Currently: May 2013

Our foursome rehearsing for a previous gig.
It looks like I'm bossing everyone around.

Listening
A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, One by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Love So Strong by Joe Mattingly, and Everything by Michael Buble. Tom, my sister, my dad, and I are providing the music - these four songs, along with instrumental versions of three traditional processional and recessional pieces - for my cousin's upcoming wedding, so for the last two weeks I've been listening to our "playlist" on repeat. Though I suppose that since her wedding is only 31 days away it's time to stop listening to these songs and start actually practicing them...

Eating
This evening Tom and I will finish the Advocare 10-Day Cleanse, during which we consumed a garden's worth of vegetables, protein at every meal, and carbohydrates of only the complex variety. We ate essentially no white flour, sugar, or dairy, and we avoided coffee, soda, juice, alcohol, and candy. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? (Apparently it is, for some people, but it wasn't for us. Not because we go overboard with the foods and drinks avoided during the Cleanse, but because we both tend to crave what we can't have.) Tomorrow I'll enjoy white cheddar cheese and a brownie, and I'll wash both down with an ice-cold Blue Moon.

Will's upper lip Gatorade hickey: reason #147
not to give Gatorade in bottles to children.

Drinking
Water, water, and more water, in part because I cut out coffee, soda, juice, milk, and alcohol during the Cleanse, but also because the suddenly summer-like temperatures and brutal humidity have combined to create perfectly awful sweat-inducing weather conditions. Time to start stocking up on Gatorade...

Wearing
As I mentioned above, summer has arrived in Texas. My kids have once again begun wearing only their underwear or swimsuits around the house and in the backyard, and I've reluctantly pulled all of my shorts down off the top shelf of my closet. I don't love shorts, but when you live in Texas you have to get over not liking shorts if you don't want to die of a heat stroke.

Feeling
Frustrated with my four-year-old, and overwhelmed at the prospect of spending nearly every waking minute for the next 90 days with her. Thank goodness for the gym and their fabulous childcare center, without which my physical, mental, and emotional health would suffer greatly during the summer months.

He's smiling because the
stream of water "mooned" him.

Weather
Hot. Humid. Perfect for running through the sprinkler, playing at the splash pad, or swimming in the pool, but less-than-desirable for all other outdoor activities.

Wanting
Flattering shorts, dark brown sandals, and a vacuum cleaner that actually vacuums dirt and dust up off the carpet. My shopping list gets more and more exciting every month.

Needing
A vacation from school and the parental responsibilities that accompany preschool and kindergarten, which I'm thankfully about to get. A break from my kids and the emotional roller coaster they've had me on for the last month, which I'm unfortunately not about to get. A date night with my husband, which if I get around to emailing our babysitters tonight, I'll hopefully get within the next couple of weeks. Ultimately I need to take responsibility for and better care of my time, and when my time is my own, I need to spend it more purposefully.

Thinking
About packing for our trip to Nebraska and Wisconsin. Not to pat myself on the back (though in writing that sentence I guess I'm kind of patting myself on the back), but I wrote the book on packing. Well, to be fair, I wrote the second edition of the book on packing. My dad - from whom I inherited my amazing packing skills - wrote the first edition.

One of my techniques is to begin the packing process the same number of days before departure as the number of days the trip is long. Going on a weekend getaway? Start packing two or three days prior. Traveling for a week? Start packing the week before. Leaving town for a month? Start gathering the items you know you'll need on your trip but not before then about four weeks before you leave.

The kids and I leave at the end of June and will be gone for more than a month, so last week I made my packing lists. This week I'll pull together the items - like life jackets and water shoes - that we'll need on our trip but won't need before then so that I can ship them to my parents' house ahead of us. Next week I'll put together and lay out everything else, and then in the final days I'll load everything into our suitcases and our suitcases into the car like only a Tetris expert could.

I actually really like packing, so if you ever need any help, don't hesitate to call me...

Enjoying
Defending Jacob by William Landry, Peanut and Dark Chocolate Kind Bars, dark hair in the summer (I've never kept my hair dark brown throughout the summer months before - it isn't usually worth it, because the sun bleaches the dark dye out pretty quickly, but I'm going for it this year), catching up on all of the season/series finales saved on my DVR (did anyone else cry their way through the final episode of The Office?), and veggie and egg scramblers.

How about you?  What are you eating, drinking, wanting, needing, or enjoying these days?