Bloggy Misc » Two Wishes

The Schedule in My Head

Jan 272010

I know, I know, I keep making promises about posts and then reverting to radio silence….. Lately I’ve been suffering the Web equivalent of laryngitis. Every time I start to comment on someone’s blog post, I’m befuddled by the empty comment box and eventually just click away. And, oh, the pressure of my growing email inbox! But the words are trapped in my head; I can’t seem to translate them from brain to fingers.

Anyway, once I get my act together, I’ve got a bloggy schedule in mind. And it goes a bit like this:

Miscellaneous Mondays — whatever’s bouncing around in my head each week

Tutorial Tuesdays — no time to craft, so hopefully you can use my many saved tutorials

Two Wishes Wednesdays — goings-on in our household; life with baby

Two Cents Thursdays — your chance to weigh in on questions big and small

Friday Favorites — a few of my favorite products, Web sites, books, foods, etc., etc., etc.

(Just because I hate to post without a photo)

Does that work for you, dear readers? Is there anything else you’d like to see on Two Wishes in the near future?

Blogger’s Block

Bloggy Misc, Just Life 5 Responses »

Jan 142010

There are dozens of blog posts in my head, but lately I’ve had trouble completing even one. (You may have noticed?)

Elsa maintains a strict rule that Mama is not allowed computers, paper products, or pens without her personal supervision. If I try to sneak out my laptop during playtime, she appears instantly by my side to chew the cord or whomp the keyboard. So motherhood is no help. Still, the kiddo does, eventually, go to sleep.

(rare sight)

E’s bedtime is when our real day begins — grown-up conversations, bill paying, Web surfing. By that point I’m half-way to brain-dead (sometimes more), but I can’t pretend I don’t have time to blog. The two hours I spent playing Spider Solitaire tonight would attest to that.

At heart, my real problem is a failure of confidence. Stay-at-home parenting works a number on your identity in relation to the outside world. After decades of academic and career successes, suddenly my biggest achievement each day is wrestling one tiny human to sleep. And too often I fail at even that! Somehow, this makes it harder and harder for me to face the empty page (or screen, as the case may be) and believe I can fill it with thoughts that anyone out there would actually want to read. Therein lies the real roadblock.**

I figure desensitization is the only way around this sudden blogophobia, so expect lots of posts for the near future!

What causes you to have blogger’s block? How do you overcome it?

** (Also, parenthood is making me not good at words plus how to use them.)

What Do YOU Want to Know?

Bloggy Misc 8 Responses »

Jul 252009

I can’t complete a blog post to save my life. I keep getting halfway done and … fizzling. Am going through an unusually fatigued stretch, and I’m just not feeling the inspiration.

So, here’s a plea to all of you for the inspiration I lack: Is there anything you want to know? About my life, or, gosh, I don’t know, maybe even life in general? Whatever, I can use Google. Just please give me something — anything — to work with!

Tags Are Itchy

Bloggy Misc, Just Life 7 Responses »

Dec 152008

(image source)

Life’s Torment #43: I absolutely can’t stand the feel of clothing tags against my skin. So I usually cut them out before wearing, but I’m not terribly careful about it and wind up with countless items of clothing sporting small holes where the tags once lived. In fact, I’m wearing a hole-y tank even as I type…..

However, blog tags are a whole different animal. I am honored to have been tagged by Corine at Hidden in France, whose blog I have long enjoyed for her impeccable style and philosophical thoughts. Really, you should go check out her blog — I’ll wait! If nothing else, take a gander at this post, with her utterly charming chalkboard Christmas decoration:

But anyway, without further ado … get to know me!

4 Things I Did Today: [by which I mean Saturday, I’m slow]

1. Slept until 3 p.m. and napped a few hours beyond that. The anti-labor drugs are hitting pretty hard.

2. Polished off a pint of Haagen-Dazs peppermint brittle ice cream.

3. “Nursed” our male cat, who was separated from his mother too soon and mentally remains a kitten. He’s also anatomically confused, and nurses on the neckline of my shirt.

(Cute, but confused.)

4. Watched The Sure Thing on DVD. My friends and I watched that movie obsessively in middle school, but amazingly Mr T had never seen it. Turns out I could have just acted it out for him — I still remember a good 60-70% of the lines.

4 Things on My To-Do List:

1. Name the baby. (“Wallaby” will only take us so far!)

2. Donate, donate, donate. We’ve got housewares for the International Rescue Committee, clothes for Goodwill, wedding supplies for a local place that loans out wedding goods, fancy dresses for a prom program, pet supplies for DC’s amazing Animal Rescue League…. I’m glad people can get real use from our extra stuff, but getting it to them is kind of exhausting.

3. Make baked goods with the candied ginger in our pantry. Earlier this week, I tried some shortbread cookies with chewy ginger pieces inside, and they were so good I must have more ginger soon!

4. Two words: Christmas gifts.

4 Guilty Pleasures:

1. Craft supplies. (The “guilty” part is that I so rarely make crafts these days; I just love being well supplied.)

2. Murder novels

3. IHOP

(As I was looking for a good image, I came across a site asking “Do you have any information on IHOP? What’s your impression of what’s going on there? My child just got involved in IHOP, should I be concerned?”. Turns out there’s also a religious community called the International House of Prayer…. But those waffles can be pretty dangerous too!)

4. The Soup (though it’s got to be better than watching all the reality shows they excerpt, right??)

4 Random Facts About Me:

1. In the last 15 years, I have lived in 7 states and 3 foreign countries. I’m terrible at staying in touch with the people I meet, but I never stop thinking about them. My heart and mind are crammed with the ghosts of past lives.

2. I’m working on 2 nonfiction books. At the rate I’m going, we’ll be very lucky if I finish either one before the fetus enters college.

3. I have a social phobia of telephones. It’s gotten better over the years, but as a teenager I couldn’t even call to order a pizza without freaking out. (In college, I spent a few months as a telephone researcher on the theory that constant exposure would help me relax. Instead, it had the opposite effect — people were so mean!)

4. My life’s goals include visiting all the countries that start with “I”. So far, I’ve checked off Israel, Ireland, and Italy.

(Next stop: Iceland! Image source.)

I’m not up to tagging anyone else at the moment. But please do let me know if you decide to join the fun!

Martha, Martha, Martha (Revisited)

Bloggy Misc No Responses »

Sep 182008

Sorry for all of yesterday’s troubles with the live blogging software! (For anyone who subscribes by email, no I did not blog in Latin. Don’t know where THAT came from….)

Here’s a cut-and-paste of the big event: