All That Art: An AboutOne Miracle
Pile O' Art
See that, up there?
It’s a little glimpse into my personal shame. My child’s lovingly created art is all stashed in a pile, inside one of our kitchen cabinets.
Alright, alright. I’m not being 100% honest. The truth of the matter is that H is not much of an art guy, and very little of what he brings home falls into the category of lovingly created. He occasionally brings home a piece he’s especially proud of, but mostly he hands it to me and says something along the lines of, “We made that today. Put it with the rest of my stuff.” And he never mentions it again.
The thing is, though, I’m the mama. I’m supposed to ooh and ahh (and I do, I promise) and frame it, display it, show it to unsuspecting visitors to our home. And then? I’m supposed to scrapbook it and preserve it for ever more.
Shame, I tell you.
I’m not a saver. I’m the anti-hoarder. If something doesn’t have a logical home, I trash it or donate it.
Except for the art. And a bunch of broken lift-the-flap and pop-up books that I keep saying I’m going to repair. Oh, and my cache of picture frames and pictures that I swear I’m going to turn into a gallery wall. Except for those things, I’m an anti-hoarder.
My natural tendency is to trash this preschool art. I squash that tendency, and I stash it instead. I stash it with good intentions to lovingly preserve it, so I can prove to my adult children that I was a suitable mother. When they’re in therapy, trying to pin it all on me, I can whip out my scrapbook-o-art and say, “See! I saved it all, even this one that looks like a butt or two loaves of bread? What is this?”
Up until now I’ve photographed H’s art a couple times each year. I lay it all out, take a picture, and then trash all but a few extra special pieces. The photos are saved in my computer files, mocking me for not being a scrapbooking mama.
Enter, AboutOne, my new best friend. AboutOne is a one-stop shop for organizing your family. It’s a way to save all of your important data and memories. I am in love with this concept, and therefore pretty darn excited to be an AboutOne Mom Panelist. Over the next year, as part of my panelist role, I will be telling you about all the ways AboutOne is making me more organized. And we will start with: Art.
I mean really, for a formerly-extremely-organized-Type-A-neat-freak-turned-frazzled-mother, this product is a dream. Even if you never were neurotic, even if you never dreamed of Martha Stewart levels of organization, even if you’re a slob at heart, you can still fall in love with AboutOne.
The moral here? Don’t tune out on these posts just because you’re either:
A) Super organized already or
B) Uninterested in becoming organized.
If nothing else, you’re going to get some glimpses into my secret disorderedness. Who doesn’t love to snoop?
As for my art project, I have whittled that obnoxious pile down to this:
Post-Whittle
Next up, I’m going to add it all to H’s file on AboutOne and create scrapbook pages. Me. Scrapbook pages. Whhheeee. I’m going to win some major mom points. Granted, I have sons, who may never look at these pages. Perhaps their wives or children will care? Someone, someday will care. Even if it’s just me, in my addled years, looking back over their sweet, tiny hand prints and stick figure drawings of our family.
Sniff.
Thank you AboutOne, for helping me make this happen. Finally.
I wonder…
:: How do you preserve the bazillions of pieces of precious art that come home from preschool?
:: Do you have aspirations for your family, for your organization, that you just can’t achieve? Why?
:: Have you ever visited the AboutOne site? How do you think it would be useful for getting your family organized?
DON’T GO YET!
Sorry for shouting, but I have a little something more for today. It’s Blogroll Schmogroll day, people.
Since it’s an all about AboutOne kind of day, I’m doing an AboutOne-themed Blogroll Schmogroll. Please go meet the other mom panelists: The Mom Panelists.
And be sure to check out the AboutOne blog, too.
Now you may go. Enjoy your day.
read moreThanksgiving: Blogroll Schmogroll
Blogroll Schmogroll almost got lost in the Thanksgiving hullabaloo this month.
Speaking of hullabaloo, my four year old insists that it’s hangamaroo. Not hullabaloo. He refuses to accept that I might – just might – know what I’m talking about. Am I in for it when he’s 13 or what?
I’ll be MIA for the next few days, taking some family time and unplugging. In the mean time, check out a few blogs that always leave me feeling thankful (bet you didn’t see that theme coming, did you?):
:: Coming Clean: Confessions of an Imperfect Parent
:: Graceful: Faith in the Every Day
read moreBloggy Boot Camp Edition: Blogroll Schmogroll
Liar! Liar!
That’s what I imagine you’re all thinking, because I know that you hang on my every word {sarcasm button would be so nice} and last month I said this would be an Austin-based bloggers edition. And now? Now I’m doing a Bloggy Boot Camp edition.
After going to BBC last weekend, I realized I should sieze that moment. If it makes you feel any better, a lot of Austin-based bloggers are on this list. The rest will be featured another time.
I know you are flexible. I know you can roll with it.
The following list includes a few people I may have mentioned before, and a whole host of new friends. I’m only including people I got to talk to for more than 32 seconds.
If you don’t see your name on this list and we did, in fact, have a real, live conversation, please let me know – I didn’t leave you off on purpose. Promise. I just happen to be writing this while keeping a toddler from harming himself or my home… I may make an error or two.
Let’s get to it!
:: Bethany Anna
:: Eat. Live. Laugh. and sometimes shop!
:: Mommy Moxie
:: Quirky Momma
:: Who Put Me In Charge of These People???
read moreSeptember Edition: Blogroll Schmogroll
Welcome to the second installment of Blogroll Schmogroll.
The good news (or bad news, if you hate this feature) – Blogroll Schmogroll has the potential to be the world’s longest running feature. There’s a never ending supply of fun reads from which to choose. I have a very, very long master list of blogs that will occupy this space at some point in the future.
That leads me to a few pieces of business before we get to the fun stuff:
1. If you want to be featured here, please let me know.
2. Several people have mentioned that they are struggling with how to manage their blogrolls. Would you be interested in doing your own Blogroll Schmogroll and linking up for a monthly blog hop? If there’s enough interest, I’ll put a link up next month. Let me know if you would participate.
3. A little preview for next month: I’ll be featuring Austin-area bloggers. I don’t want to miss anyone! If you are an Austin-area blogger, or if you know of one you love, please send me a link. Thanks!
And with that, here are some blogs you should visit. First, a few new friends. I just (virtually) met these bloggers, and think you should get to know them, too. Rather than tell you why to visit, I’m asking you to take my word for it (would I mislead you?). Click, read, follow:
This next group is not getting its first Wonder, Friend shout out. Chances are you have seen them referenced here recently when I wrote my Word Up YO! posts, but I’m giving you the links one more time just in case you missed them before. The women behind these three blogs are the brains behind Word Up YO!:
:: A Belle, A Bean, A Chicago Dog
:: Mommy of a Monster (I Mean Toddler) & Infant Twins
read moreBlogroll Schmogroll
You may have noticed that I don’t have a Blogroll. (What?! You haven’t read every page of this blog? Oh, okay. Neither have I.)
The thing is, I put off creating a blogroll because I know it will become a maintenance nightmare. Twenty years from now I’ll still have the original list, sitting there on its lonely page, unread. Yes, I plan to blog forever, baby.
Instead of creating another maintenance item for myself – and another never-gonna-read blog page for you – I decided that one Wednesday each month I will replace Wonder Why Wednesday with… Blogroll Schmogroll, a short list of blogs I think you should visit. Each month I’ll highlight two or three people who make me laugh, think and, on occasion, cry.
You can then add my favorites to your reader, subscribe to their email newsletter and follow them on Twitter. You, too, will have the opportunity to smack your head daily, thinking I need more time to read these blogs. They’re all so good. Damn Missy for getting me hooked on more blogs. Or something like that.
Look for Blogroll Schmogroll on the last Wednesday of every month, starting… today!
But before we begin, some minor housekeeping… I know, I know, always killing the fun by bringing up housekeeping.
These monthly lists are, in no way, comprehensive or conclusive, meaning:
When I say Here are blogs that make me laugh, I do not mean that these are the only blogs that make me laugh. If I say This blog is always smart and thoughtful, that does not mean that there aren’t many more smart, thoughtful blogs out there.
If you know for a fact that I read your blog all the time, but you haven’t been featured on Blogroll Schmogroll yet, please don’t be offended. Your day is coming, I promise. My Google Reader and my in box are full – FULL, I tell you – of blogs I read daily (or as frequently as possible), and I’m not going through the list alphabetically or anything. Blogroll Schmogroll will be a bit more random. Have patience. You know I love you.
So let’s begin.
As of this writing I am wrapping up one of those days. The kids were maniacs, and it so happens that I also had almost no Mama Patience today. I was blessed with a teeny, tiny portion of Mama Patience to begin with. If my tolerance levels drop at all this household immediately hits an orange, teetering on red, threat level.
Then, when dumping pasta into a colander, boiling water splashed over the side of the sink. The tidal of wave of super-hot liquid landed on me. I feel like a tool and I now have a second degree (maybe 1.5 degree?) burn near my belly button. To add insult to injury, I broke a fingernail while stain treating P’s three-billionth stained shirt of the day. I know, this is tragic stuff.
I feel the need for a laugh.
And when I want to laugh, these are three of my go-to ladies:
:: Alabaster Cow – Ericka is smart, funny, and her breasts nearly exploded in her face earlier this week. She’s irreverent in all the right ways.
:: Good Day, Regular People – The Empress is writing a series called When Someone You Love Has a Blog. It’s a must read.
:: Kelley’s Break Room – Kelley hosts a little game called Captcha Balderdash, where readers make up definitions to the captcha words used for authenticating comments and such. Go play!
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