Mother Love

motherhood + home + family

THE BEST BASICS

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Every girl’s closet needs basics, no matter what kind of style you wear.

Undershirts and t-shirts and layering tanks are the foundation of a great wardrobe, in my opinion. You can have all the most fashionable and fun tops or dresses in the world, but you got to have some basics to back them up. I’ve tried to keep a closet without having some great basics, and I’ve discovered that it just doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned: invest in the basics!

A few weeks ago, my sweet-husband-who-literally-spoils-me-endlessly gave me a gift of some money that I had to spend on clothes for myself. Best gift ever, right?!? I couldn’t use it to buy things for Ayla or the house…it was only for me. It was such a nice and beautiful gift, and his timing was impeccable. My postpartum closet had been feeling so ugh to me, and it seemed like every time I went to pick out an outfit, everything just felt so old and worn out and just so maternity feeling. I had bought a few new things during my pregnancy, but obviously things fit differently during those nine months so I didn’t want to really do much shopping then at all. It was literally so much fun to figure out how to spend this money on some new postpartum things! He gets me, hehe.

I don’t necessarily do the capsule wardrobe thing, but I have dramatically scaled down my closet in the past years. I don’t buy something unless I absolutely love it, and even then I often go home and let an item sit with the tags on for a few days while I decide if I really, really want to keep it. I love to shop and I don’t mind spending money on things that I need (ok, and just want sometimes), but I also have come to appreciate having a closet with only things that I fully love.

I’ve almost spent all of the money that Ben gave to me for shopping, and a big chunk of it went into investing in some really good basics. I was super happy to get the things I ordered in the mail (since these days online shopping is where it’s at!) and see how nice they fit and how they complimented my closet so perfectly. Now that I have some new solid basics plus some jeans, shorts, and tops that fit me right, I feel like a new woman, hehe!

Here are some of my favorite basics:

Downeast Basics Wonder Tee // perfect for layering under sheer tops
Downeast Basics Wonder Cami // i love the higher neckline that these camis have
Aerie Best T Tank // i love the longer length of these tanks, plus SALE!
Everlane Cottten V // good quality tees that last forever!
Target Long & Lean Tank // these are just handy for wearing under anything
Target Drapey Tank // such a flattering length and fit

What about you: where do you like to find your wardrobe basics? What are items essential for your own style/closet?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

WEEKEND + FIVE THINGS

Another weekend!

We had a fairly low-key one with lots of good food, work around the house, date night out (which was….interesting), and a fun Sunday celebrating Father’s Day. This was Ben’s first Father’s Day as a dad, and it was super special to celebrate him as a father for the first time!
We grilled out on Friday night, which is always a good time and there is nothing better about summertime than the smell of smoke and food wafting from the grill on the deck. We did some grilled chicken and veggies, and made big salads and added a side of red quinoa and called it a perfect summer meal. We had plans to make it a movie night, but the little miss had a hard time getting to sleep so it was more of a sit-on-the-floor-beside-the-moses-basket-and-shush-pat-her-to-sleep-for-thirty-minutes kind of night. A different kind of date night in, hehe. 
Saturday was full day of house work, laundry, and trying to get Ayla to sleep. Naps were a little hard to come by that day! She’d fall asleep but wake every ten minutes or so, and have a hard time getting back to sleep. Bless her little soul….although I felt like my own soul needed blessing a time or so throughout the day. I felt like my strength and patience was so weak that day, and I felt like a total mom-wimp for even feeling that way because it was one day and I know that some moms deal with that kind of thing way more than I do with Ayla. She is generally an easy napper, so for me to have this one day that was harder shouldn’t be such a deal! But all you can do in those moments of weakness is stop, calm yourself, and ask for grace…and maybe eat some chocolate cake (which i did, thank you very much). Jesus cares about those little things, and when I took time to just connect with the strength, grace, and patience that He offers, it changed my whole perspective. Being a mom is one of the best things ever, but it does take grace in the challenging moments and days.
We planned to go out for a date night that evening, and Ayla was going to fall asleep in the car and stay sleeping for a few hours while we had a nice, delicious meal together and then I was going to feed her the bottle that I pumped to bring along and we would talk and laugh and be merry and it was going to be a marvelous evening! Well, it went like this…Ayla did not fall asleep in the car and we only made it half-way through our chips and guacamole appetizer before she decided that she was not into this date night thing and the rest of the meal was spent with one of us scarfing down our entrees while the other one walked around the restaurant with her to keep her from crying too loud and annoying all the other customers. We asked for our check fifteen minutes after we got there and quickly paid for our meal and ran! We needed to stop for some groceries and on the way to the store the bottle of milk spills all over me and then all over Ben as he tries to help me stop it and the baby is crying and it all feels a little crazy and out of control! It was literally like one of those moments that you just can’t believe is happening, you know? 
But we stopped and regrouped, and I sat in the car and fed my little one and Ben went into the store and brought groceries for his own Father’s Day meal and it was a date night unlike any other. We just had to laugh at the whole thing on the way home, and remind ourselves that things are just different with a baby. A good different, but definitely different.
Sunday was a nice day and it was foggy and overcast and we even had a nice rain shower or two (these are my favorite kinds of days, if you didn’t know). We had breakfast and watched an online sermon and went for a walk down to the lake in the morning, realizing all over again how much we really will miss our home and the lake and beautiful upstate New York. I wanted to make Father’s Day special and since men generally appreciate food more than flowers, we had a big lunch of lamb chops, roasted asparagus, stuffed mushrooms, salad, and our favorite chocolate cake with our fresh peaches for dessert. We gave him some cards and a gift (Spikeball!) after lunch, and it was truly such fun to celebrate Ben, who is a better man, husband, and father than I ever dreamed I could know. We are so blessed, lucky, and happy to belong to him!
Five things that I love:
– these Target secrets
– this lemonade
– this blog post
– this neat baby carrier idea
– this recipe
What about you: what did you do to celebrate the special men in your life this weekend?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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