Mornings are tough for moms. Do you have any tips or advice on how to look put together with no time to spare? You can always tell when I have had a hurried morning when my hair is in a pony tail! I love the look and I am always thrilled that it doesn't seem to go out of style! I keep a stock of simple rubber bands that are the same color as my hair in a drawer and I grab and run when I need to. I also love to buy dresses because it is so much faster for me to throw on a dress than it is to select a top to go with the pants then maybe a belt or a scarf...I could play dress up all day and I lose all sense of time in my closet! I also keep a stash of LuLu Lemon outfits to throw on. They are tailored in a way that most exercise clothes are not and, somehow, they seem a bit more polished than typical exercise clothes.
Do you have efficient and tantrum free travel ideas? Special gadgets, toys or treats? I caved and became the mother I always said I would never be recently! I bought my son an iTouch....Did I mention that he is not even 2 yet? He was constantly playing with my iPhone and deleting things, dropping it, texting his pediatrician a bunch of gibberish and I just couldn't take it anymore! After he broke his second travel DVD player, I decided it made a lot more sense to download Finding Nemo, Thomas & Friends and Winnie the Pooh to a gadget that would fit inside my purse! It is the best at a restaurant or on an airplane. We try to limit his time on it so that it is a "treat" but we often cave....
How do you pamper yourself after a long week? I try not to ever miss my weekly mani/pedi. I always keep flip-flops and a great novel or Vanity Fair in my car so that I just zone out and enjoy an hour for me. It seems that lately I am having trouble even fitting that in tough! I love going to the movies with my husband too but lately my film selection privileges have been revoked because I have chosen too many chick flicks!
What do you think is important to teach your children? So many things! The most important thing is to love all of God's creatures. I love singing all of my old sunday school songs to him now because they are such a great reminder to me of all of the simple lessons we were taught as kids....Jesus Loves Me, This is the day that the Lord has made, rejoice and be glad in it, Jesus loves the little Children, etc. Sweet and simple but I always need the reminders! Along with this comes respect and compassion for others and I think those are qualities that will help him grow up to be a wonderful man. I also think that honesty is incredibly important. I don't know how to teach a 2 year old about honesty though! Just yesterday JR held a black crayon in his hand and was standing beside some black crayon scribbles on the wall. He looked at me very seriously and said something like "I did not do this." I didn't know if I should laugh or cry!
What is the most important lesson you learned from your own mother? Both of my parents are always full of compassion and have very generous spirits. I think that I learned more from their examples than from specific lessons. Also, they never...well, very very rarely....gossip. We were always taught that if you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all. My parents are both so great at looking for the good in people. Sometimes it ends up catching up to them but, overall, it is a much happier way to live.
What can you not live without, no matter what it cost, you will sell your left arm for it if you have to? My email! I get most of my work done after JR goes to sleep and it is typically too late to call anyone. With a baby or toddler, email is a great way to keep up with friends and work because your short breaks are often at inconvenient hours!
It is 6pm and you have nothing planned for dinner. What is your emergency recipe you can whip up in 30 minutes or less? This is an everyday scenario for me! I am just starting to make better meal plans now. I am sort of addicted to my slow cooker! I have been known to whip up grilled cheese sandwiches and cut them up into "soldiers" (slices) to dip into Campbells Tomato Soup....Yum!
Confession Time. What have you done to cut corners, save time, save sanity, just had no time or because you were simply lazy? Hmmm...where do I start! I realized last September that my last visit to the hair salon was September of the year before. I honestly went one year without getting a hair cut! Isn't that awful? I don't color my hair and it is long and straight so I simply didn't notice!
Ha! Great interview. And ditto on the last September, long, straight, and one-color hair/haircut ordeal.