Simple joys on a Saturday afternoon.
Joyful.
Friday …
Amy, my dear friend from high school, has a knack for finding unusual gifts.
Here you can see one of them … my “Friday” mug. Do you see the lovely shade of mauve behind it? That is the color of my cubicle.
Now you may understand why I have papered my mauve walls with pictures and papers. I loathe the color mauve.
I have some things to report.
First, ONE is going to have one kick-ass big boy room. My very generous parents shipped us the Dr. Seuss bedding from Pottery Barn Kids this week. I love it all so much I want to steal it for myself. I may have squealed when I opened the box.
I mean … come on. HOW FUN ARE THESE?!
Really fun. Super fun.
Below you can see the room that they have pictured in the catalog. ONE’s room won’t look like this, but he’s got all the bedding shown here, along with some navy blue blackout curtains (please, let those be the cure for his refusal to nap!!).
Last night I introduced ONE to his new comforter. He buried himself in it and refused to come out.
I think that’s an EXCELLENT sign.
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He’s in there. I promise.
The Japanese.
I can’t stop thinking about the people in Japan.
They aren’t looting. That fact alone floors me. It makes me ashamed, because just 6 years ago I witnessed firsthand how crazy and out of control people can be in the face of disaster when Hurricane Katrina hit. I worked in a hotel in Baton Rouge — 60 miles from New Orleans — and the crazy behavior reached me. I saw it happen in the hotel lobby day after day. I can’t even imagine what it was like in the middle of the mess.
The Japanese way makes me feel even more worried for them. They believe in order and honor. That makes them even more deserving of aid, in my opinion.
Last night, ignoring ONE’s persistent and loud comments that he did not want to watch the news (“No news, Mommy. No news!) I sat glued to Diane Sawyer’s report from Tokyo. Is two-and-a-half too young for a kid to learn about tragedy? I half-wondered about how the images of death and destruction were affecting ONE … not to mention the fact that I was bawling my eyes out.
Thankfully, he didn’t ask any questions. After 30 minutes, I changed the channel to NickJr and pulled myself together. I can’t shelter my child from real life; life outside of the safe cocoon we’ve woven for him. If anything else, I want to teach him why we need to thank God every day for what we have, and ask Him to help us never take it for granted.
The Case for Selfishness.
Ladies, we need to make time for ourselves. It’s vital to our survival.
Recently, I had a bit of a meltdown. Okay … fine. I completely and totally LOST IT. I reached the end of my rope. I took a trip to crazy town. I was, in sum, burned out.
(Read the rest here at http://www.birminghammommy.com/!)
Fabulous.
May I present to you … my latest find.
My new purse shines like the sun. I want to lean toward it and see if it will make me tan. It is from Gap, originally $50, and I bought it for $16.99.
My sad hand-me-down iphone camera does not do it justice (I know I take horrible pictures). It really makes me happy to look at it. Especially on a dreary, blah, post-time-change Monday.
My next project: find pizazzy shoes that are both comforable and as close to flip flops as possible.
A Break.
I had a scare this week.
Thursday I started having period-like cramps and ignored them. I figured it was normal, even though it was a pretty constant pain. I worked all day, picked up ONE from daycare, vacuumed the entire house, swept, cooked dinner, folded clothes … the usual. But as the cramps continued all day and into the night, I started to pay attention. And then I started to freak.
Apparently that was my body’s way of telling me HELLO, IT’S TIME TO REST. So I did.
I see other people who are working and pregnant with kids at home who seem to manage fine. I felt on some level like I was a weakling for having to wave my white flag and say I needed a break. That is kind of messed up, when I admit it out loud. I would have no problem telling another mom she was entitled to some rest, but still, I felt guilty.
I took the day off from work and spent it in bed and on the couch.
Okay … fine. I might have done some laundry.
Do you know how hard it is to do nothing? It’s hard. When I’m all by myself, I start thinking things like how I’d love to go to T.J. Maxx or the mall or Home Goods. Or, I consider how nice it would be to finally organize the junk closet under the stairs. It’s really difficult for me to do nothing.
Husband finds it rather easy to do nothing. He feels no guilt. I envy that.
It’s Just a Phase.
Recently we got the movie Date Night from Netflix. I found it entertaining. There is a scene where the main characters (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) are asleep in bed, pre-dawn, and their children fly into their bedroom and jump on them. The rest of their day is a jumbled-up blur. They are so tired. They want to sleep so badly.
They would rather sleep than go out. Or have a nice dinner alone. Or have sex. Or brush their hair.
This is my life.
I think ONE is trying to kill us. A slow death. Can you die from sleep deprivation or general exhaustion? He chatters constantly. That in itself is exhausting. He won’t nap. He currently refuses to sleep past 6:00 a.m. He goes full-blast, all day long.
How does he DO that?
I keep telling myself (and Husband) that surely it’s just a phase. Surely, soon, he will calm down — even just a little. I think that is my way of coping, by saying “it’s just a phase.” I mean, It WILL end, at some point. He might be in middle school by the time it does, but it will end.
Kind of like one day, he will not be afraid of the potty. He WILL use it. One day.
How do people with small children nurture their marriage? I can barely conversate with my husband these days. Either I’m exhausted to the point where I can’t form sentences, or we get constantly interrupted by our little chatterbox. I need to learn the tricks, people. What is the workaround?!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ….
Today’s Thought.
Fat Tuesday!
Sometimes, I forget that it’s been 5 1/2 years since we left Louisiana.
Sometimes, I forget my roots … because Alabama is so very different from Louisiana. It seems strange because we only have one state between us (ugh … Mississippi … you depress me). You’d think, since it’s the South, it would all be the same.
It’s not.
Today is Fat Tuesday. Want to know how I remembered? Last night on Nick Jr. there was a special episode of Fresh Beat Band where they traveled through the bayou to play music in the Mardi Gras parade.
Now THAT, my friends, is sad.
It’s business as usual here in Alabama, while everyone has off from school and work just two states away. They are catching beads, eating God-knows-what-out-of-a-pot, and drinking, drinking, drinking. I think I miss the revelry of my hometown. I’m just an average partier, but I love the laid-back, “live and let live” attitude that we left behind.
Most days I love it here in my new hometown, but sometimes, like today, I feel a touch depressed that we ever left.
Laissez les bon temps roulet!
Rainy Weekend.
This is what happens in our house when it’s raining outside.
We like to encourage creativity.
Modern Mommy Madness 