Well, have I got the thing for you…

Come to The Texas Margarita Mixer

Saturday, March 9th

Noon to 5 p.m. at Holy Mountain

RSVP HERE. 

I’ll be there.
With these fine folks…

Sponsors:
Troy and Sons Moonshine 
Pura Vida Tequila 
Moonshine Sweet Tea 
The Convoy Group
Holy Mountain

Bands:
12:00-12:30 The Couch

12:45-1:15 The Tontons  

(listed as “One To Watch at SXSW 2013” )

1:30-2:00 Wild Child

(listed as an “Artist(s) to Discover at SXSW 2013”)  

2:15-2:45 Tyagaraja

(listed as an “Artist(s) to Discover at SXSW 2013”)

3:00-3:45 The Wandering Bufaleros

4:00-5:00 Frank Smith

Sound good?

Okay!

I’ll see you on Saturday.

Since I posted what my kitchen table looked like on Monday, I thought I’d go ahead and show you what it transformed into on Tuesday. Which is exactly why I didn’t post yesterday. (Shoot. One day in and I’m already a day behind.) Mom 2.0 Summit content is taking over everything.

And I feel like I’m in finals week.

I confessed this to three Mom 2.0 speakers whom I spoke to yesterday about their panels and etc … as I was pacing around the table like a madwoman. A madwoman in clothes that I’d been wearing for two and a half days. Clothes that are technically pajamas. And as I executed this circumnativtabling movement in pajamas and running shoes while consuming Cheetos and coffee instead of the rows of kale and chard I have growing in the backyard, I knew this was the old school way of doing things.

But this is what I do. Even if there’s a whole committee of people who have multiple (currently, six) color-coded spreadsheets to make things happen, I have to see it, laid out, in moveable paper squares on a large surface.

And that’s Tuesday.

It also happens to be my mom’s birthday. Coincidence? (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

It’s also a really good directive to hear. Sort of the sane person’s ‘Keep Calm and fill in the blank’ (It makes me much more calm when no one is graphic designing how we should keep calm and do things. Really. Stop.)

Which brings me to the point that I’d really like to march forth into the rest of this year with some actual documentation about what is happening. Because a lot has been happening. In fact, a real whole lot has happened so far this year. For instance, I high fived Ludacris. So that happened. And I haven’t told you that. I’m sure there are other things too.

It all makes me sort of sad that I can’t go back and read through it all. Plus it’s weird after six years of documenting things to just not. I’ve not been doing that, and I don’t like that. So I’m going to do something about it and take this month to March Forth with the blogging. I’m going to take a cue from November and do a post a day for the rest of the month. And I could do that and still not be caught up on what’s going on.

For starters, my house looks like the above photo.

We are redoing the kitchen.

And there are four people under the roof right this second who are all using saws. And two more outside.

These are the outside guys as seen through my kitchen window. So that’s happening. Soon, I will give you before and after shots. (Hint: the before shots involve metal butterflies on the walls…the after shots do not.)

You know when you’re going to reorganize a closet or something, and you take everything out of it and suddenly the whole room becomes a complete wreck. And everything looks a zillion times worse even though (in theory) it’s getting better. That pretty much sums up how I feel about everything right now. Stuff everywhere. Everything’s all over the place. All in the name of progress.

But slowly and surely everything becomes more tidy and the next thing you know, you’ve replaced a massively disorganized heap of discarded clothes, shoes and other random pile ups with a closet file cabinet and printer.

And you’re ready …

Go Mighty is on a New York Times blog today.

Check it: Go Mighty or You Might Not Go At All by KJ Dell’Antonia

And I say, perfect timing. Eight weeks into a year is just about the time that I start to begin to get going. Plus, I’ll be turing another year older this weekend…while I watch the Oscars…And I never even begin to start to resolve anything, to make anything or to do anything until after I’ve had birthday cake. So heck yeah to that.

Also, if you’ve been meaning to make a Life List but aren’t sure how, where to start or how to get some friends to help motivate you, sign up for our Go Mighty Skillshare class which starts next week (again, post birthday cake). One of the attendees gets a $1,000 grant to cross something off their list. And my God, I hope it’s you.

So here’s to doing things.

Also, happy last weekend of goofing off. May it be filled with lots of cake.

We are in the middle of kitchen construction con Queso. 

I can’t wait to show you the final results – heck, I can’t wait to see them myself.

In the meantime, I’ll be shopping. And talking a lot about the process. … after all, the only way to get through a traumatic experience is to talk your way through it…so sayeth the billion dollar psychoanalysis industry. Plus, a kitchen remodel is like being pregnant or starting a business – when you are in the middle of it, it’s all you can talk about.

What? You don’t normally have scooters in your kitchen? Weird.

So saddle up friends– let’s overhaul a kitchen!

Harry didn’t start school until the 7th, and during those first seven days, we played a lot, made some resolutions  I’ve already taken a class to fulfill one of those resolutions), then I last-second went to CES for a random week of weirdo Las Vegasness, then The Padrino visited, and then I got the flu that wouldn’t end. Yay. And now, 23 days later, this year has so far been nothing like I expected.

In fact, it’s basically been an unexpected hodgepodge of unexpectedness.

It started out innocently enough. Jenny and her family came over for a low-key New Year’s Day. Normal. Point of interest: Jenny is solidly scared to death of the number 13, so this being 2013 and all, she couldn’t say the year out loud as if it were Voldemort. So she named 2013, The Library. Like, today is 1/23/The Library. She has a somewhat sane explanation of this here. But here’s the gist:

Everything that happens in the library is just preparation for the next year.  That means if you mess (edited to be Rated G) something up this year, it’s fine.  This whole year is just practice.  The library is made for that.  Maybe you spend the year writing a book no one will ever read.  Maybe you spend the year recuperating from last year.  Maybe you burn the Thanksgiving turkey and forget an important birthday.  It’s okay.  It happened in The Library.  It was just practice for next year.  

She goes on in her wrap up…and this is what we talked about on that first day of this new year….about how we could use a year in the library. A place in time where we’re just getting ready for things, where everything doesn’t have to be exactly perfect. A year of studying up, sorting through, learning more. A year where we give ourselves a bit of a break and just do our best.

If that’s the case, then I’m not 23 days behind. I’m 342 days ahead in getting ready for what’s next.

So here’s to that. If these first days are any predictor, this year is going to be weird and full and awesome. I have a lot to write about.

Expect the unexpected.

Cross 3 Things off the Christmas List with 1 Smart Idea. 

8 Cute Ways to Wrap Kids Gifts : How to Make Clothes Gifts Less Lame / More Awesome For Kids

10 Shiny Items to Distract Your Child From Weird Plastic Items

10 Little Girl Dresses that I Really Want in My Size

Photo from Wed Over Heels.

How To Finish Your Holiday Shopping In Just a Few Hours

How To Raise a Thankful Kid

How To Raise A Kid That Gives Back

A Quick Note to Elf On the Shelf Overachievers

10 Holiday Cards I’d Send If I Actually Sent Holiday Cards

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I’m looking for a silver lining anywhere I can get it.

And we’re also looking for things to do.

Luckily, we had planned weeks ago to do something good this week. We were going to drop off some much needed, wanted, and hoped for items to the Austin Children’s Shelter because AT&T gave $35,000(!!!) at Camp Mighty to purchase gifts for charities. An incredible gift. And incredible timing.

So Saturday, Harry and I loaded up and headed to an Austin AT&T store. We had 1/10th of that $35K to spend at one stop (35 $100 gift cards that had been making me nervous since I got them in Palm Springs)…. which is probably at least 10 times more than we usually spend on anything ever. Harry was confused.

His response: “So we are spending $3,500 on kids we don’t know?”

I explained to him what was happening, what we were going to do. That it would kind of be like how we drop things off at the community library thrift store, only we were picking up brand new things from a store and taking them to children who need them. He is seven. So he was skeptical about why other kids were getting new electronics and wanted to know more about these kids. I tried to explain as delicately as I could that these were kids who had experienced significant loss, trauma, abuse or neglect in their lives. And we wanted to give them something they really wanted so that they knew people out there cared about them.

His response: “Why would anyone hurt kids?”

Exactly.

I hadn’t told Harry what had happened in Connecticut the day before. I wasn’t planning on telling him. Not yet. Like I said, he’s seven. However, we usually do talk about almost everything, so it felt weird not telling him. On the other hand, I knew a lot of his friends and schoolmates weren’t being told, and I didn’t want him to be the one to tell them. And then also I didn’t want to set up a situation where I told him about it but then said he shouldn’t talk about it or tell his friends … because that just creates weirdness on about four levels. Complicated. So I just didn’t say anything.

But I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it as we walked next door to a giant coffeeshop to get some treats while they packed up all of the goods. And I was really conflicted about not talking about it.

The New York Times was talking about it though…with large photos on its cover. And there’s a New York Times stand in the coffee line. The child lives in this world and he can read. So we unexpectedly had a conversation about what happened the day before in Newtown, Connecticut. Right there in the coffeeshop.

His response, “I want to help.”

We couldn’t help the kids we were thinking about that day, but we were going to help some others we’d never met.

They’re just electronics, but if it takes electronics to help these kids know someone out there cares about them…that someone is thinking of them and wants to give them something to help in some small way, then so be it.

The whole day was a turning point for us. I know we’re all looking for things to do, and they really are all around. I want to make sure I don’t forget to look for them. I know a lot of people are posting about Mr. Rogers quote on “Look for the Helpers.” Well, whenever possible, I want to be one of those helpers. It’s all I can think to do.

Of course there are a million ways to help. Here’s one. AT&T, is partnering with the Make a Wish Foundation to grant a wish every day for 28 days through their Wish-A-Day Sweepstakes. Wishes with the most votes win, so if you have a worthy wish (or know of someone who does) and a Twitter account, go do that. Go make that happen.

Let’s help.

I was in San Francisco on Friday and woke up at 5 am, unable to get back to sleep. I crept downstairs for coffee and found myself in a quiet, magical world full of Christmas ornamentation, gingerbread delights and Holiday music from the 40s. I was the only one up in the Fairmont Hotel lobby…and I felt like Eloise. Or someone from Downton Abbey. Or little orphan Annie in a Warbucks palace. It was a magical morning.

Fast forward a few hours.

I heard about Friday morning’s tragedy exactly two minutes before I boarded the four-hour flight home. While my usual first reaction (besides shock and confusion) is to dive in and read everything about this unfathomable tragedy..as if that would help me understand how in the hell this happened…that was rendered impossible on a flight with no wifi. So I was saved from myself. I was up in the air for hours with no information. In the end, it was a gift.

I had this prayer in my head the entire flight and I haven’t been able to stop saying it all weekend.

And I don’t really want to stop saying it ever.

Friday was a series of touchstone moments for me. I’m sure we all feel that in our own ways. But I think it was a reminder for me about the beauty of sacred spaces, the intense significance of the things we hold sacred, and the power of acknowledging all of it.

I think it also has to do with being in a mindset of thankfulness. I need to work on this. And today I talk about how to raise a thankful kid over at Hitting Refresh. I’m learning, I’m learning.

I hope your day is full of peace and thanksgiving. And really, it can be, because we can still choose that for ourselves. No matter how ridiculous things are getting, we can still create that sacred space and choose to live in it. I believe that.

Make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi