Project Runway's Laura Bennett Shares Her Secrets of Survival

Thanks to all of you- Mason Samuel made the top 50in the Baby Idol Contest! To vote, go HERE . His picture is in the fourth row from the bottom, on the right-hand side. Click the circle beneath his pic to vote. Thank you all so much!

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I've never had a guest poster before. I think I like to talk too much to give my blog over to someone for the day.


So, who could make me make an exception?


The fabulous Laura Bennett, from Season  3 of Project Runway. I'm such a Project Runway fan and was constantly amazed by Laura when she was on the show, since she was pregnant with baby #6 while competing on the show. And she just kept right on competing, looking glamorous and producing one fabulous design after another.


I sat at home, enormously pregnant, in my sweats, and envied her.


I had the opportunity to review her book, Didn't I Feed You Yesterday? and to email with her. Yes, I squealed like an excited little girl.


The link for the giveaway is at the top of my blog, giving you a chance to win an autographed copy. Trust me, you want to read this book!


But, for now, I leave you a guest post by Laura Bennett.

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Secrets of Survival


Motherhood is the hardest job in the world. Period. There is no CEO in this world required to handle the kind of multitasking it takes to change a diaper, build a sugar cube pyramid, and assist with algebra, all while trying to make a dinner magically appear out of a brick of frozen hamburger meat. When things get overwhelming, some moms turn to the bottle, not the one with the teddy bears on it. They swear by the three-martini playdate, or the sippy cup of Chardonnay, but as a mother of six I would never be sober, so I have my own little tricks to get me through.


After thirty years of smoking three packs a day, my husband wisely decided to quit smoking. He endured two weeks of cold turkey, but I sensed he was faltering and bought him some nicotine gum. Having never been a smoker myself, I didn’t understand the draw or fascination of cigarettes, until I tried a piece of his Cinnamon Surge 2mg coated Nicotine gum. It was like ambrosia from the gods. I suddenly realized that nicotine is the most amazing legal substance of the twentieth century. I pop a piece and I can feel a soothing calm cover me like a cashmere coat. Just one chew and suddenly that new Twombly-like scribble of crayon on my freshly painted dining room wall looks like art.



I live in an open plan loft, as you can imagine, finding space to get away around here can prove challenging. When I need a moment to recoup, I hide in that fallback safe haven, the bathroom. What’s not to love about a room designed for one that has a locking door? And who can possibly argue with the reply, “Not now, I’m on the toilet?” The time I spend hiding will have to be paid back two-fold when I see the mess made by my treacherous tribe during my time out. But sometimes you just have to live in the moment.


Rotten teeth may seem like a draw back to some, but if things get too overwhelming, my next trick is to schedule myself a dentist appointment. This may seem extreme, but to me there is nothing like a root canal to secure some guilt-free me time. One medicated hour in the chair with no one wearing a leaky diaper in my lap can be pure bliss, and as a special bonus, I get to leave with a Vicodin prescription.


When all these tricks fail, and the domestic chaos gets too great to handle, I have the ultimate weapon. I sit down, close my eyes and remember how fast it all goes by. A screaming toddler demanding Barney can be overwhelming, but before you know it, he will be packing for college. Remembering this usually provides me with all patience and humor I need to make it thorough. And it has a lot less calories than a double Tangueray Martini up with olives.