The Lush Mommy Blog

After giving birth to 4 children, including twins, surviving breast feeding, plowing through hundreds of sleepless nights and dealing with a whole host of disgusting bodily dis-functions, I’m ready to start acting like a guy—you know—be a little more selfish and focused on myself.

I’ve decided that it’s the year of me. My husband was all for it, offering to pay for whatever weight loss system, diet regime, nip, tuck or shot I wanted. Three weeks into the New Year and my husband is about to have a nervous breakdown. I’m actually doing what I said I was going to do and that means taking him up on all of his offers of assistance. With each new appointment I make he can hear the credit card swiping. It’s painful but necessary.

For six years I’ve been living in *&%*# yoga pants and t-shirts. My skin is dragging and sagging and Mama needs a new wardrobe, but not until I reach my weight loss goal. So far I’ve lost almost 15 pounds and I still have a long way to go. But what I’ve realized is that to be a mother and a wife is one thing—to be a well-dressed, good-looking mother and wife takes a lot of time and a lot of money. As with motherhood, I had no idea how much work it would take. Why doesn’t anyone talk about this??? Well, who’s go the time?

There’s so much more I have to say about this, and I will, but I have about 200 (insert cuss word) pounds of laundry to fold.

Comment (1)

Recently I took my oldest son to the allergist to find out if he is allergic to anything. Since he was a little boy he’s had an aversion to peanut butter, even the smell of it repulsed him. After his allergy test, what do you know? He’s allergic to, among other things, peanut butter.

I happen to love peanut butter and I love my children but recently I diagnosed myself with a “baby allergy.” After back-to-back pregnancies and four children I’m really, really tired. My 5-month-old is still not sleeping through the night and I’m ready to jump ship.  I realized my exhaustion and irritability might be related to babies.

Recently, at around 1am, the baby started crying. My husband alerted me to it, as if I didn’t hear the whaling, to prompt me to tend to the baby. My response, “I can’t get him, I’m allergic to babies.” I mean, I can have them, be around them, feed them, and play with them but when the sun goes down my allergy kicks into overdrive.

I believe the intolerance to night cries started after months of solo night feedings. During those months my husband slept like, well, a baby. I believe this sleep enabled him to develop immunity to this mysterious baby allergy.

Needless to say, my husband is taking on the nighttime duties. He is essentially saving my life. He’s like my personal EpiPen. Bay cries, husband pops up. Do I feel bad that he is most likely suffering from a severe lack of sleep? Um, no.

Comment (0)

Comment (22)

First of all, I can’t even believe I’m writing something like this—it’s so “domestic” of me. Oh how the mighty have fallen.....

While looking in my refrigerator it occurred to me that it is filled with leftovers. Leftovers, that most likely, never get eaten and end up in the trash. Talk about a waste of money! It’s extremely frustrating, especially after I spent so much time and effort cooking all of it.  My oldest son refuses to eat leftover mac and cheese, it has to be “fresh.” What a pain in my a$@!

(This cheerful family pictured on the right is NOT eating leftovers)

Luckily, I had an epiphany and it’s one that can help save money, your meals and your sanity.

The biggest mistake when using leftovers is to try and recreate a reheated version of the same dish. This is the main reason why leftovers go to waste. Who wants reheated food? Here’s the simple secret…. Consider each leftover meal an ingredient for a new dish.  That’s the key! It’s that simple. Why didn’t I think of this before? Too exhausted from cooking I guess.

Here are some examples:

Potatoes: I made homemade french fries and had plenty left. Who wants reheated fries? Uh, not me. So I’m using the fries in an omelet on Sunday morning. Brilliant!

Pasta: We make a lot of spaghetti in our house but we always have noodles left over. I’ve taken to adding sour cream to the pasta along with the tomato sauce. It makes a creamy dish. Sometimes I’ll add frozen spinach or even bake the noodles with cheese and meat for a gooey, cheesy meal.

Chicken: Never microwave chicken—it just kills it twice. Leftover chicken tastes better when it's sliced and reheated in the oven or in an iron skillet. I find it’s best to make fajitas (add a little liquid smoke), sautéed chicken with mixed vegetable, chicken potpie or cold chicken salad.

Whatever your meal was made of the night before re-think how your going to serve it. It's still fast, sometimes fun and will get your creative juices flowing. So next time you look in that Tupperware filled refrigerator, smile. Your next meal is just waiting for its little food makeover. Take that you finicky five-year-old!

Comment (16)

When I discovered I was pregnant with my first child I did what many women do—I bought baby how-to books, naming books and exercise DVDs. I poured through everything looking for a direction, advice and know-how. Absorbing all of the information was fun and I enjoyed it. Of all of the advice I read-- the most intriguing to me was the information on weight gain and weight loss after the pregnancy.

Aside from having a healthy baby I think weight gain/loss is what many women worry about. It was definitely on of my biggest concerns. At the time one of the hottest baby books was The Girlfriends' Guide To Pregnancy. It was supposed to give you the real scoop on childbirth and pregnancy. Having done this three times now, I can tell you it did not live up to its promises. It was also from that book that I adopted the worst advice ever! I don’t remember it word for word but the gist about exercising and weight gain was just to forget about it. The thought was… you’re not going to want to exercise so forget about it. That was all I needed to hear or read.

That advice was the biggest enabler to my weight gain. I essentially gave up all fitness activity and become a blob. The pattern continued through each pregnancy. This all added up to a scale-tipping event for me. The lack of exercise left me unfit and unmotivated. While I gained a normal amount of weight with each pregnancy I didn’t lose it. So with each baby I got fatter and fatter. To be fair, friends and family all over dish out similar weight advice—did they all read the same book? No, I think it’s just what people tell you to make you feel better or help you rationalize everything.

Three pregnancies later... I’m facing a whopping 50 to 60 pound weight loss challenge. I’m determined to do it (I think) but it is not going to be easy. I blame myself for allowing a stupid book to have so much influence over me—it’s my own fault. I should have burned that book-- instead, it went to some other unlucky woman at a garage sale.

Comment (15)

I always thought that if you had children at an older age you were better off. My thinking... You're more secure mentally, financially and in your relationship. But it never entered my mind that physically I might not be able to keep up.

I had my first child at 36 followed by twins at 40 or 41-- I can't even remember. And now I'm 33 weeks pregnant at the age of 42. Being pregnant at 42 is a constant reminder of just how old I really am. While I don't think I look 42 my body seems that of a 60-year-old. I am so worn down, worn out and just generally exhausted. Getting out of bed is now a labor of love. I have to do it to take care of my little ones-- but oh how I wish I could just sleep until 11:00am. Those days are long gone!

The biggest problem is I never lost the baby from my first child. That was a BIG mistake! Plenty of people said not to worry-- do it after you're done having kids. I took that advice very literally. But now, I'm paying the price. When you have children at an older age it's even more important to be in shape and at a healthy weight. The weight and the lack of fitness definitely slows you don't physically and mentally. I remember when I used to work out 5 times a week, sometimes 2 hours a day. That included cardio, weight training, kickboxing and my favorite-- Pilates. My most recent exercise happened on a vacation to Paris with my girlfriends. We walked everywhere and never once hopped in a cab. I forced myself to push my body during the whole trip. While it was good for me I can't imagine doing it again.

Now all I can think about is getting my body back. It has become a priority, even an obsession. It has come ahead of coming up with a name for this baby and I fear I will cut out the breast-feeding earlier than previous babies. It sounds so selfish-- but right now I feel I need to put myself first. If I don't, I can't be a good mother. This philosophy is not for everyone but I think it's going to work for me. I'm sure many mothers would be incensed by the idea. But it's important to remember that motherhood does not come in one size.

Comment (17)

Our mission, in honor of our late daughter Mamie Grace, to raise money for the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Children's National Medical Center.

Bret Baier of Fox News knows the CICU well.... Hear in his own words why he's helping us raise money for Mamie's Mile.

Comment (32)

There are just way too many products out there with claims of great powers and wonderment. Haven't we all spent too much money trying them out? Well, I'm here to do that for you. This time I tried the now famous Moroccanoil!

Read the review of Moroccanoil hair products in our Beauty section.

Comment (12)

I didn’t always have the mouth of a sailor-- I was in my early 20’s when I started the salty talk. It all began when I started worked in a TV newsroom in Kansas City and sat next to the sports department. The guys who delivered the sports news of the day dropped the “F-bomb” and plenty of other bad words like semi-automatic weapons. Even my news director blazed away in conversation using bad words. It was bound to rub off on me. Almost twenty years later I’m still trying to shake the filthy habit.

When you have children you change a lot of what you do and that includes the way you speak. I admit I’ve been bad about saying curse words in earshot of my son but I am conscious of it. Recently my young son made me realize just how much children absorb.

I was standing in the kitchen and my son was patting my caboose when all of the sudden the shots rang out…. “Mama you're fat!” FFF…..AAA…….TTT………. the word just lingered in the air like a bad smell.

When your child does something that you don’t want them to do you have to act fast and be smart about it. When I heard the word “FAT” I actually wanted to laugh. I thought, “Oh Lord, he’s finally caught on.” But I had to maintain a straight face and look hurt, destroyed even. Oh I carried on like my child just hit me with a bullet. I explained that we don’t call people fat… blah, blah, blah. His response… “But you are!” What do you do with that? I kept giving him the rationalizations until he realized he might have hurt my feelings. He hugged my fat body several times after.

The funny thing is—when it comes to that particular “F” word I really watched what I said around my son. I never used it to describe ANYTHING. I didn’t want my son to use that word. I would have been less surprised if he had dropped that big F-bomb. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened….. yet.

Comment (10)

Right now, bangs are hot! At least that was my rationale this morning while standing in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors.

Spending almost 2 straight years being pregnant is not the best way to maintain a beauty regime. In fact, beauty, your butt, your boobs and everything in between slips, slides and loses its place in line.

This January was going to be my month to get back into to shape—body, face and all. But when the pregnancy test came up positive I put all of that on hold—again! At the age of 41 however, time is not on my side. I have seen new wrinkles make uninvited stops on my face. This of course started last year when I was yes, pregnant-- so there was really nothing I could do about it except slather more SPF on my face.

Pictured in Fabulous Bangs: Glee's Lea Michele

This is the first time in my life that I am just dying for someone (i.e. a doctor) to stab my face with needles multiple times. I never thought I would feel this way but when you’re fat, your face is all you have—and a good pair of earrings. At least that’s how I feel. If my face looks good maybe no one will notice the side of beef I’m carrying on my body. That doesn’t even include the baby!

I don’t usually spend a lot of money on beauty products but recently I went on a beauty.com shopping spree. I bought everything that would make my face look younger, shine and glow.

1. Perricone MD Cosmeceuticals Eye Lift Synergy $95.00

2. Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash $22.00

3. Darphin FIBROGENE Line Response Nourishing Cream $80.00 *(see notation)

4. NARS Highlighting Blush Powder, Albatross $26.00

So basically I'm thinking if I spend the same amount as a Botox treatment I'll get the same benefit. Not likely. So, today as I was slathering on my ridiculously expensive facial products I noticed the tracks in between my brows. Ugh! I looked at my hair and thought, eureka! I’ll cut bangs and just cover them up. Scissors in hand, I gave my self the cheap woman’s face-lift—a haircut.

Hopefully my new bangs will prevent people from noticing any new aging, sagging, bulging and cracking.

Now, what to do with my turkey waddle? Scissors?

*Darphin is one of my personal favorites. I switched from La Mer to Darphin Fibrogene and I love it!

Comment (6)