The Fabulous Life of Stefanie

Self care has become a sort of battle cry of this generation, a reminder that we have to take care of ourselves in the midst of it all lest we collapse in a ball of exhaustion. We are a busy  people living in a busy world. We work, we parent, we volunteer, we engage our community, we social media and on and on and on.  We also very oftentimes forget to take care of ourselves, and thus this idea of self care as a way to keep ourselves able to fulfill all those other roles. As an on-paper sociologist (read: my degrees in psych and criminal justice and also my total nosy-nelly status) I am interested to know ways that we take keep ourselves from burning out, so I thought I could share some of my own methods because maybe they will spark ideas in your brain as others have in mine. I have to add that my dear husband is in Ireland this week on business, the first time he has ever gone out of state (or country) without us and the first time I have been home alone with the pack (two...

These 'Currently' posts are one of my favorites to do but somehow I haven't done one since October...oh holidays/life/ridiculous New England winter blizzard chaos. Good thing there is so much fun stuff to catch up on...so here we go! Reading I just finished one of Damien Echol's books, Life After Death , and it was so, so good. If you aren't familiar with him, Echols is 1/3 of the West Memphis Three, a group of young men convicted of murdering three young boys in West Memphis Arkansas then sentenced to life (and death row for Echols) with absolutely no evidence outside of the WM3 being into metal and wearing black. I started following the case in high school after hearing Jello Biafra speak about them and eventually wrote my undergrad thesis on them, which included an interview that I managed to do with Eddie Spaghetti from the Supersuckers (another huge supporter of theirs). When I was pregnant with Madeleine they were finally set free through a screwy method us...

Both of us were not feeling well and it was gross out, but Maddie was loving her little hot "coocoo". I have mentioned this before , but every winter I hit a wall where I absolutely, without argument know that I cannot even think about continuing on with any facet of my life and instead need to move somewhere warmer and start all over. It is usually quite dramatic, more often than not involves tears and is always in the presence of and somewhat directed at my dear husband.  Historically, I hit the wall around February; this year I claimed to have hit it back in January, but apparently that was nothing but a half wall or a pony wall or something because I really, truly hit THE wall yesterday. It was ugly. This week has seen a sick toddler, a sick (AGAIN) mama, continued cold temps, lots of to-do lists at work, very little sleep, too many bills owed and a lot of time needed that does not actually exist due to the ridiculous twenty four hours in a day rule.  So, o...

I have the sick in my face! It's in my nose and throat and behind my eyes and I completely dislike it. I felt it coming on just a little bit yesterday morning when I woke up for spin class and it totally trickled along until I got home last night and felt completely demolished. Then I woke up this morning (well, got out of bed after waking up every hour) and it was just a big sick fest. My eyes were crusty and my nose was leaking and I am sure my husband just thought I was the prettiest zombie bride he had ever seen. At least I had this guy to snuggle with (though to his credit, my dear sweet husband was also not feeling aces and was willing to snuggle with my grossness). Normally I would just call out of work and roll over, but today was the last of three days of training at the Shirley Prison Complex and I did not want to miss it (especially the new frame-ready certificate I received). The training was great; it wasn't necessarily new information, but it was a lot of experien...

Why hello there! And a very happy 2011! I hope that everyone had a safe, peaceful and joyous holiday season; I know I sure did. Christmas minus the gifts plus the massive hang out time was a pure success; we were able to share many meals and talks and drinks with most of the people that we love, and thanks to the "great snowstorm of 2010" we even got extra time with Megan and Julian. Score! New Years was a great time spent with the people that we love the most (and a new found vice of mine called whipped cream flavored vodka ). We had Amy, Kendra and Suad over for the evening, and Dave and his lady made a cameo, and we drank and laughed and (everyone but my passed out self) rang in the new year with a bang...well it was more like Kendra and Matty realizing what time it was and apparently Matty did this amazing dance which I missed out on, but still, it was an epic time. The next day we had guests in and out to visit all morning and afternoon, we ate red velvet pancakes and...