Life Well Lived: Fashion Resolutions

One of the things I constantly struggle with is my image as a Stay At Home Mom. I've blogged about it before, but I'm (apparently) obsessed with the idea that I might present myself as a sloppy stereotype. You'd think this means that I judge other moms, and I don't. (I DO, however, judge anyone over the age of 5 who is in any public area that is not an emergency room wearing printed fleece pajama pants. It's not playfully cute.) My point is that I don't want other people to think I'm a slob. I don't want to be a slob. 
Near the end of last year I found myself getting a bit lazy. Since I don't have to take the Pirate to school in the mornings I'd find myself still in my pajamas at pickup time. Now, I'm not so far gone that I left the house wearing them, but I will admit to wearing my slippers a time or two to go get him. I may have also forgone proper foundation garments. I am, frankly, horrified at myself. I don't expect a lot from myself, I don't think I'll ever be a cute mom wearing heels and makeup every day, but I thought maybe it was time to put set some rules. I mean resolutions.  I posted the beginning of my list over at the discussion on BlogHer, but I thought I'd refine it more here on my blog. Be sure to go check that post for other great ideas and add your own resolutions.

1. I will not wear slippers past my own mailbox. (Who are we kidding,  I WILL wear slippers to the mailbox!)
2. I will always wear proper foundation garments if I plan to exit my vehicle or talk to a person who is not in my immediate family. (Or, well, Bo Peep. She does get here at 7:30 in the morning.) (Or I guess her parents, cause she can't drive yet.)
3. At least once a week I will fix my hair in a style that does not require a rubber band. On a day that I am NOT going to work.
4. More skirts. (I wore skirts for almost three months straight last summer, then one day put on a pair of jeans and haven't worn one since.)
5. Continue to look for interesting basics at the thrift store. I've found some really great unworn shoes (Borns, Danskos, cowboy boots!) in the last few weeks, and I'd love to find a few more shirts. In fact, I'd like to make a list of missing things so I know specifically what to look for. I already keep a similar list of craft type things to look for.

PS. While you're over there at BlogHer, you might enter their giveaway for a Kindle Fire.

On the first day of the 21 Day Challenge

(which was yesterday, but I'm just now getting this posted. See remainder of paragraph for explanation) I woke up tired and lazy on the first day of the challenge. I know, I said I wanted to join so as not to be a sloppy, lazy, stay-at-home mom.  But we camped this weekend, and my baby doesn't sleep, and I didn't get a morning shower and hey, here's another excuse!  So.

The prompt for the first day was to choose an item to remix 3 times in the challenge. For those of you not in the know on fashion blogging, this simply means to wear it in three different ways or outfits.  We were not allowed to choose jeans, but I wouldn't anyway. Instead I choose this straight denim skirt. It's hard to tell in the picture, but it has tiny dark pinstripes to give it a little interest. Today I went with an easy navy tshirt, which matched a lot better in my mind than in this picture.

And speaking of the picture, the Pirate will be serving as official 21 Day Challenge photographer, so there's no guarantee that you'll even be able to SEE my outfits in many of the pictures. This is one of his better compositions. (Hey, he's six and taking pictures with an iPhone, what do you expect?)

I don't plan to do a separate post for each days outfit, I'll probably just add them to the bottom of whatever else I write that day, but for the first day I thought I'd explain myself. Doing it at all feels a little weird, to be taking a daily picture of myself, especially when you consider my tiny wardrobe and my lack of real style, but I'm looking forward to participating.

Wardrobe details:
Skirt: Target
Shirt: Walmart
Bracelet: Life is Good
Shoes: Target (multi-strap flip flops, but the Pirate didn't manage to get them in the picture)

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Planning my first summer vacation, from the mom side

As the title would suggest, this is my first summer vacation from the mom side of things. Yes, there have been other summers in my kid's lives, but I always worked and they were in year round daycare. This is the first time we've had a summer break to plan for and I know that if we don't have a routine in place that we will all be unhappy within a week or two.  We didn't ever have a routine when I was a kid, beyond "get up and go out on the boat." (Yes, nearly every day.) We talked a bit about it as a family and I've been fine tuning it in my head and now I'm going to turn it over to you for suggestions. Here's what I'm thinking so far, and please, help me out, this is my first time!

• From the time we get up until breakfast: free time for kids and mamas. This means I'll surf the internet mixed in with a little cleaning and my coffee, same as always. If it ever warms up I plan to sit on the porch for a lot of this, but it was 40F out there this morning, so not today!
• Breakfast. The Bug and I have had a fairly loose breakfast plan. I want to have a time where we all sit down and eat and talk about the day. I'd like to get them to "help" plan lunch and an activity for the day, including looking up the weather to see what activity is suitable.
• Mornings. The Princess takes a nice solid morning nap lately. The boys will need to play with each other, with minimal help from me during this nap. This is crucial, because it's the best time for me to get paying work done. I am hoping that with a few days practice and a definite activity in the afternoon that they will learn to cooperate.
• Lunch. As soon as little girl wakes up, we'll make lunch and get it eaten. I'm hoping to teach them to clean up they living areas while I make lunch, but we'll see how well that goes.
• Activity. Finally, the thing we picked out to do! Yay! I've been trying to think of all the parks and nature walks and other free things to do in town. Some of them will be things we stay home for (and suggestions are welcome!) but I think leaving the house once a day will be good for us. We do have one great park (and one crappy park) within walking distance.
• Late afternoon, free time. The Princess likes a short afternoon nap. I'd like to be home for that so that I can hopefully get a little more work in.   Boys can play or whatever they want. We'll have a snack.
• Dinner. And, more importantly, Daddy comes home! (I think this is the best part of the Bug's day.)

I'm not planning the part of the day after dinner, because it'll depend on  Mike, but I'm hoping we can go walk by the river or go fishing after dinner or other fun things. Also, Mike and I are both hoping to start jogging soon (Mike once he gets around to it, ahem, and me once I stop coughing), so that will happen in the wee hours of the morning.  He'll go, then I'll go while he showers and gets ready for work. More on this later.

My mom will be here for much of June and we have a little bit of traveling planned, so this routine will be flexible, but I really hope that if they know what to expect that our days will go better.


I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks. All content copyright Books. Lists. Life. at http://bookslistslife.blogspot.com. If you're reading this post anywhere other than there, you are reading stolen content.

Help a mom out! Plan my days...

Day two of being a SAHM. Great news! We all survived yesterday. The Bug mostly watched tv all day, but one day won't kill him. We went outside twice, once to the backyard, once to walk up the street to find the source of the loud noise. (It was a stump grinder. The Bug sat on the curb to watch.) It is clear that we need to get out for a while each day. I think as long as the weather holds we'll try to take a walk each day that we don't leave the house. The Bug really enjoys it and behaves really well.

Today we plan to run a few errands- the credit union to return my work shirts (wanna guess how many I had?), the fabric store (I'm one 8"x10" square short of blue fabric on a custom banner, grrr), the post office for some flat rate boxes, and the library (reward for good behavior on the other stops.)  It's crazy to have to buckle and unbuckle two kids at each stop, but I guess this is my life now, huh? I'm thinking that we'll use the stroller at most stops so I can contain the Bug, even though the stroller can be a pita.

Yesterday several of you left me some great ideas on how to manage this stay at home life. I'm looking for more hints. How to get him to nap? Cheap or free activities, even better if he can do them alone. I'm already pretty on board with the idea of letting him guide the day- he is not a child you can easily lead. Right now he is on the front porch watching the garbage truck, maybe later we'll go on a walk to find them? What else? How do I get my stuff done too? I'm sure we'll get a routine soon, I'm not particularly stressed (yet) but welcome all suggestions!

I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.

Monday morning to do-ing for a brand new life.

In a lot of ways today is the first day of a whole new life for me. Maternity leave is over (my last day would have been tomorrow) and the Bug is now home full time with me. For the first time, I'm now a stay-at-home mom, at least for the next few months. In an effort to stay on track, I'm pulling my work habits home, and making a Monday morning to do list.  Not everything on the list will be done today, it's more of a list of goals for the week, along side scheduled things like my 6 week postpartum doctor's appointment, and a note that the Pirate needs to wear red on Thursday. Regardless, getting the high points written on paper will hopefully make it easier for me to adjust to this brand new world.
So what's on my list?

• library story times (In case I'm brave enough to take the Bug and the baby out together)
• return library books and donate the (literally) hundreds of books I purged this week
• first run of Goodwill donations
• return Redbox movies (ok, that one has to be done today)
• red ribbon week activities
• second coat of paint on the bathroom floor (basement bathroom, mostly unfinished, unused by us)
• The Pirate's parent teacher conference
• a list of blog post ideas, starting with tomorrow's post about planning your SAHM day, cause I'm gonna need HELP!

The picture is of my side table. You can just see the edge of my computer on the right. Then my coffee in my favorite mug, my to do list/ calendar (still blank for the week), some library books, an unread O magazine, the spiral notebook with my master to do list for moving, a pile of baby socks, and my box of baby supplies. We find it a lot easier with a new born to have a small basket of diapers, wipes, lotion, burp clothes, Mylicon (if you are expecting a baby, start stocking up on it or cheaper alternates now!) all at hand. It keeps the whole living room from becoming a baby room.

There are many other things I'll do this week, like pack and pack and pack, but these are the specific things on the list. So far. What's on your list for the week?



I am an Amazon Associate. As such, any purchase you make at Amazon.com after following a link from this blog will earn me a (tiny) percentage back as income. Thanks.