The End & Goal #83

With this post I will have officially completed a NaBloPoMo.  My very first in fact.  I will also have completed Goal #83:  Blog every day for a month.  The questions is, what did I gain from this experience?  Well, let me start by telling you what I didn't get.

First of all, I didn't win any prizes.  I guess when you officially sign up for nablopomo, those that successfully complete the challenge can be "drawn" to win prizes???  As far as I know, I didn't win.  And that's okay, because I didn't do this to win stuff.

Second of all, I didn't really get more "page views" just because I was on a list somewhere.  I guess page views are important to some bloggers?  Yeah, not me so much.  Sure, it's cool to know that people are reading my stuff, but it's not why I do this.  And technically, I guess I did get more page views total for the month, but it was because I had more pages to view since I was blogging every day! 

This leads me to the third thing I didn't get:  more readers.  I guess for some bloggers it's all about how many followers you can get?  Yeah, that's not me either.  I haven't checked my stats page in awhile, but all of my readers were the usual ones as far as I can tell meaning that signing up for noblopomo didn't bring in newbies.

So, if I didn't do this whole blog-every-day-for-a-month thing for prizes, page views, or readers than why do it?  That's an easy one.

I did it because I like to write.  I like to share.  I come here as an outlet for my feelings.  I come here to store the stories of my life so I don't forget them.  And sometimes I simply come here to keep my family updated on our lives. 

But there's been a problem lately.  I haven't been making much time for this space.  I haven't been making much time for me, to do what I love.  This challenge was about me reconnecting with myself and my blog.  By forcing myself to write every day, I reminded myself how much I love to do it!  I'm hoping that my now that my love for writing has been rekindled, that maybe I won't let myself drift so far away from it again, away from myself and who I am. 

The past thirty days have been an amazing experience.  It hasn't been easy.  There were nights I barely squeezed in a post.  Turns out that I actually prefer to write when I have something to write about.  And it turns out that my life doesn't offer up interesting material every single day.  But, here I am at the end of thirty days of posts, and I couldn't be happier with what I have done and what I have achieved!

And to you faithful readers out there...Thank you for coming on this journey with me!  Feel free to keep stopping in - I plan to be writing quite a bit even if it's not every day anymore!  And leave comments - I love hearing what you all have to say! 

Happy end of November everyone!  Hope to see you in December!

 

Gift #101 - Time to write here, my blog

Check out my new digs!

Look what I learned to do!!!!  Finally!!!!  I love that my blog is all decorated for Christmas now!  I love even more that I leraned how to do it all! by! myself! 

Yeah, yeah, I know.  It wasn't that hard.  I went to a website (shabbyblogs.com) and copied some code and followed the directions on where to paste it in my layout and voila!  Pretty cool though, huh?

Okay, okay.  I'm done patting myself on the back now, and I'm going back to work!

Thanksgiving Gifts

71.  Safe travels to Iowa

 

72.  Car seats to keep my boys safe

 

73.  Portable DVD players to entertain my boys on a long car ride

 

74.  Laughter from the backseat as Logan entertains Gavin

 

75.  My boys' love for their grandma and grandpa...

76.  ...and vice versa!

 

77.  A trip to the movie theater with my sister, Dannielle (Twilight!)

 

78.  Movie theater popcorn with big cups of Dr. Pepper

 

79.  Wine shopping with my sister

 

80.  Drinking wine with my dad and sister

 

 

81.  Thanksgiving dinner with family

 

 

82.  Gavin's naps - especially the hard won ones

 

83.  Playing a board game with my family

 

84.  Laughter so hard your sides ache

 

85.  Snuggling in bed with Gavin

 

86.  Family pictures

87.  Breakfast omlets made fresh by Dad

 

88.  8 million rounds of "Perfection" with Gavin

 

 

89.  Watching Logan play Mouse Trap with Grandpa

 

 

90.  8 million more round of "Perfection" between Gavin and Grandma

 

 

91.  Watching Logan bond with Grandpa

 

 

92.  Watching Gavin bond with Grandpa

 

 

93.  Mom and Dad's kitchen island perfect for blogging and reading

 

 

94.  Quiet time to myself

 

95.  Listening to Gavin "play" Mouse Trap by himself

 

 

96.  Talks with my mom

 

97.  A broken car fixed by Dad

 

98.  Tight hugs good-bye

 

99.  Amazingly well behaved boys on a long drive home

 

100.  Being home again after our trip

elastic waist bands and family pictures

Yesterday I talked about lunch - you know, the big Thanksgiving kind of lunch.  Today, I want to talk about what happens after lunch - you know, the part where everyone has to change into pants with stretchy waist bands because we've all eaten too much.

Anyway, I had this big, awesome idea of taking some pictures of me and the boys together outside in the field behind my parents house.  I even bought the boys cute coordinated shirts and picked out an outfit for myself (this one from my existing wardrobe).  I thought I'd take the pictures in the morning - you know, before lunch and the ineveitable pot belly that I would eat myself into.  But, Gavin didn't want to get dressed.  He was much happier running around in his diaper.  I thought about wrestling him into his clothes and then forcing my kids outside for pictures, but then I thought Hey!  This is Thanksgiving!  Forget it!  I'll do it later! 

So, lunch came and went.  For a nanosecond during lunch I thought I could get Gavin outside right after eating for some pictures, but that thought ran away the second he melted down at the table from exhaustion.  Down for a nap he went, and out the window went the idea of an "after lunch photo opp."  I wasn't worried.  I though after nap will be fine.

I didn't take into account the drastically shifting Iowa weather.  What started out as a very nice day for Iowa in November had turned into an extremely windy and much colder day by four o'clock when Gavin got up from his nap.  Not to mention he didn't wake up in the cheeriest of moods.  And I thought Oh well.  Maybe tomorrow.  It's okay if they're indoor pictures I guess.

After that I dressed Gavin up in his footie jammies (his choice), and I changed into my pajamas (the pants have an elastic waist band - woohoo!).  And then I thought Why not now?  After all, a family picture is a family picture.  Who cares if we're not wearing color coordinated clothes in a pretty field with perfect lighting?  And Logan was more than happy to put his pajamas on, too!

And that's how I got my perfect-to-us Thanksgiving Day family photos.  It's not what I envisioned, but I think in a lot of ways these pictures turned out even better.  They capture exactly who the boys and I were on that day (and most days):  three happy people who love each other and enjoy hanging out in our pajamas together on a very special day! 

You Capture ~ Lunch

I love Thanksgiving!  The food, the family, the food, the fun, and oh, the food...  It's easy to capture "lunch" when Thanksgiving dinner is your lunch!  This year the boys and I spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house in Iowa where my mom put out quite the spread...

It looked even better on our plates...

My boys are big fans of food...

My sister and I happend to be big fans of wine with our food...

All in all, it was an amazing lunch.  In fact, it was an amazing Thanksgiving - one of the happiest I can remember!

Click for more "lunch" You Captures!


A message to the adult members of the family I love so very much:  Please notice that I posted none of those pictures I took of any of you eating.  Your welcome.  Love, Kassandra

Thankful ~ a post about gifts

****UPDATE****  Clearly I still don't know what day of the week this is (was?) because this post was planned for Saturday and yesterday was clearly Sunday to everyone but me...

Turns out I didn't have a post planned for yesterday (seems I was (am?) having trouble keeping track of what day it is). That makes this post right on time!

I've been working hard to not only list the gifts in my life, but also include pictures. I think there's something about pictures that say more than words - at least for me. Must be my extremely visiual nature! Today's list is another one full of pictures of all the gifts in my life!  I've actually been working on putting this one together for about a week now, so I'm excited to finally get to share it!

56.  A message of hope that greets me every morning

57.  My iPhone...
58.  ...and the entertainment it provides my children with!

59.  Learning how to hang pictures by myself!

60.  Stacks of books to read to my boys

61.  Lazy mornings spent in pajamas

62.  Walks by myself on cool fall afternoons...
63.  ...and the crisp, "fall" smell of the air.

64.  Taking my own pictures of my boys...
65.  ...and making them into Christmas cards on my own.

66.  The ability to provide my boys with gifts on Christmas Day...

67.  ...and fun, new decorations picked out with help from them!

68.  Time spent decorating the house with my boys' help.

69.  The birth of Jesus...

70.  ...and his sacrifice for all of us.

Home Sweet Home

This is not the blog post I planned for today.

First...I spent the morning packing up and getting ready to leave my patent's house only to have my car NOT start...

Second...after getting on the road a tad late (battery just needed a recharge due to stupid Iowa cold) I spent SEVEN hours traveling back to MO with my two boys BY MYSELF.

Third...when we got home Logan wanted to decorate the Christmas tree and, well, that had to take precedence...

Fourth...I just plain forgot...

Fifth...I still haven't solved that "storage issue" my blog keeps yelling at me about.

And sixth...I can't even remember what I planned to post anyway and am too lazy to go back and look now...

So much for that plan I wrote...

Oh well. I'm letting myself off the hook. After all, anyone who's ever done this blog for the month of November thing (at least the ones I've read) says that through Thanksgiving is the toughest time to get the job done, and I still consider it Thanksgiving until tomorrow night. So, see! I'm justified!

*ahem*

And, yes, I do intend to keep on telling myself that and completely disregard the fact that really I just almost plain forgot....

Happy Thanksgiving!

( see, I'm still playing the part!)