Monday Recap.

I was so exhausted last night that I went to bed at eight and slept until 8 am. Pretty unheard of. Not surprised though- this weekend was packed full of activity! Saturday was our twice-monthly drive to Benicia in the morning, a community event for Chance's school, and a burlesque show in Berkeley. There were some time issues (the event and the show almost overlapped) so I had to choose an outfit that would be appropriate for both somehow. I think it goes without saying I was by far the most over-dressed mom there and definitely the only one wearing lipstick. It was maybe slightly awkward. The show was great. I ran the Red Hots merch table. Sold absolutely nothing during the first half, so I was getting nervous, but at intermission necklaces started to sell, so thankful. The performances were all beautiful, got to see a lot of friendly faces I hadn't seen in a while, and only four or five people commented on how frigging enormous I am becoming. Successful evening. You know you're an addict when you find yourself saying the words, "Can you just pay me in sparkly things?"

Yesterday Shamus and I took a train into the city to meet up with Mary so we could go to the flea market on Treasure Island. Perfect weather. I got a five dollar vintage hat, some matte black vintage gloves, and some necklaces. Shamus got a bag of old Matchbox cars, a Bart Simpson keychain, and a teal stone (I think it's agate). The earmark of a good flea market.. Everyone left with something cool.

An update on Belly Watch 2012.

A rare glimpse of a solitary creature- me, with no makeup on. Even my freckles have freckles lately.

Sorted Out.

Every day this week I wrote "find shoes to give away" in my day planner, crossed it out, and wrote it in the next day's column. EVERY DAY. This might be indicative of a larger problem.

Anyway, week's moving along. B on the Hair cutting quiz. I'd much rather do a practical than a written at this point. I've stopped studying. After almost three semesters (more than a year) the theory's getting a little redundant. Hard to keep certain topics fresh. Hard to be focused and interested.

Kids are having a great week, I must say. They got pulled into the spring cleaning too. Shamus and I spent an afternoon filling a box with broken toys. That was followed by a trip to the Dollar Tree for colored bins. Those were the only items we went there for, but we left with some other, much sillier stuff in hand. Shamus and I share a love for brightly colored tiki things. Nothing says summer quite like it. The water bottle is Shamus'. What he really wanted was an enormous margarita glass. I thought this was more practical.

After all the Dollar Tree fun, we got to work. Theory being if we had more, much smaller bins the kids won't dump an entire one out just to get to a handful of Legos at the bottom. Shamus loves it. I was more skeptical about Chance's reaction when he came back from his dad's, but he was also impressed. (I didn't include him in the throwing away, because he seems to have inherited my thing with the shoes, only with ripped up comic books and headless action figures. It's just easier for me this way).

I figured I'd have a better idea of its success after a morning of heavy playing. WE HAD OUR FIRST EVER CLEAN-UP TIME WITHOUT A TANTRUM. EVER. Not exaggerating. It's like the STELLAAAAA scene from A Streetcar Named Desire over here every day when I announce lunch is almost ready and it's time to put some toys away. I'd love it if that didn't happen anymore.

Spring Accumulating.

Between thrifting, Craigslisting baby stuff, a Saturday trip to IKEA, and a few gifts from the mailman, there's a whole lot of new stuff piling up around our house, I'm noticing today. Add on top of it my Sunday spent at the Spring Style show in San Jose and it's a little overwhelming, so this week's going to be mostly dedicated to figuring out what we do/ don't need and where it's going to go. Piles of tiny pants next to piles of empty frames begging to be hung next to bags full of hair products that I'd love to be able to put in the disturbingly disorganized bathroom closet. I wish there were cleaning fairies or woodland creatures that would do my bidding like Disney princesses have.

Laundry isn't something I find very thrilling, but this week's got a few things I do find thrilling. New shears to play with. A clipper cutting class. A whole mess of feathers. Freshly drawn up custody papers?! Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Pictures of me and the kids earlier last week. I'm guessing it wasn't a client day, since I look a little less put together than my last batch of pictures.

Sweet Spot.

This week's crazy. BUT I'm in that beautiful bubble known as the second trimester where I'm no longer throwing up into shopping bags (ala an unfortunate incident at this year's White Elephant Sale), I have tons more energy, and I again care about how I look when I leave the house. Not that it matters because I mostly leave the house in head to toe black as it's our dress code for school. I don't mind black, but if you only knew how many candy-colored dresses are sitting neglected in my closet, you'd realize how sad it actually is. Normally I cope by dousing the hair in bleach and Day-Glo shades of fun, but that's not really an option right now. I blame the fetus.

Belly's pretty pronounced now. No mistaking it. A classmate told me last night she'd never seen me look so natural. I probably subconsciously gave her the stink-eye, sorry about that. Another girl told me she liked my highlights. (I don't have highlights, I've just been spending too much time in the sun without a hat. Also, the abundance of hormones mean that hair color won't stick so well. Had the same problem when I was pregnant with the other two.) I don't feel like I look at all like myself, and it's a little uncomfortable, but I'm trying to make the best of it by trying out some new makeup looks.

Hey, Hi, Hello.

Truth: I am not so great at consistent blogging, but I'm going to give it another go, since

1. My kids do/say/look like cute shit all the freaking time.

2. Sometimes I have way too much time on my hands.

3. It's sorta nice to have a place to empty out some of the things that float around in your head, innit?!