes From the Lake

Actually being hosted at Svellerella this week, and I don't think you'll be disappointed by taking a gander at that lovely blog.

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We're at the lake right now!* Hooray! (I just got the Blogger app and am giving mobile blogging a whirl. Any suggestions for apps very welcome because I'm having a hard time with pictures on this one.)

*Okay, actually I had SO much problems with four (four!) different blogging apps that I am now back home with an actual computer finishing this post up. APP SUGGESTIONS MANDATORY.

Oh, and then I'm going to the Brickyard 400 in Indy on Sunday (weather permitting, I suppose). My first car race! Ear plugs have been bought.

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Hey, did you know that it's NFP Awareness Week?

In case you didn't know, I've never taken any form of birth control, and I learned Natural Family Planning (NFP) during our engagement. I learned all about my fertility and my cycle, and we have used that knowledge to both avoid and attain pregnancy. Knowing all of this stuff about when I ovulate and how my body shows signs of that has been so powerful. It makes me mad that I didn't learn this stuff in 7th grade health class.

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There have been a lot of great NFP Awareness week posts, and I haven't read most of them. However, I did read this one by Kendra and it struck a chord with me. We are currently trying to have another baby, and it has been much slower-going this time around.

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Speaking of being at the lake, I caught this little guy today.

I've only been fishing like 3 times in my entire life, so I was excited.

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The other day, I posted this picture and explanation on Facebook:

Okay mommy (and daddy) friends: we need advice. Every time we put her down for nap or night, even when she's dog-tired, she spends at least an hour destroying the place and climbing up the window. At least she found the bed again today; we usually have to move her from the floor. I really don't want to put the front rail back on. This has been going on for weeks now. What to do?

We got some really great responses, but all we have really done so far is remove all the clothes from the dresser, and the glider and ottoman have been moved out. (The glider was actually becoming a safety hazard because she pulled it over one night and was sitting on top of the over-turned chair when I checked on her. Yikes!)

I'm very open to more suggestions and we'll come up with a plan to start implementing next week. Yes, the bookshelf is built-in. Yes, we have a consistent bedtime and naptime routine (the same routine, both times). Yes, she has a consistent bedtime. Yes, she will be getting a twin bed soon, but probably not for another few weeks.

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I got to cross something off my running bucket list the other day. I showed up for the weekly pub run at the running store, and they were doing a prediction run! That means you predict your time, and the closest to it wins! [No watches, no phones, no music allowed.] You can win the whole thing without having to be fast!

I yanked this from the store's FB account; this is from a pub run I went to back in June.
I'm to the right of the girl in the yellow headband.

Well, I didn't win. I actually finished a good 30 seconds under my prediction. The winners finished closer to 2 seconds off theirs. But it was a lot of fun! And we got free sandwiches afterward, so I was a happy girl.

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I'm in an awesome book club here in Fort Wayne, but July kinda snuck up on us, so we had craft night instead. It was great!

We all sewed these grocery bag holders (with a machine that someone brought), and I'm so proud of mine.

Isn't she pretty?

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QT: Big-Girl Beds, Toddler Hugs, Wine Cake

Actually hosted at Team Whitaker today.

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My husband B is on his annual 2-weeker with the Navy Reserves. It came up suddenly at his drill weekend, and within a week he was on a plane to Naples, Italy.

Airport hugs: Cora has never been away from her Daddy for this long.
She also has now hit the age where she understands he's gone. So that's new.

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That means Cora and I will be driving to Georgia by ourselves next week, and B will be meeting us a few days into the trip. (He'll miss one baptism but make it in time for a wedding.) I've done a 2-day drive by myself with her before, so hopefully it will go as well as it did last time. She's a good car traveler, no fancy gadgetry required.

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Cora got to spend a couple days without us last week. She and her Grandma were basically joined at the hip for 4 days, and then 2 days after she returned, her daddy left. All that means is I have a child on my hands that has regressed with potty-training, is pushing all my buttons and throwing fits about everything and nothing. Typical toddler? Probably.

She also had 2 nosebleeds Monday morning that I got the joy of cleaning up.

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Speaking of nosebleeds, I took a picture of her aftermath on my phone. I had forgotten that we had put Dropbox on B's phone in addition to mine, and he set it so that any picture taken automatically backs up into the cloud. When we got to talk to each other Monday night, B mentioned that he'd already seen a picture on his phone of our kid covered in blood. At least she was smiling!

I refuse to put that picture up anywhere online, so here is a picture of a cake I made for B's grandma this past weekend:

Still working on my icing penmanship, but I was going for the French Script typeface

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We had some Navy friends come stay with us on Wednesday! They're moving across the country (CT to WA, we knew each other way back in our VA days), and Cora and I provided a free place to stay and a hot meal. We hadn't seen each other since I was pregnant with Cora (during another one of their moves), and they have added a #3 since then. All of our girls had a blast together! It was crazy noisy in here. And two minutes after they left, it was strangely quiet.

They were towing their van stuffed to the brim with belongings. So smart!

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We took the front rail off Cora's crib when she returned from Grandma & Grandpa's house. She did well with it until B left. We had a few rough nights, but now I think she gets the idea. I had started writing this earlier today and was going to comment how she has slept in the bed every time. I knew it was too soon.

After crying, screaming, getting Mommy to re-tuck her in for over an hour, and finally throwing her blankets over the gate, this was her nap today:

I have zero mommy guilt about gating her in there, since you were wondering.

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B's Mt. Vesuvius selfie:

(Don't be too jealous, he's working 12-14 hour shifts every day, and this was taken while still on the base. The last time we Skyped, he was yawning after every sentence.)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes: Books, Brackets, Bunnies

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I finished another book for the year, my third . . . and my 3rd conversion memoir. Those things suck me in! Girl At The End of the World just blew my mind. Elizabeth Esther (the author) blogs over yonder. I luckily never knew such abuse as a child. And some of the theology that she was brought up with--yeesh. (There was one thing about a woman's soul being subject to a man's soul that had me hollering, "Are you kidding me?!" over and over and over.)

I'm joining a Catholic women's book club soon, and I might be suggesting this one. There were even discussion questions in the back, so I guess that makes it book club material??

Also, it's kinda cool knowing you're the first person to read a library book! It was on order when I put it on hold.

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I realized the reason I hardly finished any books last year.

It was because my 'fun reading' looks like this:

Yes, that's 5 books all at once. I did sorta make it through the potty-training one, and it was not for me. According to that book, my kid is already potty-trained. The author also made it sound like no one in their right mind would use cloth diapers, so that's just a no. I returned it to the library a few days ago. I think I'm going to focus on the Jesuit Guide and let the others just collect dust/overdue fines for a bit.

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So how did everyone do with their March Madness brackets??

Here are ours:

Cora's brackets were done mostly with a very scientific coin-toss method. Needless, to say, she came in 3rd for both men's and women's. I won the women's bracket with a very nice score of 135. I really feel that if we had no ties to Notre Dame at all, I could have done even better. But we both picked ND to win over UConn because that's what we wanted. One year I did a 'fantasy bracket' where I had my team (Georgia) win the whole thing (it's never actually happened), and then did a more realistic bracket instead. Maybe that's what I need to do again.

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I only caught parts of the men's final match (in all honestly, I never cared much for men's basketball), but I did watch almost all of the women's final game online. Since we don't have cable, the only way to [legally] view it was on ESPN's website. However, it was the 'multi-cam' view. It turns out that meant there were no announcers. It was just the sound of the game being played. It was sort of interesting, mostly in that I could hear a little bit of what the players were yelling to each other. And I didn't have to listen to the same things being said over and over again by the commentators.

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Our Y had the Easter Bunny come last week, and Cora called him "Peter Rabbit" (we read that one a lot). But she wasn't too keen on getting a pic with him.

Why are the Easter Bunnies so odd-looking? I've never seen one I like.

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Tonight (Friday), we had B's aunt, uncle, and grandma over for dinner. I'm trying to host dinner for someone at least once a month because it forces me to keep a clean house. It's also rather fun. I made macaroni and cheese using half gouda/half cheddar, and it was delicious. I also made my own fresh breadcrumbs for the first time ever. (Um, that was easy. Never buying those again.)

We finished off dinner with another first for me, monkey bread:

I made this completely from scratch, using the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. (Which, by the way, is a book I still do not own--I just keep checking it back out of the library.) There's another method out there that uses refrigerated biscuit dough, and honestly, I think I'll be using that from now on. Sure, this one was great, but it was a lengthy process that involved letting the dough rise 2 different times. If I had done the biscuit method, we might have actually gone outside and done something this morning.

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I'm so glad it's finally warm and beautiful here. We even took our dinner guests on a walk around our street after filling our bellies. But flower names. Freakin' flower names, man. Every time I'm with older women, they look over yonder and ask me, "Oh, are those crocuses?" (Please tell me this happens to other females.) I recognize pansies and daffodils, but only after they've already bloomed, and that's all you'll get from me. I'm sure I learned other ones at some point, but it's been a long winter.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7QT: Cancelled Plans and Hot Deals

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This past weekend, I was supposed to get a weekend ALL TO MYSELF. B had Drill and was taking Cora down with him for Grandma to take care of. I went to a mom's night out at a martini bar (the most overpriced and pretentious thing in this town, but I was happy with the complimentary valet!), and then woke up the next morning sick sick sick. I couldn't even talk. So I was so glad I didn't have to take care of a kid! Or a husband. I laid in bed all day and finished book #2 of the year!

A memoir, a conversion story, and a handful of quick birth stories
Check out Clan Donaldson for more from Cari!

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But then. Of course there's a BUT THEN. Around noontime on Saturday, while I was still lying in bed, B texted me to tell me that his Sunday drill got cancelled due to an impending snowstorm that was supposed to drop 6-12" on Indy. He and Cora would be coming home that night. We were both miffed, since if he doesn't have Sunday drill, he doesn't get paid for that day. He was happy to have a day off of either job on Sunday, though.

So he slept until 10am. Which means, on my 'me' weekend, I was up feeding breakfast to my kid at 7am. Then we had to shovel our way out to get to church. (At least I had help with that.) My MIL texted and said we'd try again for his drill in April. If it snows then, I am done with you, Indiana. So done.

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After doing the 7 posts in 7 days challenge, it seems I've run out of stuff to blog about. Luckily, we're taking a mini 3-day excursion to Louisville next week, so you'll get a recap of that. My husband took the entire week off because he just 'needed a break'--he's right, he does. He worked 26 out of 28 days in Feb., and one of those days off was to attend a funeral. (He had another half-day off due to illness.)

I wanted to go somewhere close enough but south of here where they just might not have snow on the ground. Fingers crossed, but I have lots of museums and indoor activities planned. Including a trip to Krispy Kreme when the 'HOT' sign is on. Not kidding.

Of course there's an app for that

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I booked our Louisville hotel through Hotwire.com, and I made out like a bandit! I did the deal where you don't know what hotel you're getting, so you get a better rate. They had a promo going where if you book through the app, you got $25 off $100. I was getting a $51/night hotel for 2 nights, so this was perfect. With all the taxes and whatnot added at the end, it came out to $100 even, and I had even figured out which hotel it is. Hopefully it treats us well. I was really just looking for somewhere with free breakfast!

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This post needs another picture.

Yes, B is wearing my "Queen of Everything" apron

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I have been messing around a lot with apps that make money and getting stuff for free. Just yesterday, I cashed out the money from my Ibotta app using Venmo, since there was a $5 bonus incentive. I then used a promo code from deal site Hip2Save to sign up for Citrus Lane (for Cora) for $9 for the first box. B went to Kroger and did some deal where he bought 3 boxes of his favorite cereal and it made the milk free. Then I got 50¢ back on the milk through Ibotta and 50¢ back on a 40¢ yogurt through Checkout 51. And then I decided to try Bulu Box (for me) for free by using my EarndIt points. And some awesome person used my Ting referral link, so we'll be getting another month of a cheap (maybe even free) smartphone bill.

If that wasn't enough, I currently have $30 worth of Amazon gift cards I've earned through Swagbucks and Bing Rewards that I'll be using for something soon.

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That entire last take probably proves I'm nuts and/or speaking a foreign language, but it was a pretty good way to spend naptime. I'll throw in the disclaimer here that this post definitely contains affiliate links. Feel free to comment or email me asking about any of those. I don't feel like launching into 20 explanations right now. But here is the link to the post I wrote about our awesome cell phone company Ting!

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Were anyone else's ashes really wet this year? I know it makes a better cross instead of just a smudge with dust in your eyes, but it felt wet for a good 10 minutes afterward!

Our #ashtag selfie. Hard to see Cora's, but it's there!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Big Purse Dump in 7 Quick Takes

Double link-up time! 

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Let's start with how it is now.

My Vera Bradley bag (that I got at the outlet sale last year) hang out here, and I keep my hat and gloves shoved into the top.

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Now dump it!

What a mess! Sort that out.

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Cora's stuff.

Those onesies are different sizes, and I don' think that cute tree one even fits any more. And I'm pretty sure the pants are highwaters now. The Cheerios? Probably been in there for months. (I gave them to her for dinner last night.) And that diaper is about to fall apart since I haven't actually changed her diaper during an outing in at least 3 months. The cute cats are a small wetbag (for cloth diapers orclothing accidents), and the white thing to its left is an emergency rag/diaper.

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Hair junk.

I don't even use those running headbands for running. Or anything. (Cora likes to play with them, so one goes back in!)

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Random junk.

A Metro card for the Washington, D.C. subway. (I live in Indiana, by the way.) 2 coupons to Culver's. A protein pouch I got as a freebie.

I tried the pouch later--it was a lot like the GD-test drink. 1/10 do not recommend.

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Tissues. Some used.

Trash and a cough drop, neither of which I have needed for months.

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Things I actually use.

Vera Bradley wallet that fits my phone in it. Still love.

What went back in:

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Fin.

Winter protip: gloves inside hat whenever they're not on your body.

For more Quick Takers and/or Purse Dumpers, see Jen and Kendra.