Summer is officially in full swing, and in Oklahoma that means 90+ temps and lots of sweating. Also my air conditioning went out in my car yesterday. It’s the most wonderful time of year!

I wanted to write a shoutout post for my fellow working moms, specifically those of us who work “traditional” hours and aren’t teachers. This post is for you, friend. I can offer nothing more than solidarity and a hug across the computer screen.

I’ve never cared that much about not having the summer off until I had kids, and I’m going to be honest: it’s taking a lot of mental effort on my part to not get majorly bummed out when I see people posting about all the fun times they are having with their kids at the pool and the zoo and the splash pads. First-world problems? YES. But nevertheless it's the truth.

Tags: 12-minute memoir, real life, working mom

J's 1st Birthday Party In the eight years I've been blogging, I don't think I've been as bad of a blog writer (or reader!) as I have been for the past month. The end of May and June so far have been absolutely nuts and so full of friends and family, and I love it.

Over the weekend we hosted family for J's first birthday party! So far I haven't gone huge on either of R's birthday parties, and we didn't for J either. Just family and no themes. Maybe I will get more into themed parties once the kids start actually caring about things, but for now I've stuck with just a color theme, which has worked really well. Although I love seeing themed parties other people do!

I wouldn't exactly say J's birthday snuck up on me... maybe more that I was in denial. We set a party date back in April, and I had invitations printed out from Shutterfly and mailed a long time ago, but that was as far as I got until a week before the party. R's first birthday was pink & gold, and for J's I went with blue as the "theme" to center my crafting around.

Tags: birthday, J

Happy Birthday, J For the last few weeks everyone as been asking me, "How you do you feel about J turning one?" For some reason it's been absolutely impossible to put into words. It feels like surely it can't have been a YEAR since he joined our family. And yet here we are, and he's more toddler than baby.

Everyone--literally everyone--who sees him comments on how smiley and sweet he is. He's super chill (unless you're taking too long bringing him food), and still so so snuggly and loves me the most (it's the truth!).

I am beyond grateful and thankful he's here and that we are his parents. It's just such a joy.

Happy birthday, sweet J! We love you! More 1st birthday party pics and stories to come soon(ish) :) p.s. If you've never read it, J's birth story: part 1 / part 2
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