Why Moms SHOULD "Bother"

*This post is one of my most popular and I thought I would bring it back around in case you missed it last year!

The standard mom wardrobe is believed to be stretch pants and a dirty t-shirt she just may also have been wearing the day before. We are unshowered, unrested, stained and crusted with spit up and applesauce and forlorn lost blobs of gum. We eat cookies out of plastic bags when our kids are not looking and drink wine a little too early in the afternoon evening some days. I would like to protest this basketcase of maternal endeavor is a myth, alas she is not. Many of us mamas have some form of her staggering through our days when we should not.

There are tons of mommy blogs focusing on fashion for us folks because we need and want them! I read several of them to find ways to feel like a sassy female and not just a wiped out "mommy". (A few of my tricks are imperfectly revealed below.) I have learned a lot from Kathy Friend,her blog "Fashion Questions and Answers" has all kinds of tips on budget fashion via Goodwill, shoes, and parenting fashion.

She taught me at the ripe age of 38 years old that I was in fact not a pear shape but an hourglass. All this time I was dressing to cover my hips and ended up hiding one of my best features: a fabulous waist! Priceless information. Oh, that and she can organize and purge your closet, take you shopping live or remotely and make you laugh until you pee a lot.

Another fashion blog I have found helpful as I have bumbled out of Birkenstocks with jeans and into peep toe leopard flats (sometimes...sometimes....) is Smart Mom Style. Her blog covers more than just on your body style, but style as an essence of daily life.

I'm not a particularly polished woman. If I clean up and sparkle a bit you will notice because it isn't my standard m.o. Although I do not wear the ubiquitous pony tail, two bobby pins and a hair clip is a close second!

I've always admired my friend Missy for her beauty and polish. She is a stay at home mama of two little girls very close in age. Missy is petite and curvy and even if she is wearing yoga pants (THANK YOU GOD, FOR YOGA PANTS!) she wears full makeup and jewelry color coordinated to her outfit. Even when I have caught her at home she at least has some jewelry matching the t-shirt she has on above the yoga pants. She is lovely.

I admire Missy, but I am not going to be her any time soon. I am too tired, too focused on other things. Even when I was younger and worked outside the home I admired the polished set from a distance. Nowadays I do not have a job outside the home and only my two small kidlets see me any given day, why should I bother? I should 'bother' for me! The parenting magazines suggest that fixing our hair and wearing an actual outfit however utilitarian to our days buoys our love life. They suggest that a coat of mascara will show him you are really trying. Frankly, my husband should know I am trying if my kids are alive at the end of a day and dishes piled on the counter proved we all ate something. They say loosing weight for someone else is not as effective as doing it for ourselves. Likewise, I strongly believe us mamas need to add sparkle to our day simply for us.

Personally, my biggest fashion coup as the mama to two girlies under the age of three is quick dry nail polish. I feel like I made an effort when I didn't. (And when it starts to chip ten minutes after I have applied it I don't feel like I wasted an hour.)

Of course, my skill in application still needs...uh, polishing.

Like me, your version of sparkly might not be the full court press of fashion week. Maybe it is a shower and lip gloss. Or you could be on to the devious trick of quick dry nail polish too. Maybe your 'bother' is a new pair of jeans or even nicer pants...a sassier top than the typical t-shirt. Something that takes five minutes more and lifts your spirit. Whatever makes YOU feel polished and pretty make the effort to do it more days than not. For me, some happy red lipstick more in place for a night out makes me feel more bombshell and less bombed out mama. Even if I am just cleaning pee off the bathroom floor. Even if it is a color you wouldn't leave the house in, slick it on and grin through your day. Besides, the kids enjoy a happy kiss mark on their tummy. And their forehead. And the mirror!

Just bother.

And please share! What blogs or websites have you discovered to help us reclaim our inner bombshells? Please share in the comments below!