Dishing on Daily Life with Michelle

It’s that time again!  Ask Away Friday is a ridiculously fun weekly game that bloggers play to get to know each other better.  The bonus is that readers of both blogs get to know us better at the same time.  This week I am pairing with Michelle Nahom of A Dish of Daily Life.  She is a mother of three soccer loving kids and blogs about being a sports mom, photography, and organizing photos, among other things, on her blog.  Oh yeah, she is also one of the enormously talented ladies published in the book The Mother of All Meltdowns!  (Her meltdown was totally justified.  She handled it much better than I would have and people often call me “nice and patient.”)

Let’s get this party started!

You left your job to be at home…I did the same thing many years ago. Do you miss anything about working? And if so, what is it that you miss the most?

I miss seeing my friends every day.  But, that is pretty much all I miss about working!  The company I used to work for was a security company and these days I feel like my friends…are always there.  I miss seeing tangible evidence of my contribution to the family income twice each month, too.

Your kids are so adorable. I have to ask my signature question: What characteristics of yours (good and bad) do you see in your kids?

Thank you!  They are cute so that I will forgive them for being little monsters all the time 😉 My son is pretty easy going, independent, kind, and typically a “low maintenance kid.”  But, I think that his easy going nature makes him easy to take advantage of, like me.  People tend to view nice people as weak.  We both have a lot of patience with others and tend to see only the good, but when we are continually taken advantaged of it builds up and explodes out.

My daughter may look like her dad but her clutter-itis and mini-hoarding are all me.  She loves to laugh and be silly and that reminds me of myself too!

I always like to hear silly things that kids say…what is the funniest thing one of your kids has said?

This isn’t actually something they have said.  They sing it.  My kids collaborated on a song that they like to sing to me in the car on the way to soccer.  It goes like this.

Pea:  Joeeeeeee, do you have my caaaa-lothes?

Pork Chop: Nooooooo, I don’t have your clothes.  I muuuuuuuust have flushed em down the toilet.

Pea:  Steeeeeeeeve, do you have my caaa-lothes?

Pork Chop: Nooooo….

This goes one for the entire 16 minutes it takes me to get to the fields with a different name each verse of course.

 As you may know, the authors of The Mother of All Meltdowns now have a No Mother is Perfect website and forum. In the spirit of that, would you be willing to share one of your less than stellar mom moments?

When the kids were 2 and 3, I remember making them fish sticks for dinner.  My son started whining about not wanting it.  Before I could stop myself I said, “It’s just like eating Nemo and you LOVE Nemo.”

My husband was horrified.

You and I have been chatting back and forth about participation trophies. What do you think the answer is? The kids love them in part because we make such a big deal about them. Do you think there’s a happy medium?

I made a big deal out of his first one since he was only 4 and I was happy he finally stopped sitting on the sidelines, bawling and calling for me.  Since then I haven’t been that excited about them.  The problem is that my dad has a case of all the trophies my siblings and I won when we were younger so my son doesn’t realize that there is a difference between winning a trophy and getting one for showing up.  We play at the YMCA and all the kids get the same trophy.  Participation trophies are okay if they also have a different and LARGER trophy for the winning team or different categories.  MVP, Best at ____ position.  It acknowledges strengths and gives the kids a prize to go after.  The money spent on the little cheap trophies could certainly buy a nice trophy that only the winning team gets.   Ummmm the parents have to show up too.  So shouldn’t we get a trophy?

I know you’ve said you wish you could have a professional organizer on retainer. I would love that too! My house is a disaster zone! I do have a number of professional organizer friends (not that you can tell from looking at my house), thanks to an organization I belong to. What do you feel the biggest organizing issue you face?

My biggest organization issue is ME.  I get side tracked and put things down until they build up.  I also have a very good memory so I can almost always “see” in my head where something is.  Unfortunately, the other members of the family can’t do that.  I am making an effort to improve because it frustrates me and I don’t want them to be mentally affected by the clutter.

Cooking or baking? What is your favorite thing to cook? Would you be willing to share the recipe?

I enjoy both.  My favorite thing to cook is actually a Body for Life recipe: Sesame Beef Stir Fry.  I leave the pepper flakes off of the kids portion.  Part of the reason I love to cook it is that it is nutritious and the only thing chock full of veggies that my kids LOVE.  They each have multiple servings. They dislike veggies except for broccoli and all the shredded veggies in this dish.

 Do you have a favorite author? Who is it? What is your favorite book?

I am a big nerd.  My favorite author is Brandon Sanderson and my favorite book is The Way of Kings.  When I am feeling in a Romance mood I read Nora Roberts.

 If you had a week all to yourself, what would you do with it? Would you travel? Hole up in close by hotel room and sleep? Money is no object!

I would go to a blog convention! Hopefully, it would be someplace interesting so I could take photographs too.

My family doesn’t always understand the draw of blogging. Why did you start blogging? What is your favorite thing about it? Do you have a long term plan for your blog?

I have always enjoyed writing.  I started my blogger blog in April of last year but I wasn’t all that serious about it and mostly forgot it existed.  In October, I had a miscarriage and was devastated.  I wrote to release some of the pain and then stumbled on the SITSGirls and started to blog with intention, meaning I transferred my handful of posts to WordPress with my own domain.  Researching, writing, and connecting on social media completely distracted me.  Once I got into it, I was hooked.  I think that if one person reads a post that resonates with them or helps them then I did a good thing.  I also like that blogging is something I work on all on my own.  My goal is continue to make connections and improve my blog. I am still in the process of finding my voice and direction.  My ultimate goal is to earn some income from it so that I can actually continue to do something I love forever.  It’s taken me years to discover what it is I would happily spend hours working on, despite making pennies a month, and simply enjoy.  Even if I don’t make money, I would still do it.  Earning an income would just give me justification to spend even more time on it.

There you have it!  A look into my enormously fascinating life 😉 Make sure you head over to A Dish of Daily Life to check out the questions I asked her.  Inquiring minds want to know….

If you find this as fun as I do, head over to our hosts MrsTee from Love, Life, and Laughter, Amber of Bold Fit Mom, Penny of Real Housewife of Caroline County, and Stacy from This Momma’s Ramblings to read more!