Mommy Brain

My sunglasses are somewhere in an orchard in Portland, TN.  My CamelBak bottle is probably floating somewhere around the Y, but I'm not sure.

When I was expecting my first child, I complained to a friend about my new absent-mindedness.

"I dipped my asparagus in ketchup! I used to be smart!" I wailed.

Excellent picture by my excellent husband.

She didn't cushion the blow:  "It never ends," she said. "My daughter is two, and I'm still experiencing that."

She was right.

Pregnancy hormones are notorious for their brain-sucking abilities, but mommy brain isn't limited to those few months.

Whether it's continued hormonal changes, lack of sleep, too much to do, or (perish the thought!) getting older, mommy brain just becomes a fact of life eventually.

I frequently come home from the grocery store with a completely random product I picked up by mistake: raspberry jelly instead of strawberry, or barbeque chicken wings instead of plain chicken breasts.

And then there is the purse issue. I switch purses and bags so often throughout the week that my wallet inevitably gets left at home occasionally.  Once I discovered its absence while attempting to pay for $200 of groceries at Publix while my kids squirmed in the shopping cart.

I used to be a good copy editor, able to catch mistakes and grammatical errors quickly and easily. Now I find myself in need of my own editor.

A friend of mine recently wrote about the cost that comes with the choice of raising children, and I'm realizing that "mommy brain," too, may be part of that cost.

I wouldn't trade the experience. The humbling act of explaining to a police officer why I don't have my driver's license is probably a healthy antidote to my pride, anyway.

But if I could remember to get toilet paper at the store.....yeah, that would be nice. In the meantime, I'll praise God for smartphones and keep my To Do List and Calendar by my side.

Christy's Household Truths

One of my favorite blogs has posts about "Household Truths" from time to time. The posts generally provide pithy insights on the ins and outs of household management.

I've discovered my own household truth this week.

A household area in chaos will remain chaotic and accelerate into further chaos until every chaotic element is removed from said area.

I had a garage sale last weekend. Lack of time management meant that I was rather, um, focused on last minute preparations for the sale the two days preceding it. As such, my house experienced higher than usual disorder, with dishes piled in the sink and clean laundry languishing on the sofa.

The garage sale went well for the most part, but a rain storm decided to crash the party before we closed for the day. Thus, all of the sale items were hurriedly crammed into my living room and kitchen to get them out of the rain.

And there they stayed. I had several other engagements over the weekend, so I only had time to make a few small dents in the chaos of garage sale leftovers. And gradually I realized that the chaos was growing. Yes, I was adding to the chaos. Me! Structure girl!

I would walk through the kitchen and set my purse down on the table among twenty other things that also did not belong on the table. Random household items not involved in the sale started appearing amidst the chaos. It was as if a switch had flipped in my brain -- everything is not in its place, so why bother to put anything in its place?

Then my house decided to join the fun. Part of my attic collapsed. Okay, that's not nearly as dramatic as it sounds, but it was quite an annoyance. An old access panel leading to our attic fell open, showering about a cubic foot of old, dusty insulation over my hall closet. After Paul fixed the access panel, I got to take everything out of the closet so I could remove all the bits of insulation.

I'm seeing signs of hope today. Most of the garage sale leftovers are bundled up, ready to be donated. The closet contents have been reorganized and reshelved. I should be in good shape, as long as my dishwasher cooperates....

Foundation, Truth, and the American Way

So, it seems that every makeup brand has their method, their spiel to convince me to buy a certain series of products.

For Clinique, it's cleanse, exfoliate, moisturize . So I buy the soap, the clarifying lotion, and the moisturizer.

The Mary Kay pitch is that everyone needs to cleanse, moisturize, and protect.

Now I agree that skin needs protection -- SPF protection. But the Mary Kay ladies say that foundation is the way to protect skin.

(Note of explanation for the guys: Foundation is this goopy or powerdy stuff women put on their skin to make it look more, uh, skin-like.)

So, the theory goes, to keep pollution off our lovely faces, we have to put this goopy stuff on our faces to protect them. I'm not sure I buy that. I'm still not sure that smearing makeup all over my face actually helps it.

I also am becoming convinced that, while an expensive skin care regimen may help my face look better for awhile, once I stop the regimen, my face will look much worse. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

All that said, I'm actually having a Mary Kay party at my house in a couple of weeks. Blogging ladies, if you want to participate, let me know. As long as I'm pretty sure you won't burn down my house, I'll send you an invitation.