community / village / life together

so, a couple of my good friends talk about their "tribe" or their "village" and how much they love how it takes care of them and their family. how they do life together. i have been lucky to be a part of a couple of online "villages" that have banded together around eachother during recent tradgedies. but it makes me think more and more about how to create this kind of a village in real life.

i find it to be quite a challenge to have a true sense of a village living in suburbia. with only one car (grumble grumble). with all my friends in other areas of the region. with a busy 17 month old that still doesn't sleep through the night (and a mommy who doesn't know how to go to sleep early anymore - yes, i know i'm still up. :P)

i long for a close-knit community. i long for closer friendships with my friends. i long to be more supportive and in general, more in the lives of the people i love.

i find this challenging because i seem to be pretty addicted to online communities/forums. i love my Facebook, and am a pretty active participant in at least 1 forum and less active in a couple more. this leads to a lot of online time. so much that my daughter likes to crawl over to me, beg to be picked up and sit on my lap while i'm at my laptop (embarrased smiley). so, what do i do? it is so easy to be a part of an online community. it's only words, and you rarely ever interact in real life (unless you have IRL friends on your forum too). you can "be" someone else too, when you're online.

so, how do you balance your online life with your IRL community? how do you balance home life with your blogging/other online presence(s)? i long to know. and to be challenged to really develop my friendships.

poop

so dh and i recently cancelled our diaper service and started washing our own. and the question i asked myself this past week - why the heck didn't i start this earlier?????!! it's saving us $100 a month ($20/week with Bear Bottoms) that we currently don't have, and it really is easy. and it works with our front loader too! i always thought there'd be a lot of different cycles you'd have to run back and set it on, but all i'm doing is a cold wash/rinse without detergent and then a long hot wash w/ detergent (currently using Tide Free & Clear) with an extra rinse tacked on the end. there's a button to push to get the extra rinse, so i only have to go back down to put it on the hot wash and then to put them in the dryer. and when we get a clothesline up, i'll put them out there.

so, i've rented some dipes from a good friend and eventually want to build up my own stash (slowly :P). there's a contest being run by Dirty Diaper Laundry that i would love to win a Bum Genius 4.0 from. please visit their website via the button to the right. :)

beautiful clothing...

at Eden's Bouquet and a wonderful (very generous!) giveaway is happening at the Born2Impress blog. i love the Cottage Heirloom collection for the GORGEOUS dresses, no matter how impractical LOL. i'm such a girly girl!

please check out both sites!

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The Vintage Pearl giveaway

my friend Meghan is having another great giveaway here: http://www.thetuckerstaketennessee.com/2010/05/take-prize-tuesday-vintage-pearl.html for a piece of jewellery from The Vintage Pearl. check it out! :)

back to work

well, about 4 wks ago i headed back to work. boy has it been a tough transition. probably more for me than for my daughter. she is so social and loves being around other babies and around older kids. she cries if she sees me leave, and always points to me when she sees me at pick up time, but i think i'm the one having the harder time.
let me tell you, i never thought getting out the door in the morning would be harder than it already was for a non-morning person like me, but add a baby into the mix, and voila - a more late me! :P at least with my hubby carpooling, i have one less person to worry about getting out the door.
and talk about bag lady - i am THE bag lady when i go to work. i have my purse, my work bag (which is either a messenger bag or my rolling bag), my lunch bag, my pump bag, the diaper bag, and anything else i need to run out of the house with. waaay too many bags! :P
but, it is getting easier, which is an encouragement. and it turns out that i won't be working this summer, so i've only got till June to survive, then i can enjoy my baby full time again! yay!

i love giveaways

and i love that i have a blog to post giveaways on. LOL. Amy at Mommy Mentor is always doing them - she is so generous! check out her websites and enter to win the awesome MightyBe bag from Ju Ju Be! http://www.mommy-mentor.com/2010/03/april-giveaway-your-choice-of-new-ju-ju.html