Lets train

As much as we all love the online community (even me...or maybe especially me), sometimes it is important to put down the mouse and actually touch base with the people around you.

In 2012 I wrote a post on how Halloween, if done right, is actually a wonderful community building opportunity. And this year was no less spectacular. Our weather here this past Halloween was AMAZING and my neighbors were out in force; having front-yard gatherings and hanging out on their front porch to chat with trick-or-treaters. It took us forever to get around the neighborhood because we stopped to chat with everyone as we went around.

Enter Girl Scout cookies sales.

I am going to have to add door to door Girl Scout cookie sales to my list of awesome community building activities. (Although I wonder if we would have had such a great experience trying to sell a product that was a little less universally loved).

Through pounding the pavement with my six year old Daisy Scout, I met a whole slew of new neighbors (one's that don't typically have their doors open at Halloween). We met lots of lovely people along the way, but the following four stood out:

1. I finally learned the name of the neighbor on the corner at the bottom of our street. We have lived here for almost 6 years and that was the one house where we had never seen or met the occupants. As it turns out, they have lived there for decades and know our across the street neighbors well (from when their kids grew up together). I had always wondered who lived in that house and now, not only do I know their names, but will be able to interact with them if I ever see them.

2. My girls and I discovered that living less than a block away is a lovely homeschooling family with kids their same age. Not only that, but as it turns out, we belong to the same online community group (online is great, but in person is AWESOME). And here they have been living around the corner from us for years, but if we had never stepped out the door we might not have known. So, we exchanged information and talked about going to the neighborhood park together sometime.

3. I found out that a house a few blocks down is home to a lovely lady, whose husband happens to put in hardwood flooring. As it happens, we have been looking to put hardwood flooring in our house (AFTER my last child potty trains, of course.) Now I have the opportunity to support someone in my own local community, which is one of my favorite things to do.

4. As we were wrapping up sales for the night, I stopped at a house across the street from ours.  I was invited to come in and sit down while our kids played since it had been a while since we had seen each other. We then had the opportunity to have a really deep heart to heart about some things that were challenging her.

Lastly, selling to my friends and family forced us to take the time to deliver the cookies and stop and visit for awhile. In the last week we have sat down with friends we haven't seen in months, family we rarely take the time to visit and neighbors who typically only get the acknowledgement wave when we are leaving or returning to the house.




The 21st century finds us so insulated and isolated on our own busy islands, that we forget that there are families right next door. Families who appearances might suggest are picture perfect, may not be if you take the time to listen. Everyone needs support, and it is easy to miss those who project certain images. It is important to put the computer down from time to time and really listen to real people.

Whether it is selling cookies, or just making the excuse to make the rounds, we all need to remember that face to face interactions can never be replaced with online communities. They both have their time and place. Online is easier because we can do it on our time, in our environment, under our control, but in order to build a strong, interconnected community, we need to nurture the face to face as well.

Sure we sold enough boxes that we may actually meet my daughter's sales goal, but more importantly, I feel like I plugged in to the people in my community in a very real way. That, to me, is worth more than any money in the world.....well, maybe not worth Thin Mints dipped in coffee, but what can I say? I am an addict.

-Super early bedtime for the kids = longer, better sleep for them, including sleeping nearly 13 hours in a row (!). Not always, but at least this one time it worked well, although I feared they would be awake for the day at 4 am ready to go. Nope! On Tuesday, Cecelia only took an hour long nap, which is a lot shorter than her usual 2-3 hour stretch. Truman didn't nap, as always, and by the evening both were whiny and exhausted and I was TOTALLY spent. And so? Bedtime began at 6pm and they were asleep at 6:30. And they didn't wake until 7 am. GLORIOUS for everyone. It hasn't happened since and definitely cannot happen every night, but when those evenings occur they are awesome. I mean, from 6:30-10pm we had peace and quiet and adult time...and lots of Dexter episodes. Yessssss. I love my kids so much but I love it the most when they sleep well.

I also love when they give me unprompted hugs, like this. Truly, I was just taking a picture of Cecelia and her long legs when Truman came over to hug me. Cecelia followed suit. And I frantically flipped the phone's camera around to capture this moment. My babies!




-Carving out time at a coffee shop with my laptop for 1 hour alone = the perfect kind of 'me time' right now. The more I get into this parenting thing, the more I realize that I will burn out and bottle up resentment towards my kids if I don't regularly take time for myself. Who knew, right?

I need that time to recharge, to return emails, to focus on the blog a bit, and to feel energized and ready to tackle more hours at home/my real job. It used to be that going for a run would be my favorite stress reliever but now I enjoy coffee shop/computer time to reset my sanity levels. A nice walk outside is great, too, but there is just something about sitting in Starbucks with my computer and my coffee that feels luxurious.

The only way I'm making this work right now is because Nate will not teach any classes this summer, so he is back to working 'just' 40 hours per week. He will still have his late days on Mondays and Wednesdays, getting home at 7:30pm, but now instead of getting home around 5pm on Tues/Thurs it will be a GLORIOUS 12:30pm. Incredible, right? Fridays will continue to be a 6pm return time, so really Tuesdays and Thursdays are our cherished days as a family.



I love spending time with the four of us but if I take just an hour out to be alone, now that Nate can watch the kids for me, I find that the rest of our time together is *that* much more appreciated. So I plan to keep my dates with myself from now until baby is born and am thankful for my parenting partner on this one.

-These first two bullet points make it seem like I don't love being around my kids and prefer them to be asleep or prefer to be at Starbucks alone. NOT TRUE. But I am realizing how important it is to balance my attention on them and also attention to myself/hobbies/husband/etc. I feel very strongly that this will only amplify when baby #3 arrives but I'm positive that the balance is going to be very skewed away from 'me time' for many, many months. Which is another reason to take advantage of it while I can, I suppose. Maybe I can 'bank' both sleep and me time to last me awhile? Ha.

-Cold and rainy days at home are such downer when it's SUPPOSED to be Spring and nearly summer. We are just totally over any and all indoor activities at this point in the year because (broken record alert) it's been a really long winter. On Thursday, the kids and I just didn't feel like going anywhere at all. Truman even turned down a Target trip! It barely hit 50 degrees that day and was just gross outside, so we came up with a fun way to stay warm inside: daytime baths! I let the kids take a looooong bath that morning, with colored water tablets, and every single bath toy we own. They seriously had a ball----they've always loved their dual baths, and I've been known to take many-a-bath pictures over the years. But that's alright. We just like baths here, I guess.





-Antibiotics are awesome. Truman is back to his old self and we are one week out from the scare of last week. Thank you, God. Cecelia seems fair, although she does have a little cough. I'm watching her like a hawk but so far no fever, no hives, no signs of being sick.

-Hair cuts on little boys = aged 3 more years. SO stinking handsome. Love how shocked he looks here, not sure what I said to get this look from him.





Sorry, Truman, but you are just so beautiful sometimes.



Also, he really HAS grown a ton in the last year. Ignore the maddening typo in this picture. One year of growth. Woah.



-Hair cuts and a brow wax on mom = luxurious, and much needed. I'm honest with myself and my hair dresser when I say I probably won't see her again until after baby. Mind blowing!! Growing out the top and sides a bit to make my cut more of a bob, so hopefully I won't want to yank out the nasty 'mullet' part on my neck when it gets too long again. ;) Still loving shorter hair for the ease of styling, so I'm not growing it out for REAL. I just needed a different shape and really like it again. Note the lack of a rat tail now.



-Html code is still beyond me, but not impossible. I emailed Erin asking her if she had any idea how to update my Moms Make it Work page, because having one giant picture per post is not going to work moving forward. I have now returned over FORTY emails to readers who want in on this series, you guys! So freaking exciting. We are nailing the 'must find' groups of moms like bosses and I cannot wait to share these stories with you. I think I will have to post twice per week through the summer, since otherwise I'll have to schedule them out through the fall or beyond....not sure yet. What a great 'problem' to have!

ANYWAY, Erin helped me figure out a way to make each smaller icon click right to the post, and it looks fabulous. Check it out. I wanted a 'hover title' for each icon and figured out how to make that happen for a better description of each poster without 'labeling' too much. You can only see the roll over title on a real computer, not the mobile site, but I like that you can roll past each icon and search for other SAHM or WM or whatever you feel like reading at the moment. I guess the page is ready for 70+ posters total now. Eeeeek!

Screen shot of said changes if you really don't want to click to see;)



-I am not 'big' compared to other 32 week bellies, but I am 'big' compared to my own previous 32 week bellies. Especially at the end of the day, the bump just feels so STRETCHED and tight. I snapped this picture on Thursday and compared it to my 38 week picture with Cecelia's pregnancy. Not too far off, right? I am not complaining because I freaking love being pregnant still, and feel really good. I just cannot get over the crazy changes pregnancy brings. It never gets old to marvel at the differences between pregnancies of my own, and although most people still say I'm 'so small' I know that FOR ME, I'm very very pregnant. Not sure how this belly is going to stretch even bigger for the next 8ish weeks. Cray Cray.



-I just counted it up and have 7 more weeks of work remaining before maternity leave. OMGOMGOMGOMG. Yes.

-Nate got new surround sound speakers for the TV (such a guy thing, do not care at ALL but he is very adamant about this). When moving the old subwoofer to the basement we heard little rattling sounds inside. And? The kids were hiding the following:



-Cecelia is being trained to be my own personal masseuse. Observe. 



-In summary: It's FRIDAY!!! I crave balance between 'me time' and 'every other responsibility time'. I like random bullet point posts. And we've had a great week so far, iPhone pictures above to prove this statement.