Jessica Ashley facebook twitter babble voices pinterest is a single mama in the city, super-savvy editor, writer, video host and shameless shoe whore.
read more »
Mama Needs New Shoes
Subscribe to Sassafrass by RSS or Email
Follow by RSS feed

OR

Follow by email to have Sassafrass' blog updates delivered to your inbox:

Mama Likey

This area does not yet contain any content.
Search Sassafrass

Entries from December 1, 2006 - December 31, 2006

Sunday
Dec242006

Rockin' around the blogging tag

Since it is Christmas Eve and the boy is wiped out from last-minute shopping and the department-store-competitive wrapping is done and I've resigned myself to sending New Year's cards, this is the first big sigh of relief I've had all week.

Actually, it is the second big sigh. The first cleansing breath took place at the most-needed yoga class of all time yesterday, where I asana-ed my paycheck-never-arrived worries away. That was a glorious two hours and was quickly followed by a take-away lunch and putting Christmas on the credit card we've (sigh) been paying down all year. Now, Bruce and I are enjoying a bit of respite from the holi-mania and sipping on big mugs of coffee and Kahlua while Lil E sleeps soundly in the next room. This quiet, this calm is exactly what I was hoping today would be.

While I am still feeling all this buzz from the true meaning of Christmas (and maybe a teense from the generous shot of liqueur), it seems like a very good time to indulge in the game of blog tag that City Mama sent my way. I'm considering this virtual cocktail party the holiday bash that WAHM/Ds never get. Grab your own breakfasty booze and join me for Five Things You Probably Didn't Know About Grrrlfriend Jess:

  • Bobbellbozoclowncolor I performed on the Bozo Show not once but twice. No, not in the bucket game, with a guitar group. Watch out for me, Stormie! I'm comin' for ya.
  • I have indulged in this on occasion, as much as I hate to admit it.
  • Even though I was a clubber gold-card holder, I totally rocked Sally Jesse's in high school. Owwww!

Now go forth into your Christmukkwanzaasoltice with a bit more peace, knowing that you know your Grrrlfriend a bit better. Foodmomiac, Kim and Doug, you are ohhhhh-so it!


Here's to a wonderful holiday season and a year ahead
full of peace, grace, laughter and amazing adventures
with the ones you love most!

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Dec212006

Where you start to wonder if I seriously need meds or it's just the holiday season

I am a wreck. I am wonderful.  I am totally stressed out over a deadline at one job and really wanting to dig into a new job. I have done about 25% of my holiday shopping and I have no idea when I will squeeze the rest into the next two days. I am absolutely delighting in the amazing moments when Lil E is enveloped by all things Christmas: "I so excited about Santa! I love Baby Jesus!"

I am not letting the pile of dishes or bigger pile of laundry or my desk (oh, my desk) make my eyes swell up and oogle around in hypnotic spirals. I am not worried (honest) that we do not have holiday cards sent or even ordered. In fact, I am really not worried that we haven't even taken chosen a photo for the holiday cards yet. Everyday, I get a charge from plugging in the Christmas tree lights (and not just because we live in a vintage apartment with the most ungrounded outlets of all time) and seeing our beautiful, simple, lovely little tree  stand proud in the midst of our lives and our chaos, our cluttered dining room and our awe.

I keep eating the candy Bruce got from his clients (Dude, why do personal trainers always get fat-ass stuff at the holidays? Is it some kind of revenge, like, "You made me do a bezillion squats so I'm going to seduce your wife into chubbing up with these Frango mints? So not right). 

I am dreaming of a massage and a pedicure and a three-hour trip to see my hairstylist whence I emerge without roots or a bugger of gray streak making its home too close to my face. I am anxious about the tasks and the tedium and yet I am reminding myself many times a day to keep breathing deeply, to be OK just being enough. I am pulling all my energy together to be very present with Lil E in all those precious holiday moments and still, my to-do lists haunts me when I go to sleep. It is just after 10 p.m. and I am ready for bed. I never go to bed at 10 p.m. 

I felt claustrophobic, trapped indoors with a stir-crazy toddler during snowiness and bitter cold and somehow, 45-degrees and rainy just make the mood for the holidays.  I cannot wait for my brother to fly in and I am so excited we will be flying out after Christmas.

I will go to yoga on Saturday because I need it, like I need water and good coupons for last-minute sales. I will go to yoga to absorb the electric female energy in the room and remind myself of the power and the presence of the goddesses on these holiest of days.

I am sentimental that sitting in the Christmas Eve service at my church on Sunday night, listening to the organist weave Widor's Toccata through the pews, watching the acolytes precisely-timed dance from candelabra to candelabra as I once did so reverently, I will be celebrating the very moment that Bruce proposed to me five years ago. I will cry to remember how I told him to put the ring away, scared and shocked and delighted all at once at his beautiful thoughtfulness. I will hug Lil E close to me in the sling as he sleeps in his Christmas jammies while the choir sings Silent Night. I will go home on Sunday night, sad that it is over and full of happiness to have another year before I inhale all that purity and peace once again.

I am a complete wing-nut and I am completely serene. I crazy/elated.

It is my favorite time of the year and I am both lost and drowning in it all.

Click to read more ...

Monday
Dec182006

Can I get that on a t-shirt?

20061217_0002 In my family, we have a song we sing to kids that is not necessarily lovely, but is catchy and funny (and anyway, doesn't every family have one of these silly tunes?). It is easy to sub in the name of any shorty in your fam and the words will stick with you. We sing it to break tension, keep a wiggly boy from falling off the changing table or just elicit those precious toddler audience laughs that every parent vies for:

Lil E is an old stinkpot
Lil E is an old stinkpot
Lil E is an old stinkpot
I love my old stinkpot!


Sweet, huh?  The other night over one of those particularly goofy dinners that seem to happen frequently with a small child who can have a conversation that spans golf to robots to Baby Jesus all in a matter of seconds. In the midst of all of this, Bruce was trying to convince the boy to eat his sweet potatoes.

Bruce, with the all the overdone drama of an acting assignment on America's Next Top Model:  Mmmmm. Sweet potatoes. I love my sweet potatoes. Don't you love your sweet potatoes, Lil E?

Lil E, with a silly, smug smile: I love my robot.

Bruce, even louder: I love my sweet potatoes!

Me, raising my fork in the air: I love my sweet potatoes, too! Hey, Lil E! I love you! Are you my sweet potato?

Lil E, mustering all seriousness: No. I not a sweet potato. I a stinkpot.

And there you have it. I should probably mention that we have called this child Sweet Potato on numerous occasions (as well as Sweet Pea, Cupcake, Pudding, Little Morsel of Sweetness and Light...all the good names fitness-minded/somewhat chubbers/totally food enabling parents call their kiddos).  And I swear those occasions have far out-numbered the Stinkpot song singing.

Regardless, it is what it is and...what is it? At least one therapy session with the bonus of conversations that begin with, "Gaw, Mom. Why did you only ever call me Stinkpot as a kid? That is sooooo ruuuuuude. I'm totally running away."

When that happens, I am sure Bruce and I will do exactly what we did the other night. We will look at each other, laugh, shrug and say together, "OK, Stinkpot."


    

Click to read more ...