On-The-Go Momma

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Kate

It’s 8 o’clock on a Thursday evening and time for my daughter to go to bed.

I pop my head into her room to tell her lights out, and before I say anything…

She looks up to me…
And innocently says:

“What do you want momma?”

And in only a matter of seconds (a blink of the eye really) the following conversation goes on in my head:

What do you mean, what do I want?
This sentence is hard to grasp when the question I’m typically thinking of answering is:
What do you want?

Do you want your breakfast in the morning? Do you want your lunch packed for school? What about soccer? Do you need a ride? Yep! That’s me. I can do that!

A clean the house? Washed and folded laundry? Spic and span bathroom floors? (OK, that might be going a little far… but you get the point!) What do you want? I can do all those things and MORE for you…

But what do  I   want??

Seriously, all that swirled through my head, yet within only moments I am back to the reality of 8:00 (well… maybe 8:01 now).

And all I say back to my daughter and her unknowingly loaded questions is:

“Lights out honey. You have school tomorrow.”

And I head downstairs to the sound of silence.

~

But it’s there now, lingering in my head, the forbidden question, asked at the “question witching hour.”
(a.k.a. the hour when the kids are asleep, my day is closing, and all I really have left to do is… Think.)

What do I want?

I stare out at the darkness and ponder…

Ponder something I just don’t seem to be able to come up with an answer to.

• Sometimes I want silence (on those days when there is no silence to be found).
• Sometimes I just want to get away from it all (during those days, months, weeks where I feel I haven’t had a break).
• Sometimes I want my health back or the health back of a loved one…

But right now, what do I want?

Slowly I begin to realize, that at this moment I want none of those things above.

Silence comes and goes – but it is silent right now.
Get away? Sure, I could, but today there is no place like home.
Furthermore, miraculously, no one is sick (a taboo remark to even think!)

And for just a moment I realize:

What do I want?
Nothing right now.

And that’s very rare.

And it feels good.

I cover my legs with the warmth of my favorite blanket and snuggle into my favorite reading chair intent on enjoying a moment that I am certain will go away soon.

A moment that deserves to be enjoyed.

Author’s *Very Important* Note: It’s funny, because I had a really hard time coming up with a topic in my life to blog about last week (thus the fun, educational yet somewhat impersonal Blog Stalking Guide) and in hindsight, I think I was just scared to blog that I was momentarily happy. Because sometimes, I feel that the only thing more frowned upon then the Forbidden Question of: What do I want? is the Forbidden Answer of: Nothing, I’m happy as is.

Leave a Comment: Why do we often feel bad about saying we’re happy? (Or is that just me?)

~

Today I am linking up with Just.Be.Enough.
Because you shouldn’t be afraid to admit every once in a while:
“YES! I am happy.”
(no matter how long or brief the moment of happiness lasts)

Just.Be.Enough. has a mission to empower, inspire, and remind women, parents
and children that the time has come to celebrate ourselves.

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Posted in Blogging and/or Writing, Family | Tagged Just Be Enough | 24 Comments

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Kate

This Post is dedicated to my IRL* Friends
*IRL = In Real Life (defined primarily for my IRL friends)

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Every time I try to tell most of my IRL friends about my love affair with Google Reader I get the same puzzled looks and questions over and over:

• A blog “delivery service?” Huh?
  
• Never miss my favorite blogger’s posts without being sent an email??
• AND it also works with my iPhone (or any phone that can access the internet), iPod Touch or iPad?
• Really?

Yes!
(And every time I repeated this “Yes” their eyes get a little wider)

This concept changed my busy, On-the-Go Momma life as it related to blog reading.

(Because yes folks, I too am a blog stalker. There are certain blogs that I just can’t wait to read. And although I might not always leave a comment, I am always there with these bloggers, every step of the way.)

So in an attempt to educate the other busy, on-the-go, wanna-be-successful-blog-stalkers out there, I decided to create this beginners guide: The Busy, On-the-Go Momma’s Guide on Successful Blog Stalking How to Read Blogs

*If you blog you might already know some of this… but do your readers? Consider sharing this post on Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook!
** If you already use Google Reader do you fully use all it’s features? Let me show you how I use it!
*** If you are a blog stalker reader like me… this post most definitely IS for you

Blog Stalking Made Easy

It is so simple really. Let me prove it to you! It all starts with Google Reader.

Google Reader isn’t an app. It isn’t a download. It isn’t even something that you need to purchase. It’s free and all you need is a Google account.

STEP 1: Go to Goggle.com > In the upper right hand corner click “Sign In” > Then either sign into your account or click “Sign-up for a New Google Account.”

Once you are logged into your Goggle Account you’ll have to find Reader. To do this:

STEP 2: On the top navigation bar of Google click on “More” and navigate down to “Reader”

Then I suggest adding the Reader site as a bookmark in your web browser (Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.)

And there you are. Voila! Google Reader!
Now all you need to do is add some blogs and you are ready for “Blog Delivery”

Add or “Subscribe” to Your Favorite Blogs

Once you have a google reader account. You can:

1. Add Any Blog Site’s URL to It (See #1 on image below)
   Click the “subscribe” button in your Google Reader, type in the blog URL, then click “Add.”
2. Organize Your Blogs into Categories (See #2 on image below)
   You can see some of my own categories listed under “Subscriptions” on the screen capture below – I use categories a lot to better organize the different types of blogs I read.
3. Read the Blog (See #3 on image below)
   Read in Goggle Reader OR click on the blog title to go directly to the blog site.

Once you’ve read a post it will no longer be bolded (to indicate that it has been read). Each time a blog you subscribe to adds a new post, it will automatically be updated on your Google Reader page.

Other Great Google Reader Tools

At the top of Google Reader you will see areas to:

• Mark All Items as Read (indicated by blue star on above image)
  Sometimes life happens and you can’t keep up, don’t be scared to click “Mark All as Read” and start fresh – that’s what it’s there for!
• Search (indicated by yellow star on above image)
  Ever read a blog post then later want to return to it yet you’ve forgotten which blogger wrote it? You can enter a key word(s) into the search box and Google Reader will look through any blogs you subscribe to and find the blogs that have used this key word!
• View Posts in the Way the Suites YOU (indicated by green star on above image)
  You can choose to view posts in your Google Reader as a list (of the blog and post title) or as a full post (with all the text and image content)

At the bottom of each post you read on Google Reader you can:

• Star a Post (indicated by big & small red stars on above image)
  “Star” any post to add it to the “Starred Item” folder so you can go back to it later.
• Add tags (indicated by big & small purple stars on above image)
  Instead of starring a post I often tag it. This allows me to further categorize blog posts I would like to remember. (Currently I have 5 common “tags” I use shown beside the small purple star)
• Share the Post (indicated by orange star on above image)
  This can be done via Goggle + or by email directly in Reader. (A lot of posts will also add a link to Share on Facebook but if you don’t see this, just click on the post title to take you to the blogger’s actual site and use their site’s share tools OR copy/past the post link into Facebook.)

Stalk Read Your Favorite Blogs from Anywhere

And to top all this off, Google Reader can be accessed by any computer or devise that allows you to access the internet and a web browser.

There are also all sorts of iPhone and iPad apps (I use Feedler) which make using Google Reader via a mobile devise even better and easier to do! And they all sync. (Meaning if you read a post on your phone via your reader, it marks it as read when you view your reader elsewhere such as on your computer.)

For me, Google Reader has made my blog reading habit even worse much easier to handle.

So go ahead! Give it a try!
(And maybe consider subscribing to On-the-Go Momma while your at it?)

~

Leave a Comment: So what do you think? Will you give Google Reader a try? If you already use Google Reader, what do you love most about it?

*Oh, and if you are a fan of my typical On-the-Go Momma posts, don’t worry… Next week I’ll be back to the norm. Promise!

**Note: This IS NOT a sponsored post! Seriously, like anyone would pay me to write this anyway?!

Posted in Blogging and/or Writing | Tagged Lovelinks, On-the-Go Momma's Guides | 30 Comments

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Kate

IMPORTANT NOTE: This post and title was 80% inspired by life, and 20% inspired by my favorite children’s board book: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audry Wood – whose full story I put at the bottom of this  post. (And no, I’m not being compensated for saying that! I just LOVE to read that book to my kids!)

~

Life should be getting back to normal…

My busy season is over. The house is clean. My kids are back to school. There should be a return to routine and the usual, everyday ordinary. Right?

Wrong.

Because as soon as you get comfortable, life has taught me over and over (and over!) again that…

BOOM!
The comfort that you have finally gotten used to…
Will change.

And it has.

The BIG Tease: Comfort

And Comfort, my friends, is a world-class tease.

Don’t believe me? Let me share with you a few very good examples of Comfort’s extraordinary ability to tease us:

Example #1:
Finally, your baby starts to sleep through the night. FINALLY! 3 weeks go by, and you start to remember who you were before you were a sleep deprived, milk making, diaper changing momma of an infant and then: BOOM! The baby starts to wake up at 2 a.m. again. Night after night after depressing night.

Do you relate now?
Comfort = BIG Tease?

OR how about this one:

Example #2:
After years of working towards creating a financially comfortable, single income household (so that finally I could reach my dream of completely NOT working and being a full-time stay-at-home mom), all of the sudden that comfort is on the horizon and then the perfect job falls in your lap and: BOOM! You realize that you really DO want to work outside of motherhood.

Tease?
Yep. That’s Comfort.
A BIG, FAT tease.

The Annoying Little Sister: Change

What’s worse, is that Comfort always seems to be followed by Change.

And Change is very closely related to Fear. (Remember my friend Fear?)
The difference is that Change, well Change, is more like the annoying little sibling of Fear.

• Change has a way of sneaking up on you and then knocking you down (and laughing about it!)
• Sometimes you love Change and sometimes you despise Change (either way, you always have to live with it)
• And more often then not, Change, can drive. You. NUTS.

(See what I mean? Change = Annoying little sister. No offense to my own sisters, but…)

The Long Sleepless Nights of Anticipation

Furthermore, although you might at times be able to embrace Change, often (after it knocks you over) it makes you cringe with Anticipation – the anticipation (and sometimes excitement) of what’s to come.

Which in turn leads up to long, uncomfortable, sleepless nights of tossing and turning in Anticipation.

And that is where I am now.

On the flip side:

• A tease can make you work harder for something you never even knew you wanted.
• Beneath all the antagonizing, you will always still love an annoying little sister.
• And long, sleepless nights do eventually seem to go away (Right?)

So in an attempt to embrace the The BIG Tease, The Annoying Little Sister, and get over the LOOONG Sleepless Nights…

I will do my best to move on and continue to work hard for my goals.
(And when they change I will try to change with them.)

I will find that place in my heart for my annoying little sister named change.
(Easier said than done – but duly noted..)

And damn it! Maybe – just once – I’ll let myself sleep in the morning after a sleepless night.
(Could somebody please tell my kids this?)

~

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear
By Don and Audry Wood

Hello, little Mouse. What are you doing?
Oh, I see. Are you going to pick that red, ripe strawberry?
But, little Mouse, haven’t you heard about the big, hungry Bear?

Ohhh, how that Bear loves red, ripe strawberries!
The big, hungry Bear can smell a red, ripe strawberry a mile away…
Especially one that has just been picked.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The Bear will tromp through the forest on his big hungry feet and
SNIFF! SNIFF! SNIFF! find the strawberry…

No matter where it is hidden,
or who is guarding it,
or how it is disguised.

Quick!
There’s only one way in the whole wide world
to save a red rip strawberry from the big, hungry Bear!

Cut it in two.
Share half with me.
And we’ll both eat it all up.

YUM!
(Now, that’s one red, ripe strawberry the big, hunger Bear will never get!)

The End.

~

Now you just have to see the inspiration in that great story?

The BIG Tease, The Annoying Little Sister, and A LOOONG Sleepless Night (or two)…
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Leave a comment. Have you ever been in a place of comfort only to be hit with change? How do you deal with the anticipation (and occasional excitement) of change?

~

This week I am excited to be linking up with LoveLinks, a weekly link up that introduces smaller, personal blogs to new readers and commenters. Visit LoveLinks starting Wednesday and vote for your three favorite posts! Maybe mine???

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Posted in Blogging and/or Writing, Family | Tagged Lovelinks | 29 Comments

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Kate

You either love ‘em or hate ‘em…
(And no, I am not talking about kids!)

I’m talking about the “pat-on-the-back-WOW-look-how-much-I’ve-done” Facebook posts

You know the “Check. Check. Double check” post:

OR the “give-me-a-break-and-a-glass-of-whine!” post:

Yep, just reading them makes me exhausted!

Typically you either fall into one of three categories when it comes to these types of posts:

Category #1: I write these posts
Category #2: I hate these posts
Category #3: I secretly write these posts in my head but never actually publish them

Myself? I primarily fall into the third category.

Do you need to hear every little thing I do every minute of every second of every day?
No, probably not.

Do I still want to list every little thing I do every minute of every second of every day in hopes that my husband might see it to help feel validated in the hard work of parenting 3 children?
Yes.

Why? Because us moms… well… WE DO A LOT.
And we do a lot that doesn’t get recognized.

When you work a job outside of parenting you get the occasional “Good work!” from your supervisor, or a “Well done!” from a client. There seem to be many more opportunities to feel somewhat validated for your hard work and effort.

But in motherhood, our days are often filled with:

• love and worry
• pick-ups and drop-offs
• mess-ups and clean-ups

And we see:

• very few please and thank you’s
• not enough hugs and kisses
• minimal kudos for a job (a very hard job!) done well

Every once in a while a mom deserves the right to toot her own horn. And this past month, I’ve completely racked up the right to take a little pride in my accomplishments.

This is what I did in the month December during “Operation: Embrace the Chaos.”

• Decorated the house for the holidays.

• Traveled via plane (by myself!) to New York for my first business trip in 13 years.

• Wrote 4 posts in one week for Mothers Central. (Here’s my favorite one!)
• Baked, baked, and baked some more!
• Wrapped, wrapped, and wrapped even more than I baked.
• Participated in 5 different Christmas Celebrations.

• Celebrated my daughter’s 9th birthday.
• Celebrated my son’s 2nd birthday.