Word of the Day - Part 1

I am a little bit of a word nerd. I like finding unusual words for commonplace things and trying to incorporate them into my everyday speech.

So, without further ado, here's the word of the day!

Mellifluous

mel·lif·lu·ous 

 

Adjective (of a voice or words) Sweet or musical; pleasant to hear.

Synonyms mellifluent - melodious - honeyed - sweet - dulcet

An example of how to use this word. "He had a mellifluous voice."

Good Morning

This face is the reason I get up in the morning. And I don't mean the gushy, feel-good, existential reason. The literal, proper use of the word literal, reason I get up in the morning.  Who needs an alarm clock when you have an adorable, but hungry baby. ;-)

Lucky for me, it's usually about the time I need to get up anyway.  Unluckily for me, last night I stayed up a bit too late, so 6:30 am came WAY to early.

This is my theme song this morning. :-) Because even though I woke too early after a late night, I woke up to a happy, smiling baby.

I thought I'd be a terrible mother

I never planned to be a mom. (Never, ever make plans like that. The universe laughs at you & proceeds to thwart your plans, usually in spectacular fashion.) I think I didn't plan on it because deep down, I was afraid that I would be a terrible mother.

I had a small laundry list of reasons why I thought I would be a terrible parent. I'm deeply flawed & selfish. Patience is NOT my strong suit. I'm a control freak. I have low pain tolerance, so there's no way I could make it through labor without mentally breaking. I have a weak stomach, so I'd puke all over the baby when changing a poopy diaper. I'm clumsy, I might drop & hurt the baby. Etcetera and so forth.

I'm still deeply flawed, but much less selfish now that I have a life depending on me. Nothing builds patience like a child! (You know the old joke about praying for patience.) I'm still a control freak, but I am getting better about choosing my battles now.

I made it through labor with out a drop of pain medication (though lack of Tylenol was due to it slipping my mind that I could take it, not a conscious choice.) And I've never felt more like a strong, powerful woman than I did after having Serenity. (I am mother, hear me ROAR!)

And for other weak-stomached mothers-to-be, something incredible happens when you have a baby of your own. All those things that your friends' children do that make you gag and wretch? When your baby does them, you won't bat an eyelash. The only reason I went running for the bathroom after the first diaper explosion was because nothing short of a bath was going to clean that mess up! I still have a weak stomach, it just seems to be immune to the bodily functions of my child. (whew!)

I'm still clumsy and accident prone. But then again, so was my dad, and I've survived to adulthood, so there's hope for Serenity. I just have to remember to keep her away from the power tools for a good long time, just in case she inherits my, and her PopPop's, “grace”.

One Thing a Brand New Mom Shouldn't Do

There are lots of things that brand new moms should & shouldn't do, and there are countless websites, blogs & articles addressing those things. And if any of them reference what I'm about to tell you here, I apologize for the redundancy. And in all fairness, this is highly personal and may or may not apply to any brand new mothers.

Never, ever, while still under the influence of the postpartum hormonal flood, read this book.

Don't get me wrong.  It is a beautiful book, a wonderful book, a book that I had to make sure I got so I could read it to my daughter.

It's because it's a wonderful, beautiful book that you shouldn't read it until after your hormones level out. Because once you get to the point the book where you see this picture 

you'll be bawling louder than your baby when she's hungry & in need of a diaper change.

The first time I tried to read it to Serenity, she was a week or two old. The first page made me tear up, and the further I got the harder it got to read. I was sniffling, tears running down my cheeks, choking down sobs to finish the book.

But she will grow up, and spend her whole life knowing that the words in the little song are true. 

Confessions of a Font Snob

I am, as my husband likes to remind me from time to time, a font snob.  Such is the peril of a graphic design background, I suppose.

I can name my favorite fonts to use from each font family. (serif, sans serif, etc.) Then there are the fonts that I love to hate. My friend & fellow font snob, Yllek, and I regularly text or Facebook each other messages that essentially boil down to "I can't believe they used that font!"

Now while I realize that being a font snob is kind of the graphic design equivalent of being a middle school "mean girl", I really do wish that people would learn the proper use of Comic Sans & Papyrus...

Shhhhh! I have a secret. *I want to be a Stay-At-Home Mom*

I went to college, got a degree, started working on a career, and never had any concrete plans of having a kid.  Then, life happened.  I got laid off from the job I'd had for nearly 5 years. I couldn't find a job in my chosen career field. It was one of the hottest, driest, most miserable summers I can remember. And I got pregnant...

At the end of my first trimester/beginning of the second I got a job. At Taco Bell. Getting paid more than $5 an hour LESS than what I was making before I got laid off. My mother-in-law was planning on semi-retiring while I would be on maternity leave and offered to babysit anytime I needed. "Hooray!" I thought. I can get back to work as soon as I'm able.

Then I had Serenity. My entire outlook on life changed. Everything I wanted out of life, changed. The second I held the tiny form that was my daughter. Everything. Changed. 

I don't care about degrees, or careers, or all of those things that are supposed to bring happiness and fulfillment to the to the enlightened, modern woman. I want to spend every minute of the rest of my life molding, shaping and cherishing this life that's been put into my care. 

I want to be a stay-at-home mom.

Cinnamon Chips, Oh My!

Hershey's makes a wonderful thing.  They're cinnamon chips.  Think chocolate chips, only cinnamon flavored.  I first found out about them courtesy of The Pioneer Woman and her excellent cinnamon scone recipe.

Last week I had an absolutely brilliant idea.  Snickerdoodle cookies, with CINNAMON CHIPS!!! However, it took me a while to get around to making them.

I swiped the snickerdoodle recipe from food.com with adding a half bag of cinnamon chips the only deviation from the directions.

Here's how they turned out!  Delicious!