All About BA | Heir to Blair

Moving back to the homestead.

18 Apr posted by heirtoblair

Starting Monday, I will be living at my parent’s house during the weekdays. My new job (so freaking excited & nervous!) is even further from our for-the-love-of-God-please-sell-already house, which means that Harrison & I would need to leave the house by 6:30am to begin a roughly 2-hour commute including daycare drop-off.

That ain’t happening. My sanity can’t take it & my Twitter stream cannot handle any more LOOK HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO GET HOME! that they had this past winter.

So to cut back the time by roughly an hour each way, Harrison & I will be living out of suitcases on work nights & then trudging back to our home for the weekends. Doug will be doing a 50/50 dance of checking on the house & staying with us. I’m not looking forward to being without my husband so much, but we know it’s temporary.

This is the room I’ll be staying in – one of the guest rooms that has zero of the personality it used to have with college banners & football trophies from when my brother lived in here. I’ll be moving in my desk & computer & I switched out one of the nightstands for a bookcase (I love having my books close). The Momma is clearing out space in the closet as I type. But I’m at a loss as to what to do…I’ll be here 5 nights out of the week without my husband for who knows how long & I am wondering if I should try to bring a little of “us” to this room. Bring pictures of our little family, use a bedspread from home.

I’ll need to remember to bring over Harry’s favorite bedtime books & toys for the evenings. I’ll need to leave a post-it note reminding Doug to water the garden every night. It’s going to be crazy-weird living under my parent’s roof again, except now I’m an adult & it’s so temporary. Hopefully our house will sell this spring so that we can put all this nasty commuting mess behind us for good.

But for now, I guess I’m moving back to the homestead.

Y’all.

HeirtoBlair500x150 v41 Moving back to the homestead.

23 Comments
Filed Under: Adult Club, All about BA, Finding Balance, I share DNA with these folks, Life in General, Moving on up, Outsourcing Parenting Skills, Potential for Doocing, The I Do's, Things that aren't perfect despite my best efforts

Happy Easter.

8 Apr posted by heirtoblair

eastereggs Happy Easter.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Filed Under: holidays, Oh em gee

Wait…what did I do again today?

4 Apr posted by heirtoblair

Monday was one of those days where Doug walked through the front door & I just shrugged.

There was no dinner in the oven, the child was shoeless & filthy, toddler bedding was strewn across the living room floor, & my hair was in a top knot with a bandana holding back my bangs. In short? We were a hot, hot mess. If Doug had asked me what I did all day (you know, if he wanted to have his balls for dinner), then I would have simply said that I kept his kid alive for one more day.

Oh, sure. I had plenty of aspirations including homemade chicken pot pie for dinner & dessert in the oven for the basketball championship game. When I woke up that morning, I imagined booking an extra hour while the boys did their nightly game of chase in the backyard. Then reality took over – Harrison slept in a little bit, I took him out for breakfast before we went grocery shopping & he was perfectly behaved the entire morning. Then he dumped tomato soup on his head & needed a mid-day bath, my laptop battery died, & I found two molars blistering through his gums all before naptime. We spent the rest of the day “camping” in a Thomas the Train tent & coloring (only making it into the coloring book 50% of the time, RIP Melissa & Doug puzzle).

Nothing that mothers don’t deal with on a regular basis. Nothing that I didn’t face in the office with other work. Nothing to complain about or make a fuss over, but just the little things that take away from the moments in the day & I look up & oh my, how is it 5:30pm already?! I haven’t worked or made dinner or cleaned the house or done anything that leaves a tangible response.

I called my mother the next morning & she reassured me that in her many years at home, she had days like that where the clock flew faster than the to-do list. & that there were many times where “Honey! The children are still alive!” was worth celebrating.

23 Comments
Filed Under: FAIL, Finding Balance, Harry in General, Life in General, Never Have I Ever, Outsourcing Parenting Skills, Sorta Staying Home, Things I didn't understand until I birthed a child, Things that aren't perfect despite my best efforts, Toddlers eat your brains

On Dating my Husband

3 Apr posted by heirtoblair

datenight On Dating my Husband

It was a gorgeous spring night where the flowers bloomed. I slipped into a little black dress long-forgotten in my closet & curled my hair. Doug pulled a polo shirt over his head for the first time since…well, I can’t remember.

He tells me I look pretty & I smile.

Sometimes I forget how handsome he is.

Sometimes it takes breaking away from our house to remember how much he does for us & that load of dishes he took care of & how pretty our lawn looks thanks to his hard work.

I like watching him try new beers with dinner & he always teases me until I take a taste, too. It makes me feel 21 again at Corner Bar – that time when I told him that I could never marry a man that wouldn’t say prayers with my children & now he kneels beside Harry’s bed every night.

I forget how he drives with one hand on the steering wheel & one hand holding mine & I wonder if we’ll be like this in 20 years, 30 years, 50 years.

I forget that we’re more than Momma & Daddy, more than another load of laundry & a “for sale” sign in the front yard. That the day-to-day can wear us down but our marriage makes that routine feel magical.

But only if I let it.

If I remember the small things that I fell in love with, like the way he gets wrinkles beside his eyes when he smiles or how his idea of a perfect dessert is to swing through Krispy Kreme after an expensive dinner. If I roll down the windows & pretend for a moment that nothing in this world exists outside of us; we’re still the same ten years later but with a few more pounds & responsibilites.

22 Comments
Filed Under: Adult Club, Finding Balance, Life in General, The I Do's

I am.

30 Mar posted by heirtoblair

A discussion on Facebook over a poster on homemakers & women, labeling & shoving them tight in a box with no breathing room & my skin crawls because the more I go through life, the less comfortable I am with seeing life in black & white.

I am a working momma.

I am a homemaker.

It’s okay to be both because I’m also a wife & a writer & a dreamer & a lover of Kate Spade. I bill hours like a boss & make a mean meatloaf for my boys & I take satisfaction in both. I spill words to pages & find my heart there outside of motherhood & work & I think for sure, that is where I belong.

I belong in all of it.

(maija also touched on this beautifully. i love her words.)

12 Comments
Filed Under: Adult Club, All about BA, Finding Balance