Mom's One Year Older

I really need to make more time to blog. The funny thing about time is that you never seem to have enough of it. I start my day waking up at 5 a.m. and getting dressed and sometimes wanding my hair (although that has proven deadly at that hour of day and has led to a few burn marks). Then I walk Bruiser for 15 minutes before dashing to catch the 5:53 train. I have an 8 minute walk from Tower City to my work and after a quick stop by Starbucks I'm usually walking into the office around 6:40 a.m. I leave anywhere between 3:30 and 4 most days, and by the time I get to school and pick up my favorite girl and head home, it's almost 5 p.m. It's quick dinners at my house with Sam doing most of the cooking these days and I spend the time feeding Charlotte and reading her stories or having playtime.

Since Cleveland decided to have an early winter it's really been limiting our outdoor time, so we've been having dance parties in the basement! She usually starts to get cranky around 6:30 p.m. and then it is bathtime and maybe a couple more stories before a big bottle and some songs from me. My favorite part of the day is putting her to bed. I've been singing to Charlotte our Hodie chant (one of the songs we'll perform at Saint Dominic's Christmas concert on Dec. 14). She doesn't like to be turned sideways anymore, she just snuggles chest to chest with me and puts her head on my shoulder. I sing to her for a few minutes and rock her and then kiss her goodnight and put her in her crib. She always rolls onto her side and after a few sweet words I close the door. After that it's 2 hours to get everything else done which includes grocery shopping, cleaning, watching TV, or in the case tonight, working out! During the week Charlotte is usually in bed by 6:45 or 7 p.m. When I actually think about how much time I spend with her it's a bit depressing (usually 2 hours and 40 minutes a day).

I've been rethinking a lot of things lately about how I spend my time. I stumbled across this quote recently, one of my favorites from Mitch Albom's book, Tuesdays with Morrie.

“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

I need to create more. I need to get back in touch with my creative side. I also need to be more active (hence the workout tonight). I don't want to wait until the new year to make resolutions that will fall short. I am talking real change here folks!

Enough with the philosophical and onto some cute photos of the real meaning and light in my life.





It's amazing to me how quickly she is growing up. Everyone says it happens so fast, but when it happens to you and your family it makes your insides feel weird and you really start to question the big things.

Don't believe me? Here is Charlotte from my birthday celebration last year.



Charlotte, Nov. 16, 2013



And one year later...

Charlotte, Nov. 16, 2014