Family

Messes, Meditative Mowing, and Monopoly

Of all the days I decided to throw away dead succulents and soil in our garbage can, Niva decided to dig in the garbage.

Siberian husky digging in the garbage

It was actually kind of comical. I walked into the kitchen and saw the dirt and garbage all over the ground and Sadie’s first thought was obviously hey, I think I should roll in that!

She lost interest while I vacuumed everything up, but was being suspiciously quiet. I found her in the bathroom, casually splashing in the toilet. 

My hands are full with Sadie, Niva, and Malcolm, but my heart is even more full.

Infantino baby carrier

Niva has ate a stick of butter and bag of double chocolate cookies since she’s lived with us. Thankfully the human food hasn’t phased her digestive system one bit! It kinda reminds me of Lola in her prime–digging in the garbage and eating whole chicken carcasses like a champ.

When I think about the craziness of a wild cat, puppy, and toddler, I just think what would I do without these three? Life sure would be boring. The messes and the crying and the garbage digging and toilet splashing? Those are all blessings!

Family laying on bed smiling

I’m thankful for my alone time when I mow the grass, though! Our yard is pretty big, so it takes me an hour or so to cut the grass and oh how I cherish that hour of praying, zoning out, and making the yard look pretty. To me, mowing is almost meditative. I love it. 

Know what else I love? Hanging out with my husband. We’ve been having fires, swinging on our porch swing, and playing board games after Sadie goes to bed and it’s the best. 

Monopoly

We stayed up past 10 (whoa, night owls over here!) playing Monopoly last night and had a blast. My dad, an amazing real estate broker, would have been so proud of me. I owned almost all the properties by the end of the game and was collecting rent constantly 🙂

The fun wasn’t complete without some messiness, though. We left the game in the box on the kitchen table overnight and fed the pets this morning. Malcolm proceeded to throw up on the kitchen table, so naturally Niva jumped onto the table as she’s known to do, ate the throw up, and knocked the game and everything in the box on the floor.

Well, I better get going. I think I have a mess to clean up because Sadie is being a little too quiet while I write this post!

What’s your favorite board game?

What’s the craziest mess you’ve had to clean up?

Family, Sunshine, and Good Times

The title of this post pretty much sums up our Memorial Day weekend! We busted out of quarantine with a bang. Pittsburgh is currently in the “yellow phase” of reopening and it was wonderful to be able to see friends and family all weekend. 

Moms with their daughters on Memorial Day holding flags

What we were up to over the weekend:

  • Our friend who now lives in Wisconsin came over 
  • Attended two first birthday parties for my nieces 
  • Hung out with my cousins from New York who came down for the weekend
  • Watched church online on Sunday
  • Celebrated my brother-in-law and Jimmy’s birthday
  • Played in our sprinkler with Sadie
  • I gave Jimmy a haircut
  • Jimmy and I had a fire in our fire pit

We were quite the busy bees this weekend. It was so strange/tough/great to go from not really doing anything or seeing anyone to doing something each day and seeing a bunch of people all at once. Has anyone else experienced that? We’re definitely living in strange times!

Okay, how about some photos?

Husband and wife

First birthday smash cake John Deere

Girl reading book by fire

Guys with cupcakes for birthday

Toddler playing in sprinkler

Mom and baby swimming

Grandparents with grand babies

Young adult girl cousins smiling outside

Tell me about your weekend!