My kids just barely missed the advent of food in a pouch.  It started with baby food, but my kids were already chomping baby carrots by then. I remember when I first started spotting itty bitties sucking applesauce out of a pouch, it reminded me of when a street vendor in Belize City tried to sell Craig and I water in a bag.  We were like, “Uh, no thanks?!”, only to find that that was how ALL the water in Belize was being sold at that time.

When I became part of the Happy Family company’s Happy Bloggers team, I was offered the chance to review Happy Tot Greek Yogurt Smoothies. I responded that I would be happy to do a review, but wasn’t sure it was appropriate for my kids, since they are 5 and 6.  But, as it turns out, I was so, so wrong.

Because my kids love these things.  I actually received them in the mail on a day when we were helping friends move into their new house.  The fact that these little pouches don’t have to be refrigerated seemed to fit the day, since our friends did not have their fridge yet. I brought a few along with us for a snack, and found that the kids had devoured them before I even knew it (or could take a picture)!  I thought that the ingredients pictured on the outside of the pouch might slow them down (beets? kale? spinach?) but no.

And then, over the next several weeks, the kids continued to rave about each of the different flavors, and I fell in love with their functionality.  They’re portable, mess-proof, don’t need refrigeration, but can be frozen, which means they are perfect for:

A Surprise After School Snack!

After close inspection, a pre-practice energy boost for an under-cover soccer ninja.

When you’re home sick and get to break the “no food on the couch” rule.

As a yummy, space saving ice pack for lunch on field trip day.

For breakfast on those school mornings when you’re running late or just too tired to chew.

And sometimes, even mom can get in on the action, when she’s running crazy and that nutrition bar is just not going to cut it.

And yes, there are a lot of different food-in-a-pouch options out there right now, but I know with the Happy Family brand that I am getting a nutritional organic food with no artificial ingredients or preservatives. I love that they’ve worked in super healthy fruits and veggies in a way that is still tasty and fun.  My six year old’s favorite flavor is the kale, spinach, and apple smoothie!

Happy Family is letting me share the fun with you!  I’m giving away a mixed case of Happy Tot Greek Yogurt Smoothies, plus coupons for all of the Happy Family products. To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment telling me how or where you would use your smoothies. I will close the giveaway and randomly draw a winner on Sunday, June 2nd at 10pm CST. Best of luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with a mixed case of Happy Tot Greek Yogurt Smoothies by Happy Family for review purposes.  I am also a #HappyBloggers Ambassador.

When I got up today, I weighed myself.  The scale said this:

145 is a pretty “average” weight for me, but it hit me wrong this morning.  I thought about it a lot. The problem is that it’s the most I’ve weighed in probably two years. The number has been inching up there. I’ve seen it coming.  I wouldn’t mind to weigh this much if I was fit and strong. But, I also am very aware I am in the worst shape of my life. 145-and-flabby is very different from 145-and-fit.

Along the way to Callen’s morning soccer game, we followed two school buses that turned off at the high school and reminded me that the sectional track meet was being held there today.  I mentioned it to the kids and when I explained, “You know, track and field, like you do on the Kinect”, I had to promise that we would stop by to have a look after soccer.

At Callen’s game, he fell and tore open a scab on his knee.  I ran to the car to get a band-aid.  Running always feels good, but I noticed parts of me jiggling that have never jiggled before.

Later, we arrived at the track meet just in time to watch the girls 4×800 relay go off. I sat on a grassy hill above the track with my kids and explained how the relay works and that mommy ran that race in high school. I was struck not only by nostalgia, but a sense of loss.  As I watched those girls spin around the track, I remembered exactly how strong I felt on each of those turns, and I realized how much I miss that strength and the ability to go fast with nothing but my feet.  I am under no delusion that I will ever be that strong or that fast again, but I want a 35-year-old version of it.

And when we finally got home from Carina’s soccer games late this afternoon, I caught a corner of my new swimsuit sticking out of a dresser drawer.  It has a ruffled trim and a skirted bottom, and while I was pleased with its ability to cover and disguise when I bought it last week, today it suddenly made me think of this:

And so, I pushed the swim suit back into the drawer and pulled out some workout wear.  I really wanted to go for a run, but I’m home alone with the kids this weekend. So, I marched upstairs to turn on the Kinect to do a “getting back into it” workout with the My Fitness “game”. . . And realized that husband had taken the xbox with him on his weekend “fishing trip”. I started to get annoyed.  But, I was driven by the scale, and the jiggle, and the ruffles.  YouTube saved the day. I found Fitness Blender, which offers free workout routine videos with various themes and geared toward different abilities.  So, I did the Standing Abs Exercises (10 minutes) and the Crunchless Abs Workout (10 minutes) in the kitchen while the kids ate their dinner and cheered me on.  Carina even paid me a nice compliment by asking if the slim, athletic chick on the screen was me.  (Six year old logic – “Well, you both have ponytails.”)

Tomorrow, if I can sit upright, I’ll get back in the groove of using the My Fitness Pal app on my phone to track my diet’s nutrients and calories. I’m thinking about doing another 3 day juice cleanse to get things rolling.  And I’ll keep remembering what it feels like to be strong and fast, because that’s a part of me that I’ve lost over the past few years – a part of me I really need to get back.

Disclosure: Just to be clear – there are no affiliate links in this post.

Way down, at the very bottom of my email inbox is an email that I received from my friend Lucy on August 9, 2010.  It’s a list of topics that she suggested I write about here on Instead of the Dishes.  I’ve kept that list for all this time, planning to someday check them all off, and still I haven’t.  So, this post is for Lucy, to tie up some of those subjects she sent me so long ago.  It’s her list, with not quite a whole blog post for each, but at least my thoughts.

Lucy’s email specified that these subjects are in no particular order:

1. Why do you stay at home with your children instead of have an outside job?

Wow, things have changed a lot since you asked me this three years ago, Lucy.  In fact, I truly do have another blog post planned in the next week to address my thoughts on deciding what kind of mom to be.  But, back then, when I really was a stay at home mom, I did it because I thought it was the best thing that I could do not only for my children, but for my family. Craig and I made this decision together.  Coming from a career working in the non-profit world, and being married to a dentist, the loss of my income and overall finances were not a big concern for us when the kids were born.  I understand that this is not the case for every family, and I know that it certainly helped make the decision easier.  

Not that I didn’t struggle with the decision over the years.  I feed off of having projects, making a contribution to the world, and helping my peers.  Having two children under the age of two does not facilitate any of that.  Looking back, I feel like I was truly functioning at about 50% of my normal capacity those first couple years.  I really don’t know how working moms do it.  I don’t think I could have done it.  I didn’t have much to give, but I wanted what energy/effort/attention I did have to go to my children.  People always say they don’t want to miss the milestones of those early years with their babies. To be quite honest, it’s all a blur to me.  I don’t remember as much as I want to, and of course the kids don’t remember any of it, but I’m glad that I did it anyway.

2. What is it like to lean toward atheism while living in the Bible belt?

Well, first let me clarify that I don’t lean toward atheism.  I do tend to lean AWAY from organized religion, and for many Christians, that’s as bad as being an atheist. But, atheism is the belief that no deities exist.  I do believe in a higher power, I believe in living life in the service of others, and I believe in giving thanks for the world we’ve been given to live in and for the blessings that we have.  So, regardless of exactly what my views are, yes, they are very different from the majority of folks around me.  And Lucy, if you think you live in the Bible belt there in Central Arkansas, you ought to come north a bit – it’s a whole different degree of dogma here.  Quite honestly, it’s hard.  I sometimes feel like a closeted minority.  When nearly everyone around you feels, believes, practices their faith in the same way, and that way is different from your own, it’s hard not to feel judged, criticized, looked down upon.

3. Your thoughts on smaller living/living with less. I love that Carina’s birthday theme is Heifer Project. Our culture consumes like locusts – why do you think this is and how do you combat this?

I don’t know if I really have the experience to address this.  I’m well aware that my family has more than most. We’ve worked hard for our successes, and both Craig and I are blessed  to have the drive and motivation to want to learn more and do more for our family and those around us.  We also both came from humble beginnings.  Our backgrounds are very different, but both of the families we grew up in were lower middle class at best.  I think that instilled a level of frugality and delayed gratification in both of us.  

Our society has become a throw-away society. If something is broken, we don’t fix it, we get a new one.  Our possessions are more about status than they are about needs or functionality.  You are what you drive.  We’ve tried our best to steer our kids away from these type of concepts, away from the incessant marketing onslaught that is network television, and away from I-want-itis.  From simplistics like keeping ongoing wish lists of the things we want and being aware that there are so many people out there that have so much less than we do,  to bigger concepts like how we can use our resources to help others, and investing our own extra money in experiences and events rather than “things”, we have worked hard to imbue our kids with a larger world view that goes beyond what is immediately evident and available to us.

4. How do you raise your children in such a highly sophisticated yet extremely immature culture without hiding out in the mountains?

Sometimes I want to hide out in the mountains.  Sometimes I am truly concerned for what society will be as my children come of age.  We all do the best that we can do for our kids, I think.  For Craig and I, that means teaching our kids to think independently, to be prepared to go against the norm in order to stay true to yourself, and to not pay too much attention to what others are doing. The tricky thing about parenting is that we don’t really know if we are doing a good job until it is too late.  I just have to hope that my children are well prepared for whatever their future may hold. I build on that hope by doing what I can to try to anticipate and prepare for that future.  I’m still learning as an adult how to function in this culture, and I take those lessons and pass them on to my kids, so that they will be more prepared than I was/am.

5. What you enjoy about living in Little Rock.

There were lots of things that I enjoyed about living in Little Rock.   I put together a summer bucket list of things to do in the city, and I think that encapsulates a lot of the things that Little Rock has to offer to families.  Compared to where we are now, Little Rock is much more diverse, and has a more metropolitan feel to it.  I miss that.  I love the mild winters and the 10 month growing season.  For a midwesterner like me, Spring in Little Rock seemed almost tropical with the gorgeous flora and the humid warmth. I miss the drawl of the accents and the tall, tall pines swaying in the breeze. I miss having a Tropical Smoothie Cafe on every corner, and all the great parks dotted throughout town.

Little Rock is a great little city, but there are certainly a few things I don’t miss too, like the chaotic school districts, the cliques based on what neighborhood you live in, and the slowly vanishing sense of safety in various parts of the city.  The downside of the diversity is that there turned out to be fewer genuine people. And the pieces of southern culture I can do without include the “good ol boy” politics and incredibly slow customer service across the board.

6. The public school vs. public school quandary that is Little Rock

Turns out I did write a whole series on this one!  The first post in the four part series, called “On Education”, is here.

7. Describe your first job. How old were you? Do you think you will want your children to get a job at 16, focus on studies or will it depend on what type of person they are? How do you feel about allowances? Basically, what are your thoughts on responsibility and financial instruction with children?

I was 14 when I had my first summer job.  I worked in the restaurant at a local campground as basic kitchen help.  I did everything from scrub potatoes to serve drinks, bus tables, and clean up at the end of the night.  After I turned 16 and could drive, I always had a job, or two, or three.  At least, until age 29 when my second kiddo was born and I decided that two kids was the only job I could handle.  My kids are now 5 and 6. They do not earn allowances at this point, although they do have specific chores that are their responsibility.  They probably will get an allowance eventually, but honestly, we try to encourage them to realize that as a member of our family, contributing to the household is a mandatory requirement.  It’s not something “extra” that you get paid for, it’s about doing your part to earn your share of the things that we enjoy in our lives.

While Craig and I haven’t really discussed it, I’m more for paying out $$ for doing things that go above and beyond the standard duties of taking out the trash and keeping your room clean.  I do give the kids a penny for every piece of trash they pick up on the walk home from school. I want our children to understand that earning and having money is necessary and valuable, but that it doesn’t solve all your problems or have a direct bearing on happiness.

8.  Conscientious parenting vs. helicopter parenting – where is the line?

I think the line is different for everyone, depending on the parent’s own experience and upbringing and the type of kid they are dealing with.  If having two kids has taught me anything, it is that there is no one universal parenting style that works for every tot.  My own perception of my parenting style is that I am less helicopter and more “Free-Range” with my kids. But, perhaps there’s someone else out there who would cast me into the helicopter crowd without thinking twice.  My best hope is that when we do go over the line, it comes up and smacks us in the face quickly.  I see (what I consider to be) bad parenting habits manifesting in little people all the time, and I wonder about how much easier that entire family’s life would be if they were to make some adjustments.  I also constantly find myself questioning what adjustments I could make in my parenting practices to curb my own offspring’s bad behavior.

9. Things you have learned that help keep a marriage going strong

Hooray, I did write on this topic for you!  My post on Love and Marriage.

It’s interesting to read that post now, a year and a half later.  I am currently listening to the audio book of The Secret Lives of Wives by Iris Krasnow.  It is a collection of interviews that she has done with wives who have been married for 30 years or more.  To me, it feels like sitting in a circle of older women who are sharing their marriage experience as friends.  It is reassuring to be able to identify with different components of almost every woman’s story, and to garner all this incredible advice on how to make marriage last through the decades. Many of the main themes of the book are the points I touched on in my post, which makes me feel like I’m on the right track.  I’d also recommend Surrendering to Motherhood by the same author.

Thank you, Lucy, for being an honest and genuine friend, for reading my blog, and for always giving me important things to think about. I guess I need a new list now.  ~Fawn

Did you read all the great posts in the “Motherhood: A Day in the Life” series?  Here are links:

The Intro to the Series (by me, Fawn)

1. Karen from Ting’s Mom
2. Stephanie M from Evolved Mommy
3. Stephanie B from Park Wife
4. Shannon from NWA Motherlode
5. Holly from Simply Organized NWA
6. Julie from Connected Distractions
7. Jaqueline from JacquelineWolven.com
8. Sherry from A Modern Missouri Homesteader

I was so sad to see it end that I decided to not let it end! But, I need your help.  I would like to continue to run Day in the Life guest posts on a semi-regular basis for as long as I have folks that want to provide me with those posts.  So, if you’d like to let us in to your corner of the world, please let me know! You can email me at fawnwarner at gmail dot com or use the Instead of the Dishes contact form to send me a note.  I love these posts as a reader because I think it is so interesting to learn about and learn from others’ lives.  I love them as a writer because I think they make an interesting little self study.  I hope you’ll join in the fun, whether it’s words, photos, or some other sort of reflection on a day in your life (and no, you don’t have to be a mother!).

I hope you enjoyed all the awesome guest writers that came by to visit us last month!  Just in case you missed any of the fun, here is a quick round up of that fantastic posts and their authors:

The Most Popular Girl in the Frat House, from Tricia at The Southern Spark.

A Day in the Life of a Professional Organizer, from Holly at Simply Organized of NWA.

DIY I-SPY Craft, from Sarah at Our Daily Craft.

After School Snack: Banana Stacks, from Kristen at Ultimate Daniel Fast.

When 4×8= Frustration and Tears…, from Dan at Letters from Dan.

You CAN Make a Difference, from Carrie Hirmer

My First Spring Break with a Minivan, from Heather at Minivan Momma

Easter Craft: Tin Foil Easter Egg, from Deirdre at JDaniel4′sMom

Favorite Guacamole, from Brittany at Ramblings of a Little Wife

Talking to My Teenager, Kinda, from Angie at A Growing Season

5 Tips for Saving More at the Grocery Store from Renae at How to Have it All

A Peek at Easter from Nancy at There is Grace

I am a Kung Fu Master and Other Things to Avoid Saying When Applying for a Job, from Sarah at East 9th Street

And then we started our Day in the Life: Motherhood series!  Check out the posts above today – I’ll be doing a round-up of the Motherhood series tomorrow!

Across the Board, Wall-to-Wall and 24 hours with Teenagers!

I am pleased, happy, overwhelmed and completely blessed to be the mom of three boys, ages 15, 13 and 11.  I know that every family experiences the teenage years differently, as kids are different and family dynamics vary.  Even so, I think there are attributes among this age group that are universal.  It can be compared to a second bout of the terrible twos.

For both of my teenage boys, the change happened almost overnight as they turned 13.  They started getting smelly, sleeping late, and getting some pimples…ick.  The biggest bad thing about it is the attitude!  All I have to do is look at them and they say, “What?”, like you need to ask permission to look at them.  My once lovable cuddlebugs now cringe at the idea of mom giving them a hug.  It can become frustrating that activities that used to be fun, like hanging at the pool, is now “lame”.

Communication can be an issue. I think they actually strive to be uncomprehendable.   And, get ready for the most expensive years of your life:  Braces, lessons, clothes, a vehicle, food and lots of food, activities and education.  Letting go is hard, and trusting their judgement is hard.  They are learning independence, which is a really good thing. It is hard to give them more freedom to go with friends, friends that have drivers licenses.  A lot of the best lessons they learn are ones that come from mistakes and bad judgment.

Sounds depressing, doesn’t it?  There are some bright sides, and they are some really good bright sides!

They are growing!  Isn’t it always fun to watch something grow?  My 15 year old son, Noah, is already 5’8” tall…that’s three inches taller than me, and only three inches from being as tall as hubby!  It’s so neat to watch them turn into men, hearing their voices change and see boyish looks turn into manly features.  Another asset is that they are stronger!  Those chores that they always complained about, such as carrying in groceries, moving the laundry basket upstairs, or just carrying anything heavy is no longer a burden to them.  They might still complain, but its really not hard for them to do (and don’t let them tell you that it is!).  Teenagers, in theory, become more responsible.  There are places they want to go, things they want to do and people they want to meet.  This all is incentive to do what they need to do to keep mom and dad happy, and keep themselves out of trouble.  In the last year I have seen Noah become a gentleman, all those years of having to ask him to, “Please open the door,” or “Ladies first,” is finally paying off.  The thirteen year old, Caleb, has still yet to get on the other side of that, and the eleven year old, Nate, is still completely oblivious.  They are fun to talk to, too.  If they are in the mood for a real conversation, drop everything and engage in them.  They are still learning so much, even if they act like they know everything.  They still love and respect you, even if they wouldn’t say so, and they value your opinion and want to know your thoughts.

Some of the best conversations I have with Caleb is about apocalypse.  This is not my favorite subject, but, having all boys I have grown accustom to all kinds of boy topics.  If having deep discussion about what is the best weapon to have during a zombie apocalypse helps us bond and keeps us communicating, its darn well worth the trouble.  By the way, what would be worse, a zombie apocalypse, alien apocalypse or a robot apocalypse and why?

As I drove Noah to school the other day, we talked about things coming up, tests, grades and activities.  That can be an overwhelming conversation full of comments like, “why wasn’t I made aware of that?”, “Why did you not know that test was coming up?”, “Why didn’t you talk to your teacher about that?”, “I wish you would pay more attention.”  When I drove up to the school, our conversation had ended and without any thought I said goodbye and blurted out, “and I wish you would eat more!”  He looked at me kinda funny and got out of the jeep with his backpack.  We said, “bye,” and as he walked ahead he looked back and cracked a sideways smile at me.  As I pulled out of the parking lot, I shed a few tears.  Even though we are on totally different wavelengths, he gets me.  That little grin assured me that he knows I have to be “mom”.  That’s my job.  Our teenagers figuring it all out for themselves is their job.

Sherry Tucker keeps busy making custom cakes (check out SHERRYcakes on facebook) and gardening and homesteading, which she blogs about at Motherearthnews.com’s A Modern Missouri Homesteader. Sherry lives in Southwest Missouri with her family.  In her free time, she’s also a freelance Agricultural Writer!

It has taken me quite a while to realize that I am living the dream. Really! So many people are reading books and blogs about downsizing and living simpler and our family made that leap 10 years ago, before it was fashionable. We are trendsetters, risk takers or just plain crazy – you can decide for yourself.

10 years ago we took the risk of moving, sight unseen, to a little town in the Ozarks from San Francisco. I had been working for a big corporation running an art department and we were ready to get off the treadmill of working 70+ hours, paying ridiculous amount of rent to our landlord, and the crushing daily life of city living. We love San Francisco, but it was taking its toll on us.

So we took a leap of faith. I now craft my life, which is exactly what all those books and blogs are shouting about. Craft your own life, live simpler, have less, stuff doesn’t make you happy, on and on… that is how we live. I am a consultant to small businesses nationwide and a part time director of a Main Street program, my husband is an apprentice to a wood worker, and our daughter is in college. We live in a cottage on 13 acres of land, are constantly clearing out stuff to live a sparser more clutter free life, and schedule our days to be about less stress and more enjoyment.

My typical workday looks something like this:

7:14 – Zeppelin dog whispers at the side of my bed to go out. I let him out, feed him and the cats and go back to bed.

7:32 – Zeppelin wants back in. I get up, let him in, and go back to bed.

8:05 – I finally get up, I hate leaving the warm comfort of our king size bed covered in handmade quilts, make coffee using my hand crafted coffee maker from Paradise Pottery, shower, find something simple to eat and head to my studio. (I converted my daughter’s bedroom in our cottage to my studio when she left for college 4 years ago.)

8:30 – Sit (meditate) for 10 minutes, write for 10 minutes long hand, review my schedule for the day.

9:00 – 1:00 – Answer email, design projects, pay bills, drink coffee, eat almonds and apples, make phone calls, schedule appointments, make connections, get up a ton of times and wander outside, drink copious amounts of water and lemon slices out of mason jars, and finish the top three things on my list.

1:00 – Lunch with my husband, usually something simple from the night before.

1:20 – Back to work. Same as above but I have probably moved to the love seat in my office and am just answering email and writing for the rest of the day.

I am TOTALLY inspired by this quote: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.  If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle” – Steve Jobs

It is how I live each day. If I am not doing good work, I am not living up to my full potential. It drives me to seek simpler solutions, not invite the crazy into my life (you know, that friend that drives you nuts, the event you didn’t want to go to, or the project that has a nightmare committee), and create a life that has meaning.

4:45 – Walk/Jog into the 100-acre park that is adjacent to our property with my husband through the woods and to the dam. We usually see no one, our dog runs with us, and we can watch the seasons develop through the forest floor.

5:45 – Dinner with hubs. Usually something very simple like Super Salad, baked potatoes or salmon. I don’t over complicate food and just serve whole, fresh foods. I use almost no processed food and probably only spend 20 minutes cooking a night.

6:15 – Wash dishes, by hand, with my husband.

6:30 – Play catch – for Christmas he got me baseball mitts and gloves and we play in the yard. I don’t know why I like it so much, but we hang out and talk and catch the ball.

7:00 – Watch News Hour – I am totally an NPR and PBS junkie and love to watch the news on PBS. We don’t pay for cable and only have 10 channels anyway. I am trying to not watch as much TV, its a do nothing thing and things don’t get done when I do!

8:00 – Read blogs, write, schedule my next day, and listen to some favorite podcasts.

9:00 – Yoga stretch in the living room on my mat.

9:20 – Pick up any random things around the house. Fold clothes, or do whatever household chores need to be done. Since our house is pretty bare – just not a lot of stuff in it – it is easy to put things away where they need to be.

9:45 – Head to bed to read and snuggle. Depending on the book, I am usually conked out by 10:30.

Granted, I plan and work on over 100 projects a year – events, design projects, media events, websites, etc. and so this seems like I am not very frantic. I’m not because I can balance what I am doing with time for my family and me. It is so relaxed I sometimes wonder if we were to slow down any more if we would be dead.

I just don’t believe that “being busy”, buying more stuff, or doing more is what makes us happy. In fact, every single study says it doesn’t. Sure, I get stuck in that sometimes too, but mostly I just take a step back and get back into my groove and it has been a pretty amazing ride!

Jacqueline blogs at jacquelinewolven.com about working smarter and living simpler.  She lives with Greg her partner of 25 years, two cranky cats, and Zeppelin dog in a 115 year old cottage on 13 acres in the Ozarks. Her daughter, Paige, is learning to call the Hogs at UofA. Jacqueline is proud to say that has completely reclaimed her life to be on her own terms.  It isn’t about having more stuff, having fancy titles or living in big house – instead it is about living a life doing good work.  Do you want to take the leap? She can help email her at jacquelinewolven at gmail.com. She can also be found chattering on Twitter @jackiewolven.

T minus months to parental retirement

My alarm starts going off at 6:20AM. I really should get up then. If I did, my morning would be less hectic. But I never do.

I don’t have parenting duties in the morning like I used to have. My son is capable of getting up and getting out of the house on his own. Still, I usually make sure he’s out of bed by 7:05. Sometimes he’s glad because he’s fallen back asleep. Sometimes he’s irritated because he’s getting up to a second alarm at 7:08 and I interrupted those last few precious minutes.

Lately, I’ve been making his lunch. He doesn’t need me to do it, but he thanks me, and with just months left before he leaves for college, I take a great deal of joy in this simple act: bologna sandwich, fruit, bag of chips, a cookie… His lunch hasn’t changed much since I used to pack it for him in grade school and it’s a connection to his day that I’ve missed.

The students I work with are just slightly older than my son. In the fall, I teach a class to freshmen. This fall, in a classroom somewhere, someone will be talking to my son about study skills and campus resources. That seems really weird to me. The students I work with and teach have not aged since I started at MSU in 1996, but my son has gone from babyhood to adulthood in that time – he’s caught up with them.

At some point during the day, I will probably get a text from my son. These days, it’s usually something simple like “is there a clean work shirt somewhere?” but sometimes it’s a crisis of time management proportions. My son has a lot to balance. He works two jobs. He is playing tennis. He’s a main character in the spring play. He’s taking trigonometry. He has a girlfriend. He is the Assemblies Commissioner for his high school. He’s the president of a political debate club and an officer in FBLA. He likes to play video games. He has friends – lots of friends. He’s applying for scholarships – lots of scholarships. There are days when all this works nicely together, and all is well with the world. But sometimes it all hits at once and he can’t see how he can do everything he needs to do, and he needs help thinking through the options. Sometimes we fight on these days. I find that I get less upset over these fights than I used to. I’ve hit a Zen stage over the last few weeks, and I can see that he is just dealing with stress, not really yelling at me. I can pull back a little and watch him evaluate options. He is dealing with adult problems, and sometimes there really is no good answer. I have to watch him come up with an unsatisfactory, but workable, plan.

This is a special night – his homework is done and he does not have to be anywhere. I come home to cook for us and for his girlfriend. She’s pretty awesome and they seem to be good for each other. She’s been here with him for a while before I get home. That used to freak me out, and he used to have to ask permission for her to come over, but it really doesn’t bother me anymore, and he has stopped asking.

After dinner, I spend time on the internet. My son shares funny or interesting things with me, and that’s how I discovered Imgur, which now eats up some of my life. It gives me some cultural touch points that I need to communicate with our students. I should spend time cleaning house, and sometimes I do, but I’m a lousy housekeeper, and so sometimes I don’t. Tonight I remember to wash his work shirts, but the kitchen stays a mess.

Later, my son tells me about his day. He’s had a good day, and he’s looking forward to the upcoming weekend. It’s a short conversation, but very enjoyable. I am more aware of these moments lately. I know that these face to face chats at the end of the day don’t happen that often now, and will be gone forever next year. When I’m feeling sentimental, I think about the bedtime routine of his younger years, and I miss that. I loved those nights snuggled up with my son fresh from his bath (even the year that I read The Little Engine and the Big Race every single night), but I do love my time with him as he is now, all 6 feet 2 inches of him towering over me to give me a goodnight hug.

I spend an inordinate amount of time wondering about next year. Andy applied to 9 universities. He has been accepted to 5 of them so far. He is still waiting to hear from the top 4. {Editors Note: Between when Julie wrote this piece and now, when I am publishing it, Andy found out that he has been accepted with a full scholarship to YALE!!} No matter where he goes, my life as a parent will change dramatically. I teach freshmen every year – I know what’s coming. And yet I don’t know, because I’ve never been on the parent side, and I haven’t made choices about my daily life without considering someone else’s basic needs since 1995. What is that going to be like?

I always plan to be in bed by 10, but that often doesn’t happen. I generally can’t sleep until he’s home from work or from being out. I have at least reached the point of being able to go to bed on weekends if his girlfriend is still here, or if he is away at a friend’s house. On such occasions, our cat still looks at his room door as if she doesn’t quite approve before she follows me into my room for the night.

Tonight he goes to bed a long time before me while I am writing this blog entry. I will be tired tomorrow at 6:20AM.

Julie spends most of her time with people aged 18-22 and sometimes forgets how old she is. She loves the internet and maintains several Facebook pages, a couple of Twitter accounts, and is getting started with InstaGram. She also occasionally writes on her blog http://connecteddistractions.wordpress.com/ and has started 3 novels. She will need more friends to hang out with next year when her only son heads off to college. Follow her @JulieAH1983

It’s Friday.  The last “working” day of the week.  Every day is totally different for me.  Nothing is typical.  I am a wife of 20 years.  A Mom to 6 and 2 year old girls.  I am a Professional Organizer.  I am a consultant with Clever Container.  I am a consultant with Tastefully Simple.  I am an Experimental Collective leader at my church where I am on the oversight team.  And I am a data collector for UAMS.  The idea that I don’t “work” full time makes me laugh.

I am busy just like everyone else but my schedule is flexible and for that I am thankful.  In my previous life – before kids – I traveled the United States with my songwriter husband where I became a better back up singer, a better percussion player, and a great travel companion.  My husband is now a Middle School teacher.  Our lives have changed drastically in the past seven years.

One thing has not changed and that is my need for plenty of sleep and I am very slow to wake up.  Most of anything I attempt before 10 a.m. is shoddy work.  I am a bad communicator and can not remember anything.

My mornings begin with my husband making sure I truly am awake when he leaves at 7 a.m. because he knows me.  I put my slippers on along with a hoodie to make sure I am warm as I slowly walk to my 6 year old’s bedroom hoping she is already awake because she is much more pleasant if I don’t have to wake her up.  She is not.  I remember she came into my room crying last night, I don’t remember anything else except that I just scooted over to the middle of the bed and eventually asked her if she could go back to her room, or sleep in the playroom because I couldn’t sleep in the middle.  She is surprisingly decisive about breakfast and she is excited that today is Art and show and tell day.

It’s been an unusual day where I’ve hardly accomplished anything on my list, maybe nothing. And I have felt very unorganized. While this irritates me a little, I have had a day full of touching people’s lives and that is what is most important.

Holly is a mother of two young children, and a professional organizer in Northwest Arkansas. She actually gets a little giddy at the completion of an organizing project because she simply loves it. She is co-owner of Simply Organized custom designs organization solutions that work with your lifestyle and natural tendencies.  The team has been together since 2007.  You can also find Holly and Janet online at:

Website - OrganizeNWA.com
followFacebook - Facebook.com/SimplyOrganizedNWA
followFacebook - Facebook.com/CleverHolly

When Fawn first put out the Bat signal for “A Day in the Life” guest posts, I first thought about writing it from my 11-year-old daughter’s perspective.

She imagines I drop her off to school and then hurry back to my cozy kitchen – where the computer lives – and hang out all day, emptying the fridge of its contents and reading my blawgs (the modern day mom’s Days of Our Lives) until it’s time to pick her up from middle school at 2:45.

Well, not exactly.

Every day of my work week is different. It’s a crazy quilt patched together with multiple jobs and tasks that sometimes leave me feeling crazy. But I’m “working for myself” and love the flexibility.

I actually despise doing the same thing over and over. I don’t even like to watch the same movie twice. Or read the same book. With my work-from-home job as a website co-owner (and a couple other regular freelance gigs), I’m able to mix it up. If I need to leave for a chunk of the day for a book fair at my daughter’s school, I can finish my work after school or late at night. If I have work meetings during the day that eat up my writing time, the next day I make sure to schedule an I’m-not-leaving-the-house day so I can catch up.

The only catch? It all has to get finished. There’s no way around it. Although it definitely helps that I have a business partner (author extraordinaire Gwen Rockwood) and we have each other’s back.

Anyway, I thought: “What about A Day in the Life, as summed up in an actual week of my diary entries?” So, lacking any other ideas – and having an actual deadline – means that’s what I’m going with:

Monday: Crap. A meeting, first thing. I hate Monday meetings. That’s my day to savor the silence after the weekend and catch up on writing posts for my site, nwaMotherlode.com. That’s not happenin’ today. Chin up, girl! Time to put on your big girl panties, as we say around here. Oh wait. Double crap. This means I have to take a shower. And I already stretched it yesterday at church by liberally applying baby powder to my hair to soak up the grease. Not gonna work another day.

Back home, I have a freelance article due. Typity-type-type. Oh, and according to my to-do list, which I always update every night or I WILL forget something, I need to write some scripts for radio segments Gwen and I do every week at a local station. In between, I post on Motherlode’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

We didn’t get much sleep last night, so I keep dropping things and making stupid grammatical errors. I choose a winner for a giveaway we ran on Motherlode last week and let the mom know with the subject line “Great news from nwaMotherlode”. She’s ecstatic and I remember being the bearer of good giveaway news is one of my favorite parts of the job.

Now, it’s time to … CRAP!

Wait! 2:45 so soon?

Tuesday: Another meeting? Who put together this week’s schedule? Oh yeah, me. I definitely don’t have an assistant J The good news is my hair is clean. Gwen and I meet with someone who wants to talk about placing an ad on our site. When we leave the business, we decide it went well. Hurray for new advertisers! We decide to go eat lunch at our “office” (aka Marketplace in Springdale) and spend the entire time talking about work, making notes for things that will only lengthen our to-do lists and coming up with a new creative idea for the site that will take 5 extra hours of work a week. This energizes me. Let’s do it!

2:45, you’re killin’ me!

Wednesday: I’m drowning in meetings. Luckily, I’m back at my desk early enough to make some calls to potential sponsors of the Mom Prom our website is throwing on May 4 in Northwest Arkansas. More calls and finishing up some freelance work. I pop over to Facebook for some downtime and then wander around in Twitterland far too long.

Et tu, 2:45?

Thursday: My daughter wakes up feeling “woozy” and “headachy”. I try to talk her out of it: Let’s eat breakfast and see how you feel. You probably just need to use the bathroom. I feel woozy and headachy almost every morning, so you probably just didn’t get enough sleep.

Sick day! She soon starts an Animaniacs marathon. My daughter is recently addicted to this retro cartoon. In between work, I watch some Animaniacs, too, until I want to drop a large anvil on “the cute one”. To save my sanity, we get out the big box of art supplies and do some painting. I’m secretly glad she’s home. She’s been showing signs of being a t(ween)ager lately, but not today. We’re in sync. Mama and daughter, reunited on a school day. And a sick kid means any meetings are by phone today. Niiice.

2:45, you can kiss my grits. I don’t have anywhere to be.

Friday: My kiddo is better, healed by bland food, Wacko, Yakko and Dot, and a little downtime with mom. I charge full speed ahead writing posts, finishing freelance work and calling potential Mom Prom sponsors.

It’s a pretty day and I think about the “Fun Day Friday” tradition ahead. I am READY. My daughter and I always go eat ice cream after school on the last day of the week. Today we also plan to go shopping for some new school clothes and mama needs a few things for a blawg conference that’s coming up.

Come on, 2:45!

Shannon Magsam co-founded nwaMotherlode.com, a website catering to mothers in Northwest Arkansas, in April 2008. The site combines three of her passions: motherhood, writing and the Internet. She also moonlights as a freelance writer and PR specialist for a North West Arkansas firm. Shannon was previously a newspaper reporter covering a broad range of topics, including crime, courts, business, education and food. Shannon and her husband, John, enjoy life with their sweet/salty 11-year-old daughter. Email Shannon at smagsam@cox.net.