and now your moment of zen

As a mother of four, I am usually the one teaching my children things.

This is the right way to cross the street.

You should eat your vegetables like Jamie Oliver says.

Be kind to NYC tourists, they are people, too.

And please put the toilet lid down when you're finished. Girls don't like to fall in.


If you're a parent, I'm sure you agree with me.

Life gets busy. There are places to be. Deadlines to meet. Meals to prepare. Battles to wage. The list can go on and on. But every now and then our children are the ones to teach us things. They remind us of what is truly important. My seven year old, Lily, does this.

Lily is obsessed with flowers. If there was a stronger word to describe this, I would use it. But since I'm still working on my first cup of coffee, I can't find that word. Several times a day, as we are walking down the streets of New York holding hands, my arm is rapidly pulled out of my socket. All because of flowers.



Lily: "Flowers!"
Me: "Yes, Lily. Those are flowers."
Lily: "Wait!!! We need to stop and smell them. Aren't they the MOST beautiful flowers you've ever seen!"

Keep in mind, she says this about every flower. The most delicate tulip or the ugliest weed that is sprouting some yellow version of a flower. It's all beautiful in her eyes. And needs to be noticed.

I used to get frustrated, hurry her along, and tell her we needed to be somewhere. But lately, I've been using this time to follow her lead.
So I stop. Stop everything and smell the flowers with her.

Stop thinking about bills I need to pay.
Stop thinking about what to make for dinner.
Stop thinking about how to remedy a problem.

I stop and smell the roses, as they say. And when I do this, I find that it adds such an element of peace to my day.

There is a reason flowers are so beautiful. It's so we stop and notice them.

So, if you see a flower today. Stop. Stop and take time to notice.

bonjour new york

One of the things I love about New York is that people do all sorts of things on the street. They play music on the street. They dance on the street. They take elephants for walks down the street. They also scream at each other on the street, but I don't enjoy that part so much.

We were having lunch the other day in our neighborhood, and I looked up from my table and saw this.



This adorable man was painting a picture of our restaurant. I'm not sure if he was French or not, but he had the whole frenchy theme going. Even the hand on the hip.




His painting was quite charming and really captured the location.





But, it didn't capture the irrational manager who earlier had refused my request to push two tables together to sit outside. I'm sure he thought that would have spoiled his picture.

bits of my weekend- volume 7

I realize this should actually be called itty-bits of my weekend this time. Unfortunately, after my last picture was taken some weird side effects to some medication started to take effect and sent me back to bed. Either that, or aliens were trying to invade my body.

Looking forward to seeing what you all did this weekend! Anyone can participate! Just sign Mr. Linky below!

Targhetto

As you may know from a previous post, I am deeply saddened by the fact that there is no Target in Manhattan. Many of you suburbanites wept with me. I appreciate your comfort and support. But I also received lots of comments from New Yorkers that basically said,

"Stop crying and get over yourself. Put on your big girl panties and schlep yourself to the Target in the Bronx."

New Yorkers don't really hold back.

So my friend Mitch and I decided to do it. We decided to take the subway to the Bronx and live the Target Challenge.

But before I went I thought I should do a bit of research. I have a Masters Degree in Google Search. I can tell you what that odd smell coming from your sink is, the color blush Kim Kardashian wears, and if your child has bed bug bites or mosquito bites. Email me. I am a wealth of information.

Anyway, I found some reviews on the Target we were going to visit. Turns out it is commonly called Ghetto Target and people liken it to a day at the spa. Here's what one reviewer said:

This place is kind of like a department store version of a bikini wax; its painful during the ordeal, but when you leave and take a couple of Advil's, you realize a few hours later it was worth it.

Descriptive. And maybe not exactly like a day at the spa. But Mitch and I headed out with reckless abandon anyway. Here we are entering the store.



You would have thought they were also giving out free Margaritas by the look on our faces.

Then we hit the aisles. It took me a while to remember how to navigate through aisles of items I really don't need, but I soon got into the groove. It's like riding a bike. And by the end, my cart was full of things I hadn't originally planned on purchasing. (The sign of a successful Target trip.)

I won't lie, it's not like suburban Target. It's a lot more intense. It's crowded, no sales people are really anywhere to be found, which is why I ended up helping an elderly man find appropriate rain boots for his grand-daughter. And there is a lot of yelling. I don't remember the yelling in suburban Target. But the YELLING IS OUT OF CONTROL. People of Ghetto Target, assign your group a spot to congregate if you get separated from each other. It will be much easier for all of us.

Here's a picture of Mitch afterwards that pretty much sums up our exhausting experience.



By the way, Mitch is pushing our things in his granny cart. A granny cart is a necessity if you live in the city and don't have a car. We lugged that granny cart all the way up the subway stairs. And then we found out we went up the wrong side and had to lug it back down. Actually, Mitch had to lug it back down, because I needed to take a picture.



Yes, we got our items, but we paid for it with emotional sanity. And we would do it again in a heartbeat. Sometimes you just need to experience a Target. Even if it is a Ghetto Target.

diary of a peep

An adventurous Peep managed to escape the trappings of his cellophane cage.



By doing so, he knew he would also escape the jaws of this 7 year old.


He noticed (despite the grimy windows) there was a big beautiful world out there and decided to make a break for it.



Unfortunately, the big bad shag rug grabbed him before he could make it to the door.


The end.

easter bonnet parade

This was our first Easter in Manhattan. For over 100 years there has been an Easter Bonnet parade on 5th Avenue every Easter Sunday. Growing up a southern girl, I am well aware of the Easter bonnet. And the white patent leather shoes. And the white Easter gloves. So there was no way I was going to miss seeing an Easter bonnet parade. But, imagine my surprise at the parade when I saw this:



Shocking, but it was a FANTASTIC Easter bonnet, right? The entire parade was definitely one of those "only in NYC" moments. The creativity was quite amazing and I feel the following needed some special awards. Enjoy.

Best costume that can cross over to another type of parade award:



This person's picture was featured on Regis & Kelly Monday morning, so they get the Five Minutes of Fame Award:



Best use of doggie accessory award:



The Excessive Flair award. (This category had some tough competition if you haven't noticed already.)



Biggest Yankee fans award:



Best nod to childhood Easter award:



The recycling award. Since she clearly emptied her entire craft closet to create her elaborate costume.



The Tim Burton award:



The I am man enough to wear this hat award:



The good enough to be in French Vogue award:



I saved the best for last. We all know the highest creativity award should be called The Anthropologie award. Seriously, this mother-daughter creation was amazing!







I will never look at an Easter bonnet the same way again.

bits of my weekend- volume 6

Spring Break kept me from posting this last week. But I'm so glad to be back to share another Bits of My Weekend with you. If you're not part of this little community, I'd love for you to join. It's great to see how others around the globe spend their weekend!

We had 2 big events this weekend which is why I'm posting a lot more pictures than normal. Saturday was Lily's 7th birthday and of course Easter was Sunday. Lily was just thrilled that the resurrection of our Lord and Savior was "moved" to be closer to her birthday.

We started her big day off with a carriage ride around Central Park. We could only persuade Jackson and Rod to join us. Ben and Bo said they had other things to do. Carriage rides don't really seem to appeal to teenage boys.







Central Park was looking beautiful that day:



This is Lily receiving one of her many birthday phone calls from the grandparents. She finally cut them off by saying, "Uh...I need to go. I'm kinda on a carriage ride. I'd like to enjoy that now, please. Thank you. "



Jackson feeding the horse, while our driver counts his money in the background.



Jumping for joy in Central Park.




Next stop was The Plaza Hotel, which is just amazing. Even the flowers in the lobby are over the top:



The reason we went to The Plaza was so we could visit The Eloise store. It is just adorable. Especially if you like the color pink.



This lovely picture of my backside is me picking up fragile merchandise that Lily dropped. Within the first 5 seconds of walking in the store.



Tea Party room at The Eloise Store:



Next stop was lunch for the birthday girl at an outdoor cafe. Girl loves her sushi.





Let's just say this sculpture at Colombus Circle caused a bit of curiousity. Can you see Lily running around it...then screeching to a halt. She had quite a few things to say about this.



Happy Birthday baby girl.




After church on Sunday we took a stroll through Bryant Park to enjoy the sunshine.







We wandered over to 5th Avenue where we heard The Easter Bonnet Parade was going on. I'm going to include one picture here, but I will be doing a whole post on this event later. Because it was...well...it was a bit out of the ordinary.



Cab ride home with my handsome husband after a long day. I'm a lucky girl.



What about you? Share your weekend pics in the linky below.