"How's the campaign going?"
It's the question I get most often. It's also the question I'm never quite sure how to answer.
Good? ... Great! ... Your guess is as good as mine. ... We'll see May 17th!
The truth - I suppose - all depends on what you're measuring.
This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside!
For my 30th birthday, I created a list of 30 things I wanted to do. One was to write a historical fiction short story. This is the story and as Ruby keeps calling to me here lately. I thought I'd share it here.
One of Nicholas's New Year's resolutions was to try freezer meals. He'd prepped meals for the week on and off through 2015 and wanted to see how it would work to prepare an entire month's worth. Then, we could just pull a meal from the deep freeze, throw it in the crockpot, and on a busy day dinner would be waiting for us.
I could not be more excited to welcome my dear friend Kristen Johnson to the blog today to share about her new passion project that so closely aligns with my values when it comes to raising boys - it's dang near scary.
My boys love dolls. My almost-four-year-old carries a baby doll regularly with him to school. He loves to dress dolls, talk to them, give them milk, and dance with them. His dolls are in his toy set and just another part of his pretend play routine. No big deal to him.
Over the past few months, several people have asked me to share my thoughts on school. When did I start sending my children to preschool? How do I feel about half day versus full day? Why did I choose to send my children to public school instead of private school?
In a way, it's hard to talk about education and the choices I've made for my children because I feel - probably incorrectly - that it locks me into the decisions I've made. I've chosen public school for my kids, and - if I share why - then I can never take another route.
So, let me begin with this disclaimer. If at any point this path doesn't work for one of my children or stops working for one of my children, I will not hesitate to return to the drawing board and look for a better solution.
Now, let's begin at the beginning.
The campaign lessons are coming hard and fast just two months into the process. I had this vision of raising ALL the money I needed for the campaign and having every ad designed and placed before the end of February. (For those of you with campaign experience, it's cool. I'll wait while you finish laughing.) As someone who values the completion of a task, the ongoing journey of a campaign can feel a bit overwhelming. Yes, there's a hard deadline (hello, May 17th!) but the overall work of the campaign continues the entire time. I'm not going to wrap up one task neatly before I move on to next and I have to accept that. I also have to remember to celebrate the successes and progress as they come instead of beating myself up for still working towards a goal.
In other words, campaigning is going to be an excellent test of my personality quirks and emotional stumbling blocks.
I'm a big fan of sweet potato hash and eggs for breakfast. I used to grate the sweet potato and fry it but that was a) a lot of work and b) easy to burn. This month I started just popping the sweet potato in the microwave then scraping the cooked inside into the frying pan for a few seconds. So. Much. Easier. Also, just as delicious.
I posted about the box when it first arrived. It was so fun and exciting to get it in the mail I was worried that after thrill wore off I might have buyer's remorse. Nope! Have been wearing the heck out of the jeans, which was actually the item I was most skeptical of!
This weekend we hosted a Winter ONE-derland party in honor of Felix's first birthday. Considering this child was born during a snow, it seemed like an appropriate theme. Well, the weather had other plans and it was 70 and sunny! I could have hosted the dang party outside!
First up, MAD PROPS to the style bloggers. Taking pics of yourself in clothes is STINKING hard, especially if you would like to avoid cleaning up your house but don't want to show the unmade bed and dirty laundry in the background!
I signed up for Stitch Fix and my first box arrived! HUZZAH!
For those of you unacquainted, Stitch Fix is hand-selected women's fashion shipped free, straight to your door. You get a personal stylist and you get to try on at home risk-free. Buy what you want. Send back what you don't.
I hate shopping so there is nothing not awesome about this. As I've previously mentioned, I've been trying to build a capsule wardrobe (I swear there's a full post coming on this soon!) and I was ready to add some warm weather items - as well as campaign-appropriate professional gear. Stitch Fix seemed like the solution.
In my first box, I received a pair of distressed boyfriend jeans, a split neck blouse, reversible knit top, woven blazer, and Colorblock knit dress.
Boyfriend jeans - The jeans actually fit really well and I liked the cut really well. However, I don't really need another pair of jeans and distressed isn't really my thing. It looks cute on other people but I always feel like I'm trying too hard.
Split neck blouse - I loved the cut of this blouse but the color isn't great on me and tends to dull my hair. I asked for brighter colors because I have so. much. black and gray and it's starting to bum me out. Alas, this color wasn't quite right.
Reversible knit top - Well, first of all, it's striped. Navy stripes. I LOVE a good stripe. Second of all, it's REVERSIBLE. That's like two tops in one. I loved the weight of the knit and it fits really well. Plus, the key to capsule wardrobe is having flexible pieces that works lots of different ways. This definitely fits the bill.
Woven blazer - I really like the idea of this blazer. I really liked the way it was a little bit slouchy and the back was longer than the front. Alas, as I tried to get a flattering picture of me in it, I realized I was having trouble because it just wasn't flattering. It didn't fit snugly enough around my ribs to make the slouchy-ness work and the color wasn't particularly flattering.
Colorblock knit dress - Love this dress. I don't usually go for Colorblocking but it's professional while still seeming modern. The colors are great and it fits really well. I still need a blazer that works with it but I'll get my new stylist on it!
BUT I want to hear what y'all think!
