Coming up for air

Lazy Baby in her new backyard.

Remember last year when I said my life was getting hectic, well, it stayed hectic for a while.

The view from my new job (this was around christmas time).

First, I quit my job of almost 11 years to take a new position. I was the Assistant Creative Director at a weekly alternative newspaper, and I loved the work. I got to design different styles every week and knew the ins-and-outs the paper and its deadlines. Then, the paper was sold to a bigger corporation and things just didn’t feel right anymore. The benefits weren’t great, the dynamics were shifting and I took this time to face the reality that I was as far up the ladder as I could go (the Creative Director was not going to be leaving anytime soon). Not to mention that working for a newspaper, I was woefully underpaid. So, I started to look for new opportunities. I had a couple of interviews at some tech firms in the city, but I suspect I was overqualified and under qualified at the same time. Then I interviewed at an architecture firm and got the job. This is a different world, filled with new terminology and responsibilities, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I think. If nothing else, they seem to like me.

That was last August. While all of this was going on, Mr. LL and I were house hunting. We finally had the money for a decent down payment on a house, and Lazy Baby desperately needed her own room. At the end of January we closed on a house in the suburbs near a park that we frequent most often. It needs some remodeling, but everything is functional and it has plenty of space for our family. There was some minor plumbing issues, but we agreed to move on with the transaction-just putting some of the money in escrow for the repairs.

Ha ha. Don’t ever do that. Those minor issues turned into bigger issues and two months after moving in they were finally done, but not really. I am not going to go into detail because I was losing my mind over it and I am not ready to relive that trauma. Too soon.

But we are finally settling into the place. We have art on the walls, and Lazy Baby is enjoying her own space. We have an honest to goodness dining room table. I told Mr. LL that I needed the rest of 2019 to settle. Settle into my job and into this house. We’re working to rebuild our savings and plan for our first remodel project which will be the guest bathroom. We also want to redo the master suite bathroom (y’all I am loving having two bathrooms), open the living space and remodel the kitchen. I think, down the line, we’d like to create a studio space in the back yard (think tiny house). However, right now I am just focusing on getting used to the new job and meeting the expectations they have of me; and when I am home, I want to soak up every second of Lazy Baby, who is growing up so fast, and spend quality time with Mr. LL. Home is my happy place and I want it to be theirs too.

So, that’s what’s been going on in the Lazy household. I am working on coming back to the blog, but slowly. I will have another post this week, a product review, and then I will probably just post once a week for a while. I hope you, dear reader, haven’t given up on me yet!

Real Talk: The Day to Day

First, I just want to thank every one who took the reader survey last week! I’m going to keep in up through this week, so if you haven’t taken it yet, I suggest you get your votes in now! It will be going down next Monday.

I wanted to do a Real Talk post just catching up on how things have been since the arrival of Lazy Baby. It has been a HUGE adjustment, but I knew it was going to be one. I’ve been really trying to find a good balance between work/motherhood/life/blogging/sleeping and tbh blogging fell pretty low on that list when all was said and done. However, I’m starting to get a bit more settled and into some kind of routines, which is a term I am using very loosely, so I feel like I can start wading back into the blogging pool.

I’m definitely going to be upping the affiliate game on the blog because having a baby is expensive. Pre-baby, I was getting burned out on affiliate posts and thought about working them off the site; post-baby and I’m trying save every penny and hustle every dime. Besides, affiliate links don’t cost you, dear reader, anything. My content is still free and if you happen to buy something using an affiliate link then I get a few pennies. (Comment below if you would like a more in-depth post about affiliate programs and how they work).

My days went from lazy to feeling like I can’t do enough after LB (Lazy Baby). As where before, I’d do the dishes in rotation with Mr. LL and same with the laundry, I’ve more or less started to do those during the week and Mr. LL gets them (for the most part) on the weekend. Here’s a look at my typical day during the week:

• 6:30 am - LB wakes up (if she hasn’t already :/ ); I get up and heat up her bottle, then change her diaper and pass her off to Mr. LL (who has hopefully gotten up by this point–otherwise I badger him till he’s up and able to take the baby).
• 6:45 am - Get the coffee pot going while I make lunches for Mr. LL and myself.
• 7:15 am - Do the dishes from the night before.
• 7:30 am - Take a moment to enjoy some coffee/help Mr. LL find everything as he runs out the door to go to work.
• 7:45 am - Make all the bottles for the day (LB is only drinking formula these days).
• 7:50 am - My mom shows up to watch LB. Talk to her for a bit and help her get LB set-up in the highchair for breakfast.
• 8 am - Get ready for work. 
• 8:30 am - Out the door and off to work.
• 9 am - 5:30pm - Work. Sometimes I have to stay later or I get leave a little early, it just depends on the day and the workload.
• 6 pm - Get home and immediately go change clothes. Then I’ll take LB from Mr. LL (who got home around 4:30/5pm) and play with her until it’s her dinner time.
• 6:30 pm - Either Mr. LL or I will feed her whatever purée she’s currently enjoying, then trade off and the other will feed her a bottle.
• 7 pm - Say “night night” to daddy, and I take LB into our bedroom–which we are still sharing with LB–and change her into her pajamas. Then we sit on the bed and read a book together and we cuddle till she starts to fall/falls asleep. I put her in her crib and pray that she stays asleep for the night.
• 7:30 pm - During the time I’ve spent playing with LB and putting her to bed, usually Mr. LL has made dinner, so we eat now. We’ll have the monitor on and spend the next few hours hanging out, talking, watching a show or two and unwinding.
• 10:30-11:30 pm - Momma goes to bed. Mr. LL will sometimes stay up playing a video game, but I’m usually out. Oh and before bed, Mr. LL will wash any dirty bottles still hanging around and make a bottle so it is ready in the fridge for me to grab in the morning. 
• During the night - Some nights LB sleeps through, but lately she’s started getting up again, two or three times. Sometimes I can just pat her on the back and she falls asleep, other times, I have to put her in the bed and she EVENTUALLY falls back asleep for awhile. The latter is usually when she gets up somewhere between 4:30-5 in the morning and I am NOT about to get up and start the day then. So I let her snuggle up with us for another hour or so.

So yeah, as you can see I’m not left with a ton of free time to blog. The weekends are spent cleaning the house, grocery shopping, recharging and, more recently, taking LB on outings. This past weekend we took her to a nearby park/bird sanctuary. She really lit up seeing all those birds. It was going to rain soon, we only had about an hour and she stayed in the stroller the whole time. Hopefully we can plan better and maybe have a picnic or something out there on a sunny day.

That’s about it for me right now. I’m going to be trying to post more regularly, but it may be a minute before I find my groove again, so please be patient. Also, I’ll be doing some design tweaks here and there, but nothing too intrusive.

TTYL!

Goal Getter – Blogging + Freelance

Last week's goal never happened. Sigh. But I need to switch focus this week. Normally I'd just continue with the goal till I achieve it, but I have some pressing blogging and freelance maintenance that I need to take care of. A little bit here, but most of it over at LV Book Design. So this week, in addition to my normal tasks, I'll be focusing on getting my February blog posts (LV Book Design) and some new pre-made covers to put up for sale in the shop.

My daily tasks are:

• Make the bed EVERY DAY. 
• Put away the clean dishes in the morning.
• Spend 10 minutes a day on dishes.
• Do something laundry related every day.
• 10 minute pick up before bed OR Getting Ready for Baby.

For my weekly task:

• Clean the bathroom (which consists of: putting away products, wiping down surfaces, checking shower for empty bottles–Mr. LL is notorious for doing leaving empty bottles in the shower)