Saturday, August 31, 2013

Why I Like Little People

The boyfriend's mom saved all of his and his sister's Fisher-Price Little People sets. I guess she realized how much toddlers loved these sets so the ended up with about seven or eight. When she brought out the tub last week, L. went silent. She spent about an hour playing with them. I had never seen her so focused on one activity for so long.


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

When an idol falls

My daughter is 2 1/2. She turned exactly 30 months this past week. I normally don't count months anymore. But I liked the idea that for one month, she would be the same age in months as I was in years.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to plan anything crazy, like my #30for30 Challenge. But, I must have been channeling it when I took this picture.

Quite similar to the photo taken the morning of my birthday before setting off to do 30 good deeds.

Best birthday ever, I think.
One of the reasons I enjoyed doing those 30 good deeds was, despite how young she was, I wanted L. to learn what it is to be a good person and, hopefully, find something admirable about what I was doing and maybe achieve something like it one day.

I'm not saying I want to be her idol. But how does a parent have influence on what kind of idols are admired in the house?

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Internet Finds

Slideshow from Huffington Post of this week's greatest Tweets from parents. Made me giggle, definitely.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/24/best-parenting-tweets_n_3811159.html

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I think the best post I've ever read on helping a grieving friend through a divorce. It made me cry reading it because I felt like only a handful of friends just knew all I needed was to know they were there. Many somehow thought ignoring both me and L.'s father to remain "neutral" was the best plan. It was not.


Photo courtesy of simplemom.net

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Why I Like Yoga

I'm not a runner. I never could be. I've tried. It's just too ... tiring. I run out of breath after 40 minutes. My legs don't want to move that fast ever. Every single time I had to run a mile for gym or some statewide fitness test, I was with the two or three kids who had injuries and we walked. I didn't care, really. I was just never meant to be a runner.

But, I always struggled with my weight. My senior year in high school, I started becoming interested in more holistic practices. I had taken yoga as a gym course a few times and really liked that it was something I could do without getting winded or unmotivated. It was easy, slow movement. It made me focus. So, I bought a few books on yoga and began practicing it when I could. It never amounted to much, in terms of weight loss, but I liked having the flexibility and focus.

It took a few years before I really did it for weight loss. I'd go back to it here and there, mostly when I needed a pose to stretch a kink in my neck or back. I ended up losing weight in college because of different combinations every few months of the video game Dance Dance Revolution, Slim-Fast shakes, eating too few calories and nothing but salads, and weight loss pills (I still miss Ephedra, honestly). 

My arsenal.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

It's the little things

I only have my daughter for half the week. Even though I'm not an avid fan, the boyfriend periodically will remind me how comedian Louis C. K. finds himself a better parent because of only having his kids half the week. I guess that's true. I get to give 100 percent in that concentrated amount of time, rather than stretching my energy over the course seven days.

For a long time when the separation was new, I would hold myself to the expectation of having something fun planned for every time I had L. That got to be too much energy and waaaay too much money. I've also realized that L. gets as much excitement from pulling up to our neighborhood park as she does when we drive halfway up the state for free admission at Kidcity Children's Museum every third Thursday of the month. It recently resonated with me that it's the little things when I see her that add up to big memories.

Here we are at the park and L. is being chased by little Freddy Krueger.
Five minutes later, little Freddy would not share any of the sand toys.
Little Freddy Krueger is a jerk.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Getting to know ... me

This being my 18th post, I guess I should do an introduction of sorts. Also, being a fan of Simple Mom and, especially, the Simple Mom Podcast, I feel it would only be appropriate to answer Tsh's questions she asks her guests at the end of every podcast.

(Please let me know when I'm turning into a scary Simple Mom groupie. I fear I'm almost at that level.)

"Tsh, Simple Mom, I love you.
I loooooooove yooooou!"

So, before I turn into this stalker praying mantis, let's get started.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

A story of a toddler and her fur babies

Before L. was born, I had already had two fur babies. The Little Man (who, at one time, I assure you, was little) and Princess Penelope Von Purrypants of the Purrypants Kingdom, whom we just refer to as The Princess. They had regular names, given by my ex, but I had nicknames that ended up sticking.


Thursday, August 1, 2013

I cut my hair. No, literally, "I" cut my hair.

If you're on Pinterest, I'm sure you see the post about cutting your own hair at least once a week from The Frugal Farm Wife. Ever since finding it, I haven't been back to my salon since.

But, here's the thing. I cut my hair using the Frugal Farm Wife's method, but I had to modify it. The hair cut is only really a trim for me. When I cut my hair, I usually want a drastic difference. Enough so people notice.
Maybe, if I can bring the Rachel back, "Friends" will make a comeback, too?

What it's like at the end of the tunnel

So many people told me there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The thing was,  I was so used to being in the tunnel, I was used to it. It wasn't until a few days ago when I found myself "accidentally" dieting and being conscious of getting more movement into my daily routine did I realize I was finally in that light at the end of the tunnel.

The boyfriend and I recently celebrated being together for a year. The exact date is really unknown since I began staying with him only a few days after L.'s father and I agreed a divorce would be best. It started out as a gesture of friendship. I was uncomfortable at "home" and he and I worked the same shift and we were fond of each other's company. I had my grieving period, and it was a rather weird transition into a relationship from there.

I kept a lot of emotions to myself. I was able to rationalize myself down off temporary emotional cliffs. But every so often, something would set me off. And that's when the boyfriend would hold me. He wouldn't tell me everything would be alright; instead, he told me "things aren't always going to seem as bad." It was exactly what I wanted to hear. I was exactly what I NEEDED to hear.

Attempting to be hipsters with our glasses, PBRs and Instagram.
All of which we, actually, somewhat enjoy. But not ironically.