blogging

Wow, if I don't blog today, the month of February will pass by without a single blog entry! The horrors! I don't think that's ever happened to me in the eight and a half years of blogging.

January was a month of snow. Enough to keep our world magical and white, but not too much to overwhelm us and make us cry. In January we got rid of TV. We have plenty of other screens, but we watch a lot less. A LOT less. The TV corner is now a reading corner. Ellis sounded out his first words: "I am Sam. Sam, I am." And I became obsessed with knitting. I suppose it was only a matter of time. Look for me on Ravelry.

February was a month of friends. Friends visiting, visiting friends. Went down to DC to say goodbye to TulipGirl before their next international adventure. And my college buddy Joanna came for a week with twins and hubby. We played and her hubby conferenced. So much fun.

February was a month of waiting. I finished the last of my grad school applications in January. In February, I got my one accept and the reject that broke my heart. In March, I will move on and see what the next door holds for me, for all of us.

Yes, I knit their hats.

photo credit

EIGHT YEARS, peeps!!! That is eight years of blogging. On this day eight years ago, I wrote my first blog entry. (now forever lost in the cyber black hole of deletion.)

I had just started grad school (the first time) when I started the blog. It has taken me through grad school, the move from New Orleans to Philly, and the addition of two kids.

I was blogging before blogging was cool. Eight is like a 80 blog years. Ha! Ok, maybe that's a bit extreme.

So, today, the run-down. Kids slept terribly. I think between them, I was up from 3.30-5.30. Again. Blessed bus driver called to see if I wanted her to pick-up E. Love her. Cold and rainy this morning. Bus, please!

I went out and ran an errand for the lady from church who recently had knee replacement and lives near me, and I went to Target with M. We got a few bits of thing. Including popcorn to munch on. And I got the Magic Eraser for the first time, and now the dining room walls are kid art free. Love it!

Marlowe dumped about 2 c of salt on the last piece of apple pie. I yelled at him. I felt bad about it. Because it's not like he did something wrong. "Want make apple pie!" But, dude! the last huge piece of apple pie! (that was right after he played with eggshells and coffee grounds that are supposed to go to compost.) Sigh.

Delicious soup for supper: ground beef (yes, grass fed), stewed tomatoes, sliced cabbages, a dash of cayenne, salt and pepper.

And a good workout at the gym. 3.4 miles (incl the 5 min warm-up/cool-down)

___
So I was in the car listening to the classical station fund raise. I couldn't turn away, it was like listening to a train wreck.
So their promo for x level of donation was a 6 cd set of the top 100 classical pieces of all time or something like that. And, get this, they're organized by mood!!! "Uplifting" and "relaxing", etc. Groan.

But this is what I found really interesting. The two people were having this discussion on whether or not a few of the pieces really should be on the Uplifting CD, (the two pieces were he "Montagues and Capulets" from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Sibelius's Finlandia). Sooo, I'm dying to know what these people consider is uplifting classical music. Because apparently minor keys don't make the cut. They did play an example of they considered to be very uplifting (the last movment of Beethoven's 9th), And THEN they said, "what can you possibly play to follow that?" Which was just the perfect thing to say. Because it is like the embodiment of the Beethoven complex of the 19th century, like how some people (*ahem*Brahms*ahem*) had a hard time approaching writing a symphony because of the Beethoven shadow. After that they moved onto the relaxing CD. Apparently "Casta Diva" is "relaxing." I pretended to be Maria Callas.

I used to blog every day. Sometimes many times a day. I don't know why this habit has gotten away from me. Next week will mark my eighth anniversary of blogging. Eight years of my life, marked down in this electronic journal. No, I don't really journal elsewhere. I have a few private essays of sorts tucked away on paper in blank books I find whenever we move. But this is pretty much it. And I miss my daily dates with the blog. I also miss knowing that the little things are recorded somewhere, as I have a terrible memory. So I'm going to try something new, the blitz blog entry. Where I just get on, basically list what I did that day, anything i want to remember, any picture I might have on hand. Just to throw it up there. I may not even write in complete sentences. If you don't want to read the mundane, every day, that's fine. This is kind of for me, so I don't necessarily feel the pressure of crafting wonderful blog entries of well-designed prose and appropriate accompanying photography. You know, like I do all the time. (sarcasm).

So here goes:

Today---

Mom spent the night to catch her early morning flight to IA. Got up early to see her off. Grace came by to pick her up. I fed her the last piece of maple syrup pumpkin pie as a token of appreciation. Kids watched some TV while I took a shower but then abandoned it for their drawing. They are crazy about drawing with markers lately. E drew the Cat in the Hat, so cute! But we can't find the blue marker, so the stripes are off. He then drew some bees. M drew small tight scribbles and called them "baby bees" and big huge scribbles and called them "BIG bees" complete with teeny tiny voice and big growly voice.

Got E off to school. Pleasant walk up to school. Came home, drank my coffee. Then off to "Buy one get one free" breakfast at IKEA with Jane and Al. Enjoyed lots of browsing. Something I don't normally get to do when we go to IKEA for supper. Probably spent 2 hours walking through. I'm so full of ideas. I want to get this place straightened up!!

M fell asleep in the car instantly. E came home from school early. (Early dismissal) Drawing resumed. E has figured out how to pick shows on Sprout on demand. *groan*

Took them to the gym. They have so much fun in the childcare room. It has a train table, what can you expect? I had a great idea to watch movies on Netflix on my iPhone while I'm on the treadmill, but the one I started on Monday just couldn't stop buffering. I couldn't get it to play! Grr. But I had a better workout today than I've had in two weeks. Phew!

Picked up CSA box. Made veggie stirfry for supper. But it was kind of a failure due to too much lemon juice. Marlowe had a hand in that. You think I'm kidding. He is way too involved with cooking. He can now flip pancakes. Without burning himself.

Rushed off to CHOP for a parent resource meeting. Kind of half-heartedly went, but it turned out to be really interesting and helpful--about IEPs especially. I like it when there's a small group. Whenever I come, I introduce the "diversity" factor, bc often (though not always) we are the only family who signs as well. Somebody will always say "and we have the whole spectrum here tonight." It's because of me. *grin*

A bunch of my fellow mothering peeps have been writing posts every week about "real" moments, not just the shiny, happy blogpost-worthy moments, of motherhood. I fully intended to participate, but, to be honest, usually on Mondays, I don't feel up to facing reality. Either I'm in a really good mood, and don't want to think about "real." Or I'm too grumpy, I couldn't show that side of myself on the internet.

My true confession: most of the time, I don't feel cut out for the stay-at-home-mom gig.
It's complicated to say that. Because it doesn't mean that I don't love my kids or want to be with them. Nor does it mean that I don't embrace the ennobling aspects of raising children. It's hard to make the mothering jive with the other desires and gifts rolling around in my head. And I wonder how to play things out practically.

I keep trying to write a post about this, but I can't quite explain it. What IS real? The truth is, I'm trying to figure out a lot. It's part of the reason, I haven't been blogging so much. I used to just brain barf on my blog, now I don't feel so free to do that.

If we could just paint all day, I'm sure that would help. Who needs to tidy up and do laundry anyway?

For the rest of the peeps, check out the list:
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First of all, the blog carnival: Ministry of Reality Monday. (do we even have blog carnivals anymore? not even sure what to call it. A meme? But anyway, a bunch of my mom peeps are doing it) For those of us who don't always post the shiny and happy on the blog. For more background read here.

So, this my Reality Monday story.

I am a bad citizen. I avoid the public library. By the time I pay the fines I inevitably will incur despite my best efforts, I may as well buy the books on Amazon. I'm trying, though. Determined as ever to turn a new leaf (ha!), I finally got a Free Library (as they are called in the city of Philadelphia) card after having moved into the city in October. Because kids need exposure to libraries.

I, myself, have wonderfully fond memories of going to our library. I think I may have read every book in hte juvenile section. I remember our library trips as being fun. And my mom reading us books, and browsing and browsing through stacks.

So I think, I need to get a library card so that I can my kids to library to browse stacks and read stories. This picture is simple. It seems reasonable. We read stories at home. It's not like they don't get the book thing.

But reality is this: My 2yo, Marlowe, proceeds to grab EVERY book, "mommy! wook!" (that's "look") within about 10 seconds of my locating the juvenile section. My 5yo wants to play on the computer, but I tell him to pick 3 books. He is unsupervised browsing the stacks while I try to reign in Marlowe. All I want to do is read M the Fireman Elmo book, so that he'll calm down for a sec. Ellis picks three books. They look reasonable, though the third one may need a little "retelling." Then they find the DVDs. "mommy!! moomee!!!" (movies) OK! Pick three!! then we're done. No snuggly story times. No leisurely browsing. No ceremoniously presenting the library card. We are so out of there!! 10 minutes. And, I do it for you, dear children. Eventually, I will be less diligent about those darn DVDs, and you will cost me money. I could've just bought it on Amazon.

But this is so their freshman comp teachers won't hate me.

Cool new bloggy template!!!! (so if you're reading in a feed reader, come on over and check out the real deal.) hubby is still tweaking some, but it's nice to have a fresh, new look around here.

Tomorrow begins December. Aka Month o' Madness. Handmade Holidays is freaking my mind out right now. But, I will give a little attention to this little corner of the internet, because tomorrow begins the December Photo Project!!!! WOOOHOO! Don't forget to sign up.

'Scuse me while I silently go CRAZY over here.

And, yes, I'm all set to go with the Wreath o' Fun tomorrow. I mean, nothing is wrapped yet, but I got all the stuff.

ok, this is a little awkward. I said I was blog 'most every day in Nov. And I didn't. I just kind of dropped off the face of the planet. Well, bygones and all that. She's back. Hubby's helping me with a new template. And it's going to look purty around here. I need to write for my sake. I'm not going to commit to every day, because there is not something to say everyday. And I was getting annoyed by that. I suppose the point of committing is finding something to say every day. Well, I'm too tired for that.

Right now the biggest things going on in my head are:

* finalizing unpacking. Most of it is done. It's just this detritus. And organizing. I spent yesterday doing the most onerous of chores, sorting and culling my plastic containers. I'm getting rid of probably 2/3 of what I have. It was really scary. This had the advantageous side effect of finalizing where things would go in my pantry and kitchen. Feels good.
Next up: finalizing the art corner. we've done a little painting and playdough, but it's not where I want it to be and I think life will be way more fun when it's there. Um, the books. *sigh* where are we going to put the book shelves? We keep changing our minds. so the hall-way lined with book boxes stays put, until we're really sure.

* the holidays. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm cooking. And then there's my whole hair-brained handmade holidays thing.

* I just got my first washer and dryer ever. After 13 years of hauling laundry--encompassing college, marriage, and the addition of two children. I now have a washer and dryer on my residential premises!!!! Kind of puts things in perspective.

There's other little bits and pieces of life. I'm really too tired.

Hey, here's some pictures. Finally got the boys' room fairly in order:

So November is supposed to be National Blog Writing Month, because you know we all have extra time to blog with the holidays coming up. But I've been wanting to blog more. And since the baby is napping and I'm waiting for the Advil to kick the headache, I don't feel like cleaning at the moment, so you get a blog entry. I get amnesty for Sundays, because it's hard to blog then. So I start National Blog Writing Month on Nov 2 and hope for the majority of days in Nov. Besides it'll be good practice for the December Photo Project (ahem, Rebecca *grin*).

This November I'm super excited about unpacking more boxes (yeaaaa, um),
and Sew, Mama Sew's Handmade Holidays 3. This year I'm planning on starting just a tad earlier with my own Handmade Holidays. I'd also like to resurrect my poor Etsy shop, so if you have something that you've seen me make that you'd like to put under the tree for a certain little person, let me know, and I'll see what I can do. Or just keep your eyes peeled for announcements.

Well, November is off to a good start. I've got a good budget in place for the month, which I was a little anxious about since moving totally rearranged our finances. I signed up for a yoga class. I walk Ellis to school everyday. And hopefully, I will get my very own washer and dryer for the first time ever. That will be a post in and of itself. I also plan to go to an academic conference for the first time since 2007. Woohoo!

K M's awake, better scoot.

I know it's been a little slow over here on Asteroid B612. I had hoped that the December Photo Project would kick up my momentum a little, but after the new year I kind of dropped off a little. I do want to blog a little more, just a matter of making myself write, which is so important. But we've also been busy working behind the scenes in blogosphere. When I switched to using Drupal, one of the things that allows me is multiple blogs, closely connected. We have, essentially, one Drupal to rule them all. So what is this "all"? Is there more than Asteroid B612? Why, yes.

As of recently there is now a new blog that Hubby and I will be writing: Ellis Island.

This is a big decision for me, because I'm all about having just one blog and its diversity of topics is reflective of the author's diversity. In other words, I've not been tempted to have, like, a cooking blog, a craft blog, etc (to me that's what blog categories are for). But I want the direction for this new blog to be unencumbered by personal posts, to allow it its own space to develop into something.

This blog is, essentially, a place to blog all things deaf. We blogged a lot in 2007 (the year E got his CI), but not so much in 2008, because I spent a lot of time thinking. I think I'm ready to begin blogging again. About Ellis and deafness in our family, about the cochlear implant, about ASL, about our life as part of Deaf culture, about stuff we read, lectures we go to, people we meet. My goal for this blog is very broad, and I wanted separate space for it. Sometimes posts will be cross-posted between here and there, or not. Every post that I've written since we found out that E is deaf has been imported there, so the continuity of the story is maintained. But perhaps not all the posts will be about Ellis and that's fine. So please come visit our new blog (i'm hoping hubby will write sometimes).

Visit Ellis Island!
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I'm tweeting.

My life is more tweetish anyway. The Blog is of highest eminence, though. Facebook and Twitter are just Sideshow Bobs.