Archive for June, 2008
WELCOME
Posted 06.15.08 by annajohnson
THIS IS THE FIRST MONTH IN THE LIFE OF THE YUMMY MUMMY MANIFESTO
May 20th, 2008 is the official publication date of my new baby. And I will not be sleeping on this occasion and instead sitting in front of a giant purple crystal chanting MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMYUMMYMUMMYYUMMMMMMYMUMMMMY over and over in a cloud of Amber incense. Um, not quite. More likely I will be home making some mushy frozen pea chicken concoction for my son. Still, I’m excited enough to levitate on the spot. The book took three years and many many sleepless nights to create and now I feel I am beginning a conversation with every curious Mummy (or enlightened Daddy) who stumbles across it. Are you ready for a more delectable existence? Are you ready to bring creativity into every corner of your mothering life? if so you are ready to enter the realm of Yummy.
Be warned I am not a mad blogger. Many of my best ideas are already in the book or being born in the messy mud room in the back of my mind. That said, I’d like to take this occasion to clarify what the words YUMMY MUMMY mean to me. In the British tabloid press a YUMMY MUMMY is a posh creature who spends third of her life in a salon and who is able to wear a lot of white, on account of a perma-tan and squad of baby handlers. My vision of a YUMMY MUMMY is the earth bound variety. NOT a celebrity mummy falling out of limo with a pink pacifier in her mouth, or a blonde goddess movie star mom in six inch heels glowering on the red carpet. The media grant the mantle of Yummyness upon the heads of the perfect minority. I do not! Instead my idea of everyday glamour for the living, breathing, real life Yummy is home grown, eccentric, funny, creative and created on the fly. All praise to the mothers with treadmills in their basements and Swedish personal trainers… but for the rest of us there are cheat lists, wish lists and, yes occasionally, a pair of Spanx. Looking better is just the tip of the hedonistic iceberg in my book. Ideally a 360 degrees Yummy lifestyle also includes keeping your mind and spirit as elastic as your hamstrings. Being really CURIOUS no matter how much time or energy you have in reserve. This month I rushed out to see the Courbet show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art twice, tried two new super breezy recipes, chopped up an old sari skirt to make cushions for my raggy beloved IKEA couch and forced myself to buy some music created THIS year (and not pre 1978). I didn’t do this to amuse people at dinner parties. I hardly ever go to dinner parties. I simply wanted to re-locate my cultural pulse.
Being vivid to my son and inspiring to my friends means turning myself on to a book I need to read or a free trade coffee blend I’ve never tasted. I love reading other mama blogs late into the night to see what we’re all obsessing about, whether it’s craft, marital love dramas or Japanese anime movies. There is a whole lot of life out there beyond potty training and tuna casseroles. When my Mother asks me once a week about our potty training progress I often distract her with a New York Times story clipped over the weekend or a cool new CD. Buys me time. And makes me work out what week it is.
Mothering, as we all know, is rife with repetition. But while I give my son his routines I try hard to break my own. Even if it is as simple as trying this season’s platform espadrille. And not tripping. WARNING: Do not wear espadrilles to the playground, I couldn’t walk for two days after doing a three foot lunge in mine. Sometimes I admit to serious blunders in the name of non-conformity. Three nights ago I served dinner in a 1950s silk kimono jacket. I am still looking for a recipe to get olive oil out of silk. The kimono was $55.00 and it came from an amazing flea market close to my house in Brooklyn. I go there to look at what the young things are wearing, I go there to find vintage dresses and odd bibelot for the nursery but mainly I love that every Sunday is completely and utterly different.
Change creates energy. And joy. Dig into my book and dig your mothering life from the broody passage of pregnancy through to the crazy changes of the first three years…. with gusto.
Till next month, KEEPING IT YUMMY.
XXX ANNA