Welcome

Oh hi! Thanks for stopping by! Would you like some tea? Coffee? Sure, I’ll join you for a latte. Yes, we drink quite a bit of espresso around here. The other day at the doctor’s office they asked me “how many caffeinated beverages” I drink in a day. I said, “Why? Do you have some?”

So, you must be wondering why I gathered you all here. Me. The anti-facebooker. A blog? Really? Well, I have a few reasons. First, I really, really do want to stay in touch better with all my wonderful friends and family. I would love to share more regularly what is going on in our lives…. pictures of the kids, etc. Lest you think I am only interested in a one-sided conversation, I am really hoping you will take the time to say “Hi” back and post a comment on the blog. To make it more fun, each time you visit you will be entered in the sweepstakes drawing for a night of babysitting! And by “babysitting” I mean babysitting my three children. While I go to the spa. (Please see below for Sweepstakes Entry Rules.)

One of the things I am excited about is an opportunity I recently discovered on www.blurb.com. Through this site, I can “slurp” my blog into a nice professional looking book. Blurb? Blog? Slurp? Who thinks of these names? Regardless, I am excited about this possibility for some regular recording and memorializing of the pictures and the quotes. Oh my, the things these kids say. Here is a sample from just this evening of the hilarity you will be reading about (should you choose to visit again): E to S- in a somewhat exasperated tone, “S. Please don’t make me keep repeating myself millions of times”. (He was trying to wrangle permission to sleep in her bed with her, which she doesn’t give very often because he is too wiggly.) No kidding.

What else can you expect here at Just Mommying Around? Well, I like to process thoughts in writing- but haven’t done so in a long, long time. I’m looking forward to getting back in the habit of debriefing on paper once in a while. Let me know if it gets to be too much! I may, gulp, even share some of my goals with my personal fitness efforts. So I started this blog with a "Before" and "After" picture. I do not like the way this is headed. Lots of things to change and I hereby pledge to do so. You know, winning the battle between good eating and the evil presence of massive amounts of Easter candy…. You can also expect lots of gardening tips…. A couple how-to ballroom dancing videos… And FASHION ADVICE! Tons of it! Seriously, though, the other day my friend and I were talking about the balance between “doing things” like a Bible Study group, volunteering in your child’s classroom (or being your child’s classroom), having a play date, or maybe even taking a ballroom dancing class with your husband (OK- 2 mentions, but more on that later) AND feeling like you are gone all the time. Going, going, going and constantly one step behind the 8 ball known as “laundry”. She asked how I did it and I said, “Well, I don’t do anything. “ At the time that was my honest answer. I often feel like I am not doing anything. I don’t do a lot outside of the home besides my one day a week of work. Most plans I make are at the mercy of a newly appearing runny nose. So I often don’t try. Even though I love what I do, it feels so intangible. So same. So un- extraordinary. When it is 9am and “all” you have done is made breakfast, changed diapers, cleaned up breakfast, re-directed squabbles, gave a bottle, changed diapers…. You might think-? What am I doing? So- it is my hope that this blog will give me a chance to do something I enjoy… writing and sharing photos. And remind me of what it is that I am doing.

And please do post comments. They will be slurped by blurb in the blog book! Immortalized forever! However, I do have a couple requests. I am somewhat uneasy about this move to post my pictures out into this nw-fangled internet land. I think- in all non-paranoid reasonability, it is OK. But, I will only be referring to names with the first initial. E, S, or L. You know who I am talking about here right? And when I refer to all three of them together I will abbreviate by writing, “English as a Second Language”. Please do likewise. Also, please avoid statements that include physical locators. You know, don’t say, “Hey, how’s that construction going on your street- ___?” Or, ask about the ranch’s production of ___. Or talk about certain popular festivals that are in August in this area. (It will be hard not to post pictures of that time). Wow that’s a lot of rules. But you want to win the sweepstakes, right?