Without Friends I’d Be Dead. Stop Calling Me Dramatic.

Although I fell in love with Alex months ago, it was her recent commitment to limiting how much television that she allows her children to watch that made me realize that she is perfect for Small Moments Mondays.  By limiting television, she is attempting (and succeeding) to be more present for her two beautiful children. Whether she’s playing chase, dragging a kiddie pool through her house, or playing Go Fish, she is living in the moment with her children and she is making those memories that they will all carry with them. Check out her  Harcore Television Challenge!

I truly admire Alex, she is honest, open, funny, intelligent, and vulnerable, all of which are evidenced in God, What If I Cannot Handle It?, My Son, Revisited, and Our Common Humanity Is Easier To Find Than You Think.  Check Your Pants.

I am so grateful that our paths have crossed. I would certainly call her my PF.

(If you are unfamiliar with Twitter, here’s a brief rundown, Twitter Cheat Sheet.)

Thank you, Alex, for coming by and sharing your small moment with us!

Without Friends I’d Be Dead. Stop Calling Me Dramatic by Alex

I don’t do small very well. I have a loud laugh, big ideas, and a tendency to forget to use my INDOOR VOICE.

So Small Moments Monday intimidates me.

And as I’m staring at the computer screen, I have a twelve DM interchange with my best bloggy friend. Saying nothing and everything.

How’s your morning?

Stress poops, ahoy!

Your readers rule.

What do you think about this idea?

I’m crying.

Why didn’t you sleep?

We should tell them I’m your organizational coach. Haha.

She didn’t even TRY to murder me. Boo.

I hope today is a better day.

Our friendship is a fluke. I respond to something random in a conversation I’m not technically included in. She follows me back because of it. I DM’d her about a song. And then tell her that it’s stupid because she probably gets DMs about the song all the time. She says no, she’s never heard of the song. In the process, I accidently guessed her real name.

She and I needed more than 140 characters to finish our conversations over the next few weeks. We moved to email. Then exchanged phone numbers. Then met in person. Then the big finale FACEBOOK FRIENDS. (Friendships are TOTALLY like dating. Except for the kissing part.)

All the while, we refer to each other as pfs. Potential friends. Until one day I realize that we are FRIEND FRIENDs. But ff is already taken so we go nostalgic and breaking out the pf here and there.

And now I have this person who gets blogging and mothering and twitter-ing and insists my impatience is apart of my charm. (After I DM her: WHERE ARE YOU five minutes after my first DM of the day.)

Last week, while discussing BlogHer, I warn her of my overpacking tendencies (I GO BIG PEOPLE) and she responds: I am an underpacker. Together, we make one functional adult. Hoorah!

I can’t imagine traveling this bumpy road of blogging and writing and social awkwardness without a pf.

If you don’t have one, get one! Go out on a limb with someone you like in this bloggy world. Because as big as the Inter-ba-nets may be, it’s just made up of people. And moments.

Moments that wouldn’t be the same without friends. Meanwhile, you can always DM me… if you like loud impatient people.

When Alex Iwashyna isn’t DM-ing with her pf, she blogs at Late Enough mostly about life, parenting, marriage, politics, culture, religion, and her inability to wake up in the morning and not hate everyone. Often zombies, fire, and rude Southern people make appearances, but Alex can pretty much guarantee that she’ll still be in her pjs while fighting them off. She also hangs out on the Twitter as @L8enough and Facebooky.

Twitter Cheat Sheet

I am so excited that tomorrow is Monday (I honestly never thought I’d be able to say that), as I will be bringing you another installment of Small Moments Mondays. 

If you aren’t on Twitter, you really should be some of the terms in tomorrow’s post might be unfamiliar to you.

So, in preparation, I thought it might be helpful to offer you a bit of a cheat sheet for the Twitter vocabulary you’ll encounter.

But before I begin, if you aren’t sure what Twitter is all about or why you should even care,  How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live , explains it all quite well.

Here are some terms that you might find helpful when reading tomorrow’s post:

Tweet: a post with a maximum number of 140 characters.

DM, or Direct Message: a private message sent between two people.

Follow: When you follow someone, you are essentially subscribing to their tweets.  (Unlike Facebook, they do not need to accept a request, nor is the follow automatically reciprocal.)

And some general terms that you might find helpful should you decide to give Twitter a try:

RT, or retweet: the re-posting of a friend’s tweet.

Tweeps: a blend of twitter and peeps (people), a term used to refer to friends. 

Should you decide that Twitter is for you, check out this extensive Twittonary!

A Collection of Joyous Small Moments

I haven’t shared the beauty in a while, so I’m going to take this lazy Sunday afternoon to do just that! 

I promise, I’ll be brief so that you can spend your moments exploring these wonderful treats:

In a recent post, At Least for Me, Kris, from Pretty All True, lovingly wrote about her eldest daughter’s transition from her crib to a big girl bed.  When I read it, my heart grew so big it nearly exploded.  This post is beautiful and tender and I could reread it many times over.  Though it spoke to me partly because we recently introduced Katie to her big girl bed, this story of a mother’s intense love for her child is a gift for us all.

Andy, from Crazy with a Side of Awesome Sauce, recently captured a lovely small moment with a gorgeous, warm photograph, Golden Afternoon, that made me peaceful and happy.

My favorite food is salmon.  Every time I eat it, I am overwhelmed with bliss and caught in that very moment.  Meredith, from In Sock Monkey Slippers, recently posted a recipe for Rosemary and Garlic Roasted Salmon that screams out for me to make it and eat it entirely by myself.  Some things simply cannot be shared.

I am often struck by the way we remember things and by which bits of an experience stay with us.  Jen, from Denton Sanitorium, has written a beautiful post, M is for Memories, that thoughtfully questions how her children will remember their recent vacation. 

Though Guilty Squid never fails to make me laugh, I read a post this week that made me giggle, guffaw, and cry with laughter.  I loved it and I think you will too. Read it here:  This is the story of how I thought this Hollywood writer/director/producer was proposing to me. As it turns out, I may be proposing *for* him.

Chris Jordan has captured the essence of living in the moment with these beautiful shots of summer bliss:  The Camera Just Loves This Kid

Now, I’m off to feed Katie some watermelon!

Reason #63 Why Having a Preschooler Rocks

This morning we were running errands when Katie spotted a huge fountain and wanted desperately to get closer.

We didn’t have a ton of time to finish our shopping before we had to hurry home for lunch and naps, but she asked so nicely that I indulged her.

We sat and watched the fountain for 15 minutes and she laughed with glee every time the water shot up.

There was no errand more important that seeing how happy that little bit of time in front of a fountain–a fountain that I’ve looked right past more times than I can count–made her .

Lunch was delayed, naps were late, but we were happy.

So That You May Know Her…

Dear Katie and Matthew,

Your grandmother is lying in a hospital bed tonight and she is dying. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, but very soon.

Daddy is with her, holding her hand and telling her just how much we all love her.

Neither of you will remember her and that breaks my heart.

There is so much about her that I want you both to know.

She was dynamic. She could quote Shakespeare, discuss philosophy, and sing and play the guitar. Daddy tells a childhood story of camping with her–he remembers her sweet voice singing over the crackling of the campfire. I wish I could have heard that.  I wish you could have heard that.

She was eclectic. I will never forget the outfit she wore to your Uncle Todd’s graduation. She was dressed from head to toe in the most vibrant shade of turquoise, complete with floppy hat and arms adorned with bangle bracelets that just sparkled in the sunlight. She was lit from within in that wild outfit and it suited her beautifully.

She was intelligent. She was a well-respected trauma nurse who pursued her education while raising three young boys. She saw so much in her days as a nurse that made her even more compassionate and empathetic.

She was kind. She was quick to tell you why you were special to her. She was so generous with her words and never missed an opportunity to tell you exactly what made you unique. Sometimes, she would make me blush with her compliments, but I always appreciated and welcomed them.

She was whimsical. She loved astrology and loved to tell you what your sign meant and how it impacted you. Daddy and I would roll our eyes, but that didn’t stop her–she believed it and it was endearing.

She was the most optimistic person I’ve ever known. Her glass, even in the most difficult of times, was always half full. When life dealt her a terrible hand, she found inner strength that astonished us.

She will live on in your daddy, who is the man that he is because of her. She taught him to be a gentleman, to be kind and courteous. It was from her that he learned how to treat women and how to respect others.

I want you each to know that she loved you. She was so happy to have grandchildren and you made her just light up. She exuded happiness when she spoke of all of the fun that you would have with her as you grew and I’m so sorry that you won’t have that opportunity. She would have caused all sorts of fun trouble with you.  She truly looked forward to being, in her words, “your partner in crime.”

I am so truly sorry that you didn’t have the opportunity to know her.

I promise to share all of my stories with you. I will do all that I can to keep her alive in my memory so that I can share her with you both.

She has had such a rough time of it. Now it is time for us to wish her peace.

With all of my love,
Mommy

Reason #27 Why Having a Preschooler Rocks

I had the pleasure of spending an entire half hour this morning giggling, while practicing nose (Eskimo) kisses, butterfly kisses, and bunny kisses with Katie.

Seriously…it just doesn’t get much better than that.