Maybe I'm being selfish, but I think it's safe to say, I want it all.

I want to stay home with my baby, but I also want to work part-time from home (as I have been). I want to have a clean and decorated home. I want nice things and matching furniture. I want to make healthy dinners for my family every night. I want to watch my favorite shows on tv. I want to keep up with my friends on FB. I want to blog and read blogs. I want to craft and create. I want to read the zillion books on my "to read" list. I want to exercise and stay healthy. I want to take vacations. I want to try new recipes. I want to visit old friends. The list goes on...

I just can't seem to find a good balance of it all lately...and I'm frustrated.

It seems like when I focus the week on having a clean house, I have no time for anything else. When I spend time on the internet or crafting, my house is a disaster (as I'm writing this, I am 3 loads of laundry behind). When I spend time trying to knock of everything on my to-do list, Jenna reminds me that some days we are on HER schedule, not mine.

Last week I had a meltdown because I was trying to do too much - move baby gear into storage, clean my floors, finish my carseat covers for the craft fair - and Jenna was not cooperating. She cried and whined anytime I was trying to do something other than play or hold her. I got so frustrated with her and then realized, maybe the problem was me, not my fussy baby! Jenna deserves my attention too. I think sometimes I need to just stop and do nothing and enjoy my daughter.

Is it possible to have it all? Do it all? Or maybe when you're a parent you have to sacrifice certain things to take care of your family... Does society put too much pressure on us to have it all and be good at everything?

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It seems like young kids are 10 going on 25 these days...everywhere you turn you see/hear about tweens getting pregnant, having sex, "sexting" each other, lying to their parents, not caring about school...it's sad & crazy.

I was reading the Penelope Blue blog and she posted a fabulous "letter" to tween girls that I just had to share with you...

It's kind of scary to have a daughter these days...

If you don't like looking at pregnant bellies...look no further!

I finally got around to ordering my maternity photos. Here's just a few...




I'm so glad my husband convinced me to do them. When he first brought up the idea of getting maternity photos, I was like, "Are you kidding? I am the fattest I've EVER been, I'm swollen, bloated, oily-skinned, over-tired....NO WAY!"

I'm glad I gave it a chance...it's so neat to remember how I felt when Jenna was in my belly...we didn't know if she was a she or he, what she would look like, what kind of personality she had....She always had hiccups every evening and always got kinda feisty around 8 or 9 pm - like she was playing kickball in my belly! It was such a neat feeling and such a blessing to grow another human being inside of me.

Jenna is 9 months old! I'm a couple days late posting this, but better late than never!

Lots happened between 8 and 9 months.

Still no crawling...but she has mastered sliding backwards to get where she needs to go. I am trying hard not to fixate on the fact that she's not crawling...everything I read says "crawling isn't an essential milestone," but I still wish she was doing it.

I almost wonder if this "sliding" is preferable to her because we don't have any carpet in our house. Our whole house is covered in wood laminate flooring with tile in the bathrooms. I have a big area rug in the living room, but that's it. Crawling on the laminate is hard on the knees, but sliding around on the belly is much more comfortable...so I don't really blame her for not crawling.

She has become insistent on feeding herself. She uses her little pointer and thumb to pick up the tiniest of objects - she started doing this at 7 months, but now she's really mastered it. She can find the tiniest rock, piece of lint, glitter, whatever! She loves pretty much all food. This month she started drinking through a straw as well. I had to go out and buy all new sippy cups because she doesn't like the spout kind, she likes the straws.

She mimics facial expressions and noises. If you smack your lips together, so will she. If you laugh she will do this fake laugh thing which is funny.

I'm convinced she's already talking too. When Jeremy calls my phone, his picture shows up and Jenna says, "Dada dada dada..." Every morning when we go outside to feed the dog, she says, "Dah." She says "mamama" when she's upset. She's said "ball" and "no" a few times, but not consistently yet. She knows the sign for milk and claps her hands together for more. I need to start to try and teach her things like "juice" and "diaper change."

She doesn't seem to have grown much this month. We'll know for sure after her 9 month appointment next week.

I almost forgot - she also got her FIRST tooth! A little snaggle tooth on the bottom :-) I bet there will be more to come soon.

Weight: roughly 18 lbs still
Height: not sure, but she's kind of on the short side like her mama
Clothing size: Size 9 - 12 months, 12 months for PJs
Diaper size: in size 3's
Milestones: Uses her pointer and thumb to pick up small objects, mimics expressions and sounds, slides backwards to get where she wants to go, drinking through a straw, saying Mama, Dada, Dog (Dah), first tooth (on the bottom)!

Now for the photos! I'm going show you how the conversation went during this interaction:

I'm so excited that I recently re-organized two small areas in my house. Nothing extreme, by any means (I haven't had the courage to start on my hoarder's den-of-an-office yet), but definitely a great start to my Spring Cleaning Fever!

I LOVE my house. We have a flat-roof, stucco, southwest style house, built in the 50s or 60s. The only bad part about the house is that back in those days, most houses had really small bathrooms and closets. So my masterbath is not big enough for a full-size vanity. As a result of this, I put makeup on and do my hair in our room and use a dresser as the place to store all my goodies.

This is what my dresser usually looks like...

Disturbing, right? This scene has electrical/trip hazard written all over it. Poor my husband - every time he tried to get into his sock drawer he'd end up tangled in my blow dryer or extension cords...so, it was time to get organized.

I found these cute matching baskets at Dollar General for $4-$6 each. Not bad, huh?

Next, I tackled my entryway table.

This is what the entryway table usually looks like...papers stacked everywhere. I love piles - piles of unopened mail, piles of opened but not sorted mail, piles of junk mail...etc. I desperately needed to get organized.

I ordered some nice containers from The Container Store and re-organized. The bottom shelf includes a file organizer. The files are labeled - To Be Paid, To Be Filed, To Take Action On, Marcie's Work, Jeremy's Work/School.

I ordered three magazine holders - one for catalogs I want to save, one for Jeremy's 4Wheeler Magazines, and one for my Martha Stewart and Parenting Magazines.

On top I have two boxes - incoming mail (that hasn't been opened or sorted) and outgoing mail that needs to be taken to the post office. My husband thinks the mailboxes are redundant and we won't end up using them...but we'll see. I think it's going to work nicely! I especially like not having piles of unopened mail for all to see as they walk in!

According to HGTV, the color of the year is honeysuckle (a bright shade of pink). I'm pretty sure my husband would kill me if I re-decorated our home in bright pink...

I have to admit, I do like bright pink much more than pastel pink, but I just don't think I could decorate anything other than a girls bedroom in it. It's just too girly for me!

There was a house we were looking at buying a couple of years ago and it was chock full of pink - pink carpet, pink bedroom walls, pink countertops and walls in the kitchen, pink countertops in the bathrooms, pink paint on the outside...it was just too much...

I'm much more into bright apple green, yellow, and gray this season.

*From Kreyv Blog

Jen's Family Room @ IHeart Organizing

*From ijoos.com

What do you think of honeysuckle? What colors are you into this spring?

I recently tried a "trial" subscription for Make 5 Dinners in One Hour. I LOVE this menu-planning program...but that's for another post. Right now I just want to feature a recipe from my trial subscription that I absolutely love. I think these shredded beef tacos are better than any ground beef tacos I've ever had!

Slow Cooked Shredded Beef Tacos

Ingredients

• 2 lb beef roast (or larger depending on your family size)
  
• 1 Tbsp Chili Powder
• 1 Tbsp Dried oregano
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 4 oz can diced green chilis (or use fresh/frozen, or use Rotel diced tomatoes w/ green chilis)
  
• 10 oz can diced tomatos
• Package of flour tortillas
  

(Toppings - sour cream, shredded cheese, guacamole. Serve with chips and salsa or rice and beans.)

To Make Ahead:

Place first 6 ingredients in a large zipper bag and refrigerate until you are ready to make.

Directions:

1. Pour bag contents in slow cooker and cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.
   
2. Shred meat with two forks
3. Serve on flour tortillas with cheese, sour cream, & guacamole along with chips and salsa or rice and beans.
4. You can make your own guacamole, but I've found the refrigerated varieties at the grocery store to be very good and much faster if you are in a hurry!