stream of consciousness
You guys, I'm blown away by how many of you have taken my reader survey.
And not only are you all taking the time to click check boxes, many of you are also responding to the questions that require a short answer.
I've been busy reading every single response (over 1,000 so far!), and I'm so grateful for all the feedback.
Some of your responses made me tear up (in a good way), and some funny ones have made me laugh out loud. I seriously have the best readers ever.
(To wit: many of you mentioned that one of your favorite things about my blog is the respectful, pleasant comments section. You guys make for a delightful community!)
I'll leave the survey up for a week, and then I'll share some of the results with you all, along with what I've learned from your responses.
If you missed the survey and wanted to take it, click here. It'll take just a few minutes. I appreciate all the responses and I am reading every single one!
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I have my one-year nose checkup today, as it's been a little over a year since my functional (insurance-covered) rhinoplasty.
CRAZINESS. A whole year.
I have zero regrets over having this done. Even though I sometimes miss my old nose, the functionality of the new one is 234902358% better, and I am so happy to not ever have to wear nasal strips at night anymore.
(CVS sends me coupons for those every now and again, and it is a lovely feeling to know I don't need to buy them at all.)
My nose is feeling completely normal now except for some lingering stiffness (if I push on the end of it, it doesn't collapse like an average nose). But that's improved immensely in the last year...at first, my nose felt like it was made out of bone!
So, I imagine it'll continue to get softer over time.
(A bunch of photos of my nose are here if you're interested. Completely understand if you're not! Ha.)
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My blog got hacked last week. Luckily, this was milder than the time it happened a few years ago, and these hackers mostly seem interested in sticking their own ads all over my blog.
Mercifully, the blog hosting I pay for includes security coverage and cleanup. So, the tech-savvy people over there took care of removing all the bad code, and everything is back to normal again without me having to pay anything extra.
I can handle a lot of blog-related tasks, but most coding is beyond my skill set. Coding seems super boring to me, but I'm grateful that there are people out there who love it because I need them around to fix my blog!
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Today, I am taking Lisey to college, then going to my nose appointment, then coming home for a little while, then picking Lisey up from college and taking her to her dentist appointment, then coming home for a little while, then taking Sonia and Zoe to dance class.
This looks way, way different than my life did 5 years ago, when I stayed home a whole lot more.
Part of it is just that Lisey is close to having her driver's license, but isn't quite there. But she's doing an awful lot of stuff that requires driving.
So for the moment, I drive her around a lot (or rather, she drives me around as we work on getting her required driving practice hours done!).
But soon that'll change....we just have to knock out 24 more hours of driving practice, and then in January she can go take her test. My homebody self is rather excited about this.
I have a friend with three small kids, and she is the exact opposite of a homebody. I told her she is going to LOVE the teenage years because it seems like you hardly ever stay home!
Have a lovely Tuesday, friends. May it be full of staying home, or not staying home, depending on your preference. 😉
Staying at home and happy about it. November was much busier than normal for us, and there was a lot of packing up diaper bags and nursing a newborn in odd locations. I'm very, very happy to see empty blocks of days on my calendar this month.
I think the shuttling of children as they grow older is going to be a definite challenge for me. Then again, I also will not have to be on hand for bathroom assistance (I should hope not, anyway), so, you know, silver linings and all that.
Yes, this is it exactly. Every stage of parenting that I've experienced so far (up to age 18!), has had its own special set of upsides and downsides. So, I think you just take the good with the bad and focus on the upsides of whatever stage you are in at the moment.
Wow - 1000, in one day. That's a lot of readers, and also a lot of readers-who-don't-comment. Congratulations on the breadth of your blog.
Oh yes...I can see my page views in my stats window, of course, and there are definitely tons of people who visit my blog but don't comment. Only a tiny percentage leave a comment and the survey is a fun way to hear from people who don't tend to comment. So great!
I'm so sorry to hear that your blog got hacked. It's my constant fear: someone might log into my account and delete all of my content >_<
Being out and about might sound like a great way to relax, but it can also get exhausting. I have a toddler, so I tend to stay at home on the weekends a lot. One day I'll have to drive my kids to dance lessons and fun activities too! 🙂
So glad to hear you're getting great reader feedback! And just as happy to hear your nose is doing well. I'm sure it was a scary experience but function is super importante!
Hooray for staying home! I miss the days when they needed me to ferry them around, but I love being in my quiet, clean house, too! And all of them have turned out to be good drivers so far...what a load off my worrying mind!!
I'm glad you got so many responses to your survey, yay!
It stinks that your blog got hacked. What evil possesses people to be so horrible? Basically, crooks suck. One of my plugins got hacked yesterday (that was weird), and my mal-ware detector didn't want me to go to my own site! DH figured it out, and I simply deleted the plug in. I have too many doodads on my site, anyway, more than I actually use.
That's a lot of survey responses! Congrats on that, too.
I know you are happy about your nose. Breathing is really, really important, (stating the obvious) and people tell me that it's indescribable when they can finally take a full, deep breath through their nose after surgery. I'm lucky in that I breathe just fine, but if I didn't, I would for sure be getting surgery, too.
I'm at work and would rather be home, but oh well, it gives me a chance to run by and mail some Christmas gifts. Every cloud/silver lining, you know....
Yep, I've thought of that silver lining too! Since I'm out and about so much, it is very easy for me to drop something by the post office or library, or run some other sort of errand in conjunction with my main errand.
I've got small ones at home (5 and 8) and they already require a fair amount of driving around between friend's birthdays/play dates, soccer practices, karate, and drop-off/pick-up from school, but I don't mind it at all. If I have to drive them around now and when they are teenagers to me it means that they have a social life and are taking part in activities, which makes me happy! Soon enough they will be adults and out of the house for good... I enjoy the "now" (not is a nostalgic way).
Oh yes, of course I am very happy that Lisey has a job and college classes and friends to get together with. I'm supportive of all that, for sure, and I am more interested in supporting her than I am in staying home (obviously! Ha.)
But since I'm an introverted homebody, this just is a little bit extra challenging for me (whereas my extroverted non-homebody friend just wouldn't really struggle with this at all!). On the other hand, during the years of having four small kids, I could stay home for days on end without batting an eye, but that kind of thing drives my friend just nuts.
I completely agree with you on enjoying the now...focusing on the upsides of whatever stage you are currently in is way more productive and helpful than focusing on the downsides!
I didn't/don't mind the driving my three kids as much as I thought I would because it gave us time to chat, usually one on one for a few minutes, before the craziness of dinner/evening, etc happened. I always have a book with me so I can read if I am early and my new-to-me car has heated seats which is super comfy at this time of year!! I have one in college and one with his license so my chauffeuring days are winding down.
So awesome that you have heated seats! Mr. FG has heated seats in his car, and my goodness, they ARE really nice in the winter.
Alas, my 2007 van has no heated seats. But that's ok...it has a most lovely feature which is the not-having-of-a-car-loan, so I'll focus on that instead of my cold rear.
""during the years of having four small kids, I could stay home for days on end without batting an eye""
THIS would drive me nuts, ahah! Can't stay put for too long.
Right? We are all different, which means that what's easy for one person might be super hard for another and vice versa.
You may have addressed this in the past, but how do you handle cars and insurance for your teenagers? I know they have jobs, so do they cover those expenses? My husband bought his own car and paid for everything, but my dad bought my car and paid my insurance until I was, um, 26 and had been married for three years (which drove my husband crazy). My dad was a single parent though and I think he was really excited about finally having a second driver. There's obviously a lot of middle ground between the two approaches, but my husband and I already disagree about how we'll handle the car situation with our kids.
Three kids- all educated and on their own now. As long as they were students (I gave them 4 years to graduate from college on my dime), my husband and I paid for car and health insurance- youngest daughter had a cell phone I paid for also. We also bought them old vehicles when they were in college since they all had part-time jobs for personal expenses. As soon as they graduated and got real jobs (usually took 2-3 months), they were on their own and not one has ever asked the bank of mom (dad passed away) to finance anything. I really think too many 'kids' today feel they are entitled. Roots and then wings...my mantra.
At this point, we're splitting insurance with them, and we bought two used cars, which we own and which are in our names (and which hopefully Sonia and Zoe will be able to use when they learn to drive as well.) Having cars in our name helps with keeping insurance costs down and we figure they can use all the help they can get with that, as insurance is just awfully expensive until you turn 25.
Buying cars for them to use is on the generous side of things in some people's opinions, I know. But on the other hand, Joshua is handling his college bills on his own (we managed to save some money to help our kids out, but not a ton), and Lisey will too once she graduates from high school, so it all kinda evens out.
I had to buy my own car when I was in high school, but on the other hand, my parents had a pretty decent mutual fund going to cover my college expenses.
Wow, sorry about blog getting hacked! And we're in a similar boat with being out and about a lot more than years ago (one working on those practice hours and will prob be in community college next year). So glad your nose is feeling much better.
I'm really, really impatient for you to tabulate your results and share them. No stalkers here, just highly invested. 😉
Funny, I am both sides of the coin in equal measure. I can go for days doing all kinds of busy, social activities with lots of human interaction and then I'm perfectly happy to stay at home for several days in a row, speaking to no one but my family. I need both extremes to feel balanced, which is kind of different than most, I suspect.
I've been thinking this for some time, so today I'll put it into words. I'm really impressed with the way Joshua and Lisey are transitioning into adulthood. Kudos to them, and to you and Mr. FG!
Lisey is a little bit like that...she'll get stir-crazy and lonely if she stays home too much, but after a whole day of being around people, she wants to sit in her room all by herself with her ear buds in.
And thank you! We are super proud of them. 🙂
I like this miscellany type post a lot and I did mention that in the survey. 🙂 It makes me feel like we are just friends having a conversation, going from topic to topic. So comfortable and homey. Have a blessed evening!
I do enjoy going out and spending time with people but I have to say if I don't get regular time by myself I get exhausted; I love my me-time it's what recharges me and musing by myself is where I get most creative. You know how little kids are when they've just woken up & they don't want to acknowledge anyone or interact but just drape over mum or dad? That's what I'm like for the first hour of the day curled up just being with the Lord just Him and me.