The Real Mom's Resume

I am going back to work. Yikes. This means I have had to update my resume, which hasn't been done in about 5 years, double yikes.  After begging friends and relatives to send me theirs so I could get some idea of what a professional person was supposed to say about themselves, I came up with one that isn't half bad.  But as I was googling "resume adjectives" so that I wasn't just using words like "smart and nice" I started to think about what my resume would look like if I was being my brutally honest, semi-snarky self.  Just for fun I thought I'd share.

Mommy Kate Blinn

Objective: Stay-at-home mom desperately seeking an opportunity to have adult conversations and renew my self-worth while adding as little additional stress to my life as possible.

Skills
Multitasking: reading a children's book while cooking dinner and checking Facebook.
Positivity: keeping a child happy and distracted when they have just projectile vomited all over the couch and their father.
Good under pressure: not losing my shit when i've been asked the same question for the 47th time in 12 minutes (don't ask what happens at number 48)
Articulate: able to explain the difference between bras and boobies to a 2 1/2 year old boy with a straight face.
Other skills include; seeming empathetic or interested in ridiculous situations, calming irrational tiny humans under extreme duress, cooking meals that never get finished, and cuddling.

Experience
I used to have real jobs with real responsibilities and I was really good at them.  Yet I can't remember exactly what those duties were because I created another life and he took all my brain cells.


So if anyone has a job that could use someone like me i'd really appreciate the opportunity! Also, be prepared for me to talk about my kid a bunch, i'm going to miss the heck out of him.

Starting the "Lasts"

We are roughly 3 months out from our desert departure (yikes!), and the great goodbye tour has started.  First we are starting with some of our favorite places, and then unfortunately, as is the way of the Marine Corps we will have to say our farewells to friends.  But today we started with the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and Mt. San Jacinto.  Its a place we have loved to come to escape the heat of the desert and have visited at least 6 or 7 times with various family members and by ourselves.  It's gorgeous, reminds us of Colorado and never fails to renew our love of the outdoors and bring us closer as a family.  Today we did about 4.2 miles with about a 500 ft elevation gain, followed by beers and an ice cream.  It was cloudy up top, and even sprinkled some rain on us for a few minutes (!) and the visibility into the basin was terrible from heat/smog/smoke.  But it was a beautiful day and it will always be a place we hold dear and think of fondly.  Bye tram!

 Heading up

 Top look out

 Round Valley meadow

 Heading down

 Mountain side looking up

Desert below

mommy-ing aint easy

Have you ever had one of those days, as a mom or at work, at school or home, where you just wanted to run screaming from the building and go hide somewhere by yourself for a while? Where your kid, or your boss, teacher or parent won't leave you alone, and you feel like you can't do anything right?  At home I would hide in my room or go for a drive, in college I would skip a class, at work I would take a walk or a personal day.  But as a mom?  You don't have those options.

I've always know I wanted to be a mom and as I got older I hoped I would get the chance to be a stay at home mom for a while.  I wanted to be there for all the little things, I wanted to drive kids to school and sports and be there at the end of the day to do pick up and snack and homework. My mom had a job that allowed her to be home with me during the week when I was little and I couldn't imagine doing anything else with my own children.  But man, some days I honestly think I am not cut out for this. Which probably isn't what i'm supposed to say, but its the truth.

Don't get me wrong, I of course adore my child, and I wouldn't trade these last two and a half years with him.  I have gotten to witness all of his major milestones, I know everything he likes and doesn't like, I know his capabilities, things he needs to work on, his routines, and every single detail of every single day.  And some days, even just writing that sentence is exhausting.  I would be sad if I didn't know any one of those things, but with those things also comes the tantrums, and the testing of limits, the tears and the 743 requests for tv shows or snacks.  There are the days when we don't get to shower or eat a full meal because you have a small child literally attached to you all day having a meltdown every five minutes and needing more attention than you can give.

I'm saying, its ok! Moms are SO hard on themselves sometimes, an unfortunately hard on other moms too.  Stop that.  We're all doing the best we can and we need support not more judgment, I promise we are already second guessing everything we do.

So here's to you momma.  The mom who hasn't showered or put on a bra.  The mom who fed her kid packaged food all day because they refused anything else.  Heres to the mom who left the tv on all day, or who hid in the bathroom a little too long.  To the mom who called her friends and dragged the kids to the park so she could half ignore them while she had an adult conversation.  Heres to the moms that have it all together, wearing make up and clean clothes and eating organic everything.  And heres to the moms who haven't brushed their teeth.  Here's to the fun moms and the neurotic moms, the anxious moms, and the moms who feel like they're failing.  You are all beautiful, powerful, incredible women.  You're doing the best you can for your kid and I promise, they love you for it.

Minimal-ish: Getting Started

I got started on my road to minimalism for lots of different reasons, the biggest were my overall feeling of clutter, chaos, and dissatisfaction with my house.  It's been a slow process over the last year or so, and I honestly didn't know what minimalism was when I started.  I started trying to create more organized areas in my house, and doing more organized things in my life; creating a "command center" meal planning and keeping track of activities on a big wall calendar.  But none of it made a huge difference, probably because I was just moving stuff around instead of doing what I really needed to, which was getting rid of stuff!  Around the same time my friend mentioned minimalism to me, and a light bulb went off.  I started researching, and following lots of different blogs and Facebook pages, I pinterested the crap out of various organization guides, and finally I dug in.

I went room by room and started purging.  I found a 6 week calendar that gave me an accessible way to tackle the challenge of decluttering my house.  This first sweep through each room was so motivating and invigorating! Who would have thought getting rid of stuff could be so awesome!  The kitchen/panty was where I saw the biggest difference right away.  My shelves and drawers were so much cleaner. I could see everything I needed and used on a regular basis and so much of the clutter was gone.  I have done a second and third purge of almost every area in my house since that first time, and now i'm realizing how easy it is for me to see something, recognize that I haven't used it in months and let it go.

After I went through the initial purge, that friend, Camille (The Burley Tribe) told me about a documentary by The Minimalists that took my views on minimalism one step further.  It made me think about all the things we buy, and all the things we throw away, and how little we think about those actions.  It made me realize that very few of my physical possessions bring me any real or lasting happiness, and that I should take that knowledge and live my life accordingly.  Its an incredible documentary and I highly recommend it!

So now where am I? I hit a wall recently where a lot of my motivation seemed to have left me.  I was feeling slightly defeated because I still thought the house was so full, and we still seemed to be spending money on things I wasn't sure were bringing us happiness.  And so I didn't think about it for a while.  Then magically, my husband cleared out a huge bag of his clothes, and somehow that restored my inspiration.  Also for the first time, I didn't go back through his clothes and try to convince him to keep things (a huge downfall for us).  And then I went through some of my clothes, and tried things on and was honest with myself about what I actually liked, and what I was keeping "just in case" or because I thought it held monetary value.  But the thing I like so much about minimalism is finding that value of things that aren't actually things.  Finding the time and the space and the energy that I have because i'm not cleaning or organizing or fighting with the clutter of things that aren't actually making me happy.

Sometimes minimalism can seem confining almost, that I cannot be a minimalist because I don't fit into a certain mold with bare rooms and a certain small number of possessions.  One of the things The Minimalists say is that "minimalism looks different for everyone" and I'm finding that to be true. Really i'm more in search of simplicity than minimalism, or authenticity; authentic simplicity. Trying to find real happiness and joy and purpose in my life and I know that I won't find it in any of my things, but in the people and experiences I allow myself to see and have when I clear out the clutter.

Resolutions: 6 months later

I set some big goals for myself and our family at the beginning of the year (which I talked about in my first post back to the blog). I wanted to check in, with myself mostly, about where I was with the goals I had set and how I feel the year is going.  Its crazy that it's June already and in about 4 months we will be heading home! June also marks Jackson's half birthday, which is kind of a big deal when they're so little.  He seems like a totally different person than 6 months ago!  Mostly I feel pretty good about where I am with my goals for the year, but i've still got room for improvement.

Goal: Camper and spending more time outside as a family: Done and Done! Bu this one is definitely something that will be continued.  It will especially take work now that summer has arrived and its looking like 100 degree days are the indefinite future.  We took an amazing trip for mothers day and have one planned for fathers day weekend as well! There will be a blog post about our camping trips soon.  The camper has given us so much as a family, and I seriously treasure the time we get to spend in it together.

Goal: Reducing plastic use:  I did a whole post about this and what we changed.  While we have made some big changes, I see us slipping a bit for the sake of convenience, and I would like to buckle down a little more.  I'd also like to find some other ways we can be nicer to the environment.  Oh! I just ordered wool dryer balls to replace dryer sheets! I'm probably way more excited than I need to be about them, but i'm hoping they work great.  (more suggestions welcome!)

Goal: Health and Fitness: Ehhh.  I set a few goals for myself this year and i've stuck with some of them.  I completed a huge run that was on my bucket list and it felt so great.  However, I hurt my knee a little while crushing that goal and so my running has taken a huge nosedive.  Getting back into yoga was another one of my goals for the year and while I've done it more, it hasn't been enough.  My new June goal is to do yoga at least twice a week, and also run twice a week.  Starting small so I don't set myself up for failure!

Goal: Minimalism:  We're getting there! This is one of those things that takes a lot of thought and effort, and lets be honest its not always the most fun.  I think a little of my enthusiasm for minimizing our things has subsided since my initial push and house purge.  But i'm slowly working my way back to find a groove.  Once you've purged your house of the easy stuff, it gets hard to keep going.  But our impending move is helping me get back on track.  Its also a mental game you have to play with yourself...more on this in a separate post soon.

There are a few other little goals, some I can easily track the progress and some I cannot.  I am constantly working on my marriage, my parenting, my relationships with family and friends, our finances, and planning for the future.  I have off days and weeks, but i'm proud of my overall progress and the changes we've made as a family.  Its also good to see what still needs work and where my energy needs to be focused.  What goals are you working on?

Annie gets a facelift!

When we got our camper "Annie" we were thrilled with the fact that it was in good enough condition to just pick up and go! We had the thought that eventually we would redo the interior to make it our own, that time ended up coming sooner than we planned.  I may have gotten a wild hair across my ass and decided to go look at flooring, and then everything snowballed from there!  We made some pretty simple cosmetic changes, it took about 10 days worth of nap times and post-baby bed time hours of work and it looks brand new! Total we probably spent about $300 and we absolutely love it. Here are a few before and after pictures

During

After!!! 

Flooring: Allure Ultra in Vintage Oak Cinnamon 2 boxes, $30 each on clearance (plus some random planks they gave us for free!)
Cabinet paint: Glidden paint and primer, in Antique White semi-gloss 1 gal. at $25 ish?
Counter top coating: Rustoleum Counter Top Coating in Light Ash, 2 cans at $20 but we only ended up using one
Hardware paint: Rustoleum Forged Hammered spray paint in Burnished Amber, I don't remember how much they were but we used 1 1/2 I think
Cushions: Sheets from Walmart $21
Base Trim: $20

My husband did an incredible job with all his hard work and handy-ness, mostly I watched the child and told him to hurry up, but I did help paint and did the cushions.  It really feels like ours now, and when we took it out this past weekend it felt even more cozy, relaxing and homey than before.  

Meal Planning

I started meal planning for several reasons, the three biggest being money, health and food waste.  Went we went from two incomes to one there were some big changes, as expected, but food was one of the biggest. It helped that we moved to the middle of no where that didn't have any good restaurants to go to.  But we definitely weren't planning appropriately, but I had the time so I needed to start! Then I got pregnant and that added a whole other layer of complications, but over the last three years I have gotten pretty good at planning our meals and budgeting for groceries.  When I go back to work in the fall I know it will be even more important for me to stay on track with planning.  The thing is I really love cooking, and I enjoy grocery shopping, and I have taught myself to like finding the deal and putting together a plan to get the most bang for my buck and making the week worry free.

I typically start planning on Wednesday for a Friday shopping trip.  Thursday is trash day so Wednesday is the perfect opportunity to get rid of anything from the fridge that is past its prime.  Also I like to give myself plenty of time so that i'm not stressed and annoyed, plus it take twice as long to do anything with a toddler around.

I like to start with planning dinners for the week because I feel like that takes the most brain power. Shop at home first! Check your freezer and panty for what you already have and see what meals you can come up with! I decide on proteins first, so what ever you have or whatever your family likes to eat.  We have chicken at least twice a week, so I always stock up on the family packs of breasts and thighs when they are on sale.  We have pasta once a week, and I have 4 or 5 recipes for ground turkey that we rotate regularly.  I buy the 2lb pack of ground turkey so that I can get two dinners with one item eg: turkey burgers and turkey tacos.  Then we buy bags of frozen fish at Costco and will have fish once a week/every two weeks.  Mahi Mahi and Salmon are our favorites and a bag of each will last us about 3-4 months.  Then I fill in with pork/steak/ground beef/specialty meals.
So a week of proteins/main dishes may be: Chicken breasts, turkey burgers, pasta, tacos, chicken, fish, pork

Once I've decided on a protein or main dish I add in sides which typically is a carb/starch and a vegetable for us.  Again, I shop my pantry for potatoes, rice, stuffing, and pasta and see what I can match up.  Then I decide on whatever veggies I want but leave wiggle room to see what looks good or is on sale at the store.  I also always keep a bag of frozen broccoli or green beans on hand because #momlife.

Then I organize the meals so they make the most sense for the week.  Making sure i'm using up the proteins at the right time and not having to defrost or freeze too many things.  I also consider left overs for lunches during the week and items I can make extra of and then have again with dinner a day or two later.  For example; I hate making mashed potatoes but they are Mark's favorite so we have them at least 1-2 times a week, so I make a double batch and then schedule the meals accordingly so that I don't have to make them twice.  Also think about what you have going on each day, when you have time to cook bigger meals and when you need an easy night.  All of this planning makes for so much less food waste!

Lastly I do a check of all our regular items, coffee, creamer, eggs, milk, etc. and I fill in for breakfasts or lunches, but that is usually covered by our staples and leftovers.

Once your list and menu are done, make sure you write it down and post it somewhere! I use a template I printed and stuck in a picture frame on my "command center" wall so I can use a dry erase marker to make changes easily.  I can look ahead at the week and plan my days accordingly, its a huge help when I need to make sure to defrost something when I can see it ahead of time so I don't forget to put it in the fridge the day before.  And when I'm having a crazy day its nice to know I don't have to think about dinner because its already planned out!  Having several tried and true recipes for each protein or type of dinner makes it so much easier to plan the week, so that you aren't reinventing the wheel but just rotating out recipes.  Then you can give yourself one or two days a week to try something new if you want!  I will be posting more of our favorite recipes on the blog soon and below are some of my go to links for planning, saving money, etc. And i've included one of my meal plans as an example :)

Free printable grocery list HERE
Ibotta referral link HERE
Printable coupons HERE

You can follow me on Pinterest for some great recipes HERE or check out the recipes I have posted (more to come soon!)
These are a few of my favorites
Vegetarian Recipe
Chicken Thigh Recipe
Pork Recipe
Ground Turkey Recipe

Weekly Menu 1
Friday: Steak, mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus
Saturday: Lemon chicken with rice pilaf and green beans
Sunday: Turkey Burgers and salad
Monday: Pork with apples and onions, mashed potatoes and broccoli
Tuesday: Turkey stuffed pepper casserole
Wednesday: Salmon with sesame noodles and bok choy
Thursday: Grilled chicken with roasted potatoes and asparagus

Weekly Menu 2
Friday: Sausage and pepper sandwiches
Saturday: Sheet pan chicken with sweet potatoes, broccoli, red onion, mushrooms and peppers
Sunday: Baked ziti with ground turkey and sausage
Monday: Spicy panko crusted pork with mashed potatoes and sautéed kale with mushrooms and onions
Tuesday: Turkey tacos
Wednesday: Balsamic grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts
Thursday: Individual Naan pizzas

I hope you find this helpful! And i'd love to hear any tips that keep you on track!