Category: Motherhood

The Black Hills 2022: Part 1

We got back last week from a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota to visit my parents. For those that are new here, a bit of history on the Black Hills for my family, because this isn’t going to be a typical travel post about what we did and where we ate!

My parents grew up at the foot of the Black Hills in Rapid City, SD. My maternal grandparents bought some land in the Black Hills before my living memory, and lived in the Hills pretty my entire childhood. As kids, we’d always spend a week in the Hills visiting my grandparents. My sister and I have wonderful memories in the Hills growing up. We’d catch and release chipmunks, go camping, feed the deer, hike (I hated hiking growing up, though), and just generally lived outside in nature for a week.

Years ago, my parents bought land in the Hills as well, and in 2014 built a cabin on that land. They spend their summers living at the cabin, and the rest of the year they live in Kansas City. Thus began our own family annual pilgrimage to the Hills once a year.

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My Third Blogaversary!

Harrison was one year old at the time. I was working in a job that, while I was very good at it, gave me zero energy to get up in the morning to go do. I remember feeling like Harrison was growing so fast. I had memorialized as much of his first year as I possibly could on Instagram. I took up writing my little boys letters each month of their first year of life. A monthly letter to him the first year of his life. In fact, my very first real blog post was a letter to Harrison.

My very first Blog profile picture!

But I was struggling with how to keep up with remembering all of the things about family life and Harrison growing up without those monthly milestones of a first year.

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The Dirt Pot

Last year, we formally became the owners of a dirt pot.

“What’s a dirt pot?” you might ask.

Well, it’s a large planter that sits on our patio that is filled with dirt. Compost dirt, to be exact.

We acquired the dirt pot because I noticed something about Harrison when he was very young. He loved to use Mommy’s garden tools and dig in the dirt. He’d spend a long time for a 1 year old digging, dumping, and exploring.

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What’s Up Wednesday {05.25.22}

Edit: My heart is heavy and shattered given the events in Texas yesterday. The fact that we’re here as a nation weeping again at the loss of innocent little lives in America. That we did nothing as a nation to change the course of the future after Newtown makes me sick to my stomach. That we live in a country that it seems the risk we take with sending our children to school in this country includes a higher risk of being shot and killed in their school than every other developed nation. It’s inexcusable. Exhausting. Heart wrenching. It makes me want to hold my babies close to me and never let them out into this seemingly cruel world.

I’m not tone deaf. And truthfully, I considered just pushing delete on this post. All of it was written before this horrific event. But it’s written. And it’s fun to read. So I’m going to leave it here because these are my memories that I want to be able to go back and read for myself. But where I’m personally at tonight, as I sit here in my pj’s having tucked my precious boys into bed, is a mess. Angry. Pleading with my fellow Americans. Can we please compromise to do something to move in the right direction to fix this. We must be better than this.

My favorite post of the month! A post with a little bit of everything. A little bit of food and recipes, a little bit of books, a little bit of looks at family, and lots more! I can’t believe we’re at the end of May getting ready to gear up for summer.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:

I can not stop. You guys, I love these Chicken gyros, and they are on the menu again this week. AHH. So good!

Some homemade pizza and sundried tomato pasta with creamy burrata rounds out the week. Yum!

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Another fun soccer season for our little man!

We’ve had so much fun watching Harrison play this spring. He truly loves soccer. Every day he comes home and asks to play soccer, so we’ve had so much fun watching him get to do something he really loves with his friends. He may be the most into it four year old soccer player on the team, but we love every minute of getting to watch him!

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Ye Old Mom Guilt

I married a good guy. Nathan sat down with me back around the Christmas holiday, as I spiraled down on my to-do list, and feelings of being overwhelmed, compounding with thoughts that I wasn’t being the best mom I could be to the boys. And said, quite simply, “I need you to be happy. If you’re happy, I’m happy, and the boys are happy. So what’s missing for you right now?”

And let me tell you, I wasn’t prepared to answer the question. The truth was, I needed more time for Lauren things, and secondary to that, to not feel guilty about it.

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Friday Favorites {05.06.22}

The past week and a half have felt more like…many weeks. Both of the boys ended up with Influenza A, and some really terrible side effects of Tamiflu. The washing machine was running non-stop all week, if you know what I mean. But I think we are finally on the up and up again. This year has just seemed particularly bad with viruses. I swear one or both boys has been home every other week since the beginning of the year.

But, dare I say, I’m really excited for this weekend! We are back at soccer on Saturday, and celebrating Mother’s Day on Sunday.

This morning, I’ve got to get myself ready to take the boys to school for Muffins with Mom at their daycare. It’s our very first in-person holiday party at school since December of 2019 when Harrison looked like this…

So to say I’m very excited to get to celebrate with my boys at school is an understatement!

I’ve got almost all of the plants I need for my garden this year! This year’s colors are…all of them. Every last thing that looked pretty and drew my eye.

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Things I’ve Learned From Mom

I learned to love first from my mom. I learned what it means to live for tiny little people who don’t even understand the sacrifices you’ve already made for them. I’ve learned that apologizing to your kids is important. That they need to hear it’s ok to misstep and important that we take ownership of it. That we can course correct again in the morning light.

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Friday Favorites {04.29.22}

Well just when I think we may be out of the sickness woods of the winter of 2022, I’m proven wrong again. We have one kid home sick with the flu, and the whole family is on tamiflu. Ah! When will the sickness this year end?!

We’ll be focused on getting our little guy better and hopefully having some fun along the way this weekend. Hope you guys have a great weekend!

In the middle of last week, I surprised Harrison at school before lunch, and we played hooky for the rest of the day going to a Royals baseball game together. Since Jonathan was born, the amount of time I’ve gotten to spend one-on-one with Harrison has gone down significantly. I love having both of the boys, and doing things with them, but it’s so interesting how the dynamics change when you get to focus on just one kid at a time.

Many years ago, like pre-kids, I read a fellow blogger doing a skip day with each of their kids, and I’ve held on to that idea for YEARS thinking I wanted to do the same thing when the time came around. It was the best time to just focus on my big, little man for an afternoon.

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A Day in the Life: Weekend Edition!

Are you as interested in Day in the Life posts as I am? There’s something about getting a peak into someone’s everyday life that satisfies the same piece of me that adores reality TV. (Yes….I know reality TV isn’t actually real. But I love it all the same.) So how about I take you along for a typical spring Saturday with the Lanes?

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Easter Baskets for Little Kids

As soon as Valentine’s Day is over, my mind moves to Easter baskets and birthdays. Harrison’s birthday is always around Easter, so it’s double duty for gift season for us! Whenever I start thinking about Easter baskets, I pick out things that they will need for the spring and summer, replacing well-worn art supplies, and lastly fun little games or toys that are perfect for road trips, as we usually head up to South Dakota to visit my parents over the summer.

Here are the things I’ve picked up for the boys’ Easter baskets so far!

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