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It's my one year blog-o-versary! 289 posts later. Whew! Sick of me yet?

January 31 is a day that I have met with mixed emotions for several years. Four years ago, it was the day that a high-risk pregnancy doctor took a good look at the little 11-week old fetus growing inside me and switched off the ultrasound machine and shook his head. Next thing you know, he ushered me into a private room with boxes of tissues everywhere and the genetic counselor. Words were coming out of their mouths, but they weren't connecting into concepts in my brain. Lymphatic system, heart malformations, chromosomal defects, 1% chance of survival, stillbirth, termination. Next thing I knew, I had agreed to let them stick a HUGE needle through my abdomen so they could give me information to connect the dots and make sense of all these words.

Four years later, remembering that day is bittersweet. Bitter because I will never forget the fear and sadness that settled in my heart and forever left its imprint. Sweet because, well, look at us now. It's hard to believe that the 3-year old marching around my house in a Cinderella dress and barking orders into a cell phone is the perilous little fetus we were worried about.

Jennifer, who blogs at Pinwheels, and is mom of three, including Avery, who has Down Syndrome, wrote in a recent post, "I wish I’d known we were all going to be okay. And of course, we are."

Exactly.

It was no accident that I started my blog on this day, one year ago. It is my way of saying, we are ok. Not just ok, but better, richer and more grateful.

It has been a wild ride of a year. And one that would have passed into oblivion in this mommy-addled brain of mine, were it not documented here.

You've been with me through flat tires and dead car batteries. Perfect days and crazy days. Shopping and not shopping. (And let's not forget the time I had to step around the S.W.A.T. team to get into Marshalls!) School days and summer days, snow days and holidays. Vacations and staycations. (And don't forget the Brownie camping trip!) A new preschool and a new President. ER visits and doctor appointments. Sleepless nights and more sleepless nights. Rants and raves. Tragedies and celebrations. And let's not forget laundry, cleaning and potty training.

Along the way, I have found a whole new world, of people who make me laugh and cry, who inspire me and motivate me. Who make me write better, dress better, cook better, take better pictures, decorate and be a better mom. People who I feel like I've known forever, and people who live around the corner. And many more who should be linked here, but I need to finish this before midnight or it won't be my anniversary anymore!

I've also found two groups of talented writers who have welcomed me into their midst to share and grow my talents. I am honored and deeply grateful.

I would be remiss if I didn't specifically give credit to the two bloggers who inspired me to put down my laundry basket and start trying to string some coherent sentences together again. Chris, from Notes from the Trenches, who had me hooked as soon as I realized that she had 7 kids, a wicked sense of humor and somehow finds time to combine the two on her blog, and Susan, from Friday Playdate. I felt a strong sense of connection to her ruminations on motherhood and later realized there are some uncanny similarities between her and I. (Unfortunately, they have nothing to do with fashion.) I took them as a sign instead of a coincidence. Although neither of them will probably ever read this blog, I thank them both for their inspiration and continued glimpses into their lives.

But, my dear readers (if ANYONE has made it this far with me) - I also thank you! Yes, YOU! You know who you are! You may not comment, but I know you're there. And I thank you for stopping by every day, being my virtual watercooler, my audience... my people. Thanks.

To show my appreciation, I am giving away a $25 Starbucks gift card! Seriously! You know how much I love Starbucks, and Rocket Man will probably have to pry it out of my hands and stick it in the envelope for me, but I want you (whoever you are, you lucky winner) to go out and get yourself some coffee, on me! (I would send wine, but I'm pretty sure there are laws against sending that stuff in the mail. So coffee it is!)

Leave a comment by Wednesday at noon and I will pick a random winner. And thanks again for stopping by. It's been a wonderful year.

For all you readers who either don't like Starbucks (????), are preggo and can't drink it, or are religiously obligated to avoid caffeine, I'll substitute a $25 gift card to Target. Which will also have to be pried from my mitts. But you have to promise to buy something for yourself! No toilet paper, cleaning products or toddler clothing!

And, if you made it through this WHOLE post and you are still trying to kill some time, here are a few of my favorite posts from the past year:

Stepping off the Roller Coaster

Holy Eucharist, Batman

Pool Politics

The Grace of God

To Beat a Dead Horse (quite possibly my all-time favorite)

I shouldn't whine, but I'm going to anyway

This week was pretty much a loss. My house is messier, my laundry is more out of control, and yes, there are still QUITE A FEW Christmas decorations that have not been put away. (And I'm still writing out my cards. Shut up. They do so count if they get out before Easter. Which is April 12. Don't worry, I'm keeping track.)

Here are the highlights:

Monday - co-oped in Little One's preschool... fun, but any cleaning, organizing blogging time was eaten up. Learn that a winter storm is heading our way. Also realize I will need to clone myself for Wednesday evening. Must figure that out.

Children in school - 7 hours. Mommy in school - 3 hours. Total gain - 4 hours.

Tuesday - snow is falling, neighboring school districts close (and are subsequently ridiculed by our Chicagoean president). Our school starts on schedule and holds it's annual open house. I race in the snow to pop in for the open house (as I've seen the crestfallen and teary faces of the kids whose parents are unable to show and, I am a lot of moms, but I don't want to be THAT mom, not this week anyway). As I head out the door, I learn that school will be closing 2 hours early. Race home from open house to answer phone calls and emails about picking up and supervising other children about to be set loose on the snowy streets. Race back to school to pick up children. The chaos of preparing to go sledding is followed by the chaos of sledding, which is followed by the further chaos of 10 extra people coming home for hot chocolate. Soon after, I lose Little One in the blizzard of outwear piled in every corner of the house.

Children in school - 5 hours. Mommy in school - 1 hour. Total gain - 4 hours.

Wednesday - school is cancelled. This would have been my one morning off for the week. Large packs of children descend on the house, don the aforementioned outwear and head out into the freezing RAIN to play. Muddy, cold and starving children, including several whom I have never even seen before, return to my house to consume massive quantities of frozen pizza. I curl up in the corner of the kitchen with a wine bottle. All evening activities are cancelled, so the need to clone myself is put off until next Wednesday.

Children in school - 0 hours. Mommy in school - 0 hours. Gah!

Thursday - school begins two hours late. I learn just as we are heading to school that my car door has been slightly ajar since Tuesday, leaving the internal lights on and draining the battery. Children begin rejoicing about another day off school as I call for a taxi. Spend the rest of the day, when I should be grocery shopping (as roving bands of children have eaten all the food in our house) waiting for the car battery to charge, and medicating the headache I get whenever I look at the piles of laundry and outerwear that need attention.

Children in school - 5 hours. Mommy in school - 0 hours, but trapped at home - 4 hours. Total gain - 1 hour.

Friday - school begins on time, but GUESS WHAT? It's an early dismissal day. (OF COURSE it is!) And? It's my co-oping day! Again!

Children in school - 4 hours. Mommy in school - 3 hours. Total gain - 1 hour.

And now! On to the weekend, where we race from hockey to birthday party to basketball to birthday party, to church, to Home Depot and on to another birthday party.

I can finally relax on Monday morning.

Oh wait! No I can't! Little One doesn't have school Monday.

Maybe Tuesday?

Oh, nope. I have to drive halfway across Maryland to go to an ENT doctor with Little One so he can tell me I have to put her to sleep (sleep? Little One? HA! Just try it, Dr. Anesthesiologist!) and shoot plastic tubes into her ears. That will be a fun and relaxing day, right?

Well, there's always Wednesday. Surely Wednesday I'll have a free moment or two?

Addict

I've already confessed to my Raisin Cinnamon Swirl addiction. And my hummus addiction. And my cracker addiction. And Etsy. And Intervention. And Chap Stick. And Discovery Health Channel. I typed ADDICT into the search bar on my own blog and I scared myself.

Well, here's another one.

Magazines.



I love magazines. Especially home design. (I should say shelter, but that sounds pretentious to me.) I'm a sucker for glossy photographs of someone else's clean house.



But, my friends, the magazine industry is in peril.



A few weeks ago, I got a notice in the mail that Cottage Living (far and away my favorite) has folded. Then, yesterday, the news that Domino is also falling. (Domino, falling... get it?) I've heard rumors about Country Living, but they just sent me an invoice yesterday, so I'm not sure about that one. Advertising revenues are down for everyone. And apparently, the availability of online shelter blogs (see what I mean? pretentious!) is cutting into their market. (Damn bloggers!)



All this has done nothing to help my addiction. I was planning a decluttering post on recycling magazines, even ones I haven't read, if they are more than 3 months old. But for now, I'm stockpiling.



I'm also bulking up my list of favorite home design blogs. I thought I'd share of few:

The Nesting Place

The Inspired Room (My favorites are her daring drive by tours of Portland. I'm going to have to do this come spring!)

Cote de Texas

Making it Lovely

Heather Bullard - Vintage Inspired Living

(photo credits, first 2, Country Living, last 3,
Cottage Living)

Flaked

And the Lord said, "Let there be SNOW."




And the children REJOICED.


Well, most of them, anyway.

And gathered on a hilltop to partake in the wintery delights.



That's the pretty version. For the REST of the story, go here.

Book Club Time! Who by Fire

I have to admit - I LOVE to read, which is what prompted me to go to library school and work in libraries. But, I hardly ever have time to read more than magazines anymore. (And even those are STACKED unread around the house... I have a decluttering post about that coming soon...) So even though I've been invited, I've never joined a book club. Because my reading time is so precious now that I want to pick my own books and not have to read something that was picked for me.

But when the Silicon Valley Moms Group picked Who By Fire for the January book club, was intrigued by the description of the book and decided to give it a whirl. Here is the description I read:

Bits and Ash were children when the kidnapping of their younger sister Alena, an incident for which Ash blames himself, caused an irreparable family rift. Thirteen years later, Ash is living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel, cutting himself off from his mother, Ellie, and his wild child sister, Bits. But soon he may have to face them again: Alena’s remains have finally been uncovered. Now Bits is traveling across the world in a bold and desperate attempt to bring her brother home and salvage what’s left of their family. Told from the alternating points of view of the three family members, Who By Fire is a searing commentary on guilt, grief, and the inescapable bonds of family from a fresh and extremely talented new voice in American fiction.

I had trouble putting the book down at night. And when I did, the characters were dancing so vividly in my head, I could not put the story to rest. The linchpin of the story, the kidnapping and disappearance of Alena, affects the very essence of the rest of the lives of her family.

Their paths go in opposite directions, much to the deep chagrin of their mother, who, like any parent who has lost a child, wants to hold her family close. Too close perhaps.

At what point does a mother have to let her child make his own life and choices, even when she doesn't agree with or understand them?

And if a child chooses a path that cuts him off from his family, is it acceptable for her to try to rescue him?

What if that child is making decisions out of a misguided sense of guilt and responsibility for the event that changed all their lives?

I went back and forth, identifying with the children and the mother in the book. I can most definitely relate to feelings of guilt for things I had no (or little) responsibility for. The book looks at guilt from a Jewish perspective, but Catholic guilt is a close cousin. It is heartbreaking to see a young man make life choices based on atoning for the guilt he feels for something that was not his responsibility.

On the other hand, I could also relate to Ellie, the mother. I must confess that even reading about a fictional kidnapping of a young girl rattled me so much that I slept on the floor in the girls' bedroom a few of the nights I was up late reading.

When I was a child, there were two young girls who were kidnapped from my community and never found again. I often wonder how my mother (a helicopter mother before helicopter mothers were cool) was able to let us go outside the house in the days and weeks that followed that abduction. And was able to let us grow up without fear and with normal limits of roaming the neighborhood, as kids did back in that day. When I think about it now, it makes my heart seize up in fear. I can only imagine how the parents of those girls were changed forever. And I can completely understand them or anyone doing WHATEVER it would take to ensure that their remaining children were safe and close by.

The LA Moms blog is hosting our book club discussion this month. Go here and check out the introductory post and all the comments. We are lucky to have the author, Diana Spechler joining us in the comments. You can also find links to book club posts on other contributors blogs from around the country here. Come on over and check it out.

(If you want to read an hysterical sample of Diana's writing, check out this guest post on Melody's Reading Corner.)

Wallet Decrapification

I've been having a hard time getting my wallet snapped closed lately. And it's NOT because of all the money in it.

The other night, I was trying to find the receipt for Little One's doctor appointment from earlier that day. I tore my purse apart. I tore my bag formerly known as the diaper bag, now known as bag-of-crap-to-keep-kid-occupied, apart. I searched my coat pockets. My car.

Vanished. The damn thing vanished.

But I did find a pediatrician receipt from 2007. Almost TWO years AGO! And ATM receipts from last summer. No WONDER my checkbook won't balance. And receipts from restaurants from our vacation, last AUGUST. And all manner of other crap, including every school picture ever taken of all of my kids.

Guess what - I threw it all out. (I have other copies of the pictures.) My wallet weighs like 6 lbs. less now. And it snaps with ease.

But I never did find that damn receipt.

I can't call myself a mommyblogger without the occassional poop post...sort of... ok, not really

So here it is. A post about poop.

Don't click that X! It's really more about life. Poop is just a symbol. Don't worry it's not too gross.

Here is our Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.



An accomplished guy, despite the fact that he failed to split a very important infinitive.

Years ago, before he was a judge, Justice Roberts and I worked together. I left my job as a law librarian to stay home with the kids. He continued his meteoric rise in the legal world.

One evening in July of 2005, I was in the throes of potty training mGuy. I had heard rumors of who was on the list to be nominated by President Bush to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Rehnquist. I had CNN on so I would catch the actual announcement. Just as the press conference began, mGuy flushed the toilet which, as it turns out was full of poop and an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper. It promptly stopped up and overflowed all over the bathroom floor.

So I was on my hands and knees, wiping up poop water, with my head hanging out the bathroom door so I could see the TV when my former co-worker was nominated to the Supreme Court.

Wow had our paths diverged.

I realized earlier today how fitting it was that just as Justice Roberts finished administering the Oath of Office to Barack Obama, Little One announced that she needed to POOOOOOOP and once again I had my head hanging out of a restroom door, trying to catch breaking news on a nearby TV.

There's a moral in here somewhere that I should find and end with. But I'm a little afraid to go there.

Life goes on?

Poop happens?

Irony, thy name is poop?

Maybe I should get back to decluttering?

Photo by Reuters

Famous

There was a lot of media coverage of the inauguration. All the celebrities and politicians who were on hand to witness the event.

And me.

Well, not quite on HAND, but nearby. At our local sports bar... with all the big HDTVs. And the press was there. Not the Washington Post, mind you. But a local paper.

Here I am (from the paper) applauding at the end of President Obama's speech. You can't see the tears running down my face, but they were there.



Check out that salad in front of me! It was delicious.

You also can't tell from the picture that I actually spent most of the speech in the ladies room with Little One who announced "I HAVE TO GO POOOOOOP," right as the President took the podium. (This isn't the first time she's had to poop at inconvenient time. But this was REALLY, like, INCONVENIENT.) Actually, maybe THAT was why I was crying.

Thank God for YouTube.

Decrapification, Part 3

Remember this?



I had to clean it up so my wonderful computer guru could actually, you know, GET to the computer. I really PLANNED to clean it up. But in the end, I moved it over from my desk to my dresser.

And the floor.

And the bed.

Oh it was a mess.

My bedroom has been a disaster for awhile - this was like a nuclear bomb going off.

So today, I spent ALL DAY coming off my inaugural buzz cleaning my room. I felt like a teenager again. Except with C-Span playing instead of Styx.

It's not QUITE ready for an after picture yet.

In the end, I had one HUGE garbage bag full of crapola. And a LOT of other things that got moved to more appropriate locations. (See basement decrapification, coming soon!)

I'm even thinking of getting my wedding dress out from under my bed, so I could store other, more useful things there. (I'm not ready to throw OUT the wedding dress, but I think it could withstand an upstairs closet.)

I'm also thinking my room is in need of a makeover. That may be coming soon too.

What I'm discovering is that hidden clutter actually CREATES visible clutter. Because you could put all the visible crap away if your hidden clutter was hauled off to Value Village.

With the dawn of that revelation (I know... I'm a little slow), I pulled out 20 VHS tapes that we no longer need in a cabinet in the family room and THREW THEM OUT. (Stimey, you inspire me.) Sad, but really, who has VCRs any more? (Besides me?) Then, I had room to put away the overflow of DVDs that was piled up around the TV.

I also found ANOTHER quilting book. And some other random crap for my weekly haul to Value Village.

It's slow going, but I am starting to see a difference.

In electronic decrapification news, my computer is now fully sanitized of the spyware that enabled some bastard to empty out my bank account. It is fresh and clean in there. And fully equipped with several different anti-spyware protections. Except that apparently now, my computer thinks that my printer is a spy and won't communicate with it. So I went ahead and ordered a new printer with that new laptop. Coming soon!!

Proud

In my lifetime, we have gone from the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the riots that followed, lamenting what many saw as the death of a dream...

To today.

Today we lived the dream.

Our 44th president was judged not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character. Black and white stood side by side and celebrated a peaceful transfer of power.

A man who is the product of an interracial marriage, who was born at a time when interracial marriage was illegal in many states, took the Oath of Office of our Presidency.

My eyes have been filled with tears and my heart has been singing.

Today, I am PROUD. Proud that we have looked beyond color. Proud that we have transferred power 34 times without a coup or a riot. Proud that we will stand together in the face of much uncertainty in our future and show the world and each other the true measure of our strength.

How far we have come in just one generation. How far indeed.

Let freedom ring.

I'm so excited I COULD EXPLODE!!!

Photos from Washingtonpost.com

In the ICU

My computer that is. Until Monday. God, I hope it's better by Monday! I'm a little shakey, but it's going to be ok. (Deep breaths.)

As it turns out the computers at the library are even slower than mine. I didn't know that was possible.

My timer is ticking, and I'm going to get booted out of here as soon as they see my Starbucks cup, so go read Nie. She's back!

One final note, anyone have comments on a Dell Inspiron vs. a Dell Mini?

Here's one of my many projects for today

That is the actual mess right there. No staging.
Notice the toy helicopter on top of the printer. ???

But before I tackle that, I'm taking a load of stuff to Value Village. I found a few more things to throw in. A table, one of our many guitars, some pictures I was saving for my next house.

I almost included a desk chair that we haven't used in several years, but I'm not quite convinced I won't need that again. As, I AM ordering this later today:



Can I just say SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Things that make me want to gouge my eyes out, part 2*

CFL lightbulbs ... I'M SORRY... I know we are saving the freaking planet. But I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING! I feel like I'm living Little House on the Prairie, trying to read by what is actually a very expensive lightbulb, but is no brighter than a flickering candle. Seriously, it's hard ENOUGH for us 40-something year olds to see, I NEED LIGHT. Either that, or I'm developing cataracts.




Preschool snacks. I realized at 10 o'clock the other night that I was the Snack Parent for preschool the next day, so I had to TAKE OFF my pajamas and PUT ON my clothes to go to the grocery store to buy a nutritious, yet interesting, yet allergen-free snack. (A tiny bit of truthiness, I left my pajama top on and just put my coat over it. Don't tell the fashion police.)




The Surly Starbucks. I keep telling myself I won't go there anymore. And yet, it's right on a major travel route for me. And it has good parking. But I either NEVER get my drink. Or I get the WRONG drink. Or I get ATTITUDE. It's coffee people, not Rocket Science.



Totally gratuitious picture of Dr. McDreamy.

My Current Health Insurance. For some reason, they consider a doctor's appointment at Children's Hospital as an outpatient visit, not a doctor's appointment. Which means they cover it, um... hardly at all. I've forked over hundreds of dollars in payments this year that used to only cost me $25 per visit. I'm starting to withhold health care from Little One. She's too darn expensive.




Homework. It is damn near impossible to get 3 kids who don't want to concentrate (including at least one who is INCAPABLE of concentrating) to do homework every afternoon. Add that to a 3-year old who MUST. BE. THE. CENTER. OF. ATTENTION. AT. ALL. TIMES. and it's like a commercial for Xanax. HOW DO PEOPLE HOMESCHOOL? Two hours of this is ALL I can take in a day.

What's keeping me from gouging my eyes out? A celebration! Nie comes back tomorrow. Also, I have fun! parties! to go to this weekend. I would like to be able to see where the DRINKS are!

*Part 1 is here.

More Decrapification

I've been wondering what to decrapify this week. I did the dressers last week. I purged some of the Christmas decorations, but most of that went to garbage. (Broken train sets, obnoxious singing reindeer that has driven me bat shit crazy for the past 3 years.) A few items for donation, but not a whole box full or anything.

I still have way too much Christmas stuff. But... and here is perhaps the root of my problems... I hold on to things in the hopes that one day we will have a bigger house and because of that, this house feels too small as it's crammed full of all that crap.

There's one for the psychiatrist's couch.

Anyway, back to drivel about clutter.

All the things I have purged thus far are hidden clutter. Clutter still the same, but from the dressers and the attic. I've got plenty of clutter right out in the open, so I wanted to make a dent in that.

Books.

We have quite an extensive collection of coffee table books. And how-to guides (gardening, home improvement, quilting (yes, as IF)), and a few random reference books that all go on one big shelf. (Before you judge me, remember I AM a librarian.) And the overflow is usually on, well, the coffee table.

Except we rarely look at these books. And the kids usually throw them on the floor because the coffee table is actually the base for Lego City, or where we play games, or do homework. Or even eat dinner sometimes when I am too lazy tired to clean off the dining room table.

So I purged the shelf of coffee table/how-to/reference books and was able to fit the overflow where they belong. With extra space for more even. (But we WON'T be acquiring any more.) And the quilting book? Yeah, gone.


I should cover all these in off-white paper like a Pottery Barn catalog. Except then I wouldn't be able to tell which book is which.


Do I need to say? Photo by Pottery Barn. Clearly no one will ever read these books. Since you'd have to pull them ALL off to find the one you want.

(Really, do we even NEED how-to books anymore? You can find all that stuff on the internet, right? I hope so because that's what we're going to have to do next time we do woodworking, tiling, growing roses, quilting (ha) or a few other things I can't remember.)

Later, I decided to bake loaves of bread from scratch. I don't know WHAT has gotten into me - I'm a Pillsbury crescent roll kinda gal.


Big Guy wants to make sure he gets credit for helping me. He sifted the flour. And then ate the other loaf single-handedly.

But while I was waiting for the dough to rise (twice! this bread baking is crazy shit I tell you!) I started cleaning out a few kitchen cupboards. You know, the ones where stuff is always falling out on me when I open them.

I've come another difficult but entirely true revelation.

I have a cracker problem.

I love to buy crackers. I used to dip them in hummus, but I can't buy hummus anymore. Now, I top them with cheese.

Anytime I am having company, or there is the remote possibility that someone MIGHT stop by my house, I break out a new box of gourmet crackers. And a handful gets eaten, and the rest go stale. And sit in my cupboard for 3 or more years. (Sadly, I'm not kidding.)

All! crackers! are! gone!

And I won't even tell you about my spice issues. Let me just say, that once upon a time, if there was some sort of oregano Armageddon, this would have been the place to come. But no more. I hardly ever even use oregano. (Which is good because I only have a pinch now.)

All of that went in the trash too, so for my donation box this week, I have a bunch of books and some random Christmas decorations. Not as good as last week, but better than nothing.

And the visual clutter... well, it's days are numbered.

New Feature! Motivational Monday... First Up... ANGELLA!

It's a New Year and I'm debuting a new feature! It's been brewing in my little brain for awhile now. Actually, ever since I went to BlogHer DC. I met so many impressive women, with so many irons in the fire, I wanted to know, "How the heck to they do it?"

After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to ask this question to some of my favorite bloggers, particularly those who still have little kids at home. I find it hard to balance reading blogs I love, keeping up my own blog and writing for the others I contribute to, while still having Little One at home. (Oh, and doing laundry every now and then.)

My first Motivational Mama is Angella, from Dutch Blitz. If you don't read her blog already, you should. It's fabulous. And she takes amazing photos. And her kids are adorable.



Besides Dutch Blitz, Angella also writes the marriage column Committed: The Ties that Bond over at Work It! Mom. She coordinates Problem Solved at Work it! Mom, is an editor at Blog Nosh, and contributes to Photo Bliss (on Domestic Bliss). (Can you see why I find her inspiring?)

Oh yeah. And she's also an accountant! She works part-time on the education side of accounting, is an online facilitator, authors case exams and course content, teaches three-day courses, and more. (Whoa, she's got a lot of energy.)

She lives with her husband, Matthew, in a gorgeous corner of Canada, on a beautiful piece of property. (With chickens, even!)



Angella is mom to three... Graham is 6 and in first grade, Nathan is 4 and in preschool 2 mornings a week, and Emily is 2. (I'm exhausted just writing all this! Energy. The girl has some serious ENERGY!)



Oh wait, and did I mention that Angella is ALSO a freelance photographer? If you check out her blog, you can see why. She takes AMAZING photographs.

Like these:






You can see more of her work at her photography site.

Ok, now, let's get motivated by Angella!

How long have you been blogging and how did you get started?

Three and a half years. I started as a way for my family to see photos of my kids. (You can read the genesis of Dutch Blitz here.)

Do you have a posting schedule for your personal blog, or do you just post when you have something to say?

I just post when I have something to say. Which is pretty frequently. Hmmm...I wonder what that says about me? I signed up for NaBloPoMo, which proves that I really am crazy.

When you write, do you like to be alone (like in an office) or are you right in the middle of everything?

My laptop actually sits on a console near my kitchen table, and I usually put it right on the table so I have room to sit back and spread out and papers, etc. that I need.

If I am writing during the day, the kids and my husband are usually running all around me. We have an office (my husband is also self-employed), but I feel lonely and isolated if I work down there.

How do you organize your day, time-wise with work, kids and writing?

My Work It! Mom stuff is usually done during Emily's nap, while my husband hangs out with Nathan. I will also sometimes work on it after dinner while he is on Daddy Duty. It is a job. Our deal is that if one person is working, the other is dealing with the kids.

Writing for my personal site is usually done when the kids are in bed. We do not watch a lot of TV (two to three hours per week), so this is what I do for "me" time.

When do you read other blogs?

Part of my Work It! Mom job is behind-the-scenes, so I will read blogs while I am working on that. The rest of my reading is snuck in occasionally during the day, but it is mostly when the kids are in bed.

What are some of your favorite blogs right now?

I adore both Linda and Jonniker. I have been reading them forever (and consider them friends). They never fail to make me laugh and/or think.

When do you find time for your other creative endeavors?

The photographs of the kids obviously happen when we are hanging out. For any photography gigs (weddings, etc.), it is a job. Matthew watches the kids and I go to work.

Any tips for people as to how to set limits and still participate in the blogosphere?

You honestly could spend all day every, every day on the Internet. Find what/who interests you and start with that.

What is the best part of your day?

First thing in the morning. I usually get up before the kids. I have a few moments to have some quiet time and eat my breakfast (oatmeal and a latte...Mmmmmm) in peace. It helps me to face the day ahead.

The worst?

The after-supper hour. Nobody is happy. Me included.

The most productive?

Mid-day when I am working, and the afternoons when we are getting stuff done around here. After the kids are in bed is a great time to get my personal stuff done.

What inspires you?

Great writing and great photography. It would be easy to get discouraged, to see how far I have to go. Instead, I use it to inspire me to strive for better.

All photographs by Angella Dykstra.

Barack, you're my man, but Sanjay Gupta? Really?

Is that the only physician you know?

Have you heard of Dr. Oz?



Granted, he is a media mogul, but when he's on TV, he's talking about health and eating right and taking care of your body. Things that are doctorish. And even, Surgeon Generalish. (And Oprah loves him. You can't go wrong there.)

Sanjay? He's prostrated himself before the media gods. He'll talk about whatever CNN tells him to talk about. Even if it boggles the mind. Or belies his true neurosurgeonish intelligence.

Like Anna Nicole Smith. (And dammit, why can't I find this on YouTube?)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT:

But there's all sorts of things that I think the physicians and the health care professionals are sort of thinking about when you hear a story like this. You think about, for example, cardiac problems.

Could this have been some sort of heart problem and what exactly caused the heart problem? Was it some sort of genetic anomaly? Was it due to medications, for example? Could this have been something like a pulmonary embolism, where a clot actually travels to the lungs? Could it have been a result of medication interactions or too much of a medication? Could it have been blood loss or infection?

We do hear that she may have had a fever, a high fever, last night, as well.

Could that have been some sort of a forewarner that this, in fact, was some sort of infection problem?

(CNN Transcript Feburary 8, 2007)

Maybe it was the flu?

Maybe she choked on vomit?

Maybe it was syphilis?

Maybe it was hair bleach?

How much more air time do I have to fill until that medical examiner comes on?

And really? Come on, Sanjay. You're a smart guy. A genetic anomoly? Dude. It doesn't take a medical degree to know that

IT

WAS

DRUGS.

D. R. U. G. S.

Dr. Oz would have totally called it.

Book Club!

The Silicon Valley Moms Group (of which DC Metro Moms is a part) is hosting a book club on Monday, January 26th. The book is Who By Fire by Diana Spechler. I'm reading it right now and I cannot. put. it. down. Hence the exhaustion. I was up til 2am this morning and I only stopped reading because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. It's gooooood. (And pssst... you can get it at Target!)

You can read more about it here. And even if you don't have time to read the book beforehand, check out the discussion on January 26th. I can't wait to read everyone's comments on the book.

Holy Crap!

Operation Take Back the House (or Decrapification, as Rocket Man calls it) is in full swing. Unfortunately, today it interfered with my gym time, so Jillian Michaels and I will have a date later this afternoon.

I slacked off on laundry over the holidays. (I know! Me?) I washed and folded, just never hauled it up out of the basement and put it away. So today, I had a VERY full basket for each person in the house. (Pretty much, two weeks worth of clothes.) And I came to a realization...

The dressers are still full.

My family wore clothes for two weeks and the only thing they are running low on is socks. They could easily go for two more weeks without needing clean clothes.

Now, my old self would have said, "Hey, great! I can just do laundry once a month!" But my new Decrapifying Self said, "WTF? We have TOO MANY CLOTHES!"

And did I mention that my 3 older kids wear uniforms to school five days a week? Really, how many clothes do you need when 5/7ths of your wardrobe is predetermined? And also? How many pairs of PE sweatpants do you need in your dresser when you have PE twice a week? Hint: 8 is NOT the right answer.

This was a hard task for me. I don't like to waste things. I hate to give things away that I might need someday. I have saved almost every outfit the two older kids wore so the younger kids could use them. So really, I shouldn't ever need to buy clothes for the younger kids, right? But I do!

And I also get a lot of hand-me-downs, which I love. Especially because they are usually nicer brands than I would normally buy (which basically means, anything nicer than Target).

So, it is a hard thing for me to give away perfectly good clothes. Especially when they have Gymboree or Talbots Kids on the labels.

But really. It's out of control.

So I purged. And then I purged some more.

I pulled everything out of Little One's dresser. I became alarmed at the amount of underwear she has. So I started counting.

I am embarrassed to even write this on the internet for the whole world to see. But here goes:

She had 47 pairs of underwear in her drawer.

FORTY SEVEN.

That doesn't even count what might be in the laundry. I think it's safe to assume that we are over 50.

How did this happen? How does a kid end up with over 50 pairs of underwear and her mom just keeps cramming them in the dresser week after week? So I kept everything that had a princess on it and got rid of the rest.

Lord. I have a problem.

In the end, I filled two contractor bags for Value Village with clothes and coats. (I had purged those last week. Two coats per kid. No more. No matter how cute they are.) And a trash bag of non-princess underwear and other junk that is non-hand-me-down worthy.

I also threw in 2 suits and a dress from my working days. I'm having a hard time letting go of the last vestiges of my working wardrobe... as if I could jump up and march back to a job at any moment. But these babies were purchased in the 90s and had shoulder pads. Serious shoulder pads. I didn't get rid of it all. Baby steps.

I also tossed in a tool box that I bought in the EIGHTIES, when I decided that I was going to be crafty (ha) and make earrings. I made one. pair. of. earrings. And I've been hauling that empty tool box around ever since. Rocket Man keeps telling me to hang on to it, because he'll use it for something. But it's been TWENTY years. TWENTY. Time to go. Really.

Next up, purging my Christmas decorations, as I put them away. (Inspired by the Queen of Purging, Stimey.)

The Family Plan

Again inspired by Nie, I have chosen a family theme for this year. THRIFT! Or Simplify, as I am calling it. This is the year we are going to make a game of how little money we can spend. (Which will hopefully aid in my No More Clutter resolution.)

I don't have any great goals. I'd love to see our savings increase. Or at the very least, have none of those months where I have one eye on the bank balance, looking to see if the mortgage payment comes out before the paycheck goes in.

We'd like to have a fun vacation. Spending a little more than we normally would. Maybe invest in more renovations to the house. Or maybe, just teach our kids about being thrifty. Something our parents were so good at, having lived through the (first?) Depression - something that we have never really had to exercise in our lives. (Except for that year I lived on ramen noodles to pay off all my credit cards...)

In the interest of our theme, I took my vacuum cleaner to the repair shop today. I hate that damn vacuum. It weighs about 800 lbs. and for the first month or so, it worked great, but it's gone slowly downhill ever since. Now it doesn't suck at all and smells like burning metal. I would love to stick it on the curb for the trash collection, but alas, it is probably cheaper to get the damn thing fixed than to buy a new one, so I'm trying that first. And I'm supporting a local business (I have NO IDEA how they stay in business... seriously... how many people have vacuums repaired these days?) and I'm keeping another piece of junk out of the landfill.

Unless of course they tell me it can't be fixed. And then I will stick it on the curb and skip happily off to Target to buy a new one. Shhhh... don't tell the kids.

Resolutions

Ahh... I am here alone. Bliss.

Before I catch up with everything else, I'm sharing my new resolves for 2009. Which are actually things I started in 2008 and need... um... to re-commit to.

Massive decluttering and organizing my house! Part of the reason I feel like my work is never done, is because, MY WORK IS NEVER DONE. There is too much stuff in this house. Too many clothes, toys and general crap in all categories. I feel like I can't rest when there is clutter and there is always clutter, so I never rest.

My solution. THROW OUT THE CLUTTER. Srsly. As tangible goals, I'm going to pick one room at a time and work on it for a week, a month, whatever it takes to get it right. And I will take one bag of crap to Value Village every.single.week. I can easily do that. It looks like we will be in this house for at least a few more years, unless $100 bills start raining down from the sky, so if I want to stay sane, I must make this space work for us.

Next project... schedule in exercise (and stop eating crap... why are resolutions always about crap?)... but mostly exercise. Schedule it and make everyone work around it. I'm always the one to say, "Oh no. Nevermind. I'll skip the gym." to make things easier at home. In 2009, SCREW THAT! I'm going to the gym, or walking, or swimming, or whatever it is that I've scheduled and the rest of the family can LIVE WITHOUT ME for an hour... you know, lest they actually have to LIVE WITHOUT ME because my arteries got so clogged by chocolate that my blood coagulates.

So with no further ado, I'm signing off and getting my lazy ass to the gym. And then I need to go buy the components for all the king's horses (and all the king's men) to come and put my computer together again.

2009

I hated to leave an angry post up for so long, but between dealing with limited internet access, holidays, school vacation and Rocket Man, who is flat on his back with a serious pain in his ass, I haven't had a chance to post.

I have a great post in my head about my new year's resolutions. Or about how I taught the kids to play poker and failed miserably at trying to win back some tooth fairy money on New Years Eve. And one written on paper (quaint, huh?) for mGuy's 6th birthday, and another one (languishing in my drafts folder), debuting a new feature here at The Party, but, alas, I also have relatives heading this way, to my semi-cleaned house and my semi-stocked cupboards, and my semi-obedient children. And by semi, I mean... well... you KNOW what I mean. So there will be no updating from me. Perhaps not until Monday when school is back in session and I will have the house to myself once again, for at least 2.5 hrs.

So, instead of writing something of substance, I will send you to some beautiful writing of great substance brought to you by C Jane Enjoy It, sister of Stephanie Nielson (NieNie). First, this beautiful post from New Year's Eve, reflecting on the year that has past and the year to come. And this one, that made me giggle. And has a wonderful update on Stephanie.

And when you're done reading that, head over here to Cookie Magazine's Nesting Blog where the Nielson's home was named the No. 1 home they featured in 2008.

Seeing those pictures reminds me again to count my blessings, semi-clean, stocked or obedient though they may be.