a blended life

On my list of things I never thought I would do: Spend my daughter's birthday alone. The dad took her this year.  I'm getting more and more used to it. I'm learning to enjoy the time I have. I'm learning that the way of celebrating and doing traditions--the way I've had in my head since I was wee--doesn't have to be fixed and doesn't have to run life. I'm learning to peel away the unnecessary stuff and figure out what is really most important. I have to stop and ask myself, What will make the most difference to her right now and in the future? What does she really need to have a good day, or at least remember it as a good experience? By the way, I don't have the answers to any of those questions.  She's holding Hannah here after the dance recital. I still don't know what Hannah was crying about (I almost never know).  So excited to be swimming every day.  Also gets very tuckered out after practice. ...

Does anyone else hate the word napkins ?

6/13/2013--I wrote this post over a month ago. I was in such a bad mood and never finished it. The mood didn't lift completely but it's improving daily. Happy blogiversary to me. Here's the unfinished post: As of Monday, we can now celebrate my blog's 5th birthday. I find it fitting that I just figured that out now. On the 9th. Because if I had actually planned and prepared for a 5th anniversary of blog-tastic-ness, well, that would be so unlike me. But here's what would be like me. I'm going to tell you exactly what's on my mind and only censor a little bit. That way, we can celebrate 5 years of me telling you what's on my mind...as if anyone cares. Here it goes: 1. I've decidedly earned the title "Undomestic Goddess". This whole stay-at-home, organize like Pinterest, cook like Martha and be cultured like Oprah is totally not my bag. I feel like those baby toys where they put the shape in the right hole, except I'm shoving my st...

I stand corrected. Clearly my 5 blog readers are very faithful and would be devastated if something actually happened to this silly blog or my relatively mundane life. So if you don't blog for a period of time, where do you start? Anyone wanna hear about graduation? Of course you don't. Graduations are the most boring of all human ceremonies (except for the time I had to play the piano at someone's funeral that I didn't know and it lasted HOURS). Who in their right mind would sit and listen to 1200 names being read? Why do we do this to ourselves, people? I wore jeans and a candy lei and it felt great. Also I graduated magna cum laude and that felt great too. I think we can all agree on this: I'm so glad to see the backside of that program. It was a monumental effort and half of that degree really goes to my parents. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I graduated in Special Ed. Anyone wanna hear about how hard it is to find a job ar...