Buncha random shirts: Stitch Fix #3

I made a Pinterest board JUST for Stitch Fix and then forgot to share the link with my stylist, making it a total and complete waste of my life.

This was both my worst-- because I just got a bunch of weird blouses-- and my best-- because I kept 3/5 of the stuff-- Fix.

Want to see pics?  Weird pics of shirts hanging up on a random bathroom door?  OKAY GREAT.

 ^^^This one is a cardigan, and it is CUTE.  I love the lace detail in the back and on the lapels, and it has an excellent shape-- a little flared around the hips but made of really think fabric so I don;t look bulky.  It also covers my butt, so it;s great with boots and skinny jeans.

 ^^^ That's the BACK of this sweater.  I like it and wore it the other day with a cute leopard-pint sleeveless T underneath.  Ben said it makes me look fat.  Erm.

 ^^^ Super cute long flowy bib shirt, great with my new Frye boots and skinny jeans.  Bad because it is dry clean only, but so are the sweaters.  Sigh.

 ^^^ Cute on hanger. Hot mess on me.  The front was too short-- you could almost see flabby mom belly, and the colors were very Sears-- not shades that occur in real life AT ALL.

 ^^^ WHAT THE HELL?

Luckily, I have still transcended food and am 5 pounds lighter than I was at this time last week, so next month, my Fix will be fab.  Or too big.  Either way.

Ok, guys, I am having a dilemma.  It is time to sign up for next semester of baby gym class, and I am hesitant.  I know it's great for Dorothy, and she really does love it.  But I just kind of want to spend my mornings exercising while the babies watch TV and putting away the laundry so I can relax during nap.  This is a bad reason to bypass baby gym, though, right?  I mean, sure, I have been going to that class for 8 years, but she has only gone for 3 semesters.  Bah.  I need to sign up, right?  (And I know that when I do, we will both have tons of fun and it is probably the reason why she is such a good somersaulter and walked at 10 months and knows her colors.  Well, hell, I guess my mind is made up.

ETA: I signed up :)

Viral

And just like that, we were struck down by a terrible stomach flu.

Harrison was first.  He stayed home from school complaining of a "belly ache" and assuring us he was't playing "Wookie," but he only threw up once and his main complaint was that his burps tasted like Cheerios even though he hadn't eaten any Cheerios.

Jack was next.  He woke Harry up in the middle of the night by vomiting all over him.  Oops.  He avoided all food for the next 36 hours and puked on and off all night long.

Then came Cooper, who never threw up but has been sick for days if you know what I mean.

Ben, who handled the majority of the bunk bed splatter clean up, fell the day after Jack, and it wasn't pretty.  He was much braver than I, however.

I started throwing up on Friday night and didn't get out of bed until Sunday morning because that is how I roll when I am sick. The good news is I will never eat cookie dough again; I have lost 4 pounds, and I am still not interested in eating.  I feel like I have transcended food.  My Hunter boots fit my calves again.  Stomach flu can be lovely.

My parents came in to see baby Henry, and we canceled a friends weekend in Milwaukee to see the fam, but then I spent the whole weekend so sick I thought I would maybe never get better (I get a little dramatic when sick), so we barely saw them.

They are going to Mexico this weekend for a week (so do not want stomach flu, obvi), and even though we just got back from Florida a month ago, I NEED another vacation.

This winter is very wintery.

Swimming at my parents' hotel ^^^

Baby Henry!

 You guys!!!  He's here!

Sweet baby Henry, a totally beautiful baby, right?  (He's way prettier than my kids were, and he makes the cutest little faces!!!)

 I cannot get enough of him!

 In other news:
Dorothy rocked a top knot.

 And has apparently been visited by the hair fairy.

 Ben also dressed her so adorably today

Tomorrow is the only day in the foreseeable future that we both have to be at work at the same time, and I have been prepping ALL NIGHT.  Bah.

Luckily, my office is right by the hospital, so I plan to spend some baby Henry time whenever I can...

A busy little Saturday

Oh you guys, I have to go to campus Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. I haven't been to my office since 12-14, and I feel very nervous just thinking about getting up at a specific time and getting dressed and leaving the house. I almost never leave the house anymore, which is wonderful. Except we have totally gotten out of the habit of doing a regular weekly grocery run, so I have been to the grocery store more in the last 5 weeks than in all of 2014. But the grocery store doesn't count because it's not like I have to get dressed to go there, especially since my giant knee-length parka and tall Uggs and huge sunglasses cover about 90% of me. The rest is just a swatch of fabric between my knees and the middle of my shin. Needless to say, I have been sleeping in yoga pants.

Today in a rare burst of grooming, I showered AND got dressed to go to the library and the grocery store with the whole fam.  It was fancy.

We ran into my brother and his girlfriend-- they are going to have a baby SOMETIME IN THE NEXT 7 DAYS.  I am so excited!!  A sweet new baby boy that I can cuddle and sniff and squeeze (gently) and then not have to stay up all night with?  JACKPOT.  I cannot WAIT.  Ben and I both sleep with our phones next to our beds, brain cancer be damned because we don't want to miss THE CALL.

The baby is officially due tomorrow, and his mom is at that stage of pregnancy where nothing is comfortable, even sitting.  Oh, I remember those days!  Not being able to sleep and then getting all pissed at yourself because you know you are having a baby and will probably never sleep again.

Seeing them made me think of being so incredibly pregnant with Cooper.  And then I just started thinking about how wonderful Cooper is and how he has always just been a little late.  I mean, you guys, he is 3 1/4, and he is really just now speaking in sentences.  Which I have to tell you, makes the sentences wonderful little miracles, every single one of them.  When he comes in bed with Ben in the morning and says "Daddy, scratch my back please."  Or when he falls down and says he need ice for his feet.  Or when he tattles on Harry and Jack.  Even that is precious.  Tonight at dinner, he said his happy place is his closet (what?) and then asked everyone in turn where our happy place is.  It;s really fun to finally hear his thoughts.  Like when he thinks the weekly test of the emergency alert system is bad guys or when he asks to hold my hand in the parking lot "so I don't die, mommy" (erm, what?), or when he demands a another pice of hot gum and tells us that he can't poop on the potty because "poop my pants is best."  I really love hearing him talk.

Apropos of nothing, here is Jack making dinner last night-- he is the happiest little helper.

And a ruffian of a Princess Anna on her new trampoline

I came upstairs to check on the dog because I was worried she was doing something bad.  Clearly, my fears were unfounded.

TGISCHOOL

 OH MY GOD IT IS SO COLD.  Becca would have already flash frozen and shattered.

Every school in the area has been closed, but not us!  And you know?  I was SAD about it.  Indoor camping, stovetop s'mores, PJs and sleeping bags all day-- it sounded great.  Plus, all of our evening sporting events would have been cancelled, which would have been lovely.

Instead, we bundled them up and sent them off.  AND THEN HAD AN AWESOME, WONDERFUL, RELAXING day.

 Beatrix, deprived of her morning walk because it was -24,  ATE THE DAMN WALL.  Probably while I was napping but maybe just while we were downstairs playing.  They were playing.  I was reading.

 When the boys got home from school, they played fetch with her up and down the stairs until she passed out.

 That last hour before Ben got home was the longest hour in the world, but we got out Dorothy;s new art supplies.

 This morning, the boys played with Beatrix before they left for school.

 I had to take the babies to the store to grab chips and salsa for dinner.  We went to a local store by our house so the kids could push little carts, and I almost died when I saw the price of organic milk. $8.09?  What the actual fuck?  It is $5.99 EVERYWHERE ELSE IN TOWN.

These two were both adorable and ridiculous wit their little carts.   We spent $63 and I could not figure out why until we got home and I unpacked the random shit they threw in there.

 Tonight-- more drawing during the LONGEST HOUR IN THE WORLD.

No more break! For the rest of those suckers anyway.

 We had our end-of-break feast, and I was charmed by how seriously the kiddos take their sparkling grape juice.  We are still eating turkey, BTW.  A 12-pound turkey and 4 extra drumsticks is a day of turkey and sides, a day of leftovers with turkey soup, a day of turkey soup and sandwiches, and now my very favorite thing that the Pioneer Woman says I should make:  turkey tetrazzini.  Not bad for like $50 worth of meat.

 Harrison also won our hotly contested house Mario Kart 8 championship.  We played like crazy all week, and he ended up with the best record.  Probably because he spent most of everyday racing and racing and racing.  ben and I could only play when we rid ourselves of the babies, and for a couple of days, my hands were permanently cramped in Wii remote position.  SO FUN.  A ton like Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 that took up a large part of my undergrad time.

 And then, just like that, the temperature dropped like 30 degrees, and the kids went back to school.  I knew I would really miss them, and I did, but that first day when the boys walked to school and Ben took Cooper to preschool and stayed at a coffee shop prepping his classes, and it was just Dorothy and me between 8:30 and 11:30.  Man was it nice.  By 11:30, I had cookie dough chilling in the fridge so I could make cookies that would still be warm when the big boys got home, I had a workout and a shower.  Dorothy and I were both dressed, and I had 4 loads of laundry done and put away and Harry and Jack's bathroom wiped down.  That's more productive than I was the entire break.  Plus Dorothy was playing tea party and I was almost done with a Scarpetta book.  A really great morning.

 Today, we were a little lazier, and Ben worked from home.

 Dorothy got some new boots because her brown Uggs do not appeal to her anymore.  Everything must be pink.  I was happy to oblige.

 Dorothy loves to plop down in Beatrix's bed and say "Chee," and she's right--I usually do take  a picture.

Today, I volunteered in Jack's class, and his teacher was having me read a book about dolphins to groups of 3 kids at a time (which? holy shit-- just let me read it once to all the kids because I cannot engage about dolphins for 60 minutes-- fortunately, the 6-year-olds can.  They all watch Wild Kratts and know a shit ton about dolphins.  I did find it totally alarming that they didn't know mammals have milk.  The picture of a nursing dolphin blew their minds.  So I talked with them about other animals that have milk, and they were shocked that anyone besides cows made milk.  I asked if they knew that mommies had milk, and they all giggled like I told a potty joke.  What the hell, first graders?).  Before I took the first kids out in the hallway, (DID YOU KNOW DOLPHINS LIVE IN RIVERS??? I did not but the Wild Kratts already told that to all the kids apparently) she walked me through the book in case it was over my head and explained to me that it was non fiction.  I mean, I was happy for the refresher.  I have been on break and all, you know.

TLC Blog Tour 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do

I am doing another TLC Blog Tour review, this time for Amy Morin's new book 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do, a book-length expansion of her viral list of the same name that debuted on the Forbes website last fall.

You guys!  I should have read this book BEFORE I freaked out in the Southwest boarding line and didn't get on the plane for Disney.  It is full of helpful tips and suggestions and is written in a really straightforward and approachable way.

I took this really great How Mentally Strong Are You quiz and found that (NO SURPRISE) I have a hard time taking calculated risks.  I also need to work on controlling only what I can control-- and let me tell you, this has been a thing I have been working on for years.  YEARS.  You should take this quiz because the results are fascinating and really accurate-- at least they were for me.  Because the results are broken down by area-- giving away power, taking calculated risks, shying away from change, wallowing in self pity, etc-- the quiz provides a very thorough explanation at the end which helped bring to light the principles Morin discusses in the book.

According to Morin, mentally strong people do not

• Waste time feeling sorry for themselves
• Give away their power
• Shy away from change
• Focus on things they can't control
• Worry about pleasing everyone
• Fear taking calculated risks
• Dwell on the past
• Make the same mistakes over and over
• Resent other people's success
• Give up after the first failure
• Fear alone time
• Feel the world owes them anything
• Expect immediate results

Far from a simple checklist, these traits (or, rather, the negative description of positive traits the reader can think mentally strong people DO possess) serve as the organizing principle for Morin's book.  Each chapter opens with a case study from Morin's own therapy practice and a discussion of the trait in general, then provides a description of how readers can improve their mental strength in each area.

Morin opens the book with her own powerful story and discusses how she came to be a mental strength expert.  She does a good job of using examples from her own life and her own practice throughout the book to humanize her advice and break up the monotony of bullet points.  This was a quick and engaging read, but I wonder why Morin uses negative phrasing throughout.  As a rhetorician who is interested in Kenneth Burke, I think it is too simple to argue that if one thing is NOT true, its opposite must be true.  Perhaps this is Morin's point, that mentally strong people display their strength is a myriad of ways, but I couldn't help but hear Tolstoy in my head ("All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.")  I was put off by the negative phrasing throughout which sounded quote awkward at times.

This is a small complain, though, because the over all message of the book was excellent, and I am so happy I read it.

Check out an audio clip of the book here

And take the quiz!