One should not have more websites than fingers in which to type on them

So in an effort to become more prolific and consolidate my spatterings around the Interwebs (not to mention my sanity) I'm considering giving SuburbanDiva.com a makeover and moving this blog over there.

I can't really think of a downside--I'm pretty sure smarter people than I have figured out how to redirect traffic if people are used to clicking here then they would automatically be moved there. And if I spruce up the old digs, well, it might just have enough room to fit all of my nonsense.

Which is a lot.

Anyway, thoughts? It might make me a more focused nonsense producer.

Only 9 days until February. THANK GOD.

When I woke up this morning, it felt like the typical crappy Friday most of the days in this hellish January have felt like. I fell asleep during the news last night, so I woke up to it after hitting the snooze button fourteen times which only made me later to find clothes, pack lunches and get everyone off with bribes and outright lies that I'd hope they'd forget abut by 3:00.

Honestly, this January has not been my favorite. Besides this really awful writer's block that's starting to really get in the way of an otherwise brilliant career, this month have been filled with challenges. Really shitty ones that I'd rather not face, but no one asked me. And while I'd love to share all of those messy details with all of cyberspace, unfortunately I'm not the sole owner of that information so I really can't share it because I don't own it. So you'll have to trust me when I say it just plain sucks.

Until today.

While there was no Grand Event that deserved capital letters, there was a lightening somewhere. Nothing specific--no obvious solution to anything, but a definite shift. I can't name the exact moment it happened, but as I lay down tonight to shortly fall asleep once again with the TV on, my heart is a just a little lighter, my mind a little more at ease.

And maybe, just maybe, tomorrow when I wake, it will be lighter still.

Another help outlet for Haiti

Save 10% on your order at AllAboutMeCompany.com!

I know everyone is doing what they can for relief efforts in Haiti. You've texted the Red Cross, you've given to local church and school efforts and in dozens of other personal ways. But if you are going to shop for Valentine's Day or any other occasion anyway, then I just wanted to alert you to a local company who is also pledging funds toward relief efforts:

All About Me Company
will donate 5%of our sales to the
American Red Cross
from January 19, 2010 to February 19, 2010 to help with the
Haiti relief & restoration.

No coupon necessary

Every little bit helps.

Guess where I'm going in February?

Since I’m having so much trouble writing about the present, I will about the future.

Almost two years ago, I attended my first (and only) blogging event. It wasn’t so much of a conference as the trip to Disney World was by invitation, only had fifteen attendees and all expenses were paid.

I wrote about the amazing three days soon after the weekend concluded, but the powerful experience has remained with me since.

Little did I know it then, but those fourteen other women turned out to be a pretty smart, gifted, and talented crew that the blogosphere is blessed to have. They are business women. They are writers. They are wives and mothers. They counsel and entertain. They are friends. But most of all they are a voice. A powerful voice that I am better off hearing. Often.

I’ve kept up with most of them over these years, whether texting my friend Kris, working on some amazing projects with Cooper or even having my blog redesigned by Jo-Lynne. I read their blogs and follow their growing families-- Steph and Ivy, Amy and Teagan Rose, Gabrielle and her soon to be born. I love reading wisdom from Jennifer James and Christine Koh. I have also enjoyed a wonderful relationship with Disney ever since.

The upcoming conference will be different, but also exciting. There will be some powerful speakers--Chris Brogan and Guy Kawaski--among others, and the 130 attendees also will be bringing their families to attend the three day event. Oh yeah, and this was not an all expenses paid trip although we are getting a heck of a deal.

The blogosphere looks different now as well, and in my mind I’m turning around the whole community vs. business aspect of “Mommyblogging.”

What will remain the same is the undeniable Disney magic and meeting some amazing women. Both old friends and new ones.

And learning.



P.S.-- More of those old Disney friends that I wish were going:

Mary Beth
Elizabeth
Jennifer
Amy
Erin (who may indeed be going!)

Big Day

So I just woke up from a dream about a big purple fat man sitting in my bath tub that no one could see except me.

I think I can trace that back to Avatar winning Best Picture at the Golden Globes.

Whatevs.

It's our anniversary today in addition to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which means laundry, no mail service and a sincere moment of gratitude for an amazing eighteen years.

Oh yes, and how to make the traditional gift of porcelain sexy.

This is what we do when everyone is at school

This is how we roll when no one is looking: leftover spaghetti lunches on our faces and buckets on our heads.



And despite how it looks, the spaghetti lunch was not in the bucket.

Although it probably is now.

(And her name is the the bucket in permanent magic marker to distinguish her from the other messy toddlers with affinities to beaches. I guess.)

At least we're eating well

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am pretty sure that 2010 is out to kill me, and here we are twelve days in and the death order is still out on my head.

Thanks, New Year. You are kind of a douchebag.

But when I find that the calendar has turned homicidal maniac, I turn to the stove. I wish I turned to writing prolific prose or even a mediocre blog once in a while, but the stove is my Kevlar.

I've been cooking. A lot. Mostly soups and stews and anything that I can fit into my new Le Crueset lime green dutch oven and things that fall into the luscious category, "Comfort Food."

And that's pretty much it.

It's boring, but tasty around here while the dogs get called off.

2010 is trying to kill me

Sshhh...I think 2010 is trying to kill me.

No seriously. Don't tell Mr. Fancypants new decade that I'm on to him, but I am.

The first week of this new year he's already tried to murder me in various ways. I think I suffered from brain trauma by slapping myself in the forehead so many times. When that failed, it tried to make my head explode. Next came exhaustion and finally it's resorted to freezing me to death.

All this after I rang it in so joyously. I watched Dick Clark for it, for goodness sake and anyone else who did knows just how painful that was.

So seriously twenty ten or whatever name you prefer--back off a bit.

The authorities are much less likely to pin it on you if you take your time and aren't so obvious.

Jeesh.