Girly Mom

It’s hard to believe that my baby is four today.  I desperately want to go back, just for a moment, and hold that little newborn. She is such a smart, courageous, energetic, temperamental, silly, LOUD, witty, precocious, and completely unique little girl.  Hopefully we won’t mess that up.  My birthday wish for her is that she continues to be her own little person.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby!

I love Aquis Hair Turbans. I can’t get ready without them.  Everyday I wrap one around my hair then I’m off to make breakfast, get the kids ready for the day, put on my makeup, do the laundry, paint the house, refinish some furniture and teach French to small children.  Okay, my mornings aren’t quite like that.  I sometimes put laundry off until the afternoon.

This little towel absorbs the excess water in my hair which means it takes less time to dry.  And less time with the blow dryer means less damage to my hair.  That’s really important to a girl whose hair is, ahem, chemically enhanced.

Aquis also makes a small hair towel, but I prefer the turban because there’s a little button that secures it on my head and keeps it from falling off every time I lean over. These turbans are available at Amazon and several online stores as well as places like Bed, Bath and Beyond.  They’re well worth the price especially if your hair takes forever to dry.

If you have a product that you can’t live without, please share it with me.  I need an excuse to go shopping.

I found out the other day that Sarah McLachlan’s latest single, U Want Me 2, comes out tomorrow on iTunes.  Finally!  I’ve been dying for her to come out with something new.  You can listen to it here.  She has released so many “Best Of” and “Greatest Hits” albums, which I love, but I’m starved for something new.  Her last completely original album was ‘Afterglow’ in 2003 which is incredible.  She released a Christmas album titled ‘Wintersong’ in 2006 containing my most favorite version of Silent Night.  In April of this year, she released ‘Rarities, B Sides 2, and Other Stuff Volume 2′.  This album is filled with duets, soundtrack contributions, and live performances.

Her newest album, ‘Closer’, is due out October 7 and contains more greatest hits.  Luckily, she has included two new tracks.  Hooray!  She blames her absence from the music scene on the fact that she had her second daughter, Taja (her older daughter is India) and is engrossed in being a mom.  Whatever.  I guess that’s okay.  She’ll just need to make it up to me by touring soon.  I’ll be there fo sho!

Here’s a list of all the tracks on the new album.

I’ve been DOA; no that’s not it.  I’ve been MIA, yeah.  I’ve been MIA for a while.

I have three little sweethearts that have just started back to school.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been  preparing them for that big event.

I wore holes in my tires from repeated trips to Target, Walmart, and KMart.  I scoured the racks at umpteen different department stores looking for clothes, shoes, and accessories.  I made my kids try on 12 different sizes of uniforms for school.  And I even spent countless hours online searching for cute nap mats, sippy cups, tote bags and lunch boxes.

And don’t even get me started on the supply lists for these kids.  I trudged through rows and rows of school paraphernalia searching for exactly what was on each list.  Where were the large white glue sticks?  Every store had regular and jumbo and purple.  Nobody stocked large white ones.  When I finally found them, they were $2 a piece and I needed 12.  Twenty-four dollars for glue?  That’s just wrong!

Searching for notebooks was frustrating, too.  I hunted for pocket folders with brads, pocket folders without brads, and composition notebooks with wide-rule paper.  And on top of that, my kids wanted them to be Hannah Montana or Pokemon or Hello Kitty or pink or something other than what was available where we were.

Oh, and there are NO blue 10 gallon Sterilite tubs in the entire city, in case you wanted to know.  It was really special to find out at my son’s orientation that the tub color didn’t matter.  What?  Why, for the love of all that is good, did someone not fix that on the supply list?  People don’t realize the trouble they cause us slightly deranged, OCD moms.

Seriously, does anyone else do this?  Why do I obsess over getting exactly what’s written on the supply list?  I mean, I’m not a first time mom.  I should know better.  I should just throw some crayons and paper in a Walmart sack and send them on their way.  But there’s just something about the start of the school year that turns me into this fretful little woman who must do everything by the book.

Needless to say, my babies got to school with all their stuff.  We did miss my 8 year old’s orientation because I read the paper wrong.  I thought it was on the same night as my son’s.  That doesn’t bode well for my scheduling abilities this year, but I’m going to get them through this year with awesome grades if it kills me.

Did I mention that I’m home alone?  My youngest baby, who is about to turn 4 in a few weeks, started preschool.  I’m sad for myself, but excited for her.  It’s great that she’s so independent, but I sure miss her.  Her school is awesome and her teacher, Mrs. Ruthie, is the sweetest lady ever.

I’m planning on relaxing at home for a few days and then getting started on some projects around the house.  I’ve got pictures that need hanging, closets that need cleaning and I may even slap a photo or two in somebody’s scrapbook.  I’m also plannin’ to get my blog on.  I’m looking forward to more free time for writing and catching up on all the blogs I love to read.  Hooray freedom!

Look at me!  I’m focusing on the positve side of this rather than the fact that my baby has started school and they’re all getting old and about to move out and leaving me here all alone forever and ever.  See, I’m doing great!