I should be in bed, but I am collecting paperwork, printing out tickets, and printing business cards. Technically my husband printed them, which is just as well since me + printers = paper jam.

The minivan is packed for the 5 of us to go on a beach trip tomorrow. I have packed two sets of clothes for myself: beach clothes and more formal/dressy clothes for BlogHer. My suitcase is buried under beach chairs, 2 boogie boards, sand toys, and the ever-present and oh-so-necessary cube of Diet Pepsi.

On Wednesday I will head from the beach to BlogHer. I’ll probably breath a sigh of relief that I made it from the beach to the train station to New York Penn to the hotel to the bed. Once in bed I will probably sleep.

I’ll also be sad to leave the family on vacation. This is not supposed to be the week we travel. Our plans went awry. We made the best of it. To the beach we will go.

I packed all my clothes in one very large suitcase. I plan to leave the beach clothes with my family while I take a slightly lighter, yet still large suitcase on the train. I’m bringing my laptop bag and one other suitcase. As long as I can lift everything on and off the train I should be fine.

I have several large recycled fabric shopping bags for any extra items I need to haul home.

I know that my family will have a fun time without me. I’m not a beach person at all. I wear a swim suit, a long-sleeved rash guard, and hide under beach umbrellas while at the beach. Honestly, I should just buy a burqa.

My kids frolic in the waves while I cower in the shade. Oh and, did I mention that I am not a swimming in the sea type of person either. I’m kind of a kill joy on the beach…I guess.

While my family is swimming, I will be taking a train to BlogHer. I’m close enough that taking a plane would add hours to my journey due to transfers and connections. So, the train will get me to NYC!

Once in BlogHer I have a fun, very fun set of actvities, events, and sessions to attend. Will I get to all of them? I hope so. Am I planning to maximize my time at BlogHer? You bet. Will I sleep during my stay? Probably, as I am paying for the hotel room. I need to maximize my time in the hotel room, too.

Are you planning to go to BlogHer? Leave a comment and let’s try to meet! I’m a first timer. Looking forward to getting out of BlogHer as much as I can!

Too early to go back to bed. I stayed up to do some decluttering. I have no idea what I decluttered. As I said I was in a fog this a.m. I have a stack of broken down boxes for recycling, but no idea what was in the boxes.

Do you ever have days like that…where you get things done but you are so tired that you can’t think straight?

I had that kind of day yesterday. By 5, I was out of gas. I hadn’t completed the work I set out to do. I hadn’t finished the writing. I decided to have a quick shower and head to my Book Club.

I am so glad I decided to go. Yes, it was time I spent away from household tasks and writing, but it was so worth it to hang out with friends. I needed a boost of friend power after the crazy days of summer. Friends!

And yes we even discussed the book. We read The Help. Good book about an appalling, “how could his type of thing happen in the 1960s?” type of book.

Book club restored me. Today I am ready to tackle my work.

He’s doing laundry. Cooking. Getting it done. And, he’s the designated driver of the carpool to camp, no less!

I am hooked to the computer working. I should be outside in nature…my husband found the above baby deer one morning this summer. It seems as though there are not enough hours in the day right now to get it done. To get everything done. To get anything done. At this point I would settle for crossing a few items of my to do list each day. Many days I sit and move from one project to the next with nothing to show for myself.

Today I tackled a mini crisis that I should have tackled a month ago. I’m just letting everything pile up.

Winners need to be chosen. Packages need to be shipped. Products have to be reviewed. Posts need to be written. And BlogHer!

BlogHer is two weeks from today. Yikes! I need to get my regular work done so that I can go to BlogHer to enjoy the fun and festivities.

Anyone else totally stressed right now??

Of all the years to pick for a school portrait, 13 is a tough one. I wore no makeup. I wore a school uniform. I wore wire framed glasses. My hair? Not stylish.

Thankfully my parents had the foresight to have a professional portrait done when I was about 15.

The photo session took place at a local studio. I had been to the studio as a young child, but did not remember it well. The photographer sensing my apprehension immediately put me at ease. Throughout the session he gave me advice on how to pose. He took many shots to get the perfect one. The portrait hangs at my parent’s house today.

When children are young, taking photos is relatively easy. Most children will smile naturally when asked to by the photographer. Once the tween/teen years hit, many children become self-conscious about having their photos taken. A good photographer can put your child at ease. Mary Gardella is that photographer…the one who can take the photo that will be the one you treasure.

Mary Gardella is the creative force behind Love Life Images, a portrait studio located in historic Savage Mill, MD. Love Life Images is offering a photo session for the tween or teen in your life – “fun and stylized portrait sessions that will bring out the real you.” Mary will put your tween/teen at ease so that you will have a lasting memory of those tumultuous, challenging, but oh so rewarding years when your tween/teen give glimpses of the adult to come.

Here’s what Mary Gardella will offer you…

• a fun portrait session for tweens and teens
• stylized portrait sessions that are all about your tween or teen
• all sessions will take place august 18 & 20 all day
• your tween/teen will be photographed in and around the historic Savage Mill, MD, where Love Life Images studio is located

The cost for the tween and teen session is $175 per child. Each session will last 45 minute and include one outfit change and 50 rep cards. Rep cards are 2″ x 3.5″ cards with cool information on them. Think of the rep card as the coolest baseball card ever!

For more information on scheduling a tween/teen session, contact info@lovelifeimages.com. For examples of Mary Gardella’s work, visit Love Life Images.

I worked all night, but really just returned e-mails, searched for information on trains to BlogHer, and tweeted for the #Energizer BlogHer ChargeHER and #dressbarn4blogher. Oh, and I posted to MomSpark. But, I did not write the posts I was supposed to write. Or pick the winners I was supposed to pick.

I was busy. Just not doing what I should have been doing…

I write at:

Musings from Me
Savvy Source DC
Oyster Locals DC
The DC Ladies
TypeAMom Preteens
Baltimore Examiner

I moderate:

Momster.com — four groups on tweens and teens

DC CityMommy

MomSpark

I manage an #opensky Store, too.

As sleep deprived as I will be for BlogHer, you can bet that I will experience everything about BlogHer that I can. I’ll need to eat a little, drink a lot, and sleep a little to remain charged for BlogHer.

Have I mentioned our family mantra? I should say “mantras.” We have two:

1. Seize the Day

2. Play/Party/Shop/Vacation til You Drop

When I first got married, my husband was on board with Mantra #1 but not so much on Mantra #2. You see Mantra #2 is my family’s mantra.

As a kid I lived in England, America, England, America, England, Italy, and finally America. My parents never knew if we would stay in a country for 6 months, 1 year, or forever, so we Seized the Day AND Vacationed Til We Dropped. In one year we visited Williamsburg, Philadelphia, Florida, Skyline Drive/Luray Caverns, and Washington, D.C.

After a year or two, my husband adopted both mantras as his own. If we are going to do something we go all out. Vacationing in Disney World? You can bet that our family will arrive at the park when it opens and be the last ones to leave. We keep the kids going with frequent refuelling stops…recharging their batteries so to speak. Just like the Energizer Smart Charger.

BlogHer will be no exception.

While at BlogHer — my first BlogHer — I will arrive on Wednesday and leave on Sunday. The conference may officially be two days, but I am going for 5 days including travel days. I’m stretching my budget to accommodate the extra days. In this economic climate it’s a struggle for many people, myself included to go on vacation. While my family spends a few days at the beach, I will be spending my part of the family vacation in New York at BlogHer. We can’t afford two separate vacations this year.

You can bet that I will be like the Energizer Bunny if chosen to be the Energizer Smart ChargHER I will wear my Energizer t-shirt with pride. I’ll hand out the USB drives. I’m a person with a mission when it comes to meeting people. If Energizer charges me to hand out the USB drives, I will hand out and engage each person I meet with reasons to purchase Energizer products. If chosen as the Energizer Smart ChargHER I will accept the charge.

For the last two summers I have made it my mission to photograph EVERY swimmer on my children’s swim team. Do you know how hard it is to find and take each child’s photograph in a season that spans 6 short weeks, where kids are on vacation or at camp, or sick? But, I did it. Last year I photographed 230 kids with their moms and dads. This year I am taking over 200 individual photos of each swimmer. I charged myself with a mission. I completed the mission. I’m an Energizer Smart ChargHER at home and online!!

The $2000 will help me pay for my hotel. I’m sharing a room with the fabulous @MorethanMommy. My train — I’m traveling by train as it is the cheaper option. Flying is too expensive. My conference ticket? I have one, but I wasn’t able to buy it when the tickets were first available. I did not have enough cash in my Paypal account. When I had enough money in Paypal? You guessed it the conference passes were sold out. I bought a pass, but did not get the early bird rate. I’m kicking myself for not buying the pass earlier. Oh well, at least I have a conference pass, right?

This post was written as part of the entry for the Energizer Smart ChargHER contest. I was not give a product for review. The opinions expressed are my own.

My old life? I can barely remember a life pre-kids. 14 years ago my days consisted of work, eating, sleeping, hanging with my husband, socializing with my co-workers and friends, and work.

Now my life is a whirlwind of kids and schedules and calendars and car pools and field trips and volunteering and chaperoning and fitting work around all of these activities. At the reunion I was the pre-kid me.

The post-kid me wishes that the pre-kid me could visit for a few hours and tell the post-kid me how to keep on going. The post-kid me needs a jumpstart most days. I have a recollection that the pre-kid me would jump out of bed after the alarm went off. The post-kid me is so sleep deprived that she cannot hear the alarm. The post-kid me needs a sharp poke in the ribs by her husband to get moving most days.

The post-kid me is tired. The pre-kid me thought she was tired. The pre-kid me had no idea what being tired was all about. The pre-kid me could take a nap anytime except while driving to work and while at work. The post-kid me steals a catnap every now and then.

You can guarantee when the post-kid me catnaps the phone will ring a hundred times. Ditto the doorbell. FedEx will need me to sign for a package. And the kids…you can guarantee that the kids will either need me to answer a question with a great deal of urgency OR one will have a problem with the other while the third tries to adjudicate. Naps happen rarely.

Although I seem to spend more time reading a screen than I do a book, reading for me is a given. How would I function if I could not read?

In our family, reading happens everywhere…except the bathroom. I am not a book-in-the-bathroom person. Ewww. We have bookcases in every room except the bathroom.

It’s summer so the kids have days when they are voracious readers and days when they are not. My summer reading tips are as follows:

• Buy books. Yes, I know books are expensive, but kids love to reread old classics or new stories. Invest in books.
• Get each child a library card. Make sure you and your husband have library cards. Carry your library card in your purse or wallet.
• Visit the library regularly for storytimes or summer reading programs.
• Join summer reading programs at the library or bookstores.
• Shop consignment stores for books. I picked up 12 of the 13 Lemony Snicket books for about $10. I found The Complete Wreck (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-13) on amazon for $94.50!
• Shop Goodwill for books.
• Go through your book collection at home. Pull out books that are too young for your child. Move books that are too young to a younger child’s bedroom.
• Buy each child a bookcase or shelf for their bedroom.
• Create screen-free areas in your house. Our living room does not a TV. There is a CD player if kids want to listen to books on CD. Our girls have laptops, but each child has reading time where the screens are turned off.
• Read the newspaper, read a book, read a menu, read the phone book — read anything while your little kids are in the room.
• For long car trips or lengthy visits to the doctor, have kids pack a book or a puzzle book to do while they wait.

Are you a blogger with kids? Check out this fabulous I Can Read contest over at Twittermoms!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms blogging program to be eligible to get an “I Can Read!” book. For more information on how you can participate, click here.