Day 28 - Delight

The photo shoot went well today, at least as far as Fynn was concerned! I ran around tidying up of course, as it wasn't just toys everywhere but bags of stuff to give away, project supplies, etc strewn all over. I got it done in time, got a shower and a wee bit of makeup on, actually (gasp!) used a blow dryer on my hair for 2 minutes, and put on my favorite t-shirt/pants. Fynn woke up about half an hour before she came, and was just getting out of the sleepy/cuddly stage when she got here. He was ready to do his own thing, and not follow any sort of directions.

She'd been told to get a 'sane mom' shot, and their idea was to have Fynn run around and be crazy while I appeared cool and collected. I tried to oblige, but hate staged shots, and almost all shots of me to be honest. We ended up doing them all at my desk, the one spot I hadn't really cleaned up :). The one way that worked to get Fynn animated was to let him climb onto my desk from the bed, like I've been telling him NOT to do all week. He played with papers, threw them all over, played endlessly with the forbidden phone, and acted as any kid would when let into the candy jar for the first time. He was delighted, confused, and then of course angry after she left and the party on the desk was over.

I hope some of them turn out, of course I'll only see whatever one they choose and in mini-sized newsprint. Her website is mostly food photography, but she's starting to do kids portraits also. The wait will be over on Friday when the article comes out and I get to see how my babblings were interpreted, and how forgiving the camera was. A nice way to end NoBloPoMo I hope!

Day 27 - Woohoo!

It's been a good day. I had a feeling today that I really needed to get the press release about my race out to the local paper, and ended up late to pick up D at school because I was determined to get it out before I left. I returned at 3:45 to an email from the local editor with a couple questions. I replied, cleaned up, packed up the boys and headed into Manhattan to hand them over to M so I could go to a Marathon Volunteer party. When I surfaced from the subway, I had a voicemail from the reporter saying she wanted to do a story on SaneMoms, so could I please call her for an interview! We played phone tag and connected just before I went into the party, had a great interview, and ended with arrangements for a photographer to come tomorrow to get a photo of me to go with the story.

grin.

and another person registered today ... small but good progress.

I'm rather pleased :)

Passion

My last post feels like it was months ago ... there's been a lot happening around here. Somewhere in between the introspection and starting meeting with a coach of my own, I've found a passion I didn't know I had. I've been tossing around ideas for months that revolve around writing stories about motherhood, getting others to write theirs, and also how to take my soapbox of ALL Moms Need Alone Time and find it a wider audience. It's all been about how to make my coaching biz take off, which it hasn't to date, and I was pretty well in the dumps about it.

Things took off last week, and I've hardly had time to sleep. I designed and launched a new website based on the concept that All moms struggle to stay sane, and All moms have stories to share. And the two are connected ... the sharing helps the sanity. The site will go properly live (meaning promoted, etc) on Dec 15th, launched via hosting my own 3k race in Fort Greene Park, that will benefit the charity Room to Grow for disadvantaged moms. I've never put together anything remotely like it, only have 9, make that 8 weeks now to pull it off, and need to find a sponsor asap. But I'm having a BALL, and can't hardly sleep at night for the things swirling in my head.

I had a new experience today too, being a radio guest for the first time. Admittedly it was online radio, and we had 16 listeners, but it's a start! I feel like I'm finding my voice finally, when it comes to coaching, motherhood, and helping other moms. I don't have answers, but I'm finding ways to help bridge the lonliness that creeps in when you're a mom, especially a SAHM like I am.

I think I found a passion :)

We talked (M and I) too about the things we wanted to accomplish when we first got together, and the desires are still there, though a bit dusty and tired. Fellowship is a big part of it, both enabling it and offering it. In a small step in that direction was taken this week, by notifying our tenant that his month-to-month lease will end Dec 1st, and we'll get that gorgeous front room back! I miss that room, and cringe when I do have to go in there to get into the storage space ... I won't describe the mess/squalor in there, but it's always surprising to me as it seems at odds with the man who lives there. We may rent the room out for a week here/there to defray the lost rent, and that seems easy to do in this neighborhood. There are often people looking for places for relatives/family that come to visit, and other than a couple b&b's and a somewhat distant Marriott, there's nothing around here. I'm looking forward to this ...


... and looking forward to my bed with it's clean sheets, which I'll be crawling into very shortly, and hours earlier than any other day in the last 2 weeks. I need a recuperating night I think, as my body is showing many signs of 'crashing' as it's called around here, and I'm not up for that right now.

My mug in the Times ...

View my NY Times debut right here, step up folks ...

I knew this might show up one of these days, but never got around to searching the archives and then a fellow parent posted the link on a local list-serve when talking about their block's stoop sales coming up. I never would have found it as they didn't use my name or quote, but Douglas and I (and the edge of Fynn's stroller behind Douglas) made it in :)

The caption isn't true as I refused to spend $10 on a used game, despite the fact that Douglas was begging for it. I'm holding the coffee grinder that I did get for $5, and has been working flawlessly since then. M is thrilled to have his fresh-ground coffee again.