Eleven

January 8, 2012

Eleven years ago today, at 4:18 am, I became a mom.



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My “natural childbirth” baby quickly turned into an emergency c-section after the nurses discovered she was breech. . .when I was 10cm dilated and ready to push. Doh! 


The lesson I learned? Things may not be as easy as I expect, but the end result is pretty amazing.


To know Belly is to love her. I don’t say that to brag or because I’m her mom, it’s just the truth. She makes so many people happy and has such a kind soul—I know that isn’t all there is to life, but it’s a pretty great start.


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this is the beginning of one of my favorites—to read the entire short story, go here.


“Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you’re still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven.

 Like some days you might say something stupid, and that’s the part of you that’s still ten. Or maybe some days you might need to sit on your mama’s lap because you’re scared, and that’s the part of you that’s five. And maybe one day when you’re all grown up maybe you will need to cry like if you’re three, and that’s okay. That’s what I tell Mama when she’s sad and needs to cry. Maybe she’s feeling three.

Because the way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree trunk or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is.

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It’s all about the Lincolns

January 3, 2012

Last December, I read about the five-dollar savings plan. It goes like this: Every time you find yourself with a five-dollar bill in your possession, you set it aside instead of spending it. At the end of the year, you use the money you’ve saved for either a big purchase or to do something you wouldn’t normally spend the money to do.

I was skeptical as to whether or not this would work for me, mainly because I hardly ever use cash. I pay with credit or debit cards for everything from groceries to gasoline. I go to the ATM for pocket money only once or twice a month. And yet. . .I was curious.

So, starting at the beginning of January, I started putting aside (almost) every five-dollar bill I acquired. And my pile started to grow.

In one year, with no help from my husband or my kids, I saved 70 five-dollar bills.

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Yup, that is $350 right there. Not bad, eh?

I love that this didn’t feel like a “savings plan” at all (and, don’t get me wrong, this is NOT a financially sound way to really save money as there is no interest earned when the money is just kept in an envelope!).  

To make this an even bigger deal, I could get the whole family involved and put any Lincolns saved each week into an interest-earning savings account. If we had a big goal that was worth saving for a few years, we might end up with a good chunk of it paid for without really trying.

So, yeah, I was skeptical at the start of 2011. But when we surprise our kids with a special weekend excursion this winter, I think we’ll all feel like this was a worthwhile experiment.

Update: this post still gets  a ton of traffic (hi Pinterest people!), so I thought I’d update where we ended up. In May 2013, we took a cruise, and I counted up the $5 bills I’d saved. Keep in mind that I’d gotten very lazy about saving every $5 bill, often using my stash when I needed a little cash quickly. But, even with that, I had almost $500 in “extra money” to spend. It was definitely a nice little surprise and didn’t hurt to save it at all. I have a good friend who also did this for only a year and saved over $1,100 toward their family vacation!

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Filed Under: Fairly Odd Me 49 Comments

Mommy and her laptop, sitting in a tree. . .

January 1, 2012

If there is one ugly truth about myself, it’s that I’m on this laptop far too much. 


I use this computer for work, and to shop for everything but groceries (though I have done that before). I use it to research what we’re having for dinner and to get materials for the class I’m teaching in our next homeschool coop session. I have three email accounts to check, and Facebook and Twitter feeds that I try to pop on at least once a day (okay, 50).


But it is way too easy to get sucked into a vortex. Just one more post to read. Shoot, work needs this tomorrow, I’ll do it now. Oh. . .Big Store X is having a huuuuge sale, and I really should pick up some of their {insert product here}. 


Here’s the thing though: My house is not falling apart from filth. The laundry is done (and put away). I cook three meals a day, and they are (almost) always nutritionally sound. My dog is walked (and tired) (which counts as my exercise, right?) My marriage isn’t falling apart (right honey???). My legs are shaved. I read stories to the kids at bedtime and don’t check my iPhone as I do it. My kids aren’t running wild, beating small animals and setting fires. In fact, they are great kids.


The only thing that bugs me about the time I spend online is how it looks to the kids. Will they remember mom as the lady with the laptop in the kitchen clicking away? Or will they remember her as the one who took them to their million activities? Who kicked their butt dancing to The Chemical Brothers on Just Dance 3? Who helped them put away their 1,001 American Girl accessories? (oy) Who sat with them as they tried to remember the difference between an adjective and an adverb and somehow didn’t scream?


I’m debating setting a timer. Working only when they are asleep (a tricky proposition as they stay up later and later). Maybe only going online between certain hours. 


Or cutting myself some slack and stop worrying about this. 2012 as the year of less self-imposed guilt? Sounds pretty nice to me.

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Filed Under: Cool Mom Picks, Fairly Odd Kids, Fairly Odd Me 5 Comments
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