1: First off, thanks so much for all the love on the blog's facebook page this week, you are all too kind and encouraging and have inspired me to not let the blog go down without a fight. Who am I kidding, I will probably never let it go, I love it too much. There has never been another category of blog that I felt like mine fell under more than a "keeping it real" mom blog. I guess it's a category within a category because I will never claim to not be a mom-blog, the blog's title makes it impossible for me to try to make that argument. So I'm just going to take it back to the roots now and keep it real for you all.
2: : I have been walking around with my pants entirely unbuttoned and unzipped because they just do not fit. I could just find a bigger pair that do fit, but I am determined to make my pre-pregnancy jeans work whether they look painted on (they do!) or not. There are many culprits that come into play here, not just the fact that I recently bore and birthed a child, behold exhibit A:
I've iced over 140 cookies as I get ready to host my first ever cookie exchange and you better believe at least 3 cookies worth of each batch of cookie dough has been consumed by myself. Cookie dough is sort of my cryptonite. By the time I post this I will have exchanged all sorts of cookies with all sorts of great ladies and will have more cookies to consume, it will be great.
Getting a little serious now, just a warning:
3: This postpartum period has seen me dealing with my first bout of postpartum depression and anxiety (heavy on the anxiety) and it has been capital C Crazy. There were a few weeks there a while ago that I was sure the entire world was about to end and/or I was going to be hauled off to an institute somewhere but thanks be to God and meds and all sorts of support from family and friends (real life and blog alike) and I am doing much, MUCH better. But it is still a daily struggle that some days gets the better of me. God bless all you women who have dealt with it with each pregnancy and for much longer than me, I am in awe of you.
Done with being serious.
4: This weather might just kill me. The lack of sun and cold, cold, rain and more cold is really cramping my already crampy style right now, so much so that I have been indulging the girls almost daily in what I like to call Crap-tivities. That's right, my craft-hating self has been taking out the paints, scissors and glue multiple times a week and I have even taken to pre-cutting construction paper for various crafts the night before. Who am I?!? I don't even know any more, but I do know that if I am miserable with the absence of any outdoor time, they are equally so, ok probably more.
Behold the various crap-tivities:
5: Read the previous 3 again and you'll understand why I have had to force myself to get back to exercise in the form of Jillian Michaels, because I still only own 3 workout DVDs and all 3 are her, because I guess I hate myself. If you've never done a Jillian workout, doing one for the first time in well over a year is sheer torture, and the day after is even worse. I have only done it 3 times so far and the jury is still out on whether I will ever do it again.
6: Have I ever mentioned how much I love South Bend and it's fabulous community?
The aforementioned cookie party was a huge success and now I have multiple various assortments of other kinds of cookies to fill my waistband with over the next few days.
Thank you, ladies.
7: We leave for Steubenville the day after tomorrow and it will likely be a miracle of miracles if I visit ye old blog whilst supping with kin and singing all sorts of Christmas hymns round the evergreens, but maybe we'll all get lucky.
If not, Merriest of merry Christmases to you all!!
