I Feel So Popular!

Emms over at 3hearts2hold1love invited me to participate in the 7 Links challenge.

THE GOAL
To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long gone, but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

THE RULES
1) Blogger is nominated to take part.

2) Blogger publishes his/her 7 links on his/her blog – 1 link for each category.

3) Blogger nominates up to 5 more bloggers to take part.  (I will just say straight out that Bossy Betty would be on my list of nominees, but she refuses to participate in such frivolity.  I, on the other hand started smiling and waving to the crowd Mad and Fynn as though I just won Miss America as soon as I saw that Emms nominated me.  I would also include Heather at The Baby Sucks, but her blogs is mainly in pictures, not words.)

4) These bloggers publish their 7 links and nominate another 5 more bloggers.

5) And so it goes on!

6) We’ll be sharing the best posts from participating bloggers on our blog and everyday on Facebook and Twitter at #My7Links

Most Beautiful 
Although I'm still slightly irked at how some of the photos look washed out on this post, I love it.  It's my first and still only Christmas Letter.
Most Popular 
Fynn's Birth Story, As Told By Mama   
Most Controversial
This post didn't inspire any negative remarks, but it certainly could have.  It was just over two years later that I really did reach "done."  The eight months since then have been many things, most recently they've been exceedingly painful, sad and aggravating.  So, not exactly onward and upward, but continuing.  
Most Helpful 
I participated in The Mother Letter Project.  This is what I wrote.  Who knows if it was helpful for anyone else, but it helped me to put these things down, and to grieve for the differences between Corey and Madelyn.  
Surprise Success 
This has been hanging around (*sigh*, bad puns suck) my popular posts for quite some time now.  
Not Enough Attention 
This was the second post I made after a five year hiatus from blogging (after the obligatory, "gee, guess I'd better get back to this" drivel... I find those posts annoying, frankly, because so few people stick with it after such an announcement).  So my zero followers never read way too much about my nipples, but now you can.  Yes, I'm a giver.  You're welcome. 
Most Proud 
It's long, but it makes the point I was aiming for, and it inspired the longest single comment in the history of my blog.  I thought maybe I was the only one to write short response novels, but apparently not.
  
I nominate: 

Beth at Anti-Supermom

Noelle at Because Nice Matters  (I figure it may take a moment for her to get to this since she is off having her daughter AS I TYPE.)

Janelle at Renegade Mothering

And Amy Sue at MyHappyCrazyLife

Tuesday Night I Had a Date. With a Girl! Nay, a Woman!

And I liked it.

Mm-hmm, that's right.

Sure, Tom and I had a date night scheduled for last night (our first since out anniversary in November).  But I have needs, people.  Needs!

If you've been hanging around for a while, you know that I have not been able to make any friends since moving up here.  Not that I haven't tried.  You can catch a small sampling of my struggles here.

Recently, the alleged mommy group from Facebook went silent.  I don't whip around on there as well as some people, so it took me a  while to realize I wasn't hearing about yet another event scheduled when I couldn't attend.  I looked into it only to learn that "my" group was pretty much defunct and a new group had taken it's place.  The name was almost the same, but with the word Christian added.

I am not Christian.  I am not anything.  In fact, the best descriptor I've heard for people like me is "good for nothing."

I have nothing against Christians (well, except for that hate group that travels to the funerals of dead soldiers... I have a lot against them) or any religious groups.  I am aware that my lack of religion makes people uncomfortable.  (My stance is that I will not attempt to convert you; please do the same.)  And I suppose that the opposite is also true to some degree.  So I'm probably not going to be joining a group with any religious affiliation in the title.  Especially if the group has just been narrowed down from something for all.

I hadn't yet figured out how gotten around to withdrawing from the original group.  About two weeks ago it was suddenly blowing up again.  Yes, there were group activities I couldn't quite attend (an hour before the end of the workday before I go on summer break? really?!).

One woman posted a desperate plea for diapers.  On Monday evening, I met her to give her a box along with some wipes.  It was nice and fits well with my Pay It Forward philosophy.  She's my new Facebook friend and I like her.

Did you know that Tuesdays are "my" night?  Tom's night is Thursday (and apparently also Sunday morning).  He plays tennis.  It's taken me a long time to get to the point where I feel desperate enough ready to have a night of my own and leave putting the girls down to him.  I had gone to the gym three weeks in a row.  There's a fun looking dance class that I've watched each week.  The more I didn't go to it, the more I knew I wasn't going.  By last Tuesday afternoon, I realized that the possibility of going to that class had been a major draw in getting me to the gym at all.  But my motivation (the Achilles heel of my exercising life) was plummeting.

Connecting with Kim the night before emboldened me.  I posted on the mommy group wall:

I know it's late notice, but I'm looking for a Tuesday night workout buddy. I have a membership to 24 Hour Fitness, which is great, but I'd really love to do something *with* someone. Could be the gym, walking/extremely slow jogging with lots of heavy breathing and possibly some grunting coming from your partner (I'll try to keep the cursing to a minimum). I'm available any time after 6:30, tonight or future Tuesdays. My ideal partner will generally be able to resist suggestions like, "Why don't we just go to Starbucks and hang out?"

Thirty seconds later and the group that had been humming along was silent.  Dead.  It was all my fault.  I killed it!  My use of the word grunting probably turned them off.  Or that I only said I'd try to keep my mouth under control.
 
All of a sudden there was a response!  A woman was available to work out with me.  At the end of July.
 
And another woman was up for something.  After she heals from an upcoming surgery.  How about the middle of July?
 
*sigh*  Does it seem like I am cursed to never make friends up here?  I thought so, too.
 
But then it happened.  *cue the angels singing as clouds parted and the sun bursts through dark ominous clouds*
 
Someone was available that night.  And she's a member at my gym.
 
And she, Jennifer, arrived on time!
 
And we have the same workout stamina and style!
 
Did you know that half an hour on the elliptical can go by lickety-split if you're chatting and laughing and acting out Bossy Betty's elliptical story?
 
We had so much fun while building muscles (except for that one arm device... that was an instrument of torture) and toning our butts.  Well, my butt.  Thank god I didn't look at Jennifer's Facebook profile or I would have realized I was going to the gym with a pretty, young, thin woman.  I am shallow and easily intimidated sometimes, I'll admit it.
 
For the first time in my month of working out (plus the *ahem* four years before that when I did not go at all), I stayed at the gym an entire hour.  We left laughing and looking forward to next week.  And that class that I've been not attending?  Jennifer is willing to try it, too.
 
When I got home, I couldn't believe all the responses I'd gotten.  No fewer than six people want to get together.  With me.

I've Got My Mind On the Cake and the Cake On My Mind

Tom's birthday is coming up on election day.  I figure we'll probably do most of our celebrating on Sunday next week.  Since this is one of those times in life where everything is due to be paid for or must be bought in the next two months (like two car insurances, a dresser, bedding, Maisy's chip registration, etc.), I'm thinking low-key and homemade.


I have been searching the web for cake recipes that don't involve yellow cake mix or shortening.  How someone can label their cake "scratch" and then start off with a box is beyond me, frankly.  More like itch than scratch.


It took me the better part of an hour, an hour during which I considered calling Bossy Betty for advice.  Here's what I've put together, mostly with the help of Wilton (something I think I might have heard of once, but I'm guessing everyone who bakes knows them well), and also with a little help from Hannah over at honeyandjam.com:


Butter Cake
Raspberry Filling
Raspberry Frosting 


Here's my question.  Tom loves raspberries, but do you think it'll be too much raspberry goodness going on?  I had considered doing a lemon frosting instead (assuming I could find one that doesn't involve egg yolks or shortening... guh!).

Suspicious Mind

My birthday is coming.  (Note: That should not be read like you're announcing the arrival of Paul Revere.)  I have a "thing" about my birthday.  I was going to tell you the hows and whys, but remembered I'd written it last year.  The how and why is less interesting than what made me write it all down, but you might want to check it out:  Family Tradition.


This year I have tried to guide my husband into remembering that he's not the only one who likes to have a nice birthday.  Dear god I hope I have neither harassed nor harangued, but after last year I might still feel a little justified.  It hasn't been easy to keep his mind off himself as he's still going through an all-about-me thing (could this be the start of a midlife crisis?... do people still have those or was that only in the 70's?).


In any case, I have either been successful or not.  Today I received an email from a good friend saying she can't come up to see us this weekend because she's working a satellite launch.  I suspect that Tom may have arranged for a few people to come up, which would be fabulous.  However, it's entirely possible that Jo really meant to send that email to her male friend named Shannon; it's happened before.  I sent a reply saying she must have had us confused again.  I sent another email linking her to Bossy Betty's Bad Mystic Cat (which is awesome).  She replied to that and to the earlier link I'd sent so she could check out Hank's reason for not watching cable news (equally awesome, but NSFW or children), but nothing about this weekend.  Hmm...


In any case, I'm hopeful that this year's birthday will get rid of the bitter taste of last year, whether my suspicions are true or not.