My Blog's Evolution

When I started this blog way back 2008 I was a stay at home mom period.  I didn't work at all outside the house.  I was cooped up all with two small children.  I needed an outlet and this blog was a place to vent, rant and generally just confess all my mothering sins.  But like all things in life, my life and my blog has evolved into something else.  I am still a mom.  I will always be a mom.  It's the most important job I'll ever have.  But my kids are now 10 and 5 and they just don't need me the way they did 4 years ago.  I've also gone back to work part time teaching adults with disabilities.  On top of that I started my own business Katiemade Crafts.  As I've moved away from being SAHM, my blog has moved away from my venting and ranting and the such.  I've thought about changing the name of the blog since The Mommy Days doesn't exactly describe what this blog is about anymore but I decided I love the name and it's staying.  So if you've stumbled upon my little blog and wonder why it's called The Mommy Days now you know.

I suck at blogging

Have to say that I really do suck at blogging.  I really want to blog.  But I just don't seem to have a lot of time.  Because I work with my hands I find it very difficult to sit down and type out a blog.  But I really enjoy getting my thoughts out and onto this space.  So I'm going to try and use this lovely new dictation thing-a-mabob that my MacBook now has.  So I used dictation to do this whole blog so far and  so far so good.  I just might have a solution.  Except that I actually have to go in and add pictures and change all the screwed up spelling/wrong words.  But it's a lot less spelling mistakes than if I'd actually typed this damn thing myself so that's better I guess.

I guess I'll try to fill you in as to where I disappeared you for the last six months. I tried to do the 30 Days of Gratitude pictures in November but never finished.  I started to get a flurry of Christmas orders on my Etsy site so I never really finished it.  I pretty much folded my ass off all of December to fill orders.  Then well I really don't have much of an excuse for the beginning of the year but I was still getting orders.  Then I was accepted to Handmade Wilmington and started getting into more and more local craft shows.  I even had a booth set up during Azalea Festival for two days in April and that was HUGE for me.  So I've been working really hard trying to keep my stock up while still  teaching three days a week and have a family and have friends.  My plate is pretty full right now.  But since this dictation thing seems to be going pretty well I might not have excuses anymore since I can now type and fold origami at the same time.  So we'll see if I manage to post more blogs but don't hold your breath.

Procrastinator Edition of Ten on Tuesday

OK so I did well for exactly 2 weeks.... I am really a truly bad blogger.  But as usual I have an excuse (boy I'm full of them lately).  I got laid off.  You remember that job I got last summer working part time at a portrait studio?  Well I no longer work there.  It was a corporate decision.  My manager said she didn't agree and really loved having me there.  Anyway it is what it is.  I have truthfully been in a bit of a depression about it. But hopefully I am on to bigger and better things.  Anyway my intention was to do the ToT post last night after my kids went to bed but I got a custom order in my Etsy shop and I always want to get those done asap.  So instead of doing my ToT post I folded flowers all evening.  But here it is a day late. Better late than never????

1. What’s your favorite kind of donut?
Iced chocolate cake from Krispy Kreme.

2. Do you use the snooze button?
Way too much! Some days if I'm not tired once but on days I am really tired sometimes I hit snooze like 5 times. 

3. Do you write in cursive, print, or a combination of the two?
A really bad combo of both.  I have terrible handwriting.

4. Tell us a joke.
Say pickle nose.

Did you just tell me to pick my nose????  Ewww gross!


It's bad I know but it makes the kids laugh.  I used it all the time at the portrait studio and 9 times out of 10 it made 'em laugh.

5. How many languages do you speak?
One.  I can understand Spanish as long as they aren't using a lot of slang. But I can't speak it that well.

6. Why did you start blogging?
It was a release.  Sometimes I put thoughts out on my blog that I don't say to other people.  Sometimes it's passive aggressive but mostly it's me not wanting to bother anyone so I let it out here.

7. Do you use bar soap or liquid body wash?
Body wash.  Right now it's Dove Grapefruit something or other.  It was cheap and smelled good.

8. Do you buy bottled water?
Only if I am out and forgot my water.  I use aluminum or plastic water bottles and fill up at home.

9. What did you think of the Super Bowl Half Time Show?
I thought it was terrible.  I like The BEP but they sounded awful (yes I know it was the sound but it's the friggin SUPER BOWL get a professional and get the kinks worked out! Sheesh) and it wasn't that inventive or interesting.

10. How do you feel about Steve Carell leaving The Office?
Sorry, I don't watch The Office.  I have seen a few episodes here and there and think it's funny but never had the compulsion to record it and watch it.  

Excuses

OK I know I am not the best about posting blogs often.  I try I really do.  But seriously life just gets in the way.  I will not be doing a Ten on Tuesday this week because the lady who runs that fun little deal just a had a brand new baby!  Congrats Chelsea & family!  Anyway she is understandably taking a break this week.  Which is actually fine because as you are reading this my life line (aka my MacBook) is in a mail truck somewhere on it's way to get fixed and thanks to auto post feature you are reading this now.  Anyway my laptop will be gone anywhere between 7 to 10 days :(.  We do have other computers in our house (don't ask how many it's obscene) but I HATE PCs so I will only use James' machines when I absolutely HAVE to and my old desktop Mac is well old and slow and I will use it when desperate or when Noa isn't on it.  But I will be for the most part only using my iPod Touch to go through email and keep up with things.  Which basically means I will not be posting a new blog, Facebooking, or Twittering much while my beloved MacBook is gone.  I still have a bone to pick with Apple but this is not the time or the place right now.  I have less than 20% power left (and that is part of the issue and why it's being worked on ... thank god it's still under warranty) and I need to finish this post up and do my last back up before I pack it up and ship it out!

Ten on Tuesday

1. If you could trade lives with another blogger for a day, who would it be and why?
Hmmmm ... I'm not sure. But I would have to say right now I would want to trade with a blogger who is making money blogging.  So that I could see how they do it and what it takes to make money doing it.  I am trying to figure out my new career and I am looking into anything and everything.  Especially home based things so that I can continue to be home with my kids.

2. Do you prefer receiving handmade or store bought gifts? Be honest!
I honestly like both.  My mom has made me several handmade things including aprons and quilts.  And I have loved all of them. I also love when my kids make me things, in fact I like it better when they make me things instead of buying store bought stuff.

3. Would you rather camp or stay in a hotel?
 Hotel but I have camped and do like to camp.  But right now with my kids at the ages they are and the miserable heat here the thought of camping makes me cringe but I would love to do it with them later in life.

4. What’s your favorite comfort food?
Macaroni and cheese.  Homemade is best but in a pinch I still love Kraft Mac & Cheese from the box.

5. You’re having a really bad day at work. How do you unwind when you come home?
Well since right now my work is at home with the kids I try to unwind by shutting myself in my craft room (once daddy is home of course) and working on stuff for my Etsy shop or just puttering around in there alone being creative.
When I was working outside the home I liked to come home and veg in front of the TV and not think.

6. What’s your favorite chore? (Or, the chore you hate the least)
I honestly don't mind doing laundry or vacuuming.  There is something satisfying about vacuuming and seeing dirt or really dog hair in my house disappear.

7. What got you interested in blogging?
I started out blogging on MySpace years ago.  It was really just a way to vent and for family and friends to keep up with what was going on in our lives.  But then Facebook came along and I pretty much abandoned MySpace (I still have a page but maybe log on to it once a month at most).  But I missed blogging (there really isn't a good blog tool on Facebook).  So I came across Blogger and the rest is history.

8. Are you currently reading a book? What is it?
Well I literally just started The Help by Kathryn Stockett yesterday.  So far it's good but I am only 50 some odd pages in.  But before that I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer.  It's the latest in the Twilight Series which I love.  It was a good, easy, fun summer read.

9. Do you have a favorite artist?
Yes, I fell in love with Henri Matisse in 6th grade when my elementary school took a trip to Washington D.C.  We went to the national gallery and there were a few of his paintings which I liked just fine but I stumbled upon a copy of one of his cut outs in the gift shop and bought it on site.

 The original print I bought in 6th grade still on my wall

I LOVED it!!  It was bold and colorful and so unique.  I had never seen art like that before.  It inspired me to do research on him and I have several of his cut out prints hanging in my house. 

 3 of 4 Matisse prints I have hanging in my house.  This is the family room & my kids wanted to pose for the picture!

I have grown to love his paintings as well and one day I will make it back to France to see the church he designed with lots of beautiful stained glass in his cut out style.

10. Have you ever met someone famous?
Yes, several.  But that's because there is a movie studio here in Wilmington and One Tree Hill is currently filmed here and before that Dawson's Creek.  I met and waited on Katie Holmes (she was shy) when I worked in the Barnes & Noble Cafe during college.  I also saw many celebrities there including Burt Reynolds, Alfre Woodard, Joshua Jackson, Jerry O'Connell,  and Donald Sutherland.  I have also seen Chad Michael Murry around town (not very nice either).  I also met TC (Roger E. Mosley) from Magnum, P.I. at a track and field event I went to with my mom when I was a kid.  Oh and he was very nice!

Ten on Tuesday

1. What would the title of your autobiography be?
Avocado Addict .... It's a weird kinda silly title.  It fits me pretty well I would say!

2. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever heard a child say or seen him/her do?
Right after my daughter learned to walk she was pestering her brother by bringing him all her toys.  He was trying to watch Sponge Bob so he started throwing the toys she brought to him back across the room.  It eventually turned into a a very funny game of fetch.  She kept bringing the dolls and such right back to my son and he just kept throwing them.  We all started laughing and she took forever to quit "fetching".

3. What is your favorite kids game to play?
Rock, paper, scissors

4. If you got invited to a potluck BBQ tomorrow, what would you bring?
Depends on my mood and weather I wanted sweet or savory.  My go to potluck sweet is my grandmother's chocolate cement cake with fudge nut frosting.  My go to potluck savory is Texas caviar (corn, peppers, onion dip thing you eat with tortilla chips and it's to die for!).

5. If your ears are pierced, how old were you when you got your ears pierced?
I was 4 for the first set.  According to my mom I begged her because another little girl who was a family friend got hers done, so I wanted mine pierced too.  Then when the second piercings became popular (I was around 12 I think) and I asked my mom she said no so my friend Lizzie from across the street and I decided we would just do our own!  So we spent an afternoon in her parents bathroom with ice and a sewing needle piercing our second holes.  We had no idea what we were doing so the holes were in the wrong spots (right above the normal hold in the earlobe not off the side where it's supposed to be).  But it really didn't hurt and it was easy.  I went on to do several more myself as a teenager.  I used to have 4 in one ear and 3 in the other.  I have now let most of them grow back.

6. If you were celebrating your 30th anniversary, where would you want to go?
Well I just celebrated my 11th last Friday (the 11th) and I got a tattoo, we went to dinner, then came home and watched a movie (and thanks to my mom and step dad we were actually alone without kids).  Exciting right.  Well it was nice and just what I wanted to do.  Maybe for our 30th we could get away and go on vacation alone.  That would be nice.

7. What one blogger would you love to meet and why? And what would you want to plan to do with them?
I would like the meet the lady who writes the Cake Wrecks blog.  She is so funny!  I love her sense of humor and especially how she can get it to come across in the written word.  I would of course want to eat cake with her!

8. On a scale from 1-10, how good at you at home decor? (Pictures welcome.)
7 I think.  But my taste is not very main stream I don't think.  I love color and bright color at that.  I also love lots of different styles but I tend to be more modern in taste.

9. Do you have good fingernails?
I actually have really good fingernails thank you for asking!!!!  I can grow really long nails that don't chip or split.  They tend to break but only because I am so hard on them (dishes, cleaning, baths, hand washing, crafting etc.).

10. Pickles: Dill or sweet? Baby, spears, or chips? Plain or on a burger?
All of the above!!  I love pickles of any kind.  I will eat them plain and I love them on my burgers.

Mommy Blogs

I read a lot of blogs. I like to read blogs and I like to blog. But here is my problem ... I can't stand the mommy blogs that tout how perfect their lives and kids and husbands are!! It's bullshit and we all know it. We all have issues about something weather it's our kids, our husbands or ourselves. And hell I have issues with all the above. It's just so annoying to read the blogs about how perfect a husband is or how wonderful their kid or kids are. And there hardly ever seems to be anything that goes wrong in their perfect world. So do they just ignore their issues and blog only good things to make themselves feel better and look better??? Or are they so delusional that they don't see the issues and they really think everything is fine??? I know my brother and sister in law think their kids are fine but in reality their oldest has problems. They are oblivious to it so I can see that it can happen. Anyway I digress. Wanna know my issues right now?? OK well my son is 5 but is going to a private Kindergarten because we are not sure he is ready for public kindergarten b/c of speech and fine motor issues. What really sucks is that it's expensive and I have to drive him everyday. My daughter is 9 months old and not crawling and not attempting to. My husband thinks I don't want to have sex with him. I do but just not as often as he wants or we want it at different times. And finally I am overweight and really need to work on it but have ZERO motivation to do so. So there you go a few real mommy issues for you.