greatest hits

how is everyone?  things are good here.  we are all home for a snow day, even chris.  this makes it an even better day, since he is our favorite.

did you watch the oscars last night?  we did and haven't seen one nominated movie besides 'how to train your dragon 2'.  embarrassing.

have you seen any?  favorites?

my favorite non-movie moments were: gaga, patricia arquette's speech and jen aniston's dress (duh).

please excuse the poor quality of most of these pics.  my camera battery was dead.

and i am lazy.

here's a peek at what's happening lately, in no particular order.

1) the hoosiers wrapped up their first season and to be honest, i am sad it's over.

turns out i love first grade basketball.

my boy is quite the defender.  over the course of the season, he went from a boy who wanted nothing to do with the ball to a boy that finally scored his first basket in the last game of the season.

2) daddy's home!  he wins the most popular parent award by a landslide.

they adore him and so do i.

3) the funny thing about this age is that kids are starting to have bday parties in the same places they did when i was a kid.

sometimes being a parent is similar to being transported to the past in a time machine.

hokey-pokeyin'

4) so chris' friend gave him a bottle of deep eddy lemon vodka.

it had me at hello.

that is all.

5) my brother-in-law got married!  congrats to matt and celeste!

6) i picked up my niece from school on fat tuesday.  she promptly requested this song and sang the whole thing behind her mardi gras mask.

7) we are trying to get the family business on social media (we're pretty old-fashioned).

if you are on instagram and want to see some of our custom furniture finishes, you can follow us @martinpainting.

8) and then there's this.  always dancing.

looking forward to back-to-back avett brother concerts this weekend!

how was your week?

what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

gratitude

my oldest son is a complainer.  he's a glass-half-empty kind of guy.  he is equally adorable and intense and hilarious and sensitive.  but his first instinct in every situation, especially a new one, is to resist and gripe.  we initailly thought this was a phase.  as it turns out, this phase has lasted about five years.  this may just be his personality.  and in all honesty, many times, my first instinct is to bitch (and bitch and bitch and bitch).  i've discovered that it takes effort on my part to rewire my brain.  plus, being negative is exhausting and being surrounded by negativity is even more so. 

chris and i have worked diligently to remind him of the good in every situation. we make him tell us what he's thankful for. we play "mad, sad, glad" at the dinner table every night.  parenting is a lot like cooking spaghetti, you throw a handful of noodles at the wall and hope that at least some of them stick. 

here is my attempt at leading by example. expressing gratitude never hurt anybody. 

1) i have been constructing this post in my head for well over a week, but haven't had a spare minute to sit down and commit to it.  tonight, my boys are in bed, my husband is at a concert with friends, and i have some peace and quiet.  

i am thankful for this moment.

2) for christmas, my best friend gifted us a night away. we redeemed it on saturday night.  what that means is she watched the kids, while chris and i went to my parents' lakehouse.  we spent the beautiful afternoon outside at cedar creek brewery, drinking beer and having hours of uninterrupted adult conversation. we followed it with a catfish dinner, a 9pm bedtime and almost twelve full hours of sleep.  it was blissful.  i am thankful for my husband.  i am thankful for marcy, who always knows exactly what i need and when i need it.  thank you, friend.

3) i was a teacher once for many years. teaching is hard, y'all.  i taught in low-income schools, in transient communities, kids who needed a lot of attention and a lot of love and who required a lot of patience.  it's a toss-up to when i've cried the most in my life: my first year of teaching or those first few months as a first-time mother.  and as if those circumstances weren't challenging enough, i taught sixth-graders.  they were like puppies with giant paws, stinky, cute, hyper and annoying.
years have passed and these babies have grown-up.  just recently, i was contacted by a former student in a facebook message who is currently serving in the military and is stationed in spain.  he is a man, he drinks beer, he serves our country, and he remembers his sixth-grade teacher.  i was able to thank him for his service and cry tears of joy.  in michael's with my family a few weeks ago, i was approached by an employee and former student.  i was able to hug her, and listen to her tell me briefly about her struggles and her triumphs, and see face to face the woman she has become.  i was so proud and smiled for days.  this is what it's about.  this.
i am thankful for anthony and destiny.

4) my friend and photographer, melissa, has used images she took of my kiddos on sample products and promo materials.  the other day she gave me...for free...some sample canvases that she no longer offers to her customers.  because of her kindness, i got to see my babies when they were babies and be reminded of how sweet and little they once were.  
i am grateful for melissa for her thoughtfulness.

5) facebook has it's problems, no doubt.  i have hidden a lot of what i do not want to see.  it is especially a pain in the ass around an election.  but still i cannot help but love it.  it has helped me promote coco custom in a way that feels right.  and because of that limited exposure, i have been lucky enough to draw portraits for 1) a sweet friend from high school, 2) the sister of a dear college friend, 3) a friend of a darling friend of mine from my very first job post-college and 4) my bff from the fifth grade all within this past month.  i feel supported and connected and so incredibly lucky. 

 i am thankful for facebook, of all things.

6) i may be artistic but i am NOT crafty, therefore my kid's valentine's cards have been store-bought for years now, despite the pinterest pressure.  but every once in a while, pinterest can save your ass by the way of (free!!!) minecraft printables.  i am thankful for those super crafty mommy-bloggers who create really simple, cute things that you can download for free.  isn't that nice of them?  i mean, really.

oh friends, that felt good.  

what are you thankful for?  i would love to know.

love,

coco

p.s. i am thankful for you.

a case of the mondays

normally monday is like any other day.

not today.

we had a superbowl party last night.  while we were sleeping, our annabelle decided to have a rager and ate a platter full of cookies off of the kitchen counter.  then she decided to vomit repeatedly all over our beautiful west elm rug.  then on the hardwoods.  then in her crate while we were at work.

i should really be more concerned about her well-being, but i'm just not (she's fine, i promise.  already back to her old self, aka on my nerves).

the puke stains on the rug quickly spiraled into me forgetting my bag at home, idiots driving under the speed limit the entire commute to work, a super busy work day and a grumpy first-grader to boot.

i know, i know. 

i have been trying to reverse my mood all day.  i have come up with three things that have made me feel slighty less murder-y:

1) this video of will ferrell lip-syncing a beyonce song on late night with jimmy fallon. i. can't. even.

i wish i could stream will ferrell all day at my desk.  is there a way to do that and still get work done?  this video is long but his beyonce bit is first.  i DARE you not to laugh. 

2) d'angelo's new cd.  specifically this song.

there are a few cd's i wore out in college.  one being d'angelo's album, voodoo (and a few others, including this one and this one).

so um, yea, he just performed on saturday night live and he no longer looks like this:

and now looks more like a black eccentric johnny depp/hobo/vacquero/artsy weirdo.

but that's ok, because his music is so, so good AND i am mature enough to know that looks aren't everything AND true love lasts forever.

3) i worked out. 

so there.

what do you do to try to get out of a funk?

you've been so quiet lately, i'd love to hear from you.

peace out and love you forever,

coco

p.s. the drawing of annabelle was a christmas gift for chris.  isn't it awesome?  i ordered it here.