The Birds and The Bees

May 13, 2011 by Sara

I know it’s unusual for me to post three times in one day but when you get something as great as this in your inbox you have to share.

Here’s Julia Sweeney, of SNL fame, performing a monologue on how ‘the Birds and the Bees’ conversation went with her eight year-old daughter, Mulan.

As I was watching this I realized I’m within 2 years of having this conversation with my OWN daughter. (To my hubby: If you fell of your chair while reading this, don’t worry, we’ll get through it!).

Enjoy! and don’t get forget to enter the Fabkins giveaway!

Special thanks to MDW for sending this to me and to Big Geek Dad for originally posting it!

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Bacon, Egg and Cheese

May 12, 2011 by Sara

 

“Bacon, egg and cheese please”
Brian starts to assemble my order with a sense of familiarity; a fluidity.
How many of these has he made already today?

The B.E.C. or, sometimes, the H.E.C.: Ham, egg and cheese, a classic breakfast sandwich and THE staple for all hangovers after a night out in NYC.

Kaiser roll. Fried egg. Crispy, crispy bacon. American cheese.

While the griddle sizzles, my hands start to shake.
My insides churn, desperate for sustenance. Something please to soak up the alcohol.

Feebly, I murmur: “Coffee. Regular. Please.”

Glaring from behind my dark sunglasses that so far have protected me from the harsh lights, I watch as he first generously scoops the sugar, then squirts two shots of pale blue milk into the cup. Finally, he pours the steaming black silk into a paper cup emblazoned with blue greek keys.

Why the hell, do all the delis in NYC have the exact same paper cups? Somewhere there is a very wealthy Greek paper cup manufacturer…

I watch as he methodically snaps the plastic lid on.
Yep. Probably better to wait until I’m back upstairs. Just in case.

I spy a neon orange Gatorade in the fridge across from me and motion towards it.
My head is throbbing… my eyeballs hurt. Each step takes extra effort, extra concentration.

I pull the cold drink from the cooler and immediately condensation forms around its neck.

It’s going to be so hot today.

I weakly twist the top and with a loud crackle the lid unsnaps from the plastic ring. Even this requires me to pause.

What the hell did we drink last night?

I remember pitchers of margaritas when the waiters came to prepare the guacamole at our table using a pestle and mortar, chopping each and every ingredient fresh in front of us.

Was that all I ate? Guac and chips?? No wait…

Then I think there were beers after the quesadillas. Then another margarita maybe?
Then a cab. Lizzie ordered a fishbowl drink and more beer.
Someone bought shots. Tequilas. Two rounds.

Did I get up on the bar???

The sugary drink greets my lips and my tongue is immediately grateful for the relief. But I wince with each sip.

This drink is way too sweet. Blech…

Electrolytes.

Drink it.

I shuffle back towards the deli counter, praying that my lifeline is ready. That I can grab the white paper bag and head upstairs. To my bed. To recover from last night and all those drinks. Into the air conditioning. Where I can hide. Until tonight.

Oh crap… drinks, tonight...

 

 

DON’T FORGET to enter the Fabulous Fabkins Giveaway!

 

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Together We Can

May 12, 2011 by Sara

Last month I told you about a blogger and designer who I find truly inspiring, Dayka Robinson and her team over at Room Service Atlanta. I hope you’ve had a chance to see their team’s amazing transformations of the the rooms at Nicholas House. If you haven’t yet, click here, then come back and read on.

 

This week I was inspired by a short film I saw on helping to feed the homeless.

It was made by a 7 year old.

Um… yeah…a 7 year old…so, I think I was a clown in the ice skating pageant at age seven.

At a PTA lunch, the group honored the local second grader, Zevin Acuña for his original and untitled film.  It was the district and state award winner for the PTA’s Reflections Program, an arts recognition and achievement program for students.  Each year the program has a theme, this year it was “Together We Can.”

While Zevin’s film is untitled, he did add the following:

“Together we can save the homeless. Together we can save the world.”

Here’s his film:

 

So yeah…. after seeing that I was pretty inspired.

I mean, I talk about doing stuff like this with my kids but these families make this happen with their kids every month.

I saw one of the dad’s featured in the film at teeball the next day and asked him about it.  He told me the first Sunday of every month they get together, taking turns in who does the Costco run for supplies, who hosts and who delivers. The kids all have their jobs and it takes about 45 minutes max to assemble the bag lunches. The kids then have a giant playdate.

I absolutely LOVED this idea and was truly inspired. They made it obvious that is truly easy to do something meaningful and have your children be involved too. Something I’ve managed to make excuses for in the past.

Thank you Zevin for your film and for showing my family how together we can come together and make a difference.

FYI – the organization that the Acuna family takes the sandwiches to is the:
Open Door Mission
92 7th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 451-7924 ‎

 

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Fabulous Fabkins

May 9, 2011 by Sara

 

So you want to be a good Mommy right?

You pack a nutritious lunch and snack everyday, in a reusable, BPA free container.  Right?

 

Sometimes it’s a sandwich on whole wheat bread, sometimes it’s noodles, fruit salad, sometimes it’s last night’s chinese takeout.  Sometimes… but hardly ever, right?

No matter which it is – you deem it healthy and made with love.

It’s awesome. You’re awesome.

You feel good knowing that they will eat well when you are not there to supervise.

You write a cute little note on a sticky and lovingly add it to the box.

Then at the last minute you throw in a papertowel or napkin.

SCREEEEEECHH

You did what?!  Mommy Fail.

Did you know that: “If every American gave up just one paper napkin a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper water from going to landfills each year.”

I didn’t either, but that’s apparently what Elizabeth Rogers wrote in The Green Book.

The solution: Fabkins! My giveaway for this month!

These cute kid-sized napkins are the answer to making your child’s lunch truly earth-friendly.

We got our first set of Fabkins right when they came out and I can personally vouch how awesome they are. That’s my comment on their testimonials (see number 3).

First of all, they are the perfect size for little laps, 13″ square.

Second of all, they are made from the SOFTEST 100% certified organic cotton.

Third of all, and this is my own personal reason, they LAST! They don’t stain! We use ours on spaghetti night and my kids faces are covered in sauce and they mop it all up with the Fabkins. Next day, they are as good as new. And sooo soft.

Here are some other great reasons you will love Fabkins:

• Doubles as a placemat
• Sewn-in label leaves a space to write your child’s name
• Care instructions: Machine wash warm with like colors. Use only non-chlorine bleach if needed. Tumble dry low. Wash before first use.

You can wash them!!!!

So Fabkins has graciously agreed to give away a set of 2 napkins, your choice of design!  Now you can equip your kids’ lunch with a truly waste-free lunch!

Yay!

To enter this giveaway all you have to do is one of these things but you can do all three for multiple entries:

• Leave a comment here about your favorite healthy kids’ lunch to send to school (this is purely self-serving, I need inspiration).
• For a second entry go LIKE Fabkins on Facebook here and come leave me a comment that you did.
• For a third entry go LIKE Periwinkle Papillon on Facebook here and come leave a comment that you did.

I would also encourage you to go to their website and check out all the cool ideas they have for ways to instill a waste free lunch program at your school.

 

Giveaway closes Monday, May 16th.

 

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Mile Marker Post #1

May 8, 2011 by Sara

Mother’s Day 2011.

This morning was awesome.

I was greeted at 6:30 by two excited kids who wanted to “re-present” me with the Mother’s Day cards they’d made in school earlier in the week. I dutifully reread them, as if for the first time, and truly enjoyed the simple but sweet sentiments expressed inside. And I silently thanked their teachers who made these momentos part of their curriculum. This is probably a good place to publicly thank them: THANK YOU!!

Next, my husband and kiddos all climbed into bed with me and we cuddled for about 5 minutes until my fidgety son turned it into some sort wrestling match. And then quiet time was officially over.

After prepping our lunch, I got a hall pass and went on my second “training” walk in the past two days. Woo hoo!

A fellow blogger, Ginny Marie over at Lemon Drop Pie is training for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. She posted this awesome post documenting what she saw at each mile and I absolutely loved the idea!

So here’s the first of what I hope is many photo recaps of training walks to come.

 

Mile 1 – Where are we?

So this was what I saw around mile 1.

Where the heck am I?

By the cypress tree on the left you think Europe, maybe? and then one driveway away on the right, palm trees.

Hunh?!?

THIS is why I love Northern California.

 

Mile 2 – Meet Mr. Cooper, the Labradoodle

That’s my super excited dog Cooper.

He’s half poodle and half labrador and he’s half awesome and half a total pain in my butt.

We spend every day together and when I leave the house he goes and gets into the kitchen garbage.

On the right is the path that we took.

Everything is so overgrown right now and the pollen is killing me.

My eyes are scratched, raw and swollen.

I look AWESOME.

 

Mile 3 – The Farmer’s Market

Because Mr. Cooper was with me, we couldn’t go in to the market, health codes and all.

I don’t blame them, he would totally lift his leg and pee on something.

So I snapped this pic from the outskirts and went back later.

My Mother’s Day bonus was that I saw almost EVERY single person I knew there while I looked completely disgusting and unshowered.

Go me.

 

Mile 4 – The Home Turn

OK… The Skechers Shape-Ups. Not so sure on these puppies.

I wore the MBT’s last time I walked in the 3-Day and while they were sooo fugly that Alex actually would not be seen in public with me when I wore them.

But they WORKED.

The pic on the right is giant hill you have to climb to get back to my house.

When I huffed my way up and turned around, you can see the beautiful ridgeline of where we live.

Gorgeous, right?

 

Bonus Picture – Are you kidding me?!

 

 

Let me know if you want to walk with me (and Cooper)!

 

 

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Go The F*ck to Sleep

May 7, 2011 by Sara

I just read the funniest “parenting” book online. It’s called Go the F*ck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés.

It’s hysterical because it rings so true. As parents we’ve ALL muttered this phrase at one time or another, or maybe we still do, EVERY night. To those of you, I say, stay strong and hang in there.

This book will be the next best gift for all new mothers at baby showers. Actually I just pinned it on my board of Best Newborn Gifts. Go see!

According to a New Yorker article, the book morphed from a Facebook status update about his 2 hour struggle to get his daughter Vivian to sleep. Now it is a beautifully illustrated 36-page rant on the topic.

It is on pre-order at the moment, but it went viral in the last couple of days when a PDF version of the galley was sent to booksellers and was leaked.

Not cool.

It is really really funny.

And while I have a copy of the book in my inbox, I’m not going to link it here, because I hope you will support a writer and go buy a copy for all your pregnant friends.

Here’s an excerpt:

The cats nestle close to their kittens now.

The lambs have laid down with the sheep.

You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.

Please go the fuck to sleep.

 

Sounds eerily familiar right? Just wait until you see this book. It’s great.

 

 

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