Renewed Red, White and Blue

One of the fun traditions my sisters and I have is the yearly gathering for patriotic pedicures. We missed last year (stupid COVID) and while I could have done my nails at home, 1) doing it alone was nowhere near as fun and 2) my mind was so wrapped up in other far more stressful things that it never even occurred to me until it was long past the appropriate holiday. When I realized that the time had passed, I mourned the missed event as yet another way our lives had been disrupted. I think all my sisters missed our time together as much as I did, because this year we jumped the gun and got our toenail time in a few weeks earlier than normal. We also added the daughters to the occasion which was super fun! Malia got to come with me, and we all created our red, white and blue sandal wearing proclamation of our love of country.
 

Is it sad that looking at my toes makes me ridiculously happy right now?

A Series of Confessions

It’s that time of year again. Time for the patriotic pedicure. Instead of paying someone else this year, we opted to pretty our toes ourselves. I’ll freely admit that I’m nowhere near as good as the professionals, but the result was still highly satisfying. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that when my toenails are showing the red, white and blue, I spend far more time admiring them than I normally would. It just makes me happy to have a little outward expression of my inner feelings about my homeland.

Doing our own nails also meant we could indulge in a potluck breakfast. Baked coconut pineapple macadamia French toast. Yum! I’ll be honest, I look forward to these potluck events because it gives me an opportunity to indulge in things that I normally wouldn’t make at home due to the food allergy part of our lifestyle. It has always been my goal to make our home as inclusive as possible for my allergic kiddos and while I’m happy to do that, sometimes I miss the forbidden foods, like nuts. So cooking for non-allergy folks gives me a little bit of relief from the rigid food needs of my tribe.

Now, to completely change the subject…

Lately, I found myself more emotional than usual. Yes, the crybaby gene is always a force to be reckoned with, but it has been even a bit more overactive of late. I know it has to do with the fact that my oldest child is preparing to leave. When I think about missionaries, I get watery eyed. When I hear marching band or saxophone music, I mist up. When I think about how much can happen and how much life can change in two years, I get a little weepy. I have no doubt that Daniel is doing the right thing and I’m enormously proud of him for making the decision to serve. I’m just an emotional mother dealing with the fact that after eighteen years of physical, emotional, and spiritual nourishment, it’s time for my first son to leave the safety of home and venture into the world on his own. And while I try to hide the fact that my emotions are even more volatile than usual, I have a feeling the secret is going to get out.

Sweet Revenge

I took my revenge on the can of coconut milk that smashed my toe last week. I whipped it thoroughly and made it into some delicious dairy-free cookie dough ice cream. The kids approved wholeheartedly.

(Apparently, you can’t teach a young dork new tricks. They struck the exact same pose as their last tribute to ice cream.)

Color Coordinated

It occurs to me that my toe is red, white and blue just like my toenails. 😂

Priorities

This afternoon I was putting groceries away when a grocery bag broke and dropped a can of coconut milk right on my toe. It took off a big chunk of skin and hit me so hard that is was a good five minutes before it even started to bleed. I was hopping around and yelling like a maniac, so Matthew finished putting the groceries away. When he was done, he came to make sure I was ok. Nice, right? He’s a good kid.

Malia’s response was a bit cooler. “At least it didn’t hit your toenail.” Sigh. No sympathy there. But she does have a valid point. I do have cute toenails right now. Maybe they will provide a distraction from the sorry state of the rest of my toe.

Traditions

Ten Things Every Girly Girl Innately Knows

Having a daughter after three sons has been an enlightening experience. It’s not that girlish things were new to me. I’m a girly girl myself so I pretty much know what girl stuff is all about. However, what I didn’t realize that it is something that is generally not learned. Instead, some girls just come wired that way. Over the past four years I’ve watched Malia become quite the girly girl all on her own. And I’ve come up with a list of girlish things that I definitely did not teach her but that she has picked up on anyway.

  #1-Superheroes are swoon worthy. One of Malia’s first discernible words (besides Mom, Dad and some of those other super basic ones) was "Ironman.” Seriously. It was awesome.

#2-A serious girly girl should have a fetish for footwear. I did not teach this to Malia. I swear. But I’m a little bit proud.

#3-Anything with bows and/or lace and/or sparkles is awesome. Having all three is like hitting the mother lode. Malia is like a magpie. If it is shiny, it is good.

#4-What constitutes a good hair day. Malia loves that her hair is long because she is like Rapunzel who, lets face it, is always having a good hair day.

#5-Every girl is a princess. ‘Nuff said.

#6-Taking an entourage makes trips to the bathroom more fun. Malia’s best potty training days were when she was with her cousin Kate. In fact, when they are together they still take their potty breaks at the same time.

#7-How to make a scene when you don’t get your way. Two words to describe Malia when she feels like she is getting the short end of the stick: drama queen.

#8-How to make a dramatic exit by gracefully dashing to your room just as tears begin to fall. Yeah…this one is pretty new. But it happens pretty much any time Malia starts to cry for any reason other than hurting herself.

#9-The follow up to #8: the fine art of door slamming. Sigh. I sooooo promise she didn’t learn this from me. But she know how to do it anyway.

#10-Pretty toes are in instant pick me up. I have to admit that I’ve been excited to have Malia get to this point. Recently she has started to notice when other girls have painted toe nails and has been asking about them. She just had to be able to sit still long enough to let the polish dry. She has hit that point (with the help of a quick dry spray) so we picked out some polish and today was the day. And now she is super excited as well.

Malia chose yellow (of course) which is a bit weird looking, but it’s her favorite color so I’m not surprised. She told me she likes red toes as well (probably because that’s what I chose) and she mentioned that we should get lots of colors so we can do “rainbow toes” next time. I’m actually thinking that would be super fun. Yay! Girl time!

We Came, We Partied, We Painted

Today my sisters and I had our annual Pre-Independence Day Toenail Decorating. Several years ago we were feeling all patriotic and decided to let it show with our toenails. A couple of days later we all sang in Relief Society in our mother’s ward (She happened to be the RS President at the time). She looked at our toes (we were all wearing sandals, of course), rolled her eyes, and said, “You guys.” And thus was a tradition born.