Here are the top ten most popular posts from January! Thank you for reading!
What was your favorite post from last month? What would you like to see more of ’round these parts? Let me know!
This morning I gave Hayden his breakfast at his new picnic table. He looked at the plate of cereal, then clasped his hands and closed his eyes.
“What are you doing, Hayden?” I thought he might be asking for some cheese, since his sign for cheese is similar to that.
He looked at me and made a show of closing his eyes again.
“Do you want to say a prayer?” I guessed. We always pray over dinner, but sadly I’m a lot less consistent with other meals, so this would be Hayden’s idea entirely.
Hayden nodded.
“Do you want me to say it?”
Hayden shook his head.
“Do you want any help saying it?”
Hayden shook his head and folded his arms. He launched headlong into about three seconds of gibberish, concluded with his trademark “Amin” and started in on his cereal.
Apparently someone’s doing something right around here. Must be his daddy.
Happy Super Tuesday. I presume (though this may not be a sure thing) that we in the US will find out some important winners today, so I figured I’d give another winner a reason to celebrate. But first, we all get a reason to celebrate (or at least commiserate). The January Group Writing Project was all about “Me Time.” With 21 great entries, we have a wonderful array of solutions, discussions and pleas for help waiting for your eyes and your comments.
Now, feel free to spread the link love by copying the above list (instructions) and posting it to your own blog. Believe me—they all deserve it (and some serious “me time”).
The Winna!
Chosen at random the winner of our prize, a $30 Amazon.com gift certificate, is <drum roll>…
Me Time! by Joleene Libby
Congratulations, Joleene, on not only winning the gift certificate (again, she was chosen at random!) but also on participating in a GWP for the first time! The gift certificate will be winging its way to you soon!
Still working on your entry? Even though we’ve awarded our prize, we’ll continue to accept, read, link to and comment on submissions through next week.
I think that “me time” is really important for mothers. I think most mothers would readily agree—in fact, I think that most mothers have so little downtime that we’re desperate for that one little minute we can claim as our own. And we’ll take it wherever we can get it.
Though it’s easy to look back and think that I haven’t really had any “me time” since my son was born, I know that isn’t the case. There was a while there where I got in the habit of getting up at 7, while Hayden suddenly began sleeping in until 8 or 9. I could get a jump start on work, I could write something great on MamaBlogga (well, as great as I get), I could read my favorite blogs, and not have to worry about my personal projects until Hayden went down for a nap.
And then he started waking up at 6:45.
When Hayden still took three naps, I had up to 5.5 hours to myself during the day—plenty of time to get lots of work done and spend time straightening up the house and doing things I wanted to do. Of course, as soon as I came to rely on this, Hayden stopped taking his third nap. After a while, two naps came to be more than adequate.
And then, of course, he was down to one, which has been whittled away until some days it’s not even enough to get all my work done. (Let’s not even discuss the normal state of disarray the house is in!)
But then there’s the other side of the coin—the special occasions where I get to go out (or stay home) without my family. And feel guilty or simply miss my family.
While I spend much of my time wishing for regular “me time,” I don’t know what I’d do if I took it!
Edited to add: as I read through your wonderful entries, I realized that “In my opinion, anything that helps you to feel recharged, happy and more or less ready to take the next onslaught of life’s challenges counts as ‘me time.'” This definition is much broader than what many of us think of—pampering, relaxation, etc. But this is what I’m looking for in “me time.”