What's In a Name?

Heading back to my 31 day blog challenge, that is going to take the rest of my life to complete! ;)  Today's question was, "what's the meaning behind the name of your business?"



Well...I don't have a business.  Momma ain't got time for all that.

So, I thought I'd tell you the meaning behind my blog name instead.  It's really not much of a story, but let me tell you, I agonized over the name of this silly blog for far too long, haha! I felt like it had to be absolutely perfect.  It needed to be catchy so people would want to read it!  It needed to be some cute play on words!  It needed to reflect how in-depth my thoughts would be!



I'm serious, friends.  I have no idea what my problem was.  (I so wish there was a laughing crying emoji for blogger.)



In the end, I settled on a short and sweet description of our days.  Right now, in this time of my life, I survive on coffee and with two toddlers- we are constantly wiping off, walking on, and sleeping with (ha!) cookie crumbs everywhere.


*Exhibit A: Crumbs.  Poor second child had to get his own snack.  At least it was healthy? Haha :)

This blog is really just a journal for me and my family, if they choose to read it.  Every once in a while I do some fun posts about my thoughts on certain subjects or what toys my kids have loved at what ages because those kind of posts have been so helpful for me along my motherhood journey, but mostly I post about my kids.  And our life- our fun times and our struggles, our dreams and our realities.


*Girlfriend found the lipstick!  Doesn't she look beautiful?

So, my blog name, "Coffee and Cookie Crumbs" is just an accurate depiction of any random day at my house in this time of sleepless motherhood and messy toddlerhood.  Maybe one day, if I get some fancy blog design, I'll add a tagline like: "Finding joy in the messy moments of life" or "Our quiver full of messy blessings" (based off Psalm 127:3-5...you know it--children are a heritage from the Lord...blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.")

*My quiver.*

Anyway, I added a whole lot to this blog just to tell you the meaning behind the name, haha!  I hope you all have a great weekend!  I know I will...I turned in my last assignment of the semester this morning!  Now I have two glorious weeks of nothing before summer sessions start up.


*Doing the happy dance at 5:30 this morning after finalizing my policy brief and turning that bad boy in!

And please--I'd love to know the meaning behind your blog names!  Tell me I'm not the only one who  had such a hard time coming up with the "perfect" name, haha!

20 Facts About Me

You know, Pinterest has just about everything.  I found this nifty little 31 day blog challenge to help your readers get to know you better, so last week I introduced myself and this week I'm going to give you 20 Facts about me.  Gosh, by the time this 31 day challenge is up, you may know me better than I know myself!  I'd also love to know all about you so I don't feel like I'm just incessantly talking about myself over here!  So leave me some comments with facts about you! :)

1. I am an only child.  I have been known to do things like this on sibling day:



2. Until my kids were born, I was the only one in my family with blonde hair and blue eyes. (My Granddaddy has blue eyes, so I share with him!) But now both of my kids have blonde hair and blue eyes like me!!  Yeah!

3. I'm  DEATHLY AFRAID of spiders.

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4.  I don't like mushrooms.  Anything that shares a name with something that can grow on your foot is not going in my mouth (fungus...yuck.)

5. I have 2 degrees and I'm working on a third.  (BS in Psychology, minor in Education; BS in Nursing; working on Doctorate of Nursing Practice)

6.  My favorite movie is probably a toss up between That Thing You Do and A League of Their Own.

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7. I had jaw surgery during college (La Forte I Osteotomy for you medical folk) for TMJ.

8. I haven't grown an inch since 8th grade.  (Well, up anyway!  Out's another story...)

9. I twirl my hair.  I have since before I had hair (per my mother) and now I'm 30 years old and still do it.

10. I met my husband in college.  We were neighbors. :)

11. I also met my best friend in college!  We were roommates!

12. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, but my favorite book series is Harry Potter (Outlander is a very, very close second!)

13. My favorite color is pink, my least favorite color is red.  It's a fine line between both of those, haha!

14. I love to travel. I don't get the opportunity as much anymore now that we have kids, but I'm definitely planning where we will go when they are old enough!  I want them to love traveling as much as I do!



15. I love sweets.  Probably more than I should!

16. My favorite season is fall.

17. My favorite holiday is Christmas.

18. Time with my family is one of the most important things to me.  We are all close and I want to keep it that way!

19. I was "Team N'Sync" over "Team Backstreet Boys".  N'Sync all the way!

20. Friends is my all-time favorite show!

It's really hard to think of 20 facts about yourself!  What about you?  What are some facts I should know about you?

Introducing....

...Me!  I have a few new followers, thanks to Erica's Saturday Sit-Down series, and I thought I would take the day to re-introduce myself to everyone.



My name is Erin and I live in South Carolina with my husband David, daughter Hadley (3), and son Griffin (1).



I am a nurse by trade.  I worked in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for a long time and I loved that job.  There is just something very special about a baby who has spent time in the NICU.  They bring a whole new definition to the term "fight" and the families are pretty awesome, too.  After Hadley was born, I went super part-time (PRN for all you medical folks).  I wanted to stay home and raise my baby girl, but I didn't want to leave my other babies.  I did that for about a year and a half and then the unit started making some scheduling changes that weren't working for my family anymore.  I was sad to leave, but my priority was being home with my kids while they are little (after all, they are only young for a little while!) and I wanted to soak up that time.  I didn't want to leave healthcare forever, or even stop working for that matter, but it was clear I needed to find something that worked for us.  The way things came about is all God.  He made it very clear that He is in control and I'm still in awe of how all the pieces fit perfectly into place. (You can read more about that here.) I got a new job and found out I was pregnant again all in the same month.


*What? This isn't how all nurses dress??  A little fun on nightshift ;) *

Anyway, I now work in Women's Education, teaching Prepared Childbirth classes, sibling classes, and working with staff to get a Bringing Home Baby class up and running.  I work one evening a week, so I am home with my kids during the day and they get time with Daddy when I'm a work.  It's a dream life, really.  Although, I do miss the NICU and contemplate going back all the time.  Ha!

With two littles at home, the only sane thing to do is go back to school. (Right? Right.)  I am currently in school to get my Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP)--specializing in pediatrics (PNP).  I get up early and stay up late.  Hadley is in preschool 2 mornings a week, so I work when she's there and Griffin is napping.  It's time consuming, but worth it!



In my spare time (ha!), I do like to be "crafty".  I can sew a little, so I make the kids things, and I make a lot of t-shirts.  I don't have time to run an Etsy shop, but I do sell things every once in a while.


 *A girly toolbelt for my silly girl.  She looks like such a baby here!*



That's just a short intro, but if you have any questions, shoot me a message in the comments and I'd be happy to answer!  And PLEASE, tell me about yourselves!  I'd love to know about you guys as well!

The Stars of the Show

On most days, I get about zero adult interaction.  You can hear the following phrases leave my mouth at least once a day, if not more:

"No, you can't have m&m's for breakfast."

"Where are your pants???"

"Get away from the outlets."

"Do you need to go to time out?"

"Please don't sit on your brother."

"Ugga Mugga!"

"If you have to go potty, stop and go right away!  Flush and wash and be on your way!" (You get extra points if you know where the last two come from!)

I am constantly picking up after, repeating myself, and running interference on two of the tiniest dictators the world has ever seen.  And it's pretty much the best job in the world.  (I'd be lying, though, if I said I wasn't exhausted at the end of the day!  Oh hi, husband, glad to see you, here you go! *hands off baby, grabs keys and walks out the door*)

So, who are the peanuts behind my coffee addiction and crumbs on my floor?  Hadley and Griffin.

Hadley is my beautiful, spunky, almost-three-year-old who is fiercely independent, smart as a whip, and funny as all get out.  If she's not pushing every button I have (uncanny, really, how she just knows.) she's making me laugh harder than anyone.  She's been using words like "exhausted" and "aggravated" since she turned two and can use an iPhone better than most adults. (Bad parenting, eh?)

And she has a heart of gold, this one.  She's polite and kind to everyone and really a joy to be around.  She introduces her "byudda" to everyone and is such a proud big sister.  She gives the best hugs and kisses and throws out "I love you, Mommy" like it's going out of style. And I'm not just saying that because I'm her momma. ;)

Griffin is my 10 month old little bear.  His first sound was a growl, which he still does today.  He is extremely laid back, except for the 12 hours he should be sleeping at night.  For some reason, the boy thinks sleeping is for the birds and doesn't apply to him.  He also gets into everything he's not supposed to without fail.  I never had to worry about anything with Hadley- but Griffin?  He loves wall outlets, electrical cords, everything that is ever put into a drawer or cabinet, stairs, anything small enough that will fit in his mouth (magnets, paper, his sisters play food, bugs, cat food...), and one time he even pooped out a barcode- so, #momwin on that one.

He's also the biggest momma's boy there ever was.  He gives the best snuggles, his little dimple when he smiles is pretty much the best thing ever, and he's so darn ticklish!  His two bottom teeth are in and he's getting his four, count 'em, FOUR top teeth all at once.  He sure is in a good mood, though, for someone who doesn't sleep and is growing something harder than bones out of his gums!





These two are the stars of the show and boy am I ever glad they are.  My world would be very boring if I wasn't raising these two beauties.  (Albeit a lot more restful!  But I'll sleep when I'm dead.)

Coffee and Cookie Crumbs

Me.

I'm Erin.  You may know me from my Bells Will Be Ringing blog, or you may have just found me searching the world wide web (circa 1998), or you may just be a family member (majority of my readers, ha!).  But either way, I'm glad you did.  Bells Will Be Ringing was my blog for a long time and life got crazy (i.e. babies!) and I tried multiple times to continue with it and finally just gave up.  I like writing and having an outlet, but I'm also insanely organized and writing in that messy "start over all the time" space drove my little OCD, color-coded brain nuts. #blessmyheart

So, here I am, again.  Starting over, but with a clean slate.  It's that same feeling you get when you buy all new school supplies.  I'm pretty much giddy over here!

Me again.

I'm probably just as crazy to be starting a new blog as to try to revamp the old one because life is still crazy.  Probably even crazier now that both of my babies are on the move...and I'm starting school.  (What?!) But I'll either manage it or I won't!  No use crying over spilled milk! (Unless it's breast milk and then cue all the tears.  Can I get an Amen?!)

So with a new blog, I needed a new name.  How did I decide on Coffee and Cookie Crumbs?  Well in short: I survive on coffee.  I need coffee.  We are constantly in survival mode over here and give. me. all. the. coffee.  Please and thank you.  I also sweep up crumbs every single day of my life....because toddlers.  I like to pretend they are always cookie crumbs because a) it makes me the "cool" mom.  "Oh your mom lets you eat all the cookies for breakfast? Awesome!" and b) when it's other things like, ahem, a bug in my son's mouth, pretending it's actually a cookie crumb is a form of psychotherapy I need in order to fish it out of his mouth.

 Not me.*

So, you see, I pretty much have it together over here and I have all the time in the world to blog.  Sarcasm font.

But I'm glad you are along for the ride and look forward to blogging with you again, probably on a new blog, in the future. ;)

*That's my hubby.  He fights aliens with the FBI while protecting the President of the U.S.of A.  Or he's a quality manager at a manufacturing company.  Same thing.