Archive for September, 2009
Posted on September 29, 2009. Filed under: Extras! | Tags: Blogging, technology |
I mentioned in my first post that I started this blog at the advice of a couple of people in the publishing industry as a way to get my stuff out there. But as the people who know me know – I can’t just ease into anything. I’m in full on I’ve-started-a-blog-and-nothing-else-matters mode. So I’m one week in and I’ve already: posted almost daily, started thinking about my “angle”, got my own domain name, created a mental image of my website in my head, talked to a friend about a logo, started reading other blogs in a similar genre, read up on blogging tips, researched how to get some traffic and blabbed about my blog to everyone I come in contact with (except my boss, because it’s likely something may show up on here that she’d rather not read). I’m going at this thing with serious intent.
One little problem. I am not tech savvy. Better put: I have NO tech knowledge what-so-ever. I’m a pretty capable user (unlike my dad – whom I’ll share some stories about in the future), but Webmaster?? Are you kidding? I don’t even know what HTML is! Not just what it stands for – but what it is. NO clue.
So I think I have my own website. It’s http://www.mylifeincomplete.com/. I even have an email address: lauren@mylifeincomplete.com. Only I have NO idea how to use these things! No longer a blogger.com site, does that mean that it is my own site? Then why does it still look the same? How do I make it how I want it and add an “email me” button and links to other pages within my site? I’m sure there is a way to do this. I’m sure the other bloggers with their own sites know how to do this. But me? NO!
I’m not unrealistic. I know my limitations. I am by no means expecting to become Tech-YES Mama, but if anyone can point me in the direction of a “Turning Your Blog Into A Website That You May or May Not Already Have For Dummies” tutorial, please do. In return, I’ll plug you. Nothing says thank you like getting your name, product, whatever out there to five people you probably already know.
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Posted on September 28, 2009. Filed under: Stories | Tags: Braden, home, movies, Parenting, Single Mom |
Now, I’m not really one for going to the movies. I can list a million reasons why I’d rather stay home, but most importantly, I see no need to spend $10.50 to miss the best part because I drank a large Diet Coke to wash down the popcorn (make that $20.50) that I finished before the previews were over and I just CANNOT hold it anymore. If I said I go to the movies once a year, that would be an over statement.
But then I saw the preview for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. A favorite read of mine when I was a kid, now on the big screen? And I have a three-(almost four-)year-old who has never been to the movies? It must be a sign! It is time to take my little man out on the town.
I told Braden Saturday morning that we were going to the movies after his nap. The whole day he asked about going to the movies. He was excited, and he didn’t even know for what. (By the way, for my mommy friends who struggle with naptime, I discovered nap bribing on this lovely day.) So he went right to sleep at naptime, and when he woke, we both got dressed and got in the car to go on our date. It may have been a little new age for me that he let me drive, (and I would have preferred some flowers to the buger that he tried to give me) but I can put my convictions aside for one night.
We got downtown a little too early to go into the theater, so I figured I’d stop at Blockbuster and return the overdue DVDs I had sitting in my passenger seat, just to kill some time. Brady and I got out of the car and I dropped the movies in the outdoor drop box slot. As I started to turn away from the building, Braden pulled me back. “Mom – we got to go at the movies. C’mon. Let’s go inside!” he said, tugging at my arm. I had no idea just how little he knew about the concept of going to the movies. He actually thought we were going to watch a movie at Blockbuster (a.k.a. “The Movie Store”)! I set him straight and then we drove over to the theater.
While waiting in line at the concession stand before heading in, Braden pointed to a screen playing trailers up on the wall and said, “Is this the movie that we are watchin’?” I was just loving the suspense that was building up due to his complete lack of knowledge on the matter. We ordered a bag of popcorn and two sodas. SODA!! Braden got to have a whole Sprite all to himself. This would be reason enough to come to the movies. He could gulp that thing down and leave and he’d be satisfied to the extent of bragging about it at school on Monday. But the best was still yet to come.
We walked down the long hallway to the big black door with a big number three painted in white. “This is our movie, mom.” And we went in. And that precious little three-year-old mouth opened in amazement and I nearly had to scrape his jaw off the dark corridor floor lit with track lighting. (This is still before he’s seen the screen.) We pick a seat and he waits. And waits. And waits. The longest nine minutes of his mini life. “Mom, it’s not gonna come.” “Mom, where is the movie?” “Mom, it’s not coming. I toldya.” And then it came. Throughout the previews he asked, “is this the movie we’re watching?” But when the actual movie came on – he watched it. No, he absorbed it. He was in awe of the whole experience. He was laughing, making sure I was laughing, sharing popcorn, whispering when he wanted to say something – until one time when he accidentally blurted something out loud at a suddenly quiet part. He was a little embarrassed, but I(of course) thought it was adorable!
Brady’s first trip to the movies was fantastic. I was very proud of what a good boy he was. He sat still through the entire movie and he did not get loud or fussy. He didn’t even kick the seat in front of him! It was the perfect date. And the whole event made me appreciate going to the movies from a new perspective. That of a mommy who has something fun to do with her child that we can both enjoy together and create memories of movies shared.
When we left he kept saying how awesome it was. He wanted to tell everyone he knew. We had to make some very important phone calls – Mimi, Doug, Dad. And on Sunday morning he woke up and said, “after my nap we are going at the movies, right?”
I wish.
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Posted on September 28, 2009. Filed under: Writing | Tags: Blogging, Career, Writing |
It’s been since Thursday that I’ve posted on here and it’s been killing me! I’ve been writing blog posts in my head all weekend. I can’t wait to get them on the page – er, screen. But I must work at my slightly less satisfying, albeit far more financially rewarding, job right now. I know you must be chomping at the bit as well. Rest assured, you can count on something new soon.
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Posted on September 24, 2009. Filed under: Writing | Tags: Blogging, Writing |
In trying to come up with a name for this thing, I thought back to this little piece I wrote some time ago and it just seemed to fit. Here it is; you’ll see why:
I have rarely finished anything I’ve started. This is true for my writing, especially. I have half written articles, opening paragraphs for essays, notes scattered all over my drawers/baskets/purses/files/electronics – I have them as Microsoft Word docs, pages in journals, scribbled on the back of discarded envelopes, in emails sent to myself; notes in my iPhone, notes on my Facebook. I open books I was reading and find notes for my own writing. I’ve got magazines from years ago that I’ve kept because on page 73 I started an article. I have stacks of Post-its, wrinkled and stickless, where I’ve jotted ideas that cross my mind at work. And yet, I’ve written nothing. Sometimes I fantasize about putting together a book of all my scribble – not finishing any of the pieces but just putting them all in a book titled, “My Life, Incomplete.” Would anyone read it? It is likely that at least one more person would read it than is reading it now, strewed all over my incomplete life.
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Posted on September 24, 2009. Filed under: Stories | Tags: Braden, church, God, Parenting, Single Mom |
Tonight as Braden was getting ready for bed I was watching him with such adoration my heart almost ached. And I said to him, “Braden, God gave me the best boy.” And he looked at me with big curious blue eyes. I could tell he was processing that statement. And then he said “I don’t remember God.” Plain and simple. Makes perfect sense. If you don’t understand the concept of God, then what kind of reaction could you have other than “hmmm… how could this guy give me to my mom if I don’t remember him?” And then I realized that I have entered a new stage of parenting – one where I need think before I speak because what I say will be intellectually challenged. I mean — I had to answer that! How do you explain God to a three-year-old? I’m embarrassed to say that I was kind of leaving that one in the hands of the kids program leaders at church! (Nevermind the fact that we’ve been to church once in the past year.)
And so I told him to finish getting ready for bed and put his dirty clothes away and we would talk about God before we started his bedtime stories. This bought me approximately three minutes to prepare my response.
“God is the creator of the universe. That means that he made the Earth (this is one of Braden’s favorite words/concepts right now – Earth). And he made the stars and the moon and the sun and he made all the people. He made me and he made you. And he loves us soooo much.” Phew. Let’s read Curious George.
But NO!
“Well then where is he?” he asks.
“God is in heaven, up in the sky, and he is everywhere all around us, too. Only he is invisible so we can’t see him.”
“Well, how did Jesus get down here?”
WHAT!?!!???? Wow, if I knew I was going to be quizzed on my Christianty, I’d have read the bible last night. No – wait – I’d have said a prayer! Or begged for a miracle…
“Jesus was born as a little baby to his mommy, Mary, just like you and me. Only God is his dad. He was a little baby and he grew up to be a man. And he was the best man that ever was and he loved everybody. He made sick people get better and he was nice to everyone.”
“No, but how did he get down here if he is dead?”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Okay, God, I get it. I need to bring the kid to church. Now, can you let me off the hook here? “Jesus wasn’t dead when he was down here. He was just a regular person like you and me and when he died he went to Heaven” I figured reincarnation was a little over his head.
“Why did he die?”
Explain crucifiction to a three-year-old. They should have taught us this in lamaze class. I’ll take a short-cut here. “Jesus died for our sins. A sin is when you do something you shouldn’t do. Like if you don’t listen to me, or if a kid in school hits you, or I say a bad word – those are sins.”
“And then you die?”
Uh oh. What did I do?? “No, you don’t die if you sin. Jesus died so that God would love us even though we sin. You’ll understand better when you’re older.”
“But, but, then he went in the sky by his dad? God?”
“Yes, then he went to heaven. Like Old Grandpa. And now Jesus is with God in heaven. And they love us very much. And when we want to talk to them, we can pray. Do you remember praying?”
“Um, I don’t know.”
“Okay, let’s practice.” So I explain how to start a prayer, and that you want to say thank you for all the good things in your life and that you can list them if you want, and that you can ask God and Jesus to take care of the people that you love or to help make sick people better and you can ask for help if you need it. And then I told him how to end the prayer. “In Jesus’s name, Amen.”
“I can’t say that word. Can we read my stories now?”
I thought you’d never ask.
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