Thursday, March 29, 2007

Score Some Gorgeous Lingerie

This Sensuous Wife has discovered that what I wear under makes me feel good all over. Even at the office. Even in the grocery store. Even with a van full of children on my way to a soccer game. Yep, even then.

Wearing beautiful lingerie reminds me that underneath all my roles...mother, manager, writer, friend, employer, vendor...underneath all those roles, my core identity is woman. While I enjoy sharing all the dimensions of my personality with my husband (he is sure glad that I am the family accountant instead of him!) the most precious and fun part of my personality I can offer my husband is woman. Beautiful woman. But I work hard at my job. And it's easy to lose your self in the details of work and laundry and classes and..... I need a tangible reminder, that underneath it all, I am a queen. So I threw out all the sensible beige underwear and bought pretty stuff like this. At prices like these I could afford to look like a queen on a lady-in-waiting budget. JC Penney has rolled out this new line of lingerie that is as pretty and sensuous as Victoria's, at about half the price.

I'll give you an example:
Ambrielle Mystique Lace Balconet Bra $19 It's so gorgeous! Look at the sweet little lace flowers blooming up the shoulder strap. This is lingerie so pretty your husband will only leave it on you for 5 minutes! But unlike other wear-five-minute lingerie (usually a filmy chemise), this is sexy five-minute-lingerie that you can actually wear under your outside world clothes. Imagine how sensuous you feel wearing gorgeous stuff like this under your shorts-and-t-shirt soccer mom uniform. The world may see a soccer mom but YOU know what's inside, dontcha? Meow. -SW

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I didn't think it could get any better

I was wrong.

"He's [God is] a hedonist at heart. All those fasts and vigils and stakes and crosses are only a facade. Or only like foam on the sea shore. Out at sea, out in His sea, there is pleasure, and more pleasure. He makes no secret of it: at His right hand are “pleasures for evermore”. Ugh! …He’s vulgar, Wormwood. He has a bourgeois mind. He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least—sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s any use to us. We fight under cruel disadvantages. Nothing is naturally on our side."
—C.S. Lewis "The Screwtape Letters" in Chapter XXII, spoken by Screwtape (the Devil)

Monday, March 26, 2007

The Year of Discipleship

A long time ago, I was given this little plastic business card holder with a bunch of business card sized nice little 'thought for the day' cards. I think they were something about new years resolutions. The cards I threw out years ago. But I kept the business card holder. It was shiny clear lucite and it said The Year of Discipleship in pretty red script.

This Valentine's day, I made love coupons for my honey. I used a business card wizard from a software on my computer to make them all pretty with sensuous text and my pictures with color printing from my computer. So when I was looking for an attractive way to package my love coupons, I remembered that business card holder. Just the right size for my coupons! ;)

I think God smiled, okay laughed for the pure hilarity of this when I gave my husband this darling little package of love coupon cards offering him such earthy delights as "25 kisses not on the mouth", "outdoor adventure", "warm oil massage" or "sexy striptease" all being held in a case that said "The Year of Discipleship". After all, isn't discipleship putting the Bible into action in your life? So we've got a little Song of Solomon discipleship going on at our house. Hubby says "Amen!" -SW

Saturday, March 24, 2007

The Beauty Treatment Good Enough to Eat

Exfoliating. It's not a new concept. But I betcha haven't ever exfoliated with something that you could actually eat if you wanted to. It's so easy. Place a half dollar sized dollop of coconut oil in the palm of your hand,

Okay, if you're wondering how in the world you're supposed to dollop a liquid then you prolly haven't heard of coconut oil before. No worries. Coconut oil is discussed all over TMB which is also known as TMI in some circles but I happen to love the place. My favorite kind of coconut oil is Nature's Way EFA Gold Organic. I like it best because it comes in a nice-sized widemouthed plastic jar with an easy-to-grip cap. It's organic so the essential fatty acids are fresh and not rancid, preserving that lovvvvvely coconutty smell. Unlike some organic brands of coconut oil, this brand is consistenly slippery because they do a spendid job of filtering out any pesky bits of coconut that might make the oil feel gritty.

Okay, so you can spend hours investigating and pontificating on coconut oil over at TMB where they'll tell you all kindds of splendid ways to use it, but for now let's get back to our exfoliating recipe. For the sake of time, let's just say that coconut oil is a solid at most room temperatures and becomes a liquid when it melts in your hand.

So, place a half dollar sized dollop of coconut oil in the palm of your hand, and pour in the contents of one sugar packet (you don't really want to keep a jar of sugar and a measuring spoon in your bathroom do you?) Stir it with your index finger until the coconut oil is all melty and you have a nice thick, smooth and scratchy consistency. Now, before you get all gung-ho and apply it to your scratchy elbows or whatever else you want to exfoliate, step into the shower. Trust me on this. Once you're in the shower, massage this delightful smelling goo all over your elbow or your knee or whatever else you want to exfoliate. If you also happen to also need to shave your legs, I recommend you start your coconut sugar exfoliation with one of your legs from knee to ankle. You'll notice at first the sugar granules are verrrry scratchy. Stay calm but be gentle for heaven's sake. You're trying to remove the tiny outer layer of dead skin cells not gouge off a tattoo. After just a few seconds, you'll notice that while the sugar granules haven't lost their scratch, the coconut oil seems to be dissapearing and the skin you are exfoliating is starting to feel verrrrrry sofffft. The oil isn't disappearing, silly, it's soaking into your skin delivering it's lovely payload of essential fatty acids. Okay, you're nearly done. Reach back with one hand into the shower stream (didn't I tell you to turn on the shower before you started? Ooops. Sorry!)Actually, that's okay because if your skin isn't perfectly dry when you first apply the coconut oil sugar mixture it won't work at all. Okay, now where were we? Oh, yeah. Whether from the faucet or the shower, reach into the stream of water and cup a teeny bit of water in the palm of your hand, and apply it to the area you've been exfoliating. After 1 or 3 rubs, you'll feel the sugar granules start to dissolve and the scratchy feeling finally goes away. Great! You're nearly done. Rub for a few more seconds and allow the rest of the coconut oil and melted sugar to baby your skin. It will be very gooey at this point. Now, if you happen to be exfoliating your shin in anticpation of shaving, reach over and grab your razor. Use this thin layer of sugar coconut goo as your shaving cream and shave your legs. Be careful and gentle. Your razor will easily zoom all over your superexfoliated skin. It will prolly be the closest smoothest sweetest smelling shave you've ever had.

Okay, now rinse. Water only no soap. You want to wash away the sticky melted sugar (that stuff could attract ants!) but you want to leave the lurvely essential fatty acids from the coconut oil. Step out of the shower (for heaven sakes be careful and step onto a rug or bathmat!) Now blot gently with a towel. Preferably one of your really soffft towels. You'll notice that your legs feel extrordinarily soffffft and that hair didn't stand a chance, did it? Don't you feel silllky and lovvvvveely? ;)

Wait! Before you reach for that bottle of lotion..the last step after shaving is usually to moisturize your skin with lotion, right? Well, you can skip that moisturizing step, cause you already did that. It's sorta like the life-is-short-so-eat-dessert-first dynamic. Life is short so moisturize first before and during shaving so you don't have to wait till afterward.

So this coconut sugar beauty treatment....It smells verrrrry good. It's fairly inexpensive. It works incredibly well. It's edible. What else could a girl want?

By the way, girls, don't pass up on a major flirting opportunity here. Sidle up to your husband who is doubtless sitting on the couch watching sports with the remote gripped firmly in hand because that is a husband's natural habitat. (But after all the sneaky corporate SOBs the poor dear man has to parry and fight all day long, doesn't he deserve a few minutes of peace?) So go sit on the sofa next to your husband and slowly sensously place one of your legs in his lap. Say to him, "darling, I've just tried a new kind of organic shaving lotion. What do you think?" And place his hand over your leg and then don't. say. a word. Just relax and watch his cursory swipe become a fondle. Good for you and your sweet coconut self! -SW

Friday, March 23, 2007

My oh my

....sigh....the world is beautiful....the world is wonderful....I am at peace with Creator and creation. (Mona Lisa smile) (big yawn)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Touch

I've discovered a lot of joy in making everything I touch a pleasure whenever possible. Even everyday stuff. Case in point: towels.

I stood in the towel aisle in Walmart tonight, choosing towels by texture first and color second. I didn't plan on buying anything. I was actually there just to exchange a set of sheets. But when I felt these extrodinarily sofffft towels, I knew a few of them had to come live in my house. I was lost in linen nirvana when I noticed a Wal-mart employee in the department re-arranging a shower curtain display. "Well hey Mary", I said with a grin to cover my sheepishness, "I'm just standing here petting these towels. I have NEVER felt towels this soft." Mary wasn't fazed by my towel-fondling. "Mmmm-hmm" she said in that matter-of-fact tone that only Southern Black women have, "I know that's right. I just bought me some last night and one lady came in here this morning and bought 18! Girl, if you want 'em, you better get 'em now." It was like saying "sick 'em" to a dog. I immediately obeyed, dropping 2 pair into my basket. I looked at my basket and mentally ran a tab in my head and decided I really didn't need that designer matching Kleenex box cover. After all, how many times am I gonna touch the Kleenex box cover?

It's a simple thing, a towel. But I've adopted the belief that anything that touches my skin should be as soft as possible. Especially my dripping wet, naked-as-the-day-I-was-born skin. My husband is a manly man and would never pick towels like this. He'd pick the rough-and-tough-whatever's-$1.99 towel. But after he climbs out of the shower and mops his dripping wet face with this towel he mutters, "God, these towels are soft!" When I create an environment of tactile pleasure in our master suite, he really enjoys it. And I enjoy seeing him enjoy it. That's not double talk, my friend. That's wifely joy. -SW-

Details...I wanted to include a link in case any of you now have a hankering for these towels. But they're not on walmart.com. So here's the label, girls. HomeTrends Reversible Ultra Soft Bath Towel 100% Low Twist Cotton. If I see a link on Wally in the next few days I'll post it.