girlymama

powering down

After a crazy week, I'm taking a personal day.

I was going to call it a 'vacation day.' But a 'vacation day' implies doing something fun and recreational, possibly involving a spa or a beach and drinks made with tequila.

My day will not be like that. (Dang it.)

Instead, I have a list to tackle:

1. My house is a disaster. (No exaggeration: it looks like a bomb went off in here. I'm sitting at my desk surrounded with dirty dishes, three half-finished mugs of coffee and approximately 300 pieces of paper and there are ground up pretzels under my feet, courtesy of Colin dumping his bag of pretzels upside down in my lap yesterday.)
2. My kids are grumpy. (I guess that's what happens when I practically ignore them for a week!) 
3. I'm exhausted. (I got home last night at midnight and Colin's Mama Radar went off and he woke up... until 3am. If I was going to stay up until 3am, I would have preferred to do it by staying out at the bar with a big group of friends of mine. )
4. Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, wrapping, and other holiday-related items need to be attended to.
5. Laundry. (Yesterday, Colin wore his pajama top all day. Actually, I'm wearing my pajama top right now, under my sweater. I  like to keep it real here on Girlymama.) 

I'm out.

*****
I have a cool toy giveaway for you next week!! I'm so excited! Stay tuned!

craziness

This week I've had a taste of what life as a working mom will be like.  These past two weeks have been completely packed with design work, blogging and just general holiday stuff. And I made an amazing discovery...

There are only 24 hours in a day.

Shocking, I  know.

Yet, somehow it was a surprise to me that I can't work 30 hours a week and still do everything else I was doing before.

Lots of other things have slid. I haven't been playing with my kids as much as usual. We're almost out of toilet paper and toothpaste. My house is a disaster and my family has been eating more dinners of scrambled eggs or cereal than I care to admit.

Recently, someone asked me, "How do you do it all?" And I just about laughed in her face. 

Haven't we figured out by now that NO ONE does it all?

Some of us work full time, some of us stay home with our kids. Some of us have husbands who travel, leaving us alone with the kids. Some of us volunteer at school or in the community and really do look like we have it all together and some of us don't.  We all have to take care of our kids, our homes, our families and ourselves.   And we all only have 24 hours in a day - we just use it differently.

For more What I Learned This Week, click here.

wordless wednesday: winter wonderland

 

you're invited!!

Tomorrow night I will be hosting my very first Twitter Party!! And you're invited!!

Its Ubisoft’s Style Lab Games – Week of Style

Date: Wednesday, December 9
Time: 9-10pm
Host: @girlymamamel
Sponsor: Ubisoft
Location: #games4girls
RSVP by entering the link to your Twitter ID so we can follow you. 

I'm so excited to be partnering with Ubisoft to bring you this fun evening of fashion, make-up and games for girls!! We wants to know the thoughts, concerns and memorable moments that mom’s experience with their daughters (and in their own childhood) around style firsts. During our discussion, I will be giving away some fabulous prize packs with Style Lab: Makeover and Style Lab: Jewelry Design!

The Twitter party hashtag will be #games4girls. Any Twitter user who uses that hashtag during my party time (9-10 Eastern) – either to answer a question, retweet their favorite questions or retweet - their favorite answers will be eligible to win. 

We just love the Style Lab games in our house -- they are favorites of my two girls! I hope you can join me for some fun fashion talk and fabulous prizes!

disclosure: party prizes are provided by ubisoft. i also received copies of style lab: jewelry design and style lab: makeover to review.

try this: french toast apple bake

Looking for something decadent for brunch? This is super yummy. And the best part is that you make it the night before and just pop it in the oven in the morning.

French Toast Apple Bake

3/4 C butter, melted
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 (21 oz) cans apple pie filling
15 to 18 slices white bread
8 eggs
1 3/4 to 2 C milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Grease/Pam/Butter a 9X13 baking dish. (I often half this recipe and put it in a oval baking dish.) Pour butter into the dish and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon into the dish. Top with the apple pie filling. In a mixing bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.  Layer the bread slices on top of the apple pie filling, pressing down firmly so that they get all nice and smooshed down onto the apple pie/butter mixture. You can alternate layers of bread with pouring the egg mixture so that every layer is thoroughly saturated.
Make sure that you pour SLOWLY, so as to avoid spillovers! Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
Uncover and bake at 350 for 1 hour. If desired, drizzle with syrup and put in the broiler for a few minutes to caramelize. Or I usually just sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Recipe origin: Blissfully Domestic

Looking for something decadent for brunch? This is super yummy. And the best part is that you make it the night before and just pop it in the oven in the morning.

French Toast Apple Bake

3/4 C butter, melted
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 (21 oz) cans apple pie filling
15 to 18 slices white bread
8 eggs
1 3/4 to 2 C milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Grease/Pam/Butter a 9X13 baking dish. (I often half this recipe and put it in a oval baking dish.) Pour butter into the dish and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon into the dish. Top with the apple pie filling. In a mixing bowl whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.  Layer the bread slices on top of the apple pie filling, pressing down firmly so that they get all nice and smooshed down onto the apple pie/butter mixture. You can alternate layers of bread with pouring the egg mixture so that every layer is thoroughly saturated.
Make sure that you pour SLOWLY, so as to avoid spillovers! Cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
Uncover and bake at 350 for 1 hour. If desired, drizzle with syrup and put in the broiler for a few minutes to caramelize. Or I usually just sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

Recipe origin: Blissfully Domestic