Cafe Du Martin

2 years

Published on August 4, 2014September 24, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

I woke up around 6:00 this morning to feed our baby. I am by no means a morning person and I usually have a hard time matching her early bird demeanor at such an hour. But this morning I couldn’t help but smile. Because it’s August 4th and August 4th is my favorite day.

Two years ago today I was up around the same time. Staring at a hotel ceiling in New Orleans; waiting for the day to begin. Already filled to the brim with butterflies fluttering with a combination of nerves and excitement in my belly.

Three years ago today I went on a date with my boyfriend. We ate burgers, walked around a little park and talked about ordinary things. That is until the end of the evening when a guitar was busted out and sweet songs were sung and sparkly ring was slipped onto my left ring finger.

Can you see why I love August 4th?

Don’t even get me started on the reception. We were told by the staff at our reception hall that our wedding was by far one of the most entertaining and filled with dancing. I really don’t think there was a time that someone wasn’t on the dance floor. That day was filled with so much love and looking at our wedding pictures always makes me feel that. Love. Love from friends, from family, from everyone involved in starting our life together.

Some say that if you can survive planning a wedding together – you will have a great marriage. I can’t say that I disagree with that sentiment. Our engagement was filled with some challenges and I think that only made us more thankful and happy about this wonderful day. While in the grand scheme of things two years isn’t much…these past two years have been filled with so much life and learning. Learning how to live together, how to love each other better, how to throw a party for far too many people in a tiny apartment, what to do with a whiny dog in the middle of the night, and my favorite – learning how to be parents together. I mean really, we haven’t taken any of these past two years for granted and I don’t really want to slow down anytime soon. I can’t fathom sharing this life (or that special day) with anyone else.

Happy Anniversary, Eric Martin! You are the best, smartest, most bearded person I have ever known. I love you with all of my heart.

welcome to the club

Published on July 30, 2014November 19, 2015 by JoannaLeave a comment

Well, our little babe is a heathen no more! This past Sunday we welcomed Madeline into the club of Catholicism after the 5pm Teen Mass. While there were frustrations along the way in terms of planning out her baptism – everything turned out perfectly and we were so happy that we could schedule the sacrament after the Mass where we participate in music ministry. We wanted to make sure that not only would our families be able to witness her baptism but that all of our youth group teens and band could see it too. Some of the youth have known us since we were engaged and a handful since we were dating so for them to witness our little girl become a part of the Body of Christ was some awesome, crazy, full circle, kind of stuff.

Let’s get this party started.

I would just like to say that apparently our child was an absolute angel during Mass and even took a little cat nap pre-sacramental graces. During her moment of glory? Not so much. She was pretty worn out by baptism time and was over the matching lacy bonnet/pretty much everything ever. But because I’m more of a glass half-full type of person, her grumpiness could have been a whole lot worse and the really big cries didn’t happen until…

Money shot. For a baby who adores a good bath we were not so into the ice-water forehead dousing of spiritual graces.

This girl is set in the godparent department. Her godmother is my college roommate, Kristen. The girl who has been a pivotal part of my personal spiritual life and fearlessly lead our Catholic group in college. I couldn’t imagine a better example for our little lady to look up to. Kristen is pretty great and can teach Madeline all about our Blessed Mother as well as the how-to’s of picking out a good bottle of wine. While her godfather couldn’t make it for the weekend (we missed you Ryan!) we were extremely thankful to have Eric’s brother stand in for him.

To give you a sense of how many people were there to support us on Sunday we snapped this little photo. We are framing this baby for sure. I really don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people attend a baptism and we are pretty much the luckiest to be a part of such an awesome community. So many teens stayed after mass to watch and between family, friends, and the band it was a pretty insane crowd. Talk about love!

newborn pictures | kate love photography

Published on July 22, 2014 by Joanna3 Comments

Now that our little babe is 3.5 months old and things are slowly but surely approaching a routine-like horizon I am able to do things! Like actually fold our laundry! And clean things! And send out our birth announcements (in case anyone was unaware of the emergence of our child into the world)! And share her newborn pictures!

Once again, we used our fantastic photographer Kate. She’s really the best and so far we had done mini sessions with her. With two adults wanting to be photographed a mini session was always sufficient for what we needed but with a baby we really had no idea what to expect in terms of time and cooperation. Kate is fantastic and captured everything we wanted in our newborn pictures. She was so patient and I was so impressed with how many happy pictures she got during a time of day where Madeline is usually a huge fuss-pot. Enjoy!

let’s talk about…me?

Published on July 16, 2014September 24, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

In August I’ll be attending a blogging conference that I’m hoping will give this space more perspective and drive. The other day I received the questionnaire all attendees are supposed to fill out prior to the event. All pretty standard questions and easy to answer – except for the last one. “In a few sentences, tell us about yourself!”

Talking about yourself should be an easy task, right? I mean who knows me better?

I’m a talker. I consider myself an all around social person. Good at your basic pleasantries and I like getting to know new people. But I’m not so great at talking about myself. I can list off things I have done and accomplished and where I have been but as for personality traits I have a really hard time coming up with positive personal attributes. Sure, I could blame this problem on a lack of self esteem or past hurt that has forced me to focus on the negative rather than the positive. But in all honesty, I really think it’s time that is the culprit here.

I don’t really take the time to get to know myself. I haven’t really taken the time in a long while to see what I have to offer the people around me. I really think that the last time I did a good self reflection was in college when I was deciding on my major. Now that’s not to say I haven’t thought about my direction in life since I was a freshman in college. There have definitely been other life changing decisions aside from my college degree that have taken considerable discernment and thought but as for thinking about me and my talents – that time has been lacking. I was able to get some good thinking time in this past fall when I went on a silent retreat with some girl friends. But that retreat wasn’t as conducive to silent reflection as I was hoping it would be. In college all I did was reflect. I was constantly focusing on what I wanted to do with my life, what I was getting my degree in, classes I was taking, classes I wanted to take, clubs and organizations that were going to shape my future, relationships and friendships that were being formed – all of these facets shaping and forming me, me, me.

So the last time I can really remember reflecting on me was in college. That is, until last week when I received that email and was prompted to talk about myself. I spent days thinking of ways to creatively craft words together that would encompass my identity at this transitional point in my life and what I am trying to do with this blog – really, why I want to go to this event in general. It was an interesting opportunity to think about how my interests have changed over the past several years and it was time I needed to think about what I want to put on this blog – what parts of me I want to share with the world.

Here’s what I got:

Wife of a hairy husband, mother of a darling daughter, author of a budding blog (and alliterative writing enthusiast). Elementary teacher turned full time mom with an affinity for craft beer, old lady hobbies, and the belief that having a baby doesn’t have to mean ending your social life. Trying to find my voice one rambly post at a time.

Not bad. I like me right now.

It was hard to focus on me and think about myself for a few days, but well worth it and I like the direction and ideas it has put in my head for some future posts.

Do you have a hard time talking about yourself? Why do you think that is? I know I’m not alone in this problem but I’m wondering if it’s more of a self-esteem issue out there or a lack of time to sit and reflect on how awesome you are.

on staying home

Published on July 2, 2014July 2, 2014 by Joanna4 Comments

A few months ago I shared some thoughts and feelings that I couldn’t quite shake. Now that I have come to a final decision I thought I should follow up to that post. The debate that was plaguing my every thought at the time was my decision between returning to teaching in the fall or staying home.

At the time, I was preoccupied with what others would think of my decision. Would I be seen as a neglectful mother if I went back to work while having the option of staying home? Would I be seen as undriven – giving up on my career and a degree I worked so hard for? Or would I be seen as lazy by not making my schedule and my life as packed as possible.

I spoke with coworkers, family and friends and it seemed that everyone I talked to had a set opinion on this situation. Some had always envisioned being a stay at home mom, some couldn’t bear the thought of being away from work longer than 6 weeks, some didn’t really have a choice in the matter and either had to stay home or return to work. It seemed to me that everyone had taken the time to think about this decision and had a clear cut answer. I had been thinking about this choice I would have to make from the moment I found out I was pregnant. Why was it so difficult for me to decide? In all honesty, I struggled with this decision until the day I resigned.

About two weeks after bringing our girl home I started feeling antsy and isolated. All I could think about was teaching, getting back into my classroom and being surrounded by my coworkers. I was craving adult human interaction – which I think is pretty normal for a first time mom at home with a newborn she knows absolutely nothing about. At that time I thought – there is nothing else I can do, I need to go back and teach in the fall. Staying at home is going to drive me mad.

A few more weeks passed and I started to get to know my daughter. We started to slide into a routine (as much of a routine that is possible with a 5 week old) and I started considering my options a bit more. But the thought remained…I just couldn’t imagine not going back to my classroom in the fall. For the past three years I have done the same thing. I have thrown myself into my work and my school and essentially for 9 months out of the year I have been unavailable to those around me – including my family. But then again, I couldn’t imagine not being with my daughter. I really couldn’t bear the thought of taking her to a daycare and letting someone else experience all of her firsts. The most mind boggling part of this entire process is that I have never wanted to be a stay at home mom. I never imagined this choice being so difficult.

While I was pregnant I interviewed 10 different daycare facilities. I took it on as a full time job and I saw what was being offered in the infant childcare department. Out of those ten tours I only felt semi-comfortable with one daycare. I even took our deposit in just in case I did decide to go back in the fall. After dropping off the deposit I got in my car and cried. Hormonal tears, tears because I couldn’t imagine dropping my girl off at daycare, but mostly tears of frustration because I still hadn’t come to a decision and I was tired of my heart feeling so torn.

The last week of school – after a lot of prayers, thought, and time I made my decision. I scheduled a meeting with my principal and resigned. I’m not entirely sure of the moment when I figured it out. But my thoughts stopped being so back and forth all the time and I think I just accepted the options set before me. I also considered both options fully. I have not necessarily been as happy as I could be this past year teaching (pregnancy aside) and I have been feeling restless – like it was time for a change of pace in some way or another. Packing up my classroom was one of the most bittersweet moments of my life. That school was my first big girl job. I made friends and grew in ways that I never imagined but I know that this is the right decision for us right now. I know teaching is not out of my life forever (I don’t really think it can be). Instead of 20 little people needing me all day I’m going to be with one little person that I need just as much as she needs me.

And so life goes on, I’m excited about this new adventure and what it’s going to bring our way.

maternity photos | kate love photography

Published on June 25, 2014June 25, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

We took our maternity photos in late February and received the finished product a few days shy of meeting our girl. So needless to say I never really got around to posting them before jumping into labor and life with a needy newborn. Kate’s name was passed our way last November upon realizing it was almost Christmas card season and we didn’t have any non-wedding photos to grace the mailboxes of our loved ones during the holiday season. So, it really wasn’t a question who would be doing our maternity photos to capture such a special time in our life.

Here are a few of my personal favorites. If you are looking for a family photographer in the Dallas area I cannot recommend Kate enough. She is such a sweet heart and always gives us fantastic, real, beautiful pictures.

Just wait until you see our newborn pictures with her…they were amazing! I can’t wait to share!

new week, new recipe: mediterranean fried rice

Published on June 23, 2014June 23, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

A few Saturdays ago we were having a quiet night in and I was really craving some Chinese takeout. Namely that delicious fried rice that every little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant does oh so perfectly. Fried and tossed to perfection but not the most nutritious in terms of healthy eating. The three ingredients I knew we had on hand at the time were rice, eggs, and oil. In an effort to use up some produce I added zucchini, chickpeas, and red peppers… not your usual mix-ins but I thought I would give it a try and to my surprise it actually turned out pretty darn delicious! Ingredients:

-2 cups brown rice

– cooked according to package (I usually have Minute Brown Rice on hand)

-2 eggs

-1 red bell pepper chopped

-1 medium zucchini chopped

-1 small red onion chopped

-1 can of chickpeas

-olive oil (next time I’ll probably try coconut oil)

-dash of sesame seed oil

1. Cook rice according to directions on the box – like I said, I usually have Minute Brown Rice/Uncle Ben’s because it’s the easiest and our rice cooker intimidates me.

2. Lightly coat bottom of skillet with oil and toss cooked rice for 1-2 minutes

3. Add in chopped zucchini, onion, red bell pepper and toss until cooked through (I personally don’t like completely cooked bell peppers and prefer a little crunch so I add them in last to ensure the least possible amount of mushiness).

4. Crack two eggs into rice and break apart while continuing to toss mixture in the pan.

5. Add your sesame seed oil in last – this really rounded out all of the flavors and added a little extra something to a pretty simple dish.

5. Once your eggs are completely broken apart and cooked through – you’re done! Enjoy!

Happy eating!

happenings!

Published on June 16, 2014 by JoannaLeave a comment

I can officially say we have started to settle into this new phase of life and I can slowly but surely detect some semblance of routines and schedules approaching on the horizon. Just the fact that this baby girl is sleeping through the night more regularly makes me feel more human and alive. I really think mom’s forget the newborn phase due to lack of sleep and brain function. I really can’t remember much of those first two weeks with her home – and that’s probably for the best if we ever want to have another!

So because of the newborn induced blogging hiatus I feel like some sort of all encompassing life update post is needed.

-mother’s day, father’s day and birthdays have been life consuming these past couple of months

-as of Friday we have a 10 week old. that whole time-moving-way-too-fast for my liking but also really enjoying this new phase of baby life.

-weddings on weddings on weddings. between the birthday/holiday celebrations we have been and are going to be involved in a ton of weddings this summer! it’s only a little bit ridiculous but also a lot a bit exciting for so many wonderful people in our lives.

-speaking of weddings, we survived our first road trip with a babe. we ventured down to NOLA for a friend’s wedding and had a fabulous time.

-we are officially crunchy/granola people and have hopped on the cloth diapering band wagon (and it’s not so bad)

-I chopped my hair because mom things.

-we finally came to a decision about teaching next year and I will not be going back to my beloved school for now.

Some of these little life updates deserve full posts of their own (especially the last one) but for now this will have to do.

Happy Monday!

survival mode: five favorites that have helped me survive the first month

Published on May 1, 2014May 2, 2014 by Joanna2 Comments

One of my goals this week was to actually write a five favorites post and link up to Hallie’s wonderful blog. I had originally intended this post to be good to go yesterday – but c’est la vie of a newborn and mom who is figuring it all out day by day. Anywho – here are the five things that I think have made our lives somewhat bearable this first month of babydom. I feel like I’m really just posting this for posterity’s sake because I know that one day we will forget how hard life is with a new babe and we will bring another little cherub into this world, somehow forgetful of the sleepless nights and haggard outlook on life that tend to come with said little bebe. So for future me – these are the five things that helped you through the first month with a tiny human, hopefully they’ll help the next time around too!

1. My Brest Friend – Oh good Lord almighty. This pillow really had become my best friend. I was referred to this nursing pillow by a wonderful friend and coworker who had her sweet girl this time last year. Not only is the name of this product pure gold and never fails to make me smile (I also laugh when my students fart and make poop jokes sooo…color me mature). We even had our first little pooptacular blowout on the Brest Friend and taking the cover off, washing, and recovering wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. You can adjust the tightness of the strap and it has back support. The brest of friends.

2. Homedics Sound Spa – It took us all of two nights with our little princess in our room to resort to using the sound machine when we go to sleep. I’ll be honest, the use of this is more for the two grown-ups in the room because this girl could sleep through a hurricane (she slept all morning during some very loud, annoying, beep beep beeping construction outside our window). This babe makes all sorts of weird noises at night and the first two nights with her home I could. not. sleep. because of her snorts and coughs and coos which at the time I was just SURE were signals for I’M ABOUT TO STOP BREATHING. Enter the sound spa – they drown out her noises just enough for some bearable sleep for the adults but it’s still quiet enough that I can hear her when she really does need me.

3. BornFree Nursing Night Light – So I won’t lie – I totally saw this on Pinterest and thought that it was fake or didn’t lead to an actual link and I totally ordered it at 4 a.m. during a frustrating feeding session where I turned on my bedside lamp and woke up my husband, once again. While I know these next few weeks are full of the sleeplessness, I figure one of us should get SOME sleep. This little light provides a fair amount of light so that you can actually see what’s going on and the clip holds onto even super skinny straps. My only complaint is that the vibrate setting is kind of loud and terrifying in the middle of the night if you don’t realize that it buzzes if you fall asleep. But now I know and the super jumpy side of me is a-ok.

4. Moby Wrap – When I first started this post I put down “coffee” for numero cuatro – however, after today I think that my Moby Wrap precedes my caffeine intake. For the past couple of days we’ve had a stage-five clinger on our hands and she will only nap on someone during the day. I can’t blame the poor girl because I feel like she is gaining at least a pound a day between how heavy she feels and how often she is feeding. I tried wearing her around in our Baby Bjorn but I still felt like she was either too far away from me or that it was better suited for our walking ventures. I was pretty intimidated by the super long yardage of fabric that was supposed to magically hold my baby up – but now that I have watched a couple of videos and read the pamphlet thoroughly I’m sold. Call me crunchy but I’ll babywear any day if it means she can not be a huge fusspot and I can get SOME things done.

5. BabyCenter App – I’ll be honest, this app could really be number one on my list. Recommended by a friend with a newborn only a month ahead of us this app had seriously held us together the first month. Especially at our first few doctors appointments where they ask you how many wet diapers your baby is having in a 24 hour period or how many times you nurse a day. Without this app I really would have had to just stare blankly at my doctor in my sleep deprived state. I really couldn’t tell you how many times I nurse a day. A lot. How many wet diapers a day? Does 72 sound right? Because I feel like that’s how many she has. The best part of this app is that you can connect a child between devices so this app is now on our iPad and both of our phones. It’s magical.

“normal”

Published on April 29, 2014November 19, 2015 by JoannaLeave a comment

Everyone always says your life will never go back to “normal” after you have a baby. That your new “normal” will be filled will sleepless nights and pretty much being housebound with a tiny little human. While these sentiments are somewhat true I have always felt that a baby should enrich and add to your life – not take away from it. However, I’m not blind to the fact that some of our “normal” family activities would have to be changed as we transitioned in the first few weeks of this little one’s life and that life as we knew it before would be forever different. Not in a bad way, not always in the most perfect way, and definitely not “normal” by any means. .

My Sundays for the past 7 years have always been predictable – my “normal.” I have been singing at our church’s contemporary teen mass in the afternoon/evening. I have always said that once I no longer feel needed or that I am giving back to my parish in a constructive way that helps them worship I would stop singing but so far I have yet to feel that. Even after dating someone in the band, even after turning that dating relationship into an engagement and a marriage, and even with a baby.

This past Sunday was our first Sunday back in action after having Madeline and taking off for Easter. To say it was an experience is only the slightest of understatements. I can honestly say I don’t remember the homily, the readings, and the prayer intentions for the week. I remember the flow of the mass, the songs, the spit up, and the rushing around like a new mama chicken with her head cut off. About half-way through mass I heard the little cries coming from our stroller and my heart started to race. Here we go mom-mode. I lifted up the car seat cover to see my bright-eyed girl gearing up to wail if I did not feed her STAT (she has her mother’s hanger that’s for sure). So I whipped out my nursing cover and we started to do our thing when the screaming cries started. A few days prior we had started this fussy business. No hunger warnings, no little noises – but boom. eyes open. FEED ME MOM. Now normally, I would have no problem with my kid crying in church, I feel like children need to be a part of the mass just as much as the rest of us and would have stayed put had she not started crying and spitting up on my navy blue shirt at the most silent part of the mass (which happened to be during a sweet girl’s first communion…woops!). So out we went to the Narthex. I heard the band continue to play, I heard the priest say the Eucharistic prayer, and there I was… sitting outside of the church, in a chair by myself, with my baby, a mom… a position I always wanted to be in but a place I never thought I would actually be. I finished feeding her and we ventured back in for communion and the last two songs. It was then that I realized – this is my new normal. This is the juggle that is our life right now and I never felt left out or alone. I was right there with my church, as involved in the mass as a new mother can be. While being spit up on and feeding someone during a homily never happened in my life pre-baby… it all felt right. It felt “normal.”

I’m sure any seasoned veteran moms reading this are probably thinking that this is only the beginning. Oh boy, do I know that. This is just one of the first new “normals” we will be experiencing as we become members of the parenting club. I just hope that I can keep this focus and flexibility in this time and on the days that I can’t (today may be one of these days – the littlest person decided to throw an all night rager last night…) hopefully God will give me the grace to remember, if even just a little bit, how so very good this life is. Now excuse me while I go and try to accomplish some things in my new “normal” sleep deprived state.

Happy Tuesday!