Beauty of Motherhood

A Bouquet for You

Here, I want you to have this. A small bedside bouquet. Just a little pop of color to cheer you up on a rainy spring day.

Schilling's "Major Tom" Gets A Shiny Makeover

Can't resist posting this. I love Peter Schilling's Major Tom and was psyched to hear Shiny Toy Guns, who I also totally dig, covering it in this new spot for Lincoln.

You can actually download the song for free on the band's website.

In Bloom

The sight of tulips unfurling their bright petals and small buds appearing on the tips of tree branches makes me absolutely giddy. It means that winter is officially over and soon the sun will start to warm Wisconsin’s frozen tundra.

Since summer is short, and sunny days are few here in this part of the country, people flock outside anytime the temperatures are nice. When I first moved here, I found all the spring and summer activity somewhat desperate. It was as if people were trying incredibly hard to make as much of the sunny days as possible. Now, after months of looking at snow and ice, I, too, seem to assume an air of desperation when it comes to sunny days; I try to pack in as much as possible.

That means that even though I’m still healing from a C-section, I had to take advantage of the 60 degree temperatures and load the girls in the stroller for a short walk around the block. The going was incredibly slow, but it felt so great to be out of the house and in the sun for at least a little while. Something about sunshine just makes everything better. Now if only I could also get a little sleep, things would be really great!

New Additions

Finally, I can tell you: Our new addition has arrived.

Her name is Sophia and she was born last Monday. I’ve wanted to mention her for quite some time now, but it’s only now that she has safely arrived that I feel comfortable doing so.

After nine months of waiting and praying and watching my tummy expand (again) to proportions I never thought possible, I am so happy to meet our new baby girl.  She is incredibly sweet, and little Eva seems to think so, too. Of course, when Sophia starts demanding more of my attention and Eva has to share some of the Mommy Love, I don’t know if she’ll still seem so accepting.

For now, though, things seem good. We just feel incredibly blessed to have such a beautiful little family.

 

Cupcakes, Carbs, and Birthday Candles

Already, my child possesses the ability to detect the presence of anything carbolicious lurking in the nearby vicinity. Blueberry muffins, cupcakes, toast, you name it. All you have to do is bring her within a few feet of said item and she automatically points to it and assumes an air of great desperation.

Usually I try to keep her encounters with sugar-loaded items to a minimum, but birthdays are an exception. For her birthday, Eva got her very own cupcake, complete with icing. Sensing that somehow the presence of such a sweet treat might be an unusual occurrence, she gobbled it up as fast as possible. Later, we swept up the crumbs, naively thinking that the remaining cupcakes would go largely ignored.

But no. The next day when Scott came home and asked me if we had any cupcakes left, Eva looked right at the container where they’d been stored and pointed right at them. Apparently, we not only need to start hiding treats, we need to spell them out when referencing them in conversation.

Small Accomplishments

If you think this blog receives only intermittent attention, you should have seen the before picture of these paintings. They were in the works for at least five months.  Obviously, it’s not because they are really complex pieces of artwork.

But the other day, after taking Eva to story time, I decided to break out my paints and actually finish them. It felt good to actually see something through to completion. As a mom, I sometimes feel like I rarely finish anything – books, a cup of coffee, putting on my makeup . . . 

So much of the work done around the house is work that almost immediately begs to be done again and again. Like laundry or picking up toys or scraping up traces of baby food from the kitchen floor. There’s no real sense of accomplishment in those tasks.

Looking at my paintings, I felt a sense of accomplishment. And it felt good. So good that I decided to accomplish a few more things. Like starting some seedlings for a garden I want to plant this summer, writing notes to a couple of friends, and baking some peanut butter cookies. Small things, for sure, but it was nice to get them done.

What about you? Anything you’ve been trying to accomplish that you’d like to finish?

 

Barbie Gets Inked?

Someone at Mattel has OD’d on L.A. Ink. Apparently, Barbie is celebrating her 50th b-day by getting tattooed.

Totally Stylin' Tattoos Barbie comes with more than 40 tiny tattoo stickers, a faux tattoo gun, and wash-off tats for little tots. And to think I’d naively assumed I had until at least the later tween years to start combating social forces encouraging the art of body-alteration.

Honestly, I don’t have a problem with tattoos. Some look sort of trashy, but some look like incredible works of art. And if there was something I thought I would still like twenty or thirty years from now, I’d probably get one myself. But Barbie? Couldn’t she just get a new Porsche or redecorate her dream house?

So Much for Global Warming

 

Can you believe it? Two degrees below zero with a windchill of -25. I didn't even know my car was capable of registering temperatures on a negative scale!

Maybe somebody with beachfront property in the Bahamas would like to swap houses for a week and experience this fine Arctic blast while we soak in the tropical sun.

Why I (Heart) Auntie Mame

"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!" – Auntie Mame

 

No matter how many times I watch the 1958 version of Auntie Mame staring Rosalind Russell, I’m always enthralled by Mame’s ability to inject everyday life with pizzazz. It’s a talent I long to cultivate, especially when grey skies stretch endlessly overhead and I’m sick, sick, sick of wearing the same coat/sweater/boot combination.

Yes, desperate measures are needed if one wants to maintain some trace of sanity until spring arrives bearing up its gifts of tulips and spotty sunshine. For starters I figure Mame would advise me to break out the gin and mix a stout martini, but since my adult-beverage consumption is on hiatus for a few more months yet, I will have to settle for a stout cup of coffee.

While sipping said coffee I’ll share a few of the other small ways I personally like to inject a little glam into the daily deal.

1). Red lipstick. Nothing perks up a pale face like a hit of color on the smacker. Just looking at the tube of ruby hued lip color sitting in the cabinet makes me smile.

2) Moleskine planners and notebooks. Used by artists and writers like Picasso, van Gogh, and Ernest Hemingway, these legendary books are the perfect place to preserve plans and capture ideas.

3) Real napkins. I realize some people are perfectly content to grab a paper napkin or paper towel whenever they have use for such an item. I am not one of these people. Why use a paper product which not only cost money to replace, but also ends up being trashed, when you can use something stylish?

4.) Great music. Preferably turned up very loud. Although frankly it just seems wrong to subject a ten-month old to my fave tunes blasting at ear-shattering decibels so I try to keep things a little more subdued.

5.) Fresh flowers. Someday I will have a massive garden overflowing with roses and other bright blooms which I can cut and bring indoors. ‘Till then, I splurge on the occasional bouquet of roses or brightly-colored tulips to adorn my kitchen table. I’m also a big fan of orchids (So exotic, don’t you think?) and usually buy a couple during these winter months to lend things a little color.

Happy New Year!

The snow outside glitters like a white, diamond encrusted cape, but I can't help thinking some sand, surf, and a big, cold margarita sound even more inviting.

Since a mid-winter getaway is absolutely out of the question, I'm going to make some coffee and nibble on a Coffee Crunch Bar. (The recipe doesn't seem to be available online yet; it just came out in the new issue of Bon Appetit.) I'm also going to listen to my December Mix, which is packed with songs I've been digging for the past few months. Maybe you need a coffee and music break, too? You'll have to make your own coffee, but I'll happily share my music mix with you.