January & February Book Review

Posted on by Lauren Lane

You want to know the last time I reviewed books I had read? November. Life happened, and in December, I didn’t feel like I had read much so didn’t have much to review. January we lived in a state of illness and school closings. And here we are at the end of February! And I finally have some books to tell you about!

My friend Jen at Show Me + Sweet Tea always uses book descriptions from Goodreads in her book reviews, and I love that idea! That gives you a much better idea of what the book is about, so I’m going to jump on that bandwagon.

Way back in December, I read The Bullish Case for Bitcoin.

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Friday Favorites {02.18.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Who else is dealing with weather that can’t make up its mind? I was walking Sawyer outside on Tuesday, and Thursday woke up to snow. About this time every year, my attitude towards snow shifts. I’m all good with it up until about February 15. But once we’ve had that first taste of spring-like weather, which always happens around mid-February, I just can’t mentally go back to winter mode.

Hope you all are staying warm wherever you are today! Let’s grab a cup of coffee and jump into some Friday Favorites.

This weekend is Nathan’s birthday! He’s the best daddy and most amazing husband. The boys and I just love him so darn much, and can’t wait to celebrate him! Adult birthdays are so much more fun with the joy of the kids around. 😊

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Valentine’s Day Get to Know Lauren + Nathan!

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy belated Valentine’s Day! I thought it would be fun to do an old-school questionnaire style post all about Nathan and me to celebrate Valentine’s Day!

  • How’d you meet: We met at a work happy hour. Nathan had just joined the company after graduating from K-State, and I had been working at the company for close to a year after moving back to Kansas City. He says he tried to strike up a conversation, and all of my responses were short and uninterested. He’s probably right the way he remembers this. 😊 Good thing he kept trying!

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Let’s Look…At What We Eat in a Week

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love joining this little monthly link-up with random prompts to share a small aspect of our lives. I missed January while we were in the depths of surviving having two kids home with COVID. The prompt related to organizing in the new year, and I can assure you if I had written that post, it would have said, ”I’ve organized nothing. I’m just surviving.”

But this month is about what we eat in a week!

Given that we have a toddler and preschooler, what I eat is pretty much whatever is left on my kids’ plates that they refuse to eat. #parentsoflittles

Every morning, the boys wake up and have toast and yogurt. Every day. And this is the bread I swear by. It is GOOD.

There was a point in time during the pandemic where it was impossible to get, and I can attest, this bread is hard to replace.

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Dry Winter Skin

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Come about November each year, I notice my skin, especially on my face, gets really dry. By mid-December, it’s so dry that it’s flaking. I’m habituatally consistent in making sure to use my standard moisturizer at morning and at night. But come the winter time, I found myself year after year, peeling off dry skin from my face and slathering on hand moisturizer on my face in an attempt to quell the flaky skin.

This year, I decided that I needed to find a better solution. Using my standard moisturizer that I use the rest of the year just wasn’t going to cut it during the dry winter months. There had to be a better way to take care of my skin. After visiting with my dermatologist and my aesthistician, I’ve found a combination of moisture warriors that work for me and don’t cause my break-out prone skin to break-out.

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Friday Favorites {02.04.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’m sitting in the midst of a playroom that looks like a bomb went off in it. The kids are home for what seems like the millioneth day this past month because of a snowstorm shutting daycare (and the city) down for the day. Another day trying to balance work and taking care of the kids, while Nathan is on calls all day. It feels impossible lately. This phase of life. A period of time where the kids can’t be trusted to just sit and watch movies all day. Where a sickness, snow day, or emergency trip to urgent care (yeah, we had one of those on Monday), hijacks the entire day, and I feel left in a lurch to try to figure out the bare minimum of what needs to be done at work to attend to my number one priority, the kids.

I’m sure it doesn’t get easier after this phase. The hard just morphs into a different kind of hard. But I’ve found myself a lot this month wondering how I can keep up with this. How to make all of the pieces fit together, that are so far from fitting together right now.

Thanks for staying with me, friends. I gathered up a handful of favorites this Friday. Happy weekend!

The Chiefs game result was not a favorite of this past week, but cheering on the Chiefs with the boys this season has been so much fun! While Harrison flips between being a Chiefs fan and a Broncos fan, he’s starting to understand some of the rules of the game. Such a crazy and fun season!

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Bats in the Chimney

Posted on by Lauren Lane

At the end of 2021, after having lived in our house for seven years, we finally got our chimney repaired to usable, working condition. We spent hours and hours making a fire and sitting in front of it over winter break. The smell of the wood burning, the coziness of it all. It brought us so much joy over the past few weeks. And we’ll chalk this up to yet another thing in life that we wondered why we waited so long to fix.

How we came to finally repairing our chimney, though, is a comedy of missteps. It all started this past early summer when Nathan and I were sitting down to watch a TV show in our living room after putting the boys to bed.

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7 Quick Harrison Takes (v. X)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

You guys know I like to jot down little things about my boys that are making me laugh about their personalities lately, or sweet things that they’re doing. It’s my way of capturing their budding little personalities, and I love going back to read some of the old ones. It makes me remember some of the sweet things that have now passed us by and they’ve grown out of over the years.

After two full weeks at home with the boys, I had plenty of material for some Harrison quick takes.

-1- It’s apparently totally appropriate to Christmas carol in January. Harrison’s go to: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells Jingle all the way. Old McDonald is to ride in a one up witch’s sleigh, HEY! (Sounds like Santa must love Halloween.)

-2- He tells me all the time how he wants to be a Mommy when he grows up.

-3- Declares the soccer ball ‘out of balance’ so he can throw it in. And every goal I score as “not counting” because I didn’t follow “the rules.” He also likes to shout “I WINNED!”

-4- His sense of direction has now exceeded my own. I have an awful sense of direction, but I have lived in almost the same place for the past 30+ years, and I still have to google how to get to the highway. Harrison also likes to ask me, “Are you sure you’re going the right way?” No, kid. No I’m not. I’ve been unsure my whole life that I was going the right way.

-5- He came home from school one day and informed me that we do not say “pee and poop. But we can say tooted.” I asked him who told him that – his answer, “his friends.” Good call, guys.

-6- Kids don’t feel cold. I know that. I was not prepared for the part of being a ‘boy mom’ that I have a 3 year old running around the house in shorts and t-shirt when it’s 10* out, and then insisting to me that he does not need a coat to go outside, and he will NOT BE COLD.

-7- He’s the sweetest big brother (sometimes). Whenever Baby J starts crying, he dashes upstairs to find his lovey and bring it to him. Harrison’s lovey was always the thing that he wanted when he was crying.

Dear Jonathan (v. XIII)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy 18 months, little guy! Your Daddy and I were talking the other day about you. After spending two weeks at home with you, and we’ve decided that your ‘Terrible Two’s’ have officially started. Harrison calls you “the Destructor,” which is truly the most appropriate pseudonym for you currently. You take in the situation in a room, and go straight for where you can cause the most damage. No pantry shelf is safe. No baby gate need stop you. You are climbing, poking, throwing, and pushing every single boundary right now. All with a Cheshire Cat grin when your parents tell you, yet again, “No!!!”

You’re my tender hearted little one. Both simultaneously the second child, in your mostly laid back demeanor, and at the same time, the most dramatic little boy. You’re so determined that you’re not easily re-directed from danger or things you aren’t supposed to do, and it routinely ends with big tears.

You bring our family so much joy, little guy. Watching you come into your own as your own little person is my favorite. Watching you, it feels like I can see your little mind grow with each new discovery. Your dancing and swaying is some of my favorite when you hear your favorite songs come on. The way you reach up for me constantly, wanting to be held by your mama. You are my mama’s boy. Safe in my arms from anything. I’ll always be a safe place for you, little boy.

I love you so much, my little Baby J. I hope and pray that there’s never a day that goes by that you wonder how much you are loved. It is beyond measure.

Love always,

Mommy

What’s Up Wednesday {01.26.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

These prompts each month give me the most joy to go back and read. It’s a little peek into everything we’re doing in life right now. A monthly re-cap! And I just have so much fun writing them and reading them.

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: Sunday football means PIZZA! Other than that, we’re keeping it easy this week with slow-cooker carne asada tacos. (Seriously, they are sooo good!). Going to try a creamy broccoli cheddar soup recipe as well this week!

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

About a year ago, Jonathan got his helmet to correct a flat spot on the back of his head. The condition is called plagiocephaly, and I remember thinking then, while I felt devastated at the time and really down, that I would look back at those pictures a year from now and realize how fast it seemed, and how quickly they change.

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