Are you celebrating Lent? Is celebrating the right word?

Lent is odd for me. I'm not Catholic, but I've observed Lent to some extent for years. Not all successful, however. I typically try to give up Diet Coke, but I rarely succeed. I never intentionally fall off the wagon. It's like I order a pizza and Diet Coke and then halfway through the glass realize that I wasn't supposed to be drinking it. 

Oopsies. 

This year I'm trying to go a little bigger.

My first idea was to give up shopping for clothes for 40 days. That's probably what I should have done, and that would have been the most sacrificial.

But I know I'm going to want to buy an Easter dress. I mean, what if nothing in my closet matches what I pick out for the girls?

I can't clash!

good grief, that sounds icky.

Nothing but honesty around here, folks. 

So then I came up with the idea of giving up shopping for cosmetics. I realize that it might be an easy thing for a lot of people to do without, but I buy some sort of beautifying product regularly. Definitely weekly, but probably definitely more often than that.

And I knew that these beauties are just waiting patiently to be mine: 

SOURCE

The China Glaze Hunger Games collection! 

Ugh. My heart hurts; I want it so bad!

What to do, what to do....

I tossed around the idea of giving up fast food (which I think I'm going to try to do), but we have a vacation coming up, and I knew I couldn't realistically give that up completely for 40 days. I am going to attempt it, but I'm going to make two exceptions: 1) Eating on vacation, and 2) Eating at Subway.

I just don't consider Subway to be fast food. Call it cheating if you want, but whatevs.

So, cosmetics it is. 

This will require prayer, peeps. Especially when those little beauties are staring back at me in the Ulta aisles. 

What are you giving up? 

Do you observe any other Lenten practices?

Happy National Margarita Day!!

#lush

February Birchbox

Hello, all! 

It's that time again. 

(No, not THAT time. Get your mind right, people.)

My February Birchbox came about a week ago, so I wanted to let y'all in on this month's goodies.

Every month has a theme, and this month's theme is SPOTLIGHT, which basically means they want to highlight my your awesomeness.

Holla!

I can get behind that.

Let's begin.

First up, we have Beauty Elixir from Orofluido. This is a mix of essential oils for your hair. I love my Moroccan Oil, so I have high hopes for this. The full size bottle is $29.99, which is cheaper than Moroccan Oil. I may be a convert if this stuff is good.

This sample is most expensive product this month.

On deck we have G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream from Benta Berry. You know what I'm going to say here. The "cream" makes me incredibly nervous, but I'll try it. I haven't yet, so I can't give a review quite yet. 

The full size of this cream is $22.

The next most expensive item in this box is a lipstick. 

Yes, lipstick. 

Crazily priced lipstick. I've heard that Rachel Zoe is a big fan of this lipstick. At $29 a pop, it better be the best durn lipstick ever to grace a pig's lips. I haven't researched this size to see if it's full size or not, but it sure looks like it. So if you're getting a $29 lipstick and only paying $10 for this month's box, you're getting a steal!

It does have extra cool packaging, too. 

The product oozes out of the top of the tip of the lipstick. 

EWWW

Let's move quickly on to other stuff. 

Cute stuff. Like this little neon pink, heart-shaped emery board. 

Happy Valentine's Day, birchboxers!

This month's box also included a special little extra, a free digital download from Green River Ordinance. I had heard a little about them on the Internet, and then finally heard a song of theirs on The Highway channel on SiriusXM. I really liked it, but I never got around to downloading anything. Glad I didn't,'cuz now it's free!

Boo-yah!

That's it for my box, but I saw on Diary of a Southern Brunette that the beautiful Miss Brittney got a different Birchbox than I got, and hers included this sample:

Like I said, I didn't get this in my Birchbox, but I did get mine at my acid peel appointment last week. It's by colorscience, which is a mineral makeup company that was created by the woman who also created bare Escentuals (but has since sold that company). The lady that did my peel told me that this was a highlighting product, but I think it's also a bronzing "glow" product. Pretty much right up my alley, so I'm excited to try this.

That's it for this month, folks! If you want to know more about birchbox, shoot me an email through my profile. Or you can check it out HERE.

Thanks for reading!

So much for that idea.

The makeup-primer fast didn't work. The breakouts are back.

Back to the drawing board...

It's National Wine Day!

Make mine sparkling, please.

What Should I Wear.... to Vegas Night?

I wish I could fill this post with a bunch of pictures of awesomely cute outfits, but alas, that won't be happening. Our country club is hosting a Vegas night next weekend, and I'm at a complete loss as to what to wear.

Not a freakin' clue.

Not really even an idea or an inspiration, other than I think bling should be involved.

HELP.

No primer, Day 3

And no new breakouts! 

I think I may be on to something here....

Oops!

I totally forgot! 

We didn't get to see The Vow this weekend. 

 The movie was supposed to start at 7:30, and we got there before 5 to get tickets. It was sold out already. My dear cousin who was babysitting for us that night said that she had a friend who bought tickets on Monday for the Saturday show. 

Oops!!

Oh well. 

We saw Joyful Noise instead. Cute movie, but I wish I hadn't spent $8.50 on it. Now I just have to figure out when I'm going to get to see The Vow!!

Let's see where this leads us....

I'm having a bit of a writer's block. I'm not sure what I want to say, so I'll just call this a stream of consciousness post and I'll write whatever pops into my head.

Did you have a good Valentine's Day? Mine was pretty low key. I haven't been feeling well, so I spent the whole night on the couch in jammies and slippers and tried not to toss my cookies. I took some medicine and hit the sack early.

Bad for the romance, but great for the healing. I feel like a new girl today. 

I guess this means I'll be back in the gym tomorrow. 

Boo. 

Ah, well. The good news is that I had bought a new shirt that was a little too tight (dangers of eBay shopping!) so I tried it back on today. The best part of a stomach bug?? Fitting into your new Lilly top! Score!

Please pardon the bottom half of the outfit. I was wearing a black and white tunic prior to trying on this shirt.

Also pardon the look on my face (I'm the worst self-portrait-taker ever), and the lack of makeup. I had a chemical peel this morning and I hadn't braved re-applying makeup yet. 

Hey! 

(sorry. didn't mean to yell. I yell when I get excited)

That gives me a topic!!

I am in the midst of the worst break-out period of my life. After having Baby Girl, my skin went through a major break out phase, too, but it wasn't as long-lived as this one. I have no idea what's going on. After the pregnancy, I could understand that my hormones were nuts, so my skin had an explanation. I don't have a clue what's causing this problem, nor how to fix it.

I think I mentioned on this blog that I was trying the oil-cleansing method. That went well for a while. My acne didn't improve, but it didn't get worse, either, and I felt like I was doing something really good for my skin by going the "pure" route. Then I read about cleaning your face with honey. 

Yes, honey. Bee stuff. Thick, thick honey. 

I'm a sucker for a sales pitch, and I thought the all natural route was the way to go. 

Make love, not war and stuff.

Yeah, well. 

OH MY FREAKING GOSH!

My skin freaked the eff out.

And I haven't recovered. I have obviously stopped using the honey, but that has been about a month ago, and I still haven't had a clear skin day since that time. I'm trying to think about all the things that I'm using that could be causing my problems, and I've narrowed it down to two possible culprits: self-tanner and/or makeup primer. I haven't self-tanned my face since last Thursday, yet I'm still waking up with new blemishes. That brings us to face primers. I have posted before about my favorite one: 

I've been using it for months, but I ran out again so I've been using this one by NYX that I bought at Ulta. I'm not prepared to blame my acne on this particular primer, but I will say that I've gone two days without using it and my face is improved slightly. Just slightly, though. 

If I go a few days and continue to see improvement, then I will probably be ready to say that makeup primers in general are to blame. We'll see!

Do any of you have any suggestions? Any tried and true acne wisdom you want to share? I'm all ears! 

Has anyone ever heard of a primer/acne link? Has anyone had this same experience?

My day at a glance...

After yesterday's trials, I decided to make the best of today. It's going to involve a little of this...

A little bit of that...

Then a little of this:

Plus this:

 

Which will likely result in plenty of this:

Later, lovelies!

Un-happy day

I have to say, today started off rather lovely. Well, it was cold and a little dreary outside, but inside, my cute little sweeties were in a snuggly mood and all was well with my soul. 

I kicked some scrambled eggs butt this morning, and didn't get out of my jammies until well into the afternoon. 

Good day, right?

Right. Good day, but a trying afternoon. As I mentioned in today's earlier post, Big Girl had her tennis lesson this afternoon. We got there just about 5 minutes early, and  two of the other students were already out on the court playing around. Big Girl and other little girl who walked in right as we did headed on down there. I was talking to another mom about some mundane something or other and all of a sudden I hear her little boy yell, "MOM!" Of course, all of us look and the other little girl who had been on the court was crying pretty hard and holding her eye. The mom I was talking to went down there to check things out, and from our seat, I could tell that the little girl had gotten hit in the eye. 

Great. 

I look around for Caroline, and I see her throwing tennis balls from her side of the court to the other. My blood pressure starts ratcheting up right then. 

Don't make messes, little girl!

The crying girl comes upstairs to where we were sitting to check herself out in the bathroom. I hear her say, "That new girl hit me! It was an accident, but it hurts!" 

I sort of knew then. We're new to the class, but I still wasn't 100% sure she was talking about Caroline. Once she came out of the bathroom and calmed down some, I asked if it was Caroline that hit her. She said, "Yes! It was Caroline! That's her name!" 

I wanted to cry. 

I was so mad, so upset, so embarrassed. 

Now, I know accidents happen, but the fact that Caroline hit this little girl (even accidentally) and didn't immediately apologize just ran all over me. To beat it all, she adds insult to injury (literally!) by throwing those tennis balls! So nonchalant!

OMGoodness, y'all. SOOOO mad. So very mad. 

I apologized to the little girl, apologized to her mom, offered to pay for her glasses (that I'm sure were bent, but I don't know if they would require replacing. I doubt it.), and made sure Caroline apologized to both of them as well. 

I gave her a strict talking-to on the way home, and I feel confident she knows she messed up and she knows to apologize and check on the poor girl next time an accident happens. And she knows not to throw #*&#$*& tennis balls! 

Then, still fuming, I come home to read through some blogs and put myself in a better mood. I ran across THIS POST on the Dear Lillie blog.  

Jennifer lost her dear, sweet young cousin in a terrible accident recently. I was already about to cry because I was upset about Caroline's behavior, and then here I am reading this sweet, heartfelt blog post about something so tragic. 

It certainly put things in perspective. I was so mad about this small accident, but this post just broke my heart. It seems like such a small thing to be mad about. How lucky I am to still be able to kiss and hug my girls and tuck them into bed tonight.

I love my girls so dearly, and I will always wonder if I am teaching them the right values and morals. 

Obviously compassion may need to be revisited. 

But, I can do that tomorrow. 

And what a {blessing} tomorrow is.

Thank you, Lord, for giving me a tomorrow with my girls. 

Another chance to do this right. To do the best I can by them and by others.

Whoo Hoo!!! I'm back from the dead!

I tell ya, when I was told my hard drive was dead, I felt COMPLETELY grief-stricken.

I know, I know. There are much worse things to be devastated over, and I am totally aware that I'm a lucky bish if this is the worse thing going on in my life. But it was. I mean, my girls' entire lives (in photographs) were on my computer! The thought of losing those first pictures, the video of the first steps, ugh. It was just too much. 

So sad wuz me. 

But, HUZZAH!!!

(yeah, like I'd ever really say that in real life. I just saw it on a cartoon and wanted to use it.) 

My computer is back home from the techie hospital, and it's almost like nothing ever happened! 

I say almost. I am missing a few pictures. I am also having some trouble with my videos. I can pull them up and I can hear the sound, but it's just a black screen. I actually think this is a problem with some missing software rather than corrupted files, though. To test this theory, I'm going to post a video here, and I want as many people who can to comment on this post and let me know if you can see this video. Also let me know if there are any other issues with the video, unless you choose the (un)cleanliness of my home or my nasally voice to be your issue. 

So don't. 

If you have *technical* issues with this video, please let me know!

Do you have any idea how long it took me to find a video that I felt okay posting on here without being able to see what I am posting??? That was way hard. I think this is one of me going through Big Girl's first real Easter basket. 

I have to run Big Girl to tennis practice in a few, but I just wanted to get my first post up after getting my computer back! I'm so happy to get back into bloggy world, and I have several post ideas floating around in my head. I hope to not be gone for so long again!!!

And no, I still haven't backed up.

Loser.