I’ve never been a big fan of women in general.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Let’s face it – women are usually pretty catty. I do understand that saying that may implicate me to be catty as well.

But if I am being honest, in the past I have found that if you get a room full of women together there is going to be catty gossip, vicious story telling and a general nonsense that just plain irks me.

I have been led to question, however, whether this is true of ALL women, or just of YOUNG women. As I have aged and matured I have discovered a pleasant surprise. (more…)

I love love love this laptop case. I bought it a month or two ago on etsy.com. If you’ve never visited that site, it’s really a must. They have awesome hand-made stuff of all sorts. This laptop case came from Janine King Designs.

Laptop Case

It’s one of the few laptop cases I was able to find that fits a 17″ widescreen laptop. I really agonized over the fabric – there were so many beautiful ones to choose from! In the end I went with this happy print. My laptop is lime green so it fits really well with this case. Unfortunately, my husband can’t take it anywhere because it’s just way too frou-frou for him. But that’s okay: he shouldn’t be getting his mitts on my computer anyway!!!

One of the best things about being a mom is watching your child grow up.

One of the worst things about being a mom is watching your child grow up.

Every mom grieves a little as her child passes from babyhood to toddlerdom, from preschooler to grade school. For me, the bittersweet feeling of saying goodbye to yet another life stage is strongest in September, not just because my son’s birthday is that month, but because of the start of a new school year. As summer’s heat dissipates and autumn’s chill moves in, I pull out my son’s long-sleeve shirts, pants, and sweaters. Most of last year’s clothes no longer fit him, although he’s still happy to wear them. Just last week he went to school wearing 4T pants and shirt; his ankles and wrists stuck out about three inches, a testament to his summer growth spurt. I’m sure he got a few strange looks for his I-shopped-at-Goodwill-outfit, but whatever.

I cycle the smaller sizes out of his closet, replacing them with (more…)

I have never been happier for a New Year to usher in.

There is nothing like the gift of a fresh start to help you shake off something like viral pneumonia, RSV and Pink Eye in your household over the holidays.

Cosmic Perspective? Perhaps….

As you know, I had visions of making Christmas morning the most spectacular event ever.   My reality consisted of administering breathing treatments, forcing antibiotics and keeping charts of who got what medication at what time.

I always try to learn from the situations life throws at me.  Seven trips to the pediatrician in two weeks has taught me an important life lesson – I cannot handle a crisis. (more…)

Lately, it seems that no matter where I go, a conversation similar to the following takes place.

Stranger: Aawww, look at you! When are you duuuueee?

Me: March

Stranger: March? Really? Oh, you’re going to be huge!

(My husband just read this last line and said, “Come on, someone DID NOT say that to you!” And unbelievable as it may seem – hand to heaven – this is the stuff people are saying to me.)

I’ve had the same exchange so many times that I’ve lost my pre-conditioned “happy” face and now I just look downright disgruntled from the get-go. (more…)

A month or two ago I needed a new pair of jeans. I went to the mall, spent about 5 minutes finding a pair that sort of fit, and bought them. End of story.

Well, not quite.

Today I went to the mall with my husband and son. My husband commented on the tight, hip hugger jeans that all the young women are wearing now. You know, the kind that expose way more butt crack than I ever want to see on another woman when she bends down. The kind that are so tight around the waist that (more…)

In light of the ailing economy and a general tendency to overspend on gift giving, I cut back on my Christmas spending this year. Still, my budget mounted to over a grand. Now, for some of you, spending one thousand dollars on Christmas gifts may be totally within the realm of reasonable spending. But for us, a thousand bucks is $200 more than our monthly mortgage payment. Okay, so we live in a cheap house and have a cheap mortgage payment but the point is that one thousand dollars is still a large amount of money.

Every year I vow to spend less at Christmas. What’s the point of (more…)

I’m aging and it’s happening faster than I expected.

First it was subtle, like the increasingly obvious silence between me and my rotating batch of hairdressers whom I suddenly had nothing in common with.

Where we used to exchange stories of our similar weekend adventures, my attempt at discussing the newest offering from Disney Channel was met with silence and a blank stare. The conversation had slipped past pleasantries and right into a silent submission of the dreaded “age gap.”

Then there are the obvious signs, like the increasingly deep wrinkles around my eyes and brow.. Or the slowly diminishing space between my legs when I stand and the inability to lose 10 lbs like I used to.   

I am only in my early, early thirties. Should this be happening so soon? So fast?

Today in the car I was thinking about Christmas. (more…)

Note to self: Do not complain about the hardships of being a parent to childless friends.

I did just that recently, telling BeautifulSuccessfulThinFriend about my son’s need to interact with me every waking minute.

“Well, you wanted him,” she said unfeelingly.

Of course I wanted him. I also wanted braces, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy everything about them.

Goodness knows I’ve sat through enough of her venting about (more…)

On my nightstand sit two books – Twilight and Waiting for Birdy. One is the star-crossed romance between a vampire and a mortal; the other is a personal memoir of a “year of frantic tedium, neurotic angst, and the wild magic of growing a family”. (Book review on the latter to come soon.)

Two vastly different topics but they so neatly summarize where my head is these days.

On the one side, I’m in preparation mode for the arrival of my second son while trying to figure out how I can make sure my 3-year old doesn’t feel (more…)