Latte Love

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This was my SM avatar for a long time :-)

I am not shy about my love for lattes. Even in the height of summer I need a hot latte in the morning. I drink cold for my afternoon bevvie, but always hot in the morning.

My love affair with coffee started out pretty tepid if I remember correctly. I drank it regularly for the first time in college. I drank instant my freshman year finally understanding it’s full awesomeness by senior year. I had my own mug from Bruegger’s.

At one point I even entertained a career around my beloved, I managed a Seattle’s Best Coffee. The hours and the low pay couldn’t balance out the free lattes so I went in another direction.

I turned my husband from a drip coffee drinker to an espresso drinker with ease. Just before my first child was born we bought an expensive home machine. After it paid for itself a million times over  for the 6 years and the three kids that followed, we bought this Breville machine.

When this one dies we are going full on. I wouldn’t bat an eye spending over $1000 on a machine.

Yep.

I’ll let you quickly add up your coffee habit at DD or Starbucks in your head. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Yup. THAT much. $1000 seems cheap now doesn’t it? We never buy coffee out and people often come over to my house in the hopes I will make them a coffee. I don’t mind. I totally get it :-)

I love me some latte.

What’s your beverage love?

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I’ve joined NaBloPoMo this month. NaBloPoMo is a daily blogging exercise centered around a theme. For August 2013, it’s HOT. The daily writing prompts can be found here. Do you like hot drinks such as coffee and tea?

Also that’s an affiliate link up there, FYI.

Just jump.

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My son is afraid to jump off the diving board at swim lessons. I watch him carefully and nervously make his way out to the end. He retreats. He walks back out. He takes a few steps back then forward with some encouraging words from his instructor. She is right behind him now inching him closer. He shakes his head and she lowers him down. After swim we talk about about it and I tell him he just needs to go for it. “Just jump.” I say. “Make it fun! You can do it. Just jump!”

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There are so many reasons that I haven’t posted in a while.

It’s summer.

My kids are home.

I have to feed them.

I have to play with them.

My house is mess.

We’ve been away.

We’re taking swim lessons.

I’ve been at barre class.

I’m tired.

But mostly, I think I may be a shitty blogger. I just don’t have the passion for it anymore. I’m in a bloggy slump.

I don’t get paid to do this, yeah I get some free stuff here and there, but…. well. It doesn’t pay for my shoe/purse habit. I’m kind of a junkie.

I feel like I’ve lost my way. Lost my voice. I feel like no one is reading this except for the #4HB peeps. And my bloggy friends – smooch. And of course, my mom and dad. Which I thank you for!

There is so much I want to do here, and elsewhere, but really all I can do right now is be a mom and try to keep my house clean. Seriously that’s all I can muster. I see everyone “doing so much” and I think, my God I’m a slacker. But I know I’m not. I just feeeeeel that way.

I also feel like I’ve written this before. Maybe I am a shitty blogger? I love video – I should be a vlogger. But then I’d have to put makeup on and such. It’s too much.

Do you ever just feel like you’re not living up to your potential? Like there’s is more if you just push yourself a little bit? If we just jumped…

Next week when my son goes back for his second round of swim lessons I may just jump off that diving board before him. “Watch Mommy!” I’ll say.

Just jump!

Your Mission, List, should you choose to accept it.

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Your mission? To join The Mission List. I know I have a fair amount of readers who are connected, influencers, social media savvy ladies and gents, if you will. Wouldn’t you like to use your super powers for good?

Members of The Mission List are keen on using their social media influence to impact social good at home and abroad. Members receive opportunities to participate in social good campaigns involving issues such as child and maternal health, global development, women’s rights, and hunger. It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom with influence in your local community, a social media maven, an experienced blogger who writes about design, parenting, home, food, work, or a little bit of everything — as long as you have a desire to use your influence for good, you belong on The Mission List. ~TML

Now I’m going to tell you totally up front that if you join and you mention I referred you I will gain an entry into a contest for a trip to BlogHer. Now I’d be super excited if you did that. But I’d also be super excited for YOU if you joined The Mission List. Lots of amazing opportunities to do some social good. AND I’d be super excited for The Mission List to be gaining some of the aforementioned social media savvy super women.

I have been participating in campaigns for The Mission List for over a year now. Like campaigns for Oxfam, and No Kid Hungry. It really feeds my need for doing good while blogging. I really love that part of blogging. Being able to help a nonprofit or a cause. Or to just bear witness. It’s important.

Sometimes I feel helpless when I see all the different difficult things going on in the world. What the hell can I do about it? There’s only some many times I can text the Redcross.

Well, I have this little space on the big ole interent and a couple of people listening to me. So I can write about it. Hopefully something will connect with you. Hopefully you’ll click. Maybe you’ll tell someone else about such and such. Or you’ll make a donation, or buy a product. Who knows what will happen. But I do know one thing if I don’t do anything, nothing will happen here.

So let’s do something!
First step join The Mission List.
Second step, do some good.

A message from one of our fearless leaders. I am mean that sincerely. The women that run this place are fierce and fearless and full of awesome.

There should be a a video here. If not, just refresh the page and like magic it’ll be there!

Half-assed Blogger

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I have so many draft in my posts folder. So many. I am a half-assed blogger.

I am also a half-assed mama, but someone already staked a claim to that ;-) Half -assed housekeeper? Yep. Wife? You guessed it.

So many things lately are half done around here and I’m getting kind of sick of it. Sometimes I leave the dishwasher half emptied. Seriously.

In my own defense there is so much going on in this house that I can’t keep up. To be clear, this is not a complaint. I am loving my life with all it’s crazy.

But, it’s so so crazy sometimes that I have to close up the dishwasher leaving it half emptied. In which case my husband will inevitably put a dirty dish in there. Or I’ll stop him juuuust before he does and yell “That’s still clean!” To which he tilts his head to the side as if to say “WTF. Really? Again?” Then in my head I say “I know, I know I’m a half-assed everything. I suuuuuuck.”

And so it goes.

So this week. I will try to see everything to it’s full completion before moving on to something else. Like this blog post. I am DYING to get up and do something else. Anything else. I am SURE I could think of something. But I won’t. I will stay until I press publish.

Then I will write more posts.  I will fold the laundry and then PUT IT AWAY. I will clean off my desk and then find a place for all the crap I took off of it. I will empty my son’s backpack and return school forms in a timely fashion. I will do this!

Oh you know what I did right before this? That’s right. I emptied the damn dishwasher.

Take that…whoever.

My three loves.

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The reason I haven’t been ’round these parts recently.

Hello Instagram! Where have you been all my life?

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Oh, on my phone? This whole time? Really? Dammit!

While at BlogHer, when I wasn’t imploding or seeing naked men, I kept hearing about Instagram. Went to a session on it, but left.

Everyone kept saying how much they loved it. I kept saying I didn’t get it. I can’t see all of the photos someone posted what’s the point? I would say.

We went on a short vacation to VT and I logged into Instagram. I put the app on my phone 86 weeks ago. That’s like 10 years ago I think. I maintained that I didn’t like nor would I like it, ever.

Well, I’m here to tell you I love it. LOVE it. I instagramed the hell out of our little vacay. I sent the pics directly to Twitter and Facebook without all those upload, change to tiny url, blabla bla issues. LOVE IT!

And the photos save to phone so I can, oh I don’t know, put them in a blog post if I want…

Old timey feels to the photos or a new age edginess. Whatever you like. But sharing your life with family and friends easily? Grandmothers would surely approve of that. I am declaring this app Nana- approved.