Google images

We all know about googling ourselves, right? Well, I google-imaged myself. Yeah! Taking it a step further.

I was happy to see pics of Annie & Graham (from this blog!!) when I searched for Erin Hill Littlefield on Google images.

These are a few of the other images I caught.

Interesting ...

I like the desk, so no complaints there. The woman is also named Erin Littlefield, so that makes sense.But the scruffy fellow??? I hope he's not trying to use my credit card (a la those crazy commercials of a couple of years ago).

Note: no offense toward the less-groomed among us!

This life brought to you by IKEA

Why stop at the mud room, really?

I've already talked about shelves on this blog so you know that I like them ... and you should see my Aunt Sherry's shelf-o-rama. Her book collection is to die for!

I could consolidate my garage sale shelves (the best $25 I ever spent) in the TV room, the homemade (rickety) shelves by the computer and the $19.99 Walgreen's shelves in our sunroom into this dreamy Billy shelf system.

That's what I'm looking for, I think. Not a shelf, but a shelf system.

What are you looking for?

Mud rooms

Since I'm on the subject of rooms as vehicles for life improvement, I might as well mention my other dream room: a mud room.

Like I said, my house is dusty and part of that dust problem stems from the basket of dusty shoes that sits by the front door. Those shoes just puff and puff until our air is clogged and our windows caked. (Well, close. The windows, while not caked, are streaky with fingerprints.)

With my new utility room and this mud room working for me, I know I could find my inner Super Mom!

Utility rooms

Today at Annie's dance class, another mom (Colleen) mentioned the utility room in her currently-being-built house. It sounds really neat! It's between the master closet and the kid rooms, so everytime people are walking back & forth in her house, they will have no excuses to look away from the piles of socks (except her one-year-old baby, who is too little to put away laundry).

This got me thinking about utility rooms (as I often do). I really love my house, but its main flaw (besides being dusty!) is a lack of a utility room. Ah, what a 21st century American problem: Wah, wah, I don't have a utility room.

I know ...

But still, I'd love one. Right now, my W&D are in a closet in our library/TV room/laundry den. All of our board games sit on the shelves above the appliances. Part of me feels that if I just had the right SPACE, my laundry pile-up would cease to be and our home would become a haven of peace, tranquility and productivity.

How about the rest of you? What kind of utility room would you like? Perhaps you already have the one of your dreams. If not, check out this room. I found it online and started drooling immediately. I TOTALLY want that wall of cubbies. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

Regina Spektor

One of my students asked me if I was into female singer/songwriters. Um, yes. Does it show? (Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan - you are not forgotten!) So he pointed me in the direction of Miss Regina Spektor. Here's your 'A', dear student. I like her music a lot! Here's a taste for all of you.

Diabetes essay by moi

http://www.insitegroup.com/archive.php

As some of you know, I write for Insite Magazine on a monthly basis(yes, the same one Kyle used to be editor of). It's been a great gig because 1) I'm writing on a regular basis, 2) I get paid a bit for that writing and 3)article assignments help motivate me to write something ... otherwise life would probably get in the way. I've interviewed some really interesting people (a woman adopting internationally, the head of the Downtown Bryan development group, a man who creates articial ponds) and tried to brainstorm some catchy ledes.

For this month's Insite issue, I wrote a first-person essay about Graham's diabetes diagnosis. The issue focus was on health and the editor asked me if I wanted to write about our journey. I was happy for the chance to do some reflecting on the way diabetes has impacted us.

This link should take you to the Insite archive - click on the picture of the April issue of Insite (I think it says "Live Well"), then find your way to "Diagnosis Diabetes".

Habitats

Oh ... I almost forgot my OTHER favorite New York Times real estate column: Habitats.

These also appear weekly (I think this is true... sometimes I can't find them & get frustrated) and profile interesting people with interesting homes.

Again, there is an archive: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/columns/habitats/index.html

Again, I dare you not to devour said archive.

Also, nytimes.com includes slide shows of many of the homes (usually 6-8 photos of the place in all its glory).

I get excited to read the latest Habitats column on Saturday. I switch it up by reading The Hunt first one week, then Habitats first the next week.

Yeah ... that's my life!

The Hunt

I'm not sure if I've mentioned these columns before, but they are a guilty pleasure for me. This is a link to all the archived columns. Seriously, I cannot believe anyone would NOT want to read them. I guess The Hunt combines several pleasures for me: New York City, real estate information, peeking into other peoples' lives, house hunting.

(For the same reason, I've been known to enjoy an episode of "House Hunters" on HGTV, although I do not get the California market at all. I can't figure out how the people on the show afford what they look at.)

It seems like a dream job to be the person who gets to write The Hunt columns. What fun!

I dare you not to read the entire archive (hee hee).

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/classifieds/realestate/columns/the_hunt/index.html

Sibling revelry photos

Here are some sibling photos. Do not attempt the face painting at home. Marni did a great job, but it's hard to wash off!

Sibling revelry

After spending a wonderful weekend in Nebraska with my Mom and sisters Marni & Courtney (plus Marni’s family: Jon, Ellie & Miles), I was filled with renewed appreciation for siblings (and mothers, of course!). Because of my frequent failings as a mother (and they do haunt me … I remember asking Kyle one night before bed, “Do you also experience this crushing remorse every night for all the things you didn’t get right that day with the kids?” His answer was an untroubled “No,” which I think is probably healthier), I am glad that Graham and Annie have each other.

I always wanted to have more children than 2 (though Jonathan once aptly remarked that in many ways, Graham is like having a set of twins), but that dream of three was not to be.

And I’m okay with it ... some of the time. Well, most of the time.

I used to worry that if I only had two children, we wouldn’t have a close family. (Yes, I recognize this isn’t a rational thought. Irrational fears are rarely rational. Duh.) But it was a real worry. I wasn’t sure if two children would create enough connections to keep it interesting. No offense intended to families with two children. I guess I thought three children would do the trick because it worked with my family and several families I admired (the Langens and the McDermids, for starters). I had lots of fun, too, with even larger families (the Laynes and the Moores) and idealized the delightful chaos that comes with lots of siblings.

I’ve realized now that there is plenty of chaos to be had with two kids.

I’m also in the process of realizing (meaning that I still have to shoo away irrational/future fears) that my future family will be close because I make it that way, not because we have the right number of people.

I think that a sibling (or close friend or special cousin) is such a gift … someone to help us learn to be unselfish, someone with whom to quarrel over first dibs, someone to play silly games with (I remember a game called “Shark” that involved jumping from bed to bed in Marni & Courtney’s room). Graham and Annie love to play the fun “Yes, Yellow”, a game of their own devising where one of them says "yellow" and the other says "yes", then the first says "lellow" and the other says "no". Then they switch it up a bit ... the listener doesn't know if it's going to be "lellow" or "yellow". Stay on your toes!

(Does that game sound boring? Yeah, it does, but it makes G & A laugh a lot in the car so I'm not complaining.)

Mom loves math (part 2)

I don't usually include photos of myself on this blog, but hey ... Annie wanted me to include this photo as well.

We love math

The first grade classes at Sul Ross Elementary put on a spectacular musical review called "We Love Math", and Graham got to wear cool sunglasses while singing "We love math, we're cool. We love math, math rules!" My favorite lyric was "My name is plus, I add things together. The numbers go increasing, increasing, up, up the number line!" It has a catchy tune too, and verse two is all about 'minus'.

Meme, Pawpaw, Jen, Matthew, Billy & Katharina came to cheer on our performer. Of course Kyle, Annie and I were also there. Betcha wished you could have heard the crowd-pleaser "Zero the Hero"! (Graham's teacher asked innocently, a few days before the show, "Do you have any super hero costumes we could use?" Did we ever!)