Various Updates & Ramblings

This week has been a bundle of emotions for me.  Between realizing that I could no longer "wing it" with this baby, I decided to register for a few items on Amazon (you can see my registry here - how did I do?  Any suggestions?), to just feeling like I want to hurry up and get this dang school year over with, I'm tired.  Not in a complainy, whiny way.  Just in a suburbanite sort of way...wanting everything to go as smoothly and be as perfect as it can be, but then feeling silly for wishing things to be any different.  Does that make any sense?  I hope it does.  Basically, when I start to feel sorry for myself, I realize I should just shut the heck up and move on.  So moving on I shall do.

I miss you guys a bit.  I feel like the last couple of weeks have been a torrent of giveaways and sponsored posts.  Well I guess "feel" is the wrong word, since it's not just a feeling but more like reality.  My apologies if you got a bit tired with the content in the last couple of weeks.  I've always prided myself on publishing content on this site that I feel good about, and while I maintain that even the sponsored content I have put forth here is completely my voice and my opinions (I promise to never represent a brand or product that I don't use or don't like), I know some of you may not all agree with or appreciate sponsored content.  I get it and I respect that.  I hope you all understand that in order for me to keep going and be able to justify the ridiculous amount of time and energy (and even money at times) I spend on my sites, I had to start taking advantage of some paid opportunities.  It just so happened that many of those opportunities came to fruition all at the same time.  Posts like this shall slow down though in the coming weeks and I'm hoping I can focus on some fun kid and family related projects that I've been working on to share with you.

One thing I have been meaning to bring up here is my post on PPD.  After I posted my story, I received a lot of emails and comments about how brave I was to talk about this subject so openly.  The thing is it never even occurred to me that I shouldn't talk about it, or be ashamed to talk about it, and neither should any of you that have also dealt with PPD.  If I have learned anything, it's that PPD is something we can't control, only try to manage.  To think it's something we have a choice about is ludicrous, and to feel anything remotely close to shame or embarrassment is harmful and dangerous.  Please, if you ever suffer from PPD symptoms, don't be afraid to talk about it with someone, anyone that you think will help or listen or just support you.  You and your baby deserve it.

I don't want to end this post on a bit of a down note, so allow me please, to share some pictures of our recent adventures and happenings around here.  First off, this past weekend we watched Star Wars New Hope together as a family.  It was the first time the kids were allowed to watch it and naturally they loved it.  I fell asleep.  We're thinking of holding off a bit before showing them the other two because they are a bit more scary.  Any thoughts out there or feedback on when you showed the trilogy to your kids?  Much appreciated.

Last night Art brought home a Roomba.  He wanted it for Father's Day because he says he's tired of hearing me complain about having to sweep up the dog hair everyday.  Strangest thing I've ever heard.  If you ask me, being the tech junky he is, he just wanted the opportunity to own a robot at some point in his life.  Needless to say, the kids are fascinated with it and think it's their new play toy.  They've named him Tommy, or Tom Tom, but his technical name is T7S5A36A38 (all our initials and ages).  

Hoping you all are having a good week so far.  Anything fun or interesting going on?