Holidays and Politics

Seriously, if you could see me right now, you'd think I had aged about 15 years since the last time I blogged (which was like, two months ago, I know.)

So work is far busier than I ever would have anticipated but that is easily explained if you understand the political climate in Iowa. We host the first-in-the-nation electoral event which apparently gives insight into which candidate might end up on the ballot come November. All this action means that reporters from Davenport to Council Bluffs (and everywhere in between) are busy tracking the candidates as they visit every Pizza Ranch and coffee shop in Iowa. In a word, it's exhausting.

With the caucus on Jan. 3, I can safely say we're in the home stretch. At least I think we are. This means that if you haven't seen me since July, you might again sometime mid-January. Yeah!

In the midst of all of this, we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary (Happy day, honey!), Thanksgiving and three Christmas celebrations. Thank God Christmas is over - it was a multi-tasking nightmare. Between getting everything decorated, shopping, wrapping and figuring out where we were supposed to be and when, well, not sure how I made it through. But I did. I'm blogging now to prove it.

That's that. Other than what you read above, I've got nothin' else to write about. Well, I do but I can only do so much at one time people. Geez.

So, if I don't see you anytime soon, Happy New Year and happy caucusing (if that's your thing.) I'll see you in January!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Ok, let's cut to the chase - I've been kind of busy. It's this whole Patch thing. It's totally been keeping me from getting my blog on. I'm sorry. Let me put it to you this way, when you spend all day on social media, the last thing you want to do it play around on it after work. Not that there is an after work...more about that later.

So anyway, I got a job back in July and boy, is it a lot of work. But you know what? Despite the massive time suck that it is, I love it! Every stinkin' minute of the day. I love it. I know, I know, it's a job but I really love what I do. I'm filled with a sense of purpose. Not that I didn't have it before when I stayed home with the kids but now, things are different. Can't really put that into words. Maybe you should just check out the site and see.

I'm not going to make any promises with this blog. I said it before that my updates would be sporadic. I suppose that's a promise in itself. I will however, try to make it back more often. I miss it, really. "Herding Cats" was my outlet when I didn't have one. Here's a promise - I won't abandon the blog if you won't abandon me. Deal?

"Can I Put That on My Christmas List?"

I'm just going to go ahead and launch into this like I've been blogging consistently for the last couple months. Please pay no mind to the elephant in the room.

Anyway, so I have three kids, all 5 and under, and you can only imagine the amount of crap they have and the amount of crap they continue to ask for. I'm a generous person but if I gave into every whim, well, we'd be broke. Flat ass broke.

That said, about a year ago I started telling the kids about Christmas lists. I told them that when Santa comes, he needs to know what they want and the only way to do that is to keep a list. I did this not because I wanted them to actually write down all their wants. No, I just wanted to get them to stop asking for stuff. Well, if that didn't set off a firestorm, I don't know what did. Now, every single day, I hear, "Can I put that on my Christmas list?" No joke. Like at LEAST 30 times a day (that's 10 times per kid, if you can't figure that out.) So when they see something on TV, they want to put it on their Christmas list. A toy at the store? Put it on the Christmas list. Something the neighbor kids have? Put it on the Christmas list. Every little thing gets put on their effin Christmas lists.

My husband and I thought it was funny at first. The first few times they said it, we looked at each other and smiled like, "Yeah, we pulled one over on them." It was funny. And kind of cute. But the thousandth time? Well, I'm over it. It's not cute or funny anymore. It's just annoying.

Call me a scrooge. Whatever. This is the kind of thing that happens when you try to teach you kids the right thing to do. Typical me.

Know what? I have a Christmas list too. Want to know what's on it? Peace and quiet, an end to the commercialism of Christmas and someone else to manage the kids' Christmas list. Merry Christmas to me.

What's Up?

Normally, this would be the part of the post where I apologize for my lapse in blogging, complain that I've been really busy, blame it on my kids, etc. etc. Well, half of that's true.

See, I've been experiencing a few - how shall I say it? - life changes in the last couple weeks. In fact, much of what I've been going through has been so chaotic and crazy that I'm surprised I'm still holding fast to my sanity. The biggest life change? I got a job. A full-time gig. My dream job. I'm not even overstating that. It truly is my dream job.

A little background on me...I used to be a reporter. I was fortunate to work for a couple large newspapers and loved just about every minute of it. But, if you've been paying attention, the newspaper industry is taking on water. That ship is going down fast. It's sad, really. Old newspaper people like me miss the days when the thrill of the job was the pursuit of news. Now many of us are dealing with lay-offs, mandatory furloughs and pay cuts across the board. I've watched the paper that I grew up with fall apart. It's not at all what I remember, from my childhood or from the days as an employee.

It shouldn't come as a surprise then that I let the idea of my dream job go. If the newspaper industry was in the can, so was my ideal job. At least that's what I thought until April. An old friend contacted me about a job doing community journalism. "It's hyperlocal," he said. "It's all online," he said. I did my research, I asked a lot of questions, and talked to a lot of people and almost overnight, I started to recreate the idea of my dream job. This was it.

So I'm no longer a stay-at-home mom. I'm now a working mom, working as a local editor for Waukee Patch. Our official launch is August 2 and I'm chugging away trying to make that launch as successful as possible. I will still blog whenever possible because to some degree, I'm still herding cats. They're just bigger cats. And there's more of them.

My 100th Blog Post

I've been in absentia for the last few weeks and if you only new why, you'd understand. It's nothing personal.

So as to not bore you with all the details, I've decided to make a little list. I'm going to call it, "Life in 14 days." Here is a snippet of the chaos that has taken place here in the last couple weeks.

Got a job.

Quit a job.

Got a nanny.

Celebrated a 5^th birthday.

Daughter’s best friend moved.

Husband out-of-town.

Lost a nanny.

Started search for new nanny.

Found temporary nanny.

Wrote a few stories.

Edited a few stories.

Two haircuts.

One massage.

11 loads of laundry.

6 loads of dishes.

Worked all weekend at part-time job.

Hosted a BBQ.

Two fireworks displays.

Started swim lessons.

Two dance classes.

Wrote a few stories.

Preschool teachers were dismissed.

Started search for new preschool.

Husband out-of-town.

Worked last day at part-time job.

20 year class reunion.

Flight to NYC for new job training.

R.I.P. Macbook

There's nothing more devastating than losing a loved one and last Thursday I buried one of my closest friends - my black Macbook. She was only five years old. Cause of death? Total hard drive failure.

Blackie and I had some great times together. There was no one else on this planet who knew me as well as she did. She'd sit quietly as I'd upload vacation photos and videos of the kids and never whine when they numbered in the hundreds, she knew all my passwords and she never complained when I bought something online because she knew my checking account balance and the balance on my credit cards. We were - to say the least - tight.

You can imagine my shock when, after doing a little editing on a client project, she just quit working. I waited for her to buck up but then she just kept thinking. That little circle on the screen just kept spinning so I turned her off fully expecting that she'd come back to me. She never did. The diagnosis from the Apple Genius was hard to swallow. I mean, how do you accept the death of something so close to you?

Well, I have a new hard drive, still to be named. We're getting along fine but I have to admit, I miss Blackie. She held a lot of my memories, things I've found I can't get back. Honestly, I've shed a few tears. She was truly irreplaceable.

RIP, girl. We'll always have back-up.

No, I'm Not.

So a few weeks ago I renewed my efforts to lose weight and jumped back on the diet and exercise wagon. And dammit, I've already fallen off. It wasn't just one day - that sort of indiscretion I can easily overcome. No, it was a lot of days and sometimes a couple in a row. I seriously have the worst willpower ever.

Anyway, at dinner on Monday night as I'm leaning over Sissy to set her plate down, she says, pointing at my stomach, "Mom that's a big belly! Is there a baby in there?" Oh. God. The shame. Seriously. There's nothing worse than being called fat by your own daughter. I'd just assume have a perfect stranger ask me when I was due than suffer the torment of a 4 year-old. So back on the wagon I go. If you see me reaching for something fattening and delicious, feel free to hold me back. My inner skinny will thank you.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's the end of a long day but I didn't want to go to bed tonight without giving a shout out to all of the moms in my life. It really is one of the toughest jobs you can ever have and I have been blessed to have been doing it since 2006.

So to all my mom friends and family, Happy Mother's Day! Hope your day was a good one!

The Perfect Joke for 3-Year-Olds

A Great Read: "Two Kisses for Maddy"

Just a month or so after the twins were born, when I was still in the throes of post-partum yuck, a friend of mine sent a link to a story in the Star Tribune. It was an absolute tear-jerker of a story and my friend thought it would be something I might want to read. I thought nothing of it, after all, what the hell else was I going to do between feedings and diaper changes? The story was about this guy, a Minnesota native, who lost his wife just 27 short hours after the birth of their first child, a daughter they named Madeline. Maddy was born less than three weeks after my twins and he - that guy, Matt - was raising her on his own.

Anyway, turns out Matt had a blog and he was using it to cope with the day-to-day struggles of taking care of a newborn while grieving the loss of his first and only love, Liz. Needless to say, Matt's story stayed with me and I checked his blog religiously, sometimes a couple times a day. I loved that our babies were hitting milestones at right about the same time and that he, like I was, found comfort in those same milestones that everything might really be alright.

Well, Matt wrote a book about his journey and it's nothing short of an amazing read. I devoured it in a just a few days. Now, I don't know Matt personally, but reading his story felt like we had been longtime pals. I guess I had just followed him for so long that it was like he was an old friend and I am so proud of what he's accomplished.

Pick up a copy of "Two Kisses for Maddy" (bring the tissues) or check out Matt's blog. It's life-changing.