The Buerglers

So my What I'm Loving Wednesday link up hasn't happened in over a month. I think I'm going to move over to the Seven Quick Takes with other Catholic Mama Bloggers for a little more community.. So here goes my first attempt :) One Football season starts this weekend...er, tomorrow!  I'm not super plan-my-weekends-around-games type fan, but we usually try to watch most of them with friends and family.  Our The Shirts came in this week.  Even Evie is ready to cheer for Old Notre Dame. Two We had hired a nanny for the Fall, but she was offered a job to start in September so after only a month she's leaving us. Fortunately with enough notice I was able to find Evie a MMO program that still had openings for the year. When I took her in for a tour, the director agreed that she could actually do the Pre-k 2 program since it was a young class this year and Evie is old for her grade. The hours work great for my work schedule, and the cost is (obviously) cheaper than...

My Dad's go-to parenting advice for any new parents is "Don't Get Mad, Get the Camera"  This advice sounds horrible in the moment, but we've loved that my dad practiced what he preaches. We have some of those most HILARIOUS photos of us growing up.  Things like, ya know, my brother and sister playing in the toilet, or my brother making his first peanut butter sandwich on the floor in nothing but a diaper and cowboy boots. I've been wanting to document more of these moments around our house.  No time like the present. Today Miss Evie has been in no less than 3 outfits, some combined with an article of her crab pajamas. By this point in the evening I didn't even care that she wasn't wearing pants. She's been sick with a head cold.  She's barely touched her food, but ate up some left over guacamole.  She said and signed that she was done with dinner so I let her loose.   But she ran to the pantry, found the bag of Tostit...

Ever since our miscarriage back in April, my relationship with God has changed. During my mourning and grief I kept asking myself, WHY GOD WHY?  I'm healthy, we've had a successful pregnancy, we want this child, and so on. It didn't seem fair. A some point during all this struggle I had taken Evie shopping.  We were at the grocery store just before dinner and she was begging me for a "peezey pouch" (squeeze pouch).  I knew that she might have a melt down if I didn't give it to her, but I also knew we were going home for dinner and I didn't want to ruin her appetite.  As her mother I could see the big picture of the situation. I knew what was best for her despite of her whining and near tantrum. It got me thinking. This is exactly how God works with us.  As the all-knowing Father, he sees the big picture when we cannot.  When we're that kid in the grocery store begging for a snack.  He sometimes says, "Wait. I have something better"...

Welcome to the Buergler House on this drizzly rainy Monday. I've been wanting to do one of these for years but never took the time.  Here's a glimpse at our day balancing home life, raising an almost two year old, and a part time job at our Church.  It's not a typical day, but it's not an out of the ordinary day. Enjoy! 5:03 - Wake up. Check clock. Why am I awake? Seriously? I was supposed to sleep in today. Mind starts racing to all the things I need to do for work. 5:47 - Evie is stirring. Hmm. That's weird. Does she usually do this? Please don't wake up. 6:00 - Eric's alarm goes off, but it's Monday after a retreat weekend. I bet he hits snooze and we can lay and chat for a bit. 7:00 - Alarm goes off again. Eric gets in the shower I check Facebook and Twitter on my phone waiting for my turn in the shower. 7:08 - Shower, contacts, yoga pants and a tshirt. We're not going anywhere for a while. Might as well be comfy. 7:30 -  Evie's ...

When we were younger my mother would load the four of us in our awesomely large conversion van complete with high top, TV, VCR and Nintendo.  What we lost in visual swagger we gained in entertainment value.  That van was awesome. We'd drive the then twelve hour trip (thanks to the old 55mph speed limits) from Tampa, Florida to Highlands, North Carolina where my grandparents have a cabin.  How my mother survived it, I still do not know. We spent the entire summer hiding in the woods, digging in the creeks, and playing in the field.  Priceless memories. Now that we're fifteen-twenty years older, married with kids of our own, we've agreed to rally the troops for one weekend of family togetherness at the cabin with my grandparents. We play cards, do puzzles, cookout, and let the kids run amuck. The cabin doesn't have a television, it only gets one radio station, and there isn't any cell phone service. Each visit forces us to unwind, talk and play. This year ...

Measurements: Weight: ~ 30-31 lbs   Length/Height: ~ 34 inches  Eats:  3 full meals, 1-2 snacks, 12oz cow's milk, 10-15oz of water, almost grain-free Diapers:  Size 5, but I should be buying size 6 for nighttimes for the extra absorbancy Clothes:  A few larger 2Ts, mostly 3Ts and some smaller 4Ts Sleep:  8pm bed, 6:30-8:30am wake, one nap 1.5-2hrs long.  Her afternoon nap is cutting down, but she's picking up a little extra at night We think she is in the middle of a growth spurt. She's been napping extra long and eating quite a bit this week! Firsts/Milestones: All four canine teeth came in at the same time. The tops a few days a head of the bottoms, but quickly and painlessly. Eating new, tricky foods on  occasion : baby carrots, peanuts, and popcorn. First attempt at escaping the crib. Her speech is getting clearer, and her vocabulary is growing faster than I can keep up with.  S...

High school friends and now co-workers, I have been blessed to know Mandi for almost half my life, and her husband James for almost a decade. An artist at heart, James is also dabbling in photography but the family needed someone to take on-location photos of all three of them. I am honored they thought of ME! We had a great time!  They came prepared with stunning coordinating outfits as well as several pose ideas of their own.  Even working with their seven week old, Layla, the session went by quickly.  In fact, we were all shocked that we worked for a solid three hours. It's such a joy to work with such happy and loving families! What I learned with this session: Technically Speaking: I am officially a RAW convert. No looking back. We had a later start than I wanted so by the end of the shoot the sun was too harsh.   Mostly used my Tamron AF 17-50mm F/2.8 SP XR Di II VC  lens. Again, great for some of the narr...

You know that old adage, "When God closes one door, He opens a window?" I always looked at it in terms of jobs or careers.  I never really thought about this in any other context until this morning during prayer time. Several months ago I felt the calling to really examine my health . The Standard American Diet (SAD) wasn't cutting it for me.  I knew that the depression, anxiety, acne, allergies, weight gain, stomach issues, mood swings, were not normal nor did I need a pill to control them ( please note, there is a time and place for medicine and medical intervention ). I discovered great resources like The Primal Blueprint ,  Mama and Baby Love , and Hungry for Change  that taught me I was right.  The SAD is no way to live.  Breaking free from the bonds grains and processed and/or fake sugars has freed me to a happy and healthy life without medication. YAY! However, when I started changing my lifestyle to be more and more grain free, I was an...

A few weeks ago I wrote about being intentional , and how it's deliberate baby-steps towards an end goal.  One of those end goals for Eric and I is to find simple things we can do to be good stewards of our treasure (read: money) and the earth.  Also known as cheap and green. It's part of our duty on this earth as part of Catholic Social Teaching. Here's a few simple things we do around out house that help save us money, but also help save the earth. Cloth napkins.     Level: beginner Cost: free to $ So this one is super easy.  Take those $10 Kohl's cards that come in the mail and march yourself to the clearance kitchenwares section. Snag 2-4 cloth napkins.  I've built up our stash to 10-12 over the years.  In the four years we've been married I've only bought 1 package of napkins. We just throw the cloth napkins in our regular wash as needed.  And they only take two seconds to fold.   I know this isn't savin...

Hi. It's been a while, but I'm back! At first my self-imposed blogging time out was for practical purposes.  I noticed that most Julys I spent with family or pulling late-nighters in the office getting ready for my busy season to begin again. However, as the month unfolded I found that the time management skills I had acquired in the last year left me home and bored this July. It was everything in my power not to blog more than the two posts I did.  But it taught me a lesson. This month I learned just how much time I spend behind the computer blogging, editing pictures, and reading Oh! The! Internet!  Without blog posts to write, I didn't edit or take as many pictures, and therefore didn't read The! Internet! nearly as much (at least on my computer).  But rather... ....I got on the floor and played.  I played trains. I played tea party. I read countless books. I played snuggle with my baby girl because she's only a baby girl once. ....I cl...