Alright friends, time for a little twist on our Everyday Moms series, where we feature a weekly peek inside the inspiring lives of real-life, hard-working moms I admire. With requests coming in for me to answer my own questions (tricky tricky!) along with partnering up with 365 Barrington, I thought it would be a better way to introduce myself as a 365Barrington contributor and to any new readers on my Barrington-based blog, A Life From Scratch. So without further ado, here we go!
Meet Courtney Glantz
Location: North Barrington, IL
Job: Author of A Life From Scratch & stay-at-home mom
Kids: Logan (10) and Beckett (4)
You’re in your closet – what do you reach for first? Stripes. I have a problem. I think stripes, especially navy and white, are just classic. I feel the most ‘me’ in them. This is how I justify owning like 25 striped shirts and dresses that are basically all the same thing. (Psst – did you know? Boden makes the absolute best stripes. Believe me, I’ve tried them all) .
Hands down the one beauty product you can’t live without. Only one! Oh my gosh I’m not a beauty junkie by any means but this is a hard one! I am completely addicted to chapstick and actually whole heartedly believe I would die without it so I’m going to have to go with that. So boring.
Your daily moisturizer. Are you happy with it? YES! Origins ‘A Perfect World‘ with SPF 25. I’ve been using it for years and feel it moisturizes great, I love the smell, and the protection from the SPF. Plus I feel it’s pretty ‘clean’ in terms of beauty products and it’s at a great price.
Your nightly moisturizer. Are you happy with it? YES – again! From time to time in terms of a nightly moisturizer I’m a ‘grass is greener’ type gal. We all want that one magic cream that will transform you while you sleep, right? So I have shopped around a bit and read many reviews and tried other creams but at the end of the day I always go back to it: Origins Night A Mins. Again, great results, smells great, and all for a very fair price.
Something in your shopping cart online right now that you want to buy – budget is no limit. Well, with fall and winter arriving it’s officially soup and chili season. My eye has been on this pot for quite some time, I have the smaller version but the big one is just screaming for homemade stocks which I would love to start doing.
How do you feel your beauty routine changed when you became a mom? Now that my boys are at the ages they are, I feel I’ve turned a huge corner in terms of actually being able to make myself presentable. For awhile there there were times I could barely fit a shower in – forget about drying my hair. Now we’ve reached a much better place in that I can shower and get ready without worrying the house will be completely destroyed or one of my boys will just….leave. Yep, that happened.
Biggest indulgence you allow yourself? My hair is WILD. Like, crazy wild. And I have a lot of it. I wouldn’t say I get weekly blowouts but I’m probably at around two to three times a month which I know is a huge treat. In my defense, the blow outs last FOREVER so when you break it down it’s actually quite cost effective in terms of my time and I’m just happier in general because my wild mane is tamed. Locals, Kelsey at Ten Friends rocks my world. (And Natasha and Mary!)
Tell us about your kid(s). I have two boys that are everything to me. They continue to shock me daily with their boy antics. I grew up in a pink world, so I don’t believe I will ever fully understand what goes on in their brains at times. For example Beckett the other day was inside on the couch and proceeded to go outside to pee. Walked right back in (leaving the door wide open of course) and went back on the couch. Dude, I can’t even. WE HAVE A BATHROOM.
That being said, the cuddles and love for their mama these two boys have is unreal. And for the most part they are just…..chill. Happy. Content. I don’t get much out of them at the end of their days but they generally seem thriving and, dare I say it, EASY! I look back at when they were very young and man, I’m a firm believer boys are waaaaaaaaaay harder in the beginning. Or maybe it was just mine, but I didn’t sit down for many many years. And they were huge, and fast, and wild. I was actually a tad afraid so it’s nice they’ve grown up a bit and I couldn’t be prouder of who they are growing into each day. As far as siblings go they are quite similar. Logan is more outwardly outgoing but they both have a deep love of friendships and school and sports, specifically baseball. Beckett is way more intense than Logan. He takes things in very deeply and needs the time to process it all but if you give him that he then will come out of his shell and join big brother in the chaos happily.
What is your biggest struggle as a mom day to day? My biggest struggle would be recognizing my work on A Life From Scratch as an actual real grown up job and balancing it with my role of staying at home, which I take very seriously. Because so much of it is so authentic to my day to day life, it can just feel like a little hobby or something that is just a part of me that I’m sharing but that ‘sharing’ requires countless hours of writing, cooking, photographing, editing, planning, SEO’ing, social media, working on partnerships – etc. It can be a lot, and I have zero admin support behind me. That being said, I’ve been tempted to put B in school longer just so I could have that time to actually accomplish all that I want to but I’ve realized not to wish these young years away. Every year gets easier as he goes a little more and next year he will be in school full time. So for now, we are still going to eat lunch together and have our afternoons together and my mornings are for chores and a bit of working out and laundry and errands and I will fit in all that I need to for ALFS when I can. I have many years ahead of me with both my kids in school full time. (Sob).
What is your biggest happiness as a mom day to day? I guess I just can’t believe that they are mine. It seems way too cliché but not a day goes by where I don’t look at them and think how incredibly fortunate I am. They are healthy and strong and thriving and I realize those are not little things. So I guess my daily happiness is pretty simple: I am so happy that they are healthy and that they are mine.
Snap your fingers – you could have a magic fairy help you with one thing around the home every day. What is it? I’m such a weirdo in the sense that I actually like laundry so, no help needed there. What I can’t stand is coming home from a large Target run or grocery shopping trip and unloading my car. I. hate. it. So, my fairy would be a super strong unloading fairy!
Because you are oh so pretty, tell us about your favorite feature! Ok, weird answering this one. I’m going to have to go with my height. Clothes generally look better, there was much more room to carry around my boys while pregnant (needed), and it’s fun to throw on heels and be one of the tallest in the room!
Whew, that’s a wrap – thanks so much for reading! And Go CUBS!
