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This Week on the Bachelor…

Here was what I was thinking on this week’s episode:

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  • Hot AIR BALLOONS! So Jealous! Could they just film Tom and I going on extravagant dates? Would people watch that? Tom is pretty entertaining. I, however…
  • The insecurities is why this show keeps on renewing-Olivia and Jubilee have got to lock it down.
  • Not sure why people are complaining about competing for Ben. Did you not know what you signed up for? This is a romance competition…
  • Did anyone else find it awkward that they were learning to speak Spanish and they were saying ‘I love you’ to each other? Even pretending, I don’t know if that was the best move.
  • The interactions when they were picking partners at the cooking event…Yikes!
  • Emily got a little scary and threatening with the knife during the cooking interviews.
  • I don’t think that this is the right environment for Jubilee. I think she is an interesting woman, but I think the dramatics of the show just make her uncomfortable. It must be in her nature to put that guard up when she is scared, and she is just trying to defend her heart. And unfortunately for her, she is being filmed while she is wading through those emotions. I hope she finds what she needs!
  • Olivia lives in her own reality. They said her dish looked like dog poo, but she was sure they won.
  • Teen mom comment…painful to watch. My mouth dropped to the floor and I had even seen it in previews. Then Ben was trying to dig around the topic when he was talking with Olivia to see what she had done with the other women. I do really think she is a product of editing to some degree. Some she has brought on herself, but as I said last week, I feel the production team is highlighting her more awkwardly than any other ‘villan.’ All that aside, whether she was trying to connect with the women on some level or not, the teen mom comment was in bad taste.
  • NOOOOOOO to the cliff hangers. ABC you can’t do this to me. I just spent two hours waiting for the roses to be handed out, and now I have to wait a week to see who Ben chooses? Ridiculous. But also genius on your part because I will be back to watch. Who am I kidding I would be back regardless
  • If you watched Bachelor Live, you saw that Ben falls in love with the two final women and made a comment of making a mistake of letting one go. Are we going to have a repeat Jason Mesnick?

I think it will be Becca and JoJo at the end. Or maybe Lauren B. Those are my top three still. I do like Caila as well.

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Not Every Day is a Good Day

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There are days that I am gripping the kitchen sink trying not to let the anger steam out of my mouth because of the piles of dishes that have stacked up yet again.

There are days that I am fuming because the dogs want to go outside every five minutes and bark incessantly to chase down the mailman, the neighbor, or the leaf that threatened to knock down our house.

There are days that I have no patience for George’s temper tantrum over the fact that I tried to help him peel a banana so he could eat more of it (which he was also crying about not being able to eat more of because the peel was in the way).

There are days that I look back and think, “Well that could have gone better.”

I am learning every day that I have no clue what I am doing as a parent. Like zero.

There are days that I feel utterly lost, and I raise my voice more often than I would care to admit to the dogs and to George.

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I feel an enormous pressure to be this perfect mom, which I understand is unrealistic, but I feel that is the time we live in. With all the comparison and articles surfacing on social media saying you should do this or that to be the best parent, it can be really degrading to look back at some of these moments where I have lost my cool.

You know what? I am sick of it. I am sick of feeling this guilt because I had one bad moment. I am sick of someone who doesn’t know me writing an article or making a comment online that I am not a good parent because I raised my voice a few times.

I am sick of ME telling myself that I am not good enough.

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I think all we can do in this world is try, and then learn from those moments, and try to do better the next time.

I am trying to make the most of the time I am with George, but every day isn’t going to be sunshine and roses. I think we can do our best to have good days, but we also have to accept that every day cannot be perfect and go as planned. Parents are not perfect. God gave us kids to remind us of that I think. So why do we expect ourselves to be perfect every day?

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God gives us trials for a reason.

Parenting can be a trial some days. They don’t just stare at you and coo sweet sounds forever. They grow up and try to put forks in sockets and hit the dogs with a baby swifter after dumping their milk all over the floor in a span of five minutes.

Parenting is beautiful yet messy, complicated yet natural, lovely yet trying, empowering yet terrifying, and oh so humbling.

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While every day isn’t going to be a good day, I don’t have to let those days define me as a mom. I don’t have to let those moments limit the type of mom I hope to be.

Because the reality is there are a lot of good days. (It’s funny how one bad day can cloud up the dozens of good days.)

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Regardless of the how we define the day, every moment I am proud to be his mom. And that right there (coupled with this sweet smile) is what makes me wake up every morning determined to have a good day.

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February Goals

This last month was crazy busy, but we accomplished a lot. I really like doing these monthly goals, so let’s see how I did with January before I share my February ones.

  • Fitness-Do 1500 squats-I got a little behind, so I had to do several hundred yesterday. Over 300 squats is no joke. I didn’t really notice a difference in my leg tone over all, but it was a great start to the year to be focused on my health.

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  • House Tasks-
    • Take down Christmas decor-Done.
    • Organize/Put away George’s clothes he has outgrown-Done. Three bins worth are now in storage and two boxes to donate. Admittedly he does have a lot of clothes, but this is also clothes/shoes dating back to the 3-6 month stage. Ridiculous.
    • Sort/Donate toys-They are sorted, and I have a couple bags that are ready to get taken somewhere for donation. However we had Christmas presents take over those spaces. Why are toddler things so big?
  • Something with George-Do finger-painting. He hated it. He put his finger in it once, grimaced, then tried to run away. It turned into a horrifying slip and slide for him. Even when we tried showing him it was pudding and he could eat it, he screamed like this was his worst nightmare.

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  • Something with Tom-Start watching Parks and Rec-We are a few episodes in, and we are loving it so far. It does remind me a lot of the Office. Unfortunately these days, I can’t get through more than one episode without falling asleep.
  • Something for me-Do a mommy and me photo shoot-It may have not gone exactly as planned, but we did get some shots. And they are still sitting in my camera. I haven’t had time to get them on my hard-drive yet. My goal is to share them soon!

I did everything on my list! Now here are my February Goals

  • Fitness-200 push ups. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but I am going to try to do a larger set every other day, which is a lot for my puny arms.
  • House Tasks-
    • Hang up photos in dining room and our bedroom
    • Clean up the yard-We have a lot of big plans for our yard this summer, but the first step is to get rid of all the sticks and leaves that have accumulated.
    • Build the dog “apartment” downstairs-Yes we are those people.
  • Something with George-build a blanket fort. I looked up toddler activities, and I have two issues. One, they are either messy, like have to take a bath messy. And after the finger painting debacle, we won’t be doing messy for awhile. Or Two, they involve a lot of stuff that we don’t have on hand or prep time that we don’t have time for. So building a fort in the living room it is.
  • Something with Tom-Go on a movie date
  • Something for me-finish some photo projects. I have several things over the last 6 months that I haven’t really had time to complete because they are just for me. So I have lots of sorting and creating I want to do with my photos.
  • I also want to blog at least twice a week. I have kind of gotten off the routine, but I have several posts that are only half written that I want to get out.

What do you want to do this month?

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What I am Thinking When I Watch The Bachelor

People. I bought a magazine yesterday purely because it was a recap of all 20 seasons of the Bachelor.

I think I have a problem. This is an obsession. I NEVER buy magazines. But I had to know where everyone ended up!

And because drama loves company, I figured I would share my obsession with you.

Here were my thoughts this week watching the Bachelor:

  • Ok really, how do these people have jobs? I mean they have to take months off work. Who has that kind of time off saved? And for people who do the spin off or come on multiple shows? I really want to know if they lose their job. I am really concerned about their financial well-being once they return home. Tom thinks ABC negotiates with their employers and they get paid either way. I do also know a lot of them become sponsors of random things via social media. Or maybe this is why an occupation of “twin” is appropriate.
  • Group dates-these are so awkward. And also how do they get dressed nicely so quickly? Is someone there doing their hair and make-up?
  • Oh dear-the talent competition would be terrifying. I honestly didn’t think Olivia’s thing was that bad. I think it got played up, and it was the only girl that they put the cameras on facial expressions in the audience.
  • I could not deal with the jealousy. No wonder they all seem a little crazy.
  • This show focuses way too much on people who decide to be virgins.
  • The facial expressions are everything-the shock, trying to hide true feeling by manipulating their face to keep secrets. So many secrets…
  • Amber seems to be the one stirring the drama pot, and she talks behind people’s back a lot. I wasn’t sad to see her go.
  • My favorite line of the night from Ben-“I do have to say goodbye, because I do believe my wife is standing here.” —except I am not sure which one you are.

My top picks (because I have total say) are Lauren B, Caila, Becca, and JoJo.

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While this show may not always end up in love, I will always love this show. I just can’t help it!

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Burning Down the House

I have always wanted a fireplace, but all the houses we looked at did not have this feature. It was not a priority, but one of those bonus items I hoped for.

Thank goodness I have a husband who entertains my ideas.

Like building a fake fireplace!

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We have this weird corner in our living room, and it also happens to be where they put the cable.

So that is where the TV must go without doing something crazy with the cable wire.

Before we were using an old bookshelf that I have had since I was in elementary school.

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While I love this bookshelf and carries sentimental value for me, it was not cutting it for the look we wanted.

Tom came in and worked his magic.

We had to figure out that it wasn’t a square corner so we were working with an oblong triangle. Tom had to figure out how wide the fireplace could be and still be square. He also kept in mind we wanted to put a fireplace like heater in the middle and be able to put the TV on top.

IE: He is really good with math. His words were “Corners are just a mathematical pile of garbage.”

The tricky part of every project is trying to figure out how much wood you need.

Tom used 20 ft of 1 X 10, 20 ft of 1 x 4 (all the back bracing), and 30 ft of various types of trim. This is all pine (our personal favorite to use).

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Here, he is making the trim into boxes on a flat piece of wood. It gives the fireplace a little more character with the picture frame affect.

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He used a finish nailer to put the trim on.

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Once the three long pieces were done with the boxes, he used the bracing in the back to put them together into one piece.

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The top is two boards sandwiched. He had to be aware of how much space we needed for the TV, but also so it was snug in the corner. We knew that this will be temporary as we have plans to knock this corner down some day. So we wanted it to look big and fancy but also easily moveable.

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We bought one of those space heaters that look like an old fireplace, and just stuck it in.

Then Tom stained the wood.

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No joke, we used a piece of black poster board behind the heater so you cannot see the cords. Don’t worry, it is not an actual fire hazard because the heating component is in the bottom front (also something we looked for when we bought this item).

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Fireplaces seem magical with stockings, so that was a must for me!

All in all, this project cost about $200, which includes the space heater. If we bought this commercial, it would be at least $500 for just a base model. Some nicer end fireplace inserts cost up in the several thousands.

It looks so perfect and like it was always there. It is probably one of my favorite projects he has ever done.

I honestly don’t know what I would do if he didn’t have these skills.