best of the fest: nelsonville music festival

Posted in advantageous adventures, familyness, i dig music, love and happiness, weekending by ElaineMarie

dear family,

one of the things i love about us is that we’re willing to give things a try. we don’t put ourselves in a box more than we have to and for the most part, we make things work. we have a lot of fun and adventure in our lives because of those things. we’re great. let’s keep it up and add another to this crew!

love, me.

i know 9 mos pregnant me would not have been able to hang in for the entirety of nelsonville music festival last weekend but dammit if i wasn’t sad to miss out on the all the fun. i was really and truly grateful to head down on sunday as a family of three and just enjoy the day and atmosphere. i can’t say we were as invested in the acts as much as we’ve been in years past. it was more about taking in the atmosphere. maybe it was a little bit about making a promise to ourselves that we’d be back in full force, bigger and better than ever next year.

darla definitely knew the ropes this time and made it very known that she did not need us. that is until she wanted us to buy her something. i desperately wanted to just let her experience this last time down there as a trio in the way she see fit but damn if that girl isn’t having a hard time making good decisions right now. i know she’s a kid. but i’m just a bit flabbergasted at how she comes to the conclusion that things are a good idea sometimes…

anyway, i just want to say i’m thankful to the universe for making it possible for us to attend this past weekend, thankful for my husband and his energy levels, thankful for the weather, and thankful for the beautiful ohio people who make the weekend so magical. unless this next kid is born with that extreme allergy to sunshine or something of the like { please do not do this to spite me, universe. this is only a blog } our tix for next year are as good as bought. boughten? buyed? i buy?

pssst. read our full weekend of attendance from last year here.

3Jun2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

i think we can all be in agreement here that i don’t need to show you repeat outfits, right? you can just assume that i’m pulling out the same stretchy fabrics and wearing those around. when i’m not in those, i’m choosing to usurp husbeau’s t-shirts and forgo pants around the house. true life.

however, i do feel these gems deserve some space on the internet:

pregnant ladies in crop tops! let’s do this!! this was my watermelon music festival ensemble. mike said i was the most beautiful watermelon he’s ever seen.

and lastly, i think pairing a pentecostal skirt with my cut off meat puppets t-shirt went over pretty nicely, don’t you? really, it’s a $7 forever21 maxi skirt that has been a weekly go to. i highly recommend it to my fellow ladies makin’ babies.

wish me luck and send me all your positive lycra vibes that i’ll make it through this next week!

3Jun2014

weekending

Posted in weekending by ElaineMarie

i can only hope that darla’s last few weeks of life as an only child will be much like this past weekend which was pretty close to perfection. we packed it in with that beautiful weather going on. and for me, i hope these last few weeks will contain more donuts like the salty caramel one i picked up at the farmer’s market.

i want to put down here for darla, in the event that she ever read this blog {good luck friend}, that she is an incredibly lucky girl to have a father like mike. he’s been putting in long hours and days at work but is never short on energy or attention for d when he returns home. i keep waiting for the bottom to drop out but he consistently pulls more energy out of thin air to take darla out to the park, or errands, or to a social gathering after coming home thusly giving me a much-needed break or to high-five while i head off to work or commitments with clients. i’m so grateful for that and i hope that one day, darla will be too. and i also hope that energy holds out when we have a second child taking up residence in our lives.

we’re all making it through somehow, huh?

and also, there was nelsonville music festival…which is deserving of its own post. so that’s coming sometime. you can look forward to seeing pics of me dressed as a watermelon!

* i hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend and that your week is off to a great start*

30May2014

our week

Posted in familyness, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

small

collection

of moments

from our week.

there’s just something about summer that makes me feel like we’re living life right. and we are. because summer is about living life to the fullest, giving yourself that extra hour of play time each day, taking half days to spend by the pool, getting all the extra things done in the extended daylight hours.

some things we did right this week: creeking, garden painting projects & play date park projects with friends. ummm i wore my pants around in really awesome ways this week all over town. and mike blessed the family with quotemeal pies. darla built front porch forts and undertook even more painting projects. she also did quirky things in front of interesting backdrops that i appreciated on an aesthetic level.

yes. life is full and good.

*wishing you a weekend that is likewise*

hi all, please give us your vote for the week by clicking the vote for us icon below. thanks for your help!

29May2014

may mural tradition

Posted in familyness, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

we stopped by my favorite mural in columbus today just like we did a year ago. looks like this is becoming a may tradition.

i cannot believe the growth that has happened in a year. in a way this photo makes me sad because darla’s spirit was shining through so free last summer. maybe i don’t realize in our everyday how she’s growing up and those little bits of raw human are falling away.

i wonder what changes next year will bring…

19May2014

weekending

Posted in familyness, love and happiness, pregnancy, weekending by ElaineMarie

before i jump in to talking about myself, let’s talk about you. how was your weekend? was it a good one? i hope so.

we experienced a nice midwestern weekend here. our time was spent soaking in things like farmer’s market visits, mother + daughter coffee dates, yard work, snuggle fests on our one morning together as a fam and rain. we soaked in lots of rain. and a visit from grandparents. isn’t it grand when ordinary life moments come together so nicely? my parents and my husband helped me catch up on rest. this bump is really wearing me out these days. i’m crossing my fingers for nicer weather this week so we can get outside and run off excess energy {for darla, not me. the only thing i have an excess of is a need for sitting down}.

and hair! i have an excess of hair. which brings me to the next development of this blog…

lustrous pregnancy hair

the next few months are going to be a celebration of voluminous hair. i’m going to enjoy this until this baby is born and my hormones shift back and all this hair falls out. i’m living in a hair dream right now and i’m gonna talk about it, dammit.

*my hair and i are sending you our best for a superb week. we hope you see some sunshine*

16May2014

our week

Posted in familyness, let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

let’s just take a look at how the view to my week began:

yeah. yep.

and also these wonderful moments took place somewhere in there…

i’m exhausted. this could be because: weather is warm and life is full, my child is an endless pit of energy, i am growing a human, and finally, i am not an endless pit of energy. i’m more like one of those shallow rubbermaid containers of energy. you know, the kind that fit under the bed?

mmmmmm bed.

i guess it means we’re doing life right. i really do love keeping busy. i’m not always the best at turning around and taking a good look at all that we’ve accomplished with the day or the week. i tend to focus forward and get wrapped up in that never-ending to-do list, leaving myself feeling consistently overwhelmed. these friday posts help me take a look back at all that was done. and most weeks when i look back i see a much better balance of fun, work and learning than i do in the everyday. i probably should start some kind of gratitude ritual with darla at the end of the day to review all we’ve experienced. that would help. i’ll add that to my to-do list.

i thought i was going to get a full and separate unschooling post done with this week but i don’t have the brain power to extricate that out from our regular life doings. plus, i feel that since we’ve been doing this for a full year now i’ve finally fit it into my brainspace that unschooling is the integration of everyday life and learning and not separate times or days i set aside. i have done a better job of not being focused on regimented, scheduled unschooling. it’s just part of our life. we wake up and if it’s beautiful out i say “we’ll find another time to do the chores. let’s get outside” and we learn outside. if it’s rainy we stay in and learn inside or from our errands around town. and if it’s a long, cold winter that breaks our souls, we learn from the powerful world of netflix…

we took an adventure day this week that resulted in a trip to a waterfall, picnic and stroll along the river. multiple visits to the nursery, and helping with our own garden provided ample learning opportunities for D. we started an art project this week for the garden that i hope will help us bring some bright color out into our growing space. i can’t seem to get enough color into my life these days. i want to paint ALL THE THINGS!

*that’s all from us for the week. sending you love and butt pinches for a wonderful weekend!*

you may have noticed a new little button over on the sidebar of MomJeanz, maybe not. so i’m going to point it out over there. see? well, i signed up for a baby blog directory so other bloggers can find and connect with MomJeanz. pretty nifty! if you could click on that button when you visit MomJeanz it casts a vote for my blog and helps the blog gain more exposure. I’ll be including it in my friday posts from now on so even if you can only give me one vote a week, or whenever you remember, it will still help. thanks for reading and helping this momma out!

12May2014

weekending

Posted in familyness, love and happiness, weekending by ElaineMarie

i wish i could bring these pictures into a proper narrative portraying how lovely mother’s day weekend came together for us over here. i can’t though. to put it simply; my girl came home and my parents came with her. love and appreciation abounded. group projects were finished up. i received handmade goodness from both mike and darla, along with some vinyl and other small items. i even gifted myself with a pair of earrings and a keychain that i’ve been coveting from the shop. my parents helped us finish putting in gardens. darla planted a butterfly and fairy garden complete with glitter. mike and i teamed up for mother’s day brunch. it was a string of simple accomplishments that pulled together in one nice package. i feel good about heading forward into the future as a family of four with these people at my back. my parents, mike and darla are truly an incredible support team.

and i guess if i had to put everything under one umbrella i could pull this all together with the saying “momma gets what momma wants.” i’m glad i can say that knowing that it has no negative connotation. everything from the first photo to the last speaks to me about the learning curve i’ve passed through about being an active participant in my own happiness, about celebrating myself and my motherhood, about saying yes to myself sometimes and for asking for what i want from the universe unabashedly because in the end the things i want are small but meaningful.

i wanted an ice cream sundae so i got it. i wanted that white dress for my girl so i got it. i wanted my parents to visit and help put in a garden this year because i knew i would need help and it would be meaningful to me for it to be something we all did together. so i asked for that. i wanted two small, inexpensive items to celebrate my own motherhood this year so i got them without shame. because i did that i was able to let go and appreciate my gifts from others at a deeper level. i wanted to have mother’s day celebration at our house so i asked for help with that. i wanted a nice balance of being honored for the day but also continuing to do the things i do that support my family. i wanted darla to have her own garden space so i asked for that too and then i helped her carry out her own wishes for the space that was now hers.

i’ve learned that i don’t need to hide my wants and desires from this world. i don’t want for grand things. if i did that would be ok, too. but i don’t need to be a martyr in my own life. it’s ok for me to ask for the small things. i know enough about myself to feel secure in saying that i would be happy even if these things didn’t come to pass but being an active participant in voicing my desires to the universe has made a big difference in my life. sometimes life calls for pulling up your britches and putting yourself to work for what you want. other times it calls for reaching out and asking of others. i feel that for most of my life i’ve flip-flopped from one side to the other, either relying on myself too much or relying on others. this may be the first time in my life, or at least a very long time, that i’ve felt a good balance between self-reliance and outside help. it leaves me feeling so much more whole.

and i thank my family for that gift of wholeness. it was truly a wonderful mother’s day.

10May2014

blanketry

Posted in Shopping by ElaineMarie

if there’s one thing we have well stocked for this baby, it’s blankets. we have generations of blankets here. however, i’m very impressed and intrigued by the muslin swaddle blankets. with this baby coming in the summahtime and the farmer’s almanac warning us that we’re gonna sweat this one out, i would love to have one or two of these around for those first few scorching months. i was going to try make some myself because they seem to be pretty expensive {why are they so expensive?} but that’s probs not going to happen with all the other projects at hand around here.

my two favorites on the internet at the moment, that are also in my price range, are this golden arrow and this whale pattern. so adorable. i might pick one of these out and then see if i can score some plain ones second hand.

happy shopping, y’all!

9May2014

MY week

Posted in familyness, let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

y’all, i’m going to talk about alone time.

these last couple weeks i’ve been craving alone time. i think it correlates to my nesting and urge to get things accomplished. it’s left me wondering if other women experience this deep need for alone time in their last trimester as well? is it a part of birth preparation? or is this constant desire for a bit of solitude in my day part of my personality?

well, i got what i asked for. D spent the week with my parents and mike started a new job. he’ll probably put double the hours in at this first week at his new job than what he’s been working for the past two years. so in a short span of time i went from having people all up in my grill to being quite alone, quite a lot.

i was busy. i was productive. and i wasn’t always alone thanks to the many appointments, meetings and friendly dates i crammed into this week. but this week did leave me feeling lonely and above all else, BORED.

the week made me take it down a notch in my desire to be alone with my to-do list. because while it was nice to get things accomplished…accomplishments are boring. i look back through my snapshots of the week and see a lack of life. it’s nice to have the moments when i can sit down and eat a snack on the couch because no one is looking, or to get my new green babies potted, to take walks and to get the bathroom painted, but without my family these things mean a lot less. maybe this week was about learning that squeezing these check lists in to all the chaos of family life is a pretty fantastic blessing. i’m glad to have a chance to come back around on that before life gets a whole lot more hectic. i know i’ll be singing a different tune in a few months so i need to put these thoughts and feelings down here now so i can pull it up when i’m at my limits.

and look at that rad little bit of life in that first photo!!! it was nice to remind myself i was never truly alone. and it was so lovely to see my littlest love for the first time. that was by far the most important thing that happened this week. part of me was sad that darla wasn’t there for it and that mike was at work but part of it felt right. i got to call darla up and tell her the baby has her nose. a nose that i’ll be able to give lots of kisses in a few short months. until then i’m happy to have these pics to gaze upon. even if the last one is pretty creepy because the babe has one eye open. must be a metallica fan. i know an uncle that is going to be happy about that…

*thanks for reading this week. i hope you had a good one. sending you my best for a lovely mother’s day weekend. please read on for a little favor that i need to ask you. because you are one of my favorite readers ;-) *

you may have noticed a new little button over on the sidebar of MomJeanz, maybe not. so i’m going to point it out over there. see? well, i signed up for a baby blog directory so other bloggers can find and connect with MomJeanz. pretty nifty! if you could click on that button when you visit MomJeanz it casts a vote for my blog and helps the blog gain more exposure. I’ll be including it in my friday posts from now on so even if you can only give me one vote a week, or whenever you remember, it will still help. thanks for reading and helping this momma out!

momjeanz

Tag Archives: columbus ohio

best of the fest: nelsonville music festival

avoiding maternity clothes

weekending

our week

may mural tradition

weekending

our week

weekending

blanketry

MY week