weekly?

Ok, so I posted the last blog entry last Monday... although Facebook didn't bother to post it until a day or so later. Now I'm left with a quandry... how often should I blog? hmmmm

I am thinking weekly would be good. Now the challenge - what to write!!!

Right now, I'm not planning to write much. It's late, and it's cold. I am really looking forward to being snug in my bed! I am not complaining about the cold -- despite it being -11 when I got up this morning!!! It's interesting, at the very least. Fun to watch everyone on Facebook posting the temp where they are... brrrr... But I just remember that beautiful summer we just had, with so much sunshine and warmth. I'll survive this winter, knowing that last summer was beautiful, and this summer is coming.

I've even got my dishwasher under control! It's been known to freeze in winter. Did you know if the pipe bursts, it can turn the kitchen into a sauna? That's only happened once, thank goodness. We've also had issues with the dishwasher not properly putting water in, I think becuase of how hard it tried to put in water from a frozen pipe... One year I just left it off for the duration of the cold - I really hated washing dishes by hand, thought about switching permanently to paper! But this year, it's under control. Last night, ran "rinse only" and left it toasty warm - and it didn't freeze overnight! I checked this morning, and water ran in when I turned it on to check. Still not enough dirty dishes to run it, so I left it. Unfortunately, when I loaded it tonight, it WAS frozen - but not bad. Put the hairdryer to the corner it's located in, and let it run for a few minutes, and soon the water was flowing freely again. Ran it tonight after supper, so we have clean dishes for tomorrow - and hopefully the dishwasher will survive the night without freezing, and then it's supposed to warm up a bit!

And other than that, the cold is just, cold... inconvenient, but not a show stopper.

And it makes coming in and getting warm feel SOOOOO GOOOOOO!!!!

Blogging is better than FB!

I like blogging better than posting FB status. At least for really saying what I want to say. There aren't enough characters in a status post - and it looks really self-serving to post the first comment to my own status, just to finish what I was saying! I *do* like how easy it is to share a link on FB, and to do a quick update. But for real statements about my life in general, I think I need a BIGGER format! :)

Of course, there are those who disagree -- and think I should probably output less, not look for a bigger medium... Hey, you didn't have to click over to here and read this!!!

I will make another attempt to update here on a more regular basis. See how it goes. I like that this will feed to FB -- if it actually happens! I know it's worked before, but the post earlier today still hasn't shown up. Not sure if it's timing, or something having changed... will keep on looking...

In the meantime, gotta get back to FLYing -- time for my evening routine, including shining my sink! (questions? check out http://www.flylady.net/)

Where's the line?

Today I found myself wondering... where is the line between "stay-at-home Mom" and "working Mom" ?? I really like being an "at-home" Mom, able to be there when the kids get home from school, no daycare issues when I have sick kids...

When they were really young, I looked to the future when they'd be in school, and I would probably work part time. Or so I thought... when they got into school, I found that every time I considered a regular job, that there was a school vacation or a sick kid to consider, and I found my self thankful that I didn't have a regular job.

I've been a substitute teacher, I've worked in the school cafeteria, both great part-time but not regular jobs. I could still consider myself an at-home Mom, since I was home whenever the kids would be.

I started a job that was to be 20 hours/week a couple of years ago... that didn't work out to be what I expected - not enough time to get the work done, and yet too much time away from family! So I decided I still wasn't ready to be a "working mom", and continued with my part-time, occasional work.

Now I find that my several jobs keep me busy probably at least a couple of days a week... and I feel the NEED to do so, and not decline work, especially since my husband gets an unpaid day off each month (state shutdown days), and since costs continue to rise.

So maybe I need to accept it... I have become a working mom. I can no longer assume that what I don't finish up today, I can do tomorrow - I may have to work "tomorrow"... I am trying to be more motivated to keep the house picked up on a daily basis, and not wait for the day I'm home. I need to plan out meals, based on what time I'll get home, and which meals are either quick to make, or can be prepped ahead of time for simple warming.

I am finding it is good for the kids, as well. At 10 and 14, they are able to assume more responsibilities. I started teaching them to do laundry a while ago, but it was "easier" to just do it myself... in the long run, that helps neither the kids nor myself - it's part of the life skills they will need eventually. And that "eventually" is coming quickly!!! So this year, they will be doing some laundry, they will be planning meals and starting to cook.

And in this way, we will continue the gradual transition...