spring scrub and grub!

well, in case you live under a rock, i've been planning a fundraiser for new hope over the past few weeks (hence my MIA status).
and guess what?!
the big day is tomorrow! join us for the
new hope spring 2010 scrub and grub!
we're offering a free car wash and $5 car vacuuming services. what's better? while you wait, you can head over to our outdoor cafe, grab a pastry and a cup of coffee, and listen to some music.

i mean, does it GET any better than that?!
(answer: no.)

and hey, bring the kids- they can play sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles while we wash and vacuum your car and you sip your coffee.

do you want to know how to find this utopia??

i'll tell you. find the intersection of rt. 138 and rt. 106 in south easton, and new hope is a stone throw from there. we'll be at 6 meadowhill court from 9 to 3 tomorrow (saturday, may 15) anxiously awaiting your arrival. and the arrival of all your friends. and family.

don't miss it! (no really- DON'T miss it!)

more info on boston.com and on craigslist or on new hope's website :)

you need this.

this is not a matter of wanting.
this is a matter of life or death.
of necessity.

you need this.

what is this, you ask? it is the is9100 by rowenta.
it is the end of ironing, the end of wrinkly, the end of wasting time.

this, my friends, is your new best friend.
a garment steamer.

i have spent the day with my new love, steaming wrinkles out of every dress that i hang to dry, every one of my husbands shirts, every one of piper's dresses, and every polo shirt elias owns.

what would have taken me days and days, hours and hours, relentlessly ironing wrinkles out of (and then back into) clothes takes mere minutes. I can iron all our wardrobes in the span of laundry day, and be left with nothing to press, nothing wrinkly, nothing i can't wear unless i bust out the gigantic squealing ironing board and heavy as all heck iron.

(wait- this is sounding like an infomercial. maybe that's my true calling...)

listen. i LOVE this thing. because frankly, i HATE ironing, but i like our clothes to look pressed and wrinkle free. which means...well, we never have any clothes to wear because i hate pulling out the iron. abhor. almost as much as the grocery store.

my boss has this steamer, and i'll admit, i was covetous because of how amazing it was. i went and bought the travel version, but it's just that- it's a travel version, not a "do your whole wardrobe version." so i starting scoping it out (since i wasn't going to by it at bloomingdales for over $200...that's a little over budget). i had a store credit to bed, bath, & beyond, and a 20% off coupon that was looking promising. after a couple phone calls and some research, i scored an is9100 for $104.

you heard me. $104.

dave said he was almost proud of me for using some of the extra money i've earned over the past month on myself. he said the steamer didn't quite qualify as a gift just for me, but knowing me as he does, and seeing me dance around when no one was looking, he saw that it did in fact bring me delight/joy/rapture/etc., so he was satisfied.

so if you hate ironing, and you have a little room for this bad boy, start wheeling and dealing and get yourself an is9100. (here, let me help you. i found it at amazon.com with free shipping.

(and rowenta, you can go ahead and get the check in the mail.)

the real diehl

i know, i know. i couldn't help myself with the homophone. it's just true: john diehl is the real deal.

i asked johnny if he's mind if i spotlighted him on my blog in light of his very own art gallery opening celebration tonight. at 28 years old. right?! yeah...it's like that.

i've always been a big fan of johns and have followed his art career for almost a decade, from when he used to sketch me in college (i was more than happy to be his muse), to when he studied at RISD and then in florence, italy. i told him the other day that i was proud of him, and not in a mothering or patronizing way, but in a friendly, awe-inspired, impressed, and amazed kind of way. and i am, because God has gifted him immoderately, and that is something to celebrate.

so tonight, along with droves of others, will be spending the evening with a wine glass to say "salut!" a very talented artist. want to see for yourself? check out his website or his blog or his facebook page. see what i'm talking about. and if you're local, you should come check out all of the amazing pieces adorning the walls of mr. diehl's very own art gallery (if you're not already, all you wbhs alums) :) and if you're not local, you should go shopping online and get yourself an original for that empty space above the couch.

see you there!

tired much?

last night, after dinner, per my usual, i had to lay down on the couch and take 5. for some reason, after i eat any meal, i feel far more nauseous than i did before i ate. (good times, good times.) so dave finished up dinner with the kids, and then we put the kids to bed around 7:15.

so 7:45, the kids were asleep, and we regrouped on the piece of couch that is free of both wall hangings and laundry (yes, i have to finish painting today before company shows up at 6:30). we're both pretty exhausted, and i feel awful, so we lay on this 4 foot parcel of couch, and within 10 minutes, we're fast asleep. unconscious.

dave, apparently, wakes up and gets back to working creating a new flash web site for new hope. it's one of (what we've now labeled, because it's a slight illness?) his "immersions," currently, so he essentially doesn't sleep. he works for hours on sermons, websites, and any number of things...starting at 10 or 11 pm when i turn in. he eventually sneaks into bed in the middle of the night like he's been out drinking with his buddies or something, but no, he's been working.

i, on the other hand, continue sleeping until 1:30 am, when i wake up and realize i just went to bed at 8:00.

8:00?! i mean...really?!

and when i woke up to dave still working (huge surprise here), i made fun of him for a minute or two after he pretends like he'll be up soon, and then headed to bed (again?). and i fell asleep. mind you, i had already slept for almost 6 hours, and i managed to fall back asleep and sleep straight through until this morning at 7:15 when the kids woke up (and elias proceeded to admonish me for taking his soccer uniform to wash it. what was i thinking?! [uhh, that it was really dirty?]).

i mean, by the time you have two children, you've got to be behind, what, months of sleep? so i'm not trying to be hard on myself for sleeping like a raging college student, but...

it seems a bit profuse.

so- anyone else have a tale of ridiculous sleeping?
don't leave me hanging, guys.

laying it on thick

i'm making lunch this afternoon and elias is shouts from the toy room:
"mom, it's so great of you that you're making such a nice lunch! thanks, mom!" (note: i'm making annie's mac n cheese and nuggets. not exactly gourmet, but...)

and then he adds:
"you look beautiful today, mom. absolutely beautiful!"

enter: a running piper, pointing up at me, yelling (because piper, aptly named, mostly yells...everything):
"you a beu-eee, mum! a beu-ee!" (yes. she's calling me...a beauty.)

as we sit down for lunch, my kids actually won't stop telling me that i'm a beauty, and that i look beautiful today. must be the sweatpants and no makeup? i found myself trying to change the topic because the flattery from my nearly 4 and sorta almost 2 year old was, uhhh, overwhelming. and sweet and adorable, of course.

now, you may be wondering where my children got these complimetary notions.
do i vainly teach them to shower me with praise?
have they been watching leave it to beaver?
do i brainwash them as some part of the dharma initiative?

funny thing is? it wasn't me. not at all. i have my husband to thank for teaching our kids to always say thank you to whoever prepared the meal (Lord knows it's not always me; dave cooks a lot), and to tell me that i'm beautiful, which they learned from his example and from him encouraging them to tell me "how pretty" i look every day.

kinda nice for a pregnant lady in sweatpants to have her own personal confidence-boosting team. who cares if they don't really understand it?!
so husbands- teach your children to love and respect mom, but don't forget to teach them to shower her with praise and gratitude, too. it should be like mother's day EVERY day. moms need it wherever they can get it. and teach them lay it on THICK. like it's supposed to be.

that's what I'M talking about.

productivity

i read a great book years ago called "having a mary heart in a martha world" by joanna weaver. it talks about the story of mary and martha, and about how martha sat at the feet of Jesus while martha ran around like a chicken with its head chopped off trying to get a meal together for her guest. most the time, i think moms feel like martha, like "holy crap, Jesus is at my house, and it's a mess, and i've got to whip up something delicious, fast, and look at mary, just kicking back, talking to Jesus. awesome, mary, i hate your guts." now, had martha been thinking, she'd have been like "Jesus, can you whip up some food and some wine so we can get this party started properly?" but, hey, maybe that's just me. what Jesus taught martha was the better thing is to have a heart like mary, which was a heart that knew that the right priority in that moment was to sit next to the great Teacher, not cook.

thinking about this lately has made me realize the priority for me has to be the baby i'm carrying, my children, my husband, and my faith. nothing more, nothing less. it's important for me to rest, and it's okay to rest. and it's important for to me to be able to feel well enough that i don't want to rip someone's head off or scream at them, which is essentially what i want to do, altogether too much (like tonight, when it was 6:45, and i hadn't yet fed my kids dinner {yes, because i was painting} and someone apparently spilled greasy greek dressing all over the floor in the kitchen AND the foyer. and walked all in it and tracked it around because silly me, i thought it was water that had been tracked in. so i had to wash the floors. and THEN make dinner. and try to put my kids to bed before 10:00. aaahhh, one can only laugh...).

times like these have led to me being reflective on why it bothers me so much that i can't get a whole lot done beyond the basics (because when i can't, i chide myself and call myself lame, so i guess i'm a work in progress). as i thought about it, i realized i have this thing for productivity. it's sort of like crack for me. i like it, i want it, i need it. it is GOOD. now, don't confuse productivity with busyness. i do NOT like to be very busy. productivity is different. it's efficiency. input. output. it's when i can accomplish ridiculous amounts of things in short periods of time, especially lurking, looming items on my to-do list, or things i've been dying to get to. it's part of my genetic code, this desire for being productive.

so you can imagine what it's been like for me the past 3 months, feeling nauseous (times infinity) from sunrise to sunset, and not really going (or wanting to go) above and beyond the basics of feeding and diapering my children. i don't want to do laundry, dishes, make phone calls, send emails, clean my house, make meals, play with children. ANYTHING. despite my very genetic makeup, i simply cannot be productive. i want to lay. on the couch. in silence.

you can also imagine THAT'S probably not going to happen. unfortunate and frustrating when you sort of want to throw up everywhere, but you can't. and won't. and then you have to...live life and nurture others. and treat them with kindness. and love. and patience.

so then, i'll bet you can also imagine how ECSTATIC i am, because for the past 48 hours, i've been motivated! i feel (sort of almost) like myself, ish. am i still feeling sick? well, yes. but i feel like God has divinely intervened and blessed me with enough extra energy and esprit to bring me just a little bit of the joy and satisfaction i get from being able to clean the house, cook meals, do laundry, and heck, paint my living room! (more on that soon. it IS fabulous!) i cannot explain it any other way, because nothing is different. right now, at 9:36 pm, i feel gross. same gross that i felt at 9:36 am. but that's just it- it's not me that's doing it. it's him IN me.

despite a social and work agenda for the month that is absolutely staggering and on the verge of overwhelming (doctors visits for me and e, girls night out, work, couples group meetings, friends visiting from WA [canNOT wait], art gallery openings [also ecstatic], mother's day, an open church meeting, a car wash/bake sale fundraiser [more on that to come], graduation parties, eli's birthday party, and a 7-day trip to florida with two small children (which i have BARELY considered), somehow, God is giving me peace. AND energy. honestly, i'm exhausted just thinking about this month, it's true, and part of me wants it to be june (please?). i'm too quick to forget how many things are not in my hands (ahem, all of them) and i've been grateful that God's been teaching me to focus on the right priority. to be satisfied doing much, and doing little. to sit at his feet, and also to accomplish what i need to, when i can. just not when he's visiting. i mean, let's not be rude when Jesus stops by, right? ;)