why blogs are misleading

I have to constantly remind myself that peoples' blog lives are just a glimpse of their real lives.

Cause nobody lives a perfect life all of the time.

Right?

Lives filled with finished renovated benches.

And snow covered barns outside your window, while you sit in front of a fireplace sipping organic tea.

And perfectly knitted sweaters.

And family dinners where everyone is happy and eating their vegetables.

And the perfect thrifted find, that fits, just so, into a room.

The best we can hope for are moments of perfection.

Moments where you realize that all is good.

For example, take this picture.

What you see:

A smiling girl

eating lunch

while playing go fish

with her mommy.

Such a perfect moment.

What you don't see:

the 17 arguments we have already had, mostly about whining

the laundry sitting in the corner

the kitten leaving puncture wounds in our legs

the fact she is still in her jammies and I am stressed cause we have to leave in like 15 minutes for school

the disasterous state of our kitchen

the pile of toys littering the living room

the (alarmingly large) dust bunnies in the corner

my mind, going a million miles and hour with the 26 things I need to do in the 2.5 hours she is in school

and

the argument we had about eating something green for lunch.

But mommy!  I don't like edamame.

It's yucky!

Eww!

Don't get me wrong.

I love to read about peoples lives.

And all the wonderful things in them.

I am amazed at the creativity and love that is out there.

And, I'm not gonna lie,

often jealous.

I have not a creative bone in my body.

However, I find that I like reading best about the everyday things.

What breakfast looks like.

What messes others deal with.

What the inside of a minivan looks like.

(and under no circumstances am I ever showing you the inside of my car.)

There are women out there I have never met who I send Christmas cards to.

Women who, I am convinced, would be dear friends if we lived close.

I love that.

I love the blog world.

And all it has taught me.

Period.

scenes of our sunday - science center

Just a quick post tonight.

I was in bed all day yesterday with a nasty achy yucky cold.

And I still don't feel good.

You should hear me.

I sound like a broken trumpet.

For real.

However, we did hit up the Science Center today for a bit of fun.

Check it.

Back to my regular scheduled blogging soon.

Swear.

Now, I am off to bed.

With tea.

And the Tudors.

ellie's favorite books

We are on our second day of crazydon'tgoanywhere snow days.

We are bored.

So I asked Ellie to show me her favorite books and this was what I got.

(***disclaimer: we are messy, the room is messy, just so you know.***)

 Where Have the Unicorns Gone.

We are big into anything horse or unicorn these days.

I originally got this at the library and as soon as we got it home knew it needed to be in our collection.

 Love the illustrations.

 Big Treasury of Little Animals

I had the duck one when I was little and loved it!

It shows real kids raising real animals.

Her favorite is the kitten one.

 Fancy Nancy

Anything Fancy Nancy is a favorite these days.

I like how they teach her new "fancy" words.

Now, she must use her pen with a "plume."

 Amelia Bedelia

I must admit, when she picks this one at night I cringe a little.

Amelia Bedelia is not my favorite and it is so long! 

Plus you have to say Amelia Bedelia so many freaking times.

 Llama Llama books.

Love em.

I am a sucker for any book that rhymes.

Not sure why.

 Dinosaur  Hunt.

About a little dog that makes a dinosaur out of things he finds.

She mostly loves it because....

 This kitty running from the dinosaur cracks her up.

Every. Single. Time.

We are currently waiting on a shipment of books.

Do you remember the Serendipity books?

The ones that taught the moral lessons?

We are anxiously waiting to read

Morgan and Me.

Flutterby.

Serindipity.

Leo the Lop

Muffin Dragon.

They look like this:

I hope she likes them.

 I read somewhere once that if a child has a home library of 500+ books, they are much more likely to have 3.5 year of education past a college degree.

I remember thinking 500 books was a ton.

Now, not so much.

We have to be close to that.

We may have a doctor on our hands!

Or a vet.

Or a phychologist.

Or a whatever else she wants to be.

And just because...

 look at these awesome shoes I scored at Old Navy for 3 bucks.

Love.

 And see this "Here Comes Trouble" shirt

 Totally mine when I was little. 

Cause I was trouble.

scenes of our sunday

Chris worked all weekend, which is not normal.

It somehow seems harder to be a solo parent on the weekend, doesn't it?

  So on Sunday, when he had a few hours, we made the most of them.

We had us some fun.

 Urban Outfitters.

I am becoming very fond of Anthropologies less flashy, less fancy, less expensive little cousin.

 The chocolate store.

Oh how I love thee.

And didn't get a thing.

Cause I have eaten at Chipotle 3 of the last 4 days.

GASP.

 Just a random kayak shot.

Cause, why the heck not.

 Then we hit up a nature center.

We love nature centers.

And as a side note...

apparently people come in here and steal the turtles.

For real!

They had to install security cameras.

It would never even dawn on me to stick a turtle in my pocket and walk out.

Stop stealing the turtles people!

 Then we headed home.

And Chris went back to work.

And I did laundry and bedtime duty and tidied up.

Random fact #1:

Chris likes blue.

Most all of his work clothes are blue.

Random fact #2:

Brooks Brothers shirts are worth every single penny.

 Atticus in a moment of calm.

There aren't many of these.

 She did NOT want to go to bed.

 But once she did...

I had some wine and watched my new guilty pleasure, The Tudors.

Henry VIII was crazy.

my life in numbers

Before we get to the numbers part, check out the pic above.

Green grass!

Flip flops!

Hopscotch!

Sunshine!

These things will come again!

Won't they??

She recently did her life in numbers and I immediately thought of what I would put.

And since, lets face it, nothing is happening around here, I totally intend to steal her idea.

So!  I give you my life in numbers!

3 - number of cups of coffee I have had already this morning.

0 - number of shows that are new tonight.

1 - number of kittens that are about to get drop kicked out into the snow.

1 - number of friends I am meeting for lunch today.

3 - number of days this weekend I will be a single parent.

18 - the date on which I am hosting a party for no reason at all.

12 - number of conversation hearts I ate yesterday.

4 - number of hours of sleep I got last night.

0 - number of good books I have read lately.

3 - number of layers I am currently wearing, trying to stay warm.

1.5 - number of hours I spent at the gym yesterday.

1 - mama that I am missing today.

4 - number of cards I have ready to mail.

357 - number of facebook friends I have.

1 - number of My Little Ponies that is staring at me right now.

1 - number of soccer forms I need to fill out and turn in.  Today.

35 - number of days until my birthday.

5 - the number of years my kid is turning this year.  How is that possible?

16 - the number of times I told Ellie to eat her dinner last night.

10 - the number of fingernails I need to attend to.

1 - number of little girls that are sleeping in!

2 - number of new inches of snow we got last night.

3 - number of loads of laundry I have to do today.

4 - number of hours I average listening to Pandora everyday.  Currently really into Yiruma.

4 - number of rotten bananas in my house.  Banana bread perhaps?

That's all I have time for now.

Happy Thursday!

monday monday

Not much happening around here.

So I thought I would do a pros and cons of today.

Cause, why not, right?

Let's start with the cons, shall we?

My kid is leaving me.

(Yes.  My last post was slightly dramatic.  I was premenstural.)

It is about 4000 below zero here.

And we have a kitten that thinks the carpet behind a chair in the office is his litter box.

Not good.

I have been working out like a mad woman and eating incredibly healthy for 2 weeks and  have gained a pound.

Muscle Schmuscle.

However, the pros are good.

I have a roast in (Mary of Nazarath's) crock pot and it smells great!

I just hit a huge Old Navy sale and got some great summer things.

We are planning our 10 year anniversary (gasp!) trip for this summer.  Just the two of us.

(At least one of us is.  The other one of us needs to get excited about this.)

We are furniture shopping!

It is soon to be tax check return day.

I am about to eat a very healthy lunch of quinoa and zucchini.

Ok, since 2 of those were about food, I must be ravenous.

Happy Monday Friends!

fleeting

We got some excellent news.

Ellie got into charter school we applied to!

Yea!

This is wonderful and a huge relief to us.

However, all of this school talk has made me realize that in less than a year she will be gone.

No more Tuesday morning breakfasts at 10 am.

No more movie days.

No more trips to mall, just to kill time.

No more Thursday afternoon playdates

No more lazy days watching it snow.

No more pancake lunches.

No more preschool.

No more afternoons playing pretend.

No more.

Instead we will have homework.

And new friends.

And school lunches.

And a new job.

And busy nights.

And I will become less of a hero.

And more of a mom.

Which is ok.

It's how things are supposed to be.

But I like being a hero.

It's going so fast.

Stay little.

Just for awhile.