Category: TOVA’S MUCHNESS PIC OF THE DAY

Tova’s Muchness Challenge – Day 30 – Unexpected Side Effects Of The Muchness

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I’ll be honest.
I started this post with a very lofty goal of writing something deep and meaningful about how introducing The Muchness into my family has helped ease a lot of that tension that can sometimes build up below the surface of a marriage and the responsibility of raising kids.
But it was getting wordy . Imagine that.
Frankly, it’s just something I have been paying attention to lately. (Something I plan to talk about on MakePeaceAtHome.com‘s radio show- Booyah!) How so many of our fun family moments might never exist if not for The Muchness??
Today we went to the park. In the car there the four of us were belting that “This is not a drive-by” song. Even Liat pipes in with the by-ay-ay-ay-ay – so cute. It was totally fun and kookoo and awesome. TOTAL side effect of The Muchness.
We played at the park and then Molly asked if she could get ices.
Against all the sanity and logic in the world, we bought them EACH these huge firecracker ice pops that were, without a doubt, the most mess-likely option in the cart.
We sat with our 400 napkins in the sun on the grass, and bathed in the sticky, rainbow, disgusting drippies that poured out of the bottom of these ices onto all three of us.

This didn’t stress me out. This didn’t annoy me. This mess of gooey disgustingness… it very well should have not made me happy. You can see by the way I’m holding my hands that I seriously didn’t want to touch anything, But Liats hand- The one on my knee, that was like, coated in liquid sugar.
But I was happy. I was relaxed. I was laughing and making up songs about the baths we were all gonna have to take when we got home.
It works. Tap into it.
Love & Muchness!!
Tova

Tova’s Muchness Challenge – Day 27 – Paying attention to the moments

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This headshot challenge has been awesome. I plan to do a lil talking time video to tell you why tomorrow. (See, this is what my new teacher at Rich, Happy & Hot B-school – Marie Forleo calls “Social Accountability”… when we put our plans out there and then know that people are expecting us to follow through, we don’t want to look like a fool, so we are more likely to follow through. I, being kinda camera shy (yes, it’s true) would probably find some reason to flake on my plans to do a video conclusion about this 30 day Headshot challenge, but now that I’ve splattered this verbal commitment all over my homepage, I better deliver. No, really, I better. Or make me feel like a fool. Please. I’m serious.)

As I was saying- loving the headshot challenge because it’s been making me take stock of mu Muchness Moments even without realizing it.

I was sitting in our home office upstairs working when I heard Elie, downstairs, fart. Big time. (He doesn’t read my blog so he’ll never know I wrote this….hahaha)

I IMed him from upstairs:

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And me, at my computer, enjoying the moment, grateful as hell I wasn’t in the room with him. 🙂

….No time to waste!! B-school starts on Monday!! Gotta get prepped!!!!….

Tova’s Muchness Challenge – Day 26!!! You still with me?

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“Buy one pair  I’ll give you another pair for FREE!!”

Dude on the street musta yelled that 40,000 times today. And yesterday, and the day before that. And I pass this dude on the street, every day. It’s possible I’ve passed him every day for years. But I’ve never noticed. looking at his ghost town of a table, no one else did either.

Today, as I dashed out of work to grab some lunch I found myself waiting for the light to change and he was, like, all up in my ear. And right next to him in my ear was my brain with a little voice that said “Oh- remember? Liat spent 15 minutes the other day bashing your sunglasses against the pavement and now they’re more scratched up than a Real NJ Housewife after a catfight. Go look. Even if they’re ugly, you can muchify em.”

So I looked, And they weren’t ugly. So I asked, “How much?” and he replied “$10 a pair….. but you get one free so that comes out to $5 a pair.”

$5 a pair? That’s it? That’s half the price of the sushi I am about to go buy and that’ll be gone in 58 seconds!

I gave the guy a piece of advice: “You really should be yelling $5 a pair or 2 for $10.”

He looked at me funny and called out “Buy one pair and I’ll give you another pair for free!”

…. I guess he didn’t like my advice. Though seriously, If I knew the dude across the street from my office was selling $5 sunglasses, I’d be buying sunglasses like, at least once a week. But I guess he didn’t learn his sales techniques at Wharton Business School.

Anyhow, I needed to make up for lost sunglasses buying opportunities and purchased two pairs, for $10 each. And then I got 2 more pairs. For free. :-

Tova’s Muchness Challenge – Day 25- It’s Not a Headshot!!!

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Y’all know what my face looks like already. Today- no headshot. It’s something else I wanted to share with you.

I bought a groupon for some laser hair removal! I know! That is exactly what you were expecting to hear, right?!? I can see that bewildered look on your face… And now you’re wondering if I’m gonna do a 30 day laser hair removal challenge. Rest easy my friend, I will not.

I likely would not have thought about going for Laser Hair removal but I bought the groupon cuz it was a good deal, and the thought of never shaving my armpits again also seemed like a good deal. So today I went.

Turns out, the laser hair removal doctors office was in the very same building as the grief counselor I saw after I lost the twins. I didn’t see her for very long, since I found that, for me, sharing my feelings with other baby loss moms online was really the best therapy, but the few times I saw her were definitely helpful. Just having a place to say some of the things I needed to say out loud, being able to spill my guts to a stranger and not feel judged or like it made them uncomfortable to hear someone talk about their dead babies was incredibly helpful. She also left me with some insights that have stayed with me- particularly the concept of shadow sadness that can follow you, popping up when you don’t necessarily consciously expect it, just casting it’s darkness over you.  Recognizing it when it arrives has, so many times, helped me move through it without getting too buried underneath it.

Anyway, I’ve thought a few times about reaching out to her and sharing this community with her, but honestly, I didn’t think I’d actually ever do it.

But there I was, underarms burning like a mofo, I sat on the stairs and wrote her a note and included my hot-off-the-printing-press business card.

I slid the note through the mailbox of her darkened office, and I assume she’ll get it sometime tomorrow… and then visit the site…. and then read what I am writing… now… as I write it… so…. Hey Dr. K! 🙂

Muchtastic ABC Chart – DIY – (And Day 22 of My Headshot Challenge! :) )

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So here’s how it began, back in 2011,

I was in the dollar store, that place is like a 7th heaven.

I’m always finding stuff that others might see as trash,

For me it looks like tiles to redo my backsplash!

Sitting on a shelf looking really quite distressed

were these wooden cubes with photos, I was really not impressed.

But then I saw the sticker, it was 3 frames for one dollar!

“you cant just leave them here!” I heard my brain a’hollar

So I took a set of three, and put it in my cart,

but I couldn’t just stop there, had to listen to my heart.

So I took another set, then another and one more

And when I turned around, I had cleaned out the whole store!

So I brought my purchase home, and stacked them by the treadmill,

Where that sat, and sat , and sat.

(Clearly, the threadmill got no use either. But anyway…)

And then one day it hit me, just clear out of the blue

I would make an ABC chart that sparkled and was cute!

Glitter paper I selected that everyone would want

and by computer I designed it, it’s all about the font!

I printed out the letters, backwards and to size.

then spray mounted them to cardstock, and I can tell no lies-

that cutting it was tedious, I had to use a blade,

but in the end I love  it, though my fingertips were frayed.

The frames I put together with a staple gun and tape.

it held it all together and I’m pretty sure it’s safe.

I laid out all the colors and arranged them out just right,

did I mention when I did this it was always past midnight?

But finally it was complete, I will admit I’m proud.

Sharing it on my website is the closest to a crowd.

That I can show and ask “You like?” and hope to get some comments,

(I have nothing to rhyme with “comments” but am leaving it there anyway, hint hint.)

My kids they love it and they point and sing the ABC’s

And in the daytime all the glitter brings me to my knees. 🙂

So thanks for reading all about this project I completed.

If you wanna, I’d be happy, just to know it’s tweeted!