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.

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.

How did I start blogging anyway?

I started two blogs in January 08. I was required to respond to graphic design elements, artistic style, and ads for a graphic design and writing graduate class on one of the blogs. While I was commenting on graphic design elements for the class, I started a second blog as a family journal. I added entries now and again.

In September 08, I started writing blogposts again. After 12 years at home, 6 as a WAHM and 6 as a SAHM, I was faced with the “what do I do now?” question. I did not want to go back to editing and managing the production cycle for health care publications. But, what would I do?

Blogging! The blog gave me a chance to flex my writing skills. I found that I enjoyed posting every day on my blog, and commenting on other blogs. I noticed that other blogs had buttons for networks, writing sites, Facebook, and twitter.

Social Media 101

Clicking on the twitter button was breathtaking. I don’t mean to sound overly melodramatic, but after floundering a little in my quiet house the “noise” from twitter was a welcome break. I had found my people. People to talk to each day. Bye bye quiet. Hello new world!

From twitter I learned everything about social media.

I learned about giveaways. Posting your most succinct and to-the-point message in 140 characters or less. Twitter is the best place for a beginning writer with a tendency not to get to the point to figure out what to write. I clicked on links: some were good and some deadends. I learned to find the golden nuggets while sifting through the spam.

Getting serious about blogging

Midway through 09, my blog acquired its own domain name and a snazzy new WordPress theme. My blogging journey continues on…

Here’s what I found out on my tour of the Peapod warehouse. I wrote this part of the post on my phone…#VerizonPalmPrePlus…such a fabulous and time-saving use of technology.

The Facts

• 60 percent of customers shop from their previous Peapod shopping lists
• Purchased items are packed with like items. Produce packed with produce. Deli with deli. No squishing of items. Perishable items are packed in styrofoam coolers with dry ice packs. The coolers and boxes can be left out when your next delivery is scheduled.
• The Peapod by Giant delivery fee is $8.95.
• There is a $1 savings if use direct deposit.
• Over 10,000  items in the Peapod facility. 1,500 items on sale each week. I walked among the stacks, aisles, and chill rooms packed with products on the tour.
• Loyal customers can become VIPea. VIPea have access to specials.
• Delivery…shop whenever you want at peapod.com plus have your item delivered when you want (customers may have to choose a delivery time from a list of already scheduled deliveries).
• My delivery area is not covered. I added my e-mail address to Peapod, so that I will be notified when my zip code is added to the delivery area.
• You can place an order when you want to — don’t have to have a regular delivery date. I don’t do a weekly grocery shop, so this flexibility would work for me.
• There is a fuel surcharge of 38 cents in effect based on price of fuel for each order.
• What is the busiest time on Peapod one blogger on our tour asked? 8-10 p.m.
• Are you social media savvy or want to be? Check out Facebook special offers. Website url: www.Peapod.com. Twitter: Twitter.com/peapoddelivers.

Dietary and Special Needs

• Peapod customers can customize their online lists by dietary needs with the Nutrifilter. Dietary needs include: gluten free, dairy free, egg free, peanut free, and USDA low sodium to name a few.

Savings and Coupons

• Customers can use Giant Bonus cards.
• Customers can search for specials for bigger savings. View specials by dept. This week blueberries and blackberries are on sale 2 for $5.
• Peapod by Giant wants to empower the grocery shopper by showing what is on sale. Most people want to shop smarter and cheaper. Red flag shows what is on sale.
• Peapod customers can use coupons.com. Go to Specials tab–Printable Coupons for a link to Coupons.com.
• Coupons can be clipped at home and given to driver for discounts. Coupons will be credited to customer’s account. Note: Coupons cannot doubled like at Giant store.

Recipes or What’s for Dinner?

• Need an idea for what to make and what to buy for dinner. See recipes. I did notice that the ingredients listed in the recipes don’t link back to the Peapod shopping list.
• We were treated to a great discourse on produce courtesy of Giant’s produce guy: Tony. Tony blogs about all things product. I left with a bag of the most perfect fruit ever. The strawberries were huge.
• If you find an item not listed on Peapod.com, you can request the item via the website or on Facebook.

My takeaway from the blogger tour of Peapod was this: Peapod by Giant eliminates the impulse buys…the must-have because it is on the shelf purchases…the food items spotted by your kids while you shop.

Iphone User? Peapod will alphatest a grocery shopping app. The Beta test will be in June. The iphone app should be ready for customers in August.

Code for My Readers: I have a coupon code to share with you. For first-time Peapod customers, use the code BLOG2010 to save $15 off first order (limit 1 per household). This offer expires June 30, 2010.

Now that I am back to cleaning or not cleaning my own house… My pet peeve is spray bottles that clog or get clumpy. There is nothing worse than pushing down on the spray bottle trigger to be greeted with…nothing. No spray. No mist. Sometimes I can unclog the spray hose, but often there is no fix. And really if I buy a bottle of cleaning product in a spray bottle, shouldn’t the bottle actually work? Is it too much to ask that the bottle spray on demand?

Now, you need to know that I am a person who does not put cleaning on the top of her list. No, it would be after family, work, laundry, dinner prep, and driving kids to hither, thither and yon. I put cleaning on the back burner. I leave cleaning the back burner of the stove to the last minute as well. Bada boom!

However, I am a gadget or new-fangled item sort of person. New things = love. New cleaning products = cleaning might be easier. Cleaning made easier = more time  to do what I want to do. I was sent a bottle of Soft Scrub to test out as part of my role as Soft Scrub Captain.

First stop on “Putting Soft Scrub Through Its Paces”: The kid’s bathroom.

• Toothpaste on the sink was no match for Soft Scrub.
• Shampoo, soap, and bubble bath residue had no chance when confronted by the spray end of the Soft Scrub sprayer.
• Unmentionable and unidentifiable stains around the base of the toilet were obliterated by the powerful Soft Scrub spray.

End result: Soft Scrub can tackle my bathroom messes any time. Oh I know I will have to be the facilitator of the cleaning process. But, with Soft Scrub I will have an easy time of it.

I was given a bottle of Soft Scrub as part of my role as Soft Scrub Captain.

Nothing like being under the gun to write. Pressure? No pressure! I just have a day to write about my passions. No, not feeling anxious here…no, not me!

Passions. I should start by defining what the word means to me. Something I am passionate about. An activity I love doing. A passion is not something run of the mill, but something extraordinary.

But, what about me? What am I passionate about? Top 5:

1. My family – health, well-being, citizenship, education, well-rounded. I want to instill all these values and more in my three children. It’s a work in progress.
2. Our financial health and future plans. As a SAHM and nonbreadwinner, I find myself having little to say about our finances. I’m not the best person to balance the checkbook. I care that we have investments, but don’t pore over financial statements. I don’t do the taxes. But, I do care that we have a house to live in…good schools to send our children to…a vacation every year or so.
3. My job. Three kids ago I had a good job with benefits. I was a workaholic who was paid very little, but that did not stop me from giving my best each and every day. Seriously, the pay was O.K., but someone should sit down with English majors from small liberal arts colleges and tell them…here’s the deal: Make sure you are passionate about working in publishing as the pay is not what will keep you there. As an expectant mom, I persuaded my boss to let me work from home…best decision I ever made. Sure I was stressed keeping up with the dueling tornadoes of “freelance work” and “baby and toddler.” After 6 years, I was done…spent. One more kid and a couple of years as a SAHM-school volunteer-independent music product consultant and I was ready to dive in to blogging.
4. Blogging. After years editing and proofreading other people’s writing, I love that I get to write for me. I write here and here and here and here.
5. Future. I don’t know what the future holds for my kids, my husband, or me, but I want to live my life in the best way possible.

Submitted to the Mabel’s Labels BlogHer 10 Contest.

While teen and tween are finishing getting dressed. I make 3 lunches (my son is in elem school) and breakfast for the teen and tween. Breakfast is cereal or toaster strudel, with OJ, milk, or hot chocolate. I microwave water for the hot chocolates and make myself an instant coffee.

Tween and teen come down. Gobble breakfast. run around finding misplaced items. Look for missing shoes. Find shoes, then must search for backpacks. Race out the door with me following behind handing them coats, lunchboxes, and clarinets. Bus leaves ~ 7 a.m.

I come back inside and drink my now-cold coffee. I reheat in microwave. At this point my son is either downstairs clamoring for breakfast OR he is still asleep. If he is still asleep I will grab a quick nap on the couch. If he is awake and ready to go I will make breakfast AND make myself another cup of coffee.

My son eats breakfast, plays with Lego, then puts on his shoes and coat. His bus comes around 8 a.m. Once he is on the bus I breath a huge sigh of relief and drink my now-cold coffee. Reheat and repeat!

My morning in pictures!

I posted this comment over at a new site — City Mommy DC. A mom on the site needed advice about napping. I obliged. After 3 kids and 14 years, I have advice to give!

I had three different experiences with naptime.

Child #1 and #2 needed to nap as I freelanced form home. With Child #3 I used naptime to get household tasks done or used the computer.

Child #1 was a supreme nappper. She had a late bedtime ~9:30 p.m. as my husband worked late. She started fighting her nap when Child #2 was born. I got her back napping until about 3.5 yrs. Nap became quiet time. I switched her bedtime to when the baby went to sleep ~7:30 p.m. I did my freelance work in the evenings.

Child #1 watched a short DVD every day. I needed her to be quiet so that Child #2 could sleep plus I could get work done. Due to Child #1 fidgety-ness and Child #2’s early bedtime ~7:30 p.m., child #2 started fighting, then quit napping at 2 yrs. I never succeeded in getting Child #2 to do quiet time. I found crafts, activities, and movies to while away the afternoons while I worked. She would read books for about 20 minutes, but I needed her to be occupied for at least an hour while I edited/returned phone calls. By time the kids were 5 and 3 I quit freelancing as it was too hard to manage kids during the day AND work during quiet time and after kids went to bed.

Child #3 was a great napper. Around 2.5 he was strong enough to hoist himself out of the crib. I fought the good fight but I was too worried about leaving him in his room unattended. I let him play quietly in familyroom. He and I joined playgroups, did classes, visited the library, and he watched a little TV.

Wish I had a tried and true method…but each kid is different as you know!

As a young mom of a newborn, I talked my boss in to letting me work from home. I was not a full-time or even a part-time employee of the company. Instead I was paid through an employment agency. I billed by the hour. In retrospect, my former employer took advantage of my eagerness to remain gainfully employed. You see I was never given a FedEx account number. Instead I was required to drive 30-40 minutes each way to dop off packages for shipping. I wasted a colossal amount of time on the road. I did charge for the time I was on the road. But, it’s really no fun to haul a huge bag of packages while pushing a stroller and wrangling a squirmy toddler. I have NO nostalgia for my pre-FedEx years.

After begging for a FedEx account number, my life was immeasurably better. No more driving in bad weather. No more waking up a sleeping baby. Add in the fact that my FedEx gal was lifesaver. Some days she was the ONLY adult I talked to the entire day…husband worked long hours plus coached high school volleyball and was in grad school. On a few occasions the FedEx gal held my baby while I stuffed packages in my foyer. I know this goes above and beyond the call of a FedEx guy or gal, but I was grateful!

After a hiatus of stay-at-home-mom-ness, I re-entered the work world as writer, blogger, product reviewer, and social media marketer. It wasn’t long before I needed to sign up for FedEx services. Want to hear something funny? My FedEx gal from years ago is back on my route. How’s that for good karma!

Not only does FedEx Ground cost 10% less than UPS Ground, but the new FedEx Office Print & Ship Centers offer customized calendars, cards, and stationery in addition to packing tips and assistance. I live out in the country, but on the occasions when this Country Mouse visits the city a FedEx Office Print & Ship Center would help me out with my shipping needs. When thinking about sending a package this holiday season, consider FedEx!

Interested in an Apple ipod Touch? 5 ipod Touches are up for grabs. Signup for a free account on www.fedex.com. Record your name and confirmation number for a chance to win one of the ipod Touches here:

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229YSQDALUE

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx and received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Mornings…I get through them with a little help from my friends coffee and light bulbs. Light bulbs? Yes, light bulbs. Without light bulbs I would stumble around even more than I already do. You see I am not a morning person. I would be a morning person if mornings began at the respectable hour of 11. Yep, I would be the bright eyed and bushy tailed one at that time.

My morning begins with a prod in the back from my husband. He is the 0fficial waker upper in our family. The rooster if you will. Once he wakes up the preteen and the teen, he goes back to bed. Meanwhile I stumble with eyes shut tight to the bathroom. Once I have successfully not jammed my little toe on the corner of the wall in the bathroom, I stagger downstairs to make lunches, make breakfast, and sign any last minute forms.

Forms! Paper! Sign in triplicate! There I go again on a rant about paper. My dining room table and kitchen table and really every other available surface won’t be clear until June.

Back to coffee and light bulbs. I don’t turn the lights off until the kid gets on the bus. By 8:30 it is light out. My eyes are fully opened and I am coherent due to Mr._Coffee.