Lofty Goals

Some mornings I try to think through or make a list of what I want to accomplish that day.  Today that list is - be awake when my kids are awake.  Be asleep when they aren't.  Fin.

Dirty Confession

I'm a little nervous to use that as a post title now because I'm sure there are many things I could confess.  So there maybe be sequels.  Also, I don't want a bunch of crazy pervs to start following me.

It's my favorite time of the year - birthday party planning!  When it comes to birthdays, I'm one of those moms.  Well, not one of those those moms, I don't do $10,000 birthdays or anything - no hired bands or horses or renting out amusement parks.  I do, however, enjoy planning and having my kids' birthdays.  There seems to be a backlash lately over "Pinterest" moms and going overboard with kids activities and crafts.  I get it.  I guess some people might use it as some ammo in some invented mompetition.  I don't feel that way, its just something I enjoy doing.  A friend of mine enjoys keeping a clean house for her family.  I don't.  Sure, when she talks about her house I get a bit envious and maybe I snark for a second in my head.  I am sure my time would be better spent dusting, instead of trying to turn empty toilet paper rolls into a pirate.  I, however, enjoy this as an outlet for creativity though and as long as I'm not hurting anything (except for maybe our monthly budget) I'll keep on keepin' on.  And when my friend talks about mopping her floors two times a day to get all the Cheerios up, well, I try not to let that make me feel bad.

So there might be some party planning talk here.  And if I post any pictures you will probably see my dusty TV and Cheerio-encrusted floor in the background.  Try not to let that distract you from all the pirate-y goodness!

Terrible Criteria

Well, I planned on writing a little introduction and stuff, but that hasn't happened yet.  I sort through stuff in my head first before I write and usually I never get around to writing down in person.  I have essays in my brain though!  (Seriously, I can remember several pages of an essay I wrote on Walden from high school.)  (But I can't remember where I put the thermometer and medicine after the last child was sick, much to my husband's dismay).

As of right this second, I have 1,411 photos on my phone.  Mostly of my children.  Some of flowers and plants (Bug and I are doing a plant growing experiment).  Over one thousand photos.  My old phone only held 100, so I was pretty picky about taking photos, but now I just snap away.  I'm sure its not the greatest number of photos anyone has on their phone (or of their kids), but that's still crazy to me.  And that doesn't count the photos I have on either of the other two cameras we have.  I have maybe 200 or so of my phone photos backed up.  Gotta get on that.

I started Instagramming last week and after taking some cute photos of my Squish yesterday I wanted to Instagram one last night.  I started to go through my snaps and there were THIRTY SEVEN pictures of perhaps five minutes of time we were hanging out on my bed.  Over half of them are blurry.  While figuring out which ones to delete I realized what my photo deletion criteria is.  It is NOT whether I have ten shots with miniscule differences.  It is NOT, is this shot blurry?  My criteria is, if I were abducted and these were the last pictures I ever had to look at of my children until my phone battery died, would I want to look at this picture.  And the answer is always yes.  That is TERRIBLE criteria!  That is how you end up with fourteen hundred (mostly blurry) pictures on your phone that is less than a year old.  And who abducts a yoga-pantsed, pony-tailed mom anyway?  AND and, I should be using that phone battery to call for help!

How many pictures do you have on your phone?  How do you decide which ones to keep?  What would you do if you were abducted?

Jumping in the Pool

Why blogging?  Why now?
Everyone I know (like all three people!) keep telling me to blog.  I've been reading blogs for a few years now and always think in blog posts anyway.  And unlike my husband, you can stop reading/listening at any point.  Shew, that ups the pressure to be witty, funny and relevant.  Now?  Because for once both kids are sleeping at the same time :)  I started, probably like many girls women (wait, we're in charge?  hide yo' children, hide yo' snacks!) my age, on wedding boards and have since moved not-very-far to mommy-blogs, kids activities, recipes, home design, book reviews and a few political/news-type writings.

Why Parenthetical Sara?
Well, most of my usual suspects of web names were used up (sarabean).  Mostly by people who posted one post back in 2005 (I know, I know, I'm late to this game) grrrr, smash, sigh.  So after months of trying to find the perfectly creative name that no one had taken yet (Smorgasblog I'm looking at you) I started punching in random things that I could literally see from where I was sitting.  And that is how I am sad to report that emptytoiletroll.blogspot.com and leghair.blogspot.com are both taken (no judging!) (no, my laptop wasn't in the bathroom, I totally have an empty toilet paper roll on my table) (no comment on the leg hair, it was winter-time when I was doing this!).  Then, as a last resort, I tried introspection.  Little Miss Bossy?  Waiting for Naptime?  The Indoor Girl Scout (that one I actually created, but stalled on). Uhh, no go.  So then I landed on my annoying habit of sending very long emails or telling long stories with little reward at the end (then I found $20!).  Mostly because I type a sentence or tell a part and then want to make sure my receiver hasn't missed any backstory, nuance, tangent, aside, feeling or random thought.  And out come the parentheses.  Much to the dismay of the amateur grammarian in me, I've sometimes found that what comes between the ( ) is often longer than my original thought.

What kind of blog is this?
Probably another mommyblog.  Some quarter-life one-third life crisis.  Maybe some recipes or book reviews.  Probably some creative or crafty ideas.  Sometimes I have random thoughts about news stories or injustices.  I can tell you that there won't be any beautiful photography because I am not good at it, nor do I have the time or patience for it (but I can understand why you do!  It's fun!  And beautiful!  I get it, I just can't get into it).  I hope you'll join me anyway.

Crystal Ball
I hope to post regularly and not wait another three months.  Or three years.  I hope that people will find this and enjoy my random thoughts and musings and share their random thoughts and musings.  Even thought I can occasionally be sarcastic or snarky, I would like this to be a nice, comfy place (be kind), supportive (although I do plan to write about one mommy judgement I can't let go of), resourceful, humorous (you might have to do that part, the only thing I do that is funny is fall down).  So here it is, please join me.