weekending

Posted in familyness, love and happiness, weekending by ElaineMarie

these are the moments i want to remember. i fear i give moments like these too little importance in my mind. it’s hard when so much of life seems to be planned around big events, get-togethers and commitments, which have their rightful place in life. but i am in love with the moments like these from our weekend:

like remembering that husband is my daughter’s chosen companion in the early morning hours. making coffee and breakfast for my family during our weekend mornings. darla receiving a music history / art history lesson over the breakfast table. listening to one of my favorite voices in the world in a friends living room. seeing richard buckner’s living room show this weekend was a highlight {if you have a chance to go to a living room show at some point, please do}. going on a tea & scones relaxation date when we were feeling squirrely {she} and unsatisfied with productivity at home {me}. husbeau gifting us with patti smith’s easter and singing along with darla, who had been listening to gremlins on her player earlier. but my most cherished moments of the weekend were going through saved baby items and uncovering little pieces of the past. like those boots. gawwww. i’m tearing up over here writing and thinking of how big my little girl is but one time, long ago, she stomped around in these when she first got to stompin.’ and now i’m going to put another baby in them.

life just kills me with the small moments. thanks for taking in these ones that mean so much to me.

*hope you had a wonderful weekend. wishing you a stellar week*

26Apr2014

diaper decisions

Posted in Run Da House, Shopping by ElaineMarie

i still haven’t decided if we’re cloth diapering from the get go with this babe but this cover kinda makes me want to. We started cloth diapers at around 10-11 months with darla and that worked out pretty well. i feel like we will start out in disposables, transition to a combination routine and end with all cloth, all the time. and darla was potty trained by just a few months after her 2nd birthday so i’d like to go ahead and keep that the same or earlier. please, universe? thanks a mil.

I’m kinda obsessed with a few things from this store { like also these } but the cute diaper covers catch my eye the most. we have some of ours left over from d but i will probably need to pic up another infant and one more larger size to make it work.

ugh, i can’t believe i’m back to the stage of being in charge of another human’s butt. life is a hoot.

ps. we’ll probably be using these disposables and these wipes if any of you kind souls wanna send baby wrucker a welcome gift!

25Apr2014

our week

Posted in advantageous adventures, familyness, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

small

collection

of moments

from our week.

in my journal this week i wrote a list of the things i want my life to be about:

love. beauty. passion. gratitude. and the human spirit.

i think we did pretty ok getting that all in there.

* i hope you enjoy a lovely weekend *

23Apr2014

getting reconnected

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., pregnancy by ElaineMarie

until this past week of glorious weather i had no idea how essential being out of doors would be for me to feel connected to this pregnancy.

being outside has always been an essential part of my well-being, i think. i remember choosing hours of play outside over television or indoor play. in my motherhood, i’ve tried to get darla outside and into the wild as much as possible. i feel more at peace outside and my brain functions differently than when i’m cooped up inside.

beginning this pregnancy at the start of this very long, harsh winter was pretty rough on me. darla was a january baby born in a slightly warmer climate so i was out and about for the first 2 trimesters with her and still pretty active during the last trimester, heck we even walked down to the Obama inauguration 2 weeks before I was due. it seemed a little more normal to have lots of activity in early pregnancy and to hunker down a bit more during the last stretch. having the opposite happen with this pregnancy has not been easy.

i don’t function so well indoors. i get a little crazed about organization and overwhelmed by how many items are in our household. i have it in my heart hopes that i’ll move to a warmer climate someday that allows for outdoor adventure year round. but let’s bring it back to the fact that this week has shifted me back into focus for preparing for this birth.

so we’ve been out every day since it’s been possible. i can say without a doubt that sunshine, fresh air and green living things are going to be quite necessary for me to bring this baby into this world. and now i’m feeling oh so happy to be having a summer baby.

i’ve gotten my mocs out on walks. alone. it seems essential to my spiritual being to spend time alone in nature. i think it’s always been part of my personal faith practices to spend time alone in the wilderness, contemplating the small habitats of the tiny creatures juxtaposed to the vastness of the earth and the heavens. it’s important to my spiritual being to feel connected to it all. i just find that hard to do cooped up inside walls.

i feel it all coming together and it feels good. the reawakening of the earth is resonating deep inside me and i feel more connected now than ever before. how wonderful it was to feel this life quicken and grow inside me just as the earth started to do the same. how wonderful to feel this baby gain strength and see my belly bloom just as the blossoms appear in our world. and i can only imagine how wonderful it will feel to have life burst forth at just about the time when all life in the northern hemisphere is at its peak.

i’m so thankful that the world within me is connected to the world without me.

22Apr2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy, Shopping by ElaineMarie

i avoid maternity clothes almost as well as i avoid eye contact in my mirror selfies.

fleece lined leggings and thermal shirts. you know, for when it snows in april.

my coven issued black skirt, black shirt combo.

and stretchy pants for days and days, plus a wide brimmed hat to cover unbrushed hair.

so yeah, lots of skirts and stretch pants happening over here. but i only have a handful of these items that i’m switching out and dressing up in different ways. i try to use loud prints and distracting accessories to draw attention away from the fact that i’m huge and still have a couple months to go. i’m keeping my eye on forever 21 and target for some new maxi dresses to add to this rotation. let me know if you see a sale.

well, that’s all. let’s see how i do next week!

16Apr2014

on this day when i didn’t like being a mom

Posted in Momma Needs a minute... by ElaineMarie

am i really cut out for this?

these days of struggling and tiredness mount up on one another, leaving me feeling drained and daunted by the question of whether i’m really cut out for being a mom.

i find managing a family and a household to be utterly exhausting mentally. i’m at home in my independence and keeping the family plates spinning in the air is something that leaves me feeling endlessly inadequate. my inner mountain lioness wants to slink away and reclaim my status as a solo being. this feels like a wretched place to be emotionally residing when a new life is growing inside me.

how can i facilitate some attached independence? how can i make a little space in my life just for me? how can i accomplish all that i want to do when all i have are snippets of time and endlessly interrupted thought patterns?

please know you don’t have to provide these answers. i just need to get them out there. maybe you feel the same way. maybe you’ve worked through this yourself. i’ll figure out my way. i know i will. just thank you for letting me put this out there and accepting it as is.

14Apr2014

my daughter is my hero

Posted in love and happiness, parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

girl crush moment:

this girl is my hero. she’s so fearless and fun. she’s easily the person having the best time everywhere she goes. she doesn’t know a stranger. she dresses up in her girliest outfit and then hunts all over the house to find her “light sabers” to stuff in her purse because she “doesn’t go anywhere without them.” she knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to go for it. she puts together the best outfits. she’s smart and she’s funny. and she’s punny! she’s determined and affectionate. she’s helpful and enthusiastic. she’s creative. she’s independent but loves being part of a team.

in short, she’s all the things i want to be when i grow up.

what i feel about this age + stage is that i realize mike and i may have very little to do with how great this person is. when they are young you feel this overwhelming weight of how they’re going to turn out. and then, even though it seems like you do a million things wrong along the way, they turn out to be these amazing little people who are just so cool. i pray i’ll remember this with our second person and just CTFO about everything other than love and fun.

i hope you all have a kid hero.

10Apr2014

bump day

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

hanging out by the window with my bump b/c my bump is so serene and prolific. yeah.

i think i’ve crossed the threshold of everything just feeling really big from here on out. ain’t it wonderful? getting big is a good thing. one of the nice things about subsequent pregnancy is knowing that 3 more months of being big is a really short amount of time. during a first pregnancy 3 more months seems like an eternity but now…i think i have a more accurate idea of just how quickly 3 months will slip by in relation to the rest of my life.

this person will be here before we know it.

8Apr2014

baby nook

Posted in Momma Needs a minute..., pregnancy by ElaineMarie

this is the new view from my side of the bed. and soon there’s going to be a baby in there.

well, probably not. the baby will most likely want to hang out a little closer to me…as in on me…since that’s the way babies are programmed.

still, i like the way things look over there. all organized and ready to receive more babylike things. that cradle was mine when i was a babe and darla spent at least a handful of hours napping in there as a newborn. i think i like the nesting phase as a way of putting my world in order before it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

the nesting, re-organizing and purging are my ways of distraction, my ways of convincing myself that it’s not gonna be so bad. it’s not gonna be that bad, right? it’s all gonna be ok if i just make it look like it would be featured on apartment therapy! because all i keep hearing about is how great and easy it is to manage two children and a home and a marriage and build a career. we’re so lucky that as a society we build people up with hope and encouragement for these life transitions.

that’s sarcasm by the way.

oh well, it doesn’t really matter because soon…there’s going to be a baby in there.

24Jan2013

baby shower

Posted in familyness, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

and the nostalgia keeps rolling out. today i’m filing through pics from our baby shower, back before we knew she was a darla and we called her Sprout. it was a very happy, wonderful evening and i’m missing every single person who was there RIGHT THIS MOMENT.

friends, do you remember this night? i still crack up looking through these belly art pics. i forgot that the more people drank the more “drag queen” my belly baby became. i’m ok with it. i think these belly drawings helped ensure darla was born a girl. or maybe we all just knew. or maybe all my girlfriends, myself included, were really hoping we’d have a little girl. also, i’m just now remembering someone drew cat whiskers on her. this explains why darla pretends to be a cat ALL THE TIME. this belly art magic is powerful stuff.

just wanted to say, thank you again to everyone for being there for us 4 years ago!

now can some of you start having babies so i can be there and draw on your belly?

momjeanz

Tag Archives: motherhood