Catching Up

This past week just flew by! I had planned to post this photo for Wordless Wednesday but never got to it. So here it is!

Holy cow! I can’t believe that this little boy is my baby!!!

In other news, I’m now blogging for my local Patch.  Check out my first post, a tribute to my little Cow Town.

My Green Phone Booth post this week, Mother’s Day Inspiration, is about a mom who inspires me.

I also have an all new monthly diary Yes, We’re Still Nursing! about breastfeeding past the first year.

How was your week?

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Passionate Blogging

This post is my contribution to the Green Moms Carnival, hosted by Karen at Best of Mother Earth.

I’ve been honest in sharing that I started this blog out of boredom.  It was at the end of a long winter in March 2008.  We had finished building our house and moved in during the previous fall, after two long years of working nights and weekends.  I had also just finished my MS degree and found myself with an inordinate amount of free time and cooped up in the house.  So, I started blogging.

I may have started blogging out of boredom, but I soon discovered that I love to blog.  I have a passion for it.  I always enjoyed reading and writing, contributing stories or poems to my school’s literary magazine.  I particularly liked to write satires and read the American classics.  In my undergraduate work, I was part of an honors program that was writing-intensive.  I fondly remember the semesters that I spent studying Puritan and Native American literature (in a course called “Religion and Sexuality: Male Spirit, Female Flesh”), and analyzing Greek and Roman works.  At the time I would have said my true passion was anatomy and physiology of the vertebrates, but I knew reading and writing were a close second.

When I graduated from college and started my career as an educator, I missed reading because I had little time to read for fun.  I later realized I missed writing as well.  In my second year teaching, I completed an evaluative portfolio and discovered that I really enjoyed the self-reflection process.  I was also thankful for the writing training I received in college and from my mom, a former editor. 

Over the past three years my blog has evolved to be a place where I can share my thoughts, photos, recipes, gardening and parenting stories.  I’ve found friendships with kindred spirits and branched out into writing for the Breastfeeding Diaries, the Green Phone Booth, and (coming soon!) the Natural Parents Network. 

I love that my blog has become a written record of my life.  When I think of how much I have enjoyed looking through my great-grandmother’s recipe journals, my mother’s photo albums, or a volume of my family’s history, I like to imagine that someday my children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren will feel the same joy through reading my blog. 

Goals 2011

I love the camaraderie of the green blogging community, but I feel like I’ve lost my connection since going back to work full time.  Being a full-time mom, wife and teacher consumes my life and I’ve let my online community fall through the cracks.  I miss my online friends.  My blogging goal for the new year: Get back into the Green Blogging Community! Here’s how I plan to reconnect:

• Participate in more carnivals, especially the Green Moms Carnival and the Carnival of Natural Parenting

• Join some challenges! Up first, the I’m Not Buying It challenge at Greenhab. I talked to Ed about it last night, and we’re committing to buying nothing new for six months (with a few exceptions, like food and gifts). Details coming in a future post!

• Join the Green Phone Booth as a regular contributor! I was so flattered when they asked me to join, and I’m working on my superhero persona! I’m posting there every-other Friday, starting January 7!

 

• And finally, celebrate my blogiversary ON TIME this year! I completely forgot about it the last two years! It’s in March, and I want to do something really special to celebrate. Any ideas?

Cool New Badge!

I love this!

Breastfeeding Diaries

I’m so excited to announce that the breastfeeding blog that I’m contributing to has finally launched! 

The Breastfeeding Diaries: Intimate Tales of Motherhood

I am very proud to be writing for Bravado! Designs, because I respect their company and I also love their nursing bras!  From their website:

From humble beginnings developed around a kitchen table, Bravado quickly built a strong reputation as having comfortable, stylish and quality nursing bras. Lactation consultants, midwives, childbirth educators and others in the health care community quickly started recommending our products to new moms, and they still do to this day…

We test-wear our products on literally hundreds of pregnant and nursing moms every year to make our bras perfect, right down to the finest detail. We use real moms as models because we don’t think we need models to make breastfeeding beautiful. We’re a green company, and we donate products in our own community—not because it’s the trendy thing to do but because it’s the right thing. Because we not only want to be the brand on your bra but also the company you’re proud to wear and tell your friends about.

You can follow along with my journey of preparing for and going back to work while still continuing my breastfeeding relationship with Joshua.  Be sure to check out the other columns from real moms!

Read my first post!

Setting Simple Goals

Thanks to Country Girl for tipping me off to this! Elsie at A Beautiful Mess has put forth this challenge of setting and achieving simple goals before the end of 2010.

Here are Elsie’s guidelines:

choose simple goals that will make your life richer and happier on a daily basis. choose things you may not otherwise get done, but that are not difficult to accomplish. 

do not choose result oriented goals, choose activity oriented goals. for example… instead of “lose 10 pounds”, choose something like “eat fresh fruits and vegetables every day”.  positive actions instead of just the end result! 

choose goals that are personal that you believe will truly make your life richer just by doing them! they can be daily, weekly or one time experiences. 

choose a reward for each goal as it is accomplished! it can be a small or large reward. 

blog your goals, each one as you achieve it and a big post when they are all finished before the new year! 

I really need this.  After having Josh, it seems that everything I enjoyed as hobbies (well, besides blogging) has been put on hold.  That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, but I’m missing all the fun things I used to do, even though Josh and I do fun things together now.  So here are my goals:

1. Start knitting again.  I have pretty purple yarn that I bought last fall to make myself a scarf and hat.  I have lots of blue and green yarn that I bought to make things for Josh, too.  I’m going to work on my purple scarf and a hat and (thumb-less) mittens for Josh.  Reward: My new purple scarf, of course!
2. Learn more about chickens.  I’ve been talking about getting chickens for a few years now.  I need to read a few books about them in preparation for getting them next spring.  I SWEAR I’m going to get them next spring! Reward: Something from Etsy, maybe with a chicken theme, limit $20.
3. Go to bed early.  My friends on Facebook and Twitter will tell you how little sleep I’ve been getting lately.  Since I’ll be going back to work in two weeks and will be getting up at 5:30, I really NEED to get my rest.  I’m setting a bedtime of 9pm on weeknights.  (This may interfere with all my other goals!)  Reward: New warm and cozy jammies after 3 weeks of getting to bed early
4. Blog weekly.  I know that’s not really a lofty goal, considering I used to blog multiple times each day.  Again, going back to work is going to be tough, so I’m setting a goal of posting here once a week (don’t worry, I have guest posts lined up… and YOU can contribute if you’d like to!) and at Josh’s baby blog once a week, in addition to my new blogging gig at a soon-to-be-launched site.  So really, that’s 3 posts each week.  Reward: The satisfaction of knowing I achieved this goal, and interaction with all of my dear friends online!

I’m excited about this challenge! But if you’ll excuse me now, it’s my 9:00 bedtime.  Unless, of course, I start tomorrow…