Music Monday

"Now the sky could be blue

I don't mind

without you it's a waste of time"

Wordless Wednesday

Life is Peaches and Cream

I spent the day with my mom, sister, niece and of course, Matty! We started off at Strawberry Acres, a nearby farm, to pick peaches and ended at a newly discovered local gem, Blondies, where we had the perfect combo: hot dogs and cupcakes...who knew?! In between, we stopped at Toys R Us, Matty's first ever trip there. I need to take him more often. Or never again. Not sure which yet, but he certainly made his terrible two status be known.

Here are some pictures of happier times in the peach orchard :)

Happy Birthday, Mom and Music Monday

My mom turned 50 on August 12, and we celebrated this past Saturday with a Coney Island themed surprise party!

During the planning stages of the party, I went through a lot of old pictures for a poster board I was putting together and a dvd that a friend created as a gift to my mom. It was fun and emotional. I saw deep, unconditional love in my mom's eyes for my sister and I. I recognized it because I possess the same look now in my own eyes for Matty.

A few days before my mom's party, I was listening to Taylor Swift's, "Never Grow Up" {which makes me sob every time.} All of the previous occasions when I had listened to it, I only thought of how I felt about the song in regard to Matty. This time, I put myself in my mom's shoes. And my grandma's shoes. I imagine that my mom's 50th birthday is bittersweet for both of them. It's sad yet so incredibly amazing to watch our kiddos grow up.

As much as I may want Matty to remain my little boy that I can always protect, I would never want to deny him the the joy that he has brought me. If I never would have grown up, I would have never known love like this.

Happiness is different things at different stages in our life. Some days, happiness is sitting back and watching others take the main stage. As parents, we do that from the beginning. I'm sure it gets harder as our children get older and we become less integral as they make their own way and build their own families. But I have to think the ability to do that symbolizes the greatest degree of love and selflessness and is a sure sign of  your own contentment; to be genuinely happy for them and to know you had some sort of hand in creating the love they have in their own eyes, for whatever it may be that gives them that sparkle! And if we never completely let go of the simplicity and innocence of our own childhood, it will make it so much sweeter as we watch our own children grow up. Of course we all have days where we wish we {and they} never would have grown up, but the truth is, the circle of life is a beautiful thing.

Here's to you, mom! Thank you for letting me grow up, even when it was hard to do.

Wordless Wednesday

Meet Italia, my beautiful bff. I am ecstatic to finally share here on my blog that her and her husband are pregnant with their first child! 15 weeks. Words cannot describe how excited and happy I am, so good thing this is a Wordless Wednesday post!

My greatest work.

"All art requires courage."

Came across this quote today. As a poet, I completely get it.

As a mom, I can relate even more. I have written some very personal poems, but my heart has never, ever been more vulnerable than it is since I became Matty's mom.

Dinner at Eight: Picnic Edition

11. That was the start time of our at home date on Friday night. Matty had trouble falling asleep and hubs and I dozed while trying to put him down. I woke fully expecting it to be 2 a.m. and ready to give the middle finger to my afternoon efforts of preparing our picnic dinner, but it was only 10:30 so I jumped up, left hubs snooze, and began to create our pretty picnic setting. I planned to have an indoor picnic because temps were over 100 with like a million percent humidity on Friday, so at least the late start didn't ruin any romantic notion of an outdoor picnic {though a picnic under the stars would have been amazing!}

I quickly threw a checkered table cloth over the cocktail ottoman in our living room, lit some candles, and

set out our meal: Mexican black bean quinoa salad, caprese salad, heart shaped chicken salad sandwiches {I swear the "salad" theme is purely coincidental}, sweet and spicy jalapeno chips, watermelon, brownies and blood orange European soda. 

Hubs came down just as I finished setting everything out. We snacked and watched Daniel Tosh do stand up.

 

Then I cleaned up while he fell asleep on the couch.

Romantic? Not really. But still nice to have put aside some "us" time. Many times we plan to watch a movie or play a board game after Matty goes to bed, but by the time the evening chores are complete, we are pooped and just call it a night. I was proud that on Friday night we stuck to our schedule {schedule sounds so unromantic, but really, most times, if married with children couples don't consciously carve out time for each other, it never happens and that is the purpose of Dinner at Eight. I love that it holds us accountable for our date nights...it would be so easy to be lazy and not have our dates if it weren't for this project. Our first Dinner at Eight was imperfectly perfect and I can't wait to see what August's theme will be. Also looking forward to our "outside of the house" date night this Friday night: we're seeing Lisa Loeb in concert :)