Lately, Instagram overload & Parenting

So I've been super excited about my back yard since I moved into this house in November. It's certainly one of the reasons I picked this place over the others I was looking at (besides the hardwoods, updated kitchen, attached garage blah blah blah...) it's a perfect house expecially for this time in my life, it couldn't suit us more. Recently the back yard has started singing! Ok, what do I mean by that? 

Well, spring is coming and I guess Bambi and half of Oregons wild life congregate behind my home. On sunny afternoons, it's like a mad house in my back yard with over weight squirrels (for real, I'll snap a photo of one, one of these days) and the worlds population of birds. 

So it got me thinking about getting a bird feeder, and so I got THIS one. My hopes are to encourage the boys to enjoy watching the birds and to talk about them. Personally, for me I want to create a very balanced and easy to learn environment for my children. My only struggle has been to be an imactful teacher and I only recently realized that's not my forte. And you know what! It's ok to think your good at something and realize (wait maybe) your not and you can be better, because that only leaves room for improvement to grow and learn. A couple months ago I started to hone in on what that would look like for me (I'm pretty sure every mom goes through this): Pinning different activities on Pinterest, researching what other things are working for families, their morning, afternoon and evening routines, what is age appropriate and how to you grow with the flow. All things that I struggle with being a leader as a single mom. I feel like it came to a head a couple weeks ago and after a month of serious repetition (hallelujah!) were making progress on "issues": Holding moms hands while we walk around is actually possible (go figure), their vocabulary is doubling, and most importantly I've realized even though my sons struggle with speaking they understand me perfectly - which means some sort of sanity at this point.

A short while back my parents helped me organize a little more after the "big" move to Portland. My back yard is coming together (check out that awesome OUTDOOR back yard fireplace). Summer can't come soon enough! Now I just need to go to a local garden nursery and pick out some potted plants for spring!

And of course I'm a mom and kind of obsessed with Winco lately. My grocery's are $70 instead of $120/$140 (literally); which includes my favvvvvorite brew coming in at $2.98. Unfortunately, Winco's wine selection taste like gasoline which makes, me think I'll stick to trader joes on that one.

 I'm aware this post makes me look like a lush, I promise you I'm not; not even close ;)

Lastly (something I can't way to share) I perfected my favorite Texas/French (LOW SUGAR high protein) toast recipe. I can't wait to post about that one next week, it's SO heavily.