Friday Funny

Today was a fun day. Da-da! is home from work and we had a play date with another set of twins -- boys -- who are just about the same age. They prove how normal Jadyn and Liana are by their incessant desire to need new toys to play with, their high-energy and their constant obsession with food and drinks.

But, today was a first for me in many, many ways.

While potty training is still far away for us, the boys have started using theirs and today they used ours.

A few minutes later, Liana dropped her pants and diaper and began to run wild around our dining room table.

Next thing we know, four 2-year-olds are running in circles -- one naked, one in his diaper, and the other two in their pants -- but no shirts.

We have video for when they are teenagers. Shame I can't show you all. You'll just have to trust me that it was the funniest thing, ever.

I felt like we might have crossed a threshold of parenting. It was funny, but I didn't know what to do about it other than to laugh. I knew it wasn't right, but she was having fun.

All good things come to an end, though.

She peed on the floor, just a few feet away from the potty chair.

Talk about a party pooper.

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Mealtime Superstitions

If there's one word to describe me -- and I had to choose -- I would say persistent. So this means a definitive no at the dinner table doesn't really work for me. I'm sure my family thinks I'm nuts, but I have always had mealtime superstitions.

I can see my good friend MPJ laughing right now because she has more than I do, but I do wonder if we're alone?

First, I already mentioned yesterday that snacks are very limited at our house to save room for nutritious meals.

But, I have other rules, too. Like, we have to be home to eat. We rarely go out. And, while we do make exceptions, I try to limit the number of people around when it's time to eat a meal. It's just too distracting and they won't eat.

More than that, though, I use the same plates for the same meals, the same seats with their letters on each chair. I have refused to use the newer pink plates since their first use because they didn't eat well and I wondered if Pink might be an appetite suppressant. So, I use them, instead. (And, a quick search revealed I was right!)

Lately, the girls have been wanting to switch chairs. I am not happy about this. I insist, but they insist harder. They win, and they prove that my Good Luck Charm mechanism isn't needed all the time. Worse, yet, is the fact that they are switching between boosters and high chairs now, too. (Note to self: sell high chairs now!)

I never serve the yogurt with lunch; it always follows. They would fill up on yogurt if I did so. Same with fruit at dinner. I serve it as dessert. I cannot budget on any of these.

My persistence has paid off, though. They do eat pretty well and I've been able to do a song and dance to get them to try most things. For instance, if a sandwich cut in quarters doesn't work, I give them "bites." I never cut first because I can't put it back together, again. But, sometimes they want "big" pieces, which means whole.

When they've denied a food, I try giving them adult forks or spoons or taking their plates away and just giving them one piece of food so they are not as overwhelmed.

But, I do feel consistency is important -- for nothing more than my sanity. These are the few things I can control with them.

In fact, I've tried switching things up by offering a relaxed meal of muffin and yogurt for breakfast and it's been a no-go at least three times. They need high maintenance, low-prep foods that are not pre-packaged. AT home. In quiet. With no distractions. In their own chairs. With the right plates. With me present.

And then they eat great!!

Our attempts to take them out to eat has nearly always resulted in eating disasters. Oh, they were fine ... I was the one crying and upset because I didn't enjoy my meal because I was so busy worrying about if they were getting enough.

The truth is I have to keep my Good Luck Charms because, well, it makes me feel better. This does not mean I do not make exceptions. I do not force them to eat anything.

OK, I did offer an M & M once in swap of a bite of broccoli.

What's worse? Bribes or superstitions?


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Thing One and Thing Two

I have had the pleasure of interviewing Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate Plus Eight not just once, but twice.

And, seriously, the woman makes my life seem like the Disney Channel.

Whenever we're experiencing a bad eating day, I return to her comments about meals. She offers some good advice.

First, she does not serve snacks -- at least she hadn't when they were under 2.5 years.

While we do not do this at our house, I do limit snacks greatly. It would be easy to let them eat and eat because right now at this age, that is what they want. We do snacks at the same time every day: about an hour after breakfast and as soon as they wake from nap. These times, I feel, prevent overeating. I usually pick nutritious snacks, but sometimes I cave to something more convenient. The yogurt-covered raisins, to me, are a decent choice. Yesterday they had eco-friendly crackers that are a spin off of animal crackers and they LOVED them, too. Shame I do not have more.

Kate also doesn't have time to fix a different meal for all eight of her children so she fixes one meal for all.

As I wrote yesterday, this is the plan I am trying to get to at this point. I read long ago that children should be able to eat what you eat by age 2. I think all children are different, though, and that we're going to be closer to 2.5 before we get to that point.

Kate and Jon have a rule that they have to be able to eat all of their dinner before any of the kids can have seconds of anything.

I think this is a great rule, but so far we aren't enforcing it. Once J and L understand that concept, we will enforce it for sure. I do hate getting up and down a hundred times in a meal. Even if I think I've brought everything to the table, I haven't.

As far as giving each one a different food that they will eat: I am trying not to do that. This means sometimes Jadyn will have a dinner she will devour and sometimes Liana will have a dinner she will consume quickly. I always make sure there is one thing they both love.

Most of the time Liana is the pickiest in that she only likes plain pasta and I haven't been able to get her to eat pancakes, French toast or waffles. She, on the other hand, loves edamame, but Jadyn won't even consider it. But, aside from breakfast when I will give Liana a bowl of Cheerios instead of whatever the rest of us eat, I do not make two kinds of veggies each night or two kinds of pasta.

Last night they had buttered Rotini with some dried out chicken I had messed up. Jadyn loves sauce, but I really need Liana to eat more carbs. Of course, they rejected the chicken, but I had nuggets ready in case. Then later, Dan and I ate the rotini with the chicken and sauce it was cooked in all day in the slow cooker.

Our best meal all around: Homemade pizza.

Here's our bread machine recipe that I have adapted from various others:

Pizza Dough

1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Water
2 T Olive Oil
3 Cups bread flour (I sometimes use half whole wheat)
2 T sugar
2 teaspoons yeast (or a whole packet of the smaller ones)

The machine does the hard part in 1.5 hours. Then I roll it out, dust the greased pan with cornmeal and top it. Lately, I've actually used spaghetti sauce since I had that leftover and it worked great. I cook it at 375 degrees until it is golden brown and crisp.

I have been making this weekly because it is such a hit with all of us and I love that I know what is going in it. Deceptively Delicious would have you hide spinach puree under the sauce ... and I hope to try that next time.

To be fair here, I am going to alert Kate to this blog post. It's not common journalistic practice to just reuse information like this, but I know you will all appreciate the advice and I'm sure she will be glad to help.


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What's for dinner? Toddler style

I have struggled with meals like all mothers struggle with meals. I have read just about everything there is to read both on how to encourage toddlers to eat and how to budget and plan meals. But there is very little in the way of meal planning and budgeting with toddlers.

No matter how much planning I seem to do, there never seems to be enough of something in the house. This leaves me feeling off. And, it never fails that the mealtime struggles begin.

In the past, I rushed off to the store to buy more "for them."

Over the last year I've tried everything from participating in Menu Planning Monday, to shopping by sales only to skimping on the necessities so there was enough for food.

When I became serious about cutting grocery expenses down by 50 percent, I realized quickly I wasn't making the right choices. The worst choice of all was trying to create meal plans on Sundays by looking at the Sunday sales circulars. This became extremely time consuming and overwhelming. Between that and cutting coupons, there was no Sunday left.

I've since come to terms with a few things and all have helped cut the food budget and my time in the planning process:

1. Buy what's on sale, but shop at home first: This means you're planning menus for what's in the freezer, not what's on the front page of the ads. This means you can still buy what's on sale, but also have your meal plan ready and waiting. If this isn't your thing, you can find the Sunday ads at least a few days ahead of time in some online forums.

2. Plan out breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for every day of the week and write it down. This trick in particular has helped me avoid buying prepackaged foods unless they are practically free, of course.

3. Shop at Aldi for the basics. I have become reliant upon Aldi's .99 wheat bread, yogurt tubes that the girls love, honey very cheap to use in recipes, and all other baking needs as well as canned fruit. And do not get me started on the chocolate yogurt covered raisins that the girls request after every. single. nap. If you didn't know this already, Aldi is actually owned by the same company that owns Trader Joes.

4. Feed the kids when they are very hungry. I fail at this at least twice a week, but I have come to realize that when Liana is starving she will eat things she won't even look at on other days (ie: pasta). Jadyn, the better eater, is more likely to eat meat when she is hungry, too.

5. Avoid making meals just for them. Breakfast is easy (most of the time), lunch is still hard for us so I just eat what I serve them. But, dinner is becoming more and more tolerable. They are close to eating what we give them so long as it's not a casserole of any sort. They might have a bite or two, but they aren't interested in those mixed-up foods. They like a meat, a veggie, a grain/starch and a fruit all separate.

6. Cut out meat. We are not vegetarians, but I want to be. I am just not a diverse veggie eater, though, so I struggle with meat-free recipes. Still, we eat meatless at least three times a week right now. Sometimes more. When only buy meat on sale. At my stores, the same meats go on sale in rotation. I know to have recipes for the following: ground turkey, chicken breasts or drumsticks, and ground beef.

Here are two toddler-friendly recipes that have yet to be pushed away from the table, at our house. They happen to be fairly low-budget as well.

Dump Chicken: I cut these up, but they have enjoyed eating them off the bone. I worry too much, though.

Italian Meatloaf: This is from Deceptively Delicious, which I borrowed from a fellow mom. I have never seen Jadyn eat this well before or since. This was a big hit with us adults, too. This gave us at least another day or two of leftovers. Oh, and I didn't puree anything for this. I just grate the vegetables into it.

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Twins: Lessons in Nature vs. Nurture

There was a point in my life I would have argued to the grave that nurture, environment and everything a family did created the human being.

Then I had two of my own.

I imagine that some parents who have only one -- or one at a time -- might not understand exactly how much children are fully formed when they are born.

Here are the THREE most SURPRISING things I realized are purely genetic and entirely not influenced by anything other than just being born:

1. Being a picky eater (I can only vouch for the toddler years right now)

2. Good posture (You either got it, or you don't so should we tell that child who doesn't to sit up straight?)

3. Patience

P.S. By picky, I mean that the child dislikes more foods than likes; refuses to try new foods.

So, when you have TWO very different toddlers, how do you plan the day's activities and meals on a budget? These are the things I want to dive into this week: Meal planning and activity planning and how I struggle with both!










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A thing or two about writing, and books

I've been tagged. Twice.

First, by the lovely Shelli who's asking me to share some writing tips, "because I get paid to write." How funny that statement is to me.

And, the awesome Jena tagged me with a Meme about books, specifically to find the closest one and pull a paragraph out of it -- specifically, a very specific paragraph.

Here's the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag 5 people

So, for inspiration (and since I'm in my office), I'm going to pull from my writing books shelf. I chose three to scan and reflect on.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
On Writing, by Stephen King
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield

I first decided to pull from Bird by Bird because it is by far the most inspirational writing book I know, but when I got to the right place, I realized it was going to be a bit flat.

I nearly chose On Writing, since the sentences talk about passive voice, which I always struggle with when writing.

But, in the end, I chose The War of Art to quote.

I believe it. I believe there are angels. They're here, but we can't see them.

Now, on to Shelli's meme offering three writing tips. I certainly don't want to repeat my previous writing tips, but they are probably much the same anyway.

Pressfield had a specific point by talking about angels in a book about being creative. He continued later with this:

"When we conceive an enterprise and commit to it in the face of our fears, something wonderful happens. ... Angel midwives congregate around us; they assist as we give birth to ourselves, to that person we were born to be, to the one whose destiny was encoded in our soul, our daimon, our genius.

I wanted to continue quoting Pressfield here because it is exactly my first writing tip, and one that I have recently realized I had been doing all wrong for years.

BEGIN: Don't just begin today. Begin tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. Set goals of what each day's beginning will be. Maybe today your goal is to begin a letter, a lede to an article, the last paragraph of your novel. Whatever it is, begin again and again and again. It is not enough to just begin once just like none of us are born just once. We are born over and over and over in our lives.

GET OUT OF YOUR WAY: This is a tip I might have read a million times, but it's always worth repeating. This means get rid of your ego, sure, but it also means let go of what you thought it should be or would be or wanted it to be. Let go of the preconceived notions and let the writing flow and turn and twist like a river. The second you start looking back to see where you came from, you will hit a block, a rock or some other object that will stop your creative process. See. First. Tip.

SET DEADLINES: So, yeah, I'm a big deadline person. Try writing a (real) murder story in a couple hours and you will become rather proficient at churning out words without emotion, without too much thought, without a care in the world about a damn comma. If you want to finish a novel, do what I did last week ... set up an appointment to meet with an agent. That might be a bit progressive for some, but it's precisely what I needed to put that spark back into my novel and what I knew I needed to finally finish the dang thing. I need deadlines. I would never produce a thing if I didn't set them for myself.

So, now I tag THREE savvy souls and readers for BOTH of these. My dear girlfriend, Shannon, who doesn't have nearly enough on her plate (cough, cough), MPJ and Susana from Mama's Village.

I tried to pick three writers and readers ... 'cause I'm tired and running out of steam here. Tag, you're it.

Please feel free to offer your thoughts on angels, beginnings and writing in the comments section.





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Pitter, pitter, pitter Pat

These are the sounds where I am at
as two little girls run and jump.
I can't see a thing, but I know
that fun often sounds like thump.

Babysitters rule, people! Rule.

Back to work ...


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34 things

Today was a special day and in honor of that I wanted to publish a special list about people, places and things that can easily put a smile across my face right here, right now in this very season of my life. I am creating this list from an idea I found at Hula Seventy. I'm going to mix it up between things I did this past year that made me happy as well as people or things that make me happy, in general, every day.

1. My husband -- who has stood by me for the last seven years.


2. And, our rare, but awesome dates.

3. Silly, silly little girls


4. And, playhouses built for girls.

5. Special moments


6. That only I witness

7. Fun toddler activities



8. And, just winging it!

9. Girly goodness


10. And, this includes dresses and tights, too.

11. Coffee in my Pottery Barn mug


12. And, coffee beans ground fresh before each cup.

13. Baking bread


14. And, bread machines that help.

15. My bedside altar


16. And my massive to-be-read pile of books.

17. Surprises


18. And, knowing ahead of time so I can look forward to special treats.

19. Everything about the beach, the ocean -- the sounds, the smells, the food.


20. And, digging my feet in the sand.

21. Lilacs


22. And, roses in a vase.

23. Our Cherry Blossom tree in full bloom


24. And, just about every other tree on earth.

25. Chocolate messes


26. And, chunks of dark chocolate anyway I can get it, especially in cake.

27. Pigtails.


28. Family


29. Baby Legs


30. And, necks and ears and bellies and noses ...

31. Rooms with stunning views


32. And, A Room of One's Own.

33. Art of all kinds.


34. And, surrendering completely and utterly into anything full of life and imagination.










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A tribute, and a good-bye

Dear P-Dog,

You were always supposed to be your own blog post. You deserved it.

An ever-so-sudden diagnosis of cancer and your fast decline beat me to the punch. I am sorry for that. And many things.

You rocked as a dog and I am taking this harder than you might even imagine, considering how we got on toward the end. No matter how much you growled at the girls, or how much we kept changing things around, you were a true Prince to the end.

Please take good care from your new place, which hopefully doesn't include annoying toddlers. Please know that your Best Friend -- the one who picked you out and brought you home and took the best care of you -- never stopped loving you once I came along or once the two little rascals came along, too. Sure, things changed, but his dedication and devotion to you did not.



One thing is certain: You made an impression on two little girls, too.





You are a hero of a dog. A true beauty. A star above the rest.



In your 10 years with your Best Friend and I, you went to the beach, to Asheville, N.C., numerous romps in the parks, swimming in a creek, chased dozens of squirrels, rabbits and ran out of fear from mice. You caught balls, chewed up a candle that looked like a cinnamon roll and pooped all over the girls' playroom. And that's just one paragraph. The stories are endless.

And, Prince, while you may not have protected the house from a burglar, you certainly protected it from the evil mail carriers. You spent countless hours worrying about the mail, innocent people passing by and thumps in the house that might have been the next bad thing. It was a tiring job!

Rest, boy. Rest.

Dear Cupid -- Final Day

Thanks to everyone for participating in this extra fun and kind of different writing project. It has been refreshing reads all around for me.

Newest to the list of Dear Cupid entries include:

Karen
Bella
Jena

Laura asks Cupid nicely to be kind to the nice guys.

Shelli talks about the kind of men Cupid rescued her from.

Marta incorporates Dear Cupid into her fictional characters lives! (Great idea!) Here. Here. Here. And, here.

And, to really show off, Marta also wrote one just for her.

And, to everyone, may today and tomorrow forever wrap you in the kind of love you deserve.

Happy Weekend. I'm taking a long weekend from blogging to wrap myself in some love while taking on a bit of extra ambitious tasks.


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Dear Cupid -- Writing Project

Dear Cupid:

I heard you can do things. You know ... create a spark of love between a couple people. I realize my turn has come and gone and you did a rocking good job. I'm in a wonderful marriage filled with joy and peace and all that.

But, I gotta say that perhaps you should take some adult enrichment courses directed to folks in your profession.

You see, there's a lot of women like me who need a special kind of help. The ones like me who after a whole day of holding clingy toddlers who sometimes feel the need to fight over my lap, I'm not feeling much in the way of LOVE.

I'm not trying to offend you in any way, but I do think that since we can all improve on some things, perhaps you can improve on helping tired moms feel less tired and more interested in displaying love and affection to their husbands.

If you have any ideas, just send them my way.

But, send me an e-mail first because I'll need to check my calendar for any conflicting doctors appointments, writing deadlines and playgroups. Before I can check that, though, I have to run to the grocery store. But, before I can do that, I have to write my grocery list.

But, before I write the list, I will need to write out the meals for the week. But, before I do that I'll need to find some good, cheap recipes for the week. And, as I reach for the recipe box, I realize that SAID toddlers had worked together peacefully for once to kindly remove each recipe from the box so I have to reorganize.

By the time I get organized, SAID toddlers have started to ransack another room. Next thing you know it's 8:07 p.m. and who feels like creating meal plans or gathering coupons at 8:07 p.m.? I'm too busy thinking about how I didn't get around to showering today or exfoliating my lips or anything else for ME.

But, really, send that arrow message my way, anyway. I'll do my best this week to demonstrate my LOVE to all that are around me.

You know 'cause I do not do this nearly enough each day.

Sincerely,

Tired Mama

For more Dear Cupid letters, check out the following:

Laura asks Cupid nicely to be kind to the nice guys.

Shelli talks about the kind of men Cupid rescued her from.

Marta incorporates Dear Cupid into her fictional characters lives! (Great idea!) Here. Here. Here. And, here.

Do you have an entry? Email me the link to your post by Thursday morning. That's the last day to participate in this project. Oh, and be sure to link to either this post or the original post mentioning BETWEEN THE LINES, the new name of this blog.

And, get ready for a fun announcement next Monday!



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I like free things and I cannot lie

OK -- so my quest for a vaccum continues since the one my mom gave to us for Christmas is great for hardwood, but not so great for cleaning up after Big Hairy Dogs, two toddlers and a man who cannot grasp the concept of Take Off Shoes Before Entering Home.

So, go here for this.

It lays flat, people.

Flat.

Sigh.

Hey -- if you know of any other giveaways, please post them in comments. I'm in a mood to press my luck. For fun, of course.

I'm on deadline and wayyy behind so have a GREAT weekend!

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7 (couch potato) quirks

I had to ask my husband for some things about me that would be interesting and telling that I haven't already written about. I'm sure I'll surprise him with another one or two on this list.

1. One of my favorite movies is Napoleon Dynamite, which I would normally link to, but my computer is acting up and not allowing me to cut and paste. Time to reboot, I suppose. This is interesting because typically I am a very serious movie watcher and want a mature plot line to follow and that makes me think. But, this movie is so smart and funny, I just think it's classic.

2. I am a HUGE American Idol Fan. Dan and I have been watching this show since we accidentally found it in its first season. We weren't even married yet. And, as we reminisced tonight -- we even used to vote by phone and text back then! We have since stopped voting, but we still can be found in front of the tube two nights a week. We even cried during tonight's show and have a good prediction on who the winner will be this year. We've been watching it THAT long.

3. I recently forced myself to start watching and enjoying Gray's Anatomy. I did this because with the loss of Sex and the City -- and since American Idol is only one in the winter/spring -- I felt I needed something to finally move me forward in my TV watching. Otherwise, I don't really turn it on.

4. I cannot stand the sound of sports on TV. (In my defense, I am pretty sensitive to sounds to begin with.) But, the sounds of the men's voices as they get so excited over something so mundane is like nails on the chalk board to me. Then again, it's better than the hours of AM radio I've been subjected to in the last 5.5 years!

5. I have also become a big fan of The Big Bang Theory and think those geeks are the coolest guys on TV, which means they don't stand a chance, I'm sure.

6. I'm a bit obsessed with all things Sarah Jessica Parker and Sex and the City. I mean, still. Obsessed. Can you say living in the past?

7. Given the opportunity to once again watch whatever and whenever I want, I would watch every single Johnny Depp movie over and over -- especially Finding Neverland. Golly, he's sexy! With scissors on his fingers wearing all leather, dressed in a suit pretending with young boys and as a gypsy, anti-everything pirate! Sigh.

Bonus: I'd like to thank my dear sweet husband for being such a Movie God and for kicking my ass in all movie trivia games for the last five years. And we own bunches. Anyone up for a game sometime? Dan's on my team!



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blogiddy blog business

I'm like a billion years behind in all things Blog. That's what happens when three of our four family members with colds ends up with ear infections. And, sadly, it's looking like another virus is hitting us again this week. More to come on that later.

So, first up, a Great Big Hug and Thanks to Onedia, who gave me a Blessing a couple weeks ago. That was before the vomitfest and days upon days of crying and the sleep deprivation.

This is something first started by Ukok. We are each to bless three people, as she explains:

It’s a game of tag with a difference. Rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friends. By participating in this endeavor we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to. If you receive a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread here so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world!

And, she wrote:
“This is my wish for you:
Comfort on difficult days, Smiles when sadness intrudes,
Rainbows to follow the clouds, Laughter to kiss your lips,
Sunsets to warm your heart, Hugs when spirits sag,
Beauty for your eyes to see, Friendships to brighten your being,
Faith so that you can believe, Confidence for when you doubt,
Courage to know yourself, Patience to accept the truth,
Love to complete your life.”
Author unknown

I want to pass this along to three others.

Candace
Laura
Carey

Also, storyteller from Small Reflections, gave me an award telling me that my blog is a treasure! That was so nice, so thank you. There are so many wonderful treasures out there.


Here's a few treasures who are also new to my blog roll as well. Be sure to visit and tell them I sent you.

Bullseye, Baby
The Elmo Wallpaper
Halushki
She She
Having Enough
In Pursuit of Balance
Mama of Letters
Mama's Village
Sunshine's Blog
Writing in the Water

So, there, you little treasures, you ... be proud!

Next up: Michelle at Thebeartwinsmomsden tagged me a while back for a meme, which you probably figured out I don't typically do -- only because I write what moves me and most of that never fits in a meme.

But, I'm trying to change my ways.

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I tried repressing this post, but ...

If not now, when?

And, if not her, who?

These are the questions that have me Fuming. I'm on fire with anger.

When will be the best time to elect a woman president? Who could be a better president? And what will be the arguments against her?

Too bitchy? Too smart? Too aggressive? Too wimpy? Too emotional? Too what?

What?

Why not Hillary?

Why not?

Because she was married to Bill? Because she is strong? Because she is political. Controversial. Because she is smarter, more diplomatic and more globally respected than the current president?

Or, is it because she is a woman?

Why not her?

More importantly, who better to take on the highly paid men of Capitol Hill?

Who?

Because I can only think of one other woman who is strong enough, smart enough and willing to put their families and careers aside to take on the men of Washington and that is Nancy Pelosi, who right now is pretty busy in her new role. And, she, too is viewed as too Everything.

Aren't we all?

I'm too bossy. Too pushy. Too this and too that.

Politics intrigue me. They really do. I love watching Obama speak; he's a spin doctor, a Rhetoric man after my own heart. He speaks of great change. Change. We want change. "It's not about black or white. It's not about democrat or republican," he's said more than once.

These are the things I want to hear and he is saying them, he is singing them, he is preaching them from his podium day after day.

Well, what is it about then?

It's about bouncing back from a world of shame. It's about reviving our down-turned economy. It's about giving back American rights and freedoms. And, it's about restoring faith in our nation, again.

Sure, he can do this, and do it well. But, just about anyone could do a better job compared to our current president.

But, real change ... real, honest to goodness change, for me, is giving a woman -- a deliriously more-than-qualified, Yale graduate, fighter for human rights, intelligent WOMAN -- a chance.

Change, for me, means putting a woman, a mother, and a wife in that Oval Office instead of a man.

And, she is ready and waiting with all the power, experience, knowledge of public policy and the heart to serve this great country with every ounce of her being.

But, not now, no. Not Her. Gawd, no, not her.

So then ... who?


****

And, since I am no poet and since I am a mother, rising, I want to share this with you. If you won't listen to me, how about listening to Maya Angelou as printed in The Guardian Observer.

State Package for Hillary Clinton

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

This is not the first time you have seen Hillary Clinton seemingly at her wits' end, but she has always risen, always risen, don't forget she has always risen, much to the dismay of her adversaries and the delight of her friends.

Hillary Clinton will not give up on you and all she asks of you is that you do not give up on her.

There is a world of difference between being a woman and being an old female. If you're born a girl, grow up, and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies. Hillary Clinton is a woman. She has been there and done that and has still risen. She is in this race for the long haul. She intends to make a difference in our country. Hillary Clinton intends to help our country to be what it can become.

She declares she wants to see more smiles in the family, more courtesies between men and women, more honesty in the marketplace. She is the prayer of every woman and man who longs for fair play, healthy families, good schools, and a balanced economy.

She means to rise.

Don't give up on Hillary. In fact, if you help her to rise, you will rise with her and help her make this country the wonderful, wonderful place where every man and every woman can live freely without sanctimonious piety and without crippling fear.

Rise, Hillary.

Rise.

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Now that I can smell, and hear ...

I'm ready to get back to business. I left off talking about budgeting and being frugal and I do plan to revisit that soon.

But first ...

First.

Let's enjoy another group writing project!

With all the Hallmark hype put into Valentine's Day each year, we might as well honor the old name of this blog with a little letter project.

That's right.

Dear Cupid: (Insert your words here).

Write a post starting with Dear Cupid and link to this post and you'll automatically get some link love. I cannot promise a success like last time. But, I can bet it will be just as great as the first time around.

Have fun. Be serious. Be flirty. Go ahead, show some leg. It's OK. Whatever you have to do to w-r-i-t-e.

Like last time, as long as I have three or more links to list, I will run them all each day on various days up until FEB. 14. The last day to post for this project is Feb. 14. Oh, and please remember to use the new blog title: Between the Lines.

There. Go.

I hope all of your dreams come true, Cupid Style.


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