Some time to think and evaluate ...

Of course when you are under the weather you get plenty of time to sit back and take notice.  When I had my appendix removed I noticed the master bedroom needed a complete overhaul.  As soon as I was recovered and back in the land of the moving I made it happen.  New paint, new fabric and even a new bed later I can report I think it still looks amazing!!!  I do think the ceiling would look even more grand painted a very pale blue ... but that can wait.  At least until the installation of the new panels I have been stalking on Ebay.  

This time around its the cleanliness of the house.  Or better yet .. the lack of!!!  With me not up to par the last week and a half the house is failing quickly.  Poor Lawyer has been putting in his 100% and more but papers from school and mail are just not his thing.  I do find them in the strangest of places.  I have been doing my daily straighten but the dust balls and fingerprints are planning their take over!!  Why oh why did I not take the time to hire the housekeeper when I was feeling grand??

Enter my friends in the blog world!!!  Two blog posts this week have hit home for me.  The first from Jenny at the Little Green Notebook about a cleaning chore list for herself.  Brilliant ... simply brilliant!!!

Here is the chart she made ... 

I love it!!!  I can straighten my house in a jiffy ... but its the dirty spots that get me every time.  I hate finding a hand print on the wall or fingerprints on the light switch or the worst for me ... piddle on the toilet seat in the  guest potty.  UGH!!!  And of course I don't notice it until someone pops in for a visit.  

I do think I need to invest in a small vacuum for the daily quick run.  We have a central vac which I love for deep vacuum needs.  Carrying 30 feet of hose from the basement on a weekly basis is tough ... not doable on a daily basis!!!   

The next blog I stumbled on to talked about locating your hots spots ... the places where things get dumped and clutter ensues.   For the life of me I can not find the blogger or the blog post again.  So my goal is to look around and find my hot spots and figure out how to better organize these areas.  My first guess will be the "mud area" at the back door.  It is no where near functional enough.  

As soon as I am back on my feet I am overhauling both the hot spots and my cleaning plan!!

Oh ... and hiring a housekeeper!

xo,

MPM

Happy Day Sporty Spice!!!

Still down with pain and nausea ... and still testing ... will update when I know something for sure!!!  I have been collecting arm bands ... up to five so far ... more to come!!!  The plan is to have a distinct diagnosis on Friday afternoon.  

In the mean time today is the birthday of one of my besties ... Sporty Spice!!!  She is full of life, always smiling and amazingly fit!!!  While we were having brunch before leaving for the lake she was teaching both a  yoga and zumba class.  Makes me tired just thinking about it.

This is her on the right with Hair Girl.  That smile is addictive!!!

Love you girl ... you always brighten my day!!!

xoxo, 

MPM

Q + A

I apologize repeatedly for the lack of posts this week.  I have been out of commission all week.  Not my favorite week and not worth expanding on too much.  I have pain and nausea that can't be diagnosed and I am walking into week two.  Quite frustrating!!  

I have little or no creative juices flowing so I lifted questionnaires floating around the design blog world.  I lifted more than one and then pulled out the questions I found interesting to post for you here.  I know it might seem a lame post but I figured answering questions would be easier than no post at all.

I am a big fan of questionnaires.  They always get me thinking and sometimes produce answers that surprise me.  Hope you enjoy!!!

1.  Name two tv shows that you must watch every week or record to watch later .... Revenge and The Voice

2.  Do you use the snooze button on your alarm ... Even worse I set two alarms and then turn off the first and then push snooze on the second.  Now that I have written it out it sounds incredibly lazy!!

3.  Are you the oldest, middle or youngest in your family? ... I am an only child

4.  Do you collect anything? ... Lots of things ... majolica plates, vintage silhouettes, tole trays, antique earrings and I can't seem to say no to shoes of almost any kind!!

5.  What is your middle name ... Paige

6.  Are you country or city, girlie or tomboy, talker or a listener? City girl for sure ... though I love to spend some in the country on weekends or vacations.  Girlie girl for sure and I am both a talker and a listener!

7.  What would your family and friends say is one of your best qualities?  What would they say is one of your worst?  I am a giver.  A giver of gifts and time.  I love to give to others.  Those closest to me would admit that it is a fine line for me at times.  I can give more than I ask for and that means sacrificing when I shouldn't.
8.  Do you like to cook or bake?  Cook yes, bake absolutely not.  There are plenty of talented people who I would rather buy from then bake it and have it fail!!!
9.  My one guilty pleasure is ... I feel like I have too many.  I love to lunch with friends, I love a mani/pedi and I adore a sweet treat!!
10.  The room in my house I like the best is ... right now my dining room.  The green is gorgeous and it makes me happy to walk in every single time!
11.  The accomplishment I am most proud of in the past year is ... putting myself first when I need to.  Weeding the garden is good for the soul!!
12.  What is one item on your bucket list ... riding in a helicopter.  Sounds so scary and so much fun at the same time!
13.  Which would you choose for a date with your husband:  Candlelight dinner at a nice restaurant or a day of hiking in the mountains?  I would say a hike in the mountains followed by a picnic.  We both love to be outside and take photos ... and we both enjoy and picnic.  Sounds like the perfect date to me!!
14.  In which sport or athletic activity would you most like to participate?  Tennis.  Its a great way to hang out with friends and eat yummy food and exercise.  Too bad I have never played and don't know the first thing about it!!
15.  What do you wish you were more knowledgeable about?  Art history
16.  What kind of driver are you?  Rule follower ... I have always feared I would die in a car accident!
17.  It is hard for me to ... This one was really hard.  I would say it is hard for me to face those who have hurt me!  I don't mean hurt my feelings ... I mean really hurt me!
18.  What are your nicknames?  My husband calls me "shug" or "my wife".  If he uses my name I am always shocked and if he uses my first and middle names I run for cover!!
19.  What is your best piece of advice for raising children?  Patience.  Little people make little people mistakes and do it repeatedly!!
20.  What is your biggest regret?  I don't have any.  Every decision I have made has brought me to the place I am now.  I love where I am and if I changed something I may not be where I am today!

xo,

MPM

Lake perfection!

Today's post is way over due but my arse is dragging!!!  I am pooped!  

This was my annual lake trip weekend.  We started with brunch on Friday and then headed off.  Roadies in hand and packed up and ready for late nights, great meals, girl time and giggling until our stomachs ached!!!

Cell phones deposited into a basket to be able to spend time with "the people you are with".

The meals are divided before we go and each of the match ups go over and above to make amazing food.  We have never had a bad meal in four years of going to the lake.  Each and every meal is better than the last.  We eat, and eat and eat!!! (and drink some too!)

This meal was made by our host ... Curried Butternut Squash soap and an amazing complimenting salad!!!  I am not sure why I only photographed this meal ... they were all to good to be true!!!

The best part about the lake for me is the laughter.  Wine spraying out your nose laughter.  The kind that makes your stomach ache for days!!!  We will be laughing about things we talked about until next year at the same time.  There will be texts, photos and emails that only us a group will understand.  One conversation we had was about number ones.  Who would we love to date that is famous.  Tennis Barbie stated hers was Anderson Cooper.  Of course Anderson Cooper is gay.  This afternoon Chelsea Handler sent us a number of photos from the weekend.  One of them was of Tennis Barbie's boyfriend Anderson and her boyfriends boyfriend.  I am still laughing!  

We always watch a movie.  Last year it was Love and Other Drugs.  Borders on soft porn.  My choice and I had no idea.  Good movie ... just wasn't prepped to see Jake Gyllenhaal's buck naked self.  Not complaining, wasn't prepared. 

This year we watched Country Strong.  I liked it a lot ... others hated it.  We cried, or some of us did, and the music is top notch!!!  I need to watch it again.  There was a lot of chatter going on and I think I missed a lot.  Can't watch it with Lawyer ... he will complain for ever that I chose another movie where the star dies.  I will save it for when he travels next.  

I love the water and this place is special to me.  It is peaceful, represents laughter and love to me.  The sun was setting and we squeezed in a group shot ... took a while to figure out the cameras ... but we did it!!!

A lot of more to the left, the right, hurry ... hurry ... and snap!  It was taken!!!

I squeezed in just as the photo was snapping ... hence the reason I seem to be more in the front of the rest.

Thank you girls for another great year!!!!

xoxoxo,

MPM

Lent!

Ash Wednesday came and went without me barely noticing it was a Wednesday or that it was special in any way at all.  I was too busy with my Phenergan coma to think about much else than feeling human once again.  But now that I have arisen from another brush with "near death" I am on schedule and ready to report my plan. 

First of all ... let me say, I will not be giving up caffeine!  That was stupid and retarded and then to find out we were moving and I would be a single parent for about six months at the same time.  Re-to-the-tarded!!!  I should have given up immediately and picked something else.  But ... instead I indulged on the weekends and tried to make do.  Stupid and shall never be repeated!!!

So what am I giving up ... refined sugar and Diet Coke!  

So what does that mean for me?  No cold can of Diet Coke in the afternoon, no sweet tea, no candy, no cupcakes, no sweets of any kind at all!!!  And I have a HUGE sweet tooth!!!  Dude!!!  I better be feeling better by the end of this ... which I am sure I will.  Sugar controls my day and should not!!!

What am I subbing ... more unsweet tea and more fruit.  And then there will be fruit in my tea!  Yum!!!

Are you giving anything up?  Taking anything on?

xo,

MPM

Just love him!

Lawyer's travel schedule has been out of control lately.  Since the new year he has been home a total of 24 days and most of those include that he was home for eighteen straight days the first of January.  He has been traveling to the west coast and the time change is killing our communication.  He wakes up after the kids are off to school and gets home from the office as I am going to bed.  Reaching him is difficult with his conference call schedule and being around when he finally calls is hard.  I will admit it ... I have been a little less than patient.  Ok ... not at all.

Then I started to look at it from his point of view.  Even though he is not the man to communicate his feelings he desperately misses his family.  He is working hard, tired and lonely.  So am I.  Him being gone means he is excelling in his career.  He is requested to be places and so he goes.  I should be proud, not whining and patient not bitchy.  I need to realize that I am not an easy person to love but my husband loves me unconditionally.

No marriage is perfect.  If you think it is you are wrong.  If someone tells you their marriage is perfect, they are in denial.  Every person has a cross to bear and every marriage has a flaw.  Marriage consists of compromise, communication and unconditional love.  This new phase in our lives needs tweaking, better communication and patience.  We will figure it out just as we figured out how to parent three children and how to navigate the world with a special ed child.  I do not think that I have mastered either of those, but I do think I do a good job at both.  

I was reminded Tuesday how much my husband loves me when he called home on Tuesday afternoon and was told I was asleep on the floor in the bathroom suffering from a stomach virus.  Before HSM could come up and check on me Lawyer had arranged for his sister in law to collect the kids, bring me supplies and take care of their homework.  She took them to dinner, bathed them and tucked them into bed.  She arrived again yesterday with dinner and homework help again allowing me to sleep and rest and be able to tackle the remainder of my week.  He did all of this after delaying a conference call to make sure his wife was cared for when I clearly was in denial that I could care for myself.  

I am rested, feeling so much better (even a little skinnier!) and ready for today and tomorrow!

And feeling more in love with that husband of mine!  

xo,

MPM

Happy 3 day weekend!!!

We packed the car on Friday and headed off to the beach!!!  

We are home once again, unpacked and ready for the week!

Hope your weekend was fabulous!!!

xo,

MPM