Mom to the Screaming Masses

Reflections and Minutia

I made it through NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month. I posted every.single.day.in.November. Not all of it was newsworthy, but I set a goal and finished it.

I didn't make 30 days of Thankfulness. I think I made about 15. That's an improvement, though, and I'll take it.

I wrote 5,236 words in my document. That's not all that much. But it's a start.Now to figure out where I should send it.

Links for your perusement and enjoyment on this fine Wednesday -

Devoted reader Ouida Gabriel directed me to a book that her daughter wrote and as I know how difficult it can be to get published - I'm promoting it - I have not read it, but it looks to be interesting.

One of my new projects can now be promoted - I'm on the Motherboard for Redbook magazine and my first post is live today - I'd love it if you'd check it out - and comment, that's very important, because it lets them know that I was a good person to hire. Comment over there, pretty please, with a cherry on top. And there's a movement on Twitter attached to this, so if you feel so inclined, add your answer with the hashtag #don'tjudgemebecauseI...

It appears that I've made it - to be mentioned on Mashable. Too bad my name is misspelled - but they did say I was established and highly opinionated. So it's good.

My cousin Tammy has an Etsy shop and she's just lowered her prices on Christmas gifts - check her out! Follow her on Facebook for her cool art work.

READ this - I'm the roommate in question - and, yup - it's true. :)

Diana Gabaldon has a new book out - it's not a Jamie and Claire in the series, but it fills in the gaps somewhat. I'm currently reading The Scottish Prisoner - anyone else?

Promotion alert - I have a post for Blogher below this one that needs a little love. Can you help a girl out?

 

Pfizer's Return to You

Six years ago, I had a little baby who was having some difficulty. She was my 6th baby, and she followed fast on the heels of her sister, who was just a year older.

I was really struggling with raising my kids, trying to be the best mom possible, and setting unrealistically high standards.

My baby was found to be on the autistic spectrum, and we began dealing with occupational therapists, developmental pediatricians, and physical therapists. We worked on speech therapy, worked with the sleep and feeding clinics, and in general, my life was very overwhelming.

I had developed poor eating habits with my first couple of kids and having two kids back-to-back made me reach for the food much too often. I was deeply unhappy, and who better to cheer me up than Ben & Jerry?

I consoled myself with food. Chocolate, fancy coffees, brownies with ice cream and chocolate sauce, french fries. The list grew. I ate myself from an already comfortable 14-16 right into an 18-20. It took a comment from a family member, telling me she was happy I was no longer the skinny one, and a comment from one daughter's friend that "at least she didn't have a fat mom!" to wake me up.

I decided to stop and take a good, hard look at my life. I realized I needed to make some changes in my life and get back to being myself. After all, I'd been a very happy, and pretty good, ballet dancer in my teens and was slim until I was in my early thirties. There was no reason for me to be that stereotypical "fat" mom, no reason for me to be unhappy with myself. The people at Pfizer call this "Returning to You", the time in her life when a woman decides to return to being her best self.

I began an exercise regime and slowly, slowly, so slowly it seemed to take forever, the weight came off, and the life came back into me. It's tough being a woman in her 40s. We start to experience creaks and cramps, our bodies start doing their own things, growing hair in awkward places, and we just aren't the young women we once were.

It's a challenge to find ourselves resembling our mothers more than our daughters. Topics that we never considered, such as menopause and heart health, begin to creep into the forefront of our thoughts, and we often lose our places.

Exercise helps all of these areas. It helps us to keep our figures the way we like, keeps our hearts working at optimal functionality, and helps us to feel better about ourselves in general, all of which make getting older just a tiny bit easier to handle.

Do you have a story to share about a time you felt you had to "Return to You"? Leave me a comment and tell me about it; I love hearing about how other women are dealing with these issues.

And don't forget to check out Pfizer's Page on Blogher.com to read more blogger "Return to You" stories.

All She Wants for Christmas

It's very tough being a 7 year old. This is the letter that's currently taped to my fireplace doors.

(translation: This year for Christmas I want a webkinz, a movie, a basketball, Santa I have a lot of stuff I don't need any other things actually just give me whatever you have and want to give me. (PS give me a sleeping elf cap PSS give me sleeping elf shoes PSSS I have an elf costume)

Christmas Outtakes

 

Because I'm a fool, I decided to try to take the pictures of my kids for the Christmas card.

Let's just say that I'm not called to be a professional photographer and leave it at that.

The youngest and the oldest - well, it's clear to me that they are *special*.

The wind didn't help matters.

Bah, Humbug.

This is how everyone looks most of the time.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

I'll put more up later this week, including some very decent ones and one that I really do love a lot.

Stream of Consciousness Sunday - November 27

Today, I woke up much earlier than I like to do on a Sunday morning and made my way to the Virginia Photo Safari. A gift from my mom for my birthday, it was a 3 hour+ class on the basics of photography. I am a very basic, beginner photographer. I know very little, but I'm really anxious to learn more - and the class delivered. If you are a local, and in need of photography help, lessons, or simply some touch up ideas - check them out. I was really very pleased with it.

Then I had the bright idea to take my kids to try to take some Christmas card photos. It did not go so well. Tomorrow, I'll put up some outtakes. I'm hopeful that at least one of the shots I took will be decent. I don't hold out much hope.

Today, I felt mediocre. And that's such a HUGE leg up in the energy department that I was delighted. So tomorrow, I go back to exercise. I've been off for 10 days. That's enormous for me.

Three days until the end of NaBloPoMo....

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

 

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
• Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
• Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post.
• Link up your post at Fadra's place.
• Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Now…

1. Grab the button

(it’s over on Fadra's sidebar)

2. Write your post.

 

3. Link up here.

It's Just Not Fair

Btw- I know that this is a very "first world" issue. I recognize that. I have no need for you to tell me how spoiled I sound. I'm well aware of it - my husband does his utmost to keep me grounded. :)

Starting about two weeks ago, I began to take a multiple vitamin, along with a separate "gentle" iron. I added these to my regimen of fish oil, vitamin D and calcium/magnesium/potassium.

I eat pretty healthy meals. I have a super fruit smoothie with spinach, 4 kinds of fresh fruit, protein powder, and non fat yogurt (based in V8 Fusion juice) every day. I drink lots of water. I talk a lot about drinking, but in reality, I have 1 drink maybe twice a week, if that.

I exercise every day. I walk, I run (slowly), take Core class and boxing class. I keep tabs on my weight.

I try to get 8+ hours of sleep as often as I can.

I try to stay away from junk food. I don't like to eat fast food at all.

My husband loves crap food. Eats it all the time. Eats ice cream bars, cheetos, egg and bacon sandwiches. Visits fast food places about 5 times a week. He sleeps maybe 5 hours a night. He goes to the gym a few mornings, and tries to walk on the treadmill every day but that doesn't always happen. He doesn't take vitamins. Rarely drinks enough water. Sits at a desk all day. He's got a bit of the "dun lap" disease.

On paper, I am *much* healthier.

So, why, am I the one who got sick more than a week ago - and while I'm not sick still, I'm super tired and run down and still experiencing coughing jags. I'm wiped out and exhausted and want to remain in bed all day, which is unlike me. In short, I don't seem to be recovering as quickly as I would have anticipated.

When we went for the Turkey Trot run, he ran the entire thing with no training, no prep, no difficulty. (He did the same when we did a half marathon.) He has boundless energy and he's never ever tired.

Today, I think healthy living is a fallacy.

Will She? Or Won't She?

I'm not letting NaBloPoMo win.

I'm just not.

Ok, well, I'm calling it in tonight. This is a really pathetic excuse for a post.

I've spent 12 hours on the computer today, doing paid work. I'm really proud of a couple of posts I have coming up at Diets In Review - I'll link to them as soon as they go live. They took an amazing amount of time, though. So much time that my right arm, from the elbow to the fingers, aches.

Carpal tunnel is alive and well.

I bought a couple of things online today for Christmas gifts, read a whole ton of other stuff, wrote a couple of reviews - some don't go live until next week, but this movie was really good - and now I'm eating chocolate pie before I head to bed.

What I want to know is - did you do any Black Friday shopping - and did you get any great deals??

Hold me, Internetz - tomorrow is supposed to be decorating day...

Turkey Trot

She begged to be able to do a Turkey Trot. When pressed, she admitted, "I just want a cool shirt. Like everyone else has a running shirt."

So I signed us up for a 1 mile Turkey Trot. Only 6 of us - 2 didn't want to run at all.

Stretching is very important before you run any distance...

And when you get too tired to finish your distance, Daddy has been known to carry a shorty or two on his back...

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

What's on the Agenda for Tomorrow?

Six of us are going to be running at 8 a.m.

I think it's safe to say I'll be walking - it's a pretty safe bet to say I've had ze flu.

Running this race was Riley's idea- after a season of watching cross country, she desperately wants a t shirt. And a numbered bib.

I'm doing this so I can eat without guilt.

I've Officially Lost My &*#%@ Mind

After I picked up Thing 1 and Thing 2 from their after school choir practice, I decided to stop at the store. I needed to pick up several items that I needed for Thanksgiving day and, as I'm still under the weather, I didn't want to go home and then have to go back out. So we just decided that we'd stop quickly. it wasn't the best time for me to stop at the store, being that it's a) two days before a big holiday and b) it was about 4:30 - prime grocery store time.

The girls were excited to be out of school and full of vim and vigor, and I was - let's face it, tired and wiped out and still under the weather (yes, I'm on day 6) - and it was a constant refrain - "Come back here, you can't walk along the sides of the cart, no, you can't get cheese sticks/pirate booty/yogurt tubes - only what's on the list. Come back here!" I was tired when we made it to the self check out.