Orange County Moms Blog

An Eerie "No Phone Zone" Message

I will admit, I have a love affair going with my iPhone. The thing is amazing.  It has been totally life changing for me as a stay-at-home mom blogger juggling a lot at one time. Emails, texts, tweets, Facebook updates - it is all right at my fingertips! If I hear that fun little ding that I got a new message, it takes everything in me to not check it immediately. It has gotten to be addicting in that way.  But what that has also meant is I got in the habit of also checking it when I was at stoplights behind the wheel of a car until it took an eerie "No Phone Zone" message from my 4-year-old to slap me in the face.

Let me be clear, I NEVER text and drive, but I will take a call or make a call (hands-free, but still) or check my phone at red lights, which requires me to glance down at it.  One time someone behind me had to honk because the light turned green and I was looking at my phone. I felt embarrassed that I was so obviously distracted and had that twinge of a feeling that I should really be more careful. 

Finding Perfection in the Imperfect Moments

This year for Mother’s Day my husband asked me what I wanted to do. I thought about it and told him I would love to take the girls down to Laguna Beach, walk around a bit and then get a margarita with chips and guac at the Hotel Laguna on the deck. Perfection. 

I romanticize about my Laguna outing all week and finally the day arrives.  We pack up the car for what could be a week.  The STUFF necessary to pack for kids on any given outing astounds me.  Cheerios?  Check.  Dipes? Check. Stroller? Check.  Baby food? Check. On and on… But we get packed up, loaded up, and on our way.

As we approach Laguna it seems like everyone and their mother (no pun intended) had the same idea.  Lots and lots of people and lots of traffic. But what was I expecting? After all, it was a GORGEOUS afternoon and we live in Orange County.  

Our 4 year old falls asleep in car just as we approach Main Beach.  Great.  But, turns out she gets a good catnap because it took forever to find parking. We finally find a spot, several blocks up a hill, and get unloaded. I am in new flip flops that are super cute, but aren’t quite broken in, so the hill is looking a bit daunting.  But I suck it up as I feel a blister forming.  It’s my perfect afternoon so I walk with a smile! 

OC Half Marathon Here I Come!

 

A funny thing happened about three months ago.  I committed to taking the time out of my hectic “stay-at-home-and-also-try-to-work-at home” life to do something completely just for ME.  I became a runner.  

Well, if we’re being honest, at my pace, I should probably say “jogger” but “runner” sounds more empowering so please humor me.  On Sunday, May 2nd, after 3 months of training I am going to run 13.1 miles in the OC Half Marathon.  I am scared to death, but also crazy excited to cross that finish line. This week I have actually been pretty emotional about it and just writing this makes me tear up. Mostly because I have realized it has been about more than just pounding the pavement.  I feel like in this experience, I found myself again.

I started running for the obvious physical benefits.  You know, get in better shape post-baby, feel stronger, have more energy, etc.  All that has been true, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the mental and emotional impact it would have on me.

When I started training, I told myself that this was going to be the one thing in my life just for me. I called it the answer to my "Momlife Crisis."  So if I can help it, I NEVER bring my kids in a jogger.  I will go to great lengths to go at odd times or arrange help, so I can run alone.

And, what that has meant is I actually have time to THINK again!  In fact, the more I got to THINKING about it, the more I realized in the last 3 years and 10 months since my firstborn arrived, I have not had much time to really think!  My days are sooooo busy....always go, go, go!  I am mom all day, then blog at night, and sometimes mix the both throughout the day, and when the day is done I have not had one spare minute to myself.

These past 3 months, I have had time, good chunks of time, where it is just me, the Back Bay and my iPod. It feels really therapeutic to have the time to actually process linear, uninterrupted thoughts!  I think about my kids, feel grateful for my husband, plan out dream vacations, think about the future, write my blogs in my head. I can analyze and ponder.  Dream and plan.  It has been in this time where I feel like I have found myself again.   Isn’t it funny how we don’t even realize we are lost until we are found? 

On that Sunday I won’t care about my time. I just hope my feet hold up and will be thrilled to just be able to finish.  And when I cross that finish line, you bet there will be some tears, because when I see my family waiting there it will be like coming home.  In more ways than one.

This is an Original Post to Orange County Moms Blog.  

When Jen is not running the Back Bay immersed in her thoughts, you can find her blogging about fun finds & amazing giveaways at her personal blog Tiny Oranges.  You can also find Jen on Facebook & follow her on Twitter. 

Mom is Outnumbered

Something happens when the clock turns to 5:00pm.  Time for the whine! And no, that was not a typo!  It happens FAST, the crossover.  Everything can be going fine one moment, then BAM, I don’t know what hit me. What I do know is mom is in high demand and I am outnumbered.  Both of my kids need me. NOW.  I start muttering to myself, “I am just ONE person! Seriously, one of me, TWO of you. You do the math!”

Sometimes I feel like a circus act...juggling requests, jumping through hula hoops. On any typical night, the circus pretty much goes down like this:  My baby is tugging at my leg and holding her little arms up whining to be picked up.   My oldest, now almost 4, seems to sense the tension and starts to whine herself.  Usually about a snack or needing the markers from the top cabinet or has some sort of request I cannot get to at that exact moment.

Confessions of a Germ-phobe Mom

To me, there is nothing worse than a sick kid. The sleepless nights.  The endless runny noses.  The hacking coughs. The general misery.  I hate feeling so helpless.  I also loathe being quarantined in the house for days on end. Therefore, keeping our household healthy became a minor obsession for me. 

I open public restroom doors with a paper towel, push elevator buttons with my elbow and take a cart cover any place that involves a shopping cart or high chair. 

Don’t even get me started on the pediatrician’s office.  To me that is a living virus hotbed!  I take my own pen so I don’t use the communal sign-in one, open the door with a Kleenex and don’t let my kids touch one single surface if I can help it.  

I have antibacterial hand gels in every purse I own and keep one in our cars.   We are armed and ready to anti-bacterialize at any given moment. Viruses beware. 

Barbie and the Body Image Thing

"I hope I didn’t get your daughter a scandalous gift,” my sweet friend mentioned at my daughter’s 3-year-old birthday party last summer.  

I thought, scandalous?  What on earth could be a scandalous 3-year-old gift?  My mind started to race and I couldn’t even conjure up ideas on what it could be.  

My puzzled face prompted her to explain further, “we got her...” and then her voice got a little more hushed, “a Barbie.”  

She went on to explain it was a dancer Barbie and I made a joke that as long as it wasn’t “Pole Dancer Barbie” there was nothing about Barbie I found scandalous.  She laughed and told me it was a Ballerina Barbie and she immediately looked relieved. 

“Oh good!  You never know with the body image thing these days how parents feel about Barbies.”

The issue came up again when my daughter went to a new friend’s house for a drop off play date one day.   When I called the mom to check what time I should pick her up, I asked what the girls were up to.   She then sort of sheepishly said that her girls have Barbies and she hoped it was okay with me as they had been playing with their Barbies.  Then the “body image thing” came up again, and I realized there seemed to be a potential concern out there amongst mommies of girls.   

But what is the issue really?  People think a young girl will look at Barbie’s over exaggerated feminine shape and feel bad about their own bodies?  An unattainable ideal? A sexist message?