Easily Intimidated

I am, I will admit, easily intimidated. That is part of the reason that I have been away from my blog for such a long time. I started to blog one day when I was sick (and so had time on my hands to sit) and wanted to try something new. Then someone else actually read a blog entry or two and I got scared. I started reading several excellent blogs and knew I would never measure up. All of a sudden, I felt like everything I wrote had to be perfect. I couldn't live up to my own expectations. It was somewhat paralyzing.

Today, I decided that I have been silly, so now, I am back to blogging for myself. I need practice writing ... I need practice thinking ... so I'm giving myself the assignment to write something every day. (We'll see how long that lasts!) I will say that even though I haven't been writing much, blogging has been good for me because I have been reading a lot more non-fiction and thinking about things a lot more than I did before. (You would not believe the number of blog entries that I thought about writing!) Until this summer, I read a lot of (mostly inspirational) romance novels (*blush*). I think I was using reading as a way to escape my everyday world. Once I started blogging, or at least thinking about blogging, I became excited about exploring new ideas, and I found that reading to learn new things is a lot more fun. I think I'm ready now to study and gain for myself the education that I was not mature enough to appreciate when I started college fifteen years ago.

On another note, the other reason I've been away from blogging for a while is that Drew started walking (running might be more accurate) a month or two ago. He is able to get into trouble so much more quickly and easily than he could before. I remember thinking when Gracie was a baby that it shouldn't make much difference if she was crawling or walking. After all, she would be mobile in both cases. I hadn't realized two things: (1) With crawling, her hands were mostly occupied so she couldn't carry things easily from one place to another, and (2) once she could stand up, she could reach higher and therefore get into more things than she could from her hands and knees. I already knew these things this time around, but somehow Drew's newfound ability to get into things still took me by surprise. During the day, I only get a few minutes here and there to check my e-mail or read a blog entry or two. I have to wait until after the kids are asleep to get any real time to sit and think ... and write.

Until tomorrow ...

Have you checked your credit report this year?

Last week I started trying to sort through and organize my file cabinet where I keep our bills and financial information. (If anyone has any tips for keeping these records organized, I would love to hear them!) For me, the filing cabinet seems to be somewhat of a black hole for papers ... they go in and never come out again. For example, I came across the old bills from a cell phone that we discontinued service on five years ago. Ugh. I don't think I need to keep those anymore!

However, I did come across the folder containing our credit reports from the past two years, and I am glad that I did because it reminded me that I need to get copies of our credit reports again soon. Checking your credit reports is easy and it is free. Just go to AnnualCreditReport.com and follow the instructions to get a copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies, Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.

Checking your credit report each year is a good idea even if you think your credit report is clean. The first year I got our reports, I found that one of the credit reporting companies had combined my husband's credit report with that of another man with the same name (who had some negative items on his credit report). I am happy to say that one telephone call to the credit reporting company got the incorrect items removed without any problems, but if I would not have checked the credit reports, I might not have known.

Uh Oh!

At 14 months old, Drew doesn't say very many recognizable words, so each time he learns a new one, we celebrate. As of last weekend, his new favorite word is "uh oh!" On Friday evening after he was finished with his dinner, Drew sat in his high chair throwing bits of food onto the floor, and before he threw each piece, he said "uh oh!" I let him keep doing it for a few minutes because his little voice sounded so incredibly cute.

On Saturday afternoon he started saying "uh oh!" before launching toys over the gate and down the stairway. We put a stop to that rather quickly.

Then Sunday morning during church he stood up on the pew and looked at the person sitting on the pew behind us (who happened to be his pediatrician), said "uh oh!" and threw his toy at him. Uh oh, indeed! :)

Sleep Deprived

Some symptoms of sleep deprivation: tiredness, irritability, shorter attention span, poorer concentration and memory, inability to handle stress, less healthy immune system ... yes, that sounds like me.

I think I have been somewhat sleep deprived ever since Gracie was born (over 3 1/2 years ago). For me, getting enough sleep requires a balancing act -- I need to rest to stay healthy and sane -- but I also need the time to myself each day that I only get once the children are asleep.

Right now, I am desperate for Drew to begin sleeping through the night. After I got mastitis a second time recently, my husband has realized that I need more sleep to stay healthy, and has started to help out with some of Drew's night wakings for the past few nights. Now that Drew realizes that he is not going to see Mommy or get a midnight snack when he wakes up, he is sleeping better, and so am I.

I am also determined to get myself to bed at a reasonable time every night. This is such a struggle for me because there are so many things that I want to do ... books that I want to read, web sites that I want to surf, Blog entries that I want to write. Do I sleep? Or do I Blog? Obviously, sleep has won out over blogging lately for me!

So, what else can this tired Mommy do to get more sleep?

Phonebook Results from Google

I learned something interesting the other day. If you type a phone number into the search box on Google, it lists the person's name and address, and has a link to a Google map showing that address. I tried it out with my home phone number as well as several other phone numbers and it worked each time. (It did not work for my cell phone number, however.)

Drew and Gracie are still too young to use the Internet, but I find it a little bit scary that if in the future they give out even so little information as their phone number, a person could potentially find our name and address and even have a map to our home.

If you click on the Phonebook results link in the Google search results, it does have a link to request to remove your name from the list. I'm sure there are other places on the Internet besides Google that allow you to look up a name to go with a phone number, but I still found it startling that this information is so easy to find.

Gracie's Summer Reading List (Part 3)

Here is Gracie's reading list for the last two weeks. We have had a couple of busy weeks so we only read most of these books once or twice.

I think Gracie especially enjoys library days. We go to the story time and then choose a new stack of ten or twenty books. When we get home, we sit together on the couch and read through our entire stack of books. Then for the rest of the week we re-read the books that Gracie likes best.

This evening I got to wondering if maybe Gracie and I choose too many books. Maybe she would enjoy them more if we only chose four or five new ones each week. It just seems that by the time she chooses some and I choose some, we have a huge stack. At least she is being exposed to many different books each week, and we do take time to re-read and savor our favorites.

Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson
One-Dog Canoe by Mary Casanova
Nothing at All by Denys Cazet
Alfred's Alphabet Walk by Victoria Chess
Because Your Daddy Loves You by Andrew Clements
Ducks Fly by Lydia Dabcovich
Daisy Rabbit's Tree House by Penny Dale
My Drum by Kay Davies and Wendy Oldfield
Carl's Birthday by Alexandra Day
The Raggy Taggy Toys by Joyce Dunbar
Zoo's Who by Douglas Florian
Hush, Little Baby: A Folk Song with Pictures by Marla Frazee
Seeing by Helen Frost
King of the Mountain by Janie Spaht Gill
The Tub That Became a Boat by Janie Spaht Gill
The American Flag by Susan H. Gray
The Big Enough Helper by Nancy Hall
Shadows and Reflections by Tana Hoban
Kipper and Roly by Mick Inkpen
Little Kippers Sandcastle by Mick Inkpen
I Hear by Rachel Isadora
Albert the Running Bear Gets the Jitters by Barbara Isenberg and Susan Wolf
When Panda Came to Our House by Helen Zane Jensen
Rainbow Fish and Friends Hide-And-Seek by Susan Hill Long
My "e" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
My "h" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
My "i" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
My "n" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
My "w" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Hippo-Not-amus by Tony and Jan Payne
Chicken Bedtime is Really Early by Erica S. Perl
The Box with Red Wheels by Maud and Miska Petersham
Oh, Look! by Patricia Polacco
Sea Anemones by Lola M. Schaefer
Some Kids Are Blind by Lola M. Schaefer
Some Kids Use Wheelchairs by Lola M. Schaefer
Beverly Billingsly Borrows a Book by Alexander Stadler
Fast Friends by James Stevenson
There's Nothing to Do! by James Stevenson
Good Night Twinklegator by Kazuko G. Stone
Sophie and Jack by Judy Taylor
Number Rhymes by Carol Thompson
I Was All Thumbs by Bernard Waber
Hide and Sleep by Melanie Walsh
I Can Ride It! by Shigeo Watanabe

New Shoes

Today I took Drew and Gracie to get new shoes. I am sure I pay way too much for kids' shoes, but I always take them to the Stride Rite store in town because I appreciate having someone who knows what they're doing measure my kids' feet. I really appreciate the people at the store I go to because they have never tried to sell me shoes when we didn't need them. They even talked me out of buying shoes for Gracie once -- she wasn't walking yet, but I really wanted to buy some cute shoes for my baby girl -- and they told me to come back in a couple of months when she started walking.

This was Drew's first pair of shoes, and it was really funny to see his reaction to them. First, he curled his toes under so it was really hard to get his new shoes on. Once he finally had shoes on for the first time, he acted like he didn't know what to do with his feet. For a few minutes he wouldn't move them at all. Then, holding onto my fingers, he started walking backward. When he finally took a few steps forward, he was lifted each foot high in a very exaggerated motion. It was so cute to watch. I imagine he will get used to his new shoes once he wears them a little bit.