Thursday Ten: You Are Beautiful Edition

1. According to Facebook and this article in Glamour , today is “Tell Her She’s Beautiful” Day. As the mom of two young girls, this is always something in my mind for parents to “remember how life altering their words and actions can be” when it comes to the body image and self esteem of our children. Facebook’s definition is a little more broad – extending further than our children – to cover anyone you think is beautiful… Just let ’em know. And since clearly you should do everything Facebook tells you (Unless it involves farms or the mafia), this is a kind of cool thing to do. I’m kind of surrounded by beautiful people – so I could be at it at all day… except I’m gonna issue a blanket statement: YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. Yes you. You are beautiful because you are full of kind words. You are beautiful because your actions are true to your heart. You, over there, are beautiful because you have a laugh that is contagious. You’re beautiful because your smile lights up a room. You’re beautiful because you come up with amazing ideas. You are beautiful because you challenge me to be a better me. You’re beautiful because you know more dirty jokes than anyone else I know. You’re beautiful because you share my love of music. And you are beautiful because you are an amazing friend. Beautiful.

2. Ahhhh, look at my beautiful mood. Would you believe me if I told you that two hours ago I felt anything BUT beautiful and the only thing that turned my day around was an amazing guitar lesson? After not picking up my guitar in over a week (OUCH!), I still managed to do alright – and started working on some new things again.

3. Pumpkin was having a screaming tantrum fit when I dropped her off at preschool today. I think she was screaming about her scarf but to be honest, I was totally unsure once her voice went into those upper registers that only dogs can hear. Mortifying. Through it all, I just kept walking – and smiling. You know how hard it is to keep a smile on your face when your child is screeching? Pretty damn hard. But I did it. And she stopped crying in no time.

4. Post Blissdom Snack Bliss – Take a bag of microwave popcorn and pop it (I prefer Orville Reddenbacher Smart Pop Kettle Corn – the other brands don’t have enough of a kettle-y flavor for me). Then, take a few of the Hershey Bliss Milk Chocolate squares and melt them. Drizzle it over your popcorn. Take a few Hershey Bliss White Chocolate squares and melt them and drizzle that over the popcorn. Now throw in some pretzels, toss the mixture around the bowl and let it set. Then eat all of it in one sitting without sharing with your family.

5. While I was in Nashville last week I MISSED PROJECT RUNWAY. What did I miss – did you watch it? I haven’t even read the recaps except to know it was a red dress challenge.

6. Valentines Day is this weekend. Pumpkin had a party at school today and she’ll have one tomorrow. The Princess has one tomorrow. Me? I don’t really celebrate it. Do you?

7. Google Buzz. Why?

8. Yesterday, we got slammed with snow and I woke up to an email announcing the school being closed for the day. Even though I’d been expecting it, I was thrown off course nonetheless and started thinking of all the places I would rather live than Michigan – Michigan gets so cold, and snow? Blech. Of course, in the midst of my grumbling about how I’d love to be lounging on a beach soaking up sun versus huddled inside because of the snow, Hubby said, “But then you’d be grumping about how hot it was there.” Um, yes. Probably true. So, odds are, I need mild weather where it is anywhere between 60 and 75 degrees most days. And I’m guessing that place is not in the Midwest.

9. In response to my “Things I learned at Nashville not related to Blogging” post, Kat mentioned she thought I would write about my wicked ability to walk into inanimate objects – to which I respond: I’ve always known how to do that. It’s a skill I’ve been working on for years. It’s actually a pretty odd thing – I’m pretty active, and I can be graceful… it’s just that sometimes? I’m really not.

10. I’ve spent all day staring at my split ends. I think a hair cut is coming soon. This means that there will also likely be a post saying, “WHY WHY WHY DID I CUT MY HAIR?!” Stay tuned.