Finding Balance

This weekend was blissful. I got to spend it at home with my favorite two men, relaxing some, cooking some, cleaning some, even (yes) doing a little laundry.  I didn't realize just how depleted my batteries had become.  What really got me thinking about this was the difference between my yoga workout earlier this week and today.


I started using Body by Bethenny workout DVD for her 40 minute yoga workout, and am loving it.  (side note: I have no affiliation with Bethenny Frankel. Received no "free" copy. She wouldn't know me from Adam. I'm positive of that)  When I was working out earlier this week, it felt wonderful, but very wobbly.  But today, after a weekend of recharging and rest, I was able to find my balance and hold each pose much better.


Here's to a good week everyone.  I wish you all a week filled with balance, good and hard work, laughter, and love.

Joyful Friday

I was spending a little time this morning on BlogHer's Own Your Beauty page looking around at some of the fantastic posts, gathering a little inspiration for a rainy Friday morning, when I stumbled across this great clip from Karen Walrond & Alice Bradley. 




(as a side note, if you haven't already been to BlogHer's Own Your Beauty page, go now. It is a great place to browse, read, take the pledge, and more...I'm not kidding.  Go.) 

Anyhow, it is raining here.  After days of sunshine, the rain has returned for the weekend.  The news hasn't been great for people in my profession.  Gas prices are up.  It isn't spring yet.  People are getting a little past grumpy.  I try to be optimistic, to find joy in my days.  But sometimes it gets difficult, like this time of year when it seems the spring will never come and good news is hard to come by. 

As Alice says in this video, humor is a great coping skill, defense mechanism, and way to have fun.  Sometimes we all need to lighten up.  I know nothing makes me feel better after a bad day at work than to come home and laugh my socks off with my family.  So tonight, this weekend, or sometime soon, take a few minutes to watch something silly (Tosh.0 is a favorite of ours), run around like a nut with your kids, read some silly things online (like Finslippy-Alice Bradley's blog), or something else fun.  Just get out of your own head.  It will do you a world of good.  Happy joyful Friday everyone! 

Give a Little Lovin

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, and because I've been lucky to get to spend it with a lovely husband and son, but have also known what it is to spend it without a significant other, I'm issuing any and all readers a challenge today...I want you to complete this sentence:

I love me because ______.

Today is all about love.  Love yourself.  Love your friends.  Love your kids.  Love your family.  Love your partner.  But before you do any of the above, you have to feel confident and self-assured.  It isn't easy all of the time, and some days you have to remind yourself why you are so amazing!  So, I'll start.

I love me because I can find the beauty in the greyest of days, coldest of seasons, and embrace my "cup half full" side most every day. 

So my dear readers, what do you love about yourselves this fine and lovely February day?  Throw it out there for the world to see in the comments.  Let us all know why you totally rock!  It is Valentine's Day, and even if no one puts one single Valentine in our pretty shoeboxes we have so carefully decorated, you'll know that you are loved!  I'm waiting...tell me why you are so amazing.

Love you all...mwah!

Rocking the Wave

Oh big hair of my youth, where have you gone?  Why have you abandoned me?  


Wait.  Am I having a moment of late-night, cold medicine induced, pre hair appointment weakness?  


I read this article in the New York Times today about bringing back (in a whisper) the perm and I may have heard a choir faintly singing in the background.  Trumpets played.  Beams of light were somewhere I'm sure.  


Yep, you heard me right.  


The.  Perm.

Courtesy Yana Paskova, NY Times

Ladies, remember it?  Sitting for what seemed like hours while your stylist wrapped your hair in tiny pastel rollers, tucked cotton batting in a halo around your scalp, then doused your rolled hair in a foul smelling chemical (that somehow smelled comforting at the same time), and had you sit and sit and sit while it "processed" and smelled more strongly as the time ticked by.  If you were lucky enough, you got to sit under the dryer and really let your scalp burn.  After what seemed like forever, she would pop the rollers free in the sink, rinse your hair (never wash), style it and send you home with strict instructions to not wet it for TWENTY FOUR HOURS after you had it completed.  (don't make me quote Elle Woods here)


Oh the styles we had...the sky-high bangs, the teased pony tails, the mousse, the scrunch spray, the aqua net...I could go on and on and on.  Our hair, no matter how fine and wispy when unstyled, was always larger than life, sassy and full.  


Then came grunge.  Then came the 90's.  Now we are all sleek and stylish.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm a girl with a head full of fine, straight, hair that needs no touch of a flat iron.  I am that girl who gets to wash and go.  But when I read this article the hairs on the back of my neck stood at attention, did a little dance, and begged for some bounce to be put back in their lifeless step.  


Can't we find a happy medium?  Can't we get some luscious locks with wave, beachy fun, and curl without going back to the poodle look? Tomorrow when I settle into Dee's chair to get my hairs did I will ask her all about this.  And when she looks at me like I'm nuts (because she always does) I will promptly inform her she must be trained in these new ways, because I'm growing out my short hair and readying myself for some big curls.  Perm.  Here.  I.  Come.  

A body of work

So for this past year, I have been on a mission to get healthy.  Not to lose weight.  Not to get into a certain pair of jeans.  That was the me ten years ago.  It is funny, after having our son, my body image has shifted into an entirely different realm.  I am really okay with myself.  I am thankful every day for what my body does for me.  I feel really good about how I look.  There isn't an "ideal" that I need to be.  I wish I could go back to my 21 year-old self and explain that to her.  But I think I had to go through several things to get to this place. I had to meet an amazing man who loves everything about me, even the knees that I used to despise.  I had to have two pregnancies, and only one of which ended in a child.  I had to watch my body move through pregnancy, growing and stretching in every direction, without any control over what happened.  I had to go through natural childbirth just to prove that I could.  Then I had to surrender myself to the fact that I wasn't so young anymore, and weight just didn't come and go like it used to.  Today, I'm okay with that, because I do some awesome things with this vessel I get to use in this life.

That being said, I want this vessel to be healthy.  I don't want a six-pack.  I don't want to be sinewy and ripped.  I don't want to be a stick.  I want to have some meat to me.  I want to be strong enough to keep up with my son as he gets bigger and stronger.  I want to be able to get a kayak and use it.  I'd like to return to skiing again.  And when I have grandkids, I want to be as active as my grandmother was.  In order to do this, I need to take slightly better care of myself.  In that bend, I am using the return to work as the jolt in my summer routine to add a few other things to my life.  I'm adding four to five moderate workouts a week to my schedule.  Nothing major...just hopping on the trusty elliptical after our son hits the sack each night.  Breakfast and lunch will become meals I don't think about anymore, but eat the same very healthy food for each day.  Dinners at home each night.  But at the same time, we want to indulge.  We love our fried food, our red meat, our desserts...so two dinners a week will be for fun.  That sounds like a life that makes me healthier, stronger, and still happy.  

Here's to being a better woman...for me.  And for being around a few extra years on the end hopefully.  I promise when that time comes, I'll wear high heel boots and have lots of lipstick just like grandma did.  She would think that is pretty awesome.