You’re welcome.

(I was rushing to an appointment less than an hour after touching down in NYC, and I looked up to see this. I almost missed it.)

Ironic, no? A blog conference ate my blog content? Here’s the good news, though:

At 7am Saturday morning, I snuck out of my fabulously soft, white linen’d bed in a Manhattan hotel, found a corner of my room to curl up in, and verbal vomited over a dozen post ideas onto my laptop. It was glorious.

Some of them are stories to tell, others are tips to share, still others are messages I’ve been inspired or encouraged to finally write out for the world to read. I simply cannot wait to share them with you. I missed you, friends. I missed interacting with you and sharing our daily lives together in this space and I am excited to get back to that.

But for now I need to go smell my baby’s head one more time and then scrub the city out from underneath my fingernails.

$50 cash on hand in various denominations and coins is way more than you’ll need to give as change.

People will show up 45 minutes early on the first day.

A couple weeks before, make a list of the things/areas of your house you want to sort through for items to sell.

The Dollar Store is your place to buy garage sale signs.

Organize by price and/or type of item.

Books sell well at 50¢ for paperback and $1 for hardback.

Make things cheap. Make them cheaper the last day.

The baby items and (cheaply priced) furniture will sell first.

Keep track of what you sell and what you donate at the end.

Bring the dog(s). They’re good conversation starters.

Be prepared for some spectacular people watching.

Advertise better than I did. (Post it on craigslist.org more than the night before. Put the signs out 3 days before.)

Hang up as many clothing items as you can. They are easier to look through and more likely to sell that way.

You might not make very much money, but you will get rid of a lot (especially if you donate what you don’t sell).

Chill out, relax, and have fun.

I got an email yesterday. It said something along the lines of “How do you do it all?”

O no.

That means I have failed.

Because in a close second behind showing off my adorable baby, my biggest desire on this blog is this: to never, ever, ever give the impression that I have my crap together. Because I don’t.

I don’t have it together to the extent that OBaby was squeezed into pajamas last night that are a size too small for him because I forgot to cycle the laundry again yesterday.

I don’t have it together to the extent that at 10:00pm two nights ago I sent DanO to the 24 hour pharmacy to pick-up my perscription refill that I needed to take that night.

I don’t have it together to the extent that DanO asked for me to clean our bedroom as my gift to him for Father’s Day. O yes, friends, it was that. bad.

I don’t have it together to the extent that I arrived 5 minutes late (and after several of the guests) to my own son’s birthday party.

I don’t have it together to the extent that this is my kitchen counter right now:

I don’t have it together to the extent that I own 8 reusable grocery bags because I keep forgetting to bring them with me to the store so I just buy a new one each time.

I don’t have it together to the extent that I had every intention of having a garage sale this summer, but the weekends are slowly ticking away and I am no closer to ready.

I don’t have it together to the extent that I just threw away 3 rotten cucumbers that I had forgotten in the back of the produce drawer.

I don’t have it together to the extent that even after I finally cleaned our bedroom, it still pretty much looks like this every night (or worse):

I don’t have it together to the extent that last month I posted about our lettuce garden this summer and put “to be continued…” at the end, yet haven’t even touched the next post in the series.

I don’t have it together to the extent that right now there is a pile of not ready-to-go cloth diapers just strewn about on OBaby’s changing table.

I don’t have it together to the extent that my dog was out of water for probably an entire day, and I didn’t even notice. My parents did when they came to town and they refilled her bowl.

I don’t have it together to the extent that a few weeks ago when our dog Pearl was with our in-laws, this was the standard state of my dining room floors:

I so badly wish you could just come ring my door bell and walk right in my house unexpected so that your perspective of our life would be realistic. It’s hard to keep it balanced on here because of course I want to post the pretty pictures of my family wading in a stream and not post the ones of the cheerios in every nook and cranny of my house… I mean, don’t we all? But the moment this blog shows only stream-wading pictures and no piles of unfolded laundry pictures, it becomes a lie, and I really don’t want that. I do not want to pretend to be the counter-top composting, organic bread from scratch making, pantry perfectly stocking, immaculate house keeping blogger lady who toots butterflies.

Because I don’t.

My toots can be rather stinky, in fact. As can my burps.

There. There is your dose of O My Reality for the week. You are so welcome.

(PS: I just washed the jeans I’m wearing and I totally have muffin top right now. Just keeping it real.)

~~~~~~

Now feels like a really funny time to tell you something:

O My Family is a finalist in the 2010 BlogLuxe Awards hosted by SocialLuxe!

The ironic part, though, is that we are in the “Organized Blog” category. I kid you not.

So maybe, despite the fact that I so do not have my crap together, maybe just maybe one or two of you have come away from this blog inspired to organize, which is awesome. I am honored and thrilled that friends and readers (who are friends I just haven’t met yet) took the time to vote for O My Family.

To thank you (and because apparently you think I’m organized? Your words, not mine…) I want to officially declare next week O My Organization week here on O My Family! I promise I will still post adorable pictures of my now-one-year-old OBaby, and I also promise to steer completely clear of butterfly tooting territory or pretending I have my crap together, but I thought it would be fun if we could do a little organization overhaul together! Heaven knows (and now you know, too) that I could use it.

Of course, if there’s an organization topic or project you feel inspired to tackle, O My Organization Week will include a link-up on Friday July 30th where we can share with each other. Maybe you can show me your kitchen counters and unfolded piles of laundry and then we can do something about it together! Sound like a plan?

(I know, I know. You’ve never been quite so excited to alphabetize that spice drawer, have you?)

…to be followed around by a posse at family functions.

I threatened to start an herb garden one time when I was quite pregnant, nesting and feeling overwhelmed by all of the crafty, resourceful, domestic amazingness that exists out there in the blogosphere.

Well, friends, turns out I am a woman of my word.

(Ok except that it’s not herbs.)

If you have been to my house, you are probably giggling right now. Our backyard is a veritable forest. Over grown because our house was uninhabited for almost a year before we bought it and no matter how much we try to trim and pull and kill each spring, it all. comes. back.

Our front yard? Well, we are presently… uhm… unscaping it. The former bushes out front were too big for the space (also over grown past the point of cutting them back) so over the last few weekends DanO has cut all 7 bushes down, dug a ditch around the roots, and pulled them out.

(After unscaping we have every intention of landscaping. It’s just that these things take time. And sweat.)

We have a jungle in the back yard and a construction zone in the front, which would explain the riotous laughter coming from those who have seen our house and are now reading about the fact that I’ve started a garden.

Pffffffft.

Believe me, I think it’s as funny as you do.

But, what I don’t find funny is the shear amount of produce I end up throwing away each year after it goes bad, especially lettuce. I don’t know what it is, but so often I fail to get to the end of a head of lettuce or the bottom of a bag of spinach before it’s no longer usable. One of the main reasons we are not part of a crop share this year (as we were last year) is because I found myself tossing out once perfectly beautiful produce that was now molded.

It was maddening. It was wasteful. It was irresponsible. So I decided I would (try to) do something about it.

It all started with some teeny tiny seeds, some potting soil, and a recycled seed-starter kit back in March.

After tucking 3-4 seeds into each little pod, we set the set them on the kitchen table in the sun to wait for their big debut.

To be continued…

(I bet you didn’t think gardening could be suspenseful. Boy were you right wrong.)

I know. Five is a lot for a Monday. Believe me, I know. We had such a fabulous weekend that I feel like I need the weekdays to recover from it. This post is a veritable brain dump of everything swimming around in my head lately. Sorry to swamp you so early in the week, but really I have to write this stuff down before it disappears to that place that thoughts go never to be found again.

1. BlogHer 2010: I’m going. I’M GOING! Did you hear that? I’m going!

What’s that? You’re going?

YES! I’m going!

I wasn’t planning on attending the BlogHer Conference because OBaby will be just over a year old and we will still be nursing (and although I lugged the whole O My Fam to Utah for The Casual Blogger Conference, New York City just seemed like it would be pushing it). Well, OBaby is headed full speed toward self-weaning and the only way I can make myself OK with that fact is to reward myself with a solo trip. (Well, ok, it’s not quite full speed, but he now doesn’t nurse in the night more often than he does, and he usually is too busy to nurse more than 3 times during the day.) With this soon to be found freedom, I will be going to New York City in August with thousands of bloggers, friends, and friends I just haven’t met yet.

I am, howdoyousay?, STOKED.

(PS: I will pump while I’m there and build up bottles before I go so that I can return to nursing when I get home. It’s just that the number of bottles I need to have on hand is now a feasible one. (Because I know you were curious about my plans to use a vacuum-action machine on myself. You are welcome.))

2. O My First Birthday Bash: Have you seen this button that magically showed up one day over there on the right? Do you own a small business or an Etsy shop? Have you clicked it yet?

3. Father’s Day: Was perfect. Perfect I tell you. DanO got to sleep in (although he didn’t really sleep as much as he did lay there and zone out until he could convince himself to get out of bed) and then got up and took care of the yard. I tried to talk him out of it, but he’d have none of that.

After the first nap of the day we went to a local cafe where Dads ate free and kids had ample climbing surfaces and menu options. I love kid-friendly places, don’t you?

From the cafe we went straight to the Harriet Island Landing on the Mississippi River and boarded a paddle boat. We took a 90 minute sight seeing tour of the river and it was the absolute perfect weather. OBaby thoroughly enjoyed his first boat ride.

DanO thoroughly enjoyed his first Father’s Day.

4. This Week’s Giveaway: I will be posting a fabulous giveaway later today, but I wanted to give you a heads up and one little clue about it. It starts with “V” and ends in “intage Pearl”.

Get excited!

5. Top Baby Blogs: I absolutely love getting to know different people through the blogging world, and one of the ways I have been able to do that is through blog directories like Top Baby Blogs. In fact, many of the women I am nearly dying of excitement over meeting at BlogHer I connected with through Top Baby Blogs. You may have seen the button on my sidebar about it, but I wanted to post this banner here because the page was reset yesterday and I would appreciate a click to keep me involved in the directory and able to connect with other mommy bloggers (Like you! Are you in the directory?).

I’d be ever so grateful if you felt inclined to click this button.

Thank you, and have a wonderful Monday!

It’s time.

I hear his first squawk and I roll over to DanO. “Hunny, can you go get him?”

It takes a few moments for my words to sink in, even though they are the same words I have uttered at 3:00 am in the dark of our room every night for the last 8 months, when OBaby began sleeping in his own bed.

DanO repeats my arm-raising stretch then puts his feet down on the cold hardwood floor as he has at 3:00 am every night for the last 8 months. He sits upright, then stands and begins trudging slowly to the nursery.

I roll over and pull back the blankets covering me. I fluff up my pillow and push it up to the top of the mattress. I roll up the blanket I keep on my side of the bed for this very reason, then I place the rolled blanket along the outside edge. I arrange it just-so, making a place for my sweet baby to come snuggle next to me and be nourished.

I am preparing for my baby to come. Feathering my nest.

A blanket on two sides, a pillow on one, and mama on the other – we have cuddled each other like this every night for the last 11 months. In the early days of nursing I was so exhausted I would sleep with him latched on for hours each night. Now, I keep myself awake as much as I can, watching him and stroking his soft head.

I know these moments will soon be gone.

DanO comes back to our room holding OBaby, whose whines stop the moment he lays eyes on me. The comfort of this routine, this place, this warmth, this moment calms him.

He snuggles in close. I take a deep breath and sigh contentedly and I don’t care that it is 3:00 am and I am awake. That thought hasn’t even occurred to me. Right now I have my warm sleepy baby cozied up at my breast and all is right in my world.

Without fail, this routine or some version of it has occurred every night (often many times a night) for nearly a year. Except for last Tuesday. Last Tuesday I woke for the first time at 6:15am and my heart sank.

It had been nearly 12 hours since I cuddled my baby.

Although it hasn’t happened again since, I know a day will come when OBaby no longer needs to nurse in the middle of the night. When I won’t need to feather my nest and won’t get to smell and feel him next to me in the wee hours. I see that day coming, and so I focus all the more intently on these days while we have them.

I arrange the blankets just-so. I lay awake and look in his drowsy eyes until they close under the weight of comfort and warm milk. I run my hand slow and gentle up and down his back. I cuddle up next to him when he is done and soak in the moment.

I am in love.

{update: the giveaway is now closed and the winner will be announced tomorrow/saturday morning!}

O, poor Pearl. (That’s our dog’s name, by the way.) You wouldn’t really know that we had a dog based on this blog these last 11 months, what with the exorbitant number of adorable baby pictures and all, but she’s been here*. She’s a 3 year old, 5.5lb Maltese-Poodle mix. We got her a couple of months after getting married.

*Ok, most of the time she’s been here. When we’ve had company or when mama needs a break (which has happened on, O, a handful of occasions) she gets sent packing to O My In-Laws house to be loved on and given far more attention each day than I manage to give her in a month.

Poor Pearl. She’s been upstaged since the morning I saw two little pink lines. I try to care, I really do, but most days she’s just one more thing on my to do list. Is there food in her bowl? Has she been let outside to do her business? Are OBaby’s toys picked up before we leave so she doesn’t chew them to bits? Have I cleaned up the spot where she peed on my new Pottery Barn rug?!?

Let’s be honest, if she weren’t painfully cute and an excellent vaccuum service for those pesky under the high-chair messes, she’d have been given to another family long ago. (I wish it weren’t true, but it is.)

I know, I KNOW. Our ‘first born’ (only she’s not really and I kind of hate it when she’s referred to as such) now plays a backseat role in our lives. It’s sad. She is nothing but loyal to us and no less than elated when we come home, and yet we hardly have time for her. In retaliation, she pees places like on my expensive rugs. Which makes me… O, there are no words to describe what it makes me (that would be appropriate to publish here). It’s a vicious cycle.

Well, just this once – and honestly I think it has only been this once since OBaby was born – we’re doing something special for the O My Family dog:

Pearl is getting a brand new handmade collar and leash from Bird.E.Studios. I know, it doesn’t *quite* make up for the lack of affection and attention she’s received these last 11 months, but for right now it will have to do. Plus it will be by far the cutest accessory Pearl has ever owned.

{So what do you say, Pearl? Truce on the whole urine on my wool rugs thing? Burry the hatchet, old pal? M’kay?}

Even more exciting than Pearl’s new duds is this: Please give a big warm O My Family welcome to my two new sponsors! Erika of Bird.E.Studios and Erin of The Vintage Pearl. We are absolutely thrilled to have both of them because not only do their shops contain lovely handmade items, they are both lovely people!

To celebrate their sponsorship of O My Family and in a little shout out to the poor, neglected O My Family Dog, we’re having another O My Giveaway! I know, RIGHT?! What’s it been, AllisonO, like 3 awesometacular giveaways back-to-back?

(Yes, in fact, it has. Thanks for counting.)

This time you can enter to win any handmade dog collar of your choice from Bird.E.Studios by leaving a comment (any comment) on this post!

O My Overachievers: Tweet about this giveaway, then return and leave one additional comment containing your twitter username. Here’s the twiveaway tweet (you like that? twiveaway? I made that up just now. Don’t act like you’re not impressed.):

Love your puppy O so much? Enter to win a handmade collar by @simplerika on @OMyFamily’s giveaway! http://bit.ly/bdFQBw

Disclosure: Erika of Bird.E.Studios has provided the spoils of this giveaway today, as well as Pearl’s concessionary collar set. While both Bird.E.Studios and The Vintage Pearl are now paid sponsors of space on this blog, their money buys them ad space, not my opinions. Those are priceless.

This giveaway closes at 10:00pm CST Friday. The winner will be announced Saturday morning. Good luck!