SPRING 2016 TO DO LIST

complete our house wide stuff purge! (and donate!)

find some exciting new grill recipes. grilling season is the best season.

picnic lunch with the girls in the front yard.

visit a botanical garden and take pictures.

plantings in the front yard. i have a vision of giant hydrangeas and beautiful perennials, but we'll see how it all works out. but something's gotta go in there! we finally got rid of the hastas we HATED and now it's just so naked.

give the backyard some attention.

see a high school baseball game! (or at least part of one. our attention span is not long.)

play soccer with eliza! mommy and me soccer starts tuesday!

make a meal for someone with Eliza. she's getting to be such a good little helper in the kitchen, i'd love to make a meal for someone with her, and drop it off with her, just so she's part of the whole experience. 

get exercising and get greg to join me- just maybe once a week? 

get something happy up on the walls in our bedroom- walls are looking bare.

paint the upstairs hallway and hang some family pictures. 

an herb garden!

my goal for spring is to live creatively in a state of contentment. 

its friday and i like things/9

what i like is THIS WEATHER. windows open, guys! the windows are open!

beauty

for anyone that i've sent a video to, explaining my basic face routine...things are kind of getting changed up a little bit! if anybody wants an update, let me know! so boring to everyone else but me, probably!


it's funny to see little trends of how i wear make up in different seasons of my life- when i'm pregnant, i wear more than usual...make up always fits? bright lipstick helps when you're throwing up all day for almost a year? and i've been pregnant for 18 months of the past three ish years. but now i'm looking forward to summer and thinking... a bare face with maybe some light powder and lipstick sounds SO good again. or even just a colorful eye and lip balm with nothing on the face. something about summer makes me want to let my skin breathe.


bought some nyx lip suedes- really nice formula i think. they kind of fade into a stain, at least the more natural colors do, which is nice for those who never remember to reapply their lipstick (ME). i got soft spoken, sandstorm, and sway. sway really confused greg so i can't wait to wear it out on a date.

soft spoken

 sandstorm

sway!!!!!

clothes

i took out my summer clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and put away all winter sweaters!!!!!!!!!!!

i tried everything i own for spring and summer on and am in the process of weeding out and made a super short list of things i'd like for S/S 16. 

one piece bathing suits

overall dress

white shorts

floaty formal shorts

grey skinny jeans

denim skirt

brown gladiator sandals

striped dress

patagonia fleece

perfect jean jacket (been looking for at least 5 years- my hopes are not high i can find it)

i kicked some butt on saving money and actually getting things that are ethically produced. so freaking excited to start wearing them. this whole section is so superficial, but really, i looked into my closet the other day after hanging up all my clothes, and purging so many that didn't fit great or that i don't actually reach for and thought I LOVE MY CLOSET. i have had so many clothes for so many years that i didn't actually enjoy... or that i held onto out of anxiety. like ok but what if one day i really need this ill fitting wrap dress and i don't have any money to go out and buy an ill fitting wrap dress... WHAT WILL I DO THEN?!?! and it feels so good to look into my closet and see creative potential as opposed to anxiety. 

reading:

finished I Capture the Castle- ugh. ending kicks my ass everytime.

finished The Unexpected Miss Bennet by Patrice Sarath- very cute and sort of silly. not particularly well written or anything, but it was like my equivalent of watching a daytime Jane Austen themed soap opera while Greg was on a business trip this week,

finished Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty- she is such a funny and easy writer. exciting and interesting and emotional plot, more than anything else. 

startting Ken Follett's Fall of Giants today! one of my best friends recommended the century trilogy, since I'd already read his other one- Pillars series i think? i'm excited! i love loooong books. it's comforting they won't end on you too soon. 

still reading: Loving to Know (i pop in and out of it depending on whether im in a scholarly mood... lately, no.) and now also Roots and Sky by Christie Purifoy, which is very soothing and sweet. 

eating

so ready to start grilling (ready for greg to start grilling). making a lot of salads and quesadillas. and dutch baby pancakes. 

thinking about:

i listen to a bon appetit podcast sometimes, and one of the more recent ones really got me thinking. the guy they had on the show was undergoing a challenge to cook every meal for himself (really, prepare every meal for himself) in the month of january. the host, who WORKS AT BON APPETIT, said she probably makes three meals a month for herself. THREE. it was SO fascinating listening to them talk about how difficult it is to cook for yourself and not bore yourself or miss out on social interaction, etc. i'm still processing all my questions.

* how does living in suburbia vs. a city effect how much you eat out or order in?

* how does your view of hospitality effect how much you prepare food at home?

*isn't it interesting that in the US a place where "foodie culture" is becoming a big thing, the arbiters of taste in said culture don't prepare their own food much at all? 

*what kind of skills are we looking for our children to inherit if they don't see us preparing food occasionally? is that actually important or just old fashioned?

*how does this shape our view of nutrition? who is responsible for our nutrition?

i've been thinking about it for a good two weeks and wishing i could have been in the room to talk with these people! 

its friday and i like things/8

reading:


really getting into I Capture the Castle again, just like when i was a kid. been staying up too late reading it and i'll probably finish tonight! : (


i have Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty waiting in the wings to be my next fiction.


this article about self care is exactly right/ exactly how i've been feeling/ exactly why i write about what i write about in these posts.  i come from a background and live in an area where it sometimes feels like the expectations that people have for my self care can get overwhelming. (and expensive) it can feel as if its just another area i'm not doing enough. logistic and budget constraints factor in, but it's just not realistic for me to go to yoga a couple times a week, go see a therapist when i'd like to, or whatever. i have some precious moments to myself most days (some days?) and what i choose to do with them is so key. self care hacks count, too.

beauty


doing my make up most days IS self care. if i have six minutes to myself while both girls are happy after breakfast, or whatever, it's fun and creative for me and usually an experiment. the selfie that follows is self care too- it's fun, it's for me. it's quick enough to do my makeup and snap a picture that no one's day gets disrupted, and it doesn't make anyone cry, and i enjoy it.


that being said...


i'm feeling a resurgence of purple. i love a berry lipstick (a la nars viviene) but lately i've been excited about purple blush, purple eyeshadow. i used to wear purple blush a lot in high school... do with that what you will. this blush is on my wishlist.


wearing


 the same old stuff because the spring is refusing to come two months early like i asked it to. but i am SO dreaming of spring clothes, summer clothes, bathing suits. ordered a few one pieces, which generally make me feel like i'm wearing a leotard without a sports bra on, so i'm just hoping for the best.


on the look for: a great jean jacket, a jean pencil skirt to wear with peasant blouses, and something other than my one pair of jean cutoffs to wear on the bottom. (what number of children do you need to have before jean cut offs are inappropriate? don't answer that, i'm not listening.) Ooh and also maybe an overall dress. another thing i had in highschool that i wish i'd kept. (do i just want to go back to high school? no, definitely not.)


cooking


just started making dutch baby pancakes for breakfast this week! they are AMAZING. delicious, and very theatrical. my favorite one is:


preheat the oven to 425


whirl the following things together in a blender for about a minute:
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
tsp vanilla


while those are whirling, melt 2 tsp of butter in a cast iron skillet and turn off the heat. pour the batter into the skillet, throw in some berries (raspberries and blueberries are KILLER) and throw it in the oven for 20 minutes. don't open the oven to check on it!


at the end of the 20 minutes it will be gorgeous and sort of browned and puffy in weird places. and it tastes like a pancake made of custard.



thinking about


what is the intersection of gender studies, social psychology, and biblical studies? i want to read and write and talk about that all the time.


salvation stories in the old testament- joseph, esther, daniel, etc,  and how they point to christ.

important milestones

milestones which mean a lot to me:

being able to sit in the cart at the store so i don't have to bring in the carrier/take off my coat so i can put the carrier on/always have to remember the carrier


being able to put their hair into a little ponytail/ being able to attach a bow to said pony tail


when they can sit up on a picnic blanket outside and play with things while the sun is shining.



we hit two out of three!

it's saturday and i like things/7

beauty:


very interested in these liquid lipsticks. can only find them at ulta so far. we were at a mall with an ulta this morning, but eliza had an "i am two and a half hear me roar" episode while we were leaving so it was not the time to peruse liquid lipsticks casually, unfortunately.


just got this blush palette , which is extremely affordable, has SUCH beautiful colors in it, and goes on really pigmented. its making me excited to choose a blush color every day. so, so nice.

recent make up has pretty much been this; (neutral eye, subtle wing, gloss)

or this: (warm smokey eye, berry wing, nude lip)

wearing:

boots and WOOL SOCKS.

ALSO! if you want a very warm coat that doesn't cost more than your house/car, i just got this one and have on several occasions actually had to turn down the heat in my car because i was too warm. if you know me well, you know that's a real big deal. 

cooking:


a lot of buddha bowls. i prep the veggies during the girls naps and then just throw it all together while the children scream/cry/have a dance party during witching hour. lots of indonesian spice mix happening.

reading:


just started mating in captivity by esther perel. it is GASP a sex book. finding it really interesting.



started reading i capture the castle by dodie smith again. haven't read it since high school (middle school?) but i LOVED it then and someone brought it up to me recently so i pulled it back out. fun to remember all the teenage FEELINGS.


still working on loving to know, have such a big stack of books i'm dying to get into.


making:

want to try to embroider some jeans soon- not sure how so i'm just gonna break out an old pair of thrift store jeans and get going. we shall seeeeeee. it will definitely be less costly than these 1,000$ stella mccartney ones. HA.

thoughts at hot yoga/2

-i bet there's gonna be noone there. we're so awesome and motivated for going at 830 am on a saturday.



-whoops. opposite. EVERYONE IS HERE, and ALREADY AT THEIR MATS BEING VERY ZEN.



-i am infringing on everyone's personal space right now. everyone is in their mind palace and i'm like OH EXCUSE ME EXCUSE ME SORRY I STILL HAVE A LITTLE BREASTMILK ON MY SHIRT.



- wow. a banana and a handful of cheerios was simultaneously NOT ENOUGH and WAY TOO MUCH breakfast.



- this is great. i love doing this with friends.



-i need a million bagels. why did we not just go to breakfast?



-(at home) if i eat a bagel in the shower can i both shower and eat a bagel this morning?



answer: yes.

favorites/2015

beauty-

wore this NYC Peach Blush every single day on the top halves of my cheekbones. might not be a perfect color for everyone, but for me, this blends into bronzer really nicely and looks very natural with or without any base.

the nars audacious lipstick collection is beautiful. i have 5 colors and they're what i reach for most. claudia is a cool pink that makes me feel very bardot-esque, michiyo is a great hot pink, grace is a happy poppy red/coral, natalie is a warm opaque peach, and vivien is top 3 all time lipsticks for me: the perfect perfect berry. they're thick and matte and last really well, but the best thing about them is the colors.

i have 3 colors of this stila liquid liner , and it's my favorite way to do my cat eye (and definitely more user friendly than using a brush if you're new at it. i have jet black, moss and cobalt.

i ran out of this nars bronzer, which almost never happens for me. usually i get excited about some new thing and don't fully finish powders, but i used this EVERY DAY i wore make up, i think. this is a shimmery one, which i like.

my other favorite purchase of 2015 for beauty was this flat kabuki brush to apply primer and foundation, and to buff in concealer. makes a huge difference in application!

oh and i feel like i would be remiss not to mention that greg found and fell in love with the only hair product he has ever enjoyed this year. this hairspray is his jam. i steal it too sometimes, great hold.

wearing

i felt like i was pregnant 99% of 2015. but there are some standouts that i wear ALL of the time.

this flannel which is now on sale!

this and this jumpsuit, both from old navy, both on sale.

aaaaaand, everything else i wear a lot is old/ i am still waiting to fit into about 30% of my old stuff.
(just like... waiting. not really doing anything about it.)

reading

favorite novel was hannah coulter by wendell berry.

favorite nonfiction was probably loving to know by esther meek, which is in progress.

baking/cooking/eating

a lot of babkas this year. more than average, i would say.

everyone went 100% nuts for these sandwiches on christmas day. def not healthy or my normal meal situation, but it was SO EASY and fed a million people.

things i learned about salad in 2015:
* i almost always like it better when there's more "stuff" than greens in there. like a good 2 cups of cooked quinoa or cous cous in a big salad bowl. or a whole pan of roasted veggies, or can of chick peas.
*chop the greens up tiny and the experience will be magical,
*the next morning throw your salad in a cast iron skillet with a glug of oil and sautee for a minute or two. pour in 4-6 eggs whisked with a splash of milk and salt and pepper and heat on the stove for a few minutes. throw in a 400 degree oven and watch until it sets. DELICIOUS. MAKE SURE THERE'S CHEESE IN YOUR SALAD. BUT WHY WOULDN'T THERE BE?




there you go, the three of you that read this. ; )