Hello and welcome to February! How do you feel about this wintry month? It’s smack dab in the middle of winter, but February is a short month and features one of my favorite holidays, Valentine’s Day!
Taking a winter walk with Haley!
Here’s what’s current in my life this month.
Current books I just finished A Midwife’s Memoir and am reading the second book in the series. I’m also working through Grace Upon Grace.
Current laugh I drove past a strip mall and saw a new business sign that read “412 Smokehouse” (412 is the Pittsburgh area code) and told Jimmy that a new barbecue place was in a local shopping center. I was so excited! I drove past it again and realized it was a vaping shop, lol. Not the smoking I was thinking of.
Current obsession School at Starbucks. Lately we’ve been spending the morning at Starbucks doing Sadie’s school work. I love it because mom gets coffee, we all get out of the house, and Sadie gets my full attention (laundry, dishes, cleaning can get in the way at home!).
Current food Nothing with dairy or soy. Mordecai was having blood in his stools and his pediatrician has me on a strict dairy and soy-free diet to figure out if he has milk soy protein intolerance (MSPI). I don’t typically eat much dairy (I’m lactose intolerant) but I am missing half and half in my coffee, lol. Also, I am learning soy is in like everything?! Anyways, I’ve been enjoying baked eggplant, sloppy joes, and soup lately.
Current drink Coffee, as always. I’m slowly getting used to oat milk creamer. It’s okaaaay. Also loving sparkling water and propel.
Current cuteness A full couch! We pet sat Niva’s best husky buddy recently and piled onto the couch for a movie night.
Current baked good Cornbread! Always cornbread 😂
Current goal This is a long-term goal, but I just ordered a journaling Bible and plan on highlighting it and taking notes until it’s all filled up. Then, when Sadie is either a teenager or young adult, I plan on giving her the Bible as a gift. I think Jimmy is going to do one for Mordecai, too!
Current joy Seeing Sadie learn. From scissor skills to letter sounds and more, it’s so neat to see Sader Tot grasp new concepts.
Current need A date night with Jimmy! Mordecai nurses often and hasn’t had a bottle, sooo we will need to be strategic with the timing if we want to make this happen 😂
Current kid product Hum Toothbrush. Here we go again with smart toothbrushes in the Zottola house 😂 This toothbrush is so cool, though! It’s a manual toothbrush for kids that can be used with an app that encourages brushing with augmented reality (almost like snapchat filters), points, rewards, and tracking.
Current blessing Mordecai. He brings so much joy to our lives!
Current beauty product This overnight mask is so hydrating. Love it!
Current excitement I’m working on a birthday cake this week! It’s going to be a white almond cake with fondant flowers for a three year old’s birthday party this weekend. Kinda excited, kinda nervous! Cakes are out of my comfort zone, but I’m always glad to get more practice 😊
Current fun Sadie, Jimmy’s step sister, and I went to the mall for a girls’ night recently and it was a sweet evening. We shopped around, grabbed coffee drinks, and played in the kid playground area.
Current craving For my children to sleep in! They both wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 am and it always has me feeling behind before I even start the day, if that makes sense?!
I know people recommend waking up before your kids for some alone time, but that would have me getting up at like 4:30 am just to have a minute alone and I am not willing to sacrifice sleep at this point in life!
Currently looking forward to Our monthly family night! We’re going to do some Valentine’s Day-themed things together and I am excited.
A look back:
February 2018
February 2019
February 2020
February 2021
February 2022
Living My Full Life 
Valentine’s Day is also my favorite day. When I was teaching I would give my class something red or pink (pencil with ❤️‘s on them, red licorice, red pen, etc.) for 6 days before Valentine’s Day. On Valentine’s Day I would bring in big ❤️ Cookies that I made and pass them out along with a homemade Valentine card. I did this with our own children and then on Valentine’s Day we would go to a special restaurant as a family. I also do this for our grandchildren and even though they are older they still enjoy opening one small gift each day for six days and then on Valentine’s Day they get a card in the mail from Pap/Mimi with a gift of money and we take them homemade decorated ❤️ sugar cookies to be shared with their family.
I so enjoy reading living my full life. You are example for other young Mom’s putting God first and then your family!
Another good read is Gather and Give by Any Hannon. It’s about Sharing God’s ❤️ through everyday hospitality.
Take care!
❤️ Karen Mastroianni
Aww, I didn’t know you were a Valentine’s Day lover! You must have made the day so special for your class! And now your grandkids! I just love that. It’s such a happy holiday!
Thank you for the sweet compliment about me blog and life. That meant the world to me ❤️
I am going to look up the book you mentioned right now. Thank you!!
Love the Starbucks school days, so awesome!
And the photo too!
We are having a BLAST with our little homeschool coffee dates 🙂
Lots of fun stuff going on in your household! School at Starbucks sounds so fun haha 😂
Always something going on over here, haha. School at Starbys has been a favorite part of my days!! Definitely training the kids to be coffee-lovers 😉
Always love seeing what you’re up to! Man oh man, Sadie and Mordecai sure are adorable and seem sooo happy ! You always amaze me how you juggle everything with such a great attitude, Allie! Also I sooooo empathize with the soy/milk intolerance, at 9 months still going through it. Soy really is in everything! Thankfully we live in an allergen friendly time, but can definitely still be tough.
Aww, thank you so much Mackenzie!! Attitude has been huge for me in motherhood. I feel like the little everyday struggles can add up if I don’t change my perspective!! I’m not always good at it but I try each day!
I remember you mentioning the soy/milk stuff with Quinn early on! Tell me your secrets because this is HARD!!! I agree, we do live in an allergen friendly time, thankfully! There are a lot of products out there that are okay to eat. I think what’s hard right now is that it’s a learning curve to look at every. single. thing. and get used to it haha.
I could not agree with you more!!!!
Ok I actually have a draft written up with tips/tricks/products for CMPI! This motivates me to get it up sooner than later. The learning curve is huge- hope that it has some tips and products in there to help you out. I was even talking with my mom about how I’d love to make a dairy/soy free cookbook for moms with CMPI because there is so little out there that fits both categories. We just reintroduced soy the last couple weeks & good news is Quinn is in the clear! She wasn’t around 6 months, but at 9 it looks like she’s grown out of it 🙂 hope it gives you hope! Next step is dairy
YESSS! Thank you so much! I cannot wait to read this post 🙂 I bet your cookbook would be the bomb based off of the food you always post! I feel like there are zero resources out there for going dairy and soy free due to CMPI/MSPI. It’s hard!! I am so glad Quinn has grown out of the soy intolerance. YAY!
Thanks for the kind words, Allie! It’s a long shot I’ll ever actually do the cookbook, but I do wish there was more out there. You got this 💪🏻. It’ll go by in a blink!