observations.

I'm not good at combining blogging and working 40 hours a week.  I know.  I keep thinking my family deserves that extra time in the day.

Also, making lunches for my kids to take to school.  Shah!  I can't get that together more than twice a week.  I ought to have a routine developed by now to factor that in.  Unfortunately my routine seems to be:

1. get up
2. shower
3. get dressed
4. wake the kids up
5. start breakfast
6. rewake the kids up
7. finish breakfast
8. really yell at the child that is still not up
9. start some aspect of lunches
10. realize I still haven't done my hair or makeup
11. get the kids to finish breakfast and start brushing teeth, getting shoes and socks, gathering things for their backpacks that should have been put away last night
12. realize there is no time to finish making lunches, aw crap, it's another buying day kids!
13. grab a granola bar for my own breakfast and rush everyone out the door.

...But other than that working seems to be going pretty well.  For those of you who've asked.  Thanks for asking.  We're adapting pretty well.  15 minutes more in the morning and the time to fold the laundry, and not having to go to the grocery store with the masses, oh and taking down the Christmas decorations, which obviously is not something that needs to be worked into my every day schedule, and not much has changed.  Which forces me to accept that a good portion of my time was not exceptionally well spent. 

Frankly  my house should be much better organized. 

But I'm much better about recognizing my faults than doing anything about them it appears.

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All Grant wants for his birthday is a planet.  I was thinking this was going to have to be something between him and God, but then I realized all I have to do is point out the brightest star on his birthday and voila!  "There you go son, that one's yours."  Sweet. 

Perhaps I should point out the midrange bright ones, because the chances of us ever exploring those at least in his lifetime are fairly remote.  He can live happy in the lie that he owns that planet over there...somewhere...

Oh I should say, all he wants for his birthday is a planet and a bike.  Do you think the pointing out a bike somewhere in the cosmos thing would work for this too?  Because if we can figure that out, I am set.

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Speaking of birthdays, you're right Jon had a birthday.  What a bad mommy I am to not even mention it.  To you, I mean.  I totally mentioned it and more to him.  Just in case you are wondering.

  

               

(clickity to biggify)

I think it's fairly apparent I need to learn how to hold my camera in the horizontal position.

In spite of that, we had fun.  He had a Mario Party.  And Mom even played video games.  I'm not sure my children fully appreciated the sacrifice as my scores didn't really contribute to our chances of beating the evil Wario team. 

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So, I've been drawn into Facebook.

It's fun and I don't have to really think too much to post.  An obvious plus.  I don't think much before I post around here come to think of it.  But you didn't have to mention it.

But I see some drawbacks.

Pardon me if I complain...too much.

I don't want to build castles in the digital world.  I don't want a plant for my green patch to solve global warming.  I don't want to become fans of everything in the universe.  If I really am such a fan, you'll know about it from the things I actually speak to you about.  And it may be mean to mention it, but I'm not sure I want to be Friends with everyone I used to know in High school and everywhere else.  I mean if we were such good friends, wouldn't we have stayed in contact? 

I miss the good old days where you would happen to meet some one you used to know, you get that chance to say, "HEY!  How are you?"  You'd find out what they are doing, if they have kids, married, career...and then, here's the part I miss, you'd go on with your every day life and they'd go on with theirs.  If you really wanted to you could exchange phone numbers or email addresses and then if you were really actually friends with that person you'd stay in contact after this chance meeting.  But if you weren't, not much would change.  You'd have had an enjoyable 15 - 30 minute conversation and then your obligation was over.

ahhhh...over...

But now we have Facebook.  And the days of the unending obligations begin. 

Do I really want to know that Person A, that I didn't care enough about to know much about for the last 20 years, is: looking for love in all the wrong places.  Or some such thing.

Tomorrow, Person A is: wondering whether or not to buy that new album.

In 2 days: Person A is....killing me softly with his endless Facebooking comments that I care nothing about!!!!  Aghhhh.

I'm trying to be discriminating in who I befriend in the Facebook world, but I worry about the possible ramifications of nonfriending someone who asks.  Will they, for example, think I am a snobby stuck up pig if I never respond to their friendliness.  Will it get ugly?  Will my lack of friendly contact cause them to spiral into a cycle of despair and depression?  Is Facebook their only source for companionship? Do I want that on my already over burdened conscience?

Do I care?

And what if I Un-friend them after I friend them because they are clogging up my Home page and causing me to miss things from people I actually am Friends?

These are dilemmas for which I have no real answers. 

Comments

[Millie]

The work schedule would bother me greatly. Even if I went out and got a job after Roz was in first grade (not even going to bother while she's in kindergarten), the kind of job I would want would have to fit within the hours of 10 and 2, not be too far away, would have to understand if I needed to stay home and catch up the laundry... and I fear there is no such job in the universe. I wish good things for you and your schedule.

Happy Birthday Jon! (again) ;)

And I can't tell you how happy I am that you're on FB. It's so fun seeing you there. I agree that the stupid applications are so not worth anyone's time. I block them all. I don't think people know if you don't accept their garbage. I mean, gestures.

You can "turn up" some people's updates and "turn down" others'. I really think some people believe that having 500 friends is some kind of badge of honor. There are only about twenty people from HS that I care about. The nice thing about FB is that you had guy friends, but now you're married and they're all married, it gives you a nice way of catching up with them without stalking them and scaring their wives. :)

[Kat]

I completely agree about FB... I don't want to be friends with a lot of people - it's really a way to share digital photos with people and such without having to make a commitment of a blog... But, I don't want to be a snob and block out "my boyfriend's best co-worker friend's husband"... Who's a real creep and makes really inane updates. So, I need to find out how to turn up and turn down updates. Some folks, I really couldn't care less. I'm impressed that Millie actually has 20 people about whom she'd care from High School... :)

[Sketchy]

I'm just hoping I'm one of the twenty. I think I must be, but still these are the insecurities that drive me.

[Brooke]

I have the same issues with facebook, except I have found people that I do care about and seem to have lost them since our days at college, and it was really fun to find them again. Other than that, I am totally with you on facebook!

And I think if you just tell grant that the bike is waiting for him on his planet, your good! Happy birthday, Jon and grant.

[Kat]

I think I missed something the first time... Did you wrap up ZipLoc bags for your son's birthday present??? Is that what I saw??? That's like my sister wrapping Cap't Crunch and putting it under the tree...

[Sketchy]

It wasn't me. It was a progression shot...the next shot shows the glee. Grandpa and Grandma used a ziploc box to send their present in.

I totally set up that shot, by the way, Dad and Kate. He wasn't nearly as concerned with the outer box situation. It was an obedient child humoring his mother's photography needs. ...just in case you were concerned.

[Millie]

Sketch, of course you're one of the twenty. You didn't really think you weren't, did you? :(

There's also a spot on FB where you can make a list of people you don't want to hear about AT ALL and it will block their stuff. Or make a list of the only people you do want to hear from.

*sounding like a FB geek*

[Handiemom]

I too have recently discovered Facebook but feel there are much more positives than negatives. I am one who gets the phone number but never calls and then the person moves away and I lose all contact together. I've had fun reconnecting with people that I have always cared about, but not been a good enough friend to stay in contact with them. I've been amazed by the number of people who are on FB and like that you can accept a person or not so that you know who is looking at all of your personal stuff. That is my dilemna with blogging or Myspace. I don't want some creep knowing too much about me. And I would feel comfortable for my teenager to use FB as long as I was their "Friend" and could see what was going on. (I do hate using the "Friend" term -- it is so teenagery.)

On the flip side, I do need to figure out the notification thing Millie mentioned. And I am spending more time on it than my hubby would like. My dishes aren't even done yet this AM and I have a dishwasher. It would take me like 10 minutes or something.

Happy BD Jon! Love the pics! And I'm glad you didn't get a Ziploc box for a present.

[Sue]

Good to hear from you Shelly!

Happy Birthday Jon! Loved the photos.

Here's a simple suggestion for the lunch situation that I used to use: make all the sandwiches over the weekend and freeze them. Put all other lunch items in a special bin in the frig or a box in the food cupboard. After breakfast, each child makes his/her own lunch and you're done! It takes some getting used to but we did that for years with a LOT of success!
Sue

[Rhonda]

OMG...you are like a mindreader. I was JUST emailing another person to tell them I am not getting on Facebook for all of those reasons you just mentioned. Thank goodness I am not the only person that feels this way!