currently...kisses, cleaners, and cake ed.

(Insert obligatory tired excuses for not having blogged in 2.5 weeks...)

So anyway, YEAH. As it turns out, I'm much better at keeping things current on Instagram and Facebook these days, so if you're miserable for lack of Erika (or Millie, more likely) updates, try finding me there. Ha.

Currently, I'm...

Listening...still mostly to the Gilmore Guys podcast. I just can't stop, even though the current episodes are often 3 hours long and I spend 20% of the time rolling my eyes. I mean, the alternative is listening to NPR and thinking about politics and wanting to drive off cliffs (luckily Georgia has a distinct lack of available cliffs)...so Gilmore Guys it is.

Eating...Smitten Kitchen's Carrot Graham Layer Cake. Now hear me out. I don't bake. I mean, I can, I suppose, because I'm literate and I own a KitchenAid stand mixer. But I don't particularly enjoy it. So I just don't do it. But for whatever reason, I got it in my head a few months ago that I was going to bake Matt something really amazing for his birthday. Every time we've come across an amazing-sounding recipe for the last month, we say "THAT'S what I'll bake for his birthday!!"...and so finally the time came, and this is what I went with. I'll have to say...spending 12 hours (ish...or so it felt) in the kitchen getting every single pot and spoon I own filthy is not really my idea of a great time. (Or should I say a "grate" time? Because what kind of DESSERT recipe starts out with grating THREE CUPS OF CARROTS??) But it was really, really good. Like really good. So I guess it was worth it. But also, bakeries are a great thing and well worth the money. ;)

I know, I should be a professional food photographer. It's a gift.

Then again, maybe I should just be a baker.

Turns out, Millie's extremely pro-cake. Who woulda thought?

Drinking... LOL the only thing noteworthy I can think of is that I bought the Aldi knock-off of Blue Moon the other day. I don't know why. But it's pretty good! And way cheaper than the real thing, so...there's your money-saving tip of the day. Aldi beer. What is this world coming to?

Wearing... In general, nothing special. But since I never got around to blogging about Easter, I'll show off our Easter outfits! Please note that this was my third-choice dress for Millie. Option #1, purchased five months ago, ended up being way too big. Option #2, purchased recently at a consignment sale, fit perfectly but was inexplicably MISSING ALL OF THE BUTTONS ON THE BACK...and since I didn't happen to have 10 tiny buttons nor am I a professional tailor...that option was actually useless. So this is last minute, eleventh hour Hail Mary Option #3...most notably, it is the exact same size and brand as Option #1. Go figure.

Millie wasn't really in a picture-taking mood.

My dress

Feeling... Extremely excited. Two reasons. 1) I am mere hours away from winning my office's March Madness competition. I chose the Final 2 teams correctly, and whether or not my pick (UNC) wins tonight, I will win the office in points. I am WAY MORE EXCITED THAN IS REMOTELY REASONABLE about this. 2) Someone that IS NOT ME OR MATT is going to clean my house on Wednesday!! That's right. My lifelong dream of paying someone else to do the dirty work (literally) while we're gone during the day is coming true and it starts in a mere 36ish hours with a much-needed deep clean. I literally could not sleep last night because I was so excited.

Wanting... I'm winning March Madness (and a cool $100 haha) and a professional cleaner is coming to clean my house. What else on earth could I possibly want? Okay, fine. I want to eat these adorable, precious, painty-toes, stripey-tanned little feet.

It's only barely April. She's been wearing sandals for like...a month. What will her tan lines be like in JULY?!

Needing... to feel motivated to exercise. Ugh. I'm impressively productive from 6:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., but the minute that Nuggie hits the crib for the night, I am DONE. My backside and its BFF the couch hang out until 10:00, and then I hit the bed. I'm SO unmotivated to get up and run or do a workout video, but I really need to. Wah. At least I get at least 10,000 steps every day (okay, maybe 90% of the days). Does that count? (My jeans say no.)

Thinking... as always, about how incredibly lucky I am to be this girl's mama.

It's a shame we don't like each other. (heart eyes emoji)

Enjoying... Toddlerhood. Apparently it's even better than babyhood! I had my doubts, but now I'm a believer.

I love trying to drink out of cups! Barefoot, so Mommy can be distracted by my feet tan lines.

I run everywhere! Especially into the street! But I'm learning to play the "Freeze! Go!" game. But I only play when I'm the one calling the shots!

I'm fearless on a playground and I have no interest in anyone catching me at the bottom of the slide. I would rather add my 2,820th bruise to the collection on my legs!

Watching... not much. Either HGTV shows (on Netflix) or Gilmore Girls.

Reading... Life After Life by Kate Adkinson. It's really good and reeeeealllly long. Before this, I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (super cool name) and it is freaking amazing. Like, stop whatever you're doing and read it right now. And if you have a book club, this goes quadruple for you. We discussed it last weekend and it was fantastic. Even the girls that hadn't actually read the book (haha, we have liberal requirements for book club attendance...but we don't budge on bringing snacks. Mama didn't raise no fool.) were able to get into it. This is probably the most thought-provoking, terrifying (without actually being terrifying) book I've read in a long time. Since The Red Tent, I guess (although that wasn't terrifying). Anyway. Check it out.

Millie (and Mommy) would like to recommend her current favorite book, Eight Animals Bake a Cake. It's a super fun bilingual book with the BEST rhymes and pictures and a pretty fantastic Spanish tutorial to boot. Evidence: Millie can now point to vaca, gato, cerezas, pastel, la puerta, and a bunch of other stuff just because she loves listening to this book so much! Also, I think my Spanish pronunciation has gotten infinitely better in a short period of time. So like...mad props. We've had this one on loan from the library for probably...uhhh...six weeks...so we could have bought it with the amount we're going to pay in fines eventually, but I think it'll be worth it. (Also, this could have influenced my desire to bake a cake. Maybe.)

So that's life lately. I would promise to blog more often, but then I'd probably be a liar, so I won't. I can promise, though, to keep on enjoying life, taking tons of pictures and sharing them when I can, and smothering Millie with as many kisses as she can handle. And I think that's a lot more important. Til next time, friends!

PS. All of the book links are Amazon affiliate links!