Mommy Musings

Happy Halloween!!  Before putting myself in a candy coma later on, it's time to track my miles for the final week of October! Thursday October 24 - 2 mile elliptical / 4 mile bike Friday - kickboxing (no miles) Saturday - 2.9 mile run Sunday - none Monday - 2.4 mile run Tuesday - 3.3 mile run Wednesday -none Thursday - none Weekly Total - 14.6 October Total - 56.1 I am SO sad that I didn't make it to 60 miles.  I was totally on track and had every intention of working out yesterday and today.  However I seem to have come down with a pretty nasty sinus infection, and I just can't work out right now.  I'm all about pushing yourself, but this would be too much.  And I need to be in top shape for trick or treating later! But I'm trying not to get down on myself because 56.1 miles is pretty awesome, and my second best mileage since I started tracking in April.  It's also the most running miles I've logged, and that makes me happy. Here's to making November ev

One of my absolute favorite parts of the school year for Emmy is class picture day.  She always looks so much older in a professional photo.  And having the class picture is always a huge help.  Skip and I study it, trying to figure out all the kids names, and place them in the stories Emmy tells every day. And now that we have two years of school under our belt, it's amazing to look back at how much she has changed in the past year. So without further ado, here are Emmy's 2013-2014 school pictures! I can't help but giggle over her little face in the group class picture!   And now for that fun comparison, here are Emmy's pictures last year! Have a great Wednesday!!

Today is part II of "I feel like I'm failing at parenting".  Part I about Charlie's disdain over anyone but m e was up yesterday.  Today I'm going to talk about Emmy for a bit.  Last March, I blogged about how she suddenly started coming into our room around 2:00 am or so to sleep .  And while I was never really a fan of co-sleeping, we just went with the flow on this one.  With everything we had going on at the time, we figured it was what she needed. Well pretty soon March turned into April, which turned into May, which turned into June, you get the idea, and Emmy was still coming into our room every night at some point.  Sometimes she just falls right to sleep, and sometimes she babbles away for hours, trying to convince us to let her watch Netflix on the IPhone. And if I'm being honest, it's normally the latter.  Which is resulting in a whole lot less sleep for all of us, which really isn't good for Emmy.  Even if she falls right back to sleep in o

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I feel like parenting, as with most things in life, comes in waves.  Sometimes you are rockin' it and feeling on top of the world.  And other times you feel more like you're living with tiny dictators and you can't do anything right.  Guess which stage I'm in now . There is such a hard balance when it comes to parenting.  I want my girls to know they are special and loved more than anything else in this world.  But I also don't want them growing up spoiled and getting everything they want.  It's so challenging to know when to give in and when to stay strong. We're dealing with two different issues right now, one from each of the girls.  I tend to get a little wordy on the subject, so I'm going to split this up into two different posts.  The first situation is from my Charlie.  When she was a baby, she really wasn't that clingy.  We sure did spend a lot of time together, but that's only because she refused to sleep, like ever.  But she was happy

We're trying to be more intentional with our time together as a family these days.  There have been so many rough moments in our lives the past year and a half, and who knows what else life is going to throw at us.  So we want to make sure to seize little moments here and there to laugh, explore, and have fun together as a family. Tuesday was one such day.  Skip came home from a very long day at work, and the girls were starting to go a little stir crazy.  The air had a bite to it, but nothing more than a few jean jackets couldn't handle.  So we quick packed up and headed out to a local park.  As soon as we got there though, our plans of family togetherness quickly went out the window.  Emmy wanted to play on the playground with some other kids, and Charlie wanted to go find ducks at the pond.  Skip and I just shrugged as he set off to watch Emmy, and I, Charlie. It was a perfect fall day, and I just loved  the opportunity to follow Charlie around, watching her explore the worl

To say my family has gone through some tough times in the past year and a half is an understatement.  That coupled with the fact that New Jersey has missed out on the past two Halloweens {Snowpacalypse 2011 / Hurricane Sandy 2012} makes me want to make this Halloween the best!holiday!ever! for my sweet girls.  And I don't know about you, but it doesn't feel like a holiday to me unless it starts in the kitchen. Now I know what you're thinking...what is there to cook for Halloween?  Don't you just buy a bag of candy and call it a day?  Well, you can , but this year I wanted to do a little something more special.  I wanted to not only have a sweet treat for the girls, but also be able to spend a special moment with them, creating something together.  These little moments in the kitchen are some of my favorite and most treasured.  So this weekend Emmy and I decided to get a little creative and make some Halloween treats.  This can be a challenge, what with her peanut aller

Time for another week of linking up my miles!  I've been eating better recently, drinking more water, and doing a lot of stretching, so I think that's helping me push myself a little more. Thursday October 17 - 4 mile run Friday - 3.3 mile run Saturday - none Sunday - 3.8 mile intervals Monday - strength training / no miles Tuesday - none Wednesday - 2.1 mile elliptical / 2.1 mile bike Weekly Total - 15.3 October Total - 41.5 A pretty good week overall I'd say!  I haven't been feeling great, but am still pushing myself to do what I can.  I hoping to get a good run in tomorrow since I haven't gone since Sunday.  I'm also picking up some warm weather running tights and stuff tomorrow as I'm going to need it.  Jersey is practically skipping fall and going right to winter!  It's going to be hard to motivate myself to run when it's chilly.  Though I do have the treadmill at the gym to fall back on. How did you all do this week?

I'm going to take the day on the ol' blog here to be vain.  I like looking good, as many people do.  I workout, try to wear some cute clothes, and spend as much time as I'm able {which with two kids isn't much at all} to do my make-up every day.  As much as I shouldn't care what other people thing of me, I do.  But I also do it for myself because it makes me feel good, and gives me a little more confidence.  However there is one thing that keeps disappointing me over and over again.  And there's really very little I can do about it.  My hair .  I used to have really pretty hair.  Long, blond layered hair.  It was always something I was pretty proud of. Can I please be 21 again?!?! But then years of bleaching {I'm not actually a natural blond} and straightening really took their toll and my hair was breaking off left and right.  The ends were completely damaged and my friend L {a licensed hairdresser} was worried my hair would literally start melting off my h

In my mind, there are few things better in this world than a really good brownie .  Best case scenario, they are covered in ice cream, but a chocolate-y stand-alone brownie is just as good.  I was craving such gooey, chocolate-y goodness last week, so I headed into the kitchen to play around a bit.  And what I came up with was absolutely amazing if I do say so myself.  I present to you Double Chocolate Oreo Brownies. And not only do they taste amazing, they're super simple to make too!! Ingredients - One box of brownie mix {I used and prefer one with milk chocolate chips in them} - Egg as lasted on the box - Water as listed on the box - Instead of oil listed on the box, use an equal amount of melted butter {trust me} - Two really big handfuls of white chocolate chips - 1/2 a box of Oreo cookies {double stuff only.  Don't insult these brownies with anything less} Directions - Preheat over to whatever temperature it says on the back of the box.  Normally around 350* Grease an 8x

And just like that, I'm 31.  It seems so much older  than 30 for some reason, but since I like odd numbers better than even, I'm not too broken up about this age. If we're going to drop some serious cash on a birthday, I'd rather it be for the girls these days.  So while I still wanted to celebrate, I wanted to keep it nice and low-key. Friday night my mom came over {she had been up for a few days to deal with some things about my Grandma} to watch the girls.  Skip and I headed out with a few of our friends for dinner. Skip bought me this corsage to wear our to dinner! We went to this little Italian place in town.  Eight of us headed out together, and we all had a fabulous time.  The food was amazing and it was nice to be with my closest friends.  {Sadly I didn't take any other pictures of the night!} After we stuffed ourselves silly, we headed out to our favorite local bar.  Thankfully we found a place tuck-ed away in the corner to relax.  It was club night apparen