Wednesday, September 9, 2020

A LITTLE LATELY + SOME FALL DECOR

 Hey there, friends! Happy Wednesday!!

I'm jumping on the blog today to give a little "life lately" type of post since I haven't done that in a while. So what all have we been up to??

Well, we are back to school (in person) now and Matthew had his first football practice this week which marks the official beginning to our 4 sport schedule (football and baseball for both boys) plus trying to get back to our normal school routine. It has been a bumpy road back to "normalcy" over here, I can tell you that much!

We're all a hot mess. #MomMotivation #breastfeeding #AeroflowBreastpumps

This is our first year juggling 4 sports in one season so that's new for us. Usually, the boys are just in baseball (Matthew) and baseball and flag football (Mason) during the fall which is still a lot but manageable. But this year both boys are playing baseball plus Matthew is playing football for the first time ever (!!!) for his middle school and practices are every day at 6:15 IN THE MORNING. Is that even legal!? ๐Ÿคฆ‍♀️ You may remember that I am a night owl through and through and getting up that early literally makes me sick to my stomach.  Like I seriously feel queasy when I wake up before 6am. Embarrassing? Yes. Truthful? Also yes.


Craig and I will take turns taking him because that's only fair but I'm hoping I worm my way out of it more often than not. ;)  School doesn't get out until 3:52 so by the time he gets home it's 4:30 and then he has baseball practice at 5:30 twice a week and/or games at least twice a week. We've got to squeeze in homework and 30 minutes of saxophone practice a night at some point too, right?! Matthew made Honors Band this year so he can't really afford to slack off with that either. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. I remember the days of being so stressed out and tired in high school with practices and late games and out of town games and AP classes, homework, tests, papers, projects...and I feel like we're at the beginning of that stage now with Matthew. I hope he can handle it! (And me too!)

Mason's football schedule is much much more demanding this year as well since it's also his first year playing tackle. They have been practicing 3 times a week for weeks now. It took a while for baseball practices to get started but so far, they are only once a week on Sundays with games in between. So not TOO bad for him but it's definitely a very full schedule all around for us!

So yeah. Sports are taking over our life after 6 long months without them and it is a lot, we are tired and can all be a little cranky at times but it is so nice to be back out there cheering on our boys!

Now getting back into the swing of school has been a little more challenging. The boys' first day back last Thursday was great, smooth, and uneventful.


 But the second day back was a bit of a mess. Matthew had a late game the night before and Mason remembered that he had an assignment due the next day at 8:45pm while we were watching Matthew play. We didn't get home until 10 and then he couldn't figure out how to get to the assignment on the computer. It did not get done.


So day #2 rolled around and we all woke up late, Mason ran around trying to get everything collected and then remembered he had some student questionnaire he needed to fill out so he was trying to do that when he should have been out the door.

Then Matthew left for school and forgot his lunch on the counter so since it was only the second day and we were all a little out of practice, I took pity on him and dropped it off in the office. I won't do that every time but that morning was a bit of a mess so I blamed myself a little on that one.

We were thankful for the long weekend to try and regroup and get our acts together.

This weekend I finished up most of my fall decorating! I haven't taken pictures of everything yet but here's a little of what I do have.

(Painting that lamp white this week.)




That white pillow is so soft! I posted about this before but it's a pillow cover from Amazon (I already had the insert) and comes in a ton of colors. You can get a 2pack for $13.99! The black and white striped one also comes in a 2 pack from Amazon and they have a $2 off clickable with them at the moment which makes it $7.99 for 2. I love that they will be easy to work with when I make color changes with the seasons. I grabbed these pillow inserts to use with them and they are so soft and squishy but hold their shape well. The solid dark orange in the corner, the crazy soft mustard one, and the orange plaid are ones I've found at HomeGoods or Marshalls over the years. My cute little grey sweater pillow is sold out.

My favorite new piece this season is this fall arrangement with candleholders. I showed y'all a video of it in my Deals Group this weekend too because I love it so much. ๐Ÿงก Use the code FALL2020 for 20% off and choose to pick it up in store to save on shipping if you can! Free shipping starts at $99. It doesn't come with candles so I grabbed these battery powered flickering ones on Amazon that have a remote and a timer and they are perfect. 



Here's a broader view. I think I may be transitioning out of my navy and light blue stage so the big picture may be finding a new place in the house soon and I want to repaint that table white. (I am so indecisive when it comes to decorating.)


(UPDATE: After I posted these pictures I realized I'd forgotten one of my favorite little sparkly pieces!! I knew my fireplace area looked a little bare! I had forgotten to bring down my owl from the attic! I love this guy so much. He adds just the right amount of festive fun to my room.)


I have to use glue or wire to get his eyes to stay on every year but no biggie. ;)



And I picked up this little candle stand when I rounded up a bunch of my favorite Bath & Body Works candles a few weeks ago. Love it!



I love my little light up pumpkin over here! (sold out but linking another in the same collection.) Any time I can throw in some festive lights, I'm happy. I love decorating for the holidays!

Today I'll be running around town all day which is basically the opposite of what a normal day is like for me. But I leave for a little vacay on Saturday (whoop whoop!!) so I've got some stuff to do to get ready. I'll post more on my trip on Friday. ๐Ÿ˜‰

 On the docket today is 6:15am drop off for Matthew, 8am grooming appt for Charlie, a few returns/exchanges at a couple of stores in town, a quick stop at Target for some essentials that will probably turn into more fall decor shopping because I am only human.

Friday will be the first time that Craig's parents are meeting Charlie and I'm so excited! They are also bringing their little poodle, Sadie, so I'm hoping and praying that all goes well... Supposedly he was great with the other dogs in his foster home but we haven't actually tested it out.

I'm a little nervous all around. I want Charlie to make a good first impression but he's not crazy about strangers and tends to bark his little head off and run away from them. I just hope he warms up quickly.

Look at that sweet face!! You better bet that I'll be calling and texting to check on this dog more than the kids while I'm gone! ๐Ÿ˜‚


Funny story that is funny now but wasn't at the time... 

The other night I was propped up in bed on my laptop and watching TV while Craig and Charlie were in the living room and the boys were upstairs. It was about 10pm and all of a sudden I got a notification on my phone that said my doorbell cam had detected a visitor. I checked the camera real quick and what did I see... CHARLIE was roaming around our dark front porch!! I could also see that both of the garage doors were closed so I knew no one was out there with him. I jumped up and tore through the living room to see Craig sprawled out on the couch watching TV and yelled out "Charlie's outside!". I opened the front door and thankfully Charlie was still right there just sniffing around the porch and waiting for someone to open the door for him!

I knew what had happened. Craig went out the door to the garage to get something out of his truck or whatever it was while the garage doors were open. And when he came back in, he closed the garage doors first not knowing Charlie had followed him out there and then wandered into the driveway. When closed the garage doors, he locked him out.

Ugh.

Once I got him back in safely I checked and saw it had been 10 minutes from the time Craig came in until I saw on the camera. Of course, my mama bear imagination was thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong. He could have run off, he could have been picked up, he could have been eaten by a bobcat, he could have been hit by a car. Let's just say Mama Bear was NOT happy. Especially since this is not the first time something like this has happened. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ Just the most memorable.

Anyway, I hope you guys have a great day and I will see you back here on Friday and over in the Deals Group!




SHARE:

10 comments

  1. Amanda, your house looks so cozy!!! Would it be weird if I hung out there today?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can you cook something yummy for me while you're here?? ;)

      Delete
  2. Your decorations are so pretty-will you come and decorate my house for me? Just reading about the sport activities makes me tired...but you are right, how fun is it to cheer your children on in sports!? 6:15 practices-yuk!!! I understand the feeling sick in that early in the morning.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9:42 AM

    Why cant the other people in our houses pay more attention to the furry guys?! Ugh. Happens here too! Gates get left open, critters sneak out...dang it just pay attention! Lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My slogan around here is "Minimal effort, people! That's all it takes!". ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚ It literally takes minimal effort to remember to do these things!

      Delete
  4. This is the first year in like forever that my kids have activities (driver's ed. & karate) and we are really fortunate that they each have them on different nights but I'm even dreading that--- your schedule makes my head spin! LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous1:06 PM

    Ahh..the old lunch left on the counter quandary! I struggle with that too. In the past when it would happen and I would already be at work, my kids friends would be happy to share their lunch with them. It always worked out, but I felt so awful thinking of them empty handed at the lunch table!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's so hard! Normally, he'd just go through the cafeteria line if he forgot his lunch but since we were all kind of a mess that morning, I felt partly responsible and took pity on him. It's been a better week thank goodness! ;)

      Delete

I love hearing from you! Drop a comment below!

BLOGGER TEMPLATE CREATED BY pipdig