MSB 39: By the Laundry Couch

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(This post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase after clicking one of the links, I receive a commission at no cost to you.  Thanks!)

Last week I told David that we absolutely had to start splitting up for Mass again, because I couldn’t handle another round of watching Moe and Bea compete for the Worst Mass Behavior Ever trophy.  Except then I didn’t remember the plan until this morning.  So, we went again as a family.

Today, someone else’s kids were the noisiest.  I wish I knew which poor mom was dealing with the noisiest kids, because I would have made a mental note to drop off a bottle of wine and a cheesecake along with a thank you note.  Here’s what it would say:

Dear Tired and Sweaty Mom with Loud Kids,
Thank you.  Thank you for bringing your kids to Mass today.  Mine have been so, so awful lately.  I was beginning to feel like a failure as a parent because I couldn’t make them sit relatively still and quiet for 50 minutes. 

But you– you are a good mom.  And your kids are being crazy, too.  So it must not be me.  It must not be you.  It must be the crazy kids.  Thank you for bringing them to Mass this week so that for once in the past month, my monsters weren’t the worst.  Please bring them back next week, and my kids will probably reclaim the title, and you can find peace in the fact that, if nothing else, your kids are not the worst.

Please enjoy this wine and cheesecake as a thank you and a reward for not punching anyone.

We’re in this together,
Another Tired and Sweaty Mom with Loud Kids

 

We all survived.  That’s what counts.

 

Here’s My Sunday Best!  (This is the same place I always stand for the My Sunday Best pics.  But we’ve moved out our piano and taken down the gallery wall.  The basement is almost cleaned out, so our basement couch got moved upstairs.  It’s now officially known as “the laundry couch.”  You can probably figure out why.  The red bin of legos and my tiny TV/DVD combo from college and that basket of DVDs is pretty much the only indoor entertainment the kids have left.  Oh, and the plus plusses.)

Sweater:  Lands’ End
Skirt:  Lularoe
Shirt:  Stitch Fix

I got my first Stitch Fix!  Here’s how it works: you fill out a survey with your size, style, and clothing preferences and pay a $20 styling fee.  A stylist picks out and ships you 5 pieces, based on your responses.  You try everything on at home and ship back (for free!) anything you don’t want to keep.  Your $20 styling fee is applied to anything you don’t send back.

The possibility of losing that $20 styling fee if all 5 pieces were duds kept me from trying it in the past.  Well, that and the fact that until recently they only offered straight sizes.  Now they offer straight, maternity, and plus sizing.  Woot!  But– this month Stitch Fix is offering a promotion where they will waive the $20 styling fee.  Double woot!

That means you can get a box of hand-picked lovelies shipped to you for free!  And then you pay for whatever you decide to keep.  If you don’t want to keep anything, you can send it back in the pre-paid shipping container.  No risk.  Zero dollars spent.

(If you’d like to try it, I’d love if you’d use my referral link.  I do receive credit for anyone who signs up for their first box using my link.  Thanks!)

David is (narrowly) the best photographer in the house, and his schedule was such this week that I didn’t get a chance to get pics of the sent-back items before they had to get returned.  But– here’s a blurry copy of the style guide that accompanied my fix, so you can see the gist.  I circled in red my returns, and in green my keepers.

I said that I didn’t want any accessories (they just end getting chewed on at this point), and that I was hoping for pregnancy friendly options.

 

The note from the stylist referenced some of my specific guidelines, which I appreciated.  The whole fix felt very personal, even more so than the Dia & Co. boxes I’ve done in the past.  I did giggle at all the styling suggestions, because I don’t own anything really that they suggested to complete the outfits other than jeans.  It was still fun to see, though.

David was around to help take a few pictures of ways I’m excited to wear the red sweater.  I didn’t realize what a hole it would fill in my closet!  My summer Lularoe Carlys and Perfect Tees can transition to winter now.

I loooooved the watercolor-y floral of the top they sent.

Definitely worth looking into if you’ve been on the fence.

And, one last picture of our house transition-ness.   Moe’s costume stuff has all been packed up, so he’s resorted to wearing a blanket around as a cape.  And Elle is demonstrating the multi-functionality of the lego bucket as a seat.  As more and more stuff disappears to storage, the kids have to get creative.

 


Happy Thanksgiving week!  And you’ll have to let me know if you sign up for your own Stitch Fix box.  I’d love to see what you get!

PS– If you’re planning to do some online shopping this week, I’d appreciate if you’d use my Amazon affiliate link.   If you click to Amazon through that link, I receive a small commission at no cost to you, for anything you purchase.   Thanks!!!

4 Comments


  1. // Reply

    Alicia, my dear, always a joy to read. Mass is so tiring- stick with it! There is no better place for them to be. I remember awhile Back exasperated dealing with my own brood at mass. I was complaining to another mom whose kids were older. She encouraged me to keep going. She explained to me that it was worth it and better yet irreplaceable. The kids may misbehave and be completely oblivious to the miracle right before their nose, but they ARE receiving grace, something I can NOT give them no matter how hard I try and no matter where else I take them. It was very encouraging. She also let me in on the secret that the more we go the more they get it, and you can say things like, “when we go to X, we will have to behave like we do in church.”

    Sorry for the rambling, it just helped me. I see the fruits of it now. Hang in there! This is coming from a mom whose kids played drive through on the kneelers, ordered hamburgers during the silence of the consecration, we have stripped to no shirts and screamed on the way “no no i will wear a shirt i promise” after which the bishop told us a story of a misbehaved kid (umm ya he was ours), and we have taken off our shoes and thrown them at an eldery man in the head going to communion. That’s just to name a few!

    I may look into the clothes thing. You rock, Alicia!!


  2. // Reply

    The print on that top is so perfect for you!! I’m glad you found some good pieces – the waived styling fee is such an excellent promo 😊

    And I’ve totally wanted to find the families with loud kids after Mass, too!! But considering the fact that when *my* kids misbehave, we jet out of there as soon as the closing hymn is over, I imagine they flee quickly as well!!


  3. // Reply

    That red sweater is great! What a beautiful burst of eye-treat color in this gray November.
    Children at Mass. eye roll. E gave me the dumbest look for like 30 seconds when I asked him to stop teeter-tottering into I. A is the oldest but sometimes forgets he’s in mass or tries to be the parent causing resistance and punching from O. Our I just has a way with yawning loudly and dramatically. O tries to promptly climb into the sling after it is vacated by U. U decides after 10 seconds she wants to go right back to nursing. Preschooler and baby go back and forth and back and forth between mom and dad. It’s like a circus– and that’s even with a stern pre-mass reminder of this weeks pew seating arrangement. But- I mean- I guess they behaved…okay? Eh. But they all genuflected in the right direction and no one crawled up the stairs by the baptismal font and jumped off…so….


    1. // Reply

      That’s a win! The other week Bea tried to genuflect, but forgot how it worked. She reverently squatted down like she was about to poo for a moment before entering the pew.

      Glad to know we’re not alone in our circus. 🙂

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