Entries Tagged 'family life' ↓

Yet, I don’t feel good so Ellie and I are lounging in bed and watching stupid videos.

My favorite find this morning? Paul Klusman’s Dorky Cat Videos.  As most of you know, I have a thing for engineers, being married to one, it’s sort of a given. And cats? Well, I don’t mind them so much online where they can’t make me sneeze.

For those wondering why the recent rash (comparative) of posts? I’m trying to be better about keeping my life here. You know where I won’t lose it if Zuck and co have a bad day.

Other little updates:

Less than a month until my first conference of the year. I’ll be speaking on two topic.

I got a positive response from a HARO inquiry. Like a dumbarse, I forgot to save the original query, so I have no idea whether it was for a national publication or not. We’ll see what happens there and in the meantime I’ll keep plugging away and answering queries.

Last night’s first ever #homechat with Angela England went quite well.  She’s the founder of Untrained Housewife, we cover similar topics, but our audience is  little different. In the one hour chat, we had 53 participants and over 350 tweets. I’m looking forward to next week’s.

Despite our issues with Aidan’s charter school, we’re going to finish out the school year. Hopefully next year he’ll get into the local magnet school or perhaps other situations will change and we can swing private. Who knows.

I’ve been working with Mark on reading and he’s picking it up like a champ. School is going to be a piece of cake with him. Aidan is bright and curious -he digs science and history and picks up math like it’s his native tongue. However, he hates anything where there’s actual work involved (writing for example). I have the feeling once he can type there will be no stopping him. Mark? Well, he’s driven to be better than Aidan in everything and will pursue it no matter how much work is required. He’s taught himself to write, granted it’s often still a mirror image of regular writing (this happened after his cast came off and he switched back to his left hand) his letter formation is spot on.

Aidan recently announced to his violin teacher that he’s going to write a book on the Civil War and the Revolutionary War to help pay bills. Kids. What do you do?

Ellie? Well we have entered the bald Barbie stage of parenting. She has a stash of scissors somewhere and it frequently looks like it has snowed in our house from all the paper snips. She’s happy, it’s mostly harmless and supposedly good for fine motor skills. I let it go.

Another family post.

Here is the video from the boys’ violin recital.

Since I have seen snow like this in Charleston.

I assure you, Ellie was only mad because we made her stop rolling around long enough to take a pic.

Of course we left all of the snow gear in Minnesota. Figures.

My stepdaughter went to her first formal, she had no idea her dad would be in town to see her before she left. Oh yeah, he knows it all starts now.

Just a few quick kid pics, before I forget.

Last week I took the kids and my pal Bran up to Chimney Rock. Great day and as all family trips go, it’s not complete until someone gets hurt.

The poor, neglected middle child. . .

Happy birthday, little man. Just know that it was only here on the blog that I was late with a birthday wish.  Your daddy was on nights which made this already difficult week very hard.

The pictures will be posted soon.

Happy birthday, baby!

This summer has flown by. My father usually vacations in Myrtle Beach the last week of July. It’s been a 25 year tradition. He couldn’t make it and we were able to find someone to watch the dog (thanks Mom!), so we’re here for a day or two.

The kids are so young that they aren’t aware of the things they could be begging for. We’re grateful and will spend today at the beach and by the pool.

It’s been ten years since a certain wild week, but my sister remembers it s the year I decorted her shoes. It’s funny, taking the kids to the pool, how things have changed. I’m not jumping in squealing with delight, I’m catching Ellie as she steps from the side.  I’m not walking as fast as I can skirting the edge of the, “Hey! No running on the pool deck!” I’m not trying to catch anyone’s eye.

I am however looking over those who are in my shoes, catching kids and keeping order. Toweling, sun blocking, gathering up piles of dive sticks and noodles Are these the boys I once wished would look my way? Are these the girls I envied? And for the love of God please don’t recognize me if you do remember that summer, it was a different life.

I’m walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last week it was the washer and the minivan, so what’s next?

Interrupted to be told:

“Mom I wish I had some super sticky shoes so I could paint the ceiling. You’re going to have to take the fans down so I can’t paint around them.”

Imagination is not lacking in our house.

Somehow I missed the milestone, but Home Ec 101 passed a million pageviews a while back. With Ivy writing full time again our traffic has picked back up to where we are back in our growth pattern. I’m excited by this.

The campaigns that come are of higher quality. We’ll never be a site that focuses only on giveaways, but from time to time they add a little for our regulars that is appreciated.

Hopefully this will be the last of the random brain dump posts for a while, but focus hasn’t been one of my stellar qualities of late.

The summer is flying by, Mikala will be going home soon. I know she has a million activities she should get to sample, but selfishly, I want her here longer. She’s an amazing kid and genuinely enjoyable to be around.

I can’t get the mail, let the dog in, or head to the car without doing the spider web dance. Eew eew eew, get it off, get it off.

Sunscreen? Yeah, don’t forget the tops of your feet. All those magazine articles and it never sank in.

I had my second round of allergy testing. It’s official, if it’s alive, I’m allergic. Well, it’s not that bad, but yeah it’s enough to where every season there is something ticking me off. With luck and a lot of shots, next Spring shouldn’t be as bad.

I’ve shaved almost four minutes off my 5k time. It’s amazing what the ability to breathe can do for a person.