{Note: One thing I didn’t learn this month is the reason why some of my pictures are appearing upside down on some of your computers. Last month, they were upside down for my mom and right side up for me. So, I switched them. Then, my cousin called and they were now upside down on his computer/phone. It’s a mystery, I’m still working on it. So, apologies if photos are upside down for you!}

17 months = meltdowns, tantrums, running and dolls

Joslyn had her first ten minute meltdown in the grocery store this month. So, now I have an age to correlate with this dreaded behavior. It’s a new stage of parenting for us!

On the sunny side of motherhood, she’s also talking a little more and she can almost run. Right now she just pumps with one arm and it’s very uncoordinated and adorable. She’s also latched on to her “Be Be” and we play with her throughout the day. Perfect timing! I hope she still likes her dollie after our real “Be Be” arrives.

More bread baking…

I don’t really have any hands-on hobbies these days. Bread-making fills that void. I tried two new recipes this month, a kid-friendly soft white bread and an enriched, sweet pastry-like bread. This is the link to the Bread in Five Cookbook that I am always rambling on about. It’s really neat! Both recipes came from this book.

That being said, I did finally sew some new pillows for our living room. It was kind of a “bucket list” item between kids for me. I purchased this fabric at Hobby Lobby and used this tutorial to make the pillow cases. Now, I’m content to wait to sew again until my second book is published and my second baby is sleeping regularly at night and napping consistently during the day.

Pan-Fried Pork Chops…

I’m trying to learn to cook more meals that don’t require many ingredients or prep-time. I am used to cooking with beef, so even though this is a standard for most people…I’ve never done it. My sister gave me the Pioneer Woman’s newest cookbook, Dinnertime, for Christmas and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Podcasts…

I’m getting into these. It makes washing the dishes pass more quickly and I listen to them while I walk on my lunch breaks two days a week. Right now I like these Podcasts shown below. I guess my categories would be: creativity, Christianity and finance/business. 

Second pregnancies….

Are so much easier, until the end. Now, I’m back to being a nervous ole’ cluck scrubbing things at 8 am like its nobody’s business. I even gave our farm dog, Roxie, a bath. No one is safe from my scrubbing! Ba!

Moral of the story: we are so much more confident and calm this go around, but the crazy-town nesting hormones are still the same at the end.

Dogs make excellent playmates…

Roxie has been my saving grace the last few weeks. Joslyn plays with her and I sit or lay down for a few minutes. I just do my best to referee the chaos and relax. I’m almost to 38 weeks now. Hooray! I guess that’s how she wound up in the tub, she’s been in the house a lot lately.

Kon-Mari Method Madness…

This is another book that I really strongly recommend: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It’s taken the decor and home blogging world by storm a bit and she’s already sold a ba-jillion copies. The basic premise of the tidying method is that you only keep things that “bring joy”. You can read more about it here.

The above picture is the final product of my necklace and jewelry collection – only my true favorites! Previously, most of my favorite jewelry was tucked away safely in a jewelry box and I only wore the more “costume” type necklaces that I had. But, it turns out…I like dainty, pendant necklaces in a variety of lengths – not the bulky cowgirl necklaces I was wearing. It’s really interesting to me that a silly little cleaning book helped me learn that about myself. I suppose that’s why she calls it “life changing magic”! Sometime, I might have to do a whole blog post about going through this process. It was very interesting.

Goodbye March!

March was a very nice month! Almost all of our heifers calved, our cows have started calving, the weather warmed up and did a strange zig-zagging between winter and spring. There were some sunny days for playing outside and some days with an inch or two of snow that melted within 48-hours. Very normal for South Dakota, very strange for me. We even had snow on Easter!

By this time next month, we might be in the field planting and we will most defiantly have a new baby. Big changes!

Babies & Quilts

I am looking forward to find out of this baby is a boy or girl. I have a boy quilt and a girl quilt washed and ready to take to the hospital! Here’s Joslyn’s baby quilt.

We have top secret names picked out for both and either way I’m looking forward to sharing the story of how we arrived at our names with you here on the blog. This post on our story/process of choosing Joslyn’s name. It is still one of my favorite family-related blogs to date.