Author Archives: katherine

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Feeling…uninspired

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I don’t know what it is…lately, I’ve been feeling kind of…uninspired. And I’m not even sure that’s the right word for this feeling.

I feel kind of like a drone. Just going through my day to day routine. Kind of in a haze. I haven’t felt like taking pictures…probably because we haven’t really been doing anything that I feel warrants pulling out the camera.

The other day as I was uploading the “day in the life” photos from my phone, I scrolled through some others. And boy did it have me missing summer. Not that I’m complaining about the rain already…because I’m not. I love the rain actually. It had me missing more of the summer state of mind, if you will.

Everything seems more laid back in summer. It’s lighter later so I don’t feel that rush to get things done when I’m off of work. Andy is home all summer so I know that all the things around the house aren’t falling on me to be crammed in and taken care of on the weekend.

With fall comes a new school year. With a new school year comes late nights. There’s been nights where the clock strikes 8 and we’re still at the dinner table. Right after that it’s time to get Rylee to bed. Then after she’s in bed, I’m about ready to pass out because I’m so exhausted so all we do is sit on the couch and watch TV. The first couple of months of the school year are always a little rough on our family.  I fully realize we do this to ourselves because eating together, at the table, as a family is so important to us, but…I miss my husband.

My work is picking up…it’s always some level of crazy but the 90 days before a product launch is always a special kind of crazy. Then throw in the fact that close to half my time is spent doing work for another job, in addition to my own, and it gets kind of overwhelming.

A more hectic schedule means a more frazzled mama and a toddler who pushes the boundaries more. And I don’t know about you, but it seems like within 5 minutes of the best part of my day {picking up Rylee and seeing her sweet smile and getting a big hug} the struggles start. What is it about that “happy hour”? I find myself constantly checking my phone to see if Andy has called to tell me he’s on his way home, then counting down the minutes until he will walk in the door and make it all better.

I don’t like feeling like this.

I guess a better word to describe all of this is overwhelmed. I’m kind of overwhelmed by life right now.

This weekend we have some fun family plans. We’re headed to our little town’s open house at the fire station then to a family friend’s birthday party. After that, we have no plans for the afternoon and I fully intend to keep it that way. Maybe we’ll go outside and pick apples off of our tree. Maybe we’ll start to decorate for Halloween. Then on Sunday Rylee and I are going to visit with my cousin who, even though she only lives across town, we rarely see. I’m really looking forward to that visit. She always puts a smile on my face. And gives good hugs. I need a good hug.

Wow…that all sounds like a big sob story. Sorry about that. Bottom line is this…it’s life. Sometimes it sucks, but I’ve got a family that loves me and a hardworking husband and a job that I love. I am blessed beyond belief. I need to remember to be thankful for my blessings…it is after all Rule #2.

And because they make me smile, here’s some of those summertime photos I was referring to…

A day in the life…or something

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So it turns out, a day in my life? Not very exciting. At all. But, I went through the trouble to remember to take the photos so I figured I’d share anyway.

 

Alarm goes off at 5:20 AM…my first thought: Ugh, already!? I’m the first one to get up, so I shower and start to get ready for work before Ry wakes up.

By this point it’s just before 6:45 Am. Andy’s been gone for at least 15 minutes already. Ry is up and eating breakfast. {The one step in our routine that takes FOR.EV.ER} On the menu this morning is a nutri-grain bar, applesauce and then a bowl of fruit loops. Growing much? Wild Krats on PBS might be her new favorite show. I continue to finish getting ready. Get my lunch together. Make coffee. Eat some breakfast.

Almost at work. We left the house about 7:20 am. I dropped Ry off w/ Grandma and headed to work. Pulled in at 7:59 am.

Most of my morning looks like this. It’s Monday so there’s lots of emails to check and follow up on. Orders to write up. Facebook & website stats to check. I put off most all of my phone calls for the afternoon. I hate returning phone calls.

Lunchtime at my desk {like normal} involves left-over spaghetti and blog reading.

My afternoon pretty much looks like this. A couple of conference calls. Product launch planning for 2012 {T-Minue 60-ish days until launch!}

5 PM {ish} I’m out the door and on my way to pick up the monster. Looks like she had fun with her Grandma today. Silly little girl.

We get home about 6 PM…Andy is already home {this NEVER happens!}. I immediately get started on dinner. Tonight, we’re having homemade hamburger soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We actually sit down to eat about 7:10 PM. Dinner time is anywhere between 6:45 to sometimes almost 8 PM, it just depends on what time everyone {read: Andy} gets home from work. It’s important to us that we all eat dinner together at the table.

I take care of dinner clean-up tonight and Andy & Ry hang out by the fire {the first fire of the season!} and Andy gets his ass handed to him at Candy Land. I tell you what, that girl is a shark. Other nights if it’s not a board game, it’s a puzzle or books or blocks. We continue this until it’s time to get ready for bed which is normally between 8:15 and 8:45 PM…just depends on how late we end up eating dinner.

Andy is putting Ry to bed tonight {we normally take turns}. It’s now just after 8:30 PM and I’ve got our Monday night shows on and I’m treating myself to a bowl of ice cream while sitting next to the fire because…well, why not.

9:30 PM rolls around and during a commercial I get ready for bed. And, yep, I feel about as awesome and awake as I look. Andy stays up to watch one more show and I’m in bed at 10:15 PM going through my mental to-do list for the next day in my head.

See…I told you it was nothing exciting. Just another Monday.

Today? Well, today is Tuesday which happens to be one of my favorite days of the week. Ry always has a kick-ace day at school, Andy comes home early, it’s Taco Tuesday!, and it’s NCIS night. So many of my favorite things. What’s not to love?

What’s your favorite day of the week?

Stuff & Things

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As I sit here watching Rylee color her Auntie Telli a picture, I’m sipping a nice, hot cut of coffee. I thought I’d take a few minutes to go over some…stuff…and things. {hence the title}

First things first, Rylee just asked me to draw her a gymnast on her paper, so I have a feeling it might take a while to actually get this post written and posted. Really? A gymnast? Oye.

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I’ve planned out this coming week’s meals, made up my grocery list and updated the new “What’s for Dinner?” page. Go see.

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Y’all know our last name is Rice, right? Ok so, Friday night we had Andy’s mom out to our house for dinner {his dad is out hunting for a few weeks}. I’ve got halibut on the grill and some rice in the microwave {yea, I make rice in the microwave…don’t knock it till you try it} and we’re all hanging out in the kitchen. I swear, it doesn’t matter how BIG of a bowl I use to cook the rice, it always boils over and makes a huge mess in the microwave. So, I glance over and see that happening and I say “Ugh, stupid rice!” and Rylee looks up immediately and says “Hey…I’m not stupid!” I laugh and say “Oh no honey, I wasn’t talking about you” She replies with “Well, which of us is stupid then?” Then we all pretty much died laughing. Then I had to explain to Rylee what I meant because she had no idea why we were laughing.

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Yesterday was the opening day of hunting season. I woke up before the birds so I could be at my dad’s house in time to leave his house before 6 AM. While we did see one buck, no shots were taken. If the weather keeps up, next weekend should be a good one! After a long day of taking my rifle for a walk hunting I came home to find that Andy had not only washed, folded & put away laundry, the dishes were done and our bed sheets were changed. THEN he made dinner! Kind of a role reversal, but what the heck did I do to get so lucky!? {Sorry ladies, he’s mine and I’m not giving him up any time soon.}

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Ok, now it’s just after 3 PM {got a little side tracked}. We’ve done our grocery shopping, ate lunch, Rylee is napping and I have a bit pot of homemade spaghetti sauce {with tomatoes from my garden} on the stove. I don’t think there will be enough to can, so I’ll probably just freeze what we don’t use for dinner. After Ry wakes up, we’re baking a batch of banana muffins and a few loaves of zucchini bread. If there’s time, we’ll head out to the apple tree and pick some apples for applesauce.

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And…last but not least, a new blog that I am loving reading Liberating Working Moms {you may remember my guest post over there} has started a fun “Working with Style” post so I figured I’d play along this week. This series on LWM was inspired by Mandy’s Steppin’ Out posts. I love looking at all the fun outfits people link up over there for their
steppin’ out, but I don’t typically play along because we literally just don’t go out and if feels kinda weird linking up an outfit for work, but for this week, I figured I’d link to both.

Now, for those of you that don’t know, I work in a barn…literally. So, even though it’s technically a “professional office job” most of the time I just wear jeans and shirt to work, because…why not? But, I do actually try to look halfway decent once in a while.  Anyway, here’s my outfit from earlier this week.



Ok, I think that’s all I’ve got for now!

How was your weekend?

New Thing!

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I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, and I’m sure there’s plenty of others that do this better than me, but as a full time working mom, I’m pretty proud of the fact that I put a {mostly} healthy home-cooked meal on the table nearly every night.

I went into all of that a little bit in this post but I thought I’d take it a step further…

I decided to start a new thing here on the blog called “What’s For Dinner?“. Since I plan out our week’s meals and do all the grocery shopping in advance, I thought  I’d share our weekly meal plan with you guys! Complete with links to recipes, when applicable. Hopefully you’ll find ideas for recipes and/or your own weekly meal planning.It’s a serious life-saver, sanity-saver & time-saver in my house.

Anyway, go check it out. And while you’re at it, I’m missing dinner for Saturday, so do you have any suggestions??

Just another day at the office…

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So it’s no secret that I love my job. I work with great people and love what I do. I haven’t ever really gone into what I actually do, but here’s the gist: The president of the company I {actually} work for, is the president/CEO of maybe 5 companies total. That man is busy! Anyway, he hired me as a marketing manager to be part of his management team for his businesses. This means, while most of my time is spent for the hunting/outdoor company, there are times he needs my help with his other ventures. It keeps things interesting!

So, anyway, in July, he bought a snack food company. Since then, about half of my time at work has been spent helping coordinate the website redesign, store build out at the new mall location, signage, photoshoots etc. Speaking of photoshoots, my family was asked to model for the photoshoot. HA! Well, Andy was already back at work, so he couldn’t but Ry & I did and I wanted to share the photos.

Ry was a trooper and did a great job. And, a huge, huge thanks to my brother for coming along to help wrangle the kid while I had to do photos without her…you know, with my stand-in husband Steve. {kinda awkward}

Cosmo’s Corn is like caramel corn but a bazillion times better! {And I’m not just saying that because I sort of work for the company.} This stuff is addicting. It’s like crack. {I’m actually eating some right now} But it’s actually not that bad for you either. It’s trans-fat free and gluten-free and since it’s made from corn meal, there’s no kernels! As you can see, Rylee thoroughly enjoyed it too! That girl was so amped by the end of the photo shoot. Anyway, we launched the new website yesterday. It’s a work in progress, we just really needed to get it launched. Plus also? It’s a light-years ahead of what was up there. {See what I did there!? I slay me.}

So, to recap: I love my job. Cosmos Corn owns my face. This project may make me fat. My kid is a rock star. Our pictures are up in the mall. Boom.

And… if you ask real nice, I may be able to hook you up with some Cosmo’s Corn to try. :)