Mamas, I apologize for the light week. I had intended to post the promised hair article, but man. I'm wiped out. Mike has been gone (since Sun!!) on a business trip, and in his absence, I've broken one coffee cup and two plates, lost the car keys six times, left Pax's winter coat somewhere in Easton, PA (Crayola "Experience" - LAME), and have had to deal with snotty noses and freezing weather ALL WEEK. Ugh. (To make matters worse, Mike's trip took him to freakin' HAWAII, so my week has been peppered with super annoying texts like, "Aloha Baby!" and pictures of the big waves on the North Shore. Awesome, but GAH!!!)
During weeks like these, our Kiwi Crates (full review here) are worth their weight in gold. If you haven't checked them out in a while...they currently have a charming limited edition crate for Valentine's Day. It comes with enough (pop-up!) Valentine's for an entire class and is nicely gender-neutral. But be warned: unless your little one is pretty dexterous, gluing on the pop-ups is a challenge. R did exactly one, loved it, and then went about just making his own (non-pop-up) cards. (Kiwi Crate, if you see this, we'd love more regular cards next year. And more gem stickers.) I ended up supplementing with plain folded cards (aka cut-up paper, LOL), and am planning to pick up a few sheets of gem stickers to continue the fun.
I've been perusing through Laura Barr's list of Games That Make Children (and their parents) Smarter. Raines is just starting to get into games (the old-school board game kind) and if this cold front keeps up, I may be making a large Amazon game purchase. (R keeps asking for a chess set after playing a bit at the Art Museum. How awesome is that??)
Also? I'm feeling fat and old. Fat, because my body is no longer making all of those holiday goodies magically disappear (GET WITH THE PROGRAM, aging metabolism!!) and old, because next week is my thirty*cough*somehighnumber*cough* birthday. WOO. HOO. To invigorate said metabolism, I signed up for Barre3's 28-to-great program...however, I have only managed to work out THREE times since the beginning of Jan. Therefore, in order to complete my "goal", I must workout 25 more times before Feb 1. Right. Shouldn't be a problem.
And thank you to Refinery 29 for these tips on how to eat healthy in the dead of winter. Soup, here I come.
In the midst of one of my (many) pity parties this week, I bought myself a cute, cozy sweater. (With hearts on it. For $30.) It's now sold out, but SheInside is my new favorite place for cute & cheap. This might be my next purchase. Of course, their things sell out in roughly 10 minutes, so.....
I also can't stop thinking about these Keds snow boots. They have a super cool 70's vibe, and would be a fun change-up for anyone sick of their serious snowboots. Did I mention they are on sale for $30?
Lastly, the highlight of our week was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If any of you follow me on instagram (@shanachristine) you'll know that I brought the boys to the art museum to see EB Lewis read from his latest book, Each Kindness. Well. Add this one to the List of Books That Make Me Cry. In this very amazing book, the main character frequently rebuffs the attempts of the "new girl" to be friends. In the end, the new girl moves away, and the main character realizes too late how she had not chosen the path of kindness. The book ends with, "I watched the water ripple as the sun set through the maples and the chance of a kindness with Maya became more and more forever gone." Heavy, right? But I think it was good for Raines to hear that sometimes, when you make bad choices, you can't always fix it. Since then, we've been talking a lot about kindness, what it means to be kind, and how very small acts of kindness, when added together, really can change the world. During Mr. Lewis' reading, he mentioned that the concept of kindness is so important that he wished we focused on it for longer than just a day. I couldn't agree more. So. I've decided to act like the time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Valentine's Day is Kindness Month. (I know it's not really a month, but still.) I've been brainstorming ideas with the boys, and we're trying to do something kind everyday. I'd love for you to join in - it's always so nice to get inspiration from others. I'll be posting what we do to Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #kindnesscounts.
Happy Weekend, Mamas!! I can't wait for the love of my life to get back home...and I know he picked up some dried mango at the ABC store. Yay!
xoxo
S
