Sunday, February 16, 2014

Straying from normal topics



I want to talk about why this picture pisses me off.

I get it. The intent was likely not malevolent, but rather to show pride in being "bigger" or even just of average size.
But here's the thing. We seem to be missing a key component in this "love your body" campaign. It is not "love your body because you're not skinny". It's not "love your body but bash other people's bodies".
We should all love our bodies but that does not mean that it is okay or acceptable to negate other body types. Love your body. Take pride in it and take care of it. But you are not better or worse than anybody else. And the whole "real men like curves, only dogs go for bones" meme? It's complete crap. A real man goes for whatever he wants, first off. Secondly, a real man will look past any body type and be happy with the woman he is with for who she is, not what she looks like. And hey, if she looks incredible - it's just a bonus. Your body, your weight does not define you. YOU define you. Who you are, your personality - that it what defines you. Not theses bullshit memes circulating the internet.

Simply put:
If you're big, rock it.
If you're small, rock it.
I don't care if you're thin, overweight, tall, average, short, black, white, red, pear shaped, apple shaped, hourglass shaped, board shaped, or if you're a damn polygon.

You just rock whatever you've got, because no one can be you like you can.
But keep in mind when you do, that it is never okay to put down another human being, or to make fun or poke jokes at someone else's body type.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Busy, busy, busy.




That's what I've been.
Super busy doing what seems like three million things.
I mean, here's my average day:

8:30-9:00AM: "Mommmmm. Mommy. Mommy. Mom. Mom it's morning. Time to get up. Mom I wanna go upstairs. Mom. Mooooooom!" I ask for five minutes of sleep. "Mommy I wanna go upstairs!" I ask him if he'd like to watch cartoons so I can get five more minutes of sleep. He agrees and I turn on Paw Patrol.

9:15AM: Noah reminds me that he REALLY wants to go upstairs now. I get up out of bed, change Gage's diaper, dress him in today's outfit, put on his teething necklace, and we all go upstairs.

9:20AM: We discuss 40 different options for breakfast. Despite the choices, Noah always chooses scrambled eggs with diced peppers and "jelly bread" (toast with jelly) or scrambled eggs with pineapple on the side and "jelly bread". 

9:30AM: After the ten minute debate I cook one of the two options above and start making coffee.

9:45AM: Serve breakfast. I eat while I nurse Gage and start getting Noah's school stuff ready, being periodically interrupted by your average three year old questions. Like, "Mommy do my boobies have milk too?" or "Can I feed Gage with my boobies now?" or "Can I eat with my nose?" Eventually I convince him to finish at least 3/4 of his breakfast before he runs off to brush his teeth.

10:00AM: It's time for school. Right now we're learning our letters and today is our last day of C week. School lasts about an hour, and consists of the letter of the week, theme words beginning with that letter, a poem and song and book about that letter, and learning about various things starting with that letter. For science this week we learned about cougars and crocodiles, for social studies we learned about castles, and for art we made a C-shaped caterpillar with glue and crayons and a marker.

11:30AM: We're usually done with school. I get Noah dressed and he has free time for about an hour while I start cleaning up from breakfast and straightening up the house.

12:30PM: Time to figure out something for lunch. Sandwich, soup, chicken nuggets, whatever. It's always different. He considers his choices for ten minutes as if it is the only meal he will ever eat again. When he ultimately decides what he wants to eat, we cook it and sit down to eat. You know, after changing the third diaper of the day and cleaning whatever spit up has accumulated because no one wants to eat with that.

1:30PM: Finish cleaning the house and set Gage down for tummy time and set Noah up with his coloring stuff or some trains or some other toy.

3:30PM: Done cleaning the house. My brother feeds the animals and Noah and I go out to check the chicken coop for eggs.

4:00PM: If the weather is nice, go for a walk and teach Noah about whatever he finds that he wants to know more about, usually with Gage in the ring sling and his baby (named New One Baby) wrapped on him in a scarf.

5:00PM: I have about an hour where all I have to do is a diaper change if necessary, nurse Gage, help Noah get a snack. I check Facebook, try to check my blog, my e-mail, see if there's anything new I can do with my own schooling.

6:00PM: We usually try to start dinner around now. By that I mean it's like a 30-60 minute discussion about what everyone wants, what we have, and what we feel like cooking. Dinner is usually done being made and consumed around 7:00.

7:15-7:30PM: Start laundry or diapers to be washed depending on the day.

8:00PM: Give Noah and Gage baths. Try not to think about how I haven't been able to take a shower in two days, due to uncooperative children, haha

8:45PM: Brush teeth and change into jammies. Settle down to watch some tv or a movie. Bedtime stories if he decides he wants one that night.

10:00PM Usually both kiddos are out by now. I clean up from after dinner and try to straighten up a bit. If I haven't squeezed it in during the day, this is when I shower, work out, do yoga, prepare school stuff, fold clothes stuff diapers, blog, play World of Warcraft, and just generally have "me" time.

So yeah. I just feel busy and overwhelmed on days that even more needs to be added.
Sorry for not keeping up on the blog! I think about it a lot, there's just a lot to be balanced out.
Will update soon!