Baby, I ain't got no money all I got is time

March highlights: Meeting my sister in AZ for a spa weekend as an early 30th birthday celebration, getting my second Covid-19 vaccine dose, and finishing the master bathroom renovation!

Home schooling has felt a little more successful lately. Adaline's independent reading has improved so much, and I think she is in grade level range now. Woo! The extracurricular activities are abundant and often used as a reward for finishing other assignments. Below is a lego guitar she built that really plays. I had fun programming the colors to the specific chords I wanted and trying to strum a tune. In fact, Andrew and I played around with the guitar after we put the kids to bed one night.

I had to document the 5 minutes that the Legos were all cleaned up and organized.

Funky creations

My french braiding has also improved!

We briefly got to have a couple of Primary girls' activities before we were asked to continue meeting virtual. But we sure enjoyed our hike and planting flowers/decorating pots when we had the chance!

When we moved into our house 4 years ago, there were no baseboards in the main living areas. We were told that they were in the garage and it was no big deal to just slap them back on. Well, when we finally had enough of a chance to catch our breath and actually look, we discovered that the baseboards in the garage were damaged and that there weren't nearly enough for all the places they needed to go. We recently finally started working on replacing them and I creatively used our panty spillover as painting props.

Adaline has a very creative mind, and her brothers are usually more than willing to go along with her ideas. It helps that some of her ideas are very tasty (see the chocolate raspberry tarts she made below)

Just documenting how poorly all masks fit my tiny Alex. (BUT shout out to my SIL for recommending some different ones that actually work!)

Sleepy, clingy baby needing to be carried around by mama all day.

It got warm a little early this year and my lettuces all bolted. I did have some super tasty salads before this happened though!

Adaline loves to do my hair for me. After this creation, though, Matthew asked if I knew that I had trash in my hair.

We needed to run an errand at REI one Saturday, and pretty quickly the kids were losing their minds/starving/clearly on the verge of death. And yet, once I took them outside to wait for Andrew and there happened to be sand and a grassy field, they were suddenly no longer hungry and had energy to run and play for half an hour. It's so weird how that works.

Adaline made a little bed for Alex on top of a cabinet underneath her loft bed, and he actually slept there. Ha!

I was so nice and made my family all this bread before I went out of town. I hope they know how lucky they are.

Scuba diver jammies, Adaline's dress, batman mask, 3 stuffed animals...all set for sleep.

cutest little daddy

The bathroom is finished! This project started almost 2 years ago when I decided to replace the toilet by myself in the middle of a random weekday while Andrew was at work. I got the toilet off and found that the flange needed to be replaced...and that the toilet had been leaking...and well the tile was cracked and should be replaced...and if we were going to redo the floors then we should go ahead and put in a new vanity...and then, well the whole thing would look pretty dumb if we left the old shower...and let's go ahead and replace the floors in the closets too. So, perhaps needless to say, we were entirely unprepared for the project we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of. After a lot of decision fatigue, attempting to learn new skills, hiring help, and practicing patience, here we are with a lovely new bathroom.

The listing picture/how it looked the first time we saw it

Right when we moved in/in the process of cleaning

how all the demolition began

"yeah, let's just go ahead and take out the closet floors too"

"...and we better redo the door trim"

Before spray painting the tracks

Shower under construction!! (not by us)

beautiful!

Getting this vanity installed and out of the entryway was a VERY exciting day after having it sit there for 1.5 years

new light fixture...check

spilled half a gallon of paint and by the time I got it (mostly) cleaned up, I didn't want to work on the bathroom again for months.

new mirror...check

working on closet organization

cut in half and hemmed a shower curtain since I couldn't find one I liked in the size I needed.

put up towel hooks, a shelf, tp holder, installed quarter round

And done.

Just to remember where we started from

And the very best part of March...a weekend in AZ with my sis! In early 2020 we had started talking about what we should to celebrate my 30th birthday in 2021. Obviously, any tentative plans we had made were completely derailed by Covid, and we stopped talking about it. Fast forward to February 2021 and Anna was dying for a vacation, sent me a link to a wellness spa in NM and a semi-joking message that we should go during the upcoming weekend. After a couple days and some deliberation back and forth, we had a trip set for a spa weekend a month out in AZ. Confession: I had actually never been to a spa before-never had a massage or a facial either. This was a TREAT! We met up at the airport, cruised way out to the boonies, in the mountains, had a tasty, healthy meal and then I had an other worldly facial. I have never felt so relaxed in all my life. And who knew that you could have your feet massaged during a facial?? Not me! It was ah-ma-zing. We tried new and delicious foods-like sun chokes and coconut flan-got our booties kicked during a couple outdoor HIIT classes, got massages, and hiked in the mountainous desert amidst the looming cacti. I committed all kinds of spa faux pas such as swimming outside in the freezing cold where they hadn't even put out towels or cushions for the lounge chairs and then walked around dripping wet and freezing all over the spa because I couldn't figure out where to get a towel. Hahaha We also did an aqua therapy circuit where we alternated between warm water and cold water pools, dumped a bucked of freezing water on my head before relaxing in the sauna. The hot tub was like a neck deep bathtub with a lounge bench in it. I could have stayed in there forever. We also took naps, attended a couple mindfulness classes, chatted, sun bathed, ate tacos poolside, and chatted more. It was so much fun that I plan to turn 30 again next year as well. But seriously, it was amazing and I only regret not taking more pictures so that it would be easier to retrieve the memories.