Hey, Y'all!

NaBloPoMo: What I've Got

Molly over at Lost A Sock (one of my all-time favorite blogs) wrote a wonderful post today. It's a sort of "state of the union" for her blog. It got me thinking about my own little corner of the internet.  A lot of talk goes on in the blogosphere and at our conferences about branding and niches and the like.  "What do you blog about?"  I can't count the number of times I was asked this question the year I attended BlogHer.  "My life" was always my answer.  Some people nodded and walked away.  Others, the ones I ended up really connecting with, stuck around for the conversation about exactly what "my life" entailed. 

I've thought many, many times about branding this blog in a hardcore way.  But then the question always arises--what in the world will I write about?  Right now, this space is my own to use as I see fit. Do I write as candidly as I'd like? No way.  There are a lot of things I'd love to say, but don't for one reason or another. Mostly, I'm sometimes a touch fragile when it comes to other people's opinions of how I'm living this here life.  I'm happy with my life, my family, my career. Not everyone will understand why I make the choices I do or do things a certain way. In the grand scheme of things, that's fine with me. As long as things are ok with the folks who live under my roof, I really don't care about what others think. However, I know myself well enough to know that if I happened to be having a crummy day and then I opened an email containing an overly-critical comment, it would hurt my feelings a little. Yes, I'd get over it, but still. I choose not to set myself up in some situations.      

I feel like, if I were to ever make money off my writing, it would be by writing about food. Right now, I write for Food Lush, which makes me happier than a bird with a french fry.  The staff over there is such fun and I love talking about food every week. I try to post recipes and such here when I think about it, but even my weekly comfort food posts have fallen to the wayside lately. 

I guess what I'm saying is that I love my blog. I love my online community.  This is not something I ever want to stop doing. But it's also not something I want to pigeon-hole into a niche.  I admire niche-bloggers so much. Just my weekly food posts constantly remind me how challenging it is to write about the same general subject matter day after day.  Dean will grow up and he won't want me to be a mom blogger. And, let's face it--that's not who I am anyway.

I want to share the mundane here.  I want to share victory and defeat here. I want you to laugh with me, or cry with me, depending on the day.  Mostly, I want this place to give an honest glimpse into my life.

That's what I've got.

NaNaBloPop 2011

If you're new, welcome and if you're old, welcome back!  I'm embarking on 30 days of posting RIGHT NOW! I love November and National Blog Posting Month because I always discover at least one new blog to follow.  That means I usually make one new friend each November.  Here's hoping this year is the best yet.

For those who ARE new, I'm Jen. I'm southern. I'm a mom, wife, baker and stage manager.

This is Dean:

He likes to cook and eat fruit.  He's three and a half (ok, he's DANGEROUSLY close to 4, but I'm in denial!).  He goes to preschool and is quite possibly the funniest person I know.

I also write for a site called Food Lush where I post every Friday under the name Jen L.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you're doing NaBloPoMo, too, so we can support each other!

Also, check out my friends Alissa and Heather. They'll be posting all month as well. Throw some love their way! Trust me, you'll love their blogs.

No BlogHer For Me

I made the choice long ago not to go to BlogHer this year. In fact, I think I decided while I was sitting at BlogHer '10.  I had an AMAZING time last year and, honestly, I still feel like I'm riding the high a bit.  I didn't feel as strongly about going this year as I did last year.  San Diego was not an easy location for me like NYC was and I didn't have enough time this year to really work on getting a sponsor.  A lot of the folks I hung around with last year aren't going, and I don't have any other friends in San Diego, so I don't feel like I'm missing out like I would have if I had not gone to NYC last year.  So, no BlogHer '11.

No worries, though! I've already had a great meetup with Alissa while we've been in DC and on Friday, I get to see SHANNAN!!!!! The world may explode from happiness.  I talk to my blog friends a lot and that is pretty much a direct result of going to BlogHer last year.  I will definitely do more conferences in the future, probably BlogHer at some point when it's geographically feasible, and certainly Type-A.  As much fun as it is to read what your friends write, nothing compares to the energy that comes from being in a room with them for a fun-filled, whirlwind weekend.

I hope everyone who's going has a blast in San Diego. I can't wait to hear your stories.

Good Morning, Baltimore

 
I've been to BlogHer. I've even met and talked to a few of my blog friends on my own, without the aid of  conference. I know the excitement.  I know how much fun it is to see the people you know only from their written words and pictures come to life right before your eyes.  I knew I'd be ecstatic to see Alissa today.  What I didn't know was how cool it would be to see our kids meet.

 
Um, mom, we're kind of on a conference call here. Could you check back later?

Alissa and I have speculated for quite some time that Dean and Liam would likely be great friends, two peas in a pod, and all such as that.  For two days leading up to our meet-up at the Maryland Science Center, these guys couldn't stop talking about each other.  Dean kept asking, "When we seeing my buddy? Wiam?"  When they first spotted each other, they made a run for it, crashing together in the cutest three-year-old hug ever.  Along with my four-year-old nephew, Adam, they were quite the fun bunch of boys. 

 
Whenever I read blogs, I always think, MAN! I wish I lived near THEM so our kids could play! But it's never been a reality before now.  I have to tell you--I'd happily forego any and all blogging conferences in the future if it meant I could spend that time and money hanging out with some of my blog friends and their families.  I think we sometimes forget how deep these friendships are, how much these people mean to us and how many things they get us through, even if we've never laid eyes on each other in real life. It was extremely cool to see one of these friends from this uber-important aspect of my life interact with my family.  Alissa and I talked about how much fun it would be to get the boys together every year on our annual trip to visit my in-laws in DC.  I hope that's a tradition that will stick.

 
The little guys had a blast in the kids' area of the museum where they caught fish and played in a submarine. They ran wild in the dinosaur hall and ate lunch at the Beaker Cafe.  After lunch, we walked down to a cute splash fountain where they managed to soak themselves.  It was great fun.  Alissa got to meet Marcus and his mom and dad, and we got a good amount of time to talk about Blogs and life in general.  I always feel so rejuvinated when I've seen one of my girlfriends and today was certianly one of those times. I feel as though my social battery has been recharged.  (Too bad I had to break out my "mean mom" voice when my child started acting a fool and tried to jump into the Inner Harbor.)

Super huge thanks to Alissa for making time to meet up with us and for taking us to the very cool museum.  I hope it's the first of many fun times together...for us and the little buddies.

 

 

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

I've been enjoying the Ultimate Blog Party hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom for several years.  I discovered several folks on my blogroll through this party. It's such a fun way to visit a lot of new blogs and rediscover some old favorites.

If you're new, you can read all about me in my last UBP post.  Wow. I just read that post. A lot's changed since then.  Dean was a tiny 14 month old then. He's a strapping 3 year old now.  He's also sickly with a cough/fever thing today that we could all do without.  

I decided an updated "100 Things" post might be in order, but there are a lot of blogs to visit and really, I only have time/energy to write 50 things so here we go!

1.  My son is the funniest person I know, especially when he's singing everything to the tune of the Veggie Tales theme song.

2.  I absolutely hate the smell of scrambled eggs. We eat them all the time, but the smell of them hitting the pan makes me gag a bit. Perhaps I should use this method instead.

3.  Did you hit that link?? It's to Food Lush, a fantastic blog I'm lucky enough to write for once a week.

4.  I run a weekly feature here called Comfort Food Saturday. I'm just coming back off a loooooong hiatus, so exciting new recipes are afoot!

5.  I like to use the words "afoot" and "abreast" as often as possible.

6.  I'm a stage manager at this place. It's a pretty cool job if I do say so myself.

7.  I have worked on nothing but world premiers of brand-spankin'-new plays for the past 3 years.

8.  I consider a Nutella Burrito (Nutella and strawberries or bananas on a tortilla) a well-balanced breakfast.

9.  I'm potty training my son. It sort of stinks. (Literally and figuratively.)

10.  My husband and I are hopelessly addicted to Criminal Minds.  Good thing it's on 12 times a day.

11.  I love to go to museums and I plan on spending more time in them now that my son's old enough to enjoy them, too.

12.  My son calls me Sugar.  It's my favorite nickname EVER.

13.  I love to bake and I'm pretty good at it.  I made an excellent  German Chocolate Cake recently, complete with homemade frosting.

14.  I chat with one of my favorite online friends on Skype nearly every day. 

15.  I recently gave up Coke Zero and Splenda for my mother.  I now pour Truvia in my coffee, then make icky faces when I drink it. The things we do for love, huh?

16.  Nearly three years after moving away, I still think about and miss NYC every day.

17.  If the HOT NOW sign is flashing as I pass a Krispy Kreme, I WILL stop.

18.  I prefer Dunkin Donuts coffee, though.

19.  I have a little vegetable patch on the side of my house where I like to plant peppers and herbs in the spring.  My son usually eats all the peppers straight off the plant before we can get them inside.

20.  I love to go to Farmer's Markets, especially if there are samples.

21.  Regardless of the fact that I'm a born and bred southerner, I often have trouble understanding one of my neighbors because his accent's so thick.

22.  I want to start vlogging more this year and I will thanks to the amazing little video camera Marcus got me for my birthday.

23.  I went to BlogHer last year in NYC. It was amazing.

24.  We'll be visiting my in-laws for three weeks at the end of the summer and I want to organize a blogger meetup with some D.C. area bloggers while I'm there.

25.  I believe the secret to world peace is warm chocolate souffle.

26.  I hide from people who come knocking at my door sometimes, particularly if they are selling something or telling me about their religion.  I learned this skill from my grandmother.

27.  If I don't regularly wax my eyebrows, I look like Bert from Sesame Street.  Don't believe me? Ask my son, who pointed to a picture of Bert in a book the other day and said, "Look! Mama's eyebrow!"

28.  I have a minor in French. I'd like to go back and take some refresher courses to brush up my conversational French.

29.  My favorite phrase to say in French is "Je voudrais un sandwich aved du jambon et de la moutarde a l'autobus." (I would like a sandwich with ham and mustard on the bus.) (It's just fun to say "l'autobus.")

30.  Someone who actually speaks French is about to leave me a comment telling me everything that's wrong with that sentence.

31.  I often subsidize the cost of babysitters by feeding them dinner and allowing them to use our washer/dryer.  They'll work for less cash if there's a hot meal, snacks and a front-loader in which to wash their linens.

32.  Good grief, why did I say 50 things?

33.  I had to go to the grocery store at 7:40 this morning because we were out of apple juice and eggs.  I also purchased donuts.

34.  I hate chocolate and peanut butter together, except in cake form.

35.  I only eat purple jelly on my PB and J's.

36.  My meatloaf contains an entire day's worth of veggies.  It's magically delicious and is my son's favorite food. He likes to identify the things he finds inside. "Look, a carrot!"

37.  I absolutely cannot stand having wet socks.  The ice dispenser on our freezer sometimes shoots out random cubes, which melt on the floor, which I step on, thus receiving a wet sock. Boo.

38.   I'm addicted to Yes To Carrots products. My mom gave me an entire gift basket of their stuff for Christmas.

39.  As much as I would have liked to have had another baby, I'm ok to be done with things like colic and (almost) diapers and teething.  I do, however, miss onesies, teeny tiny socks and swaddling.

40.  If my neighbor rides through my yard on his four-wheeler one more time, I'm going to throw eggs at him.

41.  If my entire house was as organized as my linen closet, I'd be one happy camper.

42. There are no pictures in this post because I just got a brand new laptop and haven't transferred anything over to it yet.

43.  It freaks people out when they discover I know how to use power tools. (2 degrees in theatre, folks. Those sets have to get built somehow!)

44.  I want to get a piano so I can start playing again. I'd also like to try teaching Dean to play.

45.  A lot of people have sought refuge around my kitchen table.  This makes me very, very happy.

46.  During sandal season, I keep my toes painted a color Marcus calls "highlighter pink."

47.  Fake southern accents upset my stomach.  However, I can take an antacid and live with it for episodes of True Blood.

48.  I enjoyed the Grey's Anatomy Musical Event in spite of myself.

49.   I make mix CDs all the time so I can listen to them in the car.

50.  I'm going to make a Nutella Burrito now!

Back

Y'ALL. I have missed writing. My contract is done, so it's time to get back to the blogosphere! You still love me, right? Gosh, I hope so.

My mom is on her way here right now as we speak, so I technically should be mopping or something, but blogging seemed like a better idea.  My laptop is STILL broken and the Geek Squad wanted to charge me $85 to see if it was REALLY broken, then ship it to Kentucky for Lord knows what.  I politely declined and it is currently in the trunk of my car looking sad.  Something's going to need to be done about it soon, as I do not like sharing a computer with Marcus. His Caps Lock is broken and he doesn't even have Skype. GAH.

Dean is doing great, amazing us every day with new skills.  For instance, he can now unlock the door and escape into the driveway! And he does! Sometimes, without pants!  Last night we put his sandals on him so we could go out and look at the moon.  He was wearing some of those tight-fitting pj's you get at Target. Suddenly, he took off running through the yard.  Marcus was chasing him and he was squealing. His silhouette looked like he was naked with huge feet. I'm sure the neighbors were loving us.  I half expected to wake up and find the yard rolled. (That means "TP'd" for you non-southerners.) (Eva, what do they call it in Canada?)

Spring is officially here and so is the pollen. My green car is covered with yellow dust and I've been sneezing my head off.  Dean seems fairly un phased and demands to play outside every chance we get. I am happy to oblige.  We bought some new deck chairs and have been really enjoying our new awning over our back deck.  My cast came over for dinner on our last day off before the show closed. Marcus made some killer shish kabobs and I discovered a new recipe for frosting.  We had a great time sitting out side watching the bumble bees buzz around.  I see many al fresco dinners in our near future.

My plan of attack is to jump back into blogging with a vengance. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do and a lot of relationships to nurture.  I've missed this part of my life a lot and I can't wait to start posting Comfort Food Saturday recipes again. 

Ok. Mom's almost here. I really should mop.

Gratitude

First of all, OMG, I'm posting on two consecutive days! Over the shock? Fantastic.

Molly had a great post today about finding happiness. It reminded me of something I've done over the years, on and off, called a Gratitude Journal.  There have been times in my life when I've sworn by gratitude journals and I've even been known to give them as gifts.  Whenever I'm having trouble seeing the silver lining on a particular set of clouds, I buy myself a blank journal and start writing down five things each day that I'm grateful for right at that moment.  They can be big things like my health, my family, my job, or small things like seeing a pretty flower in the park, filling up at the cheapest gas station in town or eating a Hershey's Special Dark.  Coffee also frequently appears on my lists.  I prefer to write my entries at the end of the day so that I go to bed with a smile on my face. I find that no matter how crummy my day has been, I can always find five things to be grateful for an that those things have the power to change my perspective drastically.

Today I'm thankful for:
1.  My friend Tanya. We had lunch then went shopping this afternoon. We also had frozen yogurt. I like Tanya a lot.

2.  A 2-show day at a job I love doing a play I enjoy watching over and over again.

3.  My grey pants. My mercy, they are comfy.

4.  Inside jokes.  They are just such fun sometimes.

5.  Blog comments on yesterday's post. I've missed you lovely people.

What are you grateful for today?

Hello, is it me you're looking for?

Oh, friends.  I've been in tech rehearsals for the better part of a month. I've spent this week on death's doorstep thanks to a horrible cold, which in my world, means a horrible cold sore to boot. But my shows are open. BOTH OF THEM. I'm enjoying my second day off this week with my favorite three year old and almost all the laundry is done. I've missed the internet, truly I have.  I've also missed sleep, home-cooking and my DVR.

I feel as though I'm going to almost have to start over in the blogging community. Betweeen super long days and a broken laptop, my poor little corner of the internet has taken a beating and is probably going to sue me for neglect any day now.  I'm scared to even glance at my stats. It's sad because this time last year, I was cookin' with gas, as my dad would say.  I was gearing up for my trip to BlogHer, networking like crazy and even getting hits from some of my favorite "big time" bloggers.  The stats and such, of course, are not really the reason I blog, but I certainly do love the connections. I miss my fellow bloggers.  I miss really feeling like a part of the blogosphere.  But anything worth having is worth fighting for, right?  I'll just have to climb back into the saddle ASAP.

Let's talk about what you REALLY want to hear. DEAN! He's amazing. He talks like a real person these days and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is kind and gentle, but also rough-and-tumble and mischevious.  Just what I'd expect from a boy his age.  Nearly every piece of clothing he owns has a picture of Buzz or Woody on it these days and he's wearing real socks without skid-soles now.  He still calls me Sugar, and thank God for that. If he stopped right now, I'd have to start therapy.  He's such a big boy, such a fun little guy and such a full-on part of the family now. I love his opinions when it comes to decision-making in our household. Just last night, we asked what he'd like for dinner. After we'd said no to his first suggestions (ice cream and chocolate chips), he exclaimed, "I know! Meatballs!" And so I made him meatballs. And pasta. And marinara sauce. And he chowed down.

Work is good, very good, though it's challenged me in big ways recently.  The sickness didn't help. Fortunately, the big boss gave me a lovely card on opening day saying he'd never detected anything less than 100% from me, so that was nice to hear.

Maybe now I can start giving at least 1% back to the blogosphere, right?

 

Celebrating Mozzi (due in) May

A very special lady is expecting a very special baby this May and a bunch of us around the internet are celebrating, thanks to the mad organizational skillz of this gal. 

I wrote to Casey asking for a picture to share with this post.  If you read her blog, you know that Casey is an AMAZING photographer, and I knew it would be an honor to share one of her photos with you all.  She wrote back asking, "What type of picture?  A flower? A kitten? My bum?"

Here's what I ended up with:

So if you don't already love Casey, you do now.

She's overcome obstacles you wouldn't believe to have this baby and we are all so SO excited that Mozzi is on her (her!!!) way soon.

Casey, you are beautiful, honest, hilarious and just plain wonderful. I wish you, Cody, Addie and Mozzi all the happiness in the world. Congratulations!

Now it's your turn to shower Casey with love!  Leave a comment here or at her blog or hit her up on twitter. (@mooshinindy)

 

Oh, HEY, y'all!

Yeah, so I haven't blog ged much lately. I'm back at work and I'm stage managing two new plays at once, which means I spend 9 hours a day dealing with words, words and more words. I'm spending so much time reading other people's words that I haven't had much free time to deal with my own. That makes me a bit sad because blogging is often my escape, my therapy of sorts, a chance for me to get everything in my  head out into the open. However, I'm lucky--I'm around other artists, even other stage managers, so there are lots  of people like me to talk to.  Each project presents its own special challenges, this pair is no different, but I do love my work and I am having fun.

Marcus and Dean are doing well. They surprised me and came down to spend the night on Thursday. We had a great visit and it was wonderful to fall asleep with  my two favorite guys, even though we weren't in our own house.  I'm looking forward to getting  home tomorrow. Dean and I have a big day of cooking and baking planned for Monday.

I'm reading all your blogs every day, but my commenting hasn't been  great. It'll calm down soon and I'll be back, wreaking havoc on the internet. Have a good week, friends.