Creating
The other night, we’re doing dishes and watching the baby on the monitor, listening to our favorite band’s new album, and I turn to AA: Is this how you thought you’d live your life? He snorted and kept scrubbing the few plastic dishes we use that I refuse to put in the high heat of the dishwasher for fear it will ignite their secret BPA ingredients and kill my kids. Then he asked me what I thought my life looked like in theory versus practice, which is a way better way of stating my same question. No surprise. He’s definitely the brainier of us. And I’m more rigid. I explained my present life in my mind looks like this: Homemade food eaten by children wearing all clothing that I’ve made or sourced organically, while they gently play with their wooden toys and share kindly as I look on, showered, clothed, and knitting from a very comfortable yoga position I’ve mastered. Maybe I’m reading aloud from A Child’s Garden of Verse and maybe we’re all doing crafts. He laughed so hard starting with the part where the kids are only wearing clothing I’ve made and going all the way through. I joined in and we moved on to the greener pastures of intellectual discussion like how many shirts I needed to iron for his week at work. This got me to thinking, how closely am I living to how I’d like to live? How far off am I and what’s holding me back from actually living…
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We realized this the other weekend. We need more than a “date night” in our lives. We need actual time together. Sans kids. Not time when we’re talking over a candlelit coffee or dinner. Not time when we’re having marital intimacy (TMI ALERT!!!!!!!!). Time when we are sharing experiences outside the bounds of parenting. I could go on and on about what this means, or doesn’t mean, or what it could look like, or doesn’t look like, but the simple fact is that shared experiences are what feed a relationship good solid barley kind of meals, not fluffy puffed rice cereal kinda meals. Like when we were dating and we went for runs together. Okay, my husband won state 7, you read that right SEVEN–or was it 12?–times in high school and ran for Notre Dame. He’s a real runner. I jogged alongside him while we were flirtatiously working out in law school. He probably was basically walking and I didn’t even notice. I did once run through a corn field to get back to my burning vegetables in the oven and sliced up my thigh. Prickly brambles on the outer edge: not so sexy to return to the apartment when he was already there stretching with a bleeding thigh. But experiences. Like watching and laughing uproariously to Arrested Development together. Or Parks & Rec. Or something equally not a period piece that I love and want to subject him to. {did you hear Haley & Christy’s podcast dedicated to…
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I love interviewing my friends. It is one of the many joys of having a blog. To blab about my gal pals! Anna and I met when she and Jacqui came to the parish mom group I started a few years back. They came in with their adorable baby boys and immediately I thought oh these ladies are cool. And it’s true. She is giving away an item from her recently launched knit goods shoppe on Etsy! And has a coupon for you holiday shoppers! {20DEC for 20% through end of Dec} But first, I give you, Anna {blog is called The Heart’s Overflow}: you’re a mama, wife, musician, blogger, and yarn artisan. Can you tell me a little about your new etsy shoppe, how you chose the name, what your offerings are, and what your inspiration is? I’ve been knitting and crocheting since I was in 8th grade. Over the years people have suggested to me that I should sell my wares, but I had no platform from which to do so and thought only really professional knitters could sell their stuff. So I just kept making things for myself and friends and family. I heard about Etsy a couple years ago and after meeting a couple people (Nell included) who run shops EVEN THOUGH they have babies to take care of I became inspired to start my own. After thinking about it and planning for almost a year I finally opened my shop this fall. Middle West Knitting…
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Is your friend a blogger? Do you even know what the heck she’s doing on her blog//online diary? Because it’s really an online diary where she talks about her kids’ poopy diapers, right? I had no idea what a blog was before I started blogging, and heck, even well into the blogging, four years ago. I truly thought it was like a few ladies talking about either their traumatic recoveries from birth, or their kids’ poop. Now I’m sure my friends who don’t read my blog think the same of me: poop & birth stories. And, my friends who do, know this is the case. If you are a blogger, and your friend is a blogger, and your blog is smaller than hers, how can you support her? If you are a blogger and your friend is a blogger, and your blog readership is bigger than hers, how can you support her? I think the answer to all three scenarios: you’re a normal non-blogger, you’re a small-time blogger, or you’re a big-time blogger. 1) Subscribe to the blog. Even if you don’t always read it, or heck, never read it. You’re helping her “numbers” and being supportive. That’s awesome of you. My first non-family subscriber four years ago was a good family friend, single dude, early thirties, who by no means wanted to read my blog. I’m pretty sure he’s never unsubscribed. And pretty sure he’s never read it. I almost cried for appreciation. (weird? yeah, I’m a blogger) 2)…
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Breathe in. Breathe out. Relax your shoulders. Now relax your calves. Shrug your nose and smile (relaxes your lips). Repeat after me: I (I) Will (will) Not (not) FREAK (freak) OUT (out) about (about) the (the) holidays (holidays). —- Got that squared away. But really, I do get tense about the holidays for all the wrong reasons. Instead of focusing on how wonderful it will be to spend Thanksgiving weekend here for a change of pace, I’m worrying about trying to get my pie crusts done this week and into the freezer. When I contemplate Christmas, I start the mental jigsaw puzzle of where everyone will sleep in the house when family arrives and try to make a mental checklist of which gifts I’ve gotten already and which I need to still. What I want to think about is my wonderful family. My family who helps play and love our children. My family who travels long distances when my sis-in-law is uncomfortably in her third trimester (with her toddler!!) to come and be with us. My sister who will set aside her busy business in peak insanity and come and let loose her kids on my kids’ toys. My nieces who will shriek with joy and trembling at all the insanity of our household with three little ones. My brother who came for a long weekend with his son so we could get special time as they can’t come later for the real holidays. You know how the holiday stress…
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If you know me, and you do, oh, yes, you do, you know I love hot beverages. I’m a poser. This is a rambling post. Brace yourselves. Teething has rendered me virtually brainless. Hop to Olivia’s blog for the last moments of giving away a Bandit Bib. Because: teething. I’m going to point you to my top teething solutions. Hop here. The advantage of a blog spanning multiple teething children. Right-o. But on to me. I love hot chocolate. Above all else. I will drink it to death, if on a dessert island. I could have multiple a day til my kidneys failed me. I could never ever go full non-dairy and non-chocolate because this is my life blood. When I was a little girl I would order chocolate milk at any given opportunity at a restaurant–which wasn’t that often. I just love love love chocolate in liquid form. BUT I also have grown begrudgingly fond of my sister’s tea. If you recall, out of us five kids, only one is really doing interesting things, Bridget. Okay, but Molly is a close second. Bridget {wave wave wave} is remarkable. And if you ask my mom what she does for a living, she will give you a quizzical look and pause, long, before responding something with computers . . . ? Actually, the sister between them is the most giving and selfless, and my brother is serving our country, so it really just leaves me doing the boring stuff. Like talking about tea and cocoa.…
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