*happy mother’s day. i hope your day is filled with creepy babies and handmade goodness*
Tag Archives: motherhood
MY week
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!
bump day
yesterday, i got to peek at the person who makes this belly swell and round. it was my first and only ultrasound of this pregnancy. this baby has done a beautiful job growing. but i’m glad that i don’t need an ultrasound everyday to know that. i have a daily reminder and it’s there every time i look down.
i love this baby and i love this motherly body. i love this belly swell. bring it on, baby. round me out.
pregnancy eats
pregnancy is probably not a good time to start a juice cleanse, right? i wish juice bars weren’t so damn expensive because i feel slightly addicted to fresh juices right now. i also feel a bit guilty at how wasteful juicing seems but then i take a sip and the sweet nectar hits my taste buds and washes away every bad feeling leaving pure joy. PURE JOY.
so this is only happening for me about once a week because of said financial commitment. and because i don’t really know more than one juice bar in town and it’s a little out of my way. Oh no! I just googled and found a new one that looks delicious and fun and probably where cool people hang out. i’m gonna have to go there tomorrow now…
anyway, so yeah, i don’t have to verbalize why juice is good during pregnancy because it’s juice and we all know it’s good. and it’s fresh. and so damn expensive.
can i get a juice bar to sponsor my third trimester please?
avoiding maternity clothes
^^^ styled by darla and still in my regular jeanz!! ^^^
^^^ from that part of my pregnancy that took place in the 60s ^^^
^^^ and i just want to say this looked way less pajama-ish in real life ^^^
so another week has gone by of stretching tent like fabrics over my bod. i’m feeling a little skeptical about whether or not i’ll make it through the end of this without purchasing maternity clothes. this belly is getting bodaciously big. AND I LOVE IT. except for one thing. it’s present in that last photo, however faintly. upon laundry inspection, i’ve come to realize that all my shirts are getting food stains dropped on the top of my bump. methinks i need to slow down on the shovel factor. it’s just a bit embarrassing.
also, can i just say how thankful i am that i decided a while back to make boho, semi hippie fringe my look. because now it’s like not a big deal if my hair’s a mess and my patterns clash. that’s just my look. ladies, if you’re pregnant, i highly suggest you just get your hair cut in a mop like fashion and then you’ll never have to worry about doing it. it’ll just be part of your look.
there. the end.
our week
low lighting gave our pictures this week that fuzzy look, which is ok because that’s how our week felt. anyone else have a fuzzy week?
normal life rolls on out and the magic is in the small stuff: washing up and organizing saved baby items, visiting the market with my girl for a waffle reward as a stimulus after i’d been out late at a birth, watching darla take on the pottery wheel. you can see that girl means business. i think my favorite little life detail is in that second photo up there. the ever so slight arch in darla’s eyebrow as she takes in the enormity of her donut. i wasn’t going to include this last photo of myself {that darla took} until i noticed that i, too, have that slight arch of my eyebrow present in that image.
that might be the most important thing that happened in my week. even though much grander life events took place this week, transitions and births and responsibilities, that small shared trait trumps them all. there’s little in life so poetic as the slight arching of a woman’s brow. those few centimeters can mean the difference between living and existing.
*i’m sending out my gratitude for the living that took place this week
…and for the existing.
i hope you had a good one. all my best for your weekend.*
bump day
i’m lacking in baby bump selfie creativity this morning after being out at a birth until late last night. i thought i’d just do an updated version of this previous bump day to see how we’re progressing here. i can still see my feet! but you can tell there’s a roundness and fullness now that reaches up into my abdomen.
sitting here looking down at my rounded and mounded body has me filled with such gratitude that i am a woman. in a world where women can be portrayed as jumbles of sharp angles and points, i’m happy to be here with curves representing the circular properties of womanhood that i cherish deeply.
pregnancy eats
don’t judge. it’s so good.
my old friend, poptarts-with-butter-pregnancy-craving, is back. it’s not so bad because butter is a health food again, right?
there’s only so many leafy greens and carrot sticks a mom can eat before she breaks down and gnaws a poptart.
avoiding maternity clothes
here’s how i did with avoiding maternity clothes this week.
^^^let’s get a close-up of that fringe belly^^^
my go to move is to throw a floral print over this bod and call it a day. but i also included some shots of what i look like on my normal mom days = disheveled hair, stretch pants and a doula tee. that’s my mom uniform. that was taken after i attended a comfort techniques mini-workshop this weekend so yes, i’m quote unquote keeping it realziez here. people see me like this. often. more often than i would like. in fact this series might be based in the fact that i want people to see me looking somewhat put together but usually no one is around when that happens and i am alone shouting into a mirror “hey, come see how good i look!”
lastly, you will be horrified to find out that husband was going to give away this turquoise jumpsuit! more than that, we’ve had this for years in our basement and i’m just now finding out about it. COLLECTIVE GASP. this will now be my maternity jumpsuit and you will probably see me in it often. my rescuing of this gem lead to the rest of my family donning coordinating turquoise outfits to our local diner. it made me oh-so-happy.
but in the end, i always come back to my wallpaper florals.
let’s see how i do for this week…
this is for me
this is a reminder. it’s a reminder that this space is for me.
i know many of the people who are a part of my non-internet based life are not supportive of this blog and my efforts in writing it. and that is ok. because this is a reminder that i don’t write this blog or keep this space for them. i keep this blog for me.
this may be the only place in my life over which i have complete control. i can decide what it should look like. i can decide what to share. i decide what i want to remember and i can put an extended piece of myself into these pages. i have an outlet for creativity and thought in the midst of a life that feels like it’s comprised mostly by mundane house chores and fulfilling the wants and needs of tiny people. i like writing this blog. and i’ve fortunately been brought up in such a way as to know that if i like doing something then i can go ahead and keep on doing it.
i realize how silly it is to go through life taking selfies of outfits and millions of pictures of my daughter. but i don’t really care! because the truth is that if i didn’t take any pictures of me then no one else would. it’s really easy to feel invisible in your own life as a stay-at-home mom. i don’t want to feel invisible in my own life. i’m very much an active participant. and guess what, i like myself and i want some record of how i looked and felt and what i dreamed about while folding laundry and driving to dance classes.
so, i’m going to keep on doing it. i like writing and i like sharing. and occasionally someone in the real world tells me how much they enjoy following and yeah, that feels so freaking cool. i’m not going to lie about that. it’s a nice ego boost. but i have to remember that if they like it then that is for them. it speaks for them. not for me. if something i put down in these words reaches out and grabs something in another human then i’m not responsible for what was inside them that whole time. it’s simply a mutual appreciation. and i’m thoroughly grateful to those of you who’ve reached out over the years and expressed a mutual appreciation over some of the things i’ve put down in this space.
i’ve been going back through this blog in the past week cleaning out old posts and re-reading some of what i put here. some of it i’m not so proud or enthused about. i think that most of those times i was getting away from what the purpose of this blog is supposed to be. but there is so, so much that i’m very proud of, so much that i’m glad is here for others and for my family to maybe go through some day and remember the simply beautiful existence we were entrusted with together.
so, yeah, this is a reminder. and this reminder isn’t for you. it’s for me. it’s a reminder TO ME that this space is FOR ME.
and that makes me so completely lucky to be able to share it with other wonderful humans.
momjeanz 