and how.
darla found my dynasty clothes = instant dress-up session.
weekend 80s.milkshake
my saturday consisted of this:
my sunday then brought me this:
our weekend was so excellent. our week is starting off the same way. i guess i should go to party dressed as krystle carrington in a backwoods cabin with a minotaur every weekend. the lovey dovey, easy breezy attitude exuded from both us wruckers girls is a testament that sometimes we do need a few days apart.
grant us peace and serenity
my mind has been in editorial mode all day but since darla is with the grandparentals i have the practical part of my brain screaming at me: “you have tons of chores and projects to get done. don’t waste this time in front of the computer. to do. to do.” i kinda gave my brain the bird and sat down to type, but i made a compromise. here’s my little work environment today.
i’m sitting down with to do lists, projects, books to re-read, edamame & luna burgers and a beer to drink. because that’s what a lady does when she has just a little bit of time to herself.
this hell or high watermelon beer by 21st amendment brewery is seriously the bomb. best warm weather beer. the hint of watermelon is very slight and not fruity at all. it instantly transforms all surroundings into a picnic. there may or may not be a ukulele player at the picnic. you decide. this beer is supposed to be for a ladies weekend trip starting tomorrow but it’s so good i couldn’t resist breaking into it early.
i’m finally going to get our new year’s cards out. husband, don’t you look at your computer screen like that! it’s laughable at this point but these puppies are going out. everyone look out for some wrucker goodness in their mailboxes next week!
all things must pass currently has me in a very good place but it’s only a matter of time before this next one gets put on. it’s inevitable. both albums are applicable to any day, mood and situation.
happy friday! wishing you all a most enjoyable and productive weekend.
love,
momjeanz
the naked truth
this is darla. she’s naked. she’s naked most of the time. i’m sorry if it offends anyone that she is frequently pictured without a top or a bottom or a top and bottom. despite the oodles of cute and fashionable clothes that come into this house, the girl likes to go au natural.
i just don’t have it in me to enforce the clothes rules yet. i know the window is closing on us and the time for her to be covered properly will be here very soon. but i just can’t start it yet. i want to get through at least one more summer of saying “ok, if you want to take your shirt off go ahead.”
she has no shame or discomfort about her body. i desperately want to extend that for as long as possible. i truly believe that a positive body image starts in infancy and toddlerhood. my hope is that the freedom to run around naked will have instilled a pride and love for her body that will last until she is older.
yes, i’m talking about when she’s a lovesick teenager. sigh. those thoughts of preparing your wee girl for womanhood do start early.
since summer has landed about 3 months early this year, please brace yourself for bare shoulders, exposed tummies, and probably a knicker shot or two because this little girl just cannot be contained. no clothes or mommas words will restrain her and i couldn’t be happier about that.
I see. I do.
“I” driven learning:
darla chose I for this week. i lucked out again since both st. patrick’s day and the ides of march fell during our time frame. well, the weeks are getting pretty sloppy and i think this might have been 8 days but whatevs.
ice was also a very versatile subject for us. we did our ice cream visit to jeni’s, made ice cubes with food coloring – an idea from jamie – and talked about ice in the arctic as it relates to polar bears. we saw the polar bears at the zoo and scoped them out a bit more in friends’ magazine. darla is pretty distressed by the fact that the polar ice caps are melting and the polar bear population is declining.
mike has been sailing around the south pacific islands so we looked all those up on the globe and then darla drew a picture of her “dream island” which she said didn’t really consist of anything besides pink trees.
for the ides of march i tried to get the kids to say “et tu, brute” to each other all day but do you know what 3 year olds don’t like to speak? Latin.
and of course the st. patrick’s day celebration was lots of fun and useful. we learned about ireland, watched the secret of kells, had irish inspired snacks i.e. irish cheddar – lazy mom – and we made four leaf clovers. i asked her to list four things she felt lucky to have in her life and her list is as follows: lipstick, crayons, glow worms, and her bunny. hmmm. her lipstick is actually chapstick and the bunny, incidentally, is not even hers. i may have to do a more thorough job of teaching her our blessings. for mine i listed family, friends, health and music. she made me write her name out underneath family because she proclaimed she needed her own spot. quite right, but i did point out to her that i didn’t even place above glow worms in her heart. such is the life of a mom.
darla is with her grandparents this weekend so i’m going to take the opportunity to recharge and come back with more dedication to education this upcoming week. we did start on G today – she picked it out but universe helped me with the start of gymnastics today and her visit to grandparents.
Root Children Visit
the root children left some nice goodies for darla to welcome spring
They brought her: flower seeds, ruth heller coloring books, Richard Doyle’s Fairyland Coloring Book, The Flowers’ Festival by Elsa Beskow, a tank dress for warm weather by theifandbandit, and new Salt Water Sandals for her first trip to the pacific.
i think she was most fond of the sandals. she wanted to wear dress and shoes immediately and wanted to plant her seeds immediately too. i understand all those things. momma’s the same way. she ran outside and shouted “thank you root children!” first thing after she donned both items.
happy spring everyone!
weekending something.something
hey, um, here’s a few of the weekend highlights:
we did a friday evening bike ride up to jeni’s ice cream in lieu of dinner. clearly, we enjoyed it. darla picked magnolia and mochi because she’s got some refined tastebuds for a three year old. she got the cutest little ice cream mustache in the process. the last photo cracks me up. that’s her real head! on her real body! i didn’t photoshop that because i don’t know how to do that. this girl’s got some proportions on her.
we communed with nature and darla welcomed our daffodils to the world. she also successfully terrorized a ladybug for about 10 min because she was trying to get the bug to go with her to the yogurt shop. i think i may have gone a little overboard with this “bugs are our friends” business.
we parked it up with some hipster baby friends alllll sunday afternoon and then built living room forts to hide from the storms. darla had a good time pretending to be scared. i explained what was happening when it started hailing and she yelled “now there’s ice for the polar bears!” this is because at the zoo we learned about how the ice was melting in the arctic and the polar bear population is plummeting. after the storm had passed i went out and gathered some hail pellets for her in a cup. once i gave them to her she promptly ate them. sigh. she’s normal.
that’s a wrap for us. hope you and yours had a wonderful weekend as well.
a new resolution
i am thinking of giving up the quantitative resolutions i made for this year and starting on a new project called slithering out from under this guilt rock. seriously, i’ve been habitating there for 3 years. yes, in this metaphor i am a snake. it works because snakes live under rocks and because snakes are kinda sexy, right?
so i’m a sexy snake living under a guilt rock. how do i become a sexy snake living freely under the sun? yes, that is the life objective.
i feel like i live life in a constant state of guilt. it mainly has to do with a 36-inch-tall being walking around my house yelling things like “mom, will you tie this dinky tail around me so i can be a little?”
why does parenting have to come with such a guilt package. and why does it have to be ridiculously crushing? here is a non-itemized list of things i am at any given time or have been at any time or WILL be at any time feeling guilty about:
not spending enough time with darla. spending too much time with darla. buying her too many things. not buying her enough. not living in a bigger city. not living on a farm. not living in a log cabin in the woods. not living in france. not providing her with a nanny that speaks 3 languages. not breastfeeding her longer. not sleep training her earlier. not co-sleeping longer. not growing our own vegetables. not having her in school already. putting her into school too early. putting her into school at all. putting her into the wrong school. sending her to public. sending her to private. not enrolling her in more activities. enrolling her in too many activities. letting her be too independent. not letting her be independent enough. not raising chickens.
if i kept typing i could come up with probably 1043 ways that i will/have screw(ed) up her life. i really think that our generation of parents has so much more guilt riding on our shoulders than previous generations. there are certainly more standards for what makes you a good parent and those standards seem unachievable. at least, to me they do.
but i can’t change that.
i can only change how it effects me. i’ve been trying to put a lot of time and thought and research towards evolving into someone who just doesn’t care. if i can stop caring about all the standards then i may just be able to slink out from under this guilt boulder.
Good green
we hope your weekend and St. Patrick’s day celebrations have gotten off to a good start. Darla and I have enjoyed a morning of arting and reading out on the porch, in our green of course. we’re going to fill the rest of our day with bike rides, park picnics and errands. yeah. now that this weather is here it has to stay. no going back on this gift indian weather giver. i’m hoping for a nap later as well.
because…
i have a birthday party to attend for a friend tonight. adult things! adult time! adult conversations! i’m pretty excited, if you can’t tell. i even painted my nails for it. oooo la la.
how do i?
incorporate this fashion into my momming? hmmm.
i’ll let you know if i ever figure it out.
Source: blog.nastygal.com via Chantelle on Pinterest
momjeanz 