The Launch of MamaManagement...And My Birthday

Well Happy Birthday To Me! Day before yesterday was my birthday. I'd rather not say which one. I've never been one of those ladies who doesn't reveal her age, but as forty starts circling the neighborhood looking for me, I find myself "minding." (I hope to lose that new trait as fast as I picked it up. I also hope to stop referring to myself as a "lady" henceforth.) Anyway, one of my 2012 goals was to launch this blog by my birthday. Two days late is as good as on time for a mother of a 3 year old and a 9 month old who have both been sick the last week, so yea me! I'm pretty psyched to finally get this underway. Ever since I decided I wanted to write a blog (in December), I'm constantly having ideas of things to write about. Unfortunately, most of those ideas are already lost to my swiss cheese brain. So sad. In my defense, I really don't sleep much. Which Dr. Oz informed me is taking years off my life. Great. So I'm losing years off my life along with amazing ideas and my keys (Which I recently looked for EVERYWHERE in my gigantic purse/diaper bag, while standing in the rain, only to find them in my coat pocket. Sigh.). See what I mean about starting to fret about my age. And you should see the circles under my eyes. Oy. It looks like I went a few rounds with Tyson (ears intact though).

Anyway, back to my birthday...despite turning another year older, it was lovely. The day before I got a facial, had lunch out alone with my husband, got a mani-pedi, then spent an hour in a coffeehouse alone. My husband made my favorite butternut squash risotto for dinner (it's Ina Garten and it's awesome...google it) and after the kids went to bed he surprised me with a lavendar bubble bath surrounded by candles and the vase of tulips pictured above. Plus a backrub before bed. Bonus. Because he had to travel for work on my birthday he even stayed home that morning and helped with the kids before he headed to the airport...and he gave me presents. So nice. I got some lovely phone calls and emails, funny cards (the award for funniest card goes to my mother-in-law who found one with rapping babies), and a bunch of facebook happy birthday's (which is one of the best things about facebook...it's nice to feel the love). Then, to top it off, a couple of girlfriends came over for a drink after the kids went to bed and they brought wine and cake and these flowers you see below.  Nice. And the final gift of the day? The kids slept through
the night even though they were still a bit sick. Thank you babies. So all in all, really, a pretty fab day(s). And now, my birthday present to myself- I'm crossing "Launch blog" off my to-do list.

So you may be wondering, why this blog, Amy? I suppose I should explain before I dive head first into crazy. A few reasons, really. First, the practical side: I have a few friends who regularly ask me for recipes or menu planning ideas since I do a lot of cooking (most of it pretty decent). And I figured this would be a much easier way to share things than constantly typing emails.

Second, I simply have been inspired by other blogs I have recently read...many of which I have found through Pinterest (aaaahhhh, Pinterest...but that's a whole other posting! I will only say that I assume there will eventually be a twelve step program for Pinterest addiction...children and work everywhere neglected while people look at "just a few more pins"). Eventually I will add links from this blog to some of the other cool one's I've found.

But the biggest reason why I've launched this blog has to do with my 2012 New Year's Resolutions. First, let me say that I hate that term, "new year's resolutions"...it's so tainted with hokey, unfulfilled crap and doesn't really capture what I'm talking about. But I can't come up with another 3-word-or-less description that will easily communicate to you the gist of what I'm talking about. So there it is...resolutions. The nutshell: I've decided that I've quite drastically changed over the past three years (since becoming a Mama), but that how I think about and express myself hasn't really caught up with this change. So this year is about refocusing things and reinventing the "me" part of my life (the kid/Mama part of my life takes care of its focus on its own!). A big part of this change has to do with a refocusing on creativity. And that's where this blog comes in, both as a creative outlet itself and as a way of keeping me honest on my quest for a more creative and authentic life.

So there you have it. MamaManagement is launched. I promise more useful stuff in my next post. Maybe I'll throw you a good recipe or two before I force my ramblings on you again. You can only hope.