Life, love, & Lily.

the past three months.

I feel like so much has happened and time has flown by since moving to the Hill Country just three months ago. We are settled into our new home, I'm getting my feet on the ground at work, and we've been trying to explore the area and all of the fun places it has to offer. Let's see.... where to begin?

The house is perfect, albeit haunted I'm pretty sure. I've got cows in the backyard, armadillos, wild turkeys, and three different types of deer that pass through, and I've seen a number of beautiful storms in the past few months. It just really feels like home in a way that the valley never did. It's quiet & peaceful & slow-paced.

I swear I've had more visitors up here in the past three months than I did in my two years down in the valley. Kim, Angela, and Amber have all come to visit at least once and we've had adventures to Enchanted Rock, South Llano River, Blanco, wineries, dance halls, trade days, and concerts. I think so far my favorite state park close by is Blanco State Park. It's only 30 minutes away and the swimming was perfect. South Llano River State Park was very nice, don't get me wrong, but the water flowed a little faster than I'd like with a toddler. Blanco was slow, deep, and on a Friday afternoon, it was quiet and low-key. I think that'll be one of our go-to spots to beat the heat this summer.

Some former Park Hosts that I worked with at Mustang Island, Kay & Butch, decided to come spend the summer here. It's been lovely having them around & they've been watching their granddaughter, Sydney, all week so it has been nice for Lily to have a playmate. She doesn't start in her daycare until August so it's been good for her to have another kiddo around.

We have discovered this amazing place called Albert, TX. There's an ice house and dance hall and they have live music every Wednesday and most Fridays. It's become a regular place for many of us on Wednesdays. They have a food truck that makes some great food, the beer is cold, and there's plenty of room for kids to run around. Families come & eat & play together while enjoying the shade of a giant oak tree and some bluegrass-y tunes. It's such a cool atmosphere. I've still yet to go to Luckenbach, but that's on my list of things to do soon. Perhaps for my birthday...

Other exciting news: I PAID OFF MY CAR!!!! Which means... I'M DEBT FREE!!!!!!! Damn, does that feel good. I've got a plan to save up a three month living expenses fund (for use in emergencies), then I'll be on my way to save up for home ownership. I've yet to decide what exactly I want to do on that front, but I've got plenty of time. I either want to buy an investment home in San Antonio or somewhere, put it on a 15 year mortgage and get it paid off by renters (with me supplementing the monthly payments), then use the profit from that to get some property out here in this area and maybe build a small house? Or maybe I'll buy a fixer upper. Who knows, like I said - I have no clue what exactly I want yet but while I figure it out I'll be saving for at least a 20% down payment. It feels so good to be doing this responsibly! Suck it, PMI!

Now here is a photo dump of some of the latest adventures.

bluebonnets at the baseball field

hiking at south llano river

blue ribbon in the peach jamboree parade

 

 

river swimming

             

josh abbott band

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

 

catching up (hill country SNA: 1.18.15 & more).

Wow, I have been seriously neglecting this thing. As usual, life has been busy. I've been working hard, playing hard, and having a great time with it all.

A few weeks ago I was visiting San Antonio for a work trip. I went through Cultural Resources Monitoring training and it was actually really great. It was the Region 3 class, but a few non R3-ers hopped in on it. I met a lot of really awesome people, learned a lot about history, and had a wonderful time.

While I was in town, we of course ventured to another state park. This time we decided to hit Hill Country State Natural Area. I had been there once before back in July 2013 with my pal, Shauna. But visiting in the heat of the Texas summer combined with being pregnant wasn't the best combination and we didn't get to do a hell of a lot of hiking. January was a much more pleasant time to visit and we actually had perfect weather the day we visited. I might even go so far as to say it was almost hot outside.

Kim joined us for the drive out to Bandera where we met Tara and Lucy. The park is pretty minimal in terms of development, but that is what I like about it. It's a big equestrian park so we saw lots of horse trailers and horses along the trail.

We enjoyed the picnic area near headquarters for a bit before heading out on the trails. I can't remember which trail we did... maybe 5A? But it took us up a decent amount of elevation to get some really pretty views. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the hike.

      

It was a great day trip with some of my favorite people.

Other than the work trip, I've just been truckin' along with work and with life. I'm fitting into pants that haven't fit since college. I'm running and feeling great. I ran a 10k last weekend with some of my mama friends and was ecstatic to find that I was able to shave SIX minutes off of the last time I ran that exact 10k in 2012. SIX MINUTES. That's epic. I was averaging under 10:00min/mile, which is a big deal for me.

It was nice to do another race. So nice, in fact, that I signed up to do another one tomorrow. Two 10ks in an 8 day period. Yeaaaaah! I'll be pushing Lily in the stroller for tomorrow's race so I'm sure that'll slow me down a bit. Plus, I haven't run at all this week after the 10k. But whatever, I'm still running 6.2 miles so fuck it!

Other good/fun/productive things that have happened recently:

• lots of guitar playing with friends
• DATING (WHAT?!?!?! YES. THAT'S RIGHT)
• paid off two of my four student loans
• officially going to Massachusetts with Lily for my five year college reunion

Okay, I think that is a sufficient catch up for everyone. Hopefully it's not another 2 months before I get around to posting again. But if it is... deal with it.

a well spent weekend.

Lily & I had a very productive weekend. Sunday, she was feeling under the weather and had a low-grade fever, which I am going to attribute to her cutting four teeth, even though 'they' say teething doesn't cause fevers. She took about six naps instead of her normal two. Poor kiddo. All of her sleep gave me the chance to get some much needed stuff done around the house, though. I did a ton of laundry, put clothes away, and CLEANED. A lot. It had been three weeks since I had done a really good cleaning. I try to do it every weekend, but I was sick one weekend, then the following weekend I was out of town, so I hadn't had a chance to get it done. I more than made up for it, though.

I also cleared out & sold some stuff. I love being able to make some extra cash while simultaneously clearing my house of all the shit I am not using and definitely don't need. Win-win. I am aiming to get down to a very minimalist life. There's still quite a ways to go but I am making progress. I am stashing away everything that I make from selling shit and it's all going to go towards my debt. As is my income from writing. Still truckin' on towards that mission of being debt free. I am feeling good about. I paid off another debt this month. Three more to go!

In preparation for my trip this week, I wanted to make sure I had time after work tomorrow to pack everything up so I went ahead and prepped all my food for the two days before I head out. Apparently, this week's menu is brought to you by the letter 'C'.

I have the cauliflower going in the oven right now and I'll eat what's leftover tomorrow for dinner. Lunches for this week are chicken, carrots, homemade coleslaw (cabbage is my new obsession), and cucumber. Plus, cantaloupe to snack on. That's a lot of C's!

I have had three ripe bananas in my freezer since the weekend I was sick, just waiting for me to finally get around to making banana bread muffins. Well, it gone done and they are DELICIOUS. Loaded with sugar, of course, so I only had one and I am going to bring the rest to work to share, but I am really pleased with how they turned out and how simple it was. I need to bake more often.

Here's the easy & delicious recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1.25 cups of flour
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 8 tbsp butter (YES. ONE WHOLE, GLORIOUS STICK OF BUTTER. Paula Deen style) 
• 1/3 cup of walnuts (I was so sad because I forgot to add mine)

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar.
2. Stir in the mashed bananas and the two eggs.
3. Mix in your salt, baking soda, and flour.
4. Add your nuts (you can accidently forget this step like I did, but I don't recommend it).
5. Mixmixmix.
6. Pour your mixture into a greased muffin tin.
7. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
8. ENJOY.

This made 9 muffins for me. I bet I could have squeezed 10 out of it, but I overfilled a couple of the muffin holes. Don't stuff your holes too much, guys.

making more with less.

 

Money. It is a constant struggle and stress for almost everybody these days. Being a single parent, this is especially true. But I finally feel that I am in a good place financially, and I wanted to share my experiences thus far.

 

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, but I have been reading into him and his financial advise and budgeting methods a LOT lately. It began when I decided one thing: I want to buy a house. With my plan to move out of my previous rental, I thought - hell, let's do it. Let's buy a house. I ache in my bones to buy a house. To have a place that Lily, Dottie, and I can truly call our own.

 

So I filled out my prequalification form and browsed on Zillow and Trulia obsessively. And then I got a slap in the face. I only qualified for $70,000. Damn. Fucking damn. Way to crush my dreams, lady. Luckily, the woman that I was working with was great and gave me advice and some counseling. My credit is terrific and I "should be proud of that" (and I sure am!). But I have too much debt. 

 

Had I known I would have been poppin' a baby out in the next 18 months, I would not have bought a brand new car. That's what really fucked me over. I have toyed with the idea of selling my car and getting something cheaper, but I'm going to grit my teeth and stick it out. The car is reliable and safe, two very important things to consider when you have a young child. Sure, something less expensive would be easier for me now that I am on a tighter budget, but I'll be driving this car for the next decade, at least. So the car stays.

 

Aside from the car, I have my hospital delivery bill, my student loans, and my furniture debt. All of those are measly compared to the car, but they won't feel any less wonderful when they are gone forever. Just this month I paid off the hospital bill from when I landed in the ER for high blood pressure a week before delivering Lily. That felt great. And it is helping me to stay motivated to kick the rest of my debt's ass.

 

As a single parent, I have to get creative with my budget. This is a large reason why I have chosen to cloth diaper. It is also a huge benefit to breastfeeding. But even with those savings, I have to stretch my single, moderate income pretty damn far. But, to all you other single parents out there reading this (or even married/paired up parents that have a stay at home parent and are living off of one income) - it can be done! 

 

I account for every single dollar that I spend. I rarely eat out. I am BORING. And I love it. I love finding free things to do or shopping for great sales at the grocery store or online. Our idea of a splurge weekend is splitting the cost of camping with my pal and her family. 

 

I feed my cloth diaper addiction by selling off as I buy. I recently spent an embarrassing amount of money on fitted diapers (UMM, EGGS & BACON PRINT. AND HIPPOS SNORKELING!!!!) but I am pleased to say that for as much as I spent, I sold the financial equivalent to cover the costs. It's like it never even happened! Gotta love breaking even.

 

The point is - I am determined. I am finding ways to make it work with less. I am paying extra on my debt and speeding up the process of getting it out of my life.  And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. The purchase of my first home will be just that much sweeter, knowing how much hard work, planning, and saving went into it. No one is going to hand it to me. I am going to earn it. And I am going to do it for Lily and for myself. Because we deserve it.

 

January 2018 I will be completely debt free. And then, when I find the perfect place, that home will be mine. It's probably for the best that I couldn't buy a home right now anyways. I don't want to be here forever. I'd like to settle down a little closer to family. In a year or two, I'll start perusing the job boards again. Garner? Hill Country?  Guadalupe River? Who knows what may lay in our future, but I do know that it will be good. Because I will bust my ass to make sure it is.

dining room redo.

This past week I painted my dining room furniture. I wanted to add some color to the room in a simple way and balance it out with a plain white table, inspired by this dining room table I saw at Pier One that had a similar structure to mine but was priced at almost $500. Yikes!

 

I love the white because it looks elegant yet allows for liveliness to be brought in with little details rather than having an overwhelmingly colorful large piece of furniture (if I had decided to paint it a solid bright color, which I did consider).

 

 

I bought this set when I was moving out for Fort Davis from a friend for $75. Came with the table + leaf and six chairs. She had painted it when she had it. It looked like the base and the chairs had been a dark green with wood finish on the surfaces. She covered the green with black & I had been happy with that for the past year. But now that I'm in my new house and Lily is here, I am really focusing on having a comfortable, stylish (our style, at least.. some may look at my choices of decor and think 'what the fuck?') and most importantly, clean and organized home. I'm taking baby steps to getting our home where I want it to be & now I feel like the dining room has achieved a good level.

 

 

I know these aren't the best pictures, a new camera is in the works. But you'll get the idea. I took the leaf out of the table because, c'mon, it's really just me here most of the time & I don't need a big table. I like the way the smaller, round table looks. It gives the dining room a breakfast nook kind of feel. I'm only using the red chairs because once it was all in the room, I ended up not being completely thrilled with the way the yellow and red chairs looked together against the white. It had a crayola crayon vibe that seemed juvenile and that wasn't what I was going for. I blame the brightness of the yellow. I wanted closer to a goldenrod color but they didn't have that at Home Depot so I settled for the brighter version. The yellow chairs are taking up residence up against the wall for now. They still add a nice pop of color with the red chairs in the same vicinity, but without the intense contrast that they had when they were side by side. I figure I'll use them for holidays or dinner parties in combination with the table cloth seen in the before pictures. The table cloth masks the crayon feel quite a bit by breaking up the starkness of the solid white. 

 

I also painted the lazy susan that I got for free in Fort Davis. I chose a turquoise spray paint for it. I think I will use the rest of the can to paint a few little things around the kitchen, tying the little details together. I ended up really liking the way the turquoise pops. Then I added a crappy little centerpiece of an old glass coke bottle with a flower in it, which had been sitting on my fireplace mantle gathering dust. I figured the red on the bottle label and the yellow in the flower went nicely with the chairs. 

 

Costs for this project:

• furniture - $75
• lazy susan - free
• spray paint (three cans per color + one turquoise) - $40
• package of sandpaper (that I barely even used. hmph) - $6

Total price for a new dining room: $121

 

Not too fucking shabby for such an inexpensive undertaking. I feel like my dining room has a totally different mood now. It's fun and colorful, yet still simple. Also, removing the leaf really opened up the space. It's not perfect yet, I'd like to get a buffet-type piece eventually (I've been eyeing this one from Target) but I'm pleased with its current state. A few more simple decorative pieces in the room & I think it will be just what I'm looking for. I want to make some DIY placemats, too. A trip to the fabric store is in order pronto!

 

Up next: the living room. I bought new furniture a few weeks ago & the room is ready to be rejuvenated around the set!

dabbling in diapers - the basics.

So as most of you know, I decided shortly after getting pregnant that I would be cloth diapering Lily. I bought quite a hodge dodge of diapers before her arrival so that I would have plenty to try out. I ended up amassing quite a nice stash. I was lucky to be gifted a lot of the diapers at my baby shower, that definitely cut down the costs of my collection significantly. 

 

Now, entering the world of cloth diapering is pretty overwhelming at first. Between the different styles of diapers and competing brands, it's hard to pick out what is the 'best' product. After joining a cloth diapering moms group and hearing their preferences before Lily was born, and now having tried my hand at this for the past two weeks, I have learned one thing: what is best for you and your baby is not what is best for everyone. Expensive diapers do not equal high quality diapers. Cheap diapers do not mean they won't work. I have met women who are perfectly happy using $5 diapers from China or flour sack towels that they got for a dollar each at Wal-Mart and that works for them. Other women prefer spending more money on AIO diapers and that works for them (AIO = all in one.. we will go over the lingo in a second). Each baby and each mom is different and the key is to find what works for you. Unfortunately, you may end up spending money on diapers only to find that they aren't a good fit (metaphorically and literally) for you and your child. The nice thing about doing cloth, though, is that if you find yourself in this situation you can sell the unwanted diapers! Resale amount is usually quite good for cloth diapers, assuming you take fairly good care of them. So if your baby is born and you find yourself with a whole mess of diapers that just aren't working for you - sell 'em and buy the diapers that DO work. Easy as pie. Doodoo pie.

 

So when I went about starting my stash, I did a lot of research. Like.. a LOT of research. And I decided that I wanted to try pocket diapers for when she was a little bit bigger and I would stick with mostly prefolds during the newborn stage. Here is a little breakdown of the types of diapers I am fiddling with.

PREFOLDS:

Cloth-eez prefold diaper - size small

A newborn sized prefold on Lily fastened with a Snappi

These diapers are quilty and absorbent (mine are made of cotton and were purchased from Green Mountain Diapers) and are folded onto the baby using pins or a Snappi. They require some sort of cover over them, whether it is a waterproof PUL cover or a wool cover. Whatever tickles your fancy. These are the most inexpensive option for diapering.

FITTEDS:

Cloth-eez Workhorse fitted diaper - newborn size

 

Fitteds are like prefolds but are shaped like a diaper and have leg elastics for containing messes. They take the trickiness of folding a diaper onto a wiggling baby away. These diapers also require a cover of some sort.

 

 

Examples of covers - Disana wool cover (left) and Thirsties Duo Wrap size one (right)

  
 AIOs:

Swaddlebees Newborn Simplex AIO

Inside the Swaddlebees

AIOs (all in ones for those of you that weren't paying attention earlier) are the most like a disposable diaper. One step and you are done. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. These diapers have the waterproof cover and absorbent inner all built in together. The insert that you see in the second picture is sewn into the diaper and can be placed either on top or inside the gap between the lining and the waterproof layer.

 

Many people love this style for the simplicity of them, but there are some downsides - a big one is cost. These will be the priciest diapers, generally. The newborn Simplex shown here runs about $18.95 per diaper. When you are going through 10+ diapers a day, that can easily add up. These also take longer to dry than the other diapers.

 

And lastly, we have...

POCKETS:

Fuzzibunz One Size pocket diaper

Inside the Fuzzibunz (separate bamboo insert)

 

These diapers also have the waterproof cover built in. The 'pocket' refers to an opening in the diapers where you stuff absorbent inserts. Inserts come in a variety of textiles (I mostly have been using bamboo and cotton). Pocket diapers will have either snaps or velcro to fasten them onto the baby. These are essentially identical to AIOs except that the insert is not sewn onto the diaper.

 

 

So there are the basics of what I am using for diapering Lily. In the coming weeks I'll be posting reviews of diapers that I try out. My goal is to get the first one written this weekend. It'll be reviewing the Swaddlebees newborn Simplex AIO that I pictured in this post. I also have quite a few more diapers heading my way in the mail that I will be trying out. Buying diapers is becoming an addiction... and I love it!

 

 

 

Note: I would just like to add that it took me two days to finish this damn post and it was partially written with a baby on my boob. Multi-tasker extraordinaire.