The long and short of it

...or maybe the thin and bushy?

Eyebrows, ladies. Eyebrows.



I've never really considered mine before. I've never plucked them, never waxed them...but maybe I should?! Am I all alone in Unaware Eyebrows Land? After watching "Rocky Balboa" (the most recent in the Sylvester Stallone saga) and seeing his painted-on, botoxed eyebrows, I'm skeeeeered to do anything to mine! We all know someone who's undergone an eyebrow mishap. Not that Sly did. I think his missyhoo was intentional (shudder).

Has there ever been a beauty thing that you've completely overlooked or never paid much attention to? My eyebrow unawareness definitely makes the list, but I've also never had a pedicure and I've only ever had one manicure in my whole entire life. Is that strange? Am I airing all of my smudgy beauty laundry here? :o)



Ah, well. At least my kids don't care about their eyebrows or whether or not their armpits smell. I hope they're blissfully unaware forever. (Except about the armpits...well, maybe)

My Favorite Summer Looks

There's nothing better than a warm breeze, a twilight evening, a long, flowy dress, and being outdoors with my husband and children. From the splatter-paint t-shirts of my youth (blech) to the maxi-dresses of today, summer fashion isn't only about creating a certain look but also setting a certain mood. For me, relaxation can be found in the freedom of an airy dress and a carefree joy is synonymous with a romp through the park in flip-flops. Or barefeet. Hey, it's my namesake after all. ;o)

Presenting, because I'm totally enamored with some recent clothing finds, my favorite summer looks!

#1 - The empire waist, flowy-dress


The empire (and that's like the tower, none of that "um-peer" stuff...sorry, Stacy and Clinton!) waist dress is just classic. It gives me another reason to think of Jane (you know who!) and looks great on so many figures. My husband's been teasing me about "flowy" dresses for years, ever since I first fell in love with a beautiful, flowing skirt from Old Navy many summers ago. This dress is a steal at Walmart for only $14.00. It certainly got a work-out at the PA Dutch fair this past weekend!

#2 - The maxi-dress


A long dress just feel so ladylike! I just can't be contained in all that hustle and bustle, though. Remember about free-flowing? I love the maxi-dresses at Target this summer. I picked this one up for $24.99 awhile ago (I bet it's on sale right now, LOL) in blue and turquoise. My hubs actually was charged with returning one that didn't fit and getting a new one, so he chose the blue (flattering my eyes, of course, LOL). :o) My only gripe with a maxi-dress? Not too ideal for wearing while swinging on top of mulch. Very pesky to shake out, very pesky.

#3 - The denim skirt


Warning: Denim skirts should not cause you to cover your daughter's face with wrapping paper at her first-of-three-birthday-parties on the 4th of July. Crazy posing and ill camera timing are the result of parental looniness and are in no way skirt-affiliated.

All hail the knee-length denim skirt! Kiss it! Hug it! Photograph and frame it! They wear well with fancy tops, casual tops, flip-flops and swanky flats. Denim skirts are also pretty all dolled up with tights and a cardigan in the winter. Ya just can't lose! Versatile AND fab. I'd been searching all over for a knee-length denim skirt all season long to replace the adorable one that I had from Bon-ton during my pregnancy (the cutest maternity skirt ever!). I happened upon this one by chance at Walmart over the weekend...for only $10! $10, ladies! $10! That's three lattes at Dunkin Donuts. $10. My, oh my, I think I fainted next to a rack of bo-bos.


You can even slide in a denim skirt...or fall down one. Which is what I was basically doing.

And, because a mama's clothes are nothin' special compared to the get-ups of itty bitty pretties, here are two adorable new outfits that I found for the girls at the mecca of my shopping existence...Target!


I just want to wear 'em myself! I'm telling ya, funky prints get me so hyper.

What's your favorite summer look?

It's official! Libby's first word is...

...MAMA!


That's what "ball" translates into in baby-speak, right? ;o)


Yeppers, she said ball! It was Grace's second word ("Dada" was first, though for the longest time I insisted that it was "Mama" based on the "mmmmmmmmm" she hummed one afternoon, LOL). Ball was also MY first word as a baby. She may have all her daddy's looks, but there's a little bit of mama in my Libby somewhere! :o)

Oh no they didn't!

Look what I encountered on the way to my sister's house on Saturday. Well, blow me down, am I seeing straight?!

Hmmm...and it's closed.

Ya can't fake on Dunkin. ;o)

(Oh yeah, and today's the first day of FREE iced mochas if you got those McCafe coupons from McDonalds in your Sunday paper a couple of weeks ago! Definitely try the iced mocha...just steer clear of everything else, eek - I can't find the link, but my friend Melissa just showed me a blog by a mama who kept a Happy Meal in her pantry and it didn't decay for six years. Mucho preservatives, anybody?)

A new plan and some white chocolate cream cheese cupcakes to boot!

Grace and Aunt Lauryn enjoying ice cream at the park this weekend

Well, I'm just not so sure what to do. I'm being honest, LOL. I miss blogging! I love to write, read and be creative. I had a teacher resource website that I meticulously kept up from 2003-2006, so I've been doing something website-related for about six years now. It's hard to just let it go! I think that I'm going to structure my time and be a better manager of the blessed energy that the Lord gives me. Right now I'm really growing and changing, and I would kind of like to reflect that here at The Barefoot Mama even if it's only for my own sake. I love to help people stay positive and uplifted, make them laugh and feel that someone else understands what they're going through as women in God. I still can't decide on a focus for this blog, LOL, but maybe it's been focused all along? Maybe a Jane Austen loving, iced coffee addicted, motherhood thriving, devoted wife-ing (new-word-coining?), home decorating, dress adoring lady IS something after all?

I apologize for the blog run-around lately. I knew that the Lord was telling me that my life was unbalanced and coming apart at the seams. Reevaluating how we spend our time is never a bad thing, but it can be tough to attain the balance that feels right. It really touched me to pieces when I read the kind comments and received such beautiful emails from you guys when I decided to give up the blog. But, if giving it up means feeling like I'm really missing something that I really enjoyed doing, then I think restructuring my time in order to have a balanced life is what I'll do.

Maybe I'll post twice weekly, maybe just weekly like I'd been doing, who knows! But, this blog has always reflected the real person that I am, and it will continue to.

Okay, enough emotional stuff...you're wondering about those white chocolate cream cheese cupcakes, right? ;o)

Well, the girls and I visited my sister Lauryn this past weekend while Ed was at a golf tournament. Her new apartment is adorable, and we brought her yummy cupcakes to celebrate it. I used a boxed dark chocolate cake mix (busy mamas unite!) and then made homemade icing:

Melt 1 bag of white chocolate chips in a double boiler (I use a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water). Beat 1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, softened, with 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in white chocolate 'til thoroughly combined. Refraining from eating this before icing is HARD!


...and stick toothpicks into the cupcakes, then wrap, to easily transport them without smudging off that frosted yumminess.

Cupcakes are fabulous, so speaking of fabu stuffola, here's some more...


Sisters share the same shower curtain taste. :o) Her black towels would fare better in my house than my white ones, though...mental note to me!


Beautiful towns with quaint historic districts (complete with Irish potato ice cream...swoon!)


My darling, fabulous Elizabeth is six months old! Oh Libby, too fast, too fast!


And on the way home from my sister's house, I was almost intoxicated by a certain truck whose exhaust fumes smelled like an early bird special and power hours. Can you spot it?



Follow that bird!

What were you up to this weekend? June's almost Shmune! Hasta la vista!

Saying Goodbye

"You're searching, Joe, for things that don't exist; I mean beginnings. Ends and beginnings - there are no such things. There are only middles."

Robert Frost

Friends,

This decision isn't one that I've come to very lightly or very quickly. You guys have probably noticed that I've posted much more sporadically in the past few months. I'd like to think that it's because of busy-ness that comes from being a mom of two, but it's not. Even when I was a busy mom of one, and then a busy mom with a newborn and a toddler, I still made time to get onto the computer almost daily and post here at The Barefoot Mama. I also found myself frustrated, lonely, neglecting my house, feeling lots of mom guilt, and falling into the trap of envying what other people have and feeling fulfilled by popularity (or upset by the lack of it). Hence, the time that I was spending on blogging wasn't edifying nor was it even satisfying.

I really enjoy sharing my life with all of you. You are my friends, my fellow mamas, compatriots in this journey toward Christ. I've learned so much since I began this blog, and I thank the Lord for being encouraged by so many wonderful friends who I wouldn't have met except through this outlet.

I realize that the lack of my blogging presence isn't because I'm too busy loading the dishwasher, playing with the kids, folding whites or working-out. It's not because of the particular tasks that I'm doing; it's because I'm doing them. I'm immersed in life. I'm enjoying every bit of it. I'm no longer seeking attention from the outside world - which, honestly and also unfortunately was sometimes from blog comments and blog hits - but from my husband, my family, my friends, including new people and experiences in our blessed new hometown. There was a time and a season in my life for blogging. In fact, when I was a brand new mom with a tiny daughter I would've benefitted greatly from being in the blog world and having this medium to share and grow with other people in the same situation. Right now I feel that I'm in an era of life where God wants me to disconnect from things that, while they hold many positives and have been great sources of happiness in my life, are things that have connections to sinful behaviors of the past (competition, coveting, and the like).

I pray that my transparent sharing about why I'm choosing to discontinue blogging here at The Barefoot Mama isn't received with disgust or condemnation but as an encouragment that I'm a real person like each of you. I pray that it also reinforces what I have always based this blog on - God is good! He is amazing above all else. He took a once shy, awkward, dreamer of a girl who was always searching for that elusive meaning in her life and grew her into a confident, outgoing, happy and at-home in herself and in life woman.

Please, friends, stay in touch if you'd so honor me - Facebook is the best way ever (who doesn't love a good status update that I'm drowning myself in iced coffee? ;o) and you can keep in touch that way by finding me with welovemgandlibs@gmail.com. Don't forget to email, too!

Thank you for an absolutely fabulous two years,

Kelly

"Certainly, goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:6)

The fabulosity that is the oxy boil

Oh girls, how have I lived this long without discovering my one true love?! The oxy boil! Nicki, my cousin-in-law and one of my best friends told me about this stain-fighting method awhile ago and I tried it out for myself last week. Fabulousity squared. Seriously, I'll never cry over breastfed poop stains on sleepers (that are left sitting there for two days because I'm way too busy to remember to spray stain-fighting gel on it) and mascara-ruined white washcloths. Oh the horror! Now such exultation!

Let's go cleanin'!

Start by boiling a pot of water

Make sure you have an apron on...because they're so cute, that's why! (This one was a Mother's Day gift from Ed's mom Jane)

Also important, have your children set up doing something that doesn't involve them trying to aid your stain-fighting endeavors

Okay, Nicki told me to pour the pot of water into the sink and then soak everything since it'll boil over after you add your dirty items. I didn't listen (unsurprisingly, LOL) and, yes, experienced boil-over. Though, it's a frugal way to get a facial. Not bad.

Before adding the clothes, put in your oxyclean. I picked up Oxyclean Baby (no dyes or fragrances) from Target in the babycare section for $3.26. My friend Kari also recommended using Clorox 2 powder for the same effect. I haven't tried it myself, but my mom has been soaking things in Clorox for years, just without the boil. I think the boil is the secret ingredient to success, though. ;o) I dumped four scoops of oxyclean into the boiling water. Nicki said to use a lot, so feel free to splurge and go all out with your scoopage. You can oxy boil as long as you need - I've had messes come out in 15 minutes while older, set-in stains were out from an overnight in their oxy jacuzzi. So far I've done "hardy" fabrics (cotton-based ones), and the only warning that Nicki gave me before was that some clothes with iron-on designs may get messed up from the oxy boil.

Oh yes, and tongs are a wonderful asset to your stain-fighting arensal! (also, do this in a dirty sink, because it'll come out all sparkly clean...another great reason to get your oxy on!)

See how I finally wised up and just dumped everything in my sink?

Okay, get ready to boo me, guys, because guess who forgot to take before and after pics?!! Let me just say, however, that the oxyboil is totally all it's cracked up to be and more. Much, much more. Pureed bananas that I once believed to be the archnemsis of Libby's cutest little baby outfits came out perfectly. My husband's socks are blazin' white (don't all hubby's socks need that effect?). One of my favorite things about the oxyboil is knowing that I don't have to switch to black towels (that could fade from washing, eek!) because I can restore the whiteness to my make-up smudged washcloths. Ahh, this is tops!

And, just because I can't resist sharing random stuffola from everyday life, here's another source of constant happiness ('til they run out, LOL):

Now that's love. :o)

And so is this - our rain has finally stopped and summer fun is back! Have a wonderful weekend, guys!

"Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1 Peter 2:3)