Mom woke up at 7a.m., after a rough night of sleep. I have a sinus infection/cold and the ice pelting our bedroom chimney all night didn’t help me sleep well. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard a door slam, so I went to investigate. “Thomas” (a.k.a. my husband) was bundling Audrey and Cammy up in the Ranger, for a ride in the snow. I was thinking to myself, you’ve got to be kidding me. Its freezing and they’re insane. Continue reading Chronicles of a Smith Family Snow Day
What do you think? I’m so excited to finally go live. Wednesday is my one year anniversary for blogging, but I couldn’t wait until then to have my big reveal. I’ve learned a lot in the last year, and the biggest shocker was that my site, which I paid someone to design, was lacking some key components of a blog. I can’t totally blame my designer though, as I definitely went into this blindly.
In the past year I’ve become part of a very big, talented and generous community. Through reading and following several incredible bloggers, I discovered some sites are cool based on their look alone. Mine was not. I was also Continue reading My New Design!
1) Twisted Sisters by Jen Lancaster – ![9780451239655_p0_v1_s260x420[1]](https://thelatchkeymom.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/9780451239655_p0_v1_s260x4201.jpg)
I’m a huge Lancaster fan, she is so funny, both on the page and in person. This novel, to be published February 4th, is about sibling rivalry, with a Freaky-Friday body-swapping plot. Sounds like fun, and some much needed levity after all the diet/health books I’ve read this month. Fort Lauderdale peeps, you’ve made her book tour schedule, and you should go! It is quite an experience. I’ve never been to a book signing that had tailgaters! Audrey was with me and she made quite the impression, let me tell you. Those two are kindred spirits. Uh-oh.
January is named after the Roman god Janus, who was always shown as having two heads. He looked back to
the last year and forward to the new one.
“January, month of empty pockets! … let us endure this evil month…” – Colette
“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you ….. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.”
– Ruth Stout
Obviously, I have mixed feelings about January!
I’ve been hard at work updating my blog with a new look, and a (hopefully) more user-friendly lay out. After begging my husband, father-in-law and a techno-savvy friend for help, and getting little or no response, I decided to try it on my own. It’s been interesting, although not without a few headaches and frustration. Surprise, surprise – I think I may have done it. Looking at the different themes and playing with the design aspect was fun for the creative side of my brain. Not so fun was trying to figure out which widgets and plugins did what and how to activate them. When I got overconfident, those aspects brought me back to earth. Still, I did it. I do have one little glitch that is definitely above my pay grade and I’m this close to completing negotiations with hubby dearest. Once I secure his technical assistance and Q&A, I should be good to go. Fingers crossed that the new look will be up this week. And when it does, I’ll have a giveaway to celebrate.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because aside from some awards show recaps, I haven’t done much blogging. I have two book reviews due, and I’m working on a couple pieces that I plan to submit to other outlets, which is very nerve-wracking and exciting. I’ve had lots of things I’ve wanted to blog about, but time has been disappearing for me – poof, it’s gone. So I’m going with another random post, like the one I did in December.
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