The sweater that made this outfit arrived at my house yesterday, & I haven't paid for it yet! This was one of 8 items in my first Amazon Prime Wardrobe box. There will be more boxes (don't tell my husband. He gets really grumpy about organizing the recycling). 
Here's how it works:
1. Head to Amazon. Start your search by clicking on Prime Wardrobe on the left hand side as you're searching.
2. Add up to 8 items to your box!
3. Order! Nothing gets charged to your card until 1 week after it arrives at your house.
4. Run to your porch/mailroom/whathaveyou when your Prime Wardrobe box arrives! You'll get 1 week to try things on. Enjoy, ask friends for their opinions, etc. 
5. Return what you don't want, love what you keep!
Here's what came in my first box:

AWESOME deal. You get this shirt in black & white for $22, total! It's silky but not thin & the length felt great to me. I sized up & didn't regret it.

I love Lucky shirts-- such beautiful details~

My favorite find from this shipment! It's in the top picture, as well. Just perfect. Great weight, soft, perfect length, & it'll look great under a vest, too~

Kate Middleton wears Superga, so I had to try :)  I really liked these, it's just hard to spend $65 on sneakers I probably won't wear until spring... if you live in a place where you can wear white sneakers all winter, definitely click above!

I loved this, but I think I need to get it in another color, since I bought the other wine colored sweater above. This is lightweight, falls really well, & the length was great on me (I'm 5'6").

A super-simple look, but these are comfy & soft & not too tight. 

Last item! I ordered these in a small, & they were a tighter fit than the black & white above. I would suggest sizing up, but there are some cute color combos when you click on the link above.
So that's it! I tried on everything, chose what I wanted to keep, & "returned"  things I didn't want under "my orders" on Amazon. Then, I taped up the box & dropped it off at UPS using the return label that came in the box. Really couldn't be easier, & oh-so-fun! Let me know if you have any questions or if you find anything awesome when you try it out!

The kids & I are all back at school, & PHEW, is it a tough transition. We've had a lot of tears in these first few weeks. The kids are just so tired... I think we may have convinced the man who sold us our new car NOT to have children with how epically they melted while we were shopping. Seriously. Remind me to find a way to apologize to his fiancee. It sounded like she really wanted them.
So, the kids have had a tough time adjusting, even though they're getting about the same amount of sleep they got over the summer. School's just tough work. Pre-k is tough. First grade is brutal. Both kids are doing great all day, so they're holding it together when they need to. We'll get there... and then we'll have to swing by the car dealership. You know, just to say "hi" & "kids can be so fun!" :)

For those of you who don't know, I'm a high school English teacher.  Our last day of school was yesterday, & it ended at 10:30.  I went out to brunch with a few friends, & we left the restaurant around noon.  I don't need to pick up my kids (& they don't want me to pick them up at camp) until at least 4, so I had some time.  I kept trying to brainstorm what to do.  I tried to think of a coffee shop on the way home where I might sit for a bit outside & read, but I couldn't think of one that wouldn't have me chillin' in a parking lot.  I knew, of course, that I could go home & throw in some laundry & catch up on the cleaning... but I have over two months around the house. I'll be doing plenty of laundry.
Therefore, completely on a whim, I decided I was going to the beach.  My school is about 45 minutes from the beach, & it's a little over an hour for me to drive from there to my house.  Totally worth that driving time.  I got there around 1 & walked & walked.  Then I headed over to my favorite beach coffee shop, grabbed an iced, grabbed my book, & leaned against a big rock on the beach & read for a while (I'm reading Wicked City by Beatriz Williams.  She's a fantastic writer of historical fiction, & I'm loving this one). My sister called, I chatted with her, walked the beach some more, & then headed back to the car.
Nothing got accomplished yesterday afternoon (although I did stop on my way home & grab our new laundry basket at Target :) ).  I'm totally ok with that, though.  I got four hours, & rather than do more of the same, I slowed down for long enough to ask myself what I wanted, & then I gave myself permission to do it.  No guilt.  It felt great.  I love going to the beach with my kids, & we'll probably be there in the next week, but it's good to spend some time with yourself, too.  I'm pretty proud of myself for starting the summer off with an eye towards balancing my life so that my needs got met too.  
I'm also glad that I took the opportunity to fly by the seat of my pants.  21st century parents have a tendency to over schedule.  I'm glad I started summer doing the opposite, flying by the seat of my pants & just going where I wanted to go.  I think it's a great attitude to bring to my summer days with my kids.  Kids are wishing for some new stories?  Let's walk to the library.  Drive by a candy store?  Stop.  Band playing in the park?  Sure, the kids can stay up late.
I saw a mailbox on my walk yesterday that said "Seas the Day."  I think I'm going  to  make that the  motto of the summer: "Seas the Day." 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved to read.  As a high school English teacher, I’ve seen the benefits of loving to read.  I could give you all of the lines about exploring new places and hearing new perspectives through reading, and all of that is true.  What is also true is that school tends to be much easier for kids who like to read. It’s easier for them to access information on anything they are passionate about learning, and I can’t imagine a greater gift to give a child.  
When I had my own children, I went looking for books that would get them excited about reading.  I got lots and lots of books, and I borrowed many more from the library. I found that the books my kids were most excited about were the books they could, at an early age, “help” me to read.  For the most part, these were books with silly sounds or rhyming lines that the kids could remember and shout when I got to that part of the story. Reading these books together has been such a joy (over and over and over again…).  They’re well worth picking up!

Trains Go! by Steve Light
Spoiler: Different kinds of trains make different sounds.
Best line for kids: “Squeak clang ting, bing bing bing!”
Also great: Cars Go!

Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton
Spoiler: Snuggle puppy is loved.
Best line for kids: “I love who you are; I love what you do, ooh I love you.”
Also great: Pretty much everything by Sandra Boynton.  Our other favorites are Pajama Time! and Moo, Baa, La La La!

Red Truck by Kersten Hamilton
Spoiler: Red Truck saves the day when a school bus gets stuck in the mud.
Best line for kids: “Vroommm!”

Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Spoiler: This is a celebration of all little babies and ends with a sweet line that’s really just an excuse to give your child a bunch of kisses.
Best line for kids: “And both of these babies, as everyone knows, had ten little fingers and ten little toes.”

All the Biscuit books by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Spoiler: Biscuit is a cute little puppy who sometimes gets in a little trouble but has a wonderful relationship with his little girl.
Best line for kids: “Woof woof!”

Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Spoiler: Knuffle Bunny gets left at the laundromat.
Best line for kids: “Knuffle bunny!”
Also great: everything else by Mo Willems. His Elephant and Piggie books for beginning readers are fantastic.

Just One More by Jennifer Hansen Rolli
Spoiler: Ruby always asks for “just one more.”
Best lines for kids: “And what’s this? Just one more kiss? Ok, Ruby. Just one more.” “Again! Again!”

This is a fun book that, like this other books on this list, will have your kids saying, “Again! Again!”

My kids are regular kids.  Translation: sometimes they fight.  And by sometimes I mean "everyday, at some point/points, every single day, they duke it out."  A friend of mine & I were griping about our children's fights, & she said her mom gave her advice when she had her second child.  She said, "When things get bad, just add water.  Throw them in the tub."

I have found that to be some of the best advice I've gotten (second-hand) as a parent.  It really does restart the day.  Granted, it might be weird to just throw your kids in the tub in the middle of the day, but when things have gotten really ugly, it's worth it.  I'm sure it will change as the kids get older & stop tubbing together, but for now, it's fantastic.  It always distracts them from whatever moods they're in & introduces a fresh activity.  Life is usually (not always, but usually) a little calmer once they're out.

And on the days it's not calmer, heck, at least I got something checked off the to-do list.  You've got to celebrate wins whenever you have them. :)

Here are some of the biggest hits from our tubby time-- the kids LOVE bath fizzies (we've ordered this set), & glow tubbing is also super popular! 

Don't mind me.  I'm just finishing up crying after watching the episode of Sister Wives when Maddie, one of the first children born into the Kody Brown family, gave birth.  I've seen every episode of this show, & I've struggled to explain why I'm so hooked to people who haven't seen it.  The family is polygamist, & Kody has four wives.  This is a very different world from the one I come from, but over the years, I've converted several people to the show, my mom included.

Their family looks very different from ours.  18 kids, 4 houses... & Maddie's birth was very different from my births.  She chose home birth; I didn't have that option but wouldn't have chose it if I could.  I had just my husband & the nurses & doctor.  She had, I think, her husband, the midwives, two or three of her moms, & her dad coaching her.  My dad came to the hospital the day my daughter was born... but he showed up to hold her after everything was all cleaned up. He definitely did not coach my husband as he caught Ginny coming out ("You don't understand how slippery they are").  In fact, my husband wanted no part of catching her.  He's a head-of-the-bed kind of husband... & I was fine with that.  It was a very, very different birth.

And yet, as they all reflected on baby Axel's birth, it became clear just how much family is family is family.  They all marveled at the beauty of the creation of life & at their new roles in this baby's life.  You saw the look of absolute love in the new grandparents' eyes... the same look my parents' eyes have when they look at the kids, & the same look Matt's parents have.  We may not be polygamists, but love is love is love, & it's so nice to get a glimpse of it in someone else's house while you sit on your couch.  That's my kind of reality tv. 

You know those stories of mothers who react in a split second & save their children?  They throw themselves in front of vehicles & lift cars with their love. They risk life & limb.  Well, I'm writing this while sitting in pain on my couch because I did the same thing.  I was walking out of the mall today & slipped on ice.  As I flew towards the ground, I twisted my body in a gesture of protection, & I'm paying the price tonight.  Thing is, my kids weren't with me.  I nearly broke myself to keep from dropping my coffee.
Coffee & I have been together for over 20 years.  I'm not going anywhere, coffee.  Sure, we "took a break" when I was in my first trimester with the kids, but as soon as the second rolled around, we got back together-- mostly half-caf & decaf, but we were together.  Now, we're together twice a day, more if I really need you (you know, when I'm cold, or tired, or bored... you fill all my needs).
So as we head into the season of love, here's my list of reasons why coffee is my Valentine (don't tell my husband):
1. You are there for me when I'm at my most needy & unpleasant
2. You change yourself to make me happy (I can add cream, caramel, sugar, flavor shots...Baileys... you'll be whatever I want you to be)
3. You are my security blanket.  This is big.  When I'm going to a social situation that I'm not totally comfortable, I always stop & get a coffee first.  It makes me feel safe & gives me something to keep me looking busy.  
4. You & I have shared many, many, many happy moments with friends & family together.  My people don't break bread, they drink coffee.
5. You make sure I'm awake every day.  That's also big. 
So, coffee, this Valentine's Day, I hope you know how loved you are.  My life wouldn't be the same without you.  So yes, I will crash my elbow into the ground to keep you safe.  You do for me so I'll do for you.  That's what love is all about.

I was just getting sleepy & wrapping up for the evening when I heard that sound.  That sound every set of mom ears is uniquely tuned into-- the cry of a kid.  In a heartbeat, I'm wide awake & running upstairs.  James had had a nightmare.  He was crying & calling my name when I came into his room.  He didn't want to tell me what the dream was; I'm not even sure he knew, so I just laid him down & laid down with him. Within a minute or two, he was asleep again.  
I wish that every fear he ever had for his whole life could be solved that easily.  Alas, life is not that simple, but any time my presence can comfort my child & solve his or her problem, man, I'm there. There is no greater feeling than kissing away your child's worries, & I'm so grateful whenever I can.    Sleep be darned :)

For the past week, as I've been grading & blogging, I've been switching between CNN & binge watching Season 3 of Fuller House.  I know.  It's a little weird.  That said,  I hate to be out of touch with what's going on in the world, but then I need to get away from it & escape to that impossibly large house in San Francisco.  After hearing about so much that disturbs me, saddens me, & disgusts me, I need a few dance sequences.  I need someone to say "How rude!"  I need Uncle Jesse.
I've accepted that this is who I am.  My GoodReads book list is similar.  I've read almost everything John Irving has written, & one of my favorite books from last year was The Last Days of Night, about Tesla & Edison.  I also have almost all of the mysteries of James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, & Stuart Woods on there, as well as a good amount of Young Adult lit (for work, I swear :) ).  In short, I'm all over the board.  
And that's ok.  I am smart & curious & reflective.  I also cried at the Season 3 finale of Fuller House.  I'm ok with this dichotomy.  It allows me to feel happy & balanced.  Now the big question is, what should I watch until Season 4 of Fuller House comes out??

A friend of mine recently asked me what my "end game" was with this blog.  Truth is, I have no idea.  I know that I'm really enjoying being creative & writing again.  I'm enjoying getting to know some of my readers around the country.  Weirdly, I find that my life feels more balanced since I started this project, which sounds bizarre since I'm busier.  I'm busy in a good way, though, & clearly blogging offers me something I needed to be doing.  I'm having so much fun with this!
I don't dream of this turning into my full time job, however.  I also love teaching.  I have a really hard time imagining walking away from being with the kids every day, even if this blog somehow started turning a huge profit... so I guess what I'm doing now is my end game.  I want to write & search for deals online & connect with readers & other bloggers.  This blog is my dream just the way it is :)
I do have to say, though, that I'm getting vicarious joy from reading about what's going on on some bigger blogs.  For example, Living in Yellow is getting to design a clothing line with Gibson.  How exciting is that!  She clearly did want to make her blog her full time job, & boy, mission accomplished!  She has a staff!  Good for her!  It's really neat that we live in a time when there are so many resources to help people create the lives they'd like to live.    
If you're thinking of starting a blog in 2018, you can check out my Pinterest page called Blogging in the USA.  I've found lots of resources if you're looking to try this out!  

I should be grading.  I've been off of work for just over a week, & I've barely done any.  I have, however, lived Christmas to the fullest. The kids & I met my mom at the mall Christmas Eve day to watch the last minute shoppers, celebrated Christmas Eve at my in-laws, Christmas morning at our house, & Christmas night at my parents'.  We slept over at my parents' for more family time, had a bonus Christmas at my sister's house, babysat their friend Lucas for a day, & hunkered down in the house for two frigid days before hosting my sister & brother-in-law & their kids for New Year's.  We played with the kids' new toys & discovered just how well Ginny can read.  James got a I Spy book at the library & spent hours devouring it in our laps.  I may have spent a bit of time on my phone, but generally speaking, I lived in the moments with my kids this week.  It was awesome.

Then, today, it was clear that it was time to take down the tree.  We have a real one, & needles were falling off... no, basically, branches were falling off.  It had to be done, & as the ornaments came down, melancholy rolled over me like a Mack truck.  James found a train ornament he'd picked out on Veteran's Day.  I remembered the day he bought it when I'd been looking forward to the whole season-- picking & decorating the tree, visiting Santa, riding the Polar Express, driving around looking at lights, & then, of course, opening on the big day.  Now all those moments had passed, & my kids would be a year older the next time they came around.  

So I cried.  I cried & tried to distract myself & then cried some more.  I'm proud of how often we live in the moment with the kids, but even when you do, those moments still pass.  I wish I had some wisdom to write here about it, but I don't.  You don't get to play Santa forever, & eventually they don't want to read I Spy books in your lap.  And that sucks.  But I also know people who've lost children, whose children are frozen in time for them, so I'm not letting myself stay in this mood for long.  It is a blessing that they keep growing.  I have so much to be grateful for & to pay attention to...

For example, while I was busy trying to pull it together today, the kids decided that they wanted to help clean up after the tree.  James got the vacuum & attached the stick thing & spent probably 45 minutes sucking needles out of the cracks between our floor boards.  Ginny decided to make her doll's Jeep into a "snow plow" to clean up the needles in the kitchen.  All of this activity happened while they were dressed as superheroes (naturally).  If I'm too busy feeling bad that these days will one day end, I'll miss the day that Spiderman & Batman clean my floors.  Good thing I do keep my phone handy-- I took pictures.  When these days have passed, I'll be darned if I don't have plenty of ways to remember them.  These are pretty awesome days.

I really resisted the Elf on the Shelf.  I really, really didn't want to do it.  I couldn't wrap my head around spending $29.95 on a little doll & then telling the kids that the doll was watching them to report back to Santa like a vindictive little spy, and oh, yes, if you touch it you ruin its magic.  What a terrible, horrible tradition.  I was having none of it.
Then, the kids started going to a friend's house two mornings a week and they had a elf.  If we didn't get an elf, my kids would somehow feel rejected.  Much as I didn't want them being spied on by a little doll, being rejected by one seemed worse.  That's how Snowflake came into our lives last year.
I didn't do anything terribly creative with it last year, but we had our fun.  Snowflake read a tiny book one day & hung from a few ornaments on the tree.  She wrapped tinsel around the stairs.  The kids loved her.  I was indifferent but did my mom-duty and moved her around every evening until it was time for her to return to the North Pole on December 24th.
After we celebrated Thanksgiving this year, I knew we had to get ready for Snowflake's return.  One more thing to do in the evening, right?  Great.  Then something happened that changed my perspective.
The news of November 29th felt like a gut punch.  On a global scale, our standoff with North Korea freaked me out.  One of my students asked, "We're kind of in a Cold War now, aren't we?," and it became my job to have that conversation with her.  Then, the news about Matt Lauer really, really got to me.  I've been thinking about it, and I think it's because I welcomed him into my home every morning I was around.  I watched him every day on both of my maternity leaves.  I watched he and Katie Couric try to do their jobs through their own devastation as the Towers fell.  The news made me feel angry, betrayed, and scared.  (See a great article about this in Scary Mommy-- the link is below.)
This is a hard time to be a high school teacher.  The issues the kids are seeing every day in the news are really hard to navigate.  They're trying to figure out who and what to trust and what a good adult looks like.  As an educator, I do the best I can to help them as they enter adulthood, but I wish it wasn't such an ugly time.  I'm grateful that my husband and I have been able to shelter our little ones from most of the vitriol and ugly stories in the news right now.
That brings me back to the Elf on the Shelf, because this year, I am freaking EMBRACING that Elf.  We need a little holiday magic.  We need something to look forward to every morning.  I need something to look forward to every morning, and the kids' faces as they race around looking for Snowflake are pretty magical.  I'm going to ask Snowflake to ignore when my kids are being unpleasant, not report back to Santa, and just join me in basking in their innocence.  Adulthood and adult issues will come soon enough.  In the meantime, I'll do everything in my power to give my kids a little magic this holiday season.

I've planned on putting together a post of kids' books forever.  I know it's not the main mission of this page,  but if you're feeling like you're wearing mom jeans... you might be a mom.  And if you are a mom, you might be looking for kids' books, especially to give as presents this time of year.  I'm not an elementary school or preschool teacher, but I was raised by a elementary school reading consultant (now principal) & I've spent quite a bit of time finding & tons of time sharing books with my kids.  I'm happy to share what I've found!

I went to set up a widget (those little clickable pictures below) on Shop Style Collective, the site I use to find a lot of my links.  They don't even have a major book retailer on there, like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but the widget quickly got huge regardless, & all I included were books we owned!  So what you'll see pictured below are books we own & enjoy.  These books are appropriate for babies to age six, I'd say.  Please feel free to go to town checking out any of those!  They won't disappoint.  If you'd like a little more direction, here are some of my other favorites that you can get on Amazon. 

Board book both of my kids LOVED, Red Truck: 

First book my daughter loved so much she learned to "read" (could recite), Knuffle Bunny:
-- this one was given to her by her former reading consultant grandmother -- it's so good! 

 First book my son loved so much he could "read" (knew what sound each train made on each page), Trains Go: 

Best classic for kids, Madeline: 
My daughter & I have matching teeshirts of Madeline. She & I can basically recite that book.

​Book I have super happy memories of snuggling & reading with the kids, Someone's Sleepy: 

Holiday Fun!
And for the holidays, I asked my kids to tell me their favorite characters.  Ginny said Pete the Cat & James said Curious George. Here are the holiday books starring those two crazy animals:
Pete the Cat Saves Christmas: (if you want to truly lose your mind before Christmas, download the song.  My kids love it.  Me, well... not so much.
Merry Christmas Curious George:

We have also read all of the books below many, many times.  I hope this post gives you some new ideas for books to share with the children in your life.  There really is nothing better than snuggling with a great kid & a great book!

I know that I started this blog with an eye towards shopping for myself.  I've definitely been doing that!  The truth is, though, I do love shopping for my kids, especially this time of year.  LOVE IT.  I think I get more excited about Christmas morning than the kids do.  I love the shopping, looking for deals online & picking up little things as I find them.  I enjoy staying up drinking Bailey's & hot chocolate & wrapping.  I love it all.
I love finding things that allow the kids to be creative.  If you're looking for ideas for little people in your life, here you go!  I also give the kids books at Christmas, & I'm an English teacher who was raised by a elementary school reading consultant.  I know my way around kids' books, & I want them to get their own post later.  Hang in there if you're looking for book recommendations! Here are a bunch of things I've actually bought & happily recommend!

One sip of a Starbucks bottled Frappacino & I'm a freshman in college again.  The scent of Bath & Body Works Country Apple Body Splash & I'm a high school sophomore.  The opening cords of any song from Counting Crows August and Everything After & I'm a high school freshman again.  

Truth be told, I've spent a lot of time deliberately seeking out these sensory experiences lately.  I don't think it's escapism, exactly.  It's nostalgia.  I miss the 90s.  I remember the boxy clothes.  I remember the scrunchies.  I remember how many of the boys in high school kept their wallets on a chain.  Still, I want to go back in my mind to that time in a very visceral way.  

I recently read this amazing article 

It articulated much better than I can what might be pulling me back there. I remember when we didn't have the Internet. I remember when I had the Internet, but it took so long to log in that I used to come home from work, start the dial-up process, & then go & make a cup of coffee & hope it had logged on by the time I put the creamer in. Now, you don't have to commit-- you're always online, & I feel the effect it has on me sometimes.
So I get when Bath & Body Works rereleased all the smells of the mid-nineties. I get why we can all buy crushed velvet again (I loved my long sleeve, dark green crushed velvet semi-formal dress!!). I can't get on board with the bodysuit trend-- I guess there's a limit to my nostalgia, & it's wearing clothing designed exactly like a onesie-- but I get why others have. I don't want to spend too much time in the past, but I don't think there's any harm in spending your retail dollars fondly remembering the past. What brings you back to your "good old days"?

Going back a few years for this story... but I've been thinking about it lately.
Back when I was getting married, I went with my mother to pick her dress.  It was really pretty, with a cream lace top and latte colored skirt.  As it often goes, they didn't have her size.  We picked it out based on the sample, but when it came in, ONE WEEK BEFORE THE WEDDING, it fit differently than we thought it would.  It was low cut-- nothing scandalous, really, but definitely not what mom would have picked.  The woman who worked there told my mom to "embrace her womanly figure."  I saw my mom's face when she said that... not gonna happen.  
I'm not great at confrontation, but when I'm advocating for someone I love, I can do it.  While my mom got changed back into her regular clothes, I took the saleswoman aside.  I told her, "My mother is an elementary school principal.  She doesn't want cleavage on her daughter's wedding day.  If you don't fix this, we're going to leave here, get in the car, & go to Boston to find another dress."  
That did the trick.  They got the dress company to overnight more lace to the store & remade the dress.  It looked awesome.
The moral I've recently discovered to this story?  Embrace you.  You'll never be able to truly pull off something just because someone tells you to.  It doesn't matter if something is expensive or "in," if you're not going to feel right in it, don't wear it.  For me, that means no cold shoulders and camouflage clothing.  No cold shoulders because I'm always cold.  Why would I wear clothing that promised I'd be cold?  No camo because I've always disliked camo.  I'm not going to allow trends to change my feelings about camo.  I'll never look good in clothing that genuinely isn't me.   What are you unwilling to "embrace"?

And I wanted to share some of my favorite smells of fall.  I've smelled all of the Yankee Candle scents here, & it's a split between MacIntosh & Autumn Leaves for my fall favorites.  I've smelled most of the Gilt candles here & they're also lovely.  I just thought it would be fun to add them here because I'm feeling very Autumn-ish on this first day of fall....  
And it candles don't get you feeling fall-y enough, Starbucks' Maple Pecan latte will put you over the edge.  Seriously.  I have a new favorite latte.

I started this project near the end of the summer, and in my line of work, that's a great time to make a change.  I started back to work (I teach high school English) last week, and each day, I tried to stick to my goal of thinking about what I was wearing, putting a little time into it, and choosing things that made me feel good.   Each day at work, at least one person has complimented me on my outfit or accessories.  
Once I noticed this trend, I found myself feeling a little vain.  Why did I care what other people thought about how I looked?  You're not supposed to let other people determine your self esteem, right?  So here I was, apparently accomplishing what I sent out to do, and feeling oddly guilty about it.  
Then, yesterday, I saw a student I taught last year (who was used to my old "style"). She told me, in typical high-school-speak, that I was "rocking it [my outfit]," and that compliment shifted my thinking.  My school is the place where 1000 kids go every day.  If you head out of the house looking scruffy and unkempt, it says something to the people you see when you get where you're going.  When you look like you spent some time preparing to go somewhere, you say that you care about where you're going, and when people compliment you, they're telling you that they get that you care.    
I think that we all get that at some level.  That's why we all spent lots of time getting ready for dates.  Somehow, though, we lose sight of that and go into outfit-survival-mode:  Is it clean?  Does it fit?  I'm putting it on.  
I'm definitely done with that thinking.  I'd prefer to think that I'm letting my students and colleagues (and family and friends) know that I care when I'm getting ready to spend time with them.  And I won't feel guilty or vain if they compliment me.  I'll just smile and say thanks.

I never really thought of ordering clothing from Amazon until recently, but I've been super-lucky with my last few purchases. Cute stuff at fantastic prices (the advantage of Amazon taking over the world is that they have so many customers things can be sold for cheaper prices-- check out what's happening with Whole Foods' prices since Amazon bought it!). Still figuring out how to narrow down my searches and learning that it's important to read reviews! I got one shirt that showed up with holes in the seams... but I've also had some big hits.  Anyone have advice for how to find great stuff from the great big world of Amazon?
​Two great buys I've recently gotten from Amazon:

           And some cool stuff I'm looking at...