Playful Rooted

My sister-in-law is from Mississippi, and since she joined our family, I’ve been introduced to a lot of really good and useful Southern expressions. One of my favorites is “wore slam out” (translation: very tired). And, man, that’s been my whole week. I am

just

wore

slam

out.

All the caffeine in the world can’t seem to make a dent right now, although Scooter’s Coffee sure made a buck on my order this morning. What size latte do I want? Uhhhm, large, clearly. Do I want an extra shot of espresso? Why yes, yes I do.

Here’s some stuff my exhausted self is digging these days.

Headband headphones – While I was pregnant with Sawyer, I practiced Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis for several months leading up to his birth. (I highly recommend to any pregnant mamas, by the way! We are not planning another pregnancy, but if it ever happens, I’ll 1000% practice Hypnobabies again!) A big roadblock for me was that I wanted to lie on my side while I listened to my hypnosis sessions, but my giant headphones got in the way, and earbuds hurt my ears. So I found a headband with built-in headphones, and omg. Life saver.

Fast forward to now: Sawyer is going through Mental Leap 9, which is……um. Not fun. Not a good one. He and I are both getting absolutely horrible sleep. To cope/survive, I sometimes just lie in his bed (he’s 14 months and we have him in a Montessori-style floor bed) while he jacks around in his room forever, and these headphones have again proven useful these days! I can lie there and watch him while I’m listening to an audiobook, and then I feel like even though it sucks and is very very very very annoying, at least it’s not a TOTAL waste of time. And speaking of audiobooks…

Daisy Jones and the Six – This book!!! It’s oh-so-good. It reminds me a lot of Almost Famous, which is my favorite movie. Daisy Jones and the Six is about a fictional rock band in the ’70s and how they come together and fall apart and go through all the tumult of life, which is even more tumultuous for rock stars. I’m not finished with it yet, but so far, it’s fantastic. This particular story also lends itself REALLY well to the audiobook format. It’s told from the perspectives of a bunch of different characters (and it’s so well done that I actually thought it was a true story at first), and it’s really effective to hear each character’s unique voice. Because of this, I actually think it’s probably even better as an audiobook than it would be in printed form. So good. As I listen to the book, I keep wishing SO MUCH that it were a true story so that I could listen to the band’s albums along with it. I did read that it’s being adapted into a mini-series, and I can’t wait to watch that just so that I can hear the music I’ve been playing in my mind.

1 Second Everyday – This is the coolest app everrrr! It does exactly what it sounds like and creates a video mashup using one-second clips from each day. You can upload your own videos and select the clips you want, or you can set it to automatically pull from your camera roll. You’re not limited to one second anymore, either; a recent update allows up to 10-second clips. I’ve been using it since January, and it’s honestly such a GIFT to see how the story of our lives has progressed and to see how my kids have grown and changed over the past nine months. You do have to pay for it; I think it’s like $5/month, to which normally I’d say thanks-but-no-thanks, but I’m not kidding when I say I would pay twice that. It’s a priceless little memento, and I can’t wait to see the compilation of this whole year.

The Lazy Genius podcast – I recently rediscovered this podcast, and now I can’t remember why I stopped listening in the first place. The premise of everything Kendra shares is being lazy about the things that don’t matter and being a genius about the things that do, and those things are different for everyone. Some people hate cooking and need shortcuts; some people love cooking and want great new ideas and recipes to try all the time. She shares actionable tips in a funny, casual style that gets right to the point. I love it. Kendra also just published a book that I’m excited to get my hands on….after I make a little more headway into my already-giant “To Read” list.

This hat.

UPDATED with a photo of myself wearing said hat to appease the demands of the masses! Aka….one person in the comments. 😉 You’re WELCOME, Rachel! 🙂

I found it in the Boys’ section at J. Crew Factory. It was on sale for $4.85. It’s a child’s size Medium, which is perfect for my lilliputian head. What more can I say? I love it. I’ve been wearing it for days, and I’ll continue wearing it all weekend as I clear out our entire garden and plant cover crops, watch Luca play soccer (he scored his first-ever goal last week! I’m pretty sure my Official Mom card would get taken away if I didn’t share that), drink coffee and chat with a gal pal, and bake my first ciabatta. Oh, and you know, do seven thousand loads of laundry.

Cheers, mates.

xo!