What I'm Into (April 2013 edition)

Clearly blogging and writing is NOT one of the things I've been into lately based on the lack of postings here!  This past season (few months) has been full.  Really full.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but in that "by the end of the day I'm so tired and don't have the creative energy to write two words" kind of full.  I've learned that there are different kinds of tiredness.  There's that "newborn, up every 90 minutes all night long exhaustion that brings out tears, depression and loneliness" kind of tired and then there is the tired that results from fun, outings, social time with others, and involvement in various activities.  This past season has been the latter for me, and it's felt lovely and rich.  So what have we been up to this past month?  (as always I'm linking up with the awesome Leigh Kramer and her monthly round up of "what I've been into" posts from around the country) :)

MOPS.  I have loved the chance to coordinate MOPS this past year, and I will do so again next year to complete my 2 year turn at this job, and this past season has felt extra full in this area.  We're planning our biggest fundraiser/event of the year coming up on June 1, and there are a lot of moving parts in this one!  So we've had a few extra evening meetings, lots more emails, and administrating that has gone in to this one.  I've also been busily working on finalizing our summer social calendar, giving moms a chance to still connect with one another about once a week.  (My favorite...a mom's only pajama party and movie night complete with various popcorn flavor tastings...that sounds heavenly and relaxing to me right about now!)  A mom's night out to a mexican restaurant a few weeks ago brought 18 of us together without our kiddos, and a trip to Underwood Farms with our littles this past week was a great and fun way to get outside and connect with one another.

Friends.  We've now lived in Northridge for a year and a half, and seeing as how we had a baby 6 weeks after moving here we didn't have a ton of time to invest in developing quality friendships before Aidan came along.  So now that he's 15 months and yelling to get out of the apartment if he's awake, we've found ourselves connecting with others more and more, which has been lovely.  Through MOPS I've met many other stay at home moms who are great at texting if they're going to go do something that day to see if anyone else wants to join them.  We ended up spontaneously meeting up with two other moms at the mall food court yesterday where they had a "meet and pet the rabbits" event going on.  Yes, random, but it was good to get out!

Money.  I know, this sounds random, but we're working on cutting our monthly expenses and trying to cut our budget back a bit.  We just cancelled cable and have spent a week now without TV.  I miss the Today show, I'll admit, and I haven't seen any news in a week, but it's been kind of lovely.  We did sign up for Netflix again and can get unlimited streaming of movies and many many TV shows for $8 a month.  Between that and Hulu we're pretty set--who needs cable??

House Hunting.  We are just getting started with this daunting task, but we have a great realtor working with us and have seen several properties so far.  Nothing we've made an offer on yet, but we've seen some good options.  We're trusting God has a place for us somewhere, and we're hoping he makes that abundantly clear!  It happened that way when we found our place in Seattle two years ago, and we're praying for that again!  I will say, house hunting with a one year old is a bit of a nightmare.  Especially homes where people still live--trying to keep him from destroying everyone else's stuff while getting a feel for the property--NOT fun!  (Or from falling down the stairs.  Or from playing in the toilets--ours have locks on them, so he discovered quickly he can get into the toilets at these empty houses!  Or climbing right into a fireplace while my back was turned....yeah he's finding all kinds of ways to explore these potential homes!)  My sister is also house hunting right now...we won't even talk about what she can get for her money in the middle of nowhere Iowa as opposed to what we can get for that same amount here in the San Fernando Valley.....it's just depressing to think about....

Entertainment.  We haven't had much time this past month for books, music or movies.  Does anyone else go through slumps when it comes to reading?  I go through seasons where I read all the time and then I hit a several month lull where it doesn't even appeal to me. I'm just coming out of one of those lulls.  I did read The Great Gatsby this past month for our book club, and I didn't love it, just like when I was in high school.  I'm starting to get motivated to pick up books again though, and I have a few already started that are wonderful.

I'm reading Lauren Winner's book Still: Notes on a Mid Faith Crisis and am loving it so much more than I expected.  Written in the wake of her divorce and her mother's death this book of really short essays (she wasn't kidding when she titled it "notes" on a mid faith crisis) is beautiful.

I picked up a Newberry award winning book I've never read before: Moon Over Manifest and am really enjoying this late elementary school book surrounding a summer of mystery, history, and a young girl finding a new family/community for herself.

I put a few books on hold at the library and wasn't expecting them to all show up at once.  The latest one I picked up is Ellen Degeneres' book Seriously, I'm Kidding and while I"m only up to chapter 2 I love it.  Reading this is just like listening to the monologues of her show--which is my favorite part of each Ellen show!

I thought they had played the Nashville season finale already since it disappeared for many weeks, but a new episode aired this week!  That makes me so ridiculously happy I just can't stand it!  It still is my favorite show out there!  Now that we have netflix Charles and I decided to choose a show to watch together, we haven't had a series we've both enjoyed for a couple years now.  We are starting with season 1 of the West Wing and hope to watch all the way through.  I've seen the first 3 1/2 seasons, and he hasn't seen much of it at all.  We are loving it--such amazing writing!

Pinterest Attempt.  I've loved getting fun new ideas to try with my very busy and very curious toddler off Pinterest.  They have not always gone as planned however.  This was my latest attempt.  Has anyone else seen "cloud dough?"  Made from cornstarch and shaving cream this stuff is AWESOME!  SO SO soft and fun to mold and scoop and feel.  Look at these nice children playing so neatly with their cloud dough from pinterest.  See, their clothes are still clean.  They haven't tried eating it based on the lack of white stuff on their faces.  It looked like such a great idea!

Here's how our cloud dough adventure went down:

First we took a big cup of it and tried to eat it--hence the white stuff all over his face.  

 Then we dumped a bunch all over our belly like we do with cups of water in the bath tub.  Not exactly the same results as the water in the bath tub....thankfully I did have him contained in a bit rubber maid bin so I just stuck the lid on and saved it for another day....no clean up of the floor was necessary.

I think that's about it around here!  How about you?  What have you been into this past month?