Letters For Lucas

Wonders, Mishaps, Blunders and Joy.. commentary on my life as a mom in the form of letters to my son

Dessert Is Served

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With currently 34 boards and over 1700 pins, it was time I finally took the plunge.

It was time that I actually made something that I found on Pinterest.

I did and it was awesome, but don’t take my word for it…

Last Saturday night I had Cheryl, Deb, Monique and Morgan over to enjoy several glasses of wine have a BlogHer post mordem and with my husband out of town, Lucas served as my co-host. Dinner was ordered over the phone, everyone brought wine and I made dessert.

Behold Oreo Cookie Cheesecakes:
(From Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)

This is HUGE for me because I don’t cook or bake, nor do I take very good photos of food. Please visit La Mia Vita Dolce for proper magazine style shots that will make you drool.

The recipe:

Makes 30

  • 42 Oreo, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
  • 2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • Pinch of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 275° F.  Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole Oreo cookie in the bottom of each lined muffin cup.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add the sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in the vanilla.
  3. Drizzle in eggs, a little at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add in sour cream and salt, beat to combine. Using a large spatula, fold in the chopped Oreo cookies.
  4. Divide batter evenly among the cookie-filled muffin cups, fill each cup almost to the top. Bake, rotating muffin tins halfway through, until the filling is set, about 22 to 28 minutes. Transfer the muffins tins to a wire rack to cool completely. Refrigerate (in the muffin tins) at least 4 hours (or overnight).
  5. Add a dollop of whipped cream and a mini Oreo for the coup de gras.

I defy you not to love these.

And if you’re not on Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for?! It’s super fun.

Julie of Dutch Being Me has come up with a fun idea called 52 Weeks of Pinterest, challenging everyone to do just one thing each week inspired by a pin they found on Pinterest. Check it out! The challenge begins the first full week of September and I am definitely participating.

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How To Be The Best Blogger In The World

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I’ve been blogging for almost two years and in that time I’ve learned a couple of things about how to be a good blogger.

There is a method to this madness, an unspoken etiquette that bloggers follow and some very important dos and don’ts.

For those of you feeling super ambitious, follow these tips and you may be crowned: The Best Blogger in the World! Please try to refrain from eye rolling until the end. 

1. Write an informative, insightful, witty, fantastic post every. single. day., complete with links to others and professional photographs to illustrate your points.

2. Publish your fantastic post at midnight on the dot, if you live on the east coast and 9:00 PM, if you live on the west coast.

3. Promote your fantastic post on Twitter (multiple times throughout the day), Facebook, (which includes your blog fan page, your personal Facebook page, the Studio+ 30 and 5 Minutes for Mom pages and any other Facebook pages that will allow you to, Stumble your fantastic post and add a teaser to BlogFrog (or other favorite community site) and join multiple memes/linkies and/or blog hops that apply, even if it’s stretch. It’s called multi-tasking, people. Oh, and driving traffic to your site.

4. Reply to each and every comment your fantastic post receives. Bonus points if you do this within minutes of receiving the comment. 

5. Follow every single person that follows you, whether it be on your blog or Twitter and engage. Hourly. Read their posts, comment on them and promote them.

Ugh.

Clearly, I’m kidding! There is NO WAY in hell anyone could do all this. Even with an extra 24 hours in their day. Though the “blogger guidelines” are unspoken, it sometimes feels like you have to be in people’s faces all the time just to keep up. It gets to be too much sometimes, doesn’t it? It does for me.

Truly, my only advice is this: write from the heart, be true to who you are and do your best to encourage, support and learn from others.

That’s it.  Simple, right?

Blogging shouldn’t feel like a chore. It shouldn’t cause you angst or pressure of any kind and the minute it’s not fun anymore, you should take a step back and reevaluate why you do it in the first place. Why do you blog? I hope it’s not to be the best blogger in the world.

By the way, I did post this on the Facebook pages mentioned above and will Tweet it in hopes of RTs all day. I will try my best to respond to all of you IF you comment, I’m sorry if I don’t already follow you and I would have included a photo but I couldn’t get my son to cooperate. No, he’s not relevant to the subject matter, but he sure is cute. 🙂

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There’s More To Me Than My Blog

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I talked to a friend recently with whom I hadn’t spoken to in a while and mid-conversation, when we had reached the part when I was all up to date on the current events of her life and it was time for her to ask about me, she said, “I already know everything that’s going on with you, I read your blog.”.“Oh.” And with that, the call was pretty much over.

Here’s what I should have said:

“Um, no you don’t and why would you think that anyway?”

This is not the first time I’ve heard this.
And this is not the first time the comment has irked me hurt my feelings.

I’ll be the first to admit that I share a lot here, but I don’t blog about everything! 

Some things are meant to be private. And I’ve learned that the hard way a couple of times. 

There are lots of topics that I refuse to discuss here. I will never share details of my marriage, my sex life, my struggle to have a second child, my relationship with my sister (again), my ex-husband (again) or basically anything else that could potentially hurt a relationship that is important to me or be used against me in a court of law.

I’m a social networking butterfly and communicate regularly with a lot of people via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Skype, instant messages through Scrabble and Words With Friends, texts, the rare phone call and if I’m really lucky, in person. Every once in a while it would be nice if the people I knew in real life would ask me about me instead of assuming they’ve read it all on my blog. 

Just saying.

If you’re a blogger, does this ever happen to you? 

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I’m A Celebrity Look-Alike

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My friend, Morgan from The Little Hen House is the mastermind behind the latest blog-hop and since I played along with I was a Senior Hottie and Rockin’ the Baby Bump, I thought why not?

Here is I’m a Celebrity Look-Alike… what do you think? See any resemblance? 


My father used to mail me photos ripped out of magazines of Sigourney Weaver with her jawline, cheekbones or smile circled with a note attached saying something like, I see it, do you? or There’s definitely a resemblance, but you are much prettier. Aw…

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I have one friend that has always told me that she thinks I look like Elizabeth Hurley. 
Don’t laugh! I don’t see it either, however, I do appreciate the compliment.
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Another friend makes Blake Lively comparisons.

I wish!

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And recently, someone put a link on my Facebook wall saying Kate Middleton was my doppelganger. 

Hmmm…. maybe? Maybe not. What do you think?

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Do people tell you you look like someone famous? If so, link up here and join in on the fun, even if you think they’re crazy! 

Speaking of crazy, this is my 600th post! 

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In Blogapocalypse Recovery Mode

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While I am still trying to recover from last week’s blogapocalypse, where Blogger went dark for more than 24 hours and I lost not one, but TWO posts and two drafts (I AM SO MOVING TO WORDPRESS!!), please visit me at Jessica’s place.

Jessica’s blog, My Time as Mom as become one of my favorites and I am so grateful that we connected on Twitter. I don’t even mind that she kicks my ass in almost every. single. Scrabble game we play.

Okay, so, it’s getting a little annoying.

Nevertheless, I’m thrilled that she asked me to guest post for her today about Lucas’ big 2nd birthday, so please stop by and say hello and be sure to wish her little monster a very happy 2nd birthday too!

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A Woman I Didn’t Know

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I had a good mother but she and I did not have the type of relationship that I would have liked. We didn’t share intimate secrets or inside jokes. She wasn’t the first person I would think of to call when I had a dilemma. I loved her dearly but I didn’t know her at all.

It’s taken me a long time to be able to admit that my mother and I were not close, especially since she has been gone for over three years.

My mother was a sweet and giving person. She taught kindergarten or third grade my whole life. She loved to celebrate each and every holiday with gusto. She sent heartfelt greeting cards and made the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Her motto was a cliche that I grew to hate: c’est la vie because it became her “go to” response to EVERYTHING.

My mother was a very intelligent woman and I can recall hearing my father comment many times on her high IQ, but she didn’t talk very much.

I don’t think she knew how to express herself.

Until I realized that, she seemed disinterested, oblivious and even intimated by me. I know she must have had a lot of opinions, but she didn’t share them, even after much probing.

There were nightly conversations in our home on a variety of topics ranging from entertainment and politics to current events and religion and it was always my father, sister and me having the discussions, while my mother sat quietly on the sidelines not contributing a word.

Was it our fault?

Did we not include her enough?

Did she think she couldn’t relate?

Did she feel as though her opinion didn’t matter to us?

It did. Very much.

She appeared to be listening and taking it all in, but there was zero exchange.

I was once at a job for more than two years before she ever asked me what it was that I did.

I can accept the things my mother was, but to this day I cannot accept the things that she was not.

I wish we had both tried harder.

If my mother blogged or even kept a hand written diary when I was Lucas’ age, I feel like I would have been privy to a woman I don’t feel like I knew. I would have learned of her inner most thoughts and feelings on motherhood, dreams for me and herself. I would be able to read about her passions, joys, sorrows, strengths and weaknesses and love for me.

I would have very much appreciate, benefited from and cherished a Letters For Tonya blog.

This post was written for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop, Prompt 2.) If my Mom were a blogger…

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In These Small Moments

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I love Nichole.

We have bonded over many things, most notably our mutual adoration for Dave Matthews. **swoon**

I love Nichole’s blog, In These Small Moments. Her writing is strong, effortless and breathtaking. I can’t wait to meet the woman behind these beautiful words at BlogHer in August.

I look forward to Nichole’s Small Moments Mondays feature each week and I’m honored that this week, she is featuring me!

Please stop by and say hello as I share a very big small moment in my life: the moment we found out we were pregnant with our son, Lucas.
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Ultimate Blog Party

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This is my first Ultimate Blog Party and I’m so excited to share Letters For Lucas and meet new bloggers!

If this is your first time visiting, let me tell you a little about myself. I started blogging almost two years ago as a way to document my son’s childhood and continue to do it in order to stay sane. Writing has become my therapy.

I blog about being a stay-at-home-mom to my 22 month old son, Lucas, our outings, his milestones and our sometimes precious and sometimes very trying moments together. I also blog about being a parent without parents, date nights with my husband, favorite products (but don’t do product reviews or giveaways), diet, exercise, miscarriage, travel, our recent move, my love of Dave Matthews, my sister, my friends, the rare recipe I attempt and every so often, I’ll write a piece of fiction.

I tell it like it is and don’t sugar coat anything. I love feedback, making connections and learning from others, so let’s connect! You can follow me on Twitter and Facebook. I tweet all. day. long!

Please leave a comment with your blog address so I can stop by and visit you too.

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I Survived My First Blogging Conference!

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Armed with my fresh off the press blog cards, comfortable shoes, a light weight sweater, a fully charged iPhone (that only lasted until noon), a notebook, pen (that was out of ink by noon), a firm hand shake and a smile, I attended my first blogging conference, Bloggy Boot Camp on Saturday.

I loved the intimate round tables, the seating assignments, the view of the ocean from our seats and the very informative speakers…

I enjoyed listening to the adorable Ashley Stock (Little Miss Momma), whose blog is barely a year old (!) share tips and tricks suitable for any and every new blogger.

I appreciated what Anna Vielle’s (ABDPBT.com) had to say about Social Capital (your metrics and demographics) vs. Trust Capital (staying true to yourself and your voice, i.e. not selling out).

Mama Mary’s presentation was all about incorporating videos to your blog, which is something I might try with Letters For Lucas some day after she made it look so easy. NOT!

But it was DeNae Handy (My Real Life was on Backorder) and Mama Kat (Mama’s Losin’ It) that stole the show for me!

DeNae’s kind nature and wit make her an absolute joy to listen to. I wish she was my neighbor so that she could help me with my writing, maybe babysit Lucas form time to time and I bet she’s a real hoot after a glass of wine. She shared so many writing tips and good things for us all to remember that I have to share some here:

Your readers are people. Your readers are you. Write for you and you write for your readers.

Read, read, read… just as singer sing, writers write in language that speaks to them.

 Make sure it is your story to tell.

The Internet lives forever! Be careful what you put out there. People are more important than a punchline.

Generosity plays well on the Internet. Support, support and support some more.

And Mama Kat, well, she’s just awesome and I must have told her nine times (shaking my head in complete and utter embarrassment).I came away inspired and encouraged by this amazing group of women PLUS, I met the incredible writers behind Mandyland, San Diego Momma and BernThis!

I have a list of things I can do to improve my blog and my writing and I have a ton of new friends to boot.It was Ashley that started the day by saying, You have a story, You have a voice. You deserve to be here and those words resonated with me throughout the conference and today. There may be 4 million mommy bloggers, but only one Letters For Lucas.

A HUGE big thank you to our hosts, the SITS Girls, Tiffany and Francesca for putting on a terrific conference.

Thank you too, to Morgan, (The Little Hen House) who is my friend in real life and was kind enough to help a sister out by lending me her phone charger and a pen.

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