Starbucks

Starbucks has added adventure to my life.  

You would think as a pregnant mother of a 1 year old with her own business, I would have enough adventure, but for me, the unexpected tends not to be fun.

Starbucks is also a great place to stick to a routine.  No matter which one you go to, you can expect the same menu and you never have to try anything new.  I usually do vary my choices - pumpkin, gingersnap, peppermint, and vanilla are all vehicles for caffeine - and once in awhile I add whipped cream. 

However, the Starbucks baristas have decided that I need some excitement in my life.  The first two times, it was by adding whipped cream.  Never one to say no to whipped cream once it has been bestowed, I enjoyed every sip.  Last time, I ordered a gingersnap latte without whipped cream.  I received a pumpkin spice latte with whipped cream.  I knew it was mine because I brought my own mug.  The receipt said one thing, the note on the side of the cup said another.  I didn't notice it until I left and I do like pumpkin spice, so it wasn't a big deal.  In fact, since I didn't really care which way I got my caffeine, the surprise was kind of neat.  If this continues for sometime, I will enjoy it, but the day I get a green tea latte instead of a peppermint mocha they will be re-doing my drink.

Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am reflecting on the changes that have come over the past year and how thankful I am for them.  I never thought I would be thankful for the gift of staying home with my child, mostly because I never wanted to have children.  It also reminds me how thankful I am that I have had children, because they have shown me how much wonder and beauty life possesses.

On shopping...

So last weekend, seeking a break from our endless gardening, my family and I set out to find something fun to do.  One of our favorite pre-new house activities was to go to the mall and visit Williams-Sonoma, the Apple store, Borders Books, and occasionally H&M.  

Alas, new houses mean new expenses, and so our shopping adventures are no more.

The activity we decided upon was the library.  No danger of spending money there!  The most we would part with was the $.25 in late fees that I owed.  However, my husband and I are well-trained, dutiful consumers.  Upon entering the library, we somehow noticed the library used bookstore for the first time.  Mind you, I used to work at this library and we both visit it fairly frequently, but in our rampant desire to buy something(anything!)  the used bookstore carts looked like Neiman Marcus, Bloomindales, and Macy's all dressed up for Christmas and rolled into one tiny alcove.  

We spent $12.  We got 14 books.  A good deal certainly, but not really what we were intending.  Who knew the library could be so expensive?

The next time we go searching for a "free " weekend activity, we are going to go for a hike.  Unless there is a gift shop, lemonade stand, or squirrel-for-hire along the way, we should be in good shape.

Vacation

After a short vacation, I am back!  My vacation was both physical as well as mental.  I am now 11 weeks pregnant with baby #2 and the mental fog is beginning to clear.  Our family also took a trip to northern California.  It was fun, although baby #1 was teething the whole time.  

This post begs the question, what is vacation after kids?  In many ways, I think kids bring a healthier perspective to the word.  For my birthday, a friend gave me some fizzy bath tablets from Victoria's Secret.  Over the weekend, I plan to use them and enjoy the smell of Midnight Mimosa.  My husband will watch the baby and I will use the shower for longer than 5 minutes. That is a vacation to me.  

I have always loved traveling.  I have always loved being busy.   My greatest challenge in life has always been to enjoy the moment and where I am at.  With kids, I am forced to appreciate the road trip to northern California and my 30 minute bath in ways I never would have before.  We are trying to decide whether or not to go to London in December and while I do think it would be fantastic, I must admit I am almost excited about planning a whole day at the beach with my husband and baby.  For me, vacation has become more about the experience than the destination, which I think is significant.  I always envisioned that my life would be filled with world travel and yet, I was always grouchy due to time change, dehydration, you name it on the first two days of any international trip.  Now that our mobility is limited somewhat, I am able to enjoy trips both closer to home and far away from the very first day.  I also now think that the ultimate in luxury is getting to shave my legs.  It's the simple things.

Check out a photo from our trip.  How many sea lions do you see?

La Dolce Mama

At long last, La Dolce Mama is open.  After lots of thought and brainstorming, I decided on La Dolce Mama over Hot Mama Nursing Supplies.  It is simpler, more sophisticated, and best of all fun!  Come check out my site for all your breastfeeding needs!

www.ladolcemama.com

Summer Reading List

My favorite part of the end of a school year and the beginning of the next one was a summer reading list.  I always looked forward to the recommendations with excitement.  Check out my 2008 summer reading list and feel free to add your own favorites.  I am reading these right now, so don't spoil the endings if you have already read them!

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears - Dinaw Mengetsu

Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (it gets better after the first 50 pages, I promise.)

The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

Bon Appetit Magazine(the best is the essay on marshmallows by Orangette.blogspot.com 's, Molly Wizenberg)

April Showers Bring...Procrastination

Maybe it's because it's spring, but lately I have been tremendously creative.  Tremendously, fantastically, overwhelmingly creative.  From baby food to gardening to triple decker fondant covered cakes, I apparently cannot be stopped from attempting to outdo myself at every turn.  

The spinach was the first clue.  Last month, my daughter started solid food.  Yes, I began with rice cereal, then moved on to vegetables.  So how did I prepare this spinach?  I started by planning a week ahead; ordering an organic farm basket to be picked up at a local farmers' market.  When I received said spinach, I then proceed to wilt the spinach in a saucepan.  As if homemade organic baby food weren't enough, I went for the gourmet preparation.  A cuisinart and a saute pan later, I had three days worth of organic pureed spinach.

The next week I gardened.  Furiously, I tore up four trash bags full of weeds at our new house, rolled the ancient ivy that lined our walls like so many fishing nets, and finally, took a trip to the nursery.  I bought lettuce and peppers, tomatoes and eggplant, melon and strawberries and I don't even know how many different types of herbs.  In the next few days, I not only planted a kitchen herb and vegetable garden, but I arranged it by the color of the foliage and the texture. 

The next week I had the flu.  A horrible, hacking cough, can't breathe kind of flu. So what you ask did I do?  Take a nap?  No, I made a triple-decker carrot cake from scratch, covered it in fondant and fashioned it into the shape of a wine bottle in a crate.  Yes, even I think that I am certifiably nuts.  I have included a picture, just so you will know how crazy I am.  

I think I have done all this to avoid what I really need to do, which is work on my website and clean the house.  Never mind that with the energy it takes to do the above and oh yeah, host a baby shower and make a cake in the shape of a ninja octopus, I could have Martha Stewart's house and have founded Amazon.com.  

So, dear readers, if any of you are still with me, I ask for a word of encouragement or even a kick in the pants to get back to what I really need to do.  It did make for an exciting few weeks, but as I am now a week behind in the launch of my business, I feel that this beautiful swan song of procrastination should come to an end.

Unless, it is your birthday and you feel like a handbag-shaped cake.

Hot, Haute, Heisse Mama

I am a fond of crossword puzzles.  Not that I am good at them, having never completed a puzzle without cheating, but for a few minutes at least, I enjoy the challenge.  Once a week, I pick up the Wall Street Journal and for fifteen minutes I am the smartest person I know.  Then the clues get too difficult, I run out patience, or the baby cries and the crossword is forgotten. 

This week I tackled the ultimate crossword puzzle.  The title: My Online Startup, Purveyor of Nursing Bras and Breastfeeding Accessories.  The clue - A catchy name for a cute mom that doesn't also happen to be a porn site.  Several hours and $100 in domain name purchases later, I found myself doing something I never thought I would do.  Baby on one knee, computer on the other, I drafted an email to the Luxembourgian owner of  a porn site.  With the memory of my college business writing professor in my head, I began.  "Dear Sir or Madam, I would like to inquire as to the price of your porn site.  I see that traffic has not been high this year, so perhaps you would be willing to sell the domain name?  Please respond at your earliest convenience.  P.S. I speak English."  

It just didn't seem the right approach.  

Why you ask did I end up emailing the Luxembourgian owner of a porn site to ask to buy his domain name?  Because like a crossword puzzle, I lost patience with the clue and decided to make the word fit.  In pen.  

I still haven't heard back from Mr.(or Ms. - you never know!)Gross Porn Site, but I have stuck with my original business name.  Announcing HotMamaNursingSupplies.com, HotMamaNursing.com, Mamaconleche.com, and Bebeconleche.com, but absolutely not the obvious catchy two-word name.com.

Acronyms

One thing I have noticed about being a mom is the tendency to mentally reduce everything to acronyms.  Stay-at-home mom becomes SAHM.  My website, HotMamaNursingSupplies.com, becomes HMNS.  My HooterHider is an HH.  Is this the influence of all the blogs I now read or because texting has become a primary form of communication(you can't talk on the phone with a screaming baby)?  Or is it just that acronyms give my poor, sleep-deprived brain more room to store information? Whatever the reason, my bb and SO and I are going on a walk.

Inspiration...

comes in many forms.  Not only does candy inspire me - it can look like anything and yet is edible - but it also enables me to make it through the day.  Words also inspire me.  Sometimes it is a round of Scrabble, sometimes a crossword puzzle and sometimes just the billboard announcing a new restaurant that makes me look at life in a new way.  What is it about the word "more" for example?  One word instantly conjures up hopes and dreams, disappointment, envy and avarice.  Words and candy are the big loves of my life, after my family.  I never really understood the word "family" until I became a mom.  Hence, lollimom.  A sweet treat for the end of a long day - which for us moms is every day.