This and That

School has started back, and if I thought life was busy before...well, it is super busy now! It has been a veeeeeerrrrryyyyy hard adjustment, but here we are. Maddox is getting adjusted to a new schedule and I guess I am too. There are some changes that are going to have to be made with me starting back to work. The first of which is grocery shopping. Prior to now, I have been planning meals and shopping for the week, but I am about to tackle shopping for 2 weeks at a time. I have only done this once so far, but it worked out really well. I left on Sunday afternoon right when Maddox went down for a nap, went to Sam's and Wal-Mart, and even made it back before he woke up. The reason I am doing this is I don't want to spend every single weekend at the grocery store. And the one time we have done it, we stuck to the "menu" very well! I think we only ate out 1 or 2 times. I really do enjoy cooking, and this makes me be more planned in what we have every night. A while back, we bought a dry-erase board and now it is the menu board on our refrigerator. So if any of you have any recipes you absolutely love, please send them my way. Time is precious these days... so quick and easy recipes, preferrably with minimal ingredients, are most appreciated.

I already miss the days of being able to be at home all day. The days when I could do laundry here and there and have a fairly clean house, well, they are gone. Another adjustment I have made is a shift in my priorities. I no longer stay late at work working on lesson plans. Not because I don't love my job and my kids, but I love my first job (mommy) and my own child more. I don't feel like it's necessary to make sure the house is spotless before I go to bed anymore... my priorities have definitely shifted. But in a good way. I want to soak up all of the time I have with Maddox because he changes so quickly! I can't believe he is almost 5 months old!! The balance of working and being a mom is a hard one, and one I feel like I'm not very good at most days.

On a more positive note, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law are in town this weekend so we are having lots of fun! Maddox is enjoying Lolli and Uncle Brandon time very much. I want the weekends to slow down and the weekdays to speed up!! I have not taken many pictures lately, but here are a few that I'll share from the weekend so far...