as the laundry rolls

  • Parenting through the smell of dead sewage

    This is day 24 of 30-day blog challenge. Read day 23: “Learn these 3 things free online”   The smell started Thursday If anything has made me want to throw my hands and just give up on this 30-day blog challenge, it’s been today. Well, really it’s been the last 48 hours or so. Late Thursday evening my husband smelled something like sewer gas or a dead cat (poor dumpster kitties) coming from the sinks or the shower line. It was hard to say exactly where it was coming from, but it was bad enough to my husband that he called the emergency maintenance line. No one came.   Friday…

  • thoughts on parenting from ground zero

    Will home schooling breed hermits?

        This is day 20 of my 30-day blog challenge. Read day 19: “5 pet peeves of poor web design”     I’m going to categorize this blog “as the laundry rolls” and put it with my parenting tips and musings (from ground zero). I say “thoughts from ground zero” because I am a mom of a 3-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, so I’m nowhere near qualified as any kind of expert. And today I want to ramble about my concerns and fears for educating my children.       Home-schooling isn’t the same as it used to be As little as I actually know about homeschool, I…

  • Why bread, milk, eggs and snowstorms go together

    Day 12 of 30-day blog challenge. Read day 11: “LinkedIn Open Networkers: marketing mistake”     I’ll consider today’s blog one about “parenting” as I try to organize this blog by category. We in the South–Georgia to be exact–are expecting snow for the second time this winter. Many schools, including Kennesaw State University, where I attend college, are already closed. I published my thoughts on the first “Snowpocolypse” of the season in an issue of The Sentinel that hit stands with the previous week’s issue because we were all stuck inside.   So, I’m over it. I’m over the weather warnings and winter advisories. I’ve calmly accepted that my guitar…

  • no microwave

    Why we don’t even own a microwave

      This is day 3 of my 30-day blog challenge. Read day two, “Tips on starting a free blog”     My family doesn’t own a microwave And that’s okay. When we first married, my husband and I consolidated the contents of his 3-bedroom house and my stuff (that didn’t exactly fit neatly into a backpack either). We sold off duplicate CDs (remember those) and parted with most of the sharp swords and battle axes that we knew we wouldn’t be needing as we started a family.   Then, after our daughter was born, I made the decision to stay home. In fact, I also decided to return to school…

  • thoughts on parenting from ground zero

    The best toy for toddlers: not-so-pro parenting tip

        I’ll be honest (it’s quite stress-relieving); when the pregnancy results came in for my second child I immediately yearned for the day my two kids could play together. Only two years apart—by literally two days—I felt sure my kids would be destined to grow up playing with and perhaps tormenting each other.   As my son took his time learning to toddle around the house, I started stockpiling the most fun toys I could think of. My husband and I enlisted Santa’s help for three consecutive years. We built a haven of games and toys, including a full-size fun tent and indoor baseball tee.   All these wonderful…

  • Feeding The Future or Feeding the Floor?

      For the last eight years, the African American Student Alliance has collaborated with several Kennesaw State University student organizations to raise funds for the “Feed the Future” initiative which provides food and other resources for students who are experiencing financial difficulty.     The event will be held in tandem with the Giving Feast Fundraiser Luncheon on Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 12:30PM in the University Rooms.  The luncheon will be catered by KSU Catering and served by supervised, student volunteers.  During this years event music will be rendered by the KSU Gospel Choir, as has been for the last eight years.  Additionally, the KSU Brass Quartet, the KSU…

  • Heartbreaking moments on the home front

      I’m a well-meaning mother; most certainly not a perfect parent, but this is one of those blogs where I’m openly admitting my inexperience. I’ve labeled my Friday parenting blog “thoughts from ground zero” because that is the honest perspective from which I’m writing. I am not doling out advice here; I’m kinda begging for it.   My best of intentions involves making sure my babies always know if they ask for help, mommy and daddy will be there for them and help them the best way we know how. Can a two-year-old really manipulate that bond?   My daughter is 2 going on 12   My daughter has been…

  • Good parents control candy, set limits, lead by example

      As a relatively new parent, I think back to my childhood and try to decide what my parents did right and where I can improve, innovating my children’s lives if you will. My daughter didn’t have a single sweet until her first birthday. I remember nervously trying to take her cake from her because I didn’t want her to get sick, but my husband stopped me in the spirit of getting messy and letting her enjoy her icing.   Halloween is a great time for toddlers and I looked forward to yesterday’s festivities about as much as my daughter did. This year she turns 3, and this year she…

  • The cost of a free vacation – traveling with toddlers

    Price versus cost: a lesson in economics   When I first heard about the regional conference for the Society of Professional Journalists, of which I act as president for the Kennesaw State University chapter,  I felt excited and inspired to be one of the first chapter presidents to put for the extra effort to get as many members as possible (and as of this moment Kennesaw SPJ has the highest number of enrolled members ever), then to head to New Orleans to practice interviewing skills on zombies.   Then the reality of the fact that I couldn’t go because I am a nontraditional student with a husband and two babies…

  • THE 5 things artists must make time for

    I skipped a blog Friday because I celebrated my 35th birthday by interviewing for a job, working, spending the afternoon with my kids at the park and spending my evening on the couch with my husband. Admittedly, all my “downtime” involved responding to texts, emails and thinking about how I would meet my deadlines, but I took some of the day off because I know what happens to freelancers and the artistic energy when we don’t take time to reboot.   So, though Friday’s blog is generally dedicated to my thoughts on parenting, I’m publishing these five things that every artist needs to make the time for. Without these five…