effort

"Momma!"

All hopped up

My mom came up for a visit this weekend, and she graciously offered (several times) to babysit on Saturday night.  After the third offer, we accepted and started to plot our date. 

We thought about going to the movies (we love the movies), but then I said, "Is it okay to go to the movies on our date?  Aren't we supposed to do something where we talk to each other?"

Balance

The other day, a colleague was looking through a deck of cards on my desk.  The cards are flashcards with business lingo on them.  She was shuffling through them and came to "Work-Life Balance." 

Tale of Two Mornings

Yesterday, the Get Ready To Leave Process felt like it was actually a battle of wills between me and Bug.  I'm not sure exactly how many times I said, "Please use your big boy voice," but I'm sure the number pales in comparison to how many times I said, "Please stop using the whiny voice!" 

Low-key weekend

"How was your weekend?"

I tend to answer the same way lately: "Good.  Low-key."

True but an incomplete answer.  How can I share what were actually the most memorable moments of the weekend -- the moments when time expanded?

Saturday morning, Squish was up at 5.  Time may have expanded for that moment.  I have no idea.  I am pretty sure I reached over Bug and tapped my husband in a plea for help.  (Yes, reached over Bug... we may have lost the war on that one... maybe just the battle... but probably the war.) 

Vote for A Momma Grows (every day!)

A Momma Grows has been nominated to the Top 25 Family Blogs by Moms 2012 at Circle of Moms...

Vote early and often.  You may vote daily until November 29, 2012.



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better

Two days ago, a (male) colleague asked me why I left my law firm.  After a bit of rambling, I found myself, sans filter: "It was hard to be a woman, a married woman, and then a woman who was having children.  Things started to get ... I didn't like the way certain people's biases were playing out."

Yesterday, I woke up and thought to myself, "Today, I will not let my inner radical feminist go unfiltered at work.  I will remember [that CEO] who has said that she never noticed having been the only woman in her upper-level classes in college.  I will remember [that other CEO] who wore a pink blazer to the masters.  I will let my success be my roar."

Today, I woke up in a state that elected its first female senator and in a country that elected 20 women to the Senate - the highest number in US history.

Thank you, my country.  I feel so much better now.

COMMUNITY (NYC) NEWS: BAM! Puppets on Film Festival

I recently got a note about the following festival at BAM this weekend.  Check it out and enjoy!

One of the most well-attended BAMcinématek series of 2011, Puppets on Film returns

GOAFVA

For the past couple of weeks, I have seen various status updates on Facebook letting me know about "GOTV."  It was not until maybe a day or two ago that I realized "GOTV" stands for Get Out The Vote - and not GO Television, an internet television station where people publicly support their candidates (something I clearly made up in my head but believed wholeheartedly). 

With that misunderstanding out of the way, please allow me to persuade you to Get Out And Freaking Vote Already (GOAFVA!), if you haven't already.

I want anyone reading this to GOAFVA today, but I'd like to focus on women for just a moment.

We have been guaranteed the right to vote for less than a century in this country.

Is that right? 
Does that seem right to you? 
Less than a century? 

It was in the 1900s when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

My grandmother was born less than a decade after its ratification.
 
My mother attended a college that excluded women (for being women) until the year she enrolled.

I was born only a year after the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was added to Title VII.

I had my first child the same year that the president signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

GOAFVA.

Do it as a thank you to the women who made it possible. 

GOAFVA.

Model the behavior you want to see in your granddaughters, daughters, sisters, nieces, God-daughters, and students.

GOAFVA.
GOAFVA.
GOAFVA.

Just vote already!

Scrappy The Chicken

Perhaps it goes without writing, but we are not exactly organized around here despite my best intentions.  The kids' closet is filled with small storage containers (labeled by size!) of their old or out-of-season clothing.  Nevertheless, there is a growing pile of clothes on the closet floor waiting for someone to put them in properly labeled storage container homes.  And still they wait.  .

Yesterday morning (Halloween) was like most mornings except that Bug and Squish would be wearing costumes for the day.