February 2025: 20 Years Blogging!

It feels like a milestone which deserves mention: My blog is 20 years old this month. How the time does fly! Appropriately, I got lost in my archives last week. There was a lot of hard, a lot of angst and complaining -- I definitely did not remember Alex being such a source of frustration at age 4 -- but what I really saw in those memories was that it was a sweet time, a happy life with little kids and work and building a home and a family. Another surprise was to read just how much I LOVED my job, when I first started it! Ha! Thanks, God, for that reminder... I wish it were still true!

Of course reading all of the sweet comments made me miss the blog-world of back then, as we all do. So much support! So many readers! I don't want to dwell on that point, because it's been done, but wow, was it different. Yet another way social media ruined everything.

How are you, friend? Today, here's how I am:

Grateful to have a lot of work-work to do today, since it makes 9 to 5 go faster. 

Content with a WFH schedule of Mondays and Fridays, with mid-week at the office. It's helping me to get into this new rhythm, I think. I mean, who doesn't love a pretend 4-day weekend, every week? (I've taken to calling Mondays and Fridays "pretend" work-days.) My new boss is doing well, and making some good, necessary changes. Not all of them are things I want to be involved with -- more e-commerce, more events-planning -- so it's not the perfect job for me, but I'm doing it, he seems to value my contribution, and... there's nothing else out there that I can see, that I want to do. So my M.O. is "accept what is, do my best, and try not to dwell too much on it."

Branching out a bit by registering for a women's networking event tomorrow night. Ugh, I don't wanna. But I do need to create some sort of new connections, since the existing ones aren't dropping any Great! Job! Opportunities! into my lap. 

Studying and half-attempting another health kick: "a plant-slant diet." I've been reading a book by Dr. Michael Greger. Nutrition is soooo interesting. I think it would be too hard to be an actual vegan, like he is - I could never! But some of the principles in his research are doable. Like, getting a serving of cruciferous vegetables every day. They're not my favorite, but as far as medicines go, they're not that bad I guess. Adding flaxseed to things, just 1 TBSP per day. I don't love it, but again, I can manage it. Eating more beans. I do love beans, this is not difficult for me. So, we'll see. For today, it means I have red beans in the crock-pot, and they'll be yummy over rice later. (Brown rice, boo, but whatever.)

Not planning to come back to blogging with real regularity, I'm afraid, but acknowledging that I have done it, for 20 years. ! I'm happy to have a record of that time, and happy it introduced me to so many good people along the way.  

Going behind the curtain. Goodbye (ish).

As of tomorrow night, this blog will be private. I've been thinking about it a while and am no longer interested in sharing my thoughts with the whole world, even semi-anonymously.

If you would like me to add you to the private list of approved readers, I should hope you know how to find me and tell me so in a private way. (If you don't, quick! leave a comment with some way I can contact you.)

Sorry for the somewhat abrupt decision.

Lenten fast... fast!

I'm updating quickly so you'll know why the long silence - I have given up blogging, Google Reader, and Sparkpeople.com, the three sites where I manage to waste the most of my workdays, for Lent. During workday hours only. It turns out the last thing I want to do after work is turn on the computer. Go figure. I don't want to completely lose touch with the Internet for 40 days, but I do need to trim down the time I spend goofing off from 9 to 5. Heh. Plus, I couldn't bear the thought of giving up tortilla chips, which was the other thing I considered.

I got over my cold. AJ and KT both seem to have the sniffles now so I'm avoiding them. (Kidding.)

This past weekend we did nothing. NUH-THING. I let the kids totally zone out on Disney teen comedies (awesome parenting). I dusted the house and sang at 2 Masses, but that's about it. It was lovely.

There are a lot of things percolating in my brain (possible kitchen cabinets redo, my to-do list for 2012, my j-o-b)... but I will have to wait until later to decide if I want to blog about them.

Gotta run!

Lent again

I'm surprised that the only previous blog post about Lent that I could find was this one. I feel like I write about it every year, but I've been combing through my categories and finding nothing. At any rate, it's our first Lent with a child who is learning what Lent is. It means we have to actually practice it, ahem.

AJ came home on Mardi Gras saying his only homework was to choose something to give up for Lent. I thought it was odd that they're still mostly teaching the "give up" theory of Lent, when all we adults hear these days is, "It's not a diet; do something MORE, don't just give up chocolate."

Well, I gave up chocolate. AJ decided he's giving up his DS, which, if any of you has a 5 year old boy, perhaps you know what a MAJOR sacrifice this actually is. And did you also know that Lent is 53 days this year? We counted. I am already impressed with him for even thinking of it. I hope it doesn't come back to bite me this Saturday with a big WHINE FEST. I gave up the chocolate because I thought it only fair for me to give up something tangible, and DIFFICULT, that he can witness. DH gave up Vault, by the way -- his first "give up" too, as a lifelong non-Catholic who is now raising Catholic kids. Bless him.

But the other thing I want to give up is Wasting Time. It's directly related to my Monday and Tuesday -- I was feeling unusually listless at work, unable to start any of my projects, flipping windows in IE with plenty to do but no place I wanted to go. I know a lot of people give up the entire Internet, or Facebook, or blogging, but I can't really go there. I have to be on FB for my job, actually, and I think it would be impossible not to check on my own peeps once in a while. However, getting sidetracked to the point of reading the same status updates twice in one day? Not acceptable. Surfing Google Reader for more than 10 minutes during the workday (eek, yes, I do this) -- no longer. Blogging to say not much at all, when I have work to be done? Won't work in this scenario. All are poor uses of my time. (I sound like my second grade teacher, Sister Anne Mary! God Bless her!)

Does it help others? Is it a spiritual exercise? Probably not. Still. I'm posting here at 9:00 pm while I watch Project Runway. I won't be able to do that every night, but I also don't want to fall asleep on the couch at 9 every night. I should go to BED if I'm sleepy. Or stand up and go get a photo album organized for 20 minutes. No time wasting! I like it. Yesterday (Ash Wed.) and today, at work, with my plan in place, I got a lot done. Hoping the momentum will continue. It might be a little thin around here until Chocolate Day Easter, but I won't completely disappear. I would be interested in hearing if you have any Lent traditions or goals.

Beginning

Stopping by... hello... I didn't write a single thing over the holidays. I had an inkling, but instead opted to fully engage in the moments. I truly enjoyed my time off from work and my wonderful family, and kept up somewhat with all of you through the magic of the iPhone.

I hope to stage a cozy meeting in my bed this evening, with a glass of nice wine (or maybe juice, I feel a sore throat coming on) and my laptop, to muse about last year, these last few weeks, and 2010.

Meanwhile, please jump over and visit my darling real-life friend, the simple minded suburbanite. Her blog is new, and fantastic. You will love her.

[not really worth publishing]

Ugh, I was in a bad mood yesterday. I was starting to feel my annual October Overwhelm-ed-ness, for one thing, and for another, I simply could NOT FOCUS on work. I swear: social media, which is part of my paid job to monitor, is going to be the death of me. Some days my attention span is next to nil. Not good when one is also supposed to be a writer. I flit from one screen to the next. Email -- and Yahoo mail, I swear to crackers I am SO OVER YOU for being so s l o w w w w -- Twitter, Google Reader! Google Reader! Google Reader again! I'm addicted to all your blogs, you can be sure of that. :)

Anyway, I think I am on a fast from Facebook and GR during work hours, for a while. And I'm turning off email notifications. I swear, when that little email flag pops up in the lower left-hand corner, it totally derails me. Am I the only one? So you see, I have to be going now.

Stories to tell, and New School worries

So, it appears that blogs like mine are EXACTLY what the blog-world needs to hold on to. Little stories like mine, told in my very own authentic voice, with no want for swag or ads or paid promotions, are what makes blogging great. I am so glad to hear this.

(...I AM GOING TO BE SO RICH!!!!!)

Just kidding.

But it does make me feel good that I've not had the guts wanted to take my blog to "the next level." I can't believe I spent an hour this morning reading all the comments at the BlogHer09 website, though. I don't know. Maybe a part of me does kinda dream of going there. I mean, some women who go to the conference ARE just small-time, like me. Anyway.

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What I really wanted to write about today is my number one fear right now. I'm feeling really worried that AJ isn't going to like school. I'm worried about his little feelings, his admitted nervousness about making new friends in Kindergarten. Which is so NORMAL, and I know that. But you know how it is, a Mom hates to think of her little guy being sad or afraid. Mostly, I'm worried he won't think school is fun -- that he'll feel like it's drudgery at a young age, all the way through the 12th grade, because he's been going to school so much of his young life already.

I'm worried he won't be motivated to do homework. Homework that it's CRAZY to HAVE at age five, but nonetheless, they have it now and he's going to have to DO IT. I bought him a little numbers "activity" book, as the school suggested, to work on during the summer. But every time I bring it up, he finds something else (video games) that he'd rather do instead. And I don't begrudge him the video games; they're part of his generation as no other generation before. I want him to be able to play them, actually. But when I was a kid I used to do "pretend" homework. I'd just grab any book off my Mom's shelf, open it up at an angle on my desk, and pretend to take notes from it, on a piece of paper. So I don't understand NOT wanting to do a Brand-new! Numbers! Activity! Book! (I was a nerd, yes.)

I'm worried about logistics. HOW are we going to get homework done? Will it be during his After-Care program at the school, or with me (somehow) at home... um... after dinner? I can't sacrifice his 8:00 bedtime to do homework, and I certainly can't sacrifice his bath... so like I do, I'm worrying over it. I'm sure in the end it will only be 10 minutes of homework at the most, but one never knows.

Despite my eensy hesitation, we ALSO signed him up for tee-ball. Now, I will say that on the one hand, what could be more AWESOME than little boys in baseball pants? I am excited for our first "team" experience, and we're hoping to be on a team with a little friend of his from daycare, which would be great for him. (Otherwise we would surely lose touch with that family, and the 2 boys have grown up together.) There's a requirement that the parents work the concession stand sometimes. Fun!! There will be something to do OUTDOORS every weekend. Score. The season is short, ending in October. All of that makes me giddy.

But the logistics, again, of having 2 practices a week until the games begin, and everything else that comes with a new Committment... worried.

Suppose it would be better to focus on the things I'm excited about, yes?
>> School supplies!! I was putting his name on pencil box and glue bottle last night.
>> Volunteering for lunchroom duty once a month. squee!
>> We got his textbooks -- there's a Spanish one! Yay for foreign language!
>> UNIFORMS!
>> He seems to like Harry Potter quite a bit already. (I can't wait to get to the Sorting Hat!)

Shameless attempt to WIN

They're giving away some lovely natural body scrub at Live Well Spend Well, and I get another entry for posting about it on my blog. And I get even MORE entries if YOU go over there, and leave a comment saying "el-e-e sent me."

And people, if you'd seen my feet lately, you would do this for me, as a kindness.

Sorry, TMI. But lordy, my feet in the summer are an embarrassment. All that fresh air and none of the armoured protection of socks. My worst grooming habit is to pick at that dry skin. I haven't allowed myself real pedicures in probably a year becuase, hey, you gotta save money somewhere and I'm NOT GIVING UP STARBUCKS.

Anyway, I'm sure you'd like to win, too, and if you do I will be happy for you. My feet will cry, but *I* will smile politely. Go forth and enter, and please put my name in the box!

In lieu of a good mood

I've been grumpy (stupid pms) the last 2 days. For no good reason. SO instead of wallowing in wordy, whiny words here, which is what I was dying to do a while ago, let's post something cheery.

Like a SWIMSUIT GIVEAWAY! Go and enter and you can win a Lands' End swuimsuit. For FREE. Then wear it at the beach or the pool with sunscreen and a cute floppy hat!

Now, THAT's a good mood.

Thanks to Nicole for letting me know about it!

Underwhelmed!

Four people want to win a prize? I'm OBVS not doing Web 2.0 correctly, not linking my Twitter and my blog and my Facebook page and blagh de blah to increase traffic. Pesky, long-ago-ended anonymity. (I still don't need all my high school acquaintances and work colleagues reading the blog, though.)

Aside: I have a work phone call with a consultant later this week, who wants to sell my company his blogging service/SEO strategy. He's going to try to convince me that blogs improve search engine placement and increase website traffic. REALLY??? WOW, that's FASCINATING. I can't wait to tell him I've been blogging for FIVE YEARS and I already know everything there is to know about it. Heh.

Anyway, because I am nice, I'm going to extend the contest until Wednesday. Tell your friends! Leave another comment and increase your chances (which are already PRETTY DAMN GOOD)!

Pay It Forward time! Summer Camp edition

I promised you guys a giveaway and I'm just dying to go stand in line at the Post Office, so let's go!

If you want to win
-- some pampery items from Avon (KT's teacher just started selling it and I love her, and want to help her out)
-- some goodies from our favorite, Target
-- some cookies from the Byrd Cookie Company in Savannah
-- and whatever else strikes my fancy

leave a comment on this post by Sunday, April 19, at 10:00 pm. Tell me what your summer child care slash "summer camp" plans are. If you don't have kids, tell me about YOUR childhood summers.

I'm interested because this year, we'll enroll AJ in our daycare's "camp" for the first time -- he'll be going on field trips nearly every day. We also have a week between that and the first day of Kindergarten... I think I'll be asking a set of grandparents to visit! (hint, hint, Mom.) DH used to spend summers with his grandparents. Any of you do that, or send your kids to do that? I think it's such an idyllic-sounding thing to have in your childhood memory bank. You'd think so too, if you'd been to his grandparents' house in the mountains in Virginia. Anyway, I'm thinking about the topic.

I'll do the random number generator thing and send someone a PRIZE!

Just for the heck of it!

New Layout, Trader Tyooos-blogivers-day

You like this one? I like this one. The blue flowers might be a TAD distracting, but it's better. It's quite "me," I think. You people who know me IRL, feel free to agree or dispute. :)

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Here's what I threw together last night for dinner. We had a roast chicken the other night and I'd saved a LOT of meat.

Cobbled-Together Tetrazzini

half-box of angel hair pasta, cooked
1 TBSP butter
1-2 green onions, chopped
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 soup can water
1 chicken bouillon cube
few dashes garlic salt
1 cubic inch or so Velveeta (optional)
1 cup-ish diced chicken
shredded Cheddar

While the noodles cook, saute the onions in butter for 5-8 minutes. Then add soup, water, bouillon cube, salt, and Velveeta, and cook over medium heat 'til cheese melts and everything blends well. Drain noodles, and mix them with the soup mixture. Add chicken and stir, then pour into an 8x8 dish. Sprinkle Cheddar over the top, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

This recipe is Not Diet Friendly, obvs, but very Comfort Friendly. Picky AJ ate it reluctantly, which in my book equals success. (He didn't gag? I win.) KT played with a spaghetti noodle.

I served it with a cucumber salad (for me), watermelon (for the kids), and garlic toast (for hubby and kids). Mmm-mmm, good.

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I think that blogging has almost ruined me for writing. When something like this post counts... yikes. I actually started hello, self when I first become a web content manager, as a way to practice my writing skills. Unfortunately, now when I'm faced with a 'real' writing task like submitting something for our company newsletter, I fret and fret over it. I can still do it, but it's laborious. It FEELS harder because this is so easy, and so regular, that it has become the norm. I'm slightly concerned about that; I don't want to lose the "real" skill.

Other skills I've lost in the last 4 years: The Ability and Time to Scrapbook. Good Breath Control when singing. The Ability to have more than 2 Adult Beverages at once.

Skills I've gained: Meme-ability. (Man, can I ever produce a MEME.) Confidence to type to strangers. (I used to be very scared to leave comments. Now I've de-lurked all over the place, and with a photo, too!) Confidence in my parenting skills, sometimes. Or at least the knowledge that other people do stupid things as much as I do. The ability to carry many pounds of baby and accoutrements. (That one's unrelated to blogging, but critical to life.)

I didn't start this post intending to wish myself a happy blogiversary, but guess what? It's mah birthday! *whooooosh!* I just made a wish that we'll celebrate it again next year. :) Thanks for being so awesome, lovely readers and friends.

Good News Choir

By posting this I'm entering myself into a lovely giveaway at WorkIt Mom! You can, too. Click the link. But first, enjoy my good news!

A diversion

Are You There, God? It's Me, Lee. Could you possibly DIAL DOWN the sick just a little bit? It's been, let me think... I guess about 6 weeks of an unwell KT now. There was ear infection #1, then ear infection #2, probably a little teething in between, and now The Great Tummy and Cold Virus of Late '08 (never mind my own cold, it barely counts), complete with mucus drainage and the terrible horking of large volumes of warm formula ON MOMMY'S PRETTY NEW SWEATER LAST NIGHT OMG.. Oh. My... was I shouting just there? Sorry about that, God. Just... consider my request. Mkay? Thanks. Later.

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I have been thinking that all my (4) lovely readers are probably staying occupied during this drought in my own posting by the wonderful people who've signed up for NaBloPoMo. Right? (Is anyone we know doing NaBloPoMo?) And then I was thinking, it's obviously too late for me to sign up for that gig, but I have half a month I could use to kick-start myself back into blogging gear. And I think that'd be good. I do miss having something to say. So I think I'm going to institute Na-HO-BloPoMo (Nat'l HALF-OF Blog Post Month) here on my own site and try to post once a day 'til December first. Surprise! I once declared I'd never ever sign up for something like this, and that was probably wise since this time of year is STRESS-TASTIC for me, but... never mind that. I'm going to do it, and it's going to be fun, and WHEEE! Here we go!

I'm excited about Thanksgiving, are you? Mostly because.... drumroll, please... I have made it to my goal pre-pregnancy weight! Nine months on, nine months off, just like They said! Wooo hooo! Yee-haw! I haven't been exercising the last 2 weeks (SHAME), but I also haven't been eating a lot (see above: SICK), but whatever. My scale says 1-mrfljsomething-2, and that's what I've wanted it to say since February. Now for these last ten pounds... Right after turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce and PIE. I plan to enjoy Thanksgiving in a reasonable way (sort of reasonable), and then right back on track through December.

Maryb and I were chatting about PIE last night. I love neither pumpkin nor pecan. My Aunt, however, is making both for our Thanksgiving dessert table. My Mom makes a pumpkin creme pie, which I like better, but what about the glories of cherry pie? Chocolate pie?! And also, hail our American Excess! We hardly need three pies for the group of 9 of us, two of which -- my two kids -- don't even EAT pie. The greatness of our nation, right there.

Brief but lovely meeting

It has been all I could do today not to come giggling over to you, to tell you this super-cool news. For the last 5 hours I've had to, like, care for the kids and feed them and talk to them and stuff... So annoying! Because guess what? Today I got to meet someone I really like and admire from The Internet. And she is just as sweet and fantastic in person as she is on-screen, and I just had to share.

Hi, Mir, you're pretty! Sorry I was such a schoolgirl. (I really was, y'all. Starstruck happens. I couldn't even logically tell her my name. God, I am so embarrassed. If I ever get to go to BlogHer I will clearly need drinks. Which is good, I've heard they have them there.)

Blogging is funny. One minute you're feeling all comfortable, all "part of this great community," and the next minute you're you again, the shy girl. Hee. But I love it. I was proud to be there, happy to understand this medium (somewhat) and how it works, nodding in agreement when they (Mir and also-famous Kristen) explained why they do it. When my husband asked me on the way home, why *I* do it, I had several answers for him. It started as a substitute for the paper journals I'd been writing my whole life. I have since found it's a great place to park the memories we're making, so that when these kiddos grow up, I won't forget. And, it's allowed me to meet fascinating people and expand my circle a bit. He knew I was excited because I went on and on. I mean, it must have been fun if I'm blogging about it on a weekend! When I got home, I really wanted to hop online just to BE with you guys. If that isn't silly.

Anyway, go and buy their book. I already read about 1/3 of it since we got home today (while I was "caring" for the kids, ahem). It's like a handy bookmark of the best posts from the best momblogs. Blogs-to-books: will that continue? Will the "craze" fizzle eventually? Will all of the rockstar bloggers get published? Who knows. It will be fun to see where this whole things takes us in the next several years.

Woo-hoo!

And the winner is.... Amber!

That's right, her first Haiku of her LIFE wins the random integer generator's love and affection. Congratulations, Amber!

Let the prize shopping commence! So say we all.

To cure your case of the Mondays: my PiF contest

You know, for a long time when KT baby was born, we were getting fun things in the mail to welcome her. And then it was our anniversary, then mother's day, my birthday, father's day, and AJ's birthday... but then all THAT ended, and we've had a week or two where all we've gotten is FLIERS and BILLS. Boooo-riiing!

That's why I was so excited Friday to receive my Pay It Forward prize from Nicole! Totally made my day.


Gorgeous red things! My favorite color! There's a great red pen, nail polish, beautiful cards with my initial on them, MORE beautiful cards that say, "Merci beaucoup," and a very beautiful Target gift card that she specified was JUST FOR ME. :) Thank you, Nicole!

And now it is my turn to totally make YOUR day! Enter my contest here, by leaving a comment on THIS POST, before 5pm on Thursday 7/24. I will choose one lucky winner by random number generator. I haven't decided what kind of pay I will be forwarding, but it will be FUN to think of something!

Be prepared: If you win, you have to have your OWN Pay It Forward contest! That's the rules.

The comment topic is this: HAIKU about coffee! Go! (Oh, come on, you can TOO think of something!)

Save me a seat

You feel like you're going to lose something -- seniority? place in line? -- if you don't post very regularly. Or your parents and relatives are going to wonder if you're okay. So somebody save me a seat; I just don't seem to have much to say lately. Nothing wrong, just out there living, trying to beat the HEAT. Gah. Still reading all of you clever people, of course.

We'll return to our regular programming... sometime. :)

It's my kindness, preventing me from posting

I know you all have too many NaBloPoMo participants to keep up with, so I'm posting light to keep your blog-surfing time at the appropriate (HA) time limits. (I know I'm behind in reading all these prolific over-achievers.)

I don't know that I'll EVER do NaBloPoMo. I hate feeling like I *need* to post, when I don't feel like I have the juice. I also hate posting, "I'm busy," because WHO ISN'T. Site launches, work trips, house stuff, holidays... blah blah... Shut up, self. Some people have five kids, you think YOU'RE busy?

But dude. I'm pretty much over this last 2 weeks. And the next ones, too, if you want to know the truth. We got some stuff done over the weekend -- dropped stuff off at Goodwill, Most Excellent Husband vacuumed -- but there's still more to do.

Let's change the subject. My MIL has been asking what I want for Christmas, so I've been thinking about that. DH and I find it interesting that we always give MIL ideas -- we feel like it's a courtesy, not greedy, and she asks, after all -- yet she never reciprocates with ideas for her, so we always end up buying her no-thought-required gifts like Yankee Candles. LAME. Anyway, here's what I want:

Some big (well, medium sized) silver hoop earrings.
Some Large or XL comfy pajamas (for the hospital, mainly -I'm vain, I want cute pictures).
Baby registry stuff -- diaper bags and crib bumpers are SO for the mommy! Not the baby!
iTunes, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Target gift cards. Fistfuls of them.

I think it gets harder and harder, as you age, to give these sorts of wish-lists. I mean, yeah, I could always use a nice lotion or necklace, but those don't seem like things you ask your relatives for, do they? They should know about those things -- they're the "default" items. Hostess gifts. And I am just not watching DVDs lately or listening to CDs. (Nor do I get that excited to open either one, anymore.) Maybe *I* am just lame!

Okay, your turn: what wishes will you tell Santa this year?

Surprise

Can't blog... Playing with fonts and colors! I eventually want to add a pretty picture at the top, because Blogger lets you do that now. :)

In the spirit of clean-up, go look at Playgroup Dropout and see what Small Change we're all challenged to do this month.