Friday Round-Up--Gumption-free edition--11.19.2010

Well, I've been seriously slacking on Friday Round-ups. I could say I've been so busy that I didn't have time. That's partially true, but the truth is I've been low on gumption lately. It's just been tough for me to get motivated about anything.

I don't know if it's because the cold weather has come on. And daylight savings didn't help much either...who can feel motivated when it's dark out by 5 p.m.?

All I know is when I roll in the door at night all I want to do is knit furiously, sip a glass of wine, and catch up on back episodes of Weeds.

This week I was on vacation. It's likely the last solid chunk of time I'll have to tackle some projects here before the kiddo comes home. I had high aspirations. Really. Unfortunately, high aspirations and low gumption are not a good combination.

Here's the list of things I actually got done this week:

• organized all the blogs in my Goo.gle Reader. (not an urgent task but it made me feel quite happy.)
• spent a silly amount of time finding new apps for my iPhone
• loaded 7 new apps on the iPhone 
• painted the kitchen. (while this might sound impressive, it really wasn't. it required 3 visits to the paint store, 2 days to prep, and I only managed to get the job done by bribing The Man with veggie cheeseburgers and coffee to help me paint on his day off.)
• worked out three times this week so far
• came up with an idea for a blog thumbnail but have yet to execute the idea
• watched 5 movies and a season and a half of Weeds
• met a friend for lunch
• slept in late every day this week

Oh yeah, and I managed to put together a hodge-podge Friday Round-Up. Guess all isn't lost!

Wishing you all a great, gumption-free weekend!

______________________


I hope I'm a mom like Ilie Ruby, who confronts people head on in a very nice way when she encounters "the stare". Read how she does it HERE.

THIS post at Irene's Daughters made me think about all the stereotypes we have for cultures. It keeps reverberating in my head. Need to revisit this topic later.

THIS has nothing to do with adoption. Nothing to do with Korea. But I'll bet you know someone who has been touched with cancer, and it has everything to do with learning to make them feel comforted. A great interview by TIME by cancer survivor and author Claudia Wallis. I learned a lot, and hope you will too. The link at the end of the interview shares more tips from Wallis's book, Help Me Live: 20 Things People With Cancer Want You to Know.


Things are entirely too serious here. Let's lighten things up. Happy one year as a family anniversary to Birdie, Bean and Baby Jee! THIS sweet post shares one of the many unexpected outcomes from becoming a mom.

OMG. THIS POST at Hyperbole and a Half had me laughing hysterically and desperately trying to do it super quietly so I wouldn't wake up Hubster who was trying to sleep. I'm not sure if it's her illustrations that crack me up, or the way she tells the story. But she's damned funny.

Do you know why cats don't make good businessmen. Find the answer in THIS post from The Oatmeal.

We're on a roll here. One more good laugh, although I'm pretty mortified knowing that we too, will likely have one of these stories to tell at some point. A Daily Dose of Mama shares this hilarious post about how to handle a baby blowout.

Oh dear. Hate to be a party spoiler, but a second post from A Daily Dose of Mama brought me back to reality, about the frustration of waiting to bring a baby home. For all the mums out there who are still waiting...read this very sweet post HERE.