Stuff and things...

Now that I've finally crawled out of the dark hole that was my life for the last couple of weeks, I thought I'd stop in and say hello.

I'm mostly being dramatic, but work really has been a nightmare lately. Thankfully, it has leveled off some, and I can resume doing everyday life things. You know, like sleep. Ha.

Thankfully, since I've mostly been working, you guys haven't really missed much, although Grace has been extra cute and funny lately. We bought her a little toy cradle for her baby dolls, and she can spend hours just putting her babies down for a "night night." She picks them up and says, "it's okay, baby" and rocks them, pats their back, and then lays them back down again. Over and over and over. It's probably the cutest thing I've ever seen.

She's very into listening to "Jesus Bible" (also known as "Jesus Loves Me"), but she only likes the first verse and gets very frustrated when forced to endure the mediocrity of the second verse. She knows all her colors and can sometimes count to 10 (although she prefers the even numbers). She asks for donuts on the way to school a lot. I give in about once a week, and we have the best time eating breakfast together.

maxi skirt

It hit me yesterday that she turns two in two months and I haven't given a single thought to her birthday party. This time last year, I had the whole thing planned and most of it gathered together already. Oh, how things change... :)

(The sweater I'm wearing in the picture above is from StitchFix, and I'm obsessed. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's cream and gray and oh-so cozy.)

And last, but definitely not least, I've got to explain why I am FREAKING out with happy. If you've been reading for very long, you know that I've been obsessed with Joey and her incredibly uplifting and genuine blog for a few years now. It turns out that I'm headed to her neck of the woods next week for a recruiting event for work, and I'm finally going to get to hug her neck in real life! Joey has been such an unwavering source of encouragement and friendship over the past couple of years, and I'm over the moon to finally get to meet her.

Also, (because she's amazing) she's a published author (of a book I read and adored) called Yeah, Maybe. This week it's on super duper sale on Amazon, and I can tell you that it's well worth the $1.99 price tag.

So go buy it!

And then go link up with Joey and Kristin to share your stuff and/or things.

Stuff and things...

I'm hanging on by a thread, friends. I worked 70-hour weeks the entire month of January, got sick, nursed a sick kid, traveled a bit, successfully completed a Whole30 (which I promise I'll be writing about soon), and still managed to be home by 5:30 and hang out with my kid until her bedtime most nights.

The only way those things all happen is by (1) being married to a rock star of a husband who picks up my slack and (2) not sleeping much. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, though. My big deadline at work is next Friday, so, for better or worse, the madness has to end by then.

(And, in case it wasn't completely and utterly obvious, I'm not happy about or proud of having worked so much and would never hold last month up as an example of how well I'm doing at life. I sucked at life last month on basically every level. But that's just the way things go sometimes. There are incredible months, and there are terrible months, and there are months that you won't even remember because they flew by in such an unceremonious way. You have to add them all up and take an average. Somewhere in the midst of the awesome and not-so awesome, you've probably got a pretty sweet, little life. Am I right?)

Can we also talk about how my kid is officially too big for her britches? The last week or so when I drop her off at school in the mornings, she takes a few minutes to sit calmly and happily in my lap on the floor. And then at some point she decides she's ready to play with her friends, so she turns around, looks at me, and says, "bye-bye, Mommy!" just as sweet as could be.

I mean, seriously. Break my heart, why don't you? She also wore her first top knot today, and I basically fell over dead at the sight of her.

And speaking of firsts, I wore my first high-waisted skirt yesterday. It's hard to tell because of the crappy quality of this work bathroom selfie, but I had a ruffled black tank tucked into it, and I contemplated wearing only that, but I felt like it needed a pop of color. These cropped cardis from Forever 21 are my absolute favorite for layering with dresses/skirts. Also, they're $10, so you can literally buy every color they come in.

I wasn't sure if I could really pull off this skirt, but I went for it, and I feel like it ended up being unexpectedly slimming. It's funny timing because as I was marveling at the fact that I was wearing this skirt (given that it had sat in my closet for over a year because it hugged me in all the wrong places), I checked my Timehop and saw where I was four years ago.

Dallas had just been waylaid with snow. (In Dallas, "waylaid with snow" means we got 4 inches or more. Please make fun of us.) Micah and Lilly and I were playing in it, and we took these pictures with my good camera.

I'm so thankful that I forced myself to make and record and share memories even when I didn't feel like I was at my best or most beautiful. Because now I can look back and see how far I've really come since then. It has been a long journey, without a doubt. One filled with successes and failures and childbirth and lots of long-suffering patience. But I'm here at this exact spot on my path because I forced myself to keep aiming in the right direction. Who knows where I'll be in another four years?

What stuff and things do you have going on? Link up with Kristin and Joey and join in on the fun!