Confessions {3.31.2016} and a Liebster Award

Linking up again with Jess for a few more confessions, and before I get started, I just want to congratulate her on her news that their sweet little family is expanding.  Congratulations, Momma!  That is the best news!

I confess…

… that I have been dreading the new changes on Instagram.  I am incredibly OCD when it comes to my social media and I’m peeved that I’m going to potentially start missing posts from people.  And don’t get me started on a non-linear timeline.  I rarely use Facebook nowadays because of their jacked up timeline, and I don’t want to get fed up with Insta, too.  And it sounds like NOBODY wants this change, so why they’re not listening to their users is beyond me.  It also irks me that it’s pretty much going make the rich richer and the poor poorer, so to speak.  People with thousands of followers will be the ones at the top of the feed while the rest of the smaller accounts and smaller businesses will be left in the dark.  Not cool, Insta.

…and speaking of Insta, for the love, people – please stop asking your followers to turn on notifications for you… I’m not turning on notifications for anyone nor would I expect anyone to do the same for me.  I do not need my phone blowing up every single time someone posts something.  I’m already busy enough.

…that I’m baffled because I just found out that we’re supposed to be single spacing after a period now.  Did anybody else know about this?  I have started looking into submitting some pieces for Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, etc. – and all of their requirements state to submit your article with single spacing after periods.  I had no idea anyone was even doing that (apparently I’m old school) so I asked my favorite blog guru, Chrystie, and she said that she never double spaces after a period.  What?!  How long have people been doing this?!  And why didn’t I get the memo?!  And what’s the purpose?!  Anybody know?? That is going to be one hard habit to break.

Finally, on a completely different note, I am honored to have been nominated for another Liebster Award by my friend, Andrea, over at Flowers and Faux Pas.  She is the mother of two sweet little girls and she blogs about all kinds of things – mom life, home décor, recipes, and many other things.  Head over and check her out!

Since I’ve already been nominated once, I have already nominated a few other bloggers, so today I’m just going to answer the questions from Andrea.  You can see my original post here.

My Questions

If you could only live in eternal summer or eternal winter, which would you choose?

That’s a tough one because I really do enjoy the changes in season.  Plus, I don’t really even like summer and winter because they’re both too extreme!  I’m a moderate girl – spring and fall are my jam!  So can my answer just be fall?  ;o)

Do you prefer sweet or savory foods?

Easy.  Sweet, sweet, sweet.  Cookie cake, dark chocolate M&Ms, frozen yogurt.  I could go on…

If you had a theme song what would it be?

This is really tough.  I love music and there are a ton of songs that come to mind, but if I had to choose one, I would probably choose Drunken Soldier by Dave Matthews Band.  And no, the song has nothing to do with being drunk, or being a soldier for that matter.  As a matter of fact, I don’t even know why that’s the name of the song!  But anywho, the lyrics in this song speak to me because they give excellent advice about how we should all be living life, and it also reminds us that we’re only here for a short while…

Keep your head up

Try and listen to your heart

Be kind always, no matter

We all grow up

And someday we’ll say goodbye

So shine your light while you’ve got one

Make the most of what you’ve got

Don’t waste time trying to be something you’re not

Fill up your head, fill up your heart, take your shot

Don’t waste time trying to be something you’re not

Lyric perfection.

What was the last book you read?

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  And now I’m trying to declutter my entire house!

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Definitely a night owl.  I’ve been that way for as long as I can remember.  However, it is the one thing about myself that I wish I could change… I wish so badly that I was a morning person because I feel like I could get so much more done if I could just wake up earlier!  And I love being up once the hard part of getting out of the bed is over.  ;o)

What is your dream vacation?

A 2-3 week vacation overseas – London, Paris, Rome, etc.  I’ve always wanted to go to Europe and see as much as I can while I’m there!

Stilettos, sneakers, or ballet flats?

Pre-babies I would have said stilettos since that’s pretty much all I wore back then, but now that I’m a mommy, ballet flats it is!  They’re comfy and so cute and you don’t have to worry about breaking your ankle and bringing your baby down with you.  Eeeek.

What is your go-to recipe?

Beef and Parmesan Pasta with Zucchini.  It’s simple, it’s quick, it’s so delicious, and it only dirties one dish.  #Winning  You can see the recipe here.

Do you prefer your mean bearded or clean shaven?

Clean shaven all the way!  Just ask Brian… I dread November when he participates in No Shave.  Yuck.

Why did you start your blog?

I started my blog as a keepsake for myself and for our family.  I have always loved to write and everyone kept telling me that I should start a blog, so I did!

If your blog had a mission statement, what would it be?

I haven’t ever actually given that much thought, but it would probably go something like this:

Lindsay’s Sweet World is a lifestyle blog that exists to provide inspiration as well as an authentic perspective on a variety of topics such as motherhood, fashion, home décor, organization, and everything in between. 

Thanks again, Andrea, for the nomination and happy Friday Eve, ladies!

*Linking up with The Newly for Confessional Thursday and Home of Malones for Thoughts for Thursday.

What's Up Wednesday

Linking up with Shay today to share some of our current happenings…

What We’re Eating This Week

I don’t know about everybody else in the house, but I’m eating all the candy.  ALL OF IT!  I gave up candy for Lent and I actually went 40 days without it, so now I’m making up for lost time.  Dark Chocolate M&Ms, please take me back… I love you.

What I’m Reminiscing About

I’m still enjoying looking through our pictures from all of our Easter festivities this past weekend.  If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll notice that I have been overgramming the past few days.  I mean, with cute faces like these, why would I not want to post every one of them?!  And if you missed my recap, you can see it here.

What I’m Loving

The toddler girl clothing section at Old Navy!  They had a serious sale a couple of weeks ago and I loaded up on stuff for Olivia.  And I wish that every single one of these came in my size.  They have the cutest stuff!

Gingham Top

Romper

Swim Suit

What We’ve Been Up To

Last week Jacob was on spring break, so we had several fun outings with him.  You can see my recap of our day o fun here.  We have also been focused on Easter – lots of egg hunts, family gatherings, and other Easter activities going on around these parts.  I heart spring so much!

What I’m Dreading

I have definitely been dreading something in the world of social media… the ol’ switch to the new algorithm on Instagram is imminent and I just don’t understand why they would want to do this… I swear, I have pretty much stopped using Facebook because of their jacked up timeline, so now am I going to have to stop using Insta, too?!  

What I’m Working On

Working around the clock during what little spare time I have to get my office finished and photographed for my Home Tour Tuesday.  Hopefully it wasn’t too much of a disappointment to anyone that I didn’t get it up this week. 

If you’re new here or you’ve missed any of the tour, you can see the other rooms I’ve posted below.

Front Sitting Room 

Formal Dining Room 

Living Room 

Kitchen 

Guest Bath

Playroom

Master Bedroom

Jacob's Room

Olivia's Room

Kids' Bathroom  

What I’m Excited About

My birthday is next week!  And I’m not one of those who frets over another year in age… I’ve always embraced it.  Because as long as I feel 25, that’s all that matters, right?  Yep, 25 for life.  ;o)

What I’m Watching/Reading

Watching – Fuller House.  I know that most people finished it long ago, so this is probably old news to most, but we are so busy and already watch so much TV, that it was hard to find the time to get to it.  We only have a couple of episodes left at this point and you guys, I’m just loving every second of it!  There was a point at which I got a little worried that I wasn’t going to want to continue – AKA the wrestling episode (LAME) – but we got through it and I’ve loved every episode since!

Reading – See Me by Nicholas Sparks.  Only a couple of chapters in, and it will probably take me 45 years to read it, but I’ll let you know how I like it when I finish.    

What I’m Listening To

A lot of Ray LaMontagne.  He is just so fantastic.  And he has a new album that just came out, so once I download that, I’ll be listening to him even more! 

What I’m Wearing

White pants!  Sandals!  Shorts!  Dresses!  Fluttery spaghetti strap tops!  Can you tell that I’m a little excited?!  It felt so good to retire my boots and sweater dresses.  I was pretty over winter.  And now I need a tan.

If you’d like to see my monthly recaps and see how I’m trying not to repeat any exact same outfits for the whole year (mix and match for the win!), you can see them here and here. 

What I’m Doing This Weekend

Hopefully cleaning off our back porch and getting it decorated, once and for all!  We added a large back porch onto our house last summer and we furnished it, but I wanted to hang a few things on the walls and decorate a little to make it our own (and get it ready for the last portion of my Home Tour). 

The pollen around these parts has been hideous this spring, and we have a thick layer coating every single table and chair out there.  Gotta get that cleaned up so we can get back to eating outside again.  We had to take a little break from eating outside these last two weeks because of Pollenmageddon 2016.

What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month

My birthday and lots of fun date nights that B and I have planned.  We missed our date night in February so we’re hopefully going to more than make up for it in April.  Brian’s mom gave him a gift card to this amazing new local restaurant that we haven’t tried, and she also said that they would watch the babies, so we’re hopefully going to get that scheduled in April.  We’re also planning a date night with all of our couple friends for my birthday, because it’s been about 150 years since we’ve done that without kids tagging along!  And finally, we’re going to a fundraiser for Jacob’s school at the end of April that is going to be all about horse racing, bidding, and betting.  We get to get all dressed up like we’re heading to the derby, so I’m really excited!  

What Else Is New

I started linking up with Jessica for some confessions each week, and it’s been a blast!  I’m loving it so much that I’ve started doing it every week.  If you haven’t already, come join us!  My previous confessions are here. 

See you back here tomorrow for another set!

*Linking up with Shay, Mel, and Sheaffer for What’s Up Wednesday and Jessi's Design for What's Hap-"Pinning" Wednesday.
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Home Tour Tuesday Fail and a Day O Fun With Jacob

Well, as expected, I didn’t even remotely come close to getting my office ready for the home tour this weekend… if anything, it’s a hotter mess now than it was last week.  Sigh…  I may just have to photograph it unfinished.  We shall see…

So – since I can’t share my pink and black and white and gold Lindsay museum with you, I’ll just leave some pictures from my day with Jacob last Thursday… We had a blast together and we kept busy all day!

First stop – Panera, for a cinnamon roll the size of Jacob’s head for him, and a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel for me.  Heaven…

Next stop – Target, where we ended up getting Jacob’s 54,345,987th Hot Wheel along with a whole bunch of stuff that we didn’t originally intend to get…  Apparently we’re redecorating Jacob’s whole bedroom now.  Thanks, Target.  As if I don’t already have 35,000 other things on my plate!

We followed Target with a trip to Barnes and Noble so Jacob could play at the train table.  Apparently sticking your tongue out makes you concentrate better.

After Barnes and Noble, we went to my favorite store in the entire universe – Hobby Lobby!  I’m in the process of decorating our back porch that we added on last summer, and I found a couple of really great things to hang out there.  Actually I found a bunch of really great things, but I didn’t want to go overboard so I only brought a couple of things home.  My birthday is next week, and I typically get a gift card or two for Hobby Lobby, so hopefully I’ll be able to go back and get the other things next week.  I mean, how cute is this marquee sign?!  I need it.

We stopped at Jason’s Deli for lunch (per Jacob’s request) and he had a great time coloring and showing me how he had learned to cross his eyes while we waited for our food.  And see, I told you that sticking your tongue out helps you concentrate better!

The last stop was a big deal for Jacob.  Like huge.  A Burger King in our area of town renovated their whole restaurant and playground about a year ago and Jacob has been begging to go ever since.  The playground is enormous – like giant – and you cannot miss it when you’re driving by.  (We’re on to you, Burger King.)  Well, we don’t ever eat at BK and I’m sure that it would be frowned upon to go just to use the playground, so I decided that ice cream sundaes were in order so we could go check out this playground once and for all. 

The ice cream was perfection and it felt like we were eating it in some sort of fancy restaurant or hotel lobby, because OMG, the décor in there is nicer than our house since they redid everything.  I mean, seriously, BK.  #SteppinUpTheirGame

Jacob was ecstatic (and a bit overwhelmed) when he walked out to the playground.  All he could do was stand and stare for the first minute or so.  And apparently the playground is so large that it screams out to all of the little kids on the street, because there were no fewer than 100 kids out there screaming and running around.  I settled in on one of the benches and tried not to panic every time I couldn’t see Jacob (seriously, it’s that huge) and I was provided with some entertainment when one little boy started licking the outside trash can. 

Like seriously, he was holding on to it and licking all over it like it was a giant ice cream cone.  I kept thinking that his mom or dad or somebody – ANYBODY! – would come to rescue him from the germiness of it all, but they never did.  And I wanted to tell him to stop so bad, but I felt weird about punishing somebody else’s kid, so I continued to wait.  Finally, just when I couldn’t take it anymore, he stopped and ran off.  And then a few minutes later, his caregiver (grandmother most likely?) called him to go and it turns out, she was sitting right next to me (and the trashcan) the entire time.  Maybe she’s all about the “let kids get dirty, it boosts their immune systems” mantra?!  I don’t know.  But I just hope the kid didn’t spend the weekend sick as a dog.

After BK, we had had enough fun for the day, so we headed home where Jacob read some books to me and we waited for Daddy and Olivia to come home. 

I sure do love my one on one time with my little man, and apparently he loves it, too.  Because on the way home in the car he said out of the blue, “Mommy, I love these kind of days with you.” 

Well you know what, Jacob?  Mommy does, too.  Mommy does, too.

  *Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk. 

Easter Weekend

Happy Monday, everyone!!  I took about 3,875,951,632 pictures this weekend, so I'll keep my words brief and just let the pictures do most of the talking.  

Our Easter weekend was long and fantastic!  We kicked it off Wednesday afternoon with an Easter egg hunt at Olivia's school.  We were unintentionally twinning so we had to take a picture.  

Friday was the Easter parade at Olivia’s school.  Since I was off with Jacob, I kept Olivia with me when it was over, and we had some play time on the playground at the mall followed by lunch with Cokie at Panera.

Saturday, we dyed some eggs (which is super stressful with a 4 year old and a 2 year old in case you were wondering), had a big lunch with Brian’s family, celebrated his mom’s birthday, and had our annual Easter egg hunt for all of the cousins.  After lunch and naps, we took a little trip to Lowe's and the kids had fun laughing at Daddy's crazy singing in the car on the way!  We ended the day by preparing for Easter - laying out clothes for church, getting the Easter baskets ready, and then B and I watched a couple of episodes of Fuller House before bed.  Still haven't finished it yet!

Jacob's Easter basket goodies

Olivia's Easter basket goodies

Maui's Easter basket goodies

Sunday we went to mass to celebrate - He is risen!!  Easter is one of my favorite masses of the whole year because it's just so joyful!  After mass, we had a big lunch with my extended family and we also celebrated my cousin's birthday which is later this week.  

Although the weather wasn’t ideal, the rain held off for the most important parts of the weekend, and we could not have asked for a better weekend.  

And in case you read this post and were wondering why I didn't wear the dress that I had originally picked out for Easter, I discovered that it was a little shorter than I had remembered, and I didn't want to wear it to church, so I wore a different one instead.  I'm going to be wearing my original pick for an Easter dress for an upcoming event that we have planned and I can't wait!  Enjoy your week!  XO

*Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending.