over the next few weeks, i thought i would share a few of the stocking stuffers that darla will be receiving come christmas day. the internet is for sharing ideas, right?
i’m unnaturally excited about giving practical gifts, especially ones that promote loving mother earth.
somehow 6 adults managed to keep a friend reunion from mike’s knowledge for his birthday surprise. currently enjoying good company and good coffee. it’s gonna be a good weekend.
so my job is pretty awesome. i get to hang out with a brother + sister band:
they do this cool trick in the middle of the set where they change instruments
they’re really good and gonna make it big time someday.
that’s my friday in a nutshell. speaking of friday, here’s some things to read:
Dear Baby Blog’s post and discussion about birth in the united states this day and age.
husband turned me on to large hearted boy. a good summation of music-ing and book-ness.
and lastly, my good friend meg posted this this week and i loved it. we should all be more like ben franklin. or maybe not according to this short.
i am about out of deodorant and so it occurred to me that it’s time to share with you all what cousin and i call “the program.”
so arm and hammer make two different kinds of deos. one is Ultra Maxx and one is Essentials. ultra maxx is the anti-perspirant aka contains aluminum and essentials is natural deodorant.
your momness, why are you sharing this information?
be patient, my pet, time for getting personal.
so i’ve tried and tried to go all natural with deodorants and even au natural without but let’s face it, sometimes life calls for a deodorant with anti-perspirant. once darla was born i had to suck it up for the 13 months that i was breastfeeding and ban the aluminum from my body but oh my lawd….my body did this weird thing where my left underarm was on overload and it just reeked. sometimes it would rub off on darla’s head while i was nursing and i’d pick her up afterwards and get a whiff and i’d know that i wasn’t a pleasant lady to be around on hot summer days.
but, something else happened while i was going non-aluminum. i stopped caring. as much. not completely because i’m not that bad ass but i decided that if i smelled like A NORMAL HUMAN BEING with NATURAL BODY ODOR it doesn’t really matter. i mean, i shower frequently enough that i’m not going to clear out a restaurant or anything so why did i need to subject my body to the harmful effects when the truth is it isn’t so bad. and no one else seemed to notice it as much as i did.
since then i’ve experimented with different natural deodorants and arm and hammer is by far the best i’ve come across. plus, they are one of the cheaper choices in the deodorant aisle. BONUS!! (btw, isn’t it ridiculous our country has a whole aisle just for deodorant???) most of their scents seem to be a little less offensive. i’d rather just smell like baby powder mixed with b.o. not some synthetic freesia masking the b.o. that still permeates through anyway…so i pick up the natural kind and the maxx and use the maxx on the days that i know i need to be more ummm presentable but mostly just stick to using the naturals.
smelling just a little is definitely better than breast cancer.
and if you’re a nursing mother, please! don’t use deodorant containing aluminum while you’re nursing your little one. you just can’t do it. don’t even get me started on the clinical strength stuff that deters your body from sweating at all…
cousin and i discovered that we had come to use the exact same deodorant schedule without communicating with each other. henceforth we called it “the program.” ok, well, we called it the program once and then i just kept calling it that in my head and she’s just now finding out about that, if she’s reading and SHE BETTER BE!!!, but that is all irrelevant.
hopefully you and your cousins will find this deodorant system to be a compromise that works, too.
tree trimming
what do you wear to decorate a christmas tree? apron circa 1985 and not much else?
i can tell this christmas is going to be a lot of fun and a whoooole new consumer ball game. darla reminds us on a daily basis that santa will bring her LOTS and LOTS of presents because he’s so nice. it’s nice to experience things from this side. needless to say, she was erupting with excitement while we trimmed the tree. she hung all the ornaments in one spot so i had to come in and move them while she was busy unwrapping the next one.
looking forward to more holiday magic…
the tree’s up at the wruckers but before i post those photos i wanted to make sure to share just a few more from our thanksgiving weekend. i feel sorry for turkey day sometimes, getting passed over pretty much, but then i think “hey, it’s thanksgiving’s own fault for not coming up with some catchy radio singles.”
1. coloring with grandma 2. she looks a little apprehensive about what’s at the bottom of that slide 3. jumpin’ in a pile of leaves 4. makes a gal happy 5. this is where i think i told mike to pretend we were drunk hobos at union station 6. best pretzels i’ve had in a long time at the flying saucer.
we had such a great weekend. a big thanks to mike’s parents for making the weekend special and comfortable. there’s a little girl here that’s already talking about coming back. and a big girl talking about it, too.
i’ve lacked quite a bit of substance on here lately, and well, EVER, but i loved this post from peaceful parenting. hope it calms some brain turbulence for you as well.
michael arranged a pretty radical belated weddin’ anniversary celebration for us while in nashville. we really took advantage of the babysittin’ while there. oh, yeah, after bein’ down there for five days i’ve decided to drop all the “g”s in my vocabulary. thanks.
we stayed at the union station wyndham downtown and started with dinner and beers at the flyin’ saucer. the place has over 40 taps! the bar not the hotel. afterwards we walked down to broadway and stopped into a few honkey tonks before we finished the night singin’ karaoke in front of insanely talented strangers. we finally made our way back to base camp where i made mike sit with me in front of the fire. hey, i had wanted us to turn in on the early side but he made me rally so he had to pay the price by indulgin’ my fireside inclinations. here is our night in pictures, in no particular order. why? because i am freakin’ exhausted from NOT bein’ in bed by ten and now i’m too tired to arrange them. sorry.
i guess nashville causes us to make funny faces. also, the red photos have no filter on them. that’s just the red light special life at robert’s western world. it’s a western apparel shop with a bar inside = best idea i’ve ever head. all in all, this was a pretty great way to celebrate a year of marriage with a pretty great man.
i had planned on keeping this a surprise but i’m way, WAY too excited about what claudia has posted so far to keep mum any longer. we’ll just consider it another sneak peek.
here’s claudia’s work on our family christmas photo session thus far. she was pretty much the bees knees. i look forward to posting more of her work and more about spoonful records at a later date.
we did venture out to black friday but not in the conventional throwing-elbows-down-at-the-kmart-parking-lot kinda way. the state fair flea market and downtown franklin hosted us for just a small bit of holiday shopping.
1. that’s a good look for you. 2. just browsing the fine china 3. HEAVEN 4. mike in line at one of my mental happy places: The Grand Mercantile 5. my finds – a jade BUTTERDISH!!!! that i’m going to say “OZ!!” everytime i use and the prettiest little trinket dish as a gift from mrs. wright. 6. darla’s first leather purse and gumby and pokey. oooohhhh i just love holiday shopping.
momjeanz 