Sunwashed Linen

Dear Jonathan (v. X)

Posted on June 1, 2021May 29, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Another month gone by of your first year. Ten months with sweet baby J. I love your clapping and toothy grin. I love when your little body snuggles against mine in the morning, knowing that I am a safe place for you. I love the adoration and laughs you and your big brother have for each other. Your curiosity about the dog’s water bowl, closing doors by yourself, and what my drink tastes like that day.

I love you, sweet boy. I wish for you all the happiness in the world. I wish I could memorize every last bit of this baby year, but it is almost gone already. Two more months until we celebrate a whole year with you.

Love you always,

Mommy

Dear Jonathan v. IX

Dear Jonathan v. VIII

Dear Jonathan v. VII

Dear Jonathan v. VI

Dear Jonathan v. V

Dear Jonathan v. IV

Dear Jonathan v. III

Friday Favorites {05.28.21}

Posted on May 28, 2021May 29, 2021 by Lauren Lane

It finally stopped raining, ya’ll. Finally. KC can now commence with the summer weather, I suppose! We are excited to head into the long holiday weekend. We have some fun plans with Nathan’s grandma planned who is visiting KC for the weekend, and I’m sure lots of soccer, outdoor time, and popsicles in our future! Harrison suggested to me on our ride to school this morning, “Hey – I have an idea.” “What’s up, bud?” “Maybe we can have a party on home day. And eat on the ground!” “That’s a great idea, bud!” “Outside on the ground!” So maybe we’ll have a picnic, too.

Finally nice enough outside and not pouring rain for lunch on the patio! The perks of working from home. A little outside time in the middle of the day always bolsters the mood.

What’s Up Wednesday {05.26.21}

Posted on May 26, 2021May 26, 2021 by Lauren Lane

If you’re new to here, once a month, I link up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life! It’s a little a bit of everything. What we’re eating, what I’m wearing, what I’m looking forward to, what I’m dreading. A little life update in one post…

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: Did you see my Trader Joe’s haul yesterday? I’m eating all the snacks from my TJ’s. It’s a blessing and a curse the week after a Trader Joe’s run, because I find myself at the pantry trying a different snack VERY FREQUENTLY.

As far as what we’re making this week, I’m making a BBQ shrimp boil in the Instant Pot, Pork Fried Rice, and my grandma’s sloppy joe’s recipe.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Remember back when we took vacations? I’ve got a serious itch to get out of KC for a little bit. Our very last family vacation was our trip to visit my parents in South Dakota in 2019…

Trader Joe’s Staples

Posted on May 25, 2021May 25, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I went to Trader Joe’s this past week with a list of five things, and true to form, I came home with a full cart and two bottles of wine. Trader Joe’s isn’t a weekly must go to grocery store for us. I usually make it to TJ’s once a month, sometimes even less than that. So when I do make my monthly shopping run, I get all of our Trader Joe’s staples. And a few new things to try along the way, too.

All the snacks that I like to have in the fridge and pantry. Hard boiled eggs for an easy, quick breakfast or to throw on top of a salad. We LOVE the Bambas and Inner Peas for the kids. All the cheese snacks in the fridge. Nathan and I go through SO MUCH cheese snacks. We’re worse than the boys. 😊. The Marcona almonds are delicious, and I saw these truffle versions the last trip and had to try them. SO GOOD. And Nathan loves some beef jerky, too.

Friday Favorites {05.21.21}

Posted on May 21, 2021May 20, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I’m sitting on our screened in porch on Sunday afternoon. I always start my Friday Favorite posts over the weekend. A big thunderstorm rolled through this morning, and rain is dripping off of the trees hitting the patio. The little chickadee family that is raising a brood of babies in our bird house is popping in and out constantly trying to coax the little ones out of the nest. It’s the last few minutes before the boys are up again from naps. Peaceful and calm.

Speaking of the baby chickadees, I took a very quick peek into the box this weekend and snapped this picture. Look at all of that fluff and sweetness.

Spring Soccer!

Posted on May 19, 2021May 17, 2021 by Lauren Lane

We had all been looking forward to spring soccer for awhile. Last year, we signed Harrison up for spring soccer only to have everything cancelled with COVID, so we were especially excited for spring soccer this year! He got to play on a team with his best buddies from school, Graham, JJ, and Joey, and we had so much fun watching these boys grow and play together!

Recipe Round-Up III

Posted on May 18, 2021May 17, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Quarantine over the past year really forced us to add and try more new recipes, since we were cooking almost every meal at home. I started putting out a little recipe round-up of recipes we really loved and ones that we decided not to make again.

Recipe Round-Up I || Recipe Round-Up II

This is my third recipe round-up. I hope you can find something new you’d like to try!

Emily Bites’ Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey

This was actually recommended by a friend on Instagram, and I was just sort meh about this. It tasted good, but both Nathan and I agreed that it reminded us a lot of our beef with broccoli or teriyaki stir fry recipes, and we’d rather have one of those than this.

Make Again Meter? No. We’re going to stick to some other soy sauce based recipes that we like more.

The Girl Who Ate Everything’s Easy Beef Burrito Skillet

Friday Favorites {05.14.21}

Posted on May 14, 2021May 12, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I’ve spent this week doing half days of work, and half days of working on our yard. Getting all of our hedges trimmed and re-mulched. It’s a task that I dread doing, but feel so accomplished at the end of it looking how nice everything looks re-mulched and trimmed back. Maybe a full May garden tour soon?

Somehow, I missed sharing any pictures of Harrison’s birthday. This little guy turned THREE over a month ago now! Because of a cancelled birthday party, and a wait until our COVID vaccines were fully effective, somehow we’ve been celebrating him for over a month. No one else I’d rather celebrate for so long!

Let’s Look At…Backyard Organization

Posted on May 12, 2021May 17, 2021 by Lauren Lane

Once a month I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life. Here’s a peak back at what we’ve “looked” at this year:

In January, we looked at our coffee stations.
February, we looked at our love languages
In March, we shared our perfect night in
And in April, we looked at our fridge and pantry staples.

Today we’re sharing our backyard organization. My backyard is my favorite part of our whole house. It’s peaceful and serene, and it’s our very favorite place to be at home, especially this time of year.

When we originally moved into this house seven years ago, the only thing in the backyard was this screened in porch…

Lanes Lately – May 2021

Posted on May 11, 2021May 6, 2021 by Lauren Lane

I took last week off blogging, and I hadn’t really intended it. I had ideas about posts written down, but I try to be very intentional about where I spend my time. Baby J came home on Wednesday afternoon sick and he ran a 101-102 degree temperature for five days. Poor little guy was whiny, exhausted, and just so not himself. So with a baby at home during work days, and the beautiful weather outside this past weekend for gardening, something had to give. That was writing blog posts last week.

I hope you all had a great week! Baby J is on the mend, and back at school.

MAKING: Very little. We’ve been the fortunate beneficiary of the last few weeks before my parents head up to their South Dakota cabin to get a lot of food from them. Ribs, brisket! And we went to our very first restaurant post-COVID the past week. J’s very first restaurant experience ever at nine months old! He got the hang of it in no time, and both Harrison and J liked the people watching and different atmosphere.