Getting My Shit Together Monday

Week Two: Packing. Ahead of time. What? Can she even do that?

Thanksgiving is only days away, and that means Bruce, Lil E and I will be packing it up and heading to Phoenix for the festivities. As liberating as that sounds, the realities of parent/child travel are more migraine-inducing than freedom-finding.

Here are just a few of the things we'll be schlepping along with us:

1. One child who counts on this list since he has this need to either be carried or full-on run in airports, thus making him 22 pounds of schleppable a good amount of the time.
2. Two large rolling suitcases
3. One carry-on bag
4. One diaper bag
5. One car seat
6. One Pack & Play
7. One Starbucks bag of little crap we inevitably forget to stuff pack in our suitcase, feel we need to have anyway and do not use touch once on the entire trip
8. 47 tiny cars and construction trucks
9. Bobo, Spot, a paci and back-up paci and the two blankets that all make up what we call in Parent Code "The Bare Essentials"
10. One MagnaDoodle
11. One portable DVD player with headphones, kiddie shows and papa-needs-an-escape kinds of movies
12. One Body + Soul magazine that I bring along, daring to tempt fate enough to  believe I will actually be able to relax and read as a "shhhh, everyone pretend the toddler will sleep" bedtime story on this flight
13. One purse full of everyone's wallets and cell phones, including one for the non-sleeping toddler

This trip, I vow in the name of Getting My Shit Together, will be different.

This week, this trip, I am inspired by Cari, one of our closest friends, mother of preschooler twins and the most organized parent on the planet (she swears out of necessity, but I truly believe it is a genetic mutation of the most enviable strain). 

I am going to follow Cari's method of trip prep  by opening up the suitcase in the guest room middle of the dining room, packing it as full as I normally would and then (this is the good part), walking away. Cari's method hits full effect, however, when you (actually) come back a few hours later and remove something of the clothes, cute sandals, toys or toiletries you intended to take.  This paring down process can go on for days, or at least until you have a manageable load that does not deplete your spending cash on sky-cap tips alone.

My first goal is to be totally pared down, packed, zipped up and ready to go 24 hours in advance.

My second goal is to whittle my airplane carry-ons (or rather, the carry-ons because we all know that Getting My Shit Together for a mama really means Getting All the Shit Together for the entire fam) to my big ass purse/Diapees & Wipees holder, Lil E's backpack of things to keep him awake the entire 3-1/2 hour flight and the car seat.

With that, I hope we'll be much more ready for take-off!

Please, feel free to clue me in on any packing techniques, holiday hacks or plain old common sense on flying with a child that I've somehow missed these last 8 airline adventures.

Here's to your own traveling sanity and safe travels!

Click to read more ...

Lost weekend

If I opened up Lil E's immunity file right about now, here's what the last few weeks would look like: Cold. Impetigo. Cold and slight sinus infection. Several half-hour naps in a row followed by erratic eating. Stomach flu.

My own file is looking ickily similar right now. I was knocked out almost all morning and early afternoon from one little half-dose of night-time cold medecine and some kind of sinus rebellion and nausea that followed.  Lil E has been taking miniscule hits of Pedialyte, playing, puking and snoozing since 4 a.m. And Bruce, already into the second full laundry load of nasty pajamas, towels and t-shirts, is winning the Florence Nighten-male award for back rubbing and crib sheet changing.

It ain't pretty. For the first time in two years of colds and flus and ickiness, I take back my well-worn phrase: No sick days for mommies. Other than a trip through the Thanksgiving-preparation-maniacal aisles of the grocery store to stock up on soup and 7-Up, I've definitely been able to go back to bed to recup. Thank God for that.

I'm off to nibble on Saltines. Here's to better health and less Jello in the new week ahead. 

Click to read more ...

I've got sole, I've got class, I've got style, shake that ass*

Remember when I gave gold stars to The Fashionable Housewife last week? This week, I put my money where the link is.

I am strangely addicted to TFH's Today's Outfit feature, and have been checking it out every. single. day after breakfast and before choosing my own clothes (I kid you not. It is scary similar to dorm living...but with computers, not electric word processers that hold four whole pages of memory).  I really like TFH's style (even if I do opt for yoga pants more than she might approve) and I began to have a thing for a pair of her boots. A thing for a pair of her fuschia pink fakeskin snakeskin stretchy knee-high boots.

When I say thing, I mean I thought about them a lot. I clicked the link on her posts that led me to eBay several times a day, wondering if I too could snag these sassafrass shoes for $5.50 (I know! $5.50?!). I also wondered if these Aerosoles would be as comfy as the dark red Aerosoles boots I wear every other day in the fall and winter. I wondered and wondered and added a pair to my eBay watch list and wondered some more.  And then it was payday, and I launched out of the cyber-gate and started bidding.

Yesterday, I won. I got the same boots for $10.60, not the steal that TFH snagged, but still not a big investment for a new pair of boots retailing for $80 (even if shipping does double the total cost).  Today, I got the email that my boots are en route and I am ecstatic. Thrilled. Delighted. So excited, in fact,  that I almost (almost) forgot to log on to see what TFH is wearing today because I was so busy what I'll be wearing with those fab-boots on Monday.

Be challenged or be warned: There are still many pairs available here. Can you beat my winning bid?

* Thanks, Christina.

Click to read more ...