It's official. This summer, I'll be attempting my very first camping trip. With a tent. Sleeping on the ground. In a tent. On the ground. In the dirt. Where bugs crawl. If you look at my blog, it's pretty pink and girly. I don't do dirt and bugs. I agreed to said trip in the first place because I'm trying to branch out and try new things. I'm thinking I'm in trouble already. The good news is that the campground has bathrooms with showers, which get good reviews on Trip Advisor for being neat and clean. But still. A tent. On the ground. With dirt. And bugs.
The other day, my brother-in-law e-mailed me a helpful 'camping gear checklist' that's approximately 47 pages long. It's full of things that I do not have, because I do not camp. Not until Memorial Day weekend, that is. The list includes things I would expect to see like a tent, sleeping bags, etc. but there are other weird things that give me pause. Like, what am I going to need an axe for? I don't even know how to use an axe. The one item that really confused me was 'clear nail polish.' Are we going to give each other manicures at the campsite? If so, camping isn't going to be as bad as I thought.
It turns out that the nail polish is for ticks. According to Google, you put nail polish on ticks if they latch on to your skin. First of all, I don't want to think about ANYTHING latching on to my skin. Second, ticks have Lyme Disease, which is not a souvenir I want to bring back from my little camping adventure. Last, I found out when I googled 'tick repellent' that ticks are not really bugs at all, they're arachnids. As in spider-like; eight legs and all (I also looked up tick pictures and counted). Seriously, ew. So now I'm sleeping in a tent, on the ground, with dirt, bugs AND spidery things. Awesome. Why have a I never thought to do this camping thing before? It sounds fabulous.
If a tick jumps on me though, I can guarantee you that the LAST thing I'm going to want to do is give it a manicure.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Pin Testing - How to Get Whiter Nails
If you're like me and need a daily dose of eye candy, there is no better place than good old Pinterest to get your fix. Along the way, you'll come across approximately 47 million pins that promise that it's super easy to build an entire ottoman out of matchsticks and some gum wrappers from the bottom of your purse and clean up every stain ever made with vinegar and baking soda. Since I generally like doing things the easy way, I'm frequently drawn in to the promise of awesome results (it's right there in the picture!) with little effort.
Today's pin-speriment comes from my Helpful Hints board and promises to remedy yellow discolored fingernails that you get from wearing nail polish for too long.
This is a problem I know all too well, as my fingernails are painted 95% of the time and my toenails are painted 100% of the time. Since I'm not planning to get a pedicure until this weekend and absolutely cannot leave the house with naked toes, I tested out said pin on my fingernails only.
In my 'before' picture below, the yellowing on my fingernails is kind of hard to see. I took about 872 pictures and couldn't capture it properly with my iPhone or my Canon Power Shot. If you look closely, you can see where white healthy nail has started to grow in at the top of each nail bed.
The caption of the pin had the following directions: How to get white nails -- make a paste using 1 tbsp peroxide and 2 1/4 tbsp baking soda. Let this paste sit on your nails for 5 minutes and voila! White nails! REMEMBER THIS AFTER USING BRIGHT NAIL POLISH!
When you mix the paste of baking soda and peroxide together, it looks like this (Pay special attention to the awesome 70s style spoon that may parents got as part of their wedding flatware in 1973. The marriage = dead since 1981. The spoon = still kicking it almost 40 years later)
.JPG)
I mixed the baking soda and peroxide glop together and piled it on my nails using a small paint brush since the directions didn't really specify HOW to apply said glop. You're dying to know what that looks like, right?
.JPG)
I have no idea if that's what the pinner had in mind for this but there it is. I let this sit for the five minutes as directed before rinsing off. Here is the 'before' picture (again) on the top and the 'after' picture on the bottom (I would put them side by side but uploading photos in Blogger sucks and I can't figure out how to do that):
If anything, I think the yellowing is more noticeable in the 'after' picture than it was in the 'before' shot. Test #1 for 'How to Get Whiter Nails' = FAIL.
After the crash and burn results of the first nail whitening treatment, I decided to actually click through to the link on the pin to see if those directions were any different. It took me a while to actually find the directions in the Shape magazine article. It turns out that the actual directions were to scrub your nails with whitening toothpaste and a nail brush with zero mention of either baking soda OR peroxide. WTF Pinterest?
Anyway, I grabbed some whitening toothpaste from my travel kit and an old toothbrush, because I don't actually own a nail brush. Well, I did at one time but I have two daughters who like toborrow steal my stuff on a regular basis, so the toothbrush was going to have to do for purposes of the next test. The directions in the article didn't actually specify how much toothpaste to use or how long to scrub your nails for (I'm learning that some pins aren't very specific, which sucks for people like me who need clear and concise directions).
I globbed some toothpaste on the brush and got good and scrubby for five minutes, figuring I would use the timeframe from the original test since Shape magazine doesn't like to give clear directions when handing out beauty tips, apparently.
When I finished scrubbing and rinsed again, I again admired my handiwork. The 'before' (again) is on the top and the 'after' is on the bottom:
Today's pin-speriment comes from my Helpful Hints board and promises to remedy yellow discolored fingernails that you get from wearing nail polish for too long.
How to Get Whiter Nails
This is a problem I know all too well, as my fingernails are painted 95% of the time and my toenails are painted 100% of the time. Since I'm not planning to get a pedicure until this weekend and absolutely cannot leave the house with naked toes, I tested out said pin on my fingernails only.
In my 'before' picture below, the yellowing on my fingernails is kind of hard to see. I took about 872 pictures and couldn't capture it properly with my iPhone or my Canon Power Shot. If you look closely, you can see where white healthy nail has started to grow in at the top of each nail bed.
 |
| The 'Before' Nails |
When you mix the paste of baking soda and peroxide together, it looks like this (Pay special attention to the awesome 70s style spoon that may parents got as part of their wedding flatware in 1973. The marriage = dead since 1981. The spoon = still kicking it almost 40 years later)
.JPG)
I mixed the baking soda and peroxide glop together and piled it on my nails using a small paint brush since the directions didn't really specify HOW to apply said glop. You're dying to know what that looks like, right?
.JPG)
I have no idea if that's what the pinner had in mind for this but there it is. I let this sit for the five minutes as directed before rinsing off. Here is the 'before' picture (again) on the top and the 'after' picture on the bottom (I would put them side by side but uploading photos in Blogger sucks and I can't figure out how to do that):
|
| 'Before' Nails |
 |
| 'After' Nails - Baking Soda/Peroxide Test |
After the crash and burn results of the first nail whitening treatment, I decided to actually click through to the link on the pin to see if those directions were any different. It took me a while to actually find the directions in the Shape magazine article. It turns out that the actual directions were to scrub your nails with whitening toothpaste and a nail brush with zero mention of either baking soda OR peroxide. WTF Pinterest?
Anyway, I grabbed some whitening toothpaste from my travel kit and an old toothbrush, because I don't actually own a nail brush. Well, I did at one time but I have two daughters who like to
.JPG) |
| The supplies for 'Whiter Nails - Take Two' |
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| Minty fresh fingers |
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| 'Before' Nails |
 |
| 'After' Nails - Toothpaste Test |
Some observations:
1 - I don't see a noticeable difference in the yellowing after this test, either.
2 - As you can see in the 'after' picture, my nails now have some weird white lines on them like they're all dried out or something. I'm very excited about that.
3 - If you look close enough at my palm in the 'after' picture, you'll see that the toothpaste left some weird white dots on my skin that won't come off, and I have no idea why.
Test #2 for 'How to Get Whiter Nails' = FAIL.
If anything, my nails are worse off than when I started. The verdict on 'How to Get Whiter Nails' is: Sucky Pin.
Thanks for nothing, Pinterest.
1 - I don't see a noticeable difference in the yellowing after this test, either.
2 - As you can see in the 'after' picture, my nails now have some weird white lines on them like they're all dried out or something. I'm very excited about that.
3 - If you look close enough at my palm in the 'after' picture, you'll see that the toothpaste left some weird white dots on my skin that won't come off, and I have no idea why.
Test #2 for 'How to Get Whiter Nails' = FAIL.
If anything, my nails are worse off than when I started. The verdict on 'How to Get Whiter Nails' is: Sucky Pin.
Thanks for nothing, Pinterest.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Paradigm Shift
You know how when your kids are little, all they really want is for you to play with them? And a lot of the time you really just want to sit down and read a book, or watch TV or have a glass of wine, or whatever else floats your boat. And there are times when you talk about this with other people - the fact that sometimes you just don't want to play another round of Chutes and Ladders, or color any more pages in that coloring book, or brush another Barbie's hair that isn't even real hair anyway.
Then, people with kids older than yours get a faraway look in their eyes and give you the ever popular speech to 'Enjoy yours kids now, because it all goes by so fast and before you know it, they no longer think playing with you is the coolest thing on the planet.' And you're all 'Whatever, I just want two minutes to go to the bathroom by myself without someone barging in and asking me to put their Barbie's shoes back on or build them a house out of the four legos in their hand, one of which is that weird flat rectangle thing that's useful for exactly nothing." I'm telling you though, those people with the kids older than yours - they know what they're talking about.
To this day, I stand by my pronouncement that one of my greatest days as a parent was the day when the kids could get up and fix themselves a bowl of cereal without waking me up. Violet was an early riser who woke up by 6 AM. Every. Single. Day. So, sleeping in until the sun made an appearance seemed like quite the luxury at the time. The thing is though, that after they get old enough to fix that bowl of cereal and are a little independent and self sufficient, they just keep on growing and changing, and becoming people who really prefer to do things that don't involve spending time with you.
We passed that point of no return with 14 year old Violet quite some time ago. Ever since she was about 13, she would much rather video chat and text with her friends than spend any significant quality time as a family. Any suggestions of family time are met with sighs and eye rolls and pronouncements of 'I don't feel like it' or 'I don't really want to do that.' And, if you get on your parental high horse and declare that WE are GOING to spend time as a family and YOU are GOING to like it, that results in whatever activity you were planning to do for fun being met with a sullen attitude and looks of 'OMG, I would rather be ANYWHERE but here, these people are lame.' Which means that exactly no one has any actual fun on your fun family outing. Good times, that. I thought that I had a little longer before 11 year old Lily joined the 'family time is officially lame' bandwagon. Alas, it appears I was mistaken.
Last night, Lily was cleaning her room and I told her that when she was done I would play a game with her. There was a time that family game night ranked high on Lily's list of Fun Things To Do and any invitations to play a game were met with much enthusiasm. Apparently, it isn't as high on her fun list these days because my suggestion was met this time with a 'Thanks, but I'd rather watch this show that will be on TV soon.' We won't even get in to the fact that it was a repeat of a show that she's seen more times than I can count.
Ouch, man. This parenting gig can be brutal.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Lesson Learned
A scene from my car, circa a few weeks ago:
After we secured the right pair of shorts and started the trek back to the soccer field, I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Lily pulling on her tie dye soccer socks. "Why are you wearing those socks?!?! Those aren't the right socks!" Yes, she knew that she needed the other socks and no, she didn't know why she didn't bring them. Again, awesome. Back to the house for the second time to get the correct socks. After two return trips home, Lily was finally wearing the 'right' outfit and I dropped her off at soccer practice.
Why didn't I just let her go to practicing wearing the wrong gear, you ask? Well, that's because the very same day as all the parents from our team had received a strongly worded letter from the team mom stating that our girls were not wearing the 'right' practice outfit and from here on out, the league would be fining the teams for each new offense. I was NOT going to be the mom that ignored the email and brought my kid with the wrong uniform the very day the email was sent...no way. I suppose I could have plead ignorance and said I hadn't checked my email yet, but alas, I am a rule follower at heart and have known since the beginning of the season that they needed to wear a practice uniform, which Lily had dutifully worn EVERY practice so far.
Anyway, the whole point of that story is to illustrate that situations like that are a common occurrence in our house, with both Lily and even Violet. I am forever running around to drop off forgotten lunch boxes, money for lab fees, soccer cleats, soccer shorts, water bottles, book reports, school projects...it goes on and on and on. Lectures on personal responsibility are a dime a dozen around here. I am firmly of the belief that at the ripe old age of 14 and 11, Violet and Lily are old enough to take some responsibility for making sure they are prepared for school and sports.
Don't get me wrong, I do my fair share of following them out the door asking if they have everything they need while they roll their eyes and say that yes, they do - only to call me in an hour and say they need me to drop something off in the school office. That said, I don't think it's unreasonable to think they can get out the door on time with the required materials in hand, whether it's a lunch box, homework or sports gear, especially when I specifically check with both of them Every. Single. Night to make sure lunches are packed, homework is done, uniforms are clean, permissions slips are signed, etc. Even still, I get a frantic call or text at least once or twice a week asking me to drop off forgotten items.
Today was one of those days. My phone signaled an incoming text and it was Violet, asking me to drop off her culinary jacket in the school office. Said jacket was currently crumpled up in a ball on her closet floor. This was the same jacket I had spied earlier while gathering laundry from her hamper and thought to myself "Hmm, I wonder if she needs that?" Turns out, she needed it and was asking me to bring it to the school posthaste.
After not very much a lot of deliberation, I decided that TODAY was the day that I would teach her a lesson. I texted her back that I was sorry, but I would not drop her jacket off in the school office and she would have to deal with the consequences of not having it and hopefully that would make her remember it next time. After a moment or two of parental guilt about the fact that I was not coming to the rescue of my precious little snowflake, I actually took an odd sort of glee in the fact that there FINALLY would be some consequences to all the forgetfulness around here and she would learn her lesson. She never responded back so I can only guess that was was none too pleased with my response.
When I picked Violet up from soccer practice after school, we were talking about her day and I asked her if she got in trouble for not having her jacket for culinary class. I was anticipating that she might say she got points taken off her assignment that day, or she had to do extra credit to make it up, something to that effect. She's in high school, they're tougher on high school kids in those situations, right? What she actually said was "Nope, we just got a new teacher for that class this week so she let it slide."
Well, okay then. Somebody learned a lesson today, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Violet.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Happy Birthday to Me!
I mentioned previously that 2013 was going to be the Year of Fun (and also Faith but this post is about the Fun). As much as I am a planner, I think that sometimes the most fun can be had by being spontaneous and not over-analyzing decisions.
My birthday is this Friday and while I'm not really one to make a big deal out of such events, I decided that there's no better way to kick of the Year of Fun than to do something good for your birthday. With that in mind, I booked a last minute hotel deal on the beach for a little family getaway. Two nights where I don't have to cook or clean, and two days of sitting on the beach, which is one of my favorite places to be. Since it's supposed to be in the 80s here this weekend, there couldn't be a better weekend for it.
If I wanted to, I could think of a million reasons why NOT to stay at the beach this weekend. But, I don't really want to think of those reasons, so I'm not. So, this will be the weekend of Spontaneous Fun. I would say the Year of Fun is off to a pretty decent start.
My birthday is this Friday and while I'm not really one to make a big deal out of such events, I decided that there's no better way to kick of the Year of Fun than to do something good for your birthday. With that in mind, I booked a last minute hotel deal on the beach for a little family getaway. Two nights where I don't have to cook or clean, and two days of sitting on the beach, which is one of my favorite places to be. Since it's supposed to be in the 80s here this weekend, there couldn't be a better weekend for it.
If I wanted to, I could think of a million reasons why NOT to stay at the beach this weekend. But, I don't really want to think of those reasons, so I'm not. So, this will be the weekend of Spontaneous Fun. I would say the Year of Fun is off to a pretty decent start.
Friday, January 4, 2013
I Need More Happy Little Trees
This quote just seems to say it all today. I will do my best to remember this the next time I'm annoyed that someone is not doing something 'my' way.
“Maybe there lives a cloud right there, wherever you want him, wherever. Just drop him in. It's your sky, so you make the decision where your clouds live. There. Maybe, yes, there's a little friend that lives right there. Right there. Right there. Maybe another one right over in here. You can just get crazy and fill the whole sky up full of clouds, and that's all right.” –Bob Ross, 1989
May we all be happy finding where our clouds live and creating our 'happy little trees.' Bob Ross, Zen Master...who knew?
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Ya Gotta Have Faith...At Least According to George Michael
Since I've last posted here almost 1.5 years ago, a lot has changed. I'm the mother of a high school freshman and a 6th grade middle schooler. I moved...again. I changed jobs...again. Things are different, but good. And yet...I find myself more stressed out than ever about life in general.
That job change means that I'm now self employed. As the larger income earner between my husband and I, the fact that I don't have a steady paycheck that a nice company deposits in my bank account on a regular basis is scary. It's working out so far but every once in a while, when I let myself think about it, I get a pit in my stomach about the possibility that my income could dwindle and leave us in a bad place financially. Another sticking point with my work situation is that I work from home, so there are days and days at a time where I don't leave my house except to shuttle someone to or from soccer or possibly go to the grocery store. To some this might sound like heaven, but the more time I spend at home, the less I actually want to leave, then I feel even worse...it's a vicious cycle.
On the home front, keeping up with my girls and their ever expanding extracurricular and social calendar is a full time job in and of itself. This Fall, they both played on two soccer teams each - one competitive and one school team, which meant that someone had practice or a game almost Every. Single. Day. Some days, they had a practice and a game, some days two practices, some days there were two games in two different places, or a game here and a practice there...you get the idea. We're coming up on tournament season and I'm conveniently not thinking about the fact that there are multiple weekends in the near future where each kid is playing in a tournament in a different city. Plus, Lily is starting school play rehearsals when school starts back on Monday, so we'll be adding that in to the mix. It's always something, you know?
All of this leaves me feeling tired and overwhelmed much of the time. Yes, things could be worse - but they could also be better. With that in mind, I had already decided that I was not going to do New Year's resolutions or goals, because I feel like that's just setting myself up to fail. That said, I decided to have a couple of words to represent how I want to live this year.
The first word is: FAITH. I'm not a particularly religious or spiritual person and faith is something that I've struggled with mightily in the last couple of years. I've only recently realized that I can have faith without it having to do with religion. I can have faith in myself. This year, I'm going to have faith that things are going to work out with my job and income because I work really hard and am good at my job. I'm going to have faith that things will work out how they are supposed to, even if I don't understand it at the time. I'm going to have faith that everything is going to be okay.
The second word is: FUN. I often find that I let my own issues get in the way of having fun. Things that are supposed to be fun sometimes stress me out, maybe because they don't go exactly how I expect them to or how I think they should. I can easily talk myself out of doing something I might enjoy because it's either outside my comfort zone or seems like too much work. I've already started working on this with some successes and some failures, but the important thing is, I'm trying.
So, 2013 is the year of faith and also fun. I wonder if George Michael would approve?
That job change means that I'm now self employed. As the larger income earner between my husband and I, the fact that I don't have a steady paycheck that a nice company deposits in my bank account on a regular basis is scary. It's working out so far but every once in a while, when I let myself think about it, I get a pit in my stomach about the possibility that my income could dwindle and leave us in a bad place financially. Another sticking point with my work situation is that I work from home, so there are days and days at a time where I don't leave my house except to shuttle someone to or from soccer or possibly go to the grocery store. To some this might sound like heaven, but the more time I spend at home, the less I actually want to leave, then I feel even worse...it's a vicious cycle.
On the home front, keeping up with my girls and their ever expanding extracurricular and social calendar is a full time job in and of itself. This Fall, they both played on two soccer teams each - one competitive and one school team, which meant that someone had practice or a game almost Every. Single. Day. Some days, they had a practice and a game, some days two practices, some days there were two games in two different places, or a game here and a practice there...you get the idea. We're coming up on tournament season and I'm conveniently not thinking about the fact that there are multiple weekends in the near future where each kid is playing in a tournament in a different city. Plus, Lily is starting school play rehearsals when school starts back on Monday, so we'll be adding that in to the mix. It's always something, you know?
All of this leaves me feeling tired and overwhelmed much of the time. Yes, things could be worse - but they could also be better. With that in mind, I had already decided that I was not going to do New Year's resolutions or goals, because I feel like that's just setting myself up to fail. That said, I decided to have a couple of words to represent how I want to live this year.
The first word is: FAITH. I'm not a particularly religious or spiritual person and faith is something that I've struggled with mightily in the last couple of years. I've only recently realized that I can have faith without it having to do with religion. I can have faith in myself. This year, I'm going to have faith that things are going to work out with my job and income because I work really hard and am good at my job. I'm going to have faith that things will work out how they are supposed to, even if I don't understand it at the time. I'm going to have faith that everything is going to be okay.
The second word is: FUN. I often find that I let my own issues get in the way of having fun. Things that are supposed to be fun sometimes stress me out, maybe because they don't go exactly how I expect them to or how I think they should. I can easily talk myself out of doing something I might enjoy because it's either outside my comfort zone or seems like too much work. I've already started working on this with some successes and some failures, but the important thing is, I'm trying.
So, 2013 is the year of faith and also fun. I wonder if George Michael would approve?
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