SQT: The One About Kids, Moms, Creatives, & Books

ONE:

I may or may not be sitting in the car after coming home from school drop-off because both boys fell asleep on the ride home. Also, I have my coffee and Matt Maher serenading this moment of serenity. I'm not about to mess with that. 

TWO:

Speaking of school drop off, today is G's field trip to the apple orchard. To say she is excited would be an understatement. I am so grateful we are at a school with a uniform - it makes for one less battle in the morning. Today, though, was a dress down day. Apple orchard and mud and all that jazz. I have to say, there was something in the sight of her walking away from me toward school in her jeans, long t shirt peeking out under the sweatshirt, rain boots, and pigtails with her backpack slung on her back that made my heart stand still. Time with her is short... I know I cringe when people tell me this, but though the days are definitely long (some more than others), the years are just as definitely short.

THREE:

Now that some of the craziness of our life over the last year has begun to calm, the only big thing still staring me in the face is cleaning out and selling my mom's home. It seems such an overwhelming task, and it makes me face reality in a way I don't always want to. More on that here.

FOUR:

The littlest McCormick is growing quickly. He is four months old already! I have nursed him eons longer than my other two, and he has come to expect it if I am the one feeding him. He has perfected his "how dare you try to stick that contraption in my mouth when I want to nurse" head shake and scream. I wasn't sure whether we would be able to keep going as it did not work out as planned with the other two, but so far we are hanging in there. Once I let go of what I thought we needed to do and just went with what we can do, it got a lot easier. There was definitely the pushing through around month one, but since then we have developed a nice balance of bottle feeding and nursing as I've gone back to work.

FIVE:

Speaking of growing, he is also rolling and just as chatty as his siblings. This does not fare well for two introverted parents. So. Much. Noise. It is all a blessing, but that blessing can sometimes be overly boisterous. See example here:

I heart him. Tremendously. And now he is up, so I'll be back later!

SIX:

I've been busy since coming back from maternity leave creating new products and stocking the shop. If you haven't stopped by recently, come take a look! There are more items that will be added this weekend too. Since the Hubs left his evening job, I've been trying to be more intentional about creating and trying to grow the business a little. It is sometimes overwhelming to think of all the little details that are probably getting lost, but it has been a wonderful outlet for me. I've been taking some short workshops to work on improving my skills and learning some newer ones, too. I love that this is becoming a way to "untighten" our finances a bit and feed my soul at the same time. The greatest hope is that in the end it feeds others souls too all for the glory of God, of course.

SEVEN:

My stack of books is growing quickly as I try to get back on the reading train. What with the oodles of uninterrupted time I have you'd think I would have this stack whittled down in no time! Sadly, I've barely been able to get into Hallie's book (On the Other Side of Fear), and I have numerous others piling up as they arrive in the mail courtesy of the Amazon App on my phone. I think our budget would take less of a hit if we deleted that app on our phones. Seriously. I'm always looking for some good new reads though, especially fiction. I'm terrible at making a commitment to fiction. Maybe I should get my ID address updated already so I can get a library card and just flirt with some novels. What are you reading that you love? 

I'm wrapping up the takes for now. The napping baby has woken many-a-time since I started writing this morning. Having a four year old brother makes napping hard. 

Check out all the Quick Takes over at Kelly's corner of the virtual world!

Until later, love 'em like Jesus!

Blessings,

Rakhi

PS - I'll add a few more photos when I get a moment, but until then check out the 'Gram! @thepitterpatterdiaries and @rakstardesigns. Come be Instafriends - it's where I hang. :)