I’ve just recently signed on with Hallmark as part of their Life is a Special Occasion campaign.  I’m really excited because I will now have no excuse to not write here in this space and talk about the little, big, and everything in between events happening ’round these, here parts.  I’m also excited because, well, it’s Hallmark!

Continuing with the theme of: Talking About Myself, here’s what I’ve been talking about on my Babble Voices blog, Southern By Proxy…(I’d be so honored if you’d visit me there.  Yes, of course I realize that it’s a lot to ask.  It’s just that, I miss you, my regular blog readers, and I feel like I’m fumbling around over there trying to find my voice and the type of post that “works.”)

* Carson has nightly homework in Kindergarten-yes, KINDERGARTEN-and I’m just trying to figure out what the point of busy work really is.

* I got grazed by the sleepover bullet and I’m hoping that I don’t get hit with it again any time soon.

* Don’t get your panties in a bunch, but I don’t really think it’s that horrible when someone says to you, “you sure have your hands full!”

And now to the more selfless portion of the program: I want to start a feature on either Thursdays or Fridays…or you know, whenever the mood strikes, to feature great posts I’ve read around the Internets.  With the share function gone from Google Reader, I just feel like I never get to tell the world what they should be reading.  It was one place I could be totally bossy and get away with it.

Jennie’s posts are always thoughtful and insightful, but I love this post-it’s romantic in a the very best of ways.  Eight.

Having devoted a good portion of January to unsubscribing to EVERYTHING in an effort to manage my email better, this post by Marinka had me chuckling out loud (COL).

I love reading birth stories, I think in another life I’d like to be a doula, and I loved Emily’s birth story about her precious fourth baby, Paul Richard.

And that’s all I’ve got for now, folks.  Any good news to share?

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

You can bet that I won’t be playing around on Pinterest today.  I certainly don’t need anymore reason to feel inferior.

Carson went to bed last night without stories because he yelled at me one time too many.  Tate went to bed at 9 pm, silently.  I wasn’t particularly proud of my parenting or my wife-ing last night, but to be fair, there were two other people who shouldn’t be proud of their behavior either. Punks.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.  It’s the unresolved wrongs that invade dreams with streaky, anxiety-filled, nonsensical scenes that leave you bleary eyed in the morning.

“Never go to bed angry,” they say.  Well THEY are right, but THEY are also not practical.  Sometimes there’s really nothing left to be said.  You just have to be angry and decide to get over it.

I guess the same should be said for my mood.

I think today needs the fancy body wash, extra mascara, and waffles.  Definitely waffles.  They’re scientifically proven to be mood perker-uppers.  It’s true.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

It’s amazing that a holiday that for centuries has been on December 25th, can completely floor us with it’s arrival.  If there wasn’t so much to do to prepare for this one twenty-four hour period, maybe we would feel better prepared for it’s arrival?

The good news is that I am 100% done with shopping. (Imagine that I’m doing the Arsenio Hall arm pump thingy accompanied by some hooting.)  However, I’m not done wrapping, meal planning, or cleaning.  I was kinda sorta hoping for your help, kind reader, with the meal planning part.

We have already had one Christmas with Tate’s side of the family where we served turkey AND we had turkey at Thanksgiving AND I’m plain sick of turkey.  One of our Christmas guests doesn’t eat ham.  I’m completely baffled about what I should make for our Christmas dinner! My husband suggested venison.  I suggested he stop talking nonsense.

Do you have any good ideas for what I could serve?  Please and THANK YOU.

(photo source)

:::

If you’re one of those people who’s already done with cookingcleaningshoppingwrapping and are looking for some most excellent reads, here are a few to keep you busy.  No, no…YOU’RE welcome.

Answering the door, scantily clad, for the delivery man was at least better than Ella answering the door without me around.

We discussed eggnog here a few years back, but it’s a very, VERY important subject, yes? My son had some very pointed words to say about eggnog.

I was interviewed at Care.com regarding my thoughts on New Year’s resolutions.  I think your early resolution could be to click RIGHT HERE.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Anyways.

It’s not too late for a Halloween photo, is it?  No?  Good.  Presenting…a very intimidating Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a fifteen-year-old-boy dressed as Carson, dressed as a member of Lightning McQueen’s pit crew!

We had a lousy showing of only four kids begging for candy on Halloween.  Not even one ill mannered teenager, or grown women, without costumes.  I mean, how the heck am I supposed to blog about Halloween if nobody shows up to offer fodder?!

:::

This is…random….but I was sent a copy of the documentary, The Sound of Mumbai: A Musical.  I’m a sucker for a good documentary, so when they asked if I wanted a copy, I said, “okay.” This documentary is currently airing on HBO2 and it’s about these kids from the slums of India that are going to perform songs from the Sound of Music at the fanciest performing arts center in Mumbai.

Documentaries this like and the radio show, This American Life, and the human interest articles in newspapers, and blogs…I LOVE those kind of things.  Learning about other people, their stories, their lives…I especially enjoy seeing how despite completely different cultures and life circumstances, people are people no matter where you go.  The little boy in the documentary, Ashish, his personality was like any ten-year-old boy you’d meet here in the US.

Sound of Mumbai was a good documentary, hopeful, sad, but realistic.

Disclaimer:  yes, they sent me a copy of this documentary, but I wasn’t really under any obligation to blog about it.  I wasn’t reimbursed in any way and these brief opinions are my own.

:::

I keep meaning to brag on Nap Warden from NW Designs for the awesome job she did on my website, Family Friendly Knoxville.  So I’ll do that now.

Nap Warden did an awesome job on my website, Family Friendly Knoxville.  She took my ideas, some hand drawn, some poorly worded, and was able to create the look I was going for.

So if you’re looking for a blog designer or logo designer, you should look NW Designs up.

Another disclaimer!  She didn’t ask me to say anything, although she did give me a great deal with the design AND web hosting.  Nap Warden is just good at what she does and I wanted to tell you about her.

:::

I’ve written quite a few posts over at my Babble blog, Southern by Proxy.

A waitress yelled at Carson in a restaurant which led me to ask, “Should you reprimand another person’s child?” Several of the comments have really made me think.

I wrote about who I am, as part of the Phenomenal Women project headed up by Alli Worthington.

Now that I’ve finished Friday Night Lights (WAH!), I’m wondering what I should watch next?

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

“YOU REALLY HAVE TO STOP YELLING AT ME, CARSON!!” I yelled.

“WELL STOP YELLING AT ME!” Carson yelled back.

He makes a good point.

******

You know how I’ve been training to run the past several months?  (Don’t worry if this is news to you, just go with it.)

Well, on the Fourth of July, Tate and I ran a 5K.  He hasn’t trained for one, lousy second.  I’ve been running 10 miles a week ALL DANG SUMMER, sweating and toiling.  TOILING.

His final time was 24:56, mine was 30:56.

It just ISN’T FAIR.

******

Carson learned how to ride a bike without training wheels this weekend.  He starts Kindergarten in less than a month.   I fully expect him to start driving, grow a beard and get married within the year.

******

Ella could kick your kid’s butt in a tantrum throwing contest.

At least I win at something.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

Delete, reply, reply, ignore
Deadlines
Dreams and fear
Jobs and to do lists
Refresh, next, back
Did I?
When will I?

Late to bed, too early to rise
A face with tears beside my bed at midnight
Nightmares about tornadoes
Back talking
Defiance
Tantrums and fighting
Refusing
And now
School’s out
Yelling, hugging
Sorry

Stress at work
carries over to home
Insurance and bills
College funds
Retirement
Time
No time
Arguing
Yes, no
Ignore
Martyrdom

Earthquakes and tsunamis
Tornadoes and flooding
Economy
Gas prices
Job losses
Poverty
Addiction
Hurting

Staccato of regret
overwhelmed,
tired,
the Weight,
helpless,
worried,
compassion fatigue

Paralyzed

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I certainly do dig these moments.

Other things I dig:

Iced tea with extra lemon in my favorite cup.

Netflix.

Lost (Thank you Netflix Instant Queue!). I regret not watching this show when it was on, because now I don’t have anyone to talk to about it and there is a LOT to talk about.  I spent the summer catching up.  So far I’ve watched Seasons 1 through 4.  It’s sad and exciting that there are only 2 more seasons.  Also, I would totally make-out with Sawyer if I weren’t married.  I have no idea why I have a thing for a lying, dirty, murdering sleazeball, I just do.

Great books. I’ve read some duds so far this year, but some of the books I’ve read have been hard to put down, like World War Z (thanks to Mr. Lady for the recommendation), My Life in France (oh Julia Child! You make me want to be brave and travel and experience LIFE), and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Love, LOVE.)

Mondays (or Tuesdays, as was the case this week), when Tate goes back to work. What? I’m just being honest. We just get along better during the week, that’s all.

My back to dark brown hair. It makes me feel like a rocker chick. Of course I’m a rocker chick who loves Alice in Chains, but probably wouldn’t change the radio station if Peabo Bryson or Toto came on. I also kind of want a nose ring, it just seems like it would go with my whole “rocker chick” look. It’s unlikely to happen since I’d worry about what my friends would say and what the people at Carson and Ella’s VERY, VERY, OH SO VERY conservative Christian preschool would think. Hey, you can still love Jesus and be a faux rocker chick, I think.  Anyway, I look nothing like a rocker chick in the picture below, I look so prim and proper!

(Here’s a before picture showing my summer highlights. I made sure to pick a really terrible, after working out picture to make the picture of me above seem really good.)

Yikes, right?!

My children being in school. This probably should have been first on my list because I love them being in school even more than I thought I would.

Roasted pine nut hummus.

My new Canon 50D and lens. I know that a good photographer does not a camera make, but it does make me feel more serious and quasi-professional (albeit unpaid and without any prospects of a photography business, but still.)

The redecorating job I did on my kitchen without spending a dime. I simply rearranged and repurposed things that I already had. I’m loving the results. (A before picture would be pretty handy right about now.)

Anything that you’re digging right now?  How was your Labor Day weekend?  Anyone else catching up on Lost and wanna talk about it?

(Psst, some of the links above are affiliate links. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what of it?)

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

This was our charming beach house on Tybee Island. The upstairs was cute and beachy.  Built in the 30′s, it still had it’s original wood floors and white clapboard walls.

Here was the “summer house,” advertised as livable, but sadly only for mosquitoes. At least it was cute to look at from a distance.

From the looks of the pictures I took of the kids, it seems like they had a good time.  I guess I purposely didn’t take any pictures of them when they weren’t having fun.  There really is no need to preserve those memories for posterity.

Tybee Island was a really lovely beach, minus the jellyfish. Ella and I are still battling our jellyfish stings. They are now itchy welts and against my protests, Tate read on Google that they usually leave scars.

We LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Savannah. We even got to eat at Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady and Sons. At the Roundhouse Museum a few hours after we ate at Lady and Sons, we ran into her son and grandson, Jamie and Jack Deen.  It’s the little things in life, y’all, that I find exciting.  (No pictures of the encounter, none of them turned out.)

The line to get our name on the list for lunch at 9:30 AM.

The founder of the Girl Scouts birthplace.

The Savannah Candy Company. The kids got Ring Pops, of course, since you can get those anywhere.

Thanks for humoring me and looking, I know how excruciatingly boring it can be to look at other people’s vacation photos.  I’m in such a funk right now, hoping that getting the kids back to school next week will perk me up…and perk up this boring ol’ blog.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

I LOVE MY HUSBAND (well, mostly)!  I have friends, the kind you can call and go out to lunch with and have inside jokes!  I’ve been exercising (Yes, AGAIN. But this time it’s going to stick!)  I’m a recycling maniac and it makes me feel ridiculously satisfied and accomplished!

All those great things are SO BORING, in terms of blog entertainment value.  I’ve been around long enough to know that ya’ll prefer the “woe is me” brand of blog post.

So here are a few things in my life that could use some improvement.

1.  I can’t make iced-tea.
2.  I’m horrible at getting birthday/occasion cards in the mail on time and sometimes they don’t make into the mailbox at all.
3.  I’m starting to break my own rule of replying to email and I’m appalled and annoyed with myself for the unreplied-to emails in my inbox.
4.  Sometimes I can’t keep my mouth shut when I should really KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT.
5.  I’m terrible at making important decisions.
6.  I’m supposed to record my receipts on our spreadsheet, but I haven’t done it for about six or seven months.
7.  If there are Bagel Crisps or Fritos  in the house, I can’t stop eating them.
8.  I cannot keep my toilets clean, THEY ARE OUT TO GET ME.
9.  Most of Ella’s clothes are stained, partly because she’s the messiest child alive and partly because I’m too lazy to stain treat.
10.   My blog kind of sucks.

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.

One time, in 5th grade, I got kicked out of Spencer’s in the mall for shoplifting.  It’s been a few years, so I feel safe in admitting that I DID NOT SHOPLIFT FROM SPENCER’S!  I was wrongly accused.

In college, on my 22nd birthday, I got accused of smoking pot in the bathroom of the Burgundy Room (anyone remember that place in Springfield?  Art Bentley?  *dreamily reminiscing*).  Again, since it’s been awhile, I could confess.  BUT I WAS NOT SMOKING POT IN THE BATHROOM OR ANYWHERE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER.

Since I’m all about honesty today, I will admit to stealing a very large, green thumbtack from the grocery store bulletin board when I was maybe eight years old.  That is the extent of my criminal past.

Every time I leave a store that has those anti-theft sensors at the front door, I get a case of nervous tummy.  This is not because I’ve stolen anything, but because I go through spurts where I set off alarms.  Those alarms are SO ANNOYING.  I never know exactly what to do in this situation.  There’s never a soul around, well except for the priest, rabbi, and Sunday school teacher who just by happenstance are standing at the exit staring at me when I’m seeminginly leaving the store with stolen merchandise.

Usually what I do is keep on walking, trying to be as nonchalant as possible, other than quickening my pace just a skosh.  I try to do my best impression of a person who’s completely unable to hear the alarm saying “Please return to the nearest cashier, we have failed to remove the merchandise control tag from your purchase.”  (Which on an aside, I like how their alarm likes to pretend that it’s all THEIR fault, not mine.  Well played.  But I’m not falling for it.)

The entire walk/sprint to my car I’m usually braced for the come-behind attack from store security guards.

“DOWN, LADY!  ON THE GROUND!  WE KNOW YOU STOLE MERCHANDISE!”  I wait and wait for the inevitable, that inevitably doesn’t come.

So what should I do when I set off store alarms, track down a store clerk to proclaim my innocence?

©2012 Playgroups are No Place For Children. All Rights Reserved.