Throwback Thursday

Thursday already? The week is flying, and I'm having my sixth day with this pesky cold lingering. I had an afternoon of feeling absolutely healthy on Tuesday, so I cleaned my home to perfection, and then woke Wednesday feeling sick again. Serves me right. I get "in trouble" every time I'm sick for not really taking care of myself. It's too hard to just sit still! 

ANYWAY, because this week is basically over, and thoroughly uneventful, not to mention- not very stylish- I'm just going to take advantage of Throwback Thursday with this gem-of-a-memorable-trip:

We used to travel a LOT. Sophie went to about 13 states before she turned two, and this trip was a favorite. Brian had business trips to NYC two years in a row (I wish that was an annual thing still!) and Sophie and I joined him. 

It was perfection. We stayed for two nights down by Wall Street where he had meetings. Sophie and I had a breakfast bagel date (NYC has way better bagels than us), and walked around the business district one of the days, and adventured to Soho in the rain the other day. Brian and I got to spend the next couple days together up near central park... exploring and shopping.

I'm a pretty independent traveler. I love cities, and I love pretending it's my life to live in wherever it is that I'm visiting. I like searching for spots locals love.  I have this weird aversion to ultra-hyped places, and I think it's because I want to find the next best thing myself... like, I didn't go to Bi-Rite (in SF) for ice cream for years because I thought "eh, how good can it really be? Everyone just goes there because it's hyped"... and I was totally dead wrong because it actually IS that good. I can admit this is a weird thing about me, but hey- today can be true confessions Thursday too.

NYC and Boston have been my favorite cities ever to visit, but Chicago didn't get a fair shake because I was last there in 1st grade. 

I don't like the act of getting to a destination with toddlers, but I love having a toddler AT said destination. From all of our travel when Sophie was a toddler, I had enough bad flights to decide I would do my best to stay off planes until Maggie is 3 years old. One day I'll tell you about epic flights alone with a baby. 

I have about a million pictures from that week three years ago, but no one wants to look through a million pictures, so here are a handful for ya! Back tomorrow! xo

 Ps. Mini Sophie looks a whole lot like Maggie, in my opinion. ;) 

Favorite Fall Accessories

Tights ||  Necklace || Baggu

Headband  || Tights || Barrette

Scarf || Gloves || Bracelets

I like to show my new favorite accessories a lot. There are so many good ones out there, and they generally don't break the bank like new wardrobes, so I'm a big fan. I'm particularly loving the yellow barrette these days. Zuzii makes such cute things.

In other news, last night I stopped taking NyQuill because I was feeling much better, but I couldn't sleep! I had convinced myself that in three days I must have become addicted (I hardly EVER take medicine because of paranoia!) and now I'll never sleep well again, when Brian said jokingly to me "hey Kate, did you give us caffeinated coffee?" 

Every night when the kids fall asleep, we make some decaf. It's our substitution for dessert. We always always make decaf, until last night. When he asked, I knew in that instant that, yes, I had subconsciously made caffeinated coffee. Dun dun duuuunnn.

A lot of tossing and turning, and many minutes later, we fell into a deep sleep. I didn't look at a clock after midnight because it would have totally stressed me out. ;)

Thankfully, Maggie decided to let us sleep until 7:30, and we woke feeling refreshed-ish and, obviously, I'll be teased for awhile. 

Ohhh Tuesday. 

Embrace Imperfection

When I think of childhood, I think of a clean home, a table set and dinner made every night at 5:30pm, a backyard that was incredible for playing for hours, homemade cookies in my lunch bag, and bedtime stories with my mom, who also managed to be beautiful every day. My image of my mom is as super-woman. 

When I say to my mom that she always had the house clean, she remembers differently. When I mention her I wish I could make every-night-healthy dinners like she did, she reminds me of the ones that were hardly healthy. When I tell her our home was the best, she recalls that our home was under construction for a number of years.  

We are too hard on ourselves. I think most mothers are. I have this saying for my husband that "it's either I look good or the house looks good," but I so desperately want to have both be true when he comes home from work... my own expectations, not his for me. 

As a stay-at-home mom, I feel the need to have my children fed, clean, educated at some point each day, getting outside, playing with me and independently, happy always, learning to be perfect little citizens of the world. I expect my closets to be clean and my home to be tidied. I expect to look nice and presentable at all hours of my days.

Expectations are just as high for those friends of mine who are working moms. They want to have their work shine in the workplace, and then get home and have home-cooked meals and clean homes, while managing to also get quality time with their babies. It's the same, though different.

I got sick this weekend. I couldn't fulfill any of the things I'm accustomed to accomplishing on a weekend. I couldn't catch up on my laundry, or cook, or get to the store for essentials, and I definitely couldn't manage to look anything but exhausted. I had felt like I was in a groove of capability through the week, and it came to a standstill. I was stuck in the bed, sleeping while my husband took care of everything. It felt awful and wonderful all at once. 

I read a book. I didn't "do" anything else. I thought a lot and rested a lot. I wanted to write about a million posts about who-knows-what while I was thinking, but I didn't write either. I just rested.  

Sometimes I think we are given seemingly imperfect circumstances- like sickness on a weekend- to let us recognize that we cannot do everything and we can be okay with that. Mothers work our hardest but we need to be okay with being still. With resting. With introspection and quiet prayer. It can be more important even than having perfect homes and perfect work and perfect children.

I'm starting this week far from perfect. Physically and at home. I actually start every week far from perfect, but it generally isn't quite so glaring. ;) Today I'm going to take it easy and read a lot of books to my children. My meals will not be fancy, my home is epic messy, and I'll probably take a nap. I will continue striving to do my best as a mother, and I will continue to be imperfect.

I'm okay with it. I welcome it.

xo,

Kate

Loving and Linking

Photo via Moxie Pear

Found these pencils on Pinterest, via Lauren Conrad, via MoxiePear {gotta love the internet}. Aren't they BEAUTIFUL? Such a good little gift for a friend with a new job, or a coworker, or a teacher... 

This cracked me up. Jimmy Kimmel is so funny. 

Interviews are some of my favorite things to read, especially the long ones.  {my friend shares the most interesting things on her fb page!}

Loving these for day-to-day in the city. Or these. They're the kind of comfortable shoe that also makes an outfit look put-together, you know? I also love that flats are looking REALLY good these days with their prints, t-straps and ankle straps making things interesting. 

Here's a perfect recipe for Saturday morning. With a giant cup of freshly brewed coffee. 

 This seems idyllic. Sharing a meal under white lights in the fall outside in the city? Count me in. It's officially on my fall bucket list.

I'm feeling like I need a fall makeover. You know? Just a mild haircut/color and some new makeup. I'm liking this hair color and this is the best product for brightening my eyes. I had some, and then one day, I thought Sophie was napping, but she was actually emptying it on her rug, ahhh! I'm edging in on 31, so it's totally time for a refresher (I have this conversation with Brian every fall, ha).

 Fun to see my little  food art for  Honest on a blog I love. (Ps! Get a free trial from the Honest Company  here... or just order the bundles because they're amazing.)

 This book looks beautiful. Chronicle books are always a step above average, and Sophie and I have started to have some set learning time every day, so this seems like it would be a great resource.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend! I'm so looking forward to ours!!

xoxo, 

Kate

Make Your Mark

I fell asleep on the couch at my parent's house at 7:30 tonight. Everyone should invite me for over for dinner, right? Ha. 

I'm sleepy! Maggie has been waking at 6:30 this week (new 2-year molar maybe?) and we are sooo spoiled with the 7am wakeup that this crazy still-dark wakeup call is taking it out of us. I know a lot of friends whose children wake at 5 and they're probably wanting to have some choice words with me right about now, so I'll move on.

We used the car today and drove to the beautiful north bay for a Mark and Graham Trunk show at Pottery Barn. Have you heard of it? It's a new brand with a modern monogram on their products. So much prettiness. I don't own much that is monogrammed, but there is something extra special about a piece that has been specifically monogrammed just for you, you know? It's particularly perfect for buying wedding gifts or Christmas gifts.  Everything feels like fine quality and it was good to see in person. They'll be doing more trunk shows this fall, so be sure to look for one in your city. :) 

After we shopped, we crossed the pretty bridge with all its views (we HAVE to walk the Golden Gate Bridge soon. It's one of those things locals always forget to do with their kids and I am determined to go this fall!), and went to see my family. We brought a nice batch of apples (obviously) to cut all together at my parents' and made a crumble for dessert. It was unreal. I'll totally be rounding up these recipes I've been getting up for apples, and get some recipes to you. One thing I'm learning? Apple recipes hardly need any ingredients to be good.  

There you have it. A day in the life. It was a good Thursday. Thursdays are so close to Friday that sometimes they feel almost as good. 

Apples, Apples, and More Apples

We currently have about 10,000 apples on a tree in our backyard. Seriously. The tree is massive- about three stories tall and full of apples. We went back there yesterday and the yard was covered in sad, bruised apples. Brian and Sophie, the apple pickers of the family, went with nets and baskets and picked an enormous collection before they all fall and are wasted. 

NOW- as you might have realized- we don't go through apples as fast as we need with this kind of supply. We are handing them to friends and family when we see them, but we need more uses for our apples!

We have a GREAT recipe for apple pie, but do any of you have any amazing applesauce, apple cider, apple-anything-else recipes that are perfect for fall and will last longer than a week?