Reality Check

10, 15, 20 years ago I made assumptions how my life would be at 45 (yes I'm stating my age!):

Assumption: I would be well established in my career.
Reality: After going back to school to get a 2nd degree, working full time then obtaining my CPA license, I took a job part-time.  While I like my job, it is not a career job.  It does seem to be the best option right now for my family and me.

Assumption: Finances would not be as big as concern as in years earlier.
Reality: Ha! Blame it on working part-time, the economy, and college coming up soon. 

Assumption: Raising older children would be easier than caring for infants or toddlers.
Reality: It is easier physically.  I don't run after them. I am not sleep deprived. Now I wake up way before they do on the weekends. They can be left alone for hours at a time.  In other ways it is more difficult.  Their attitudes can be emotionally draining. My worries are different.  They are driving.  They have to make choices about alcohol, drugs and sex. A lot of pressure to do well in school - state universities are getting tougher and tougher to get accepted into. I second guess myself more.  I keep thinking there is so little time left they will be at home to mold them into responsible adults.  The realization they are not always growing up to be like I envisioned but are still wonderful people.  Reflecting on: When they are good they are very good. When they are bad they are rotten.

Assumption: I would have my mother in my life. My children would have their grandmother.
Reality: I lost my mom in July.  She was a wonderful mom but even better grandmother.  I was fortunate to have one grandmother around until I was 29.  My other grandmother is still alive at 101 years old.

Annual "I Don't Like Christmas" Post

The blog colors and banner have been changed to a little more of a Christmas like theme.  Now it's time for my annual post stating I don't like Christmas.  I said it.
There are aspects of Christmas I do like:

• baking
• gifts when I find a meaningful gift for someone - not buying just to be giving.
• The tree is okay. We have some nice ornaments but I am not very creative about other holiday decorating.  The house ends up looking even more cluttered just in red and green for a month.
• The Christmas music is fine for the first few weeks then it gets old
  

What I don't care for:

• the commercialism 
• the traffic - I have to go to a bank for work at a busy shopping center
• my husband having even less excitement and doing less about Christmas than me.  It would be nice to have some support. His contribution is buying one or two gifts a few days before Christmas.
• work - December is a busy month for my husband and me
  
• our approach to Christmas with our children.  They don't even shop for others.  I've been guilty in recent years of buying something and slapping their name of the gift tag.  It would have been great to have a tradition of helping others this time of the year - a volunteer project we could be involved with.  I would like them to take a little ownership in Christmas time and traditions at our house but we all seem so busy.  I admit a lot of their reaction is due to my lack of action.
  

Sunday Summary

Today started off very productive. I made pan cookies for my daughter to take to her church youth group.


Of course I couldn't fix goodies to be taken elsewhere and not have something for the house so I baked cookies:


Then there's dinner.  I thought it was good weather for chili:


Cheese dinner rolls sounded good with chili.  The dough is rising:


Football occupied a good part of our time this weekend.  (Imagine that). Our son's high school team won their game and advanced to the 3rd round of the state playoffs.  My husband and I went up the mountain to Boone Saturday to watch App play.  We didn't have the kids.  It was the best weather we've had this season for a home game.  Sunny and warm for tailgating though it got a little cool by afternoon.  We joined in with our tailgating neighbors for quite the feast.  The Mountaineers beat Western Carolina though it was not a pretty game. Our great quarterback Armanti Edwards was still banged up from last week's game against Elon. I was sad we didn't get to see him play on Senior Day in his last regular season game.  Hopefully he will be okay for the playoffs starting next Saturday.

Wanting but Not Needing

My husband and I don't exchange pricey gifts for Christmas. We focus our efforts and dollars on giving to others. I don't want for anything. I hate to admit it but I am lusting for :

No justification for getting an iPod Touch. I have a perfectly good iPod Nano. What I don't have is time - all the time wasted playing with various apps. 

The Kindle 2 looks pretty cool.  With that said, I don't read like I use to plus it's $9.99 to load a book.  Right now I get most of books from the library or buy them used. 

Part of me would love all the latest electronic gadgets but they are not cheap.  Again I have plenty and try not to put a high value on things.

Memories In the Making

Catherine said this was her dad. He has neither blue skin nor red head.

I'm letting her go see the premiere of the second movie in the Twilight series: New Moon at 12:01 a.m. Friday. I realize it's a school night but I think it will be one of those memorable things she can say she did.  It reminds me of camping out all night for Police concert tickets my freshman year in college. Waiting to buy tickets ended up being more of a story than the actual show. I sort of wish I was going with her to see the movie.  Another mom will be chaperoning them.  Though my daughter is in middle school, my son announced it is a big thing for the girls at his high school to go the premiere as well.

Moving Day

If you follow my blog closely then you need a life! Just kidding. I have now changed from squarespace back to blogger. I like many of squarespace's features compared to blogger. I am frustrated blogger has not had any real improvements in years. However given my blog's activity and the overall decline in blogging, I cannot justify paying $14/month for a blogging platform when blogger is free.
I am experiencing issues with google reader each time I change platforms. I feel like those people who are constantly changing their email addresses or cell phone numbers. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. Also, comments left November 1 - 16 did not transfer back to blogger.

After the Rain

As I said in an earlier post, we've had a lot of rain. I walked around in the backyard yesterday and saw various types of fungi everywhere.

Watching and Walking

I realize my posts are a little heavy on the football but that's a big part of our lives at the moment. Our son's team won their game Friday night in the first round of playoffs 63-14. Saturday App went to Elon and beat them therefore winning the Southern Conference Championship.

The good part (and it can be viewed as the bad part) is when App plays at Elon, they have a great place for us to park and tailgate. However it is about a mile walk to the stadium. So I not only got to watch an awesome game, I got in 2 miles of walking.

Friday the 13th

A view out back. It is dreary and soggy. We have gotten soaked from the remnants of Hurricane Ida. We are waiting to hear if the first round of the state football playoffs will go as scheduled tonight. The field at the high school was under water yesterday. Several games have been postoned until Saturday.

The Puzzle of Game Day Saturday

Blogging trends aren't the only thing changing. If you have followed my blog for at least a year, you know going to Appalachian football games was a big family event. This season is not working out as I had hoped. The kids have lost interest as well as having schedule conflicts. I feel game day Saturday has become a puzzle - 4 pieces representing each family member, trying to make the puzzle fit and all work out to be one nice picture.

My husband and I still wish to be at The Rock in Boone but don't want to force it on the kids. Some Saturdays our son is visiting other colleges, attending games and thinking about his future. There are times he is just tired from his own game the night before. (His team is in the state playoffs!) Our daughter is developing her own life and interests. As frustrating as it may be, it's all understandable.

The Fall of Blogging The Rise of Other Social Media

November is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Bloggers officially sign up and agree to post everyday in November. I'm not participating though I do appear to be on a roll this month. I did NaBloPoMo in 2007.

I started my blog July 2006. It seems 2006 and early 2007 was the heyday for blogging. So many bloggers have since gone. Some made an annoucement they were ending their blog. A few just vanished - the blog could no longer be viewed. Most just quit updating. I've heard various reasons why people stopped blogging:

• too time consuming


• ran out of ideas


• felt too much personal information was shared (especially after a few had some nasty stalkers)


• thrill wore off


• began other forms of social media: facebook and twitter
  

I can understand and have experienced all these reasons. Also, I am on facebook and twitter. Though some of my friends overlap, I look at blogging, facebook, and twitter as 3 separate outlets.

Blog posts are more detailed. I think of them as my journal. I like to put up the pictures I take. Most of my friends in my area do not know I blog. However now I do consider many of my fellow bloggers as friends. I've met several of you.

Facebook is a way for me to reconnect and communicate with my friends - the majority are local. I share the most about my family on this site. I do not have a link to my blog on Facebook nor do I mention it. I use to consider myself a 'secret blogger'. Honestly now I don't think I'd care if my secret was out.

With Twitter, I can vent. I can have brief banter with others. I can visit Twitter when I have the time or stay away for a while.

What forms of social media do you rely on? How do you use them differently?

Work in Progress

I switched from blogger to square space. More about that later as well as I will be adding the finishing touches.

Happy Belated Halloween

I hope you had fun.