My girl and I were watching The Voice tonight when suddenly there are ads for all manner of terrifying television and movies. Ghosts, possessed mirrors and Rosemary's Fucking Baby.

Hold the phone.

Rosemary's Baby? The show? Episode six: Baby with Reflux Steals Souls.

In all seriousness, that was one terrifying movie. I saw parts of it as an adult and could barely bear the concept. I looked over at my daughter who was not even able to sit through the first twenty minutes of The Lord of the Rings and wondered what happened to my ability to share a few hours of Adam Levine throwing Blake Shelton under the rug. What the fuck is wrong with the sales guys for NBC? There are usually ads for reality design shows and Fords, not Baby Pampers Prince of Darkness.

At bedtime, my daughter asked more about the baby and the show and worried that she might be scared. So I dug deep and did what I do in these situations: I made shit up.

I told her that when they were making the original movie, they would have contests to see who could put the funniest thing in the stroller and then pretend it was scary. A Cabbage Patch Kid. A puppy. The winner was Mia Farrow, who used a watermelon. It was a renowned contest that went down in Hollywood history.

Pay no attention to the man in the corner with a gun.

Pray for Rosemary's Watermelon. And NBC, go back to your blood pact with Cadillac.

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you had a fantastic weekend! It felt incredible to spend so much time outdoors and between nature adventures, yard work, bike rides, seed projects, errands, and ferrying kids to and fro, I found myself happily exhausted by the end of the day yesterday! I hope you have a great week on tap; enjoy this roundup of events via the Weekly Blueprint:

April 7 - 11: Brain Building in Progress Week continues at Boston Children’s Museum. (Boston)

April 7: The third in a series of French films at the Belmont World Film Festival. (Belmont)

April 8: Visit these little piggies who went to the farm. (Lincoln)

April 9: Fill your day with ARTfull Play. (Lincoln) 

April 9: Interactive music, art, and story time. (Wellesley)

April 10: Figure out where in the world you live. (Acton)

April 10: Mingle and meet with nonprofit groups looking for volunteers. (Boston)

April 10: Earth day parade. (New Bedford)

April 10 - 13: 14 of America’s best living playwrights share their thoughts on Motherhood Out Loud. (Wellesley)

April 11: The Greenway Carousel opens for the season. (Boston)

April 11: A fish-themed story time. (Cambridge) 

April 11: Family Autism Night at the museum (Easton)

April 11: A little practice for kindergarten. (Easton)

April 11: Preschool story hour. (Princeton)

Image credit: Rose F. Kennedy Greenway Facebook page

Have an event you'd like to submit for editorial consideration? Please e-mail the event description + URL to Christine at editor{@}bostonmamas.com. For guaranteed event exposure, place an advertisement.

The words have been coming hard lately. I reach for them, and they just blow away.

Sometimes there's no "there" there.

Stories need tension and conflict to survive. Good sentences aren't enough to carry a novel. Strength isn't enough to win a wrestling match.

It's all about the execution.

I practice and practice these sentences, pulling out the equivalent of four sweaters' worth of sentence threads in frustration. I just can't get it right, and that's such an exquisite pain.

I could scream, but everyone would ask why.

I don't know how to explain the pain of havin gna idea but not the talent to get it just right.

I listen to music and wonder how the songwriter knew when to stop.

Of all the things I am, "writer" is such a small part. It barely makes a dent in our financial landscape, at least the extracurricular part. I'm not sure how such a small bit of what the world sees can be such a huge part of my struggle to be here on this planet. The messy paragraphs going nowhere sometimes wake me up at night. Entire plots for stories play out in my dreams, and I wake up thinking how I should write them down, but I don't, because I'm still fighting with the book that is in my now. I have no energy left over for the book that might be in a few years. When I'm fifty. When I'm sixty. When I'm nearly dead.

I know, in my heart of hearts, that more than a quarter million books are published each year. I know I will not be read by even the number of people who buy off-brand milk in one week.

If I were realistic, then, I would not torture myself about getting these sentences right.

But that's not how it works.

If we went through life looking at reality, no one would ever create anything new.

I was born, and I will die, and in the middle of it, I'll write some stuff. I don't have a good reason for that. At the age of forty, I get that now.

But I do it anyway, because it feels fucking good.

Hello everyone, I hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather! If you've got cranky, fighting kids storming your home, head into nature like we did this morning. Seriously, it's the perfect antidote! Meanwhile, if you're looking for some good reads/visuals, I've got a great roundup in this week's Hey Internet, Keep Being Awesome. Enjoy, and have a fantastic rest of the weekend!

- Props to Honey Maid for this amazing video response.

- NPH and Jason Segel are truly epic.

- Female bodies: a weighty issue.

- 25 stores and what they should actually be called.

- Every U.S. county’s favorite baseball team (according to Facebook).

- Daily routines of the world’s most famous people.

- 39 easy ways to create DIY art for your walls.

- Register to climb out of the darkness in June.

- Think you’re too old to be an entrepreneur? Think again.

- 46 reasons my 3-year-old might be freaking out.

- 19 top African artists collaborate for ONE.

- The United States of bros.

Image credit: DIY wall art via Pinterest

I'm a big fan of my red lipstick, but for everyday I need less high maintenance color. Enter Jordana's twist & shine moisturizing balm stains (which I discovered thanks to a conversation on Twitter). These balm stain sticks moisturize, add a good pop of color, and are retractable and paraben-free. They're also a mega bargain at ~$2.99 (compare to Clinique's $17 chubby stick). It takes me mere seconds to line my lips with MAC spice lip pencil then layer on my Honey Love or Cranberry Crush. Yay for easy routines!

For store locations, see here; I bought my balm stains at Walgreens and they were around $3.19 each.

Want more Friday Finds? Check out: LA Fresh eco-wipes, ridiculously awesome pants, parachute cord crafts, Where Is The Cake?, and Travelpro luggage

Image credits: Jordana Cosmetics (compilation image by Christine Koh

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Happy Friday everyone, what a beautiful week it has been! I'm not sure if it's the change of season, but I feel as if my creative brain is on overdrive right now. This morning I was plotting whether there was any way I could take a week away for brainstorming and building. Hmm. Anyway, that is not this coming week! If you're looking for something to do this weekend, enjoy this roundup:

1. Brain Building in Progress Week begins at Boston Children’s Museum. (Boston)

2. Craft Boston, featuring over 90 of Bostons best artisans. (Boston)

3. Imagine, discover, and explore a world that's too small to see during NanoDays. (Boston)

4. Ben Rudnick show to benefit Room to Grow. (Boston)

5. Turtle’s New Home puppet show. (Brookline)

6. Mary Poppins on the big screen. (Brookline)

7. An Easter eggstravaganza. (Hingham)

8. Family-friendly concert brings the orchestra to life. (Lexington)

9. New Philharmonia Orchestra presents Alice in Wonderland. (Newton)

10. Sheep shearing open house. (Princeton)

11. Celebrate sensational India. (Salem)

12. Turn part of an animal sanctuary into a Big Night scene. (Topsfield)

Image credit: Peabody Essex Museum

Have an event you'd like to submit for editorial consideration? Please e-mail the event description + URL to Christine at editor{@}bostonmamas.com. For guaranteed event exposure, place an advertisement.

A couple of days before I headed off to Disney with my mom and the girls, I had the delightful opportunity to host a spa party with the wonderful folks at Dr. Smith's. Sometimes I can't believe that my work involves awesome things like helping moms prioritize self-care! The gathering was so fantastic; I wanted to share a recap and also a fun giveaway for you all.

Dr. Smith's is a diaper rash ointment, though since Violet is potty trained and I'm all about repurposing, I recently started using Dr. Smith's for Vi's eczema, which has started cropping up again out of nowhere (ugh). Since this product is all about baby care, I thought it would be fun to arrange an event that was related but focused on mama care. Because man, when you are in the trenches of feeding and diapering all day, more than ever you need time when it's all about you! (I know you know this already.)

The gathering was simply delightful: stylish (hello, W Boston) yet chill, tasty (man, I love finger sandwiches and macarons), relaxing (hello, Bliss Spa manicures + hand/arm massages), and wonderfully social. It was a lovely group of moms (it's always so thrilling for me to meet members of this community in real life!), many with babies in tow. Amazingly, the babies took a cue from the surroundings and were adorable and chill the entire time. No joke. In a way I was kind of hoping one would freak out so I could swoop in with some snuggle power! Here are some highlight photos and you can see more here and here.

Dr. Smith's treated these mamas so well and they wanted to extend a gift to one of you awesome moms (let's keep the party going!). Up for the winning is a gift basket including $200 worth of educational toys, bilingual board books, a plush toy, baby care essentials, and Dr. Smith's product (see photo below). This giveaway is open to US entrants and you need to be a Boston Mamas newsletter subscriber by April 14. Good luck, and thanks again to Dr. Smith's for such a wonderful party!

Subscribe to the Boston Mamas newsletter!

Note: the Boston Mamas newsletter drops 1-2 times per month and offers the best from this site (and elsewhere on the internet), as well as periodic exclusive goodies. Yay, for periodic exclusive goodies!

I love having two sisters to share baby hand me downs with (I was fortunate to receive amazing hand me downs at my secondhand baby shower!), and as I've been collecting Vi's outgrown board books to pass along, I thought I'd share a roundup of 20 great board books for babies and toddlers in honor of Children's Book Day (today). These picks are perfect for gifting or expanding your own library!

1. Barnyard Dance

2. Bear About Town

3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do you See?

4. Boston 123

5. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

6. Doggies

7. Go Dog Go

8. The Going to Bed Book

9. Good Night, Gorilla

10. Good Night Moon

11. Guess How Much I love You

12. Harry the Dirty Dog

13. How Kind

14. The Hat

15. I Love You Through and Through

16. Little Blue Truck

17. Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?

18. Sheep in a Jeep

19. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

20. Who’s In the Forest?

Have other favorite board books to share? I'd love to hear about them in the comments below!

Image credits: book jackets via Amazon

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As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been planning on announcing a new editorial series that puts your awesomeness in the spotlight. The new series is called Lessons Learned and in it, I want to feature your stories about lessons learned from everyday experiences, whether it’s something unexpected or challenging you have learned at work or home.

Check out submission details for the Lessons Learned series here. I'm so looking forward to reading your stories!

Image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net