7qt / lady mary, liam neeson and new lenses

1. 

First, Downton-related news: We all knew Lady Mary would begin taking roles in American projects at some point, but playing a bare-armed flight attendant opposite Liam Neeson in an action-thriller didn't seem to be the obvious choice. Ah well. Cute haircut.

2. 

Changing gears: In the words of the Dowager, "Oh, goody goody!"

I was hoping to get some award for traveling the furthest to get to Austin this summer, but I foiled my own plans by talking lovely Tricia (of Seattle!) into coming as well! Starstruck will be one feeling I know I'll experience at that gathering this summer. Footloose-and-fancy-free will probably be another. Many thanks to all the ladies doing all the things to make it a wonderful time.

3. 

Speaking of mothers, this article explains why the BEST time of day is when Sean gets home and takes the kids downstairs to play. Pandemonium reduction, not dishwashing, is the way to a woman's heart--because the dishes don't get in squabbling matchings over who gets to wear the fireman's hat.

In 2011, the sociologists Shira Offer and Barbara Schneider found that mothers spend, on average, 10 extra hours a week multitasking than do fathers "and that these additional hours are mainly related to time spent on housework and child care."

... UCLA researchers took saliva samples from most of the subjects of their study to measure levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. They found that while leisure time went a long way toward relaxing fathers, it did far less to subdue anxiety in mothers. So what, you may ask, did calm the mothers?

Simple: Seeing their husbands make a bigger effort to reduce the pandemonium in the house.

4. 

I got to escape the pandemonium in my own house for a whole 24 hours last weekend as Sean and I celebrated our five-year anniversary. Through some light sobbing in the car as we drove away, I told Sean I needed to call my friend Kayla (a super mom of two kidlets) for a pep talk.

"Kayla, we just left the boys. How do you do it? How do you leave them and still have a good time?"

"Oh Mare. It's hard. The first time you leave them, it's hard. I think it took me until 11 p.m. on the first night we were gone to realize that hey, it's pretty nice to have some time away."

--looking at my watch which reads 1:15 p.m.--

"So, you're saying it takes about 10 hours."

"Yeah, about that long. But the good news is that the second time you go away, it only takes 30 minutes!"

Love that girl.

5.

We came back on Sunday morning and hugged the heck out of our two little rascals. That night, I slept really well, too well in fact. I woke up groggily on Monday morning to the sound of Amby crying, so I threw on my glasses, started rushing over to the boys' room and--

--ran into a wall. (And broke my glasses.) Welcome back and gooooooood morning.

Have lots of folks had success with those Warby Parker-ish sites? At least half of the Costco frames I tried on this week pinched my head too much for comfort, so I'm hesitant to order glasses online without knowing how they fit, even if it'd be cheaper. Sean tells me I can just measure my head, but... measuring one's own head seems an activity fraught with error. But if any other similarly wide-headed folk have had success with them, I'd love to know.

6.

Cue gratuitous photo of kids in bathtub. With washcloths on heads. For some reason the "Matchmaker" lyrics are humming through my head now. Oh Yente. 

7.

Oh, and what a good season it was, gentlemen.
Best line: *incredulously* "But it's Christmas!"
"Oh, yes...*smiles* Oh, you mean that it really is Christmas." *frowns*

The game is on! So head back to Jen's.