Ingredients:

If you want to get really fancy and impress you could serve the dip in a small pumpkin!

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I finally found something to be excited about and look forward too as I approach my 9th month.  The protruding belly can be used as a prop.  Adding to my costume and appeal as I waddle around Salem, MA.  I might even have an advantage in one of the many costume contest…I should at the least get a few sympathy votes. If all goes according to plan we will have a few opportunities to wear our costumes this year, walking around Salem, at the Liberty Tree Mall Halloween Walk, and at two Halloween parties we have been invited too.

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and I can’t let this one pass me by without dressing up.  Here are some ideas that I have found… now I just have to decide which one to choose.

1) I could go with the classic Pumpkin Belly.  Painting my belly like a pumpkin and wearing all black or all orange.  The cons to this one include painting my entire belly- I can barely reach down there anymore; and getting the paint off afterward.

Image from Pregnant Chicken.

2) Another painting option, with a little less painting, is a Speed Bump Sign.  I could paint a speed bump on my belly or skip the paint all together and make the sign part of the outfit.

Image from Parents.com

 3) Painting my bump green could also add to a Mother Nature Costume.  The bump is painted green or for more clever people painted in the shape of the Earth.  The rest of the costume is green and whimsical in nature.

4) I have seen this costume for babies before, and never thought of it as a pregnant costume.  Pea in a Pod.  I dress as a pea and yep you guessed it the baby is the pea in the pod.

5) If you want your partner involved then this costume is for you.  He dresses as a chef with the title Bun Maker and You dress as an oven- with the title Bun in The Oven. I’m sure this costume would get a few laughs walking down the pedestrian streets in Salem.

Image from Pregnancy.About.com

6) Want the whole family involved in your costume?  How about a Shot Gun Wedding theme.  Here’s a chance for all the ladies to wear their wedding dresses (or buy a much larger white dress), your dad or older brother get’s to don a rifle and your husband well he get’s to run….

7) Drinking is off the agenda this Halloween but I could still dress the part.  Covering my belly with a funny shirt and open flannel shirt could help me transform into a Beer Belly.  I’m sure I could muster up a few burps too.

8) For the super brave and athletic pregnant gal (not gonna happen for me) you can wear a bikini and paint your belly like a Beach Ball …maybe if I lived in Hawaii.

Image from Pregnant Chicken

9) The classic Pregnant Nun could also be fun if there weren’t so many religious fanatics out in Salem on Halloween.

10) In my research of course I also found sexy pregnant lady costumes- devil, pirate, milk maid- um please is all I can say about that.

Do you have a favorite? 

Place your vote for my Very Pregnant Halloween Costume this year

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Fall in New England

There are so many great things about fall in New England. Of course the foliage is simply amazing, but taking a train to see it? Even better!

If you’ve got small kids, I recommend riding the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln, NH. The train runs on a reduced schedule most of the year, but during the peak leaf season, mid-September to mid-October, it runs twice daily. You can catch it at 11am or 1pm. The ride is 80 minutes long, roundtrip, and includes lunch: a sandwich, chips, drink and cookie. Tickets are $14 for age 13+, $10 for 2-12 years old, and free for under age 2.

Hobos ready to hop the train.

Upon arrival at the station you can purchase your tickets and place your lunch order. This is also where the kids get their hobo sticks, water bottles and scarves.  My kids thought these were great fun and played with them for months afterward.

On the train, there are comfortable tables and chairs to sit at while enjoying the ride and eating your lunch. The friendly conductor wanders through on occasion, stopping to chat and posing for photo-ops with the kiddos. There are also announcements made about sites along the track so that you don’t miss anything interesting. Of course, you’ll be glued to the window most of the time so that you don’t miss the gorgeous scenery.

At the train station

Once we got back to the station we took advantage of the darling fall scene set up in front. Of course we had to have a picture to remember the day!

My kids are older now, so if we did the train again I’d probably choose the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad which would allow us to see not only the foliage, but Lake Winnipesaukee too!

You might also enjoy:

Apple Picking in New England

Boston Freedom Trail

Experiencing New England

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There is golden light this morning and a dozen blue jays, plumage ruffled, in the lilac out the window. The walls are striped with shadows from the window panes, the trees outside, the angles of furniture illumined by the morning sun. I watch the way heat dances; sunlight revealing the shadows of the invisible. Waves of warmth rising, shimmering, lifting from the wood stove, where logs become embers, and across the clear valley ribbons of smoke lift from solitary houses. Above the sky is the color of robin’s eggs: pale, pale blue.

Snow dresses the world in magic when the sun shines. Frost makes fractal whorls on the glass panes of the windows in the garage, and snowflakes, each one spectacular and individual, glint and sparkle across the wide expanse of field where tracks crisscross, revealing other secrets: the paths of squirrels and foxes going at dusk to the stream.

Today the mercury is shy despite the sun, and breath catches sharp in our lungs and rises up in steamy clouds. Today the boys are home. The house is filled with their clatter, laughter, disagreements, and small storms. They leave behind a trail: marbles, blocks, honey, bread crusts, airplanes. They wear at my patience. They fill me with delight. They are, always and again a lesson in living right now. In shifting gears abruptly. In being here. Right here.

Some days it’s not where I want to be. Some days, like today, I feel myself longing for the unremarkable quiet of an empty house. Instead there are sticky fingers and boys still in pajamas. There is spilled cat food, and snow melting in puddles at the door, and boys who want the things that sustain them: attention and stories and be seen.

And so I do. I turn to Sprout who is climbing into the chair beside me, and press my face into his warm head. I get up from the table and carry my empty cup to the sink; gather things to make bread dough. Rinse my hands. Wipe the counters clear.

Together we will knead the bread and then place it in bowls in the sun. It will rise there all morning in the warmth, and then we’ll shape it into loaves, spreading it with cinnamon and sugar. I’ll let them lick their fingers and I’ll turn the oven light on. They’ll press their faces against the oven door and look. They’ll wait for the timer to ring and then eat slices of bread, fluffy and warm with melting butter for snack.

I’ll let this be the present: warm bread and sticky fingers and sun.

The post Surviving vacation after the holiday appeared first on Boston Mama.

When I started my MFA program in Emergent Media, it was late summer; the light was still long and the leaves green. There was time when I got home from even the longest day of classes (Wednesdays = 6 hours of back to back class) to go for a run outdoors before dinner and unwind.

Now it’s another story. Now the light is golden and the days are shorter and the leaves are falling fast. We’re making plans for Thanksgiving, and finding ice on the puddles in the morning. Eleven weeks in, the coursework has gotten more demanding, intense, and time consuming. My schedule is class intensive Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then homework intensive the rest of the week. The rest of the week is also full time mama duty.

It’s also a steep learning curve for this right brained girl: coding javascript doesn’t come easy, even though I love every geeky moment of it. The scale for error in coding is ridiculously skewed: one semi colon can change the outcome of everything and result in an hour of laborious debugging, which, with two boys circling under foot is… what’s a good word for it? Mind boggling. Effing hard. Frustrating. Euphoric when the damn code actually works.

Some things that have been making things easier this week:

1. Noise canceling headphones.

2. The pact my husband and I made to be all hands on deck this year. He’s been pretty fabulous about coming home and throwing himself into helping to get dinner on the table and the boys in bed.

3. Emergen-C + lattes = my secret weapon.

4. Doing the 30 Day Shred even when I don’t feel like it (with both boys under foot.) Seriously. Jillian Michael’s makes everything better. If not a little more fierce/fearsome.

5. Card board boxes. Yep. They pretty much rock my world. In fact right this second as I am writing, Bean is sawing away at a cardboard box with a serrated knife at my feet. He’s making a robot. Or something. Every so often he declares with glee, “This is EXCELLENT!” No joke. This is the way he talks: “It’s excellent except the problem is I have to secure it differently and I made cuts in the wrong place and I got annoyed.”

6. The plasma car the boys ride all over the house. It’s loud, but they’re having fun (see number 1) and burning off steam. Perfect for indoor play on these rainy fall days. Also: Sprout totally rocks at driving this thing and it’s hilarious to watch him.

What are some things you’ve discovered that help you maintain balance when things get hectic with work and kids?

The post Things that help maintain work-kid-life balance appeared first on Boston Mama.

The backstory is this:

Before I decided for certain that I absolutely wanted to attend the program I googled all over the Internet trying to find stories from other mothers who had done what I was considering attempting, and had not only survived, but thrived. I found next to nothing, which seemed to me to be the indication of one thing: that I would be attempting a next-to-impossible feat and would never have time again for anything, let alone blogging. (There were several blogs about mama’s attempting PhDs—but the independent, longer term nature of writing a dissertation is entirely different than attending a full-time, studio based MFA.)

I spent an agonizing few days after I was accepted, waffling.

Would I miss out on my children’s early childhood, going back to school now?

Would I be a terrible mother?

Would I be able to maintain any semblance of balance?

Each question seemed to have a heap of negative answers perched precariously like a bucket of water to dump on the fool who would walk through such a doorway… and yet, there were many reasons to go for it, the biggest of which was simply this: if not now, when?

I’m 32. At a crossroads in my career where I urgently want to be full time the creativity and passion I’ve been quietly cultivating on the side until now. If I wait until my kids are bigger, I’ll have closed certain career doors that I very much want open.

And while my kids are not particularly at the easiest point they’ll ever be at, we’re getting closer to that easier place. My boys are 5 years old and 20 months old. The older one, Bean, is old enough to have rounded the corner from utterly dependent to mostly independent and occasionally helpful; the younger one, Sprout, is, well, not so independent yet…. In fact he’s full throttle toddler: all impulse and curiosity. Still, he’s the most flexible kid I’ve ever met, which makes otherwise insurmountable moments with two kids, slightly more attemptable.

The other thing that I have is a rock-star support system.  I have incredible inlaws (yes, I lucked out) who live close by and who are utterly and completely supportive: saying go for it. We will do anything we can. Similarly, I have dear friends and a husband who have said the same, and together they have rallied around me to watch my kids, pick them up, drop them off, and provide unwavering encouragement (and the occasional meal!)

So I’m in school. Full time. While writing a book and raising two boys with a village of help. This will be a weekly chronicle of that adventure.

I’d love to hear your experiences about being a full time student and parent. Please share!

The post Grad Mama Chronicles: An Introduction appeared first on Boston Mama.

Take your little one by the hand and let the whole process of putting on shoes and finding sweatshirts be moments at the center of the rippling circles of your life; moments that are still with presence. Open the door and feel the air on your face: sweet with early autumn and cool.

Watch your little one take the steps down from the door confidently, carefully, the height still a challenge. Watch him run then, gleeful towards the grass.

Pull your mind back to this: to the gravel on the road; to the clovers in the grass; to the sky above, spread with gathering clouds. Watch for birds. Watch for unexpected delight. Find a wild apple tree and shake it until the small hard apples rain down. Pick one, the pinkest one, and rub it on your shirt until it gleams. Take a bite. Sweet, tart, fragrant. Offer it to your little one who will be reaching for it eagerly. Watch his delight.

Go to where the road forks and look both ways. Follow your feet. Go wherever. Go slowly. Instead of feeling impatient, look for four leaf clovers. Look for yellow leaves. Look for birds on wires. Look for flags, wind, wires, wings.

The point isn’t about going far; or about exercise; or about anything except this: you, outdoors, with your little one. Offer to hold hands. He might take your hand in his, grabbing two fingers at a time, or he might dash ahead, curls flying in the wind. Either choice is the most joyous thing in the world. Follow the road. Follow your your heart, there, ahead of you in blue pants and a red shirt and little sneakers. Watch him discover what it means to run. Watch how he stops, starts, stops, and finds wonder in everything.

Stop to listen. There is wind. Maybe you will hear the sound of traffic, airplanes, windmills, woods, plastic bags rustling; kids calling; horns; quiet. Listen for the quiet. Hear it between the moments of sound. Wait for it. Wait until you’ve heard it enough to make your heart feel full.

Stop for pebbles. See how many colors you can find. Watch his delight as he finds one, just right, white, the size of his small fist. Watch as he squats down and picks it up.

Here, this one is for you.

Discover just how fun it is to put rocks into your pockets. Go ahead. Try it. Find one. Put it in your pocket. Let your fingers become accustomed to its surface and edge.

Look for beauty. Keep looking. Find it everywhere.

Mud is okay. So is dirty. Let both be. If you’re feeling brave, get dirty too. Squat down. Get on eye level with the ground. What do you see?

Greet the trees. This makes little ones laugh. Say “Hello tree!” This might make the trees laugh too. You can never tell. It most certainly will make you laugh to watch your little one follow gleefully in your lead. “Hi tree! Hi!”

Find a big stick. Resist the urge to worry. Kids are better with sticks than we give them credit for. Watch the stick become everything at once.

A sword, a lamp post, a magic wand.

Pick up a stick for yourself and draw in the dirt, or scratch marks along the sidewalk, or let it bounce along after you and feel the vibration from the sidewalk or the road travel up through it into your fingers, your bones. Stalk your shadows. Contort into awkward positions. Take photos. Make shadow faces and shadow giraffes. Giggle. Walk home. Maybe carry your little one piggy back, or play tag, or sit and wait. Don’t rush, even though you will want to rush. The world will wait.

And when you get back, sink into the couch for a moment. Breath. Kiss your little one. Smell his hair: the scent of autumn air and chocolate graham crackers and dirt. Inhale.

Go back to whatever it was you were doing.

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