Lazy day Thursdays

It's been Spring Break this week and we are enjoying it! Princess Cranky Pants was battling a cold at the beginning of the week and I was battling something unknown.  Lola was being a spitfire and I just didn't have the energy to chase after her.

It's been a lazy week, but, it is a much needed lazy week.  It gives us time to get well without taking away from school time.  We've watched movies, taken naps, done manicures and anything else that strikes our fancy.

I love these moments!

Operation Date Nights 2013

As part of my 2013 resolutions, I vowed to have at least one date night per month with my husband.  When TSgt Lovebug and I got married in 2009, we were already a pre-made family.  He brought two kiddos into the marriage and I brought one.  It can be a struggle to find "alone" time when you're starting off with kidlets.  You forget that you need to keep your relationship alive and that before you were parents you were YOU.  Don't forget that.

I can count on two hands how many times the husband and I have had a date night in the last four years.  Is it a sad reality? Yes.  Yes it is.  It is a sad reality that we let the stress of life stop us from rekindling US or cultivating US.  I'm going to change that. That is why I've resolved to bring back date nights! And, I'm doing this with the help of Pinterest.

We've had two dates since Christmas.  The Hobbit at Alamo Drafthouse and dinner at Two-Step.  I know that it's not much, and that we're already in March but it is a start and that is what matters.

I'm off to scour Pinterest for inexpensive date night ideas.  There is a plethora of information out there.  Finding ways to reconnect won't be difficult.  Following through is the toughest aspect of this.  We can do this.  We WILL do this.  For us.  For our children.

Keepin' it Real.

Life has been crazy busy, crazy stressful and super emotional lately.  We decided that it would be good to have a "forced family fun" weekend.  F3 stopped awhile back and it wasn't intentional.  It seems that we just became happy with the status quo and somehow wallowing in our sadness and self pity.  What a shame.

Saturday we futzed around town, running a few errands.  We stopped at PetSmart and Wal-Mart. I am not a huge fan of Wal-Mart but I was in search of tea lights and the package I needed was there.  Normally I would go out of my way to go somewhere else.  It's not that the prices are bad, it's just mass mayhem every time that we go and I get overwhelmed.  It's not good.

That evening, we rented Frankenweenie from Redbox and had a fried chicken dinner.  It wasn't healthy, but it was tasty!  We all enjoyed Frankenweenie.  It wasn't as good as Hotel Transylvania, but, it was good.  We prepped for bed and I don't think that anyone stayed awake much longer than that.

We received word that my brother and sister-in-law became the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl! She was born at 2357 and weighed 7 lbs 11.5 oz and was 18 inches long.  She is a welcome addition to the family.  Her two older brothers are going to take care of her for sure.  With her birth, Lo is no longer the youngest grandchild and this also means that my mother is Grandma to nine girls and three boys! How fun!

Sunday brought daylight-saving-time.  This is the first time since 2008 that I've had to spring forward and I did NOT like it.  It seems to have zapped all of the energy out of me.  We had a moderately lazy morning and decided to have a little bit of adventure downtown.  We had tickets for the riverboat tour that we purchased not long after we arrived in San Antonio and just had not had the time to use them.  The weather was perfect for it on Sunday.  We loaded the girls into the car and drove downtown.

We had a wonderful day walking along the riverwalk and taking in all of the history and architecture.  We had a wonderful tour and ended the adventure with ice cream for ICE CREAM DAY which is another tradition that fell by the wayside when we got here.

It was a great day and a great reminder that no matter what life throws at you, you gotta keep it real.  If you let life overwhelm you, you'll never get anything but sadness and heartache. And that is NEVER worth it.

We needed a day like this for our family to reconnect.

I'll leave it with some pictures.

Re-cap of the week.

Sunday- Crazy busy with errands at the BX.  Skype with Mom.

Monday-T has doc appointment and gets a cortisone shot in each hand.

Tuesday-Fine Arts Night at Forester Elementary.

Wednesday- Writing tutoring for A lovebug.

Thursday- Last minute prep for A's Spring Party at School

Friday-T testing for Msgt.

This week has been slow in comparison to the last few weeks.  There has been room for me to breathe and not worry about getting ALL THE THINGS DONE RIGHT NOW! It's been nice.  Next week is Spring Break and I'm looking forward to it.

I've decided to do a Vlog series called "Cooking with Annika" or something to that effect because I think that it helps boost her self esteem and she so badly needs it right now.  She is beautiful and needs to be reminded of that especially during these next few critical years.

And that's all I've got on this end... Hoping that I'm feeling more inspired to continue blogging soon.  It's just been blah and MEH for me.  I don't know what I'm doing with this exactly.  Maybe I just need to start OVER and re-vamp it that way and abandon this URL forever.  I dunno.

Where did February go?

I'm sitting here thinking that February seems to be going on for a loooong time.  Then I realize that it's not February anymore.  It's now March. Wait. What? How did that happen? Life was crazy busy, illnesses attacked the family, schoolwork piled up, laundry piled up and the dust bunnies came for a visit.

We did some exploring in January/February, A lovebug got her report card, Lo lovebug transitioned to panties during the day and life progressed as usual.  I'm tired and depleted.  I don't know what I want to do with this blog.  I keep going back and forth between stopping the blog and keeping it up.  I just don't know.  It's a lot of work for me right now.  I'd like to get it to be a place for pics/updates/recipes/etc. but I'm lacking inspiration.

I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos, catching up on blogs that I follow, and finding recipes for A lovebug and I to do together.

I'm trying to get back into working out.  Eating better.  Losing the blubber.  That's a huge hurdle to jump.  I can do it.  I know that I can.

I'll post some pictures in the next couple of days.  I just feel awful about not updating in a month and a half.  Bad. No excuse. Get off my butt and move! Blahhhh.

I'm struggling with our life in Texas.  I mean, I'm glad that we are here and closer to family, but I REALLY miss my Hawaii framily. It hit me hard as the New Year started.

It'll get better.  It will.

Crud be gone!

I'm so ready for this bug to be gone.  It's not as bad as it could be and for that I'm thankful.  It's hanging on just enough to make it a nuisance. I'm tired.  I'm cranky.  I'm achy.  And, it seems like the little lovebugs are catching it too.

My motivation for cooking has been low this week.  My body is feeling it.  The family is feeling it.

I need to get mah mojo back!

Out with the old. In with the new.

The new year is off to a great start.  Life has been keeping us busy! I'm doing a little bit of Spring Cleaning and organizing.  I don't want to get rid of everything but we have a lot of stuff that we don't need/use.  I would rather not be wasteful!

We've started the transition to organic food.  Small steps so far but Rome wasn't built in a day! I'm buying within our budget and the transition to organic will take some time.  We started with organic almond milk.  Almond milk has almost completely phased out our dairy milk.  What a good feeling!  I like that the local grocery store, HEB, offers a good selection of organics!

I have not picked up my Canon at all this year.  I'm hoping to change that! I need to get updated pictures of the girls! They are growing up too quickly! Lo's still a tiny little peanut though her vocabulary is pretty advanced for her age.  Annika is back to school after the Winter Break and she's loving every minute of it.  She's taking on fourth grade like a champ! I'm so proud of her.

I'm determined to be consistent with menu planning this year.  I would like to see what difference it makes! I'm sure that it can't hurt!

All in all, life is pretty good right now.