Mama's Got Flair

Tag Archive for guest post

Fight Cabin Fever, It’s Contagious! 8 Ways to Pump Yourself Up

February 6, 2011 Jessi Guest Posts, Kill the Stress, Mommy Time, Motivation

Everyone in the Midwest can identify with cabin fever, especially after the week we just had.

My little sis has put together a fine list of ways to pump yourself up if you’re suffering from the endless days of pajama pants blues.

fight cabin fever Hey there Mamas. It’s me again…Stephanie The Most Awesome Sister in the World. I decided to spontaneously send an article to Jessi to share a few things that have been on my mind as of late.

Sometimes when you find yourself spending a lot of time at home you just feel cooped up, and dread the repetition. Money has been tight lately, and I know many of us have been there a few times. So I have been left to just kind of go through the motions… Laundry done? Check. Dishes done? Check. Vacuumed? Check.

Monday morning, I caught an awful glimpse in the mirror…

My makeup sat collecting dust. The hair straightener hadn’t been used in months. The gray hairs on my head were left waving in the breeze. When you are home too long the pajamas become your comfy work attire. This can be a good thing, and a bad thing too…At least it is for me.

I thought back to the hour long primping sessions in college, and how good I felt when I looked in the mirror and felt like I was a prettier version of me that matched the version of me on the inside. Looking in that mirror showed me that in making sure everything was taken care of for my little family unit I had forgotten to just love me a little. It dawned on me that not much time was being spent on myself.

I know the Jessi has posted on this exact topic before, yet I have come up with a few pick me ups that have seemed to work well for me the last few days. And they have been working in my favor for a number of reasons.

Stephanie’s Magnificent 8 to Fight the Cabin Fever

1. Splurge on some hair dye. I needed to fight the boring natural brown with nature’s highlights of natural grey. (I still claim that each one of those hairs stands for a time I told a child ‘no’ while teaching preschool.) In return, the fire scorching red has brought more than just a smile to my face, but sparked a twinkle in the husband’s eye.

2. Dust off the makeup and play. I’ve begun using the makeup that was buried at the bottom of my kit. You know the ones I’m talking about. And now I have a handy-dandy set of EcoTools to help me do incredible celebrity style effects that I didn’t have back in the day. My mama never really sat me down to tell me how to do makeup so the only way I can learn is by playing. I’ve tried tips my friends suggested and things I’ve read about. I found it’s been nice to put makeup on just to FEEL beautiful, and not specifically to go out and impress people. It is for me.

3. Create your own special photo shoot. Use your phone camera and strike your best super model looks and snap about 15 shots off (bare minimum). You may get a new profile picture or two, or some to fire over to the significant other to remind him of the sexy mama he has waiting for him without even having to make it raunchy.

4. Use the SPECIAL perfume, and home oil fragrances. I’ve sprayed on a couple spritzes of the special perfume I bought with gift cards from my wedding. I save it for special occasions, because I want to make it last, but sometimes being you is just as special enough reason to bust it out of lock and key. I also have been using my special home oils for my home diffuser. The ones I save for when we have company coming. The rainbow of fragrances simply makes me happy. And I noticed the husband has begun using his colognes again, too. It’s rather sweet that he has been adding to the fantastic aromas around this place without being asked.

5. Take time to lotion and massage some of your own muscles. Winter time is exceptionally rough on the skin out here in the Midwest, and looking like a crusty Freddy Krueger doesn’t help a woman feel all that great about herself. Lotion is fantastic for improving your grouchy Freddiness without spending all that much to do it. Try your hands, your feet, your legs. Bask in the silkiness. I also have done away with the discomfort of cracking hands. The lack of pain has done wonders for my mood.

6. Put on one of your nice “Special Occasion Outfits” just in time for the hubby to come home. They always ask what the big occasion is. My response is always, “I just feel great.”

7. Phone a friend. Pick someone you haven’t seen in ages. Call them and catch up on old times. Share a funny story or two, and bask in the radiance of someone you have always appreciated.

8. Dance party. This works even if you have little ones. Put on music that you used to hear at those old junior high school/ high school dances, and jam just like you used to do! You know your old skool jam! I am not afraid to bust out Freak Nasty’s “Da Dip” or even the “Humpty Dance”. Cut loose and wiggle what yo’ mama gave you with all of your might. Do it with pride in front of your living room windows (and I mean BLINDS OPEN)! Celebrate being you!

I have done all these things this week, and that person in the mirror now smiles back at me. With that shining happy attitude, my husband wants to take me out to do special spontaneous things, and I have heard more ‘You look fantastic today, Sweetheart’s’ than I had since my wedding day. It makes me wonder if me being in a funk puts him in a funk sometimes. But things can change ever so simply. I can even hear him shaving off his scary Wisconsinite beard as I type. Funny, I am sure he thinks I have done this all for him when really he is just reaping the benefits of me loving myself even if just for a half an hour every day. But shhhhhhh. I will let him think what he wants.

Photo: flickr.com/photos/brunus/3043584964

17 comments cabin fever, ditch the rut, feeling better, guest post, Stephanie Arias-Anderson

Guest Post: Hide & Seek

February 1, 2011 Jessi Guest Posts

So, I took a bit of a spill in the kitchen today. And by a bit, I mean epic. While my injuries aren’t sending me to the hospital, they have made it hard to type and, well, do much of anything. So, in an act of super awesome bloggy heroics, Jami from Boy Crazed Momma swooped in and saved the day with a last minute guest post. She’s totally the bomb! To help me thank her for lending me a hand, please check out her fab post on Little White Lies.

Thank you so much, Jami! You’re the bomb!

When Jami sent this post I laughed out loud. I was sure that our ongoing battle with funky sippy cups was exclusive to the Cooper mansion. I guess not….

Hide & Seek

Am I the only momma out there that plays hide & seek? Only not with children (although I do do that, too)…

…but with sippy cups?

Please tell me I’m not. I really do try my best to keep track of the little boogers, but I have to admit they get away from me sometimes.

Like when they get kicked under the couch.

Or roll under the china hutch.

Or get left in the abyss that is my car.

Or find their way over to someone else’s house never to be found.

There was the one in Boogaboo’s drawer.

Or stuffed in a stocking?

Found one outside in the wagon.

How about the one I found between the cushions of the couch?

And in the flower bed.

The one thrown in the trash can.

One rolled under Sweetie Pie’s bed.

The one we left at the zoo.

And the one in the dirty clothes hamper.

The worst? When they have milk in them. Yuck!

Where do your kids’ sippies hide from you when you’re playing hide & seek?

Photo: flickr.com/photos/kydd/2764787604/

24 comments boy crazed momma, guest post, lost sippy cup, sippy cup

The Tell Tale Toilet

January 5, 2011 Jessi Guest Posts, Personal Flair

Normally, I would write a long-winded intro for a guest post, but I think my little sister handles it well for herself…as always. Arias women tend to be strong.

Thanks, mom.

A Horror Story from the Archives of Stephanie- Coolest Sister in the World

I may not be a mama yet, but I am a mama-away from Mama. You may better know my league as the league of Preschool Teachers. We’re a mighty force, who find ourselves standing in the trenches, defending your babies to the best of our ability, when you’re out bringing home the bacon. Despite being unable to account for my own little one’s unique mama moments quite yet, I have gained my own powerful set of stories to prove I have what it takes to be the honorary mama on the scene.

This twisted tale is one of the many. In fact, it is the one that begins it all…

I was your average college student at the time. I had many activities I wished to participate in, however, I didn’t have the funds to do so. The meal plan that my college loan provided offered me my food and the dorms offered my shelter. Everything else was left to the great gods to provide. This led me to look for a job in which I could utilize my college experience.

I was lucky to get connected to a potential job through a friend of mine. I was green, but hired on the scene at a local preschool. My rose colored glasses lead me to believe that teaching experiences would be easy and fun 100% of the time, because as you know…

Nothing is more fun than babies.

Boy, did those glasses get torn off my face with a memorable force.

I was going through the usual training period. They showed me food procedures, bathroom procedures, sterilization procedures, activity procedures and play procedures. I thought right away that I had the hang of everything. I was over-confident, to get straight to the point. My cockiness put me way ahead of myself. I thought I could do it all and handle it all.

“Sixteen lovely two year olds that were going through their natural stage of development?! NO Problem!”

The clock was ticking down to my last two hours of work. I was getting excited and very proud of how well I’d managed my first day. My friend was cheering me on from a neighboring classroom. I felt on top of the world.

That’s when a little boy , whom I will refer to as George for privacy purposes, tugged at my pant-leg.

You see, I had been told that George’s ‘personal goal’ was indeed potty training. His English was limited, and it was proving to be difficult for the little guy to communicate his need to be taken to the shared bathroom half-way across the center.

preschool potty training When he exclaimed the word, ‘potty’, I was excited. I followed our procedure of rushing him there as time was of the essence. I felt happy that I had been chosen to share his 3rd or 4th experience of success being the new teacher on the scene.

We ran faster than a wildfire spreads during the dry season, and got to the restroom just in time for him to assume the pee-pee stance. He looked at me with a large grin of pride as I cheered for him…

…when the unthinkable happened.

Four syllables tore those rose colored glasses off of my face and sucker punched me right in my cocky face.

George cried out,“Oh no. Poo poo!”

And, oh no…poo poo indeed.

I was left to stare in horror as his back door released a force to be reckoned with. All. Over. When I say all over, I mean it. His clothes. The floor. The toilet.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE.

I gagged and stammered my own, “Oh no” a few times.

George’s smile was now a horrendous disappointed look of shock, as he continued to chant, “Oh no! Poo Poo” in its own haunting splendor.

I was standing there, completely humbled, thinking to myself, “All the training I received today does not even begin to help me in this situation at all,” when my friend (thank the powers that be) rounded the corner. I stammered out the only words that could come to my lips, “Help, dude.”

I pointed into the two seated house of horrors in shock and terror.

She disappeared laughing, rushing off to explain the severity of my misfortune to the other teachers in both of our respective classrooms. She was awesome enough to come back with a change of clothing, and proceeded to give George one of the most gut-wrenching sink baths of all time. For the assistance, I remain eternally grateful.

I, on the other hand, was left to scrape caca off of every bathroom fixture known to man for the remaining two hours of my day while constantly having to deflect all other bathroom-users to our secondary section of potties.

George’s parents got the little plastic baggie of soiled clothing, with an explanation that he attempted to use the bathroom on his own, but yet still had an accident. “It’s excellent progress!”

high five I got the shocking reality; being a parent/teacher must take a really strong stomach. I also got a lot of jokes at my expense from coworkers and friends alike. Nothing bonds you better than the spontaneous, “Oh no! Poo Poo!” echoing down the hall as you pass by.