Fashion

This topic is a little like decorating - probably not a subject on which I should give advice.  When Mason was about 6 months old, I remember reading an article in Baby Talk magazine with advice about how to avoid the "mom uniform" which at the time was kaki pants, tee shirt, running shoes, and a pony tail.  That happened to be what I had on as I read the article.  

These days my uniform has evolved to jeans, Danskos, and layered tees if it's cold out.  If I'm doing alot of walking then I spend the day in workout clothes.  I'm finally ok with that.  I see moms all of the time who look like they find time to shower, put on makeup and a cute outfit before leaving the house in the morning.  I'm not that mom.  The advantage of dressing down all of the time is that it makes a much bigger impression on the very rare occasions that I do dress up.  

My girls are young enough (I think) that they don't pay much attention to what I wear - their clothes are much more interesting than mine.  Different patterns on skirts, tights, and shirts are all the rage for little girls these days.  By age 2, both girls developed strong opinions about what to wear.  My very grown-up latte, after years of blisters, is to wear comfortable shoes.  You'll need them while you chase kids around so that you don't spill your Daily Latte.

TFT - A Good Book

Another Toyota Free Tuesday (TFT) on which I've cheated again.  I won't bore anyone with excuses, but I drove the girls to and from school.  I probably won't get in the car again today.  While they were at school, I decided to take the morning off.  The house is still pretty clean from the weekend since my stacks of stuff are still in the basement.  

After I read to Mason's class this morning, I spent the hour and a half that I had free with a good book.  I have gotten sucked in (excuse the pun) to the Twilight series of teenage vampire books.  I read the first one for book club which I then couldn't attend, but now I can't wait to get through them all.  My problem with a good book is that it can take over my life by giving me yet another reason not to clean, do laundry, blog, etc.  I needed to take some time to finish my book so that I can get some other things done later on today.

Mason is developing a love for books that I hope will continue to grow.  He can't get enough of his chapter books which we take turns reading to each other.  Maybe one day I'll write a book of lattes for my kids to read.  I can't think of anything that goes better with a good book than a Daily Latte.

Cleaning Up

We had a Saturday night cookout.  It sounds like something fun and casual - bring the kids and some wine, we'll grill pre-prepared kebobs from Whole Foods.  Here's the catch - our house is not generally in company ready condition.  Entertaining is a way to keep us honest with our housekeeping.  We love having friends over, but we always have a mad rush to get everything ready in the hours before guests arrive.  The house looked great last night when everyone arrived.  

My last minute trick that I always end up using is to load all of my miscellaneous "stuff" that seems to pile up in stacks around the house into a laundry basket which I then place in the basement.  I'll bring the basket back upstairs in a couple of days when I'm looking for a bill that I know is due.  By then, I'll be able to sort a few of the items into the trash.  Of course, new stacks are already forming on my beside table.  Here's my entertaining latte - don't wait until an hour before company arrives, sort through a few stacks today.  I realize that many people may have a much better way of keeping up with things besides stacks so this may be a non-issue.

I do not want to pass these habits along to my kids, and I work hard on making sure that they know where all of their things belong so that they don't end up in stacks.  My husband would like to just get rid of all things that don't have a specific place to reside.  As long as my laptop and latte maker have homes, I guess I can sort the rest out as I go.

Shower

I needed a shower this morning.  That doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but moms with small kids will understand that it is sometimes easier said than done.  Mary Jane was up part of the night with a bad cough so getting up early didn't really work out.  I got a last-minute call to substitute at the girls' preschool which was a great opportunity, but it meant that I left the house and myself a complete mess.  After school, lunch, gymnastics, dentist we made it home for a little quiet time.  

As I cleaned up the kitchen and planned for my dinner out with girlfriends, I still needed a shower.  Rob got home just in time to take Mason to a Cub Scout event.  Luckily my little sister stopped by.  She had a tea party with the girls while I finally had a shower!

I talked to a friend today who is at home with her 6 day old baby.  I now always tell new moms that, in my experience, if you get a shower and a load of laundry done, it was a good day.  Maybe a latte, too.  Today was a good day, chaos and all.

Toyota Free Tuesday (almost)

Last week I gave a name and a pledge to my Tuesdays - Toyota Free Tuesday (TFT).  One week later, I didn't quite make it, but I came close.  We had a full week of spring here in Atlanta, but now it has gotten cold again.  It was 35 degrees out this morning so I drove the one mile to preschool to drop the girls off.  That was my only car outing of the day.  I would have loved to drive the kids to the bookstore this afternoon, but in the interest of TFT, I decided to wait until tomorrow.  It's going to be a rainy day here, and Mary Jane and I need an activity.  The High School Musical III DVD, my sequel to Twilight, and, of course, My Daily Latte will all be available at Barnes & Nobel in the morning.

Glitter and Glue

Valentine's Day is another holiday that I have never been crazy about.  As a mother, I like it even less now that it has become the new Halloween.  There is way too much sugar in my house right now.  When I was a senior in high school I was given a huge, heart shaped mylar balloon that floated in my room through the summer.  Now I play the martyr and tell my husband that we don't need to do anything to celebrate.  Then, of course, I pout when he listens to me and doesn't do anything to celebrate.  I have a very patient husband. 

Glitter and glue make this holiday much more fun.  Who knew that glitter, glue, and construction paper hearts are all it takes for hours of entertainment?  I'm sure that I will find glitter in my house for the next six months but that's ok because for two days last week, my kids loved making cards for everyone.  My latte is to make your own non-commercial holiday to celebrate with lots of glitter and glue.  It's amazing to see how much more fun things are when they sparkle!

Make a Change

Unless this is the first time you've looked at this blog, you'll notice that I've made big changes - new background, new pictures.  Change is not something that comes easily for me, the last time I got a really radical new haircut was when I was 12.  The nice thing about computers is changes are easy and they are not permanent.  Please feel free to let me know what you think of the new layout.  I love getting comments and I always read all of them.

While you're at it, make a change in your life.  It doesn't have to be something big like a new hair color or new job.  We've made several changes around here recently - moving furniture, hanging new doors, Mason just started taking Karate lessons.  I'm hoping that we'll make a few changes in our back yard this spring, as well.  I'm starting to realize that kids change every day and I need to embrace the changes and make changes in my own life if I'm going to keep up.  For today, changes to my blog are enough to go with My Daily Latte.

Toyota-Free Tuesday

Since I started this blog, I have also started reading other mommy blogs.  There is not one in particular that I follow, but there are a lot of really good ones out there.  Several of the good ones seem to have a routine - different themes for different days.  I've decided to give that a try with "Toyota-Free Tuesday."

Here's the deal, we've had 3 days of spring weather and I've come out of hibernation.  I love my car and I know that gas is no longer $4.00/gallon, but that's no reason to drive more than needed.  I am going to try to have one day a week on which I don't get in my 4 Runner.  Since Mason has karate on Mondays & Wednesdays, Charlotte's gymnastics class is on Thursdays, and weekends are unpredictable, Tuesday seems like a good day to go sans car.

I hope that I'm not giving anyone the impression that we just stayed put all day, Tuesdays are actually fairly busy.  After I walked the girls to school, I walked back to Mason's school to read to his class for a little while.  I then walked home and cleaned, changed sheets, fun stuff like that.  When I left to pick the girls up, I brought Goldie along on the walk and we got the girls and the double stroller and walked back home.

My one dilemma of the day came this afternoon when I really needed to get Charlotte started on Valentine's cards for her preschool class.  It would have been easy to load everyone into the car for a quick Target run, but since I had already decided not to use the car today I had to think out-of-the-box.  I looked through our art supplies and found a stash of toilet paper rolls that I've been stockpiling for a rainy day.  It was 70 degrees and sunny today, but I cut the rolls into hearts which Charlotte then decorated with stickers and glitter.

Getting out and taking a walk is a great way to get some exercise, but my latte today is a little more than that.  Think about where you're going in your car.  Maybe you can have a Walking Wednesday or Foot Fest Friday.  Just make sure you can walk to get your daily latte.

Wake Up!

I am not a morning person.  I'm also not an early evening or late night person.  I guess I'm more of an 8 - 3 kind of Mom.  It's all a little unfortunate since my kids need me from at least 6:30 in the morning until 8 at night.  My mornings usually start between 4:30 and 6 when either Mason or Mary Jane calls me.  I crawl into bed with my child and go back to sleep until someone else wakes up.  On some mornings, everyone sleeps and I actually have to wake Mason up at 7:15 so we can all scramble to get him out the door in time for school.  Of course, on weekends all of the kids are up by 6:45.  All of this helps explain my very expensive latte habit.

Today's latte, and you'll need a latte to go with it, is wake up a little earlier.  I know that staying in bed an extra 10 minutes is not going to help me feel any less tired, and, yet, I still try to cling to a few more minutes.  I need to take my own advice and get up earlier which is actually a little easier now that it's not so cold.  Maybe I'll be able to make time for an extra latte!

More Sunday Lessons

It was a beautiful weekend here!  We're getting a peek at spring after an unusually cold winter in Atlanta.  We took full advantage, and spent lots of time outside.  Now I need to shift gears and get ready for the week.  Who am I kidding?  I'm blogging, checking Facebook, and watching the Grammys.  I did spend some time today thinking about the week ahead, though.

I've mentioned before the Sunday ritual I try to find time for - a latte alone while the girls are at Sunday school followed by church with my grandparents.  As I sipped my latte and read the Sunday paper, I realized that my latte would make a good latte for the day.  Take a few minutes sometime each weekend to reflect and recharge.  It could be 10 minutes of checking your calendar for last week and transferring things to the new week that didn't get done, or perhaps it is an entire afternoon at a spa, or maybe a date night with your sweetie.

The rest of my day was busy.  The girls played our yard for hours resulting in skinned knees while Rob did house projects.  I felt guilty for not doing more spring cleaning given the weather, but I did spend much of the afternoon helping Mason do his homework which we (I) had been putting off all week.  Now I, once again, have too many things to do, and I'm not going to do any of them before I go to bed.  I'm glad that I took a little "me time" this morning to think about the week (and the really good lattes at Java Monkey).

Moments

"Life is too short to drink bad coffee."  That was on a sign at a new coffee spot I've discovered recently.  Mary Jane and I stopped there this morning on our way to a jumpy place to meet some friends.  I actually agree with that statement, hence my very expensive latte habit.  But it made me think of much more.  

Today Charlotte's preschool class had a field trip.  It was a trip to the post office near the school, and Rob went along.  He wasn't sure if he would be able to make it, but he was able to take time our of his day so that he could go and it was worth it!  Charlotte was thrilled to have him along.  I think that life is too short to miss out on moments with your kids.  There are lots of things that happen when we're not around, and we won't be a part of many of the big moments as our kids grow up which I now realize happens so very fast.

Have a "moment" today.  Surprise your child by reading to his class or going on a field trip, it will become a moment for both of you.  My personal moment today was dancing with my 2 year old in a small coffee shop while I, of course, enjoyed My Daily Latte.

Birthday Blog

If you haven't checked it out, I have some birthday tidbits on my other blog Birthday Buzz.  That's all I've got today.  Between haircuts, playdates, and Mason's new karate lessons all in below freezing temps (that's cold for Atlanta), it was a crazy day.  More lattes tomorrow...

Distractions

There was a time, not so long ago, when I could work on the same spreadsheet for an hour at a time without getting distracted.  Now, I go into the kitchen to get a glass of milk for one of my children, and, along the way, I stop to check Facebook, put away a few dishes (they're never done), and write down a few things on the calendar.  10 minutes later, I hear someone calling asking for their glass of milk.  I got distracted - again.

I'm not sure if whether it's age, motherhood, technology, or some combination that sends us into multi-task overdrive, but too much multi-tasking makes it impossible to get anything done.  Today's latte is to do one thing at a time.  If you're playing a game with your son, don't check email or read the paper at the same time.  Mary Jane often tells me to "get that phone off of your ear"  Princesses do alot of things, multi-tasking is not one of them.  Try to limit distractions, you'll enjoy your daily latte more!

25 Random Things

I joined Facebook a few months ago.  One of the things going around right now is a list of 25 random things about yourself.  If someone "tags" you in their list, then you write your own list of 25 things about yourself.  I will admit that I started thinking about my list about a week before I was tagged, and I was excited to start writing.  It is not that easy.  

My latte today is to make a list.  It was a fun and thought provoking exercise.  For those of you who did not read my list on Facebook, here it is:

1. I am an easy person to get to know, my emotions are easy to read.
2. I am terrified of change, Rob craves it - that's one of the reasons we are so good together.
3. I use to think it was silly on TV when characters stood at a door and watched their children sleep, now I do it all the time.
4. I've been secretly hoping someone would tag me in one of these notes (thanks Leslie).
5. I lived in Denver for 5 years and loved it, but I never took up skiing.
6. I love family and I wish that my brother and my sister both lived on my street instead of in Texas and California.
7. I have been tired for seven years.
8. My life revolves around my kids.
9. I have a love/hate relationship with my house, but, like Dorothy, I think there's no place like home.
10. The only time I have really liked my hair was at my wedding.
11. The month of December is my favorite time of year, I'm not much of a Halloween person.
12. I hate that I don't have babies anymore, but it is nice to be done with diapers.
13. Patience is the biggest thing motherhood has taught me, I'm still learning.
14. Going to camp every summer is one of the best things I did growing up, but it breaks my heart to think of my kids leaving for any length of time (even for CJL).
15. Preschool politics are no fun to get in the middle of, but I can't say no to committees.
16. I have made some amazing new friends in the last 3 years, and I am also still close friends with girls I have known since high school. I consider myself very lucky.
17. We just got a DVR last week, I'm not sure how I lived without it.
18. We no longer have a LAN line, I don't miss it at all.
19. I started writing a mommy blog in October http://amysdailylatte.blogspot.com/ Writing it has changed the way I think about each day.
20. I love that Facebook makes me feel like I'm in touch with all sorts of people from my family, distant past, and recent past.
21. I am a dog person.
22. I will never be caught up on the laundry or the dishes.
23. I am constantly trying to figure out how to live a greener life (unplug, unplug, unplug).
24. I don't have words to describe how great of a husband and father Rob is.
25. I have wasted, I mean spent so much time on this list that I'm going to post it on my blog.