All inspiring sales people please heed the subtle yet successful methods of Jordan at MAC (who is no more than five years younger than I am).
Yesterday my mom took us girls to the mall for a much needed wardrobe update. After pushing two antsy kids in two strollers around the mall for a few hours, during which is usually nap time, we were quite ready to call it a day. Except that I remembered that I had been out of my lipstick for about four months. The MAC store was right by the mall exit, so in we went, a caravan of fatigue and crankiness. I walked right up to the counter and said, "can I please get a tube of x and a tube of y."
Jordan: Oh! Those are my moms favorite colors!
Me: thank you
Jordan: That will be $__.
Me: Long pause. Actually, give me some eye makeup.
Jordan: Um, what kind?
Me: Whatever. Let me just sit in this chair and you make me look good and young again.
Five minutes and five times more than the original total later, I was on my way home.
Next in Project Make Me Feel More Like My Own Age: A haircut on Friday.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
24*
*disclaimer- I have never once seen the show 24 and I am okay with that.
Here's what I have accomplished over the past 24 hours (see also: why I have no time for intelligent blog posts, calling friends and their fetuses, or anything else really):
-I sketched out the entire mural in the playroom. Next comes painting!
-I painted an old chandelier. What was once old and brass is now chic and black.
-I unpacked Shimmy's office even though it meant carrying empty boxes up to the attic to distribute the weight of the boxes of books better and taking twice as many trips down with boxes as it would have taken Shimmy.
-I shlepped both cranky kids to the store after picking Sophie up from school and then shlepped them and huge boxes of diapers back home (yay for lots of coupons and sales).
- I made a dent in the ever-present and ever-growing pile of laundry.
Oh and I took care of the kids all day long, including during the witching hour while Shimmy works late, aka, is at the CAPS game.
This is my new norm since the move. I exist at a break-neck pace. I do not stop to eat or sleep. I have lost 5 lbs. I fit into my skinny clothes. I am hungry. I am tired. But I am thrilled. Stay tuned for more pics as soon as I get a chance.
Here's what I have accomplished over the past 24 hours (see also: why I have no time for intelligent blog posts, calling friends and their fetuses, or anything else really):
-I sketched out the entire mural in the playroom. Next comes painting!
-I painted an old chandelier. What was once old and brass is now chic and black.
-I unpacked Shimmy's office even though it meant carrying empty boxes up to the attic to distribute the weight of the boxes of books better and taking twice as many trips down with boxes as it would have taken Shimmy.
-I shlepped both cranky kids to the store after picking Sophie up from school and then shlepped them and huge boxes of diapers back home (yay for lots of coupons and sales).
- I made a dent in the ever-present and ever-growing pile of laundry.
Oh and I took care of the kids all day long, including during the witching hour while Shimmy works late, aka, is at the CAPS game.
This is my new norm since the move. I exist at a break-neck pace. I do not stop to eat or sleep. I have lost 5 lbs. I fit into my skinny clothes. I am hungry. I am tired. But I am thrilled. Stay tuned for more pics as soon as I get a chance.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Purim 2010
You may remember last year's Purim debacle. So even though we moved into our new house exactly one week before Purim, all I could hear echoing in my head were last year's famous last words "Next year the party is back on. I don't care what else is going on in my life- the party is BACK ON." And I meant it. I invited everyone over a month ahead of time and assured them it was not too much to handle and I was very excited and I had it all under control! I made a few things (mostly dough to bake later) ahead of time. I also assembled all of our mishloach manot ahead of time (with non-perishables of course) and packed them in a big bin to be brought to the new house. I worked like a madwoman unpacking this house as soon as we moved in. And I pulled it off! And had an awesome Purim! WOOT!
Our Mishloach Manot were Beatled-themed, complete with photo-shopped pics of us as the "Fab 4," everything written in a Beatle font I downloaded, filled with food items inspired by Beatles songs, with a vinyl listing those songs. Yes I am a Beatles freak. No, I did not go into nearly as much detail as I could have because I knew most people do not appreciate this stuff as much as I do.
I had found a peace sign costume on clearance at BRU for Lilah right after Purim and I thought it fit our Beatles theme well enough so I bought it. I knew I'd be lucky if I could get Sophie to wear a Beatles t-shirt on Purim, so I did not bother buying her any type of costume. A few days before Purim she informed me that she would like to be matching with Lilah. I found the same costume online in Sophie's size, ordered it, and prayed it would arrive in time. It came in the mail Saturday afternoon just in time for her to wear it Saturday night! BUT she changed her mind at the last minute, insisting she wear her ratty old cupcake dress that she takes naps in (which she coincidentally wore as her costume last year), and some make-shift ballerina gear. She is going through a camera-hating phase, so this was the best shot I could get of her.
On Sunday we hosted a party. The food was off the hook.
Wipe up that saliva.
And the company was awesome as well.
By the end of the day the girls were exhausted. "Stop taking pics, mom. Just give us some peace!" (ironic pun intended)
The next day was Shimmy's birthday. I fired up the grill part of my new oven and grilled us some thick juicy burgers. Then we all had birthday cake!
So this year's awesome Purim totally made up for last year's sucky one. Can't wait for next year! Time to start brainstorming themes...
Our Mishloach Manot were Beatled-themed, complete with photo-shopped pics of us as the "Fab 4," everything written in a Beatle font I downloaded, filled with food items inspired by Beatles songs, with a vinyl listing those songs. Yes I am a Beatles freak. No, I did not go into nearly as much detail as I could have because I knew most people do not appreciate this stuff as much as I do.
I had found a peace sign costume on clearance at BRU for Lilah right after Purim and I thought it fit our Beatles theme well enough so I bought it. I knew I'd be lucky if I could get Sophie to wear a Beatles t-shirt on Purim, so I did not bother buying her any type of costume. A few days before Purim she informed me that she would like to be matching with Lilah. I found the same costume online in Sophie's size, ordered it, and prayed it would arrive in time. It came in the mail Saturday afternoon just in time for her to wear it Saturday night! BUT she changed her mind at the last minute, insisting she wear her ratty old cupcake dress that she takes naps in (which she coincidentally wore as her costume last year), and some make-shift ballerina gear. She is going through a camera-hating phase, so this was the best shot I could get of her.
On Sunday we hosted a party. The food was off the hook.
Wipe up that saliva.
And the company was awesome as well.
By the end of the day the girls were exhausted. "Stop taking pics, mom. Just give us some peace!" (ironic pun intended)
The next day was Shimmy's birthday. I fired up the grill part of my new oven and grilled us some thick juicy burgers. Then we all had birthday cake!
So this year's awesome Purim totally made up for last year's sucky one. Can't wait for next year! Time to start brainstorming themes...
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Moving
Old house when we bought it in August 2004
New house when we first looked at it in October 2008I wanted to get in one last post before the Big Move (on Sunday), and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to finish writing it, so I'm starting it today (Tuesday). The snow set us back about a week in terms of the construction, but we are keeping our moving date and will just deal with the construction for the first week we're in. The things they are finishing up are not major things, so I think we'll be able to deal with it. Most annoying will be the mess. The floors will have just been refinished and I won't have time to clean up whatever dust is floating around. This is really stressing me out. Who wants to move into a dusty house? I guess I'll try to get to our bedrooms the night before we move, and everything else will have to wait.
I am so excited to move into the "new" house. It's a better house for us. It will be a nice new beginning. The beginning of no clutter (I am serious about this one- no excuses people! There are 2 coat closets in the foyer alone! Pick up your stuff!). The beginning of opening kitchen cabinets without having pots fall on my head. The beginning of letting the kids run free in the yard and ride bikes on the driveway. But I will miss this house. It was our first house. We stayed up nights painting its walls and making it our home. We found out that we were pregnant three times in this house. We lost one of those pregnancies in this house. We brought two beautiful babies home to this house. They said their first words in this house. They learned (and are learning) to walk in this house. I wonder if they will even remember this house at all...
ETA: Over a week later, and I never got to finish this post. Next one will be about the joys of moving and settling into the new house! We're on our way! Sorry for the abrupt ending, but there are boxes to unpack!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Blizzard 2010
Snowcalypse. Snowmageddon. Snowtorious B.I.G. Any way you put it, we just got a boat load of snow. We were hit with 26 inches on Friday/Saturday, and then ANOTHER 20 inches on Tuesday/Wednesday. Yea, too much damn snow. This meant no school for a week (boo), no work in DC for Shimmy for a week (yay), no work in our new house for a week (BOO- this has major suck factor for moving in). Here's how we spent our time:
Cabin Fever- LITERALLY. From Tuesday evening through early Friday morning I was weak, achy, and had the chills. I could not get warm (despite wearing layers upon layers) unless I was either sitting right next to the fireplace or in bed with a heating pad. For a while I mistakenly attributed this to one prolonged anxiety attack, since the snow was indeed stressing me out. It wasn't until I woke up at 3am Friday morning in a pool of sweat, and then woke up a few hours later feeling 500% better that I realized that I must have actually been running a fever. Weird timing.
Crafts- I had fun coloring with Sophie and making snowmen out of cotton balls and buttons. But these crafts didn't take nearly as long as I had hoped they would! They were a small help in the cure of stir craziness.
"Baking"- I have not had a working oven in close to 2 months (that is another long, boring, and irritating story), but we did make hamantashen dough and spinach and artichoke pinwheels to freeze and bake later.
Mishloach Manot- I bought all of the items and started assembling the bags. I also designed the cards that go with them.
Treadmilling- I got a lot of good work outs in. Since Sophie was home, I left the tv on her channel and listened to my ipod. The music really pumped me up and I found myself running for longer spurts (I combination walk/run) and I also increased my overall mileage. That, combined with cutting back my weight watchers points by a couple resulted in losing a couple more pounds. So YAY for that!
Packing- I got a lot of packing done! I've packed almost everything besides for last minute stuff. Moving Day is next Sunday- woohoo!
Here are some pics of the storm(s) and aftermath:
Coming down fast and furious:
This used to be an entire swingset!
Holy Icicles, Batman
Tunneling our way out of 40+ inches:
Just the tippy top of the shrubs are left:
I have never been more ready for Spring in my entire life.
Cabin Fever- LITERALLY. From Tuesday evening through early Friday morning I was weak, achy, and had the chills. I could not get warm (despite wearing layers upon layers) unless I was either sitting right next to the fireplace or in bed with a heating pad. For a while I mistakenly attributed this to one prolonged anxiety attack, since the snow was indeed stressing me out. It wasn't until I woke up at 3am Friday morning in a pool of sweat, and then woke up a few hours later feeling 500% better that I realized that I must have actually been running a fever. Weird timing.
Crafts- I had fun coloring with Sophie and making snowmen out of cotton balls and buttons. But these crafts didn't take nearly as long as I had hoped they would! They were a small help in the cure of stir craziness.
"Baking"- I have not had a working oven in close to 2 months (that is another long, boring, and irritating story), but we did make hamantashen dough and spinach and artichoke pinwheels to freeze and bake later.
Mishloach Manot- I bought all of the items and started assembling the bags. I also designed the cards that go with them.
Treadmilling- I got a lot of good work outs in. Since Sophie was home, I left the tv on her channel and listened to my ipod. The music really pumped me up and I found myself running for longer spurts (I combination walk/run) and I also increased my overall mileage. That, combined with cutting back my weight watchers points by a couple resulted in losing a couple more pounds. So YAY for that!
Packing- I got a lot of packing done! I've packed almost everything besides for last minute stuff. Moving Day is next Sunday- woohoo!
Here are some pics of the storm(s) and aftermath:
Coming down fast and furious:
This used to be an entire swingset!
Holy Icicles, Batman
Tunneling our way out of 40+ inches:
Just the tippy top of the shrubs are left:
I have never been more ready for Spring in my entire life.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Ethics of the Fathers = Life Stories of the Mothers
אם אין אני לי, מי לי; וכשאני לעצמי, מה אני; ואם לא עכשיו, אימתי.(פרקי אבות, פרק א, משנה יד)
Translation: "If I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I am [only] for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
That's why we call them the Sages.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Normal is Relative
I often find myself having conversations with other moms about what a normal day is like for them. We ask each other how many naps our kids take, what we cook for dinner, what time is bedtime, etc. I have my typical daily schedule. I've shared it here before. The schedule in my house is ever-evolving as kids shift from three naps a day to two to one. It changes with the school/camp schedule. It changes whenever something "out of the ordinary" occurs. Which is pretty much every day.
Here's a rundown of our typical schedule, which I will now officially rename our IDEAL schedule:
7:30am- We all wake up. I feed the kids breakfast, pack Sophie's lunch for school, get the kids dressed, and get out the door on time!
8:20am- Drop Sophie off at school and set out to run some errands with Lilah.
10:00am- Return home, feed Lilah, put her down for a nap, and get on the treadmill.
11:30am- Shower (haha, somehow I never have time for this part!), eat something, feed Lilah lunch.
12:20pm- Leave to pick up Sophie.
12:45pm- Arrive home, if kids have not eaten enough for lunch, feed them again.
2pm-4pm- Kids nap and I nap or chill.
4pm-6pm- Kids play nicely together.
6pm- Dinner time (it's especially nice if Shimmy is coming home soon and we can all sit down and eat together).
7pm- Start winding down and getting ready for bathtime/bedtime
7:30pm- Lilah goes to bed.
8:00pm- Sophie goes to bed.
This is IDEAL. This is what I spend most of the day aiming for. My sole purpose seems to be to keep everyone ON SCHEDULE and for us to STAY ON TRACK!
Having said that, I honestly cannot think of a single day where some thing isn't thrown into the mix. Here's an example: For the past few weeks I have been without an oven and a dryer. Yesterday my parents decided to come up for dinner with little notice. Shimmy said, "how will you make dinner for everyone without an oven?" I looked at him and said "challenge accepted." A couple hours later when we all sat down to spinach pasta, salmon croquettes, a mandarin salad, and a bottle of chardonnay chilling on the table I said, "this is the fanciest meal I have ever cooked in a toaster oven." Ideal? No. Normal? Definitely.
Here's another example: At 7:30 this morning, just as everyone started waking up, the dryer company called to say they would be here in an hour with my new dryer. Luckily, Shimmy had slept in, so he was able to take Sophie to school. They weren't able to disconnect the old, broken dryer, though, so they ended up just bringing the new one down, leaving me with two non-working dryers. I called someone I thought might be able to help. This was about 10:00am. I put Lilah down for her nap. She seemed tired, so I fully expected her to fall asleep right away. An hour later she was still awake, rolling around and playing. I decided to take my chances and get on the treadmill anyways. She still wasn't asleep (but wasn't sad) after 45 minutes, so I got off the treadmill (15 minutes early). As soon as I got out of the bathroom she was fast asleep. At this point it was 30 minutes before I needed to leave to pick up Sophie. I hate having to wake a sleeping baby, especially after an insufficient nap. So I called my mother-in-law, who said she would pick up Sophie. Good thing, too, because the guy I called about the dryer showed up just as I should have been leaving to pick up Sophie. A short while later, I had a working dryer, Sophie was brought home, and Lilah woke up after a nice amount of napping. Very much NOT on schedule. Very much NOT ideal. And somehow I survive yet another day.
So what is a normal day like? Well, pretty much like today. I guess normal is relative.
Here's a rundown of our typical schedule, which I will now officially rename our IDEAL schedule:
7:30am- We all wake up. I feed the kids breakfast, pack Sophie's lunch for school, get the kids dressed, and get out the door on time!
8:20am- Drop Sophie off at school and set out to run some errands with Lilah.
10:00am- Return home, feed Lilah, put her down for a nap, and get on the treadmill.
11:30am- Shower (haha, somehow I never have time for this part!), eat something, feed Lilah lunch.
12:20pm- Leave to pick up Sophie.
12:45pm- Arrive home, if kids have not eaten enough for lunch, feed them again.
2pm-4pm- Kids nap and I nap or chill.
4pm-6pm- Kids play nicely together.
6pm- Dinner time (it's especially nice if Shimmy is coming home soon and we can all sit down and eat together).
7pm- Start winding down and getting ready for bathtime/bedtime
7:30pm- Lilah goes to bed.
8:00pm- Sophie goes to bed.
This is IDEAL. This is what I spend most of the day aiming for. My sole purpose seems to be to keep everyone ON SCHEDULE and for us to STAY ON TRACK!
Having said that, I honestly cannot think of a single day where some thing isn't thrown into the mix. Here's an example: For the past few weeks I have been without an oven and a dryer. Yesterday my parents decided to come up for dinner with little notice. Shimmy said, "how will you make dinner for everyone without an oven?" I looked at him and said "challenge accepted." A couple hours later when we all sat down to spinach pasta, salmon croquettes, a mandarin salad, and a bottle of chardonnay chilling on the table I said, "this is the fanciest meal I have ever cooked in a toaster oven." Ideal? No. Normal? Definitely.
Here's another example: At 7:30 this morning, just as everyone started waking up, the dryer company called to say they would be here in an hour with my new dryer. Luckily, Shimmy had slept in, so he was able to take Sophie to school. They weren't able to disconnect the old, broken dryer, though, so they ended up just bringing the new one down, leaving me with two non-working dryers. I called someone I thought might be able to help. This was about 10:00am. I put Lilah down for her nap. She seemed tired, so I fully expected her to fall asleep right away. An hour later she was still awake, rolling around and playing. I decided to take my chances and get on the treadmill anyways. She still wasn't asleep (but wasn't sad) after 45 minutes, so I got off the treadmill (15 minutes early). As soon as I got out of the bathroom she was fast asleep. At this point it was 30 minutes before I needed to leave to pick up Sophie. I hate having to wake a sleeping baby, especially after an insufficient nap. So I called my mother-in-law, who said she would pick up Sophie. Good thing, too, because the guy I called about the dryer showed up just as I should have been leaving to pick up Sophie. A short while later, I had a working dryer, Sophie was brought home, and Lilah woke up after a nice amount of napping. Very much NOT on schedule. Very much NOT ideal. And somehow I survive yet another day.
So what is a normal day like? Well, pretty much like today. I guess normal is relative.
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