Disheveled

Sometimes, getting S to school in something other than my sweats is an incredible feat. Yesterday, it was sweats. Today, I managed to get dressed, but was still disheveled. My mismatched tank hangs out from my folded up top. My hair is a hot mess. And let's be honest, the glasses were pulling double duty. But some days, I just want to give myself a pat on the back for going the one extra step while I get two small children fed and ready to get out the door in the morning.

 top: Old Navy, tank: Target, pants: Old Navy, sandals: Target, sunglasses, NY&Co

Speaking of feeding small children... the smallest is still exclusively breastfed. Yep, no bottles here, yet. I'm emotional about it. What else can I say? Because I jumped on the cloth diaper wagon, I also decided to use reusable nursing pads. Why throw away when you don't have to? I spent a pretty penny on some bamboo nursing pads and was so disappointed because they leak all the time! Luckily, I was introduced to Canopy Baby on Facebook and got to test out her newest product: nursing pads! Perfect! Not only are they stinking adorable, but these babies were so much more soft and absorbent than the branded, expensive pads! Nursing pads are one of Canopy Baby's upcoming items, so keep an eye out while she perfects the pattern!

c/o Canopy Baby

CUPCAKES! Eeek!

Kids by iPhone

First, I'm a horrible mama and forgot to take Bean's three month pictures. So, here are two pictures of her: One the day before she turned three months old and one the day after. Average them together, and you get the day she turned three months!

 Sisterly love!

Every day, I can't believe how blessed I am!

A Sailor's Life for Me

Yo-ho, yo-ho... I didn't intend on looking remotely nautical, today, and the style of my outfit is far from it. But the stripes and ocean-like flow of my beloved maxi just remind me of standing on the bow of a boat in the wind.

 top (skirt): Made by me, skirt: Old Navy, shoes: Shoe Department, necklace: Made by Whitney

I found this little nook in the trees and it was shady and beautiful... until I set up the camera. And then it was sunny and beautiful and my photos became washed out. Ah, such is life. 

Because of the lighting, you can't really see my hair color, but I dyed it back to my natural-ish hue. The super-blonde was way too much maintenance with how busy I am right now and let's face it, bleach blonde hair with dark roots is just not hot. Hopefully I can get a more true-to-color photo of the hair this week for ya!

A+ Parenting

Sometimes, you have to throw all of the rules out the window and just be a fun parent. I mean, you have to throw ALL caution to the wind, forget nutrition, and give your child an oreo blizzard for breakfast.

S helped me clean so much on Friday and I promised her an ice cream treat. After dinner, we drove up to Husband's work and waited for him to get off so he could join us. By the time he came out, S was completely passed out, not to be woken by even cymbals (we didn't have any on hand to try, but I'm fairly certain they wouldn't have worked). So, Husband and I decided I couldn't go back on my promise and that she'd get her ice cream treat as soon as she woke up.

Sometimes, parenting is even more fun that usual. Seeing your child's face when you offer ice cream for breakfast is the sprinkles on top of the cherry on top.

When was a time that you broke the rules for your kids?

Help! This House is Driving Me Mad!

No one wants to read a post complaining about real life stuff, but I need help. HOW do busy moms of multiple children (and dogs) keep their flippin' houses clean? If you knew me before Bean came, you know that if there was a spec of dust in my house, either I was extremely sick or it was just too high for me to reach. Now, I struggle to put the clean clothes away (hey, at least they get clean, right?). I have written about cleaning and organization before, but I'm totally in over my head.

Yes, I KNOW I'm supposed to focus 100% of my energy on my children. I'm a stay at home MOM, not a stay at home MAID. But, I'm also a wife and part of this deal is Husband works at work and I work at home. But I can't find the time to get more done than a counter wipe down. And even then, I feel lucky! 

The worst part of all is that when it gets to be too much, that's when I don't know where to start and I have anxiety. Truthfully. And then, I shut down and can't begin the process, so it just gets worse. For instance, right now, I have about 15 piles of clean, folded clothes between the bedrooms. I just can't get there... I do like 3-4 loads of laundry a day (including diapers), but cannot for the life of me get them put away. Here's a regular day for me right now:

7:00-8:30 - Get S up for school, make her breakfast, nurse Bean, pump, get myself ready, eat breakfast

8:30-9:00 - Get S to school

9:20-11:40 - Nurse Bean, do 1 load of clothes and 1 load of diapers, fold clothes, hang diapers on the line, wipe down dining room and kitchen from breakfast, nurse Bean

11:40-12:15 - Get S from school

12:15-1:30 - Lunch for S and me, nurse Bean, put Bean down for a nap, do another load of laundry

1:30-2:30 - Playtime with S (usually dress up, reading, chalkboard ABCs, play-doh, arts and crafts)

2:30-3:30 - Nurse Bean, playtime with Bean and S, take dogs for a walk with kids

3:30-4:30 - Fold clothes, prep for dinner, clean up prep

4:30-5:30 - Nurse Bean, cook dinner, clean up from cooking

5:30-6:30 - Serve and eat dinner, clean up

6:30-7:30 - Bathe the girls, get them ready for bed

7:30-8:00 - Nurse Bean, read to S

8:00-8:30 - Prayers and songs with S, night-night at 8:30

8:30-9:00 - Feed Husband when he gets home from work, try to spend a few minutes with Husband

9:00-9:30 - Nurse Bean, swaddle, rock, put her to bed

9:30-10:30 - Finish miscellaneous laundry, pick up random toys that made it into our bedroom throughout the day, get ready for bed

10:30 - BED

So, there it is. That's a breakdown of my regular day, which doesn't include two bible studies (one starts tonight and one starts next week), any time I want to get out of the house, Saturdays (which are the only days Husband is home) and Sundays when we're at church from 10:30-12:00. So, busy moms, please tell me, HOW is your house clean and your laundry put away? And if you have a maid, please fess up so I can show my husband that it's necessary to have a bit of help!

That Forever 21 Dress

... you know the one.

I wear it every other day, but it never looks quite the same. Thank goodness.

 dress: Forever 21, tank: Old Navy, belt: Target, sandals: Target, sunnies: New York & Company

I wore a variation of this to a coffee date on Saturday (different belt and shoes), but decided to wear it again for errands, today, because it's a fool-proof nursing combo. The dress is strapless (because I chopped the top section off!), so I just pull the top up, dress down, and it's very inconspicuous. Also, the most important of all the things: I'm dressed and comfortable. Winning combination.

Breezy

Betcha thought I'd be wearing a nice, flowy dress, blowing in the wind, right?

Nah.

Feast your eyes upon my newest love. If you live in my neighborhood, shhh. I know the HOA says we can't have laundry lines, but I hung it under the fence line, so it shouldn't bother anyone. Who's anyone kidding, anyway? I can't reach a standard sized laundry line. Because it's so short, lengthwise, I'm hanging another right below it. Hopefully the dogs won't think clean diapers look like something fun to eat. Neither of them are interested in anything but real food, so I don't foresee a problem.

 I just love seeing the flags of colors blow in the sunny breeze!

It's the little things in life... and these diapers smelled SO wonderful and fresh after a day in the sunshine!

Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month

Today, I'm linking up with Crystal, of My Ramblings, to spread the word about ovarian cancer. She was gracious enough to send me some facts that are so important for us to know. I imagine the vast majority of my readers are women, so I hope you'll visit Crystal's post and take some time to use your voice (as a blogger or on facebook/twitter) to spread this important information. Link up with Crystal on today's post, share a story, wear teal, or just share the facts with your readers and/or friends. We all have the power of community! 

When I was in college, I was diagnosed with HPV. I haven't really ever told anyone that, before. My parents and boyfriend knew... and my roommate. At the time, I was horrified. I didn't know it was common and I thought I was going to die. After several abnormal pap results, I finally had to get a biopsy called a coloscopy, and I thought for sure that I had cancer. My gynecologist kept talking to me about mutating cells, stage 3 this, abnormal that, and all I could think was, "Will I be able to have children?" Now, this was all effecting my cervix, not my ovaries. But a woman feels a little threatened when any part of her womanhood is in danger. Am I right? After my biopsy, everything was normal again. I didn't ever have any physical symptoms, so had I not gone in for my routine exam, I would never have known something was wrong. GET TO THE DOCTOR.

Grab a button and share!

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.cld0528.blogspot.com" title="My Ramblings Teal Take Over" target="_blank"><img src="http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/cldrlm/tealtakeover200.png" alt="My Ramblings Teal Take Over" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

So here is a fact sheet with some important things we should keep in mind about ovarian cancer:

PLEASE pass this information along to all of the women that you love! 

You can link up to Crystal's post and help spread the word, here!

OR click the link up button on this post, below!

Teal Takeover for Ovarian Cancer Awareness

Teal is hot this season for more than one reason. Jewel tones for fall? Yes, please. But September is also Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and I'm wearing teal to support the cause! My friend, Crystal, wears teal for her grandma, and she brought this month's mission to my attention. I'll be back with some facts on Monday. Today, though, I'm wearing my teal (I don't have much of it, but I plan to change that!) with pride and I hope you will, too.

 dress: Ross, shoes: Lower East Side (jacked 'em from my mom), glasses: Nine West

Excuse my awesome photo quality. My camera was lopsided on my adirondack chair on the front porch and the lens was all fogged up from the intense humidity. One of these days, I'll figure out how to snap my own outfit photos. It's {pretty far down} on my to-do list.  

In other news, I felt pretty in-tune with the mombots this morning.

Dressed and Mombots

Confession: I'm afraid the moms at Little S' school are going to fry me up and eat me for lunch. They are of three types:

1) The Real Housewives - They are perfectly tanned, perfectly highlighted, donning designer dresses and jewelry, and all run to hug each other at the door of the school.

2) The Gymbots - They drop off and/or pick up their children in workout gear (skin-tight) and look like they exercised for 7 hours straight. Although sweaty, their hair is beautiful, make-up in-tact, and they are gorgeous.

3) The "Me" People - Normal

Nonetheless, I am afraid of them all. Maybe it's because I'm one of two new moms at the school and the other is quite anti-social. I'm not. But I'm scared to talk to the mombots. They're all well-versed in how to be a part of the little Montessori community and well, they're sort of perfect (at arms' reach). I'm sure they all struggle with the same stuff with which I do. But it's the least I can do to get out of my nursing top and panties in the morning, much less into a gorgeous outfit with make-up and hair or to the gym! I did get dressed this morning, but just because I felt like I had to.

Maybe feeling like I "have to" will get me back into the swing of feeling like I want to?

 shirt: Old Navy, skirt: Made by Me, scarf: c/o Happy Scarf, sandals: Target

Whether or not you're a busy mom, what motivates you to get dressed in the morning? What struggles do you face? Do you feel better when you start your day in an outfit you like?

Little S Goes to School!

I sent my first-born to school for the very first time, today. There's not a whole lot to say (yet), except she was hard to wake up, but very, very excited once she was awake. I'll spare you all of the pictures of her stretching in bed, curling into a ball, and refusing to get up. But once she realized it was school day, she got up and was ready for a breakfast of champions! I'll have more to report after I pick her up (so I'll tell ya, tomorrow). I'm so proud of my Little S!

 Cheerios, grapes, and milk!

 "I don't need help, mom-uh."

top: Old Navy, khakis: Target, sandals: Target, bow: Local artist

I practically had to beg for a kiss. She was so ready!

On Loving My Man

Truth: There is nothing sexier in the whole wide world than a man who loves his kids. End of story.

That's not really the end of the story, though. 

Another truth: I am a disorganized, scatterbrained, sometimes unbathed, exhausted mess, lately.

I've also been known to struggle with a bit of OCD and anxiety... So, letting go and letting live is something that's hard for me, because it sometimes has an end (or middle) result of the disorganization that drives me so batsh*t crazy. In the midst of my pretty much begging to stay at home to raise our kids, Hubs decided to take on a second job. He now works 7 days a week and is only home for dinner on weekends. And I get to be home with our girls. Yet, I still have the audacity to get mad at him when the dishes aren't done. Yes, you read me right. Go ahead and say it. I can already hear you. 

WHAT is wrong with that woman?

I'm still learning. I'm learning what he's doing so that I can follow my dream of staying home. I'm learning that the split down the middle (which, let's be honest, was never really a 50/50 split) of chores is more like 90/10, now. And that's because my husband leaves the house at 6:30 in the morning and doesn't come back until after 8:30 at night. And he sacrifices his weekends to make extra cash so I don't have to. And so Little S can start pre-primary at Montessori on Tuesday. And so we can afford to take our kids to the doctor appointments and I can make healthy meals. 

Hell, it's HARD. Being a stay at home mom is everything I've ever wanted, but it's hard and it's lonely... and it's kind of like prison sometimes. Not like I'm locked up, but, well... like I'm locked up. Bean is a ticking time bomb and I truly don't ever know how long it'll be before she needs to be fed, again. So, I pretty much don't leave the house. It's a million and eight degrees with fifty jillion percent humidity, so we don't really go outside much. And honestly, I love my kids, but by the end of the day, I just want ten quiet minutes to myself so I can shower with the curtain closed. (Anyone else take prison showers that last 3 minutes, curtains open, infant eyeballs burning through you?)

But every single second is so worth it. These baby girls are my world.

PLUS my wonderful man. And not only does he drop everything and take on a second job so I can be Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Not only does he take my criticisms and stay calm. No, he falls asleep on the sofa after dinner and I usually have to wake him to come to bed. I used to be so frustrated with that, because I want to fall asleep at 9 pm, too! But who can be frustrated with a man who works his donkey off so his wife can stay home? And who can be frustrated with a man who loves his babies so much that even if he's exhausted after working 14 and 15 hour days, he makes sure they are loved and they know his cuddles and his smell. 

I freaking love my man.

 Cuddling Little S in 2009

Cuddling Bean in 2012

Ava Anderson Winner!

Congratulations, Lindsay!

You won the Ava Anderson $20 giveaway. I will get you in touch with Melanie!

Thanks to everyone who entered and please be sure to shop Ava Anderson with Melanie for your non-toxic home, skincare, face, sun care, and body needs!