Wordless Wednesday: Vacation Time!

I arrived in New Jersey for 2 weeks yesterday with my awesome little sister and stepmom. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from our trip last summer, enjoy!

To see more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here.

Come see me at Casa Barking Mad!

Psssst. You. Hey you there... I'm not here today. Why? Because something exciting and big is happening. I am visiting and guest posting over at Barking Mad. Come see me there. Stay a while. Put up your feet. I'll be back tomorrow.

Help Wanted: Got a click for your fellow bloggers?

Kristin over at Motherhood Uncensored had an idea. A pretty great idea if you ask me. So, I'm jumping in to support August as Blog the Recession month! She said it best herself:

"The premise is simple. If you read blogs, then for the month of August, make the "pledge" to click through from your feed reader. No obligation to leave a hilarious comment or send a long stalkerish email (although both, within reason, are always lovely). Just click through to the blog (not on ads unless you are so led) and if you're feeling generous, click around to their older posts.

Just those extra page views can make a big difference for bloggers who could really use the help, or in my case, where page views don't matter so much, a big fat ego boost."

I'm in the same boat as Kristin - the clicks will just make me feel super warm fuzzy good. But for some people extra clicks might help them buy their gas for the month or pay their bills. Let's all use our clicker this month and support each other! You might even get some pleasant surprises, like maybe your favorite blog got a makeover. Maybe you forgot what someone's blog even looked like because you haven't been there in a while, and you can enjoy the prettiness. Maybe you'll discover some cool new blogs by going to the Blog the Recession participants list (because you needed just a few more in your feed reader, right?).

I could say something more clever, but instead I say - go, begin to click!

Join us!

Banana Mondays: My child, my teacher

This week we'll be writing about things we've learned from our dear little daughters and sons.

1. Ice cream always tastes better when shared with a two year old, especially when it's chocolate and leaves a chocolate moustache.

2. Accomplishments are all relative - sometimes it feels like more of a success when your kid goes down to bed easily or finally repeats a word than it did when you graduated from college.

3. It is possible to have more working knowledge of a foreign language by watching children's TV than remains from the 2.5 years of language you took in high school/college. Yum, yum, yum, yum - deliciouso!

4. There is no more joyous sound in the world than your own child's laughter, coming from their big, goofy, grinning toddler mouth.

5. That place where socks disappear when you think they're in the drier isn't limited to socks. It also houses pacifiers and sippy cups.

6. Sometimes it's the simple things - a yard full of toys can't compare to the bag of gravel Grandma bought at the hardware store when it comes to fun.

7. Being dirty isn't always easier, but it's almost always MORE FUN!

8. The look on a two year old's face when they see a slug for the first time then pick it up, drop it and realize there is slime all over their hand? Priceless.

9. Almost anything can be used as a drum if you try hard enough.

10. A heart can be broken a thousand times and mended by pride and love every time. And it's worth it.

To read more life lessons, head over to Absolutely Bananas!

Saturday Share

Thank goodness the weekend is here! As you may have noticed, I've decided to make Saturday Share a regular feature - sharing my favorite blog posts and internet discoveries for the last week. While you enjoy these fabulous pieces of writing, I will be throwing a wedding shower for my friend Sati!

• Rebecca over at Girl's Gone Child has (another) amazing post about motherhood and losing our babies as they enter childhood.
• Crystal over at Boobs, Injuries & Dr. Pepper has some happy news. You might as well start reading now, because you'll all be reading her book later if I have anything to say about it!
• Heather at The Queen of Shake-Shake ponders a question we all face someday - what do we do now that our kids don't need us as much?
• Y at Joy Unexpected reminds us all how scary life can be out of the blue.
• Casey at moosh in indy tackles two difficult subjects that are close to my heart.
• Visit Oh, the Joys for a touching story about black & white.
• Miss Zoot at zoot gives us the courage to admit that we don't ACTUALLY hover.
• Black Hockey Jesus at The Wind in Your Vagina reminds us how wonderful silent love can be.
• Jen at Absolutely Bananas will make you cry if you're not careful.
• To end on a funny note, Danny at Dad's Gone Mad thinks he has a GREAT idea for feeding shrimp to his kids...

Have a great weekend!

Amazing Love

I read on mothergoosemouse today that Midwestern Mommy just found out she has cancer. It's easy to get lost in this big wide internet. To read funny stories, think about trolls and people's nightmare neighbors and what movies people are watching. But then there are posts like these, ones that keep me grounded and remind me how little I have to worry about, how lucky I am. It's times like these when I know what I want to do with my prayers. So I headed over to Midwestern Mommy to leave a kind word. I made it through her whole post without crying. Until I got to the bottom. That's where I saw that there were 375 comments on this one post, on her announcement about her scary diagnosis. I am willing to venture that over three hundred of these were from TOTAL STRANGERS. Total strangers giving hugs, prayers, well wishes, love with all of their hearts. I added my own well wishes and prayers through tears. What an amazing world. I feel privileged to be part of this kind of a community. I can only hope that I have that much support the next time something so scary happens to me.

Yesterday, Midwestern Mommy posted an update that she may not have cancer. Hopefully, she doesn't. Her chances look good from what I've read. I'll still be rooting for her to get more good news.

Haiku Friday: A Burning Mess

Last night, finally
Went to see Mamma Mia
What the hell was that?

I will be posting
Full review on Monday
But needed to say

Something, could not wait
All weekend because I can't
Stop thinking of it

Wanted to like it so
badly, but felt like I might
Have been slipped acid

It was not all bad
Only eighty percent bad
Well, Pierce was still hot

I went with Violet last night to see Mamma Mia. I have been looking forward to seeing this for MONTHS. I never got to see it on stage because when it finally came to Seattle I had conflicts and it was only here for a couple of nights. I wish I had been able to because then I could compare the burning mess that was the movie to the show, which was supposed to be so good. I will post a full review with my Movie Monday post next week, but I seriously can't stop thinking about this movie and wondering how it managed to exist, so I had to post something today.

Have a good weekend, and if you want to go to the movies, see Step Brothers instead - it was freaking hilarious, and you get to hear Mary Steenburgen say "What the fucking fuck?" while obviously trying not to bust a gut watching Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly fight, which is pretty much worth the price of admission.

For more haikus, click here!