Of Birthdays, Spring Cleaning, Silly Kittens, and Making Plans

Last night my mother in law had Birthday Supper for me at her house, and she does the best Birthday suppers! She lets you choose your own menu and always makes delicious stuff. We had chicken wings, 3 home made sauces, vegetable casserole, sweet potato fries, and apple cheesecake - all from scratch! Yum! Next weekend is her Birthday supper, and we're having fondue. Birthdays are always so fun in our family!

I don't know if any of you noticed... but I put my etsy shop on a little bit of a hiatus for a few weeks. I'm taking a little break for a few reasons... I want to do some spring cleaning around the house/yard (things have really slipped with me being in a cast!), I'd like to make some crafts for myself and my family, and my "real life" schedule is really busy for the next few weeks!

My little guy is turning 1 in just 7 more days! I can't believe a year has passed already. It was one of the quickest (and slowest in some ways) years of my life so far. I've been doing a lot of thinking about life in general lately... how mine is different now that I have a child, and about his life. He is so smart, and so busy. I can't wait until he can talk to me - he is close now with his fully inflected sentences that sound like they are in some other language. I'm planning a nice robot themed party for him... I'll post more about that in the coming days.



Tomorrow I'm going to the hospital to (hopefully) get my cast off, for good. I'm trying not to get my hopes up because twice now I've been in to get it off and have had to spend more time in it. If my ankle isn't healed, the next step will be surgery. I'm hoping and praying that that doesn't happen - I would just really love if life could go back to "normal". This whole thing has been a really long, hard journey - both physically and especially mentally. I would say this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do... even harder than childbirth because at least that is over in a couple of days lol! Things like everyday hygiene, climbing the stairs with the baby in my arms, cleaning, etc just became really difficult. It's amazing how much of your abilities you take for granted until they're gone. That said, I'm proud of myself for being able to adapt to the situation.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about etsy, and my Internet projects like this blog and my other blog Paper*Cakes finds. Now that Jude is bigger, and busier, the time I have for these things has definitely lessened. I am not going to give them up entirely because they really save my personal sanity, but I need to find a new way to accomplish things while still devoting enough time to my family, and I need to take more time for my personal well being too. I want to be a better friend, wife, mother, and daughter. I also have some plans for a shop makeover and I want to start selling some small pieces of jewelery/accessories. Hopefully during this little break I can do that :) It's so hard to find a balance.

Anyways.. I feel like I just wrote a novel and if you read this blog regularily you will know that I am not one for writing long posts, so I will leave you with this silly kitten necklace - I wish I could buy the orange one!