This'll Be Our Little Secret

I am curious. I post nearly all of my blog posts onto Facebook, but I'm wondering how many people might still find these posts and read them if I didn't. I'm also curious who is clicking here via some non-Facebook link.

So here is the game I want to play. I am not going to link to this post on Facebook. If you are reading this post, even if it's months after I posted it, let me know by commenting below! I'm asking you to emerge from the anonymity of cyberspace and say hello, whether I know who you are or not. You don't even have to use your real name--I just want to know how many of you exist, and to see it beyond the simple stats Blogger gives me.

:-)     <==== (That's a friendly smile to encourage you out of hiding.)

Since there's probably not going to be very many of you, let's make it a little more fun. Here are some (optional) additions to your comments:

      You can tell me about a quick memory or image of fall,

      and/or,

      You can tell me what song lyrics are currently stuck in your head.

I'll start. I remember that, as a child, I knew fall was coming when my toes started getting cold at the end of a day running around barefoot through my backyard. And thanks to a certain three year old, this is in my head: "Be still, my heart, I'm hardly breathing. He's such a tall, dark, strong and handsome BRUTE!"

Gratuitous baby picture:

Aaaaaaaand, GO!

Money Matters

Last week Patrick and I sat down and made a budget for the first time since we left Virginia.

You know what that means, right? It means we have money to budget!

I know for a lot of people there's a real stigma around the word "budget." But since we took a finance class back in Virginia (Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey, if you are interested--we highly recommend it!) and put into practice what we've learned, we actually enjoy the process. We have very clear goals: build back up the savings we depleted during the job search, save up a few months rent or a small down payment on a house, and chop down our student debt.

We are lucky we have such similar objectives in this regard; I know every marriage is made up of two very different people, and believe me, Patrick and I are very different in many ways, but it is so nice to be married to someone with financial views similar to mine. Our family's fiscal policy in a nutshell is to wait for it and save for it. I hesitate to say we're cheap (though I know some friends who would lovingly call me cheap in a second) because both Patrick and I really like and appreciate the nicer, quality, more expensive things. We just really hate to spend money on them if there is a better place that money can go.

Budgeting helps me feel less guilty about buying things I want. If I want (and need) some new shoes, there's cash already sitting in the clothing envelope. Sweet! If I want to splurge on a new purse or book or smoothie, I've got my blow money; we each have an allowance of sorts called "blow money" that we're allowed to "blow" on whatever we want. If there's no money in those areas, that's alright, I'll suck it up and wait until next month, and I'll know that our bank account isn't going to be overdrawn.

It's exciting to have a plan, financially. I find myself motivated by watching other people succeed. One mom blogger (and a friend from when we lived in Virginia) actually puts all her finances (within reason) out for everyone to see. I don't think I'm brave enough to share our numbers with the world, but it sure is fascinating and inspiring to see how a real family with real money, real goals, and real weaknesses does it. I can imagine that knowing the world is watching would be a great motivator to stay on track, too. Hmmm, maybe I should reconsider this public disclosure thing...

How's that for public disclosure? :-)
 (Sorry if baby bums offend you. This was actually last summer, and I couldn't resist.)

Either way, this whole budgeting thing is a reassuring sign that things are, in fact, moving forward for this little family. Land of fiscal security, here we come!

A Mom Blog Worth Reading

For almost two years now I've been frequenting a site called Babycenter--it started when I was pregnant with Cambrie, and it has continued until now. Of course, I'm more likely to be spying on the community and blogs now than checking whether Cambrie has reached her milestones (it's funny how quickly I changed from obsessive pregnant lady to "She's eating, pooping, and laughing; she's fine.").

What I didn't think would happen during all this anonymous browsing (I never created a profile and hardly ever commented while on the site) was find an author that I truly, genuinely enjoyed. Betsy Shaw is a mom blogger from Vermont currently living in France with her husband and two daughters. Her writing is clear, clean-cut, poetic and beautifully simple. I feel like I've found a kindred mind in the way she views her daughters, motherhood, the world; we may be different people looking out on different lives (and I know I certainly don't write like her), but I think we see things through similarly tinted windows.

I've enjoyed her writing enough that I now read her personal blog, too. As I've had more time to read and get back into writing, I've been inspired by her posts. Here are some recent posts I've liked:

Driving Miss Crazy

Helicopter Ballet Mom

A Real-life Advent Calendar

I wanted to share this with everyone because I know how refreshing it is to be able to get away from the day-to-day, even for five minutes to read a little. And I happen to think that, for those five minutes, Besty's posts are often worth reading.

Does anybody else have any favorite mom-bloggers?

Why My Blog is Cooler Than Your T-Shirt

So here we go. After years of watching friends and family embark on this crazy journey called "blogging," I've finally decided to bring this small Carlson family into the 21st century and begin sharing completely random and irrelevant information bits with the cosmos. I figure, since we're being bombarded with information everywhere we look anyways, we might as well bombard back, right? The best defense is a good offense, and all that jazz... right?...

Overused sports quips aside, the truth is that every time I thought about starting a blog before, I thought of that t-shirt I've seen (and my dad has so graciously reminded me of) that declares: "More people have read my t-shirt than have read your blog." Okay, okay, I get it. At the end of 2009 there were 126 million blogs on the internet (as tracked by BlogPulse). How many of them are 1) regularly read by a decent number of people, or 2) even worth reading? So I want to make it clear to the blog deities that this is a family blog. I do not want to make money here. I do not want to count followers like a teenage girl counting facebook friends. In fact, I want as few strangers reading my posts as possible. Ew. I don't even want to think about all the creeps out there that I don't want reading my blog. (But guess what...I bet a lot of them have read your t-shirt! Haha!)

So what is the goal of my blog? Well, I happen to think Patrick and Cambrie and I have a pretty happy life, and it seems like we get to live through some pretty fun mini-adventures. Granted, they're just peppered in there with our usual, humdrum happenings, but I'd like to be able to record our little stories a little more easily--you know, for posterity. I'd also like our family and friends, with whom I am notoriously bad at keeping in touch, to be able to feel more a part of our lives, even when I forget to pick up the phone and call.

So here I am, typing post number one, the first of (hopefully) a nice collection of Carlson family anecdotes and adventures. I'm excited to see where both this page and our small family end up.

**Update in February 2013! For those reading, you'll notice my blog has taken a slightly different spin that leaves this post a little out-of-date. Check this post out to read more about my current blog.**