1. I just finished reading my 31st book (this one) for 2023. Will I make it to 50 this year?! That’s the goal, but I think I’ve only achieved it once since beginning this blog, lol.
2. We had our first day of homeschool co-op this week! It was cool to see everything come together and Sadie said she had a great time with new and old friends, learning about America, Zoology (she even has a textbook!), and doing physical education.
3. Packing up to spend the day at our church for the co-op was no joke! Lunches, textbooks, diapers, water bottles, lesson plans, and more. I felt like a pack mule loading everything into our car!
4. If you have kids, do they have a preferred parent? Right now, Sadie would pick Jimmy over me any day and Mordecai is a mama’s boy to the max. If I pick Mordecai up when he’s crying or someone else has him, he pops his thumb into his mouth and gets this look on his face like “Ha! I got what I wanted!”
5. I’ve been having so much fun with cupcakes lately. I love getting creative with flavors, fillings, frosting, and toppings! I had an order recently and it was for chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream, strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream, and white almond cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and a berry topping. Spending a few hours baking and decorating cupcakes is my idea of a good time!
6. Random question: what is the first thing you do when you arrive home? I always take my shoes off and wash my hands.
7. I just gave my friend with NICU twins a bunch of breastmilk and our freezer feels gloriously empty right now… until I fill it all up again! Having a hands-free pump has been life changing. I can load the dishwasher and pump. I can do school with Sadie and pump. I can read a book and pump. It’s great.
8. The weather in Pittsburgh has been hot–like 90 degrees hot. Poor Sadie has been asking to get in our hot tub every day but I worry she will overheat! I’m not wishing away these warm, sunny days, though. I know I can’t keep summer forever and I will be happy in a new season but I’m still loving this one!
9. I made cupcakes for a family picnic recently and my niece had the look of pure bliss when she enjoyed a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. Made me so happy.
10. You know how babies suck on their hands and they get all gross? Sadie was playing with Mordecai the other day and kissing his hands. She suddenly sat up and was like “His hands smell rotted!” 😂
11. I had to run to Walmart the other afternoon to get a tote to give to my sister before church that evening. So basically: it was a time sensitive task. I loaded the kids up and got to Walmart only to realize Sadie didn’t have shoes!! So… she sat in the cart the whole time. I am a little embarrassed to admit that’s the second time this has happened in the past month.
12. I still haven’t decorated for fall. What am I doing!! I have the box of decorations out, but I’ve just been too busy. Maybe this weekend… after I work on a cupcake order for apple cider cupcakes!
Living My Full Life 
The first thing I do when I get home is let our 2 dogs out- as long as it’s not “school bus time”
– when children are either loading up or unloading at our corner. Our dogs tend to bark and ‘protect’ our fenced in yard, and some of the kids are young and I don’t want them scared to pass by our house because of 2 crazily barking dogs.
I’m definitely still holding on summer- being @ the beach right now makes that very easy. I do love fall- but I love summer more. 😎
I hope I get to try the newest addition to your cupcake flavors!
Love you!
Love 💕 the pic of you and the kids under the School paired wall!
As well as the other pics!
I do the same as mom when I first get home, let the pups out.
Love 💕 You
Dad
🙂
No worries, Allie, about Sadie’s lack of shoes. Trevor and I drove to Uniontown for a wedding last month. When he got out of the car he had this strange look on his face. He was all dressed up but had his bedroom slippers on. We really laughed. Fortunately they were black so not so noticeable.
Oh my word! Thank you for sharing that!! I am cracking up!
On ‘preferred parents’… it’s hard to tell being so far away, but I think Rachel prefers me and Grace her mother. Rachel certainly loves talking to me and telling me everything she’s been doing. Which is good – I think if she had trouble in her life I think she’d come to me with it. I do wish I could build more of a connection to Grace though. It’s hard because she’s in a teenage monosyllabic phase –
“How’s school?”
“good”
“What did you do this week?”
“not much”
They’re good kids though, both of them.
Aww, I loved reading about your daughters’ different personalities and preferred parents. I know what you mean about that monosyllabic phase! I sometimes think Jimmy is still in it haha.