Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Fake Uh-huhs...
Well - he's on to me. Spencer has figured out that I am not always 100% tuned in to what he is saying. I try - I really do. But this child never stops talking. Like most moms I sometimes I just say "uh-huh" or "yeah" every now and then when he pauses. But now almost every time, he stops and says "that was a fake uh-huh" or "that was a fake yeah". He is 5 years old and is actually calling me on the fact that I am not attentive to every little word that comes out of his mouth. I guess I had a good run. He didn't start talking until he was 2 - so that was three years of having just a little wiggle room to actually concentrate on something besides the constant stream of thought that has no shut off valve before it comes spewing out of his mouth. Oh well, right now most of it is about Star Wars and I really do love Star Wars. My apologies to his brother and sister. My attempts to pay attention to them may have to put off until Spencer is off at college.
Monday, June 16, 2008
My "Blog-Spiration"
This is my second blog. My first blog was created when my mom went on a mission for the LDS Church. I was just looking for a way to share photos with her. So I set up a blog. A rather generic blog that contained pictures and a few brief captions. Eventually my mom's mission came to an end and for all intents and purposes, so did my blog. I didn't miss it - in fact, I felt relieved of the burden. But, oh, how things have changed...
Recently I met up with one of my oldest friends, Heather, at a local botanical garden. Heather and I have been friends since high school. In our junior year, we were both yearbook staffers - she on the literary staff and me on the layout staff. As I am sure you can imagine - we didn't mix too much - you know how those inter-staff rivalries can be. But as roommates at yearbook camp (yes, there is such a thing as yearbook camp) the summer before our senior year, our friendship took off. Through our senior year and our time at BYU, we remained close. Since then we have stayed in touch and within the last year have made more of an effort to get together on a regular basis.
As we watched our children play at the gardens, talk turned to blogs. Heather spoke of her blogs - that's right - as in more than one. As a closet blog failure, I was in awe. Maintaining multiple blogs seemed like quite a chore for anyone. But Heather is not just anyone. For starters, she is the mother of six. It gets better - three of those six are triplets. Heather's husband is the bishop of her ward. (If you are not LDS, email me for details or ask an LDS friend or acquaintance what this means and its time implications.) He juggles his family and church responsibilities with a full time job and a side business of his own. In addition to what is probably the equivalent of at least three full time jobs just taking care of her home and family, Heather is also an amazing designer and does jobs on a contract basis.
So as I sat there watching my three children, thinking of my husband who gets to spend quite a bit of time with his family - I started to experience blog remorse. Maybe I hadn't tried hard enough. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. Maybe I got involved for the wrong reasons. How could Heather, with so many obligations, want to use her precious time doing what I had seen as a burden?
That afternoon I started down the road to my second blog. I realized that I really wanted a blog - I just couldn't go through another failed blog. So I resolved to try harder this time, to express myself more, share the things that I love and that make my life better. It didn't take long to see that a blog doesn't have to be a burden. Already I have experienced more joy and fulfillment from this blog than I ever did from my first. After a long day, I can't wait to spend time with my new blog. Once we even stayed up most of the night together just sharing thoughts. I guess some blogs just aren't meant to be. But when the right blog comes along - you know it.
(For a little "blog-spiration" of your own - check out Heather's blogs - http://themodernhive.blogspot.com; http://studiolios.blogspot.com)
Recently I met up with one of my oldest friends, Heather, at a local botanical garden. Heather and I have been friends since high school. In our junior year, we were both yearbook staffers - she on the literary staff and me on the layout staff. As I am sure you can imagine - we didn't mix too much - you know how those inter-staff rivalries can be. But as roommates at yearbook camp (yes, there is such a thing as yearbook camp) the summer before our senior year, our friendship took off. Through our senior year and our time at BYU, we remained close. Since then we have stayed in touch and within the last year have made more of an effort to get together on a regular basis.
As we watched our children play at the gardens, talk turned to blogs. Heather spoke of her blogs - that's right - as in more than one. As a closet blog failure, I was in awe. Maintaining multiple blogs seemed like quite a chore for anyone. But Heather is not just anyone. For starters, she is the mother of six. It gets better - three of those six are triplets. Heather's husband is the bishop of her ward. (If you are not LDS, email me for details or ask an LDS friend or acquaintance what this means and its time implications.) He juggles his family and church responsibilities with a full time job and a side business of his own. In addition to what is probably the equivalent of at least three full time jobs just taking care of her home and family, Heather is also an amazing designer and does jobs on a contract basis.
So as I sat there watching my three children, thinking of my husband who gets to spend quite a bit of time with his family - I started to experience blog remorse. Maybe I hadn't tried hard enough. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. Maybe I got involved for the wrong reasons. How could Heather, with so many obligations, want to use her precious time doing what I had seen as a burden?
That afternoon I started down the road to my second blog. I realized that I really wanted a blog - I just couldn't go through another failed blog. So I resolved to try harder this time, to express myself more, share the things that I love and that make my life better. It didn't take long to see that a blog doesn't have to be a burden. Already I have experienced more joy and fulfillment from this blog than I ever did from my first. After a long day, I can't wait to spend time with my new blog. Once we even stayed up most of the night together just sharing thoughts. I guess some blogs just aren't meant to be. But when the right blog comes along - you know it.
(For a little "blog-spiration" of your own - check out Heather's blogs - http://themodernhive.blogspot.com; http://studiolios.blogspot.com)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
