There are reasons for it. Some are obvious: it’s spring break, business keeps me busy, E is working a lot, blah blah blah. Maybe I should blame the fact that my only source of inspiration this week has been episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine. But there are other reasons, stuff I’m not quite ready to write about yet. At least, I assume these are all reasons. It could just be something that happens. I don’t know.
But I have several posts working with sponsors and reviewing stuff that need to go up soon but haven’t yet because I want to do my work well and I haven’t been able to.
So instead of trying to craft a post around some kind of theme or event I’m just going to write about random stuff.
Deal with it.
Tessa has started sleeping through the night. FINALLY. After 14 months of her insanity and several months of pregnancy insomnia, my body doesn’t know what to do with itself. A couple nights this week she woke up for a drink in the middle of the night and I could not get back to sleep afterwards even though I used to do it multiple times a night just a few weeks ago.
I have totally cheated when it comes to spring break. My last day is today. Tomorrow I’m going down to Philly with Charlene for Type A Advanced. I won’t get back until Sunday afternoon and Graham goes back to school on Monday. BAM. Killed it.
As today is my last day of spring break, we’re sitting around the house doing nothing. Graham is still in his pajamas. But hey, laundry is getting done. Dishes are getting washed. I got a shower. These are not guarantees, so I’m feeling okay.
I am the lamest cast member of Listen To Your Mother ever. I haven’t submitted anything that I’m supposed to. I haven’t made my final edit on my piece. I blame the funk. I took it upon myself to give myself some inspirational memes to help me get it together.
But I have to admit, I prefer this one:
That’s right. Instead of doing stuff, I make memes about how I’m not doing stuff. I have a problem.
Man, I could go for a nap.
Tonight I’m going to Taste of the Nation in cocktail party clothes to eat fantastic food and sample a wide variety of adult beverages. Hoping that and the Philly trip will be funk-breaking.
When you spend a lot of time online you inevitably run into stupid articles with stupid headlines about stupid issues trying to make them into something not-so-stupid for the sake of pageviews. Stuff like, “Is Email Dead?” Because no, it’s not. No matter how popular texting is. Don’t be stupid.
One issue that comes up a lot in the world of parenting online is toys and gender. There are people who take it too seriously. There are people who think it’s not worth talking about. But every parent has an opinion on it and it seems like there’s a new article going around every week.
Eric and I were talking about it recently. He’d read an article and was telling me how it fell into the Stupid category. I told him, “To an extent, I agree. Gender and toys isn’t an important issue the way economic policy is. But you never go to the toy store. You don’t know what it’s like there. Trust me.”
I doubt I convinced him but he didn’t argue with me.
And then he ended up needing to make a stop at the toy store. When he came home he admitted I’d been right. Nearly every aisle was pre-programmed as Girl or Boy. “I didn’t want to go down the pink aisle,” he admitted.
We’re lucky that Graham is too young to understand gender expectations. He likes what he likes. Cars, trucks and trains are big. He has stuffed animals. Recently two of his favorite shows to watch are Mater’s Tall Tales and Angelina Ballerina.
Sure, it’s not world peace. But I do worry about the society of the playground where kids get teased for liking the wrong toy or wearing the wrong clothes. The smaller toy stores are doing a better job of having toys of all kinds all together and avoiding brands that are pushing the gender issue too hard.
I’m hopeful Graham has inherited some of the “Whatever” attitude his parents have about such things. We weren’t exactly the kids on the playground who always had the right toy or the right clothes. And we didn’t really care much.
Maybe it’s not the most important battle I’ll fight as a parent, but I’m still putting some effort into it.
What about you? Do you think the boy/girl toy issue is something people make too much of or is it your rallying cry?
Ah, holiday cards. My relationship with them is a complicated one.
In 2009 with our new baby, we decided to join the masses and send out the obligatory photo card. I went through all our pictures. I put together the collage. I sent them out. And while this sounds like a simple undertaking, it most certainly was not. It took ages. And we only got a handful of cards ourselves despite the large number we ordered.
But, I assured myself, we didn’t send out cards just so we could get cards back. And since it was our first year doing it, we may not be on everyone’s list yet. Surely in 2010 we’d see an uptick.
So in 2010 I did the same thing. Once again, it took ages. And we still got only a small handful of cards. Not enough to fill a mantle. Not enough to bedeck our freezer. It was sad.
But again, I assured myself, you give to give, right? You don’t do it just to receive. And sure, holiday cards take time AND money, but it’s all about sharing the love, right?
So in 2011 I managed to score a significant discount from a giveaway that meant I could get our cards very cheap which meant only time. So I went through and put it together and the whole bit. And they never got sent. I’m not even sure we’ve thrown them out yet. Because it just wasn’t going to happen. December of 2011 was a stressful time for us and the cards didn’t come close to being a high priority and then January came and then Tessa was born and then it just seemed silly to send a holiday card without our new arrival. So they never got sent.
But I didn’t really mind because, again, we only got a small handful of cards. All from the same people who’d been sending us cards all along. And we enjoyed putting them on our fridge.
So here we are in 2012. And I’m not even going to try. I don’t have the time to throw a card together. And all of our friends and family who send us cards follow me on the blog or Facebook so they’ve seen the pictures already. And my work of sending them out hasn’t seemed to mean much so instead, I’m just going to do it here.
Ready?
Happy Holidays! From Us! Pick a picture of your choice!
Plus, this way I can write a little holiday letter, something I never got around to doing.
READY??
*ahem* I have to get myself into Brag-Mom mode…
*cough cough*
*clears throat*
It’s been a delightful year in the Severson family!
On Valentine’s Day we greeted our newest (and most likely last) member: Tessa Eir. (Eir rhymes with Fire. Tessa rhymes with Messa, which is what we frequently call her.) She arrived looking rather scrunched and grumpy and stayed that way for a few months.
Over the summer Eric began his fellowship at the hospital, which doesn’t actually mean his residency is finished because he’ll go back to it next summer, please don’t ask me to explain, I’m not sure it makes any sense.
Graham turned 3 and aged out of Early Intervention in July. In September he started K0, which is basically pre-pre-Kindergarten. His favorite part of school is Snack time. This is also his favorite part of home. If you don’t ask him to, he will sing The Wheels on the Bus for you, and if you’re lucky he’ll do the hand motions. He enjoys playing with trains and cars.
Tessa is now 10 months old and while she isn’t really walking or standing or properly crawling, she scoots her way around quite well. She has fuzzy hair that sticks straight up and lovely eyes that have been hazel for the last few months so we think that’s where they’re sticking. She has finally figured out how to eat. She enjoys playing with her brother’s trains and cars.
Jessica is currently wearing pajama pants and a maternity shirt, which is not that unusual of an outfit for her. No, she hasn’t really lost any baby weight yet. Yes, she is still blogging. (Obviously.) But she also started a Book Review site this year so she’s pretty stoked about that.
The family is enjoying Boston and hopes to travel as little as possible in 2013.
Best wishes to all of you and your families during whatever holidays you celebrate (or not).
Flu shots used to be easy. When I was a student I could get them at the student center. When I was married to a student, I could still get them at the student center. When I worked for the government and when I worked for a hospital, there were set days I could walk over and get a free flu shot in the middle of my work day. And at our old pediatrician’s office, they gave parents flu shots when they gave them to the kids.
But not anymore. Now my kids have their shots at their fall well-checks. And my husband still gets his from the hospital. But me? No such luck. Setting an appointment at my doctor’s office is a hassle. It should be quick, but so much of the time it’s not.
So when CVS offered me a voucher for a flu shot at Minute Clinic I figured I’d take them up on it to see if they could satisfy my need for speed. I’m out and about with kids. I don’t have the ability to wait around. Were they sure they could meet the needs of this busy mama?
CVS is my drugstore of choice. I am an ExtraBucks junkie. I was happy to give them a chance to impress me. And keep me safe from the flu. Have you HAD the flu recently? It is a lot worse than you think it’s going to be. I get my flu shot every year.
We’ve used Minute Clinic before. They’re a great resource when your doctor’s office is closed on the weekend but you don’t need Urgent Care or an ER. I went in for a strep test earlier this year on a Saturday. In fact, my only problem with Minute Clinic in the past has been that on weekends when I’ve visited they get busy. I’ve been known to get in line and then head over to Dunkin for some food to wait for my turn.
This was my first time using Minute Clinic on a regular day. But I was still nervous. Graham was already home from school. It was nearly 5 pm. And I was bringing my restless preschooler with me with only Thomas the Tank Engine to keep him occupied. It was risky.
When I got there, a woman was ahead of me filling in her information on the touch screen sign-in. But she was called in seconds after she finished. One nice thing about Minute Clinic is you can see where you are on the wait list. And this was a pleasant sight:
My kind of waiting list
I snapped a picture of Graham playing with his trains…
…and wasn’t even done instagramming it before I was called in.
The actual clinic is just like a doctor’s office, but without the table to lay on and no pesky paper robes. You’re not sitting in the middle of the store. It feels very sanitary and doctor-y. I was a little worried about Graham getting into cupboards and cabinets, but it all went by very quickly and he was pretty mesmerized by our nurse. Before we knew it, we were done.
Honestly, I was amazed at how quickly we were in and out. If you want a flu shot in a jif, this is a great way to do it.
Back in the car, Graham gave his review:
I will definitely be back next year.
Thanks to CVS Minute Clinic for giving me a voucher for a free flu shot. I was not compensated for this post and I was under no obligation to blog about it.
Something weird has happened. And no, not the hurricane. That’s all happening outside while I stay cozy in the house.
Instead, something weird has happened in my head.
When Eric and I have talked about our long-term plans we’ve always been on the same page. A lot of it would be out of our hands, but once we had control over where we could live again, we’d go to the midwest, closer to both of our families. We talked about somewhere with a lower cost of living, somewhere we could buy a big house, a nice place to raise the kids.
But something has happened.
I don’t want to leave Boston.
I love it here, y’all.
It’s a far cry from my first few months here, where I felt like everyone was rude and the city was impossible to drive in and getting around with a toddler made everything feel insurmountable.
Now I dream of moving farther into the city, getting a condo, taking the T everywhere, going to the theater, walking around town, sending the kids to Boston Latin School, having our groceries delivered… It’s a totally different vision of the future from the suburban one I’ve imagined before now.
It’s weird.
I moved around a lot as a kid. I’ve lived in 7 states and even more cities. I’ve always been looking forward to the next new place in my life. But as we’ve been talking about career plans recently, the thought of going somewhere else… it makes me feel really sad. I like the city a lot. I don’t even want to move out to the Boston suburbs. I want to stay in city limits. (Okay, maybe I’d allow Brookline or Cambridge.) I want to be in the thick of it.
I don’t know if this is out of a real love of Boston or because I’m feeling unsettled and so the thought of change is upsetting. Or maybe it’s because this is the place I’ve really been able to raise my kids and it feels alien to transfer that to a different location. But it’s also true that I love knowing my way around and feeling like I’m a part of the city here. I find new things out about it all the time that make me love it more.
I know that’s possible somewhere else. I’ve moved enough times to know that.
Is this just a being-an-adult thing? This sense that I don’t always have to look forward to the next place or the next thing or the next move?
Has anyone else unwittingly turned into a city person?
If you’re anything like me, you’re living your story every day all over the internet. You’re pinning, you’re facebooking, you’re finding great links, you’re taking pictures. And when you blog about what you love or just what you do, why not take advantage of all the work you’ve already done finding quality content to tell your story?
Luckily there are some great tools out there to keep your blogs full of visual punch so you can tell a story to your readers that keeps them interested and engaged. I’ve been using a bunch of them and I thought I’d share them with you.
When you just want to use one or two things from here or there, you have a lot to choose from.
Twitter
Spend a lot of time on Twitter? Tell the story on your blog, too, by embedding a tweet.
I hate having to buy baby clothes. But it's okay because OMG adorbz baby clothes!!
I use the WP plugin Blackbird Pie, but WP lets you just paste the tweet link in. (I use the plugin as it tends to be more reliable than Twitter.) Twitter makes it quite easy these days, as once you’ve isolated your tweet (just click on the timestamp in the upper right corner) it now has a handy dandy “Embed this Tweet” button that can give you the HTML, shortcode or just the link itself.
There is one rather big problem with this approach. About 50% of the time, I don’t see my tweet but just see some lovely text saying “There was a problem connecting to Twitter.” Maybe you’re seeing it now! There are some other tools you can use that help you avoid this problem. We’ll get to them later…
It’s also pretty easy to embed pins from Pinterest. This can be a great way to add pictures to your blog. I used embedded pins for my recent Macy’s post. It made it super easy to find a great item, pin it, and then have it saved in a pinterest board. To embed a pin, just click the pin, and then use the “embed” button on the right to get the html. Remember, when you get html code, you have to use the html builder section to paste it or it won’t work.
A blog post with a corresponding Pinterest board can be a great way to recap an event or post on a theme. It was great to recap awesome stuff I found at Drool Baby Expo and BlogHer12.
Pics: Instagram, Facebook and Screenshots
When it comes to Instagram, I’m using a plugin (Instapress) so I can add my instagram pics to my blog more easily. Instagram can be kind of a pain to work with since you can’t just access a feed of all your pictures online. I hear they’re working on this, and hopefully it’ll be easier soon. For now even Instapress requires a link to embed your pic and getting that link is a bit of a hassle. (If anyone has an easy shortcut for this, I’d love to hear it.
Facebook is really hard to embed. In fact, I don’t have any idea how. Which is why sometimes it’s easier to use a whole different technique to tell your story with social media. Instead of taking the time to add one thing here, use this plugin, add that link there, you can consolidate with some great new storytelling services.
One way to get around any issue you have with online stuff is to use a snapshot from your computer. I have an Aviary plugin on my Chrome browser so I can snap, crop and paste anything on my screen.
Britely
Britely is one great option if you have a really visual story to tell.
Here is a Brite I made about how to use Britely. (Meta, right?)
It’s a flip-book, so it doesn’t take up a ton of space on your blog. Just hit the little arrows at the bottom to go forward and back. Looks pretty snazzy, right?
There are a few things to keep in mind with Britely.
There are lots of potential issues for mis-use of pictures and violation of copyright. This is a problem with Pinterest, too. No one’s quite sure how to go about it yet, so be cautious.
It doesn’t play well with Flickr, which can be frustrating since that’s where I search for post-friendly photos that allow you to post with attribution. I’ve also had trouble getting things like FB albums to load when I go back and edit a brite.
A place to paste in a photo link is sorely needed, so you can use a photo without having to download and then upload it.
This is a very visual medium, so it doesn’t allow much text. If you’ve got something short and simple, Britely is a great place for you to go. If you’ve got more to say, consider something else.
Britely embeds nicely with the Britely plugin for WordPress. It’s visible on your page, and people viewing it on your page will show up as a view on the Britely main page.
Oh, and Britely is giving away $1000 a week for great brites. (I was a finalist last week for my Whole Foods Flagship tour.)
Britely is quite new, so I know they’re working on getting the bugs out and making it even better. But it’s a very user-friendly interface.
Storify
If you need more words to tell your story, I recommend Storify.
I’ve used this a bunch of times. It’s perhaps the easiest way to embed Twitter and FB stuff. It’s how I do My Week in Tweets columns. I use it a ton as I tend to be rather on the wordy side. It also allows me a lot of variety when I want to use all kinds of social media. Pictures, tweets, videos, links, etc.
This is the Storify interface. Your blank story is on the left, and all your tools are on the right. As you can see, you can access Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Youtube and just plain old links. There isn’t a Pinterest menu, but you can always just put the link to your pin in and that works just fine.
Pulled up in my interface in this pic is my “storypad,” which is kind of like a clipboard. You can add a little Bookmarklet to your toolbar in your browser to add items. Or if you use Chrome, like me, there’s an Extension. I LOVE the extension. Here’s a look at how it works for me in FB.
See at the very bottom? Right next to your usual “Like Comment Share” there’s an extra “Storify” button. When I click that, it adds it to my storypad. The storypad is useful because there are some hiccups with Storify, too. You can search Flickr, but can’t isolate your search to images that are re-post-able. And you can’t get into your user pics in Instagram, just a search function. Still, if you have the link you’re all set.
Storify’s interface is drag-and-drop, which is very useful. You can add text above, below or in between your other stuff. And Storify also has a WP plugin so you can easily add a Story to a post.
Just keep in mind, Storify has a format for everything you add to your story, so it isn’t going to be as slick and lovely as a Brite. Here you can see a pic I added from a website and a link I added to Boston Parent Bloggers. I didn’t really have a way to make these look prettier.
There’s also no text options I’ve found, so you won’t be able to make prettier fonts.
Still, I think Storify is my favorite way to aggregate all my online stuff into one simple place where it’s easy to read and easy for people to access links.
Did you miss my live-tweeting from Library Movie Day? Let me fill you in with a Storify story…
75 preschoolers, 10 adults. You do the math.
This certainly doesn’t cover everything. I didn’t even touch on video, like YouTube or Vimeo. But it’s a good start. You live your life all over the internet, why not bring it all into your blog?
Any other plugins you love? What tools help you tell your story?
