I have a lot to say but very little time (I'm guessing- Kisa is currently napping) to blog, so I will try to keep it short.

First, I had a great mother's day yesterday (and kind of on Saturday too). Matt cooked me breakfast and then we went downtown and had a picnic at Waterfront Park. The weather was beautiful and Kisa got to crawl around on the grass for the first time in her little life. She was well-behaved the whole day (not that she often isn't), and overall it was just a fun adventure with the fam.

Second, I made a ton of sales this week. Mostly to family members, but that is okay with me. I am trying to do some research on ways to promote my business because I think my problem with online sales is not getting enough traffic to my site. I've been watching my page views and I've only had a few new ones this week.

Third, I've created a new product! I made my first reusable grocery bag (thanks Ashby for the suggestion). I think it is pretty cute... in fact, I'll probably be making myself one in the near future. The thing that I am most excited about is actually the lining fabric, which I screen-printed with my own custom design featuring my logo. It came out exactly the way I wanted it to look. I told Matt that even if I had gotten it custom printed it could not have looked better-- I like the handmade/imperfection feel of it. Anyway, this one has already been sold but I'll be making more and I'll post pics of that and of the general screenprinting process (turned out to be much easier than I had imagined).

Fourth(ly)... I gave myself a great Mother's Day gift in honor of my daughter's ninth month of life, and that was seeing my pre-pregnancy weight on the scale this past week! Unfortunately I promptly gained some back due to the multiple Mother's Day Feasts, but I have not yet given up on my diet and plan to lose a few more pounds in the coming weeks. This is the second goal I have attained in my weight-loss/fitness journey. The goals help me stay motivated and track my progress. These are the ones I have set (some reached, some still to be attained):
1. Get weight back into the 120's/comfortably wear a size 4 (reached that one a while ago)
2. Back to pre-pregnancy weight by Ashley's wedding/fit into my bridesmaids' dress (whoops-I ordered a size too small. Anyway, my dress now fits, thank God!)
3. Wedding weight by my 2nd anniversary (121lbs by June 28th- I made this promise to Matt last year for our anniversary and would really like to reach this goal as a gift to both of us by this year. Shouldn't be a problem)
4. 117lbs/swimsuit body by my birthday. This is more of a fitness goal than a weight loss one. I have been working on my problem areas (basically the abs are the main offenders). This number represents the ideal weight for my height. I'm not tied to the number itself but rather the concept of peak physical condition, so that's really the goal, regardless of the # I end up with on the scale.

Anyway, I know to a lot of people this whole journey may sound a bit shallow, but to me it is about taking care of myself and being the best ME I can be. I have blogged about this before but I believe very strongly that maintaining your health is an important part of life AND an important part of marriage. Matt and I had a serious conversation about this before we got married, and made a commitment to each other to take care of our health and our bodies.

I have been considering this whole thing carefully in the last few weeks, trying to think very intentionally about what I communicate to my daughter about body image, diet and exercise. Now that I am responsible for parenting a girl (who will someday grow up to be a woman with body image issues of her own) I have to be very careful about what I teach her, either by my words or by my actions. I hope to model a lifetime of healthy eating habits and exercise, but not constant diets or insecurities. I want her to know that if she takes care of her body the best that she can then her shape isn't what's important. This is hard to do since we all struggle... and obviously there are some times when diets are necessary (like after you have a baby). But I hope to get to a healthy place for me, and then stay there. And hopefully by doing that I will be a good role model for my daughter.

Anyway... I had more to write but I have already spent too much of nap time blogging and now I will likely not have time to clean my kitchen. :) whoops.