5 on Friday

1.  Exhaustion

 When you become a new parent, you gain a new definition of the word exhausted.  There is absolutely nothing that can prepare you for the first two weeks of having a newborn.  Yet, as your little one grows up you soon find that the amount of hours you sleep increase and it brings to light a whole new world of parenting.  It truly is amazing how quality sleep can impact your day.  Fast forward to toddlerhood and you have a little one sleeping through the night.  There are rare instances where they may be sick or teething and you soon find yourself in the world you once knew from infancy.  The lack of sleep is torture all over again and it’s almost as if you have to train yourself how to behave and function once daytime arrives.  Well, our little man has challenged me these last two evenings. 



I Had To Call In Reserves - He Will Love Me For This!

Here’s hoping that my workday goes smoothly and that I can cut out of here a little early.  Oh, the joys of a full-time working mama – I need a nap.

2.  Game Changer

Laugh all you want, my husband did, but my new orthopedic pillow has revolutionized my life!  As we were packing to move to Iowa, I went through a lot of our items to donate or toss.  It was a good time to go through our inventory of things and make some decisions on what we truly needed to pack up.  During that time I tossed many of our pillows because they were old, uncomfortable, or dingy.  I thought how easy it would be to replace them; plus I hate packing pillows and blankets.  Well, here we were in the new house, adjusting to all aspects of a move, and the last thing I have time to do is hunt for new pillows.  So, we ended up with the $10 Target specials everywhere.  No offense to Target as I love so many of their items, but you get what you pay for with these. 

After a year and a half of restless sleep, back and neck pain, and complaining I finally broke down last weekend and purchased myself this beauty.  I took a risk with this purchase because the pillow isn’t refundable.  It was returnable for an exchange of another style though so that was reassuring.  There’s only so much testing you can do of a pillow in a store (with two kids tagging along as well). ;)

After six (almost – see above) nights of sleep I am very happy with this investment.  No neck cracking for me in the morning.  And after all the jokes I’m receiving from the hubs, I am just waiting for the day that he wants to purchase one as well.

3.  Thieves

Ok, all your essential oil people.  I am ready to jump on the bandwagon with this one!  I have been seeing posts online about individuals who use thieves to wash their produce.  Before and after pictures have been remarkable and quite frankly I have been enamored with reading articles by others who use this technique.  Among many things, Brady has an allergy to tomatoes.  What we have noticed though, is that it isn’t every batch that we bring home.  I will purchase some Cherubs one week versus another and his reaction will come and go from week to week.  That being said, it really makes me question what else is on or in this vegetable that may be affecting him.  Do I always buy organic?  No.  But I think we all know that eating organic does not mean free of chemicals; though it is much better.  Regardless, I wanted to see if anyone else out there uses this essential oil?  If so, I would love to hear your feedback on how you use it and/or if you have ever experimented using it in this application.
 

4.  Round Off
 

This week at gymnastics, the girls had their first shot of learning how to turn their cartwheels into round offs.  When I saw the instructor setting up the mats, all I could think was “please don’t let anyone break their necks!”  Ridiculous, but hey I am a worrier.  My phone isn’t great at taking videos, but daddy got a pretty good one of our little gal.

5.  Quotes

I love reading quotes here and there and typically gravitate towards the humorous ones to lighten the mood.  However, this week there were two inspirational quotes that made me pause and slow down my life a little bit.  I thought they were too good not to pass along.

Have a wonderful weekend and for all your Midwest folks – Happy May Day; I hope you have your baskets ready!