We have a Shaker lemon tree in our sun room. It was outside this summer and the squirrels repeatedly ran off with lemons. Since it’s been inside, it’s rallied though, and we were able to pick our first lemon last week. It is nice, amid all this snow and ice, to have something blooming in our midst. It makes me think of Spring which is right around the corner. Right? Right?!

There are several more lemons on the way. What the heck am I going to do with all these lemons?

I know, I know: lemonade.

Just after Christmas we decided to put in a fence. This is a totally uncompensated plug for Orme Fence Company and Wayne Orme who did an amazing job installing a beautiful fence at a great price and with excellent quality. Wayne’s a hell of a nice guy, too and his team was quick – I left one morning on a business trip and returned around midnight the following night and lo and behold, had a fence. I couldn’t be happier. It’s been great for the dogs and was the final key step in getting our puppy housebroken.

Clover was plenty annoyed, never having been fenced in before. In fact, on the first night of the fence, Mark caught him wearing a hat with a light on it and investigating the perimeter for escape routes.

I’m also happy to report, not only are our dogs penned in for good, making them safer and less of a hassle to chase down or stand outside with, refusing to pee on the end of a leash, they now seem to be genuinely getting along better.

I attribute this to the Couples’ Retreat we sent them on over the holidays while we undertook the Great Midwestern Road Trip. They returned on better terms and are often seen spooning.

Not that Clover isn’t completely mortified any time we see him appearing to enjoy Starbuck’s presence.

You may have heard that we had some snow fall here in the Mid-Atlantic region. At the rate this season is going, we fully expect the girl, when and if school ever resumes, will be attending until the Fourth of July.

The girl has settled into a routine of leisure. Like some kind of quarantined patient she bathes and changes into a fresh pair of pajamas each night. I don’t believe I’ve seen her fully dressed in daytime attire in two months.

In fact she just said to me that she needs to do some laundry; she’s running low on pajamas.

We’ve been snowbound, stuck at home together again for yet another long weekend with periodic power outages, which are more of an interruption than a long-term nuisance. In fact, it just causes me to frantically cook, bake and do laundry, trying to complete a task before the next outage occurs. The entire region has significantly freaked out over this storm, depleting stores of their inventory on Friday, gassing up the cars, stocking up on firewood and foods that can still be prepared without electricity. (Hotdogs were scarce; hotdog buns were gone – thanks to a suggestion from a friend, I bought s’mores makings, so we could have a bit of fireplace fun, in case it came to that.)

It’s Superbowl Sunday so of course, our hope is that the power holds out for the game – that being, of course, the most important use of electricity this weekend.

Yeah. I’m touchy.

What’s important today is not my touchiness. It’s this boy. This man. This kid that I have loved for 20 years. This guy that has made me laugh and cry and holler his First Middle and Last name in the tradition of mothers all over the world. This boy who is now a wonderful grownup. He’s responsible! He’s a good driver! He’s the best employee at his job! He gets good grades! He’s a good, albeit snarky big brother! He is, in general, a guy I’d like if we weren’t related by blood; if we just met on the street.

So happy birthday son. I’m so dang proud of you.

Love,

Mom

So as Friday afternoon arrived, I decided to give it a whirl; placed my online grocery order for pickup at 6:30pm, and got the dirty laundry transported, sorted and started the first load.

I was off to a great start and in fact did get most of the laundry done Friday night. I didn’t have to grocery shop on Saturday or Sunday, so that was a time saver, but it takes longer than just a Friday night to complete the week’s worth of laundry (especially when your husband tempts you into watching a movie with him after the groceries are picked up and put away). Ultimately, the inverted weekend move (I’m typically cramming laundry into Sunday afternoon and evening) freed up Saturday for more cleaning (I steam-cleaned carpet and got around to de-cluttering part of the basement – two things I hadn’t had time for previously) and for taking the girl for a haircut. I also didn’t cook on Friday OR Saturday (or, for that matter, today, as my husband made breakfast, lunch will be self-serve and dinner will be out for the boy’s birthday).

Today I actually am taking some time to relax. That’s what Sunday is for, right? I’m updating this blog (this sadly neglected blog), I’m reading, I’m drinking my third cup of coffee, I will finish up some housework and maybe I’ll get out this afternoon for a little shopping, or a manicure.

I think the inverted weekend plan has been mostly successful. I will try it again next week and maybe with some practice will find myself with more time to rest on the weekend, rather than viewing it as a marathon sprint to complete all the work around the house before the workweek starts again on Monday.

How do you manage the laundry and weekend work when your workweek is filled? And if you’ve hired someone to do your laundry, don’t even tell me; I just don’t want to know.

My next-door-neighbor is about to have her third child — I will make sure that Coconut Girl knows about Whitney and her blog — and remember to still be a helper past the early weeks of a new baby next door.

Coconut girl song video

Food Within Reach

The Other Baby Bump

Sit Mommy

a.m. & p.m.

Here’s the video from the featured blog and here’s my final Blog of the Week segment on CBS-19.

Farewell TV land!

Starbuck (more nicknames: Star Trek, ShamWow) was looking shaggier than ever. We sorta remembered her having eyes under that mop. It was time, at eight months old, for her first haircut.

Doesn’t she look gorgeous? Much more like a Wheaten-Poodle mix than a dustmop.

For about a year now, I’ve been providing a community service — not to work off any convictions, just out of the goodness of my little blogger heart. Many of you are aware of my weekly appearance on WCAV CBS-19 where I’ve provided the extremely popular Blog of the Week segment.

Once I got over my shock that there WOULD NOT be a private, fully furnished trailer with my name on the door and that there WOULD NOT be a hair and makeup team, I settled into a weekly routine that went something like this:

Tuesday, 5pm – stop working, sprint upstairs and put on TV-worthy clothes. Slather on more makeup. Fret over hair. Add more powder. Change top again. 5:45pm, get in car, drive to station. 6:30pm, start paying attention to what’s going on behind the door at The Newsplex. 6:40ish – enter studio, take seat, and provide LIVE commentary on a featured local blog.  6:55pm, call home to see what they want for dinner. 7:15pm, pick up dinner. 8pm, arrive home, watch video clip of segment. Fret over hair. Start thinking about featured blogger for the next week.

I really loved every minute of it. I loved being recognized by people all over town. I loved that my far-flung family and friends could watch the video clips no matter where they are. I loved the chance to improve my live TV broadcast skills and to have the opportunity to get better with each week. But mainly, I loved that the segment gave a well-deserved focus on local bloggers, many of whom are friends or became friends through the Blog of the Week.

Past tense, eh?

Yes. I’m hanging up my Blog of the Week TV hat — I will provide one more week of Blog of the Week coverage and then the segment will live on with two very worthy replacements, Jason Hull of OpenSource Connections and Amy Eastlack of SuzySaid Cville. I want to thank everyone who was featured in this segment, who watched it on TV or online and who helped promote the segment via their blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It’s been a great ride.

All the videos are view-able on the Newsplex Web site and if you’re really nostalgic, you can read all the Blog of the Week posts on STLWorkingMom.

I will miss the many friends I’ve made at The Newsplex; Dan Schutte, Sara Ross, Travis Koshko, Brantley Ussery, Jim Hanchett, Brad Ramsey, John Rogers, Mark Tenia, that guy that always opens the door for me, Cheryn Stone, Jennifer Black , Tim Free, Tom La and Liz Palka just to name a few (gosh, I hope I haven’t left anyone out). Beth Duffy was my friend even before the TV segment, and I enjoyed having the chance to see her every week.

I’m taking the step back from TV to get some time back to focus on My Gift of a Year and to better accommodate my full-time day job at Standing Partnership, which has added a lot of travel into my schedule for 2010. (Also? I’m running out of fabulous TV outfits and do not want to do any repeats).

Also? It’s time to let someone else sweat under the lights of live, weekly, local television.  I’ve had my 15 minutes. Now if Oprah’s people call, that will be another story entirely.

And now, here’s some link love for all of the Blog of the Week’s I covered in 2009 and a few from 2010.

Dream House Blog http://www.dreamhouseblog.com/

www.cvillenews.com and www.cvilleblogs.com

The Children’s Book Garden http://thebookgarden.wordpress.com/

Life in Sugar Hollow http://lifeinsugarhollow.blogspot.com/

Vale of Evening Fog http://valeofeveningfog.blogspot.com/

Dried Figs and Wooden Spools http://driedfigsandwoodenspools.blogspot.com/

The blog of Encyclopedia Virginia http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org/

NailGun Media http://www.nailgunmedia.com/blog/

Bella Eats http://bellaeats.com/

Amy’s Yard http://www.amysyard.com/

Polly Vous Francais http://pollyvousfrancais.blogspot.com/

Suzy Said Charlottesville http://suzysaid.com/charlottesville

Small and Chic in C’ville http://www.smallchic.blogspot.com/

Run Molly Run! http://runmollyrun.wordpress.com/

The 2.0 Life (which is now Digitizd) http://www.digitizd.com/

Edible C’ville http://ediblecville.blogspot.com/

Crown of Corn http://crownofcorn.blogspot.com/

A Life Less Ordinary http://elenadoodle.blogspot.com/

A Day’s Outing http://adaysouting.com/

Charlottesville Sports and Social Club blog http://www.cvillesocial.com/

Sara’s Era http://www.sarasera.com/

C’ville Entremom http://cvilleentremom.com/

Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA blog http://www.caspca.org/

Family Hack http://www.familyhack.com/

Late Bloomer Bride http://latebloomerbride.com/

Traveling with Baby http://travelingwithbaby.wordpress.com/

Locallectual http://blog.locallectual.com/

C’ville Words http://cvillewords.com/

The United States of Jamerica http://usjamerica.wordpress.com/

Sweet Pea Photoblog http://www.sweet-pea-photoblog.com/

Jen on the Edge http://jenontheedge.com/

Shawn & Gwenn. A Boy. A Girl. A Virus.  http://www.shawnandgwenn.com/category/blog/

Real Central VA http://www.realcentralva.com/

Living United http://livingunited.typepad.com/

The Food Geek http://thefoodgeek.com/

Not exactly weight watching food, I know.

But I decided that sometimes taking really good care of yourself means indulging in a delectable evening with some of your very best friends, laughing and talking and eating really delicious food. Once in awhile! Not all the time!

It was totally worth it.

HOWEVER, the next morning I slept to an unheard of 9:20am – I honestly do not know how the puppy waited till then to go outside. Unfortunately my healthy living appointment at the eye doctor was at 9am. So much for that. They did let me reschedule the appointment for later in the afternoon so I did keep that promise to myself, and fit in 30 minutes of yoga this morning despite half the day being gone already.

I DO think it’s OK to fall of the wagon every once in awhile and sometimes taking really good care of yourself isn’t all the obvious healthy stuff — it’s taking the time to surround yourself with people you love, and living in the moment.

This year, in seventh grade, the curriculum is getting a bit more detailed. Last night, after dinner, she was giving her dad and me a rundown of what she’s learning. Words and phrases came out of her mouth that simultaneously made me want to either laugh or clap my hands over my ears and sing “Do Wah Diddy” at the top of my lungs.

I kept telling her how, in my repressed parochial school upbringing we NEVER learned the stuff she’s learning and frankly, I think it’s great that she knows what she does from an appropriate source. My generation, you know, the one that hit puberty the same time that AIDS was sweeping the nation, is a throwback to a bit more squeamish time. It’s refreshing to me, that our daughter is comfortable enough to tell us what she’s learning, without embarrassment and with a little bit of delight, I think as we turn to her with our mildly shocked expressions.

Dear Lord, please let our daughter continue to tell us everything, even when it makes our ears bleed. Amen.