Hey Friends! I am still unpacking over at the new website, but it's time to take the plunge! PLEASE subscribe to my new feed to make sure you don't miss any SUPER important Oscar updates ;-)
And for those of you who just want a link, it's as easy as www.lilkidthings.com! See you there!
Congrats to the winners of our Mother's Day Giveaways!
The Jessica Rae Jewelry winner was #12, Kayla! Kayla, I didn't see an email address for you so please contact me to claim your prize at andrea [at] lilkidthings [dot] com.
And the winner for10 free classes at Midtown Stroller Strides is #21, Summer! Summer, I sent you an email! Please respond to claim your prize!
Moms of little girls, stay tuned! There is something coming your way tomorrow!
Do you ever find a blog by accident and start reading because maybe you liked the picture or the banner was really nice or you thought hmmmm..this could be interesting? And then out of nowhere you are completely enthralled reading post after post and wondering how this person could have been writing for so long without your knowledge? Yeah, me too.
So, I clicked over to The Extraordinary Ordinary one day and I am not even sure how I got there. But something intrigued me so I started reading. At first she was talking about laundry and the smells of motherhood, how intoxicating they can be. And I completely identified. And I read about about her adorable sons, and having a son of my own, I identified. She talks about her faith and being a Christian, I identified.
And suddenly I was in her struggle. Me. A complete stranger, welcomed with open arms into her fresh wounds of Alcoholism. As I read about her bravery I found myself identifying. Not with alcoholism per say, but with an inner struggle to beat something that seems to take over. I found myself rooting for her. And for myself. Heather is now more than 3 months sober and during this time, I have been utterly moved by her willingness to share this personal journey with the world. And even in the midst of struggle, she is every mom. She is kind, funny and taking each day as it comes. Heather was kind enough to agree to an interview with me and I am so glad! Please read, enjoy and meet a woman who has truly been an inspiration to me!
I'm the mother of two small boys named Miles and Asher and I'm married to Ryan. We have a dog and she drives me nuts. I don't really like playing cars or Star Wars or other boy things but I LOVE playing Hide-n-Seek and Guess Who. My blog is a random sampling of photos (because I pretend I'm a photographer), some free writing, some poem-like things, and posts in which I wax philosophical on all things motherhood, life, and sobriety. I am just over 3 months sober, I'm an alcoholic, and so that's kind of a big deal right now. I often say that I write to find out what I'm thinking, and I do a whole lot of that these days.
I don't, actually. I've always been quite a transparent person. Of course, I wasn't transparent about my addiction for a very long time, but I would elude to my struggles and was honest about depression, doubt, fears, insecurity, etc. I feel pretty passionate about people being real. I'm not always sure that a blog is the place to be so real, but for the most part I'm comfortable with it because of the gifts I've received as a result. The friendships, the emails in which people say that I've helped them with my honesty, that sort of thing. If I can help even one person, it makes the risks worth it, you know?
Yeah, I'm getting kind of tired of people wanting to know about my hair-less armpit. Oh, I'm sorry. That's not what you meant? OK, then. No, I don't think there's anything that's totally off limits. If someone asked me to write about something personal, I probably would because I try to do that in a tasteful way. I don't write about a lot of personal things but I do write about other personal things. I guess I just kind of roll with whatever I'm comfortable with at the time. It's possible that I'm just simply overly impulsive, but I prefer to call all of that sharing honesty.
Sometimes I don't find balance. Sometimes I'm online for far too much of a day, and then I usually try to lay off the webtastic sauce for a couple of days. I actually, quite geekily, use a timer a lot. I set it for fifteen minutes or whatever and I read a bunch of blogs or work on a post or say random stuff on Twitter and when the timer goes DING! I move on. It actually works pretty well on the days I'm too scattered and lazy to control myself. When he's not traveling for work, my husband loves for me to go write on my own for a few hours every few days. I'm much easier to be around when I've gotten some writing in.
ONE? Oh my...well, I guess I would encourage moms to believe whole-heartedly that what they have to say matters. That their voice counts to many many someones out there and to write from that confidence.
I absolutely love getting together with fellow bloggers. I had a great time at BlogHer last year, even though I felt lost in a sea of online journalists. There were so many people!!! What's beneficial about blogging events is the face-to-face connections. To see someone you blog-know come alive in 3-D is just such an honor and so much FUN. These connections solidify meaningful relationships because real-life connection just simply does that extra something. Once you've made those connections, you find a lot of support in the relationships, online and off. Sometimes that means that you have more of a cheering section when you need it and sometimes it's the little things, like linky love and other blogging encouragement and networking.
I love reading mommy blogs, writery writer blogs, and humor blogs. I love reading people who share their hearts and pour words on the page that make magic. Is that a bit much? Make magic? Well, I think they do, so there.I love going through the archives of my blog, but most of us have been blogging only a few years of our adult lives. What is something that happened in your pre-blogging days that you would love to go back and blog about?
I have so many stories from my social work years. A lot of crazy things happened with my clients and I grew a lot through those experiences. I'd like to blog about those experiences and now that I think about it, I suppose I could!I could have asked so many more questions! But that will have to be enough for now. Read more at Heather's blog or catch her on Twitter! It was an honor to interview you Heather! Thank you again for chatting with me and thank you for sharing your Extraordinary Ordinary! Read more...
I hope if you are located in or around Raleigh, NC you had the chance to enter our Stroller Strides Class Giveaway! You still have time so check it out! And for all the moms who aren't local, here is a treat for you! Don't worry local moms, you can enter this one as well!
Today's giveaway is something sweet for the Mamas! Jessica Rae Jewelry is offering one Lil-Kid-Things reader this adorable pair of Baby Footprint Earrings!
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Silly how a new haircut makes me feel. Maybe because I always go way.too.long. in between cuts, or maybe because I get to sit in a chair for an hour while someone messes with me. I love being messed with!
I just love a good haircut! And yesterday I got just that.
I weigh myself every day. I know I know, the first rule of weightloss is whatEVER you do, DON'T weigh yourself everyday! It's right up there with don't eat a cheeseburger and avoid muffin-tops like the plague. But I can't help it. I need that daily check in to be sure I am not going all crazy. And maybe I am crazy! What of it?
So I have been going to the YMCA for over a month. And I have only heard the song YMCA while there once. I think that's pretty good. What is frustrating is that in that time I have lost but one wee little pound. ONE. As in UNO. A tad frustrating as you can imagine. I feel great though (except for this week's mini-migraine) and I am sticking with it. I have also been cutting back on the ol portion sizes and eating out of smaller bowls (it works!). And the good news is my clothes are starting to fit differently. I think I am even dropping a pant-size. Not dropping my pants to be clear. It's not THAT kind of Y.
So even though that pesky scale isn't telling me what I want to hear, things are happening in my body. And the more I treat it right, the more it will respond. That said, feel free to shower me with encouragement :-)
Well I can't believe it but we already have at least TEN squash blooms in our vegetable garden! I mean actual squash! That is growing! And will be ready to eat in a matter of weeks! OR LESS!
So I was on the elliptical Sunday night having a great time despite the horrifying images being forced upon me by the massive plasma tv showing Sleepy Hollow in all it's Technicolor glory, feeling good and accomplished and whatnot. I come home to a nice tall drink of water named Jerry and oh yeah I was pretty thirsty too. All was well.
And then yesterday I got hit by a bus. Seriously feeling the yuk over here and not really sure where it came from. Oscar and I have been trading allergies back and forth but this time I am just blah. We had a nice day laying low and managed to make it for 4 whole meals (including today's breakfast for you math scholars) without going to the grocery store. Where did all this food come from? It's amazing what you can pull together when you don't want to shop.
Today I am back to it. Thankfully it's beautiful out because we seriously need food. And as much as I love my pjs, I guess it's time to get dressed.
Ahh such a great question. We all have stress coming at us from all sides. Some days are worse than others, but you have to have an outlet or big explosions of tears and expletives become all too frequent. Speaking of explosions, 3 nights in a row this week, I had terrible nightmares. The first night was about my husband cheating on me, the second night was about suicide (not my own, don't worry) and the third night I was living on a military base and we got bombed. As in hundreds of kamikaze flaming airplanes were nosediving from the sky and exploding on impact. I was left alone to get down in the bomb shelter.
Soooooo, about that stress?
The thing is, I haven't FELT particularly stressed out this week, but I also think I am getting better at avoidance and denial. two key virtues of being a mother. I kid! But really, that stress is in there and it has to get out, right?
Unfortunately for me, my destressers usually coincide with spending money, ie. going out to eat, getting a mani/pedi, shopping. All things that really super relax me. But when that isn't always possible, I try to improvise. Right now I am seriously loving the gym. Like never before. I can't believe I am saying this, but I am becoming a person who looks forward to exercise. Sometimes I will go in the evening when Jerry gets home and it's like a little mini vacation. I'll listen to music or an audio book while I tromp away on the elliptical. And my mind just stops. It's pretty rad.
And ok, I also look for good deals on pedicures. For real. Sometimes there is just no substitute! I use sites like Living Social and Groupon to get discounted gift certificates and then hang onto them like a hoarder until I am about to burst! I still have one that I plan on using right before my trip to Florida in June. And for those in the Raleigh area, you can check out Mom's Night Out, which is on May 6th. It will be a night of chocolate and pampering for Mamas! An early Mother's Day present, if you will. And I will.***edited to add - Mom's night out is a National Event so click the link to party with moms in your area!***
All that to say, I don't really know a right way to relieve stress. I do the best I can and take a lot of deep breaths. I blog and talk to friends and pray. What else should I be doing? What do you do?
So Oscar has been doing a little better with the whole separation anxiety thing. I've been hanging on to 15 months because I hear that is the magic number for a lot of babies to grow out of it. Oscar will be 15 months on Monday (!!!) and it seems like each time we leave him he does better and better!
This week we decided to keep him up a little late on Monday night so we could all attend our community group together. Jerry and I had been taking turns staying home with Oscar and that worked for a while, but we missed being able to engage in the discussions together. So we decided to see what would happen. Oscar did great! He played with Jude and even went upstairs to play in a completely separate room from us with another parent. Honestly, I never thought he would go for it, but up he went and we had a great discussion! Score one for Community Group!
Two food posts in as many days! Look at me go! The thing is, I do not create recipes. I just don't do it. I love reading them and getting them from other people. And following them to a T. I might sample one ingredient here or there or omit something because I don't have it on hand, but my mother always said, "if you can read, you can cook". And baby, I can read. So you can imagine my excitement when not only did I create something, I created something GOOD!
I should disclose that the idea of this recipe isn't even mine completely, but it is close enough. You see, I made this amazing meal last week and it was such a hit that I decided to experiment. And my creation was born!
I don't know what to call it. Maybe you could help me name it? My very first recipe! Yay!
I have been neglecting this question for sometime because, quite frankly I don't know the answer! But with the help of a delicious recipe, I can at least come up with something now. The question posted via formspring (go ahead ask me anything!) was this:
I am working on some Mother's Day posts and I would love to know,
"What is the best Mother's Day gift you've ever given OR received?"
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