(not just a) MommyBlog (dot com)

Kenny is napping AGAIN!   Having this blog to look forward to during “naptime” has suddenly caused me to develop some super-powered baby mojo, and I have actually been able to get him to sleep and down in the crib without a peep!

We are leaving for England tomorrow and there is much to do, but I can’t resist stealing a few minutes to write… that’s what this is for, right?

(For all of you who are finding this site, please note that my writing here will be quite limited for the next 10 days or so during our trip, but please continue to post comments, submit stories or write to me!   I will continue blogging as I can.)

Life as a stay-at-home wife/mommy is so much fun.   Like, fun-house fun, carnival fun,  and funny-I’m-going-cuckoo fun all rolled into a 24/7 job with no lunch break.  

Since I will be writing here about  my  life and  little boy, let me clarify why I will never use the phrase “Stay at home Mom” or “SAHM” in my posts… I am and will forevermore be, first, a Wife.   Isn’t it interesting how our grandmas and moms all refered to themselves (if they didn’t work outside the home) proudly as a “Housewife” in their day?   There was no such phrase as “Stay at home Mom.”   Where did that come from?   I got married, and so my first attentions will always go to my amazing hubby.   Then, we found ourselves with sweet little Kenny, and I am honored to be able to stay at home and raise him.   So I’m a woman, a wife and a mommy.   What Joy this life is!

So here’s a question for all you moms out there… when you really have to get things done, i.e. pack for a 10-day trip to England, clean house, do laundry and on and on, what do you do with a 9 1/2 month old ball of energy that crawls faster than a sprinting weimaraner,  walks himself not only around the furniture but behind that little space by the couch that you can’t even fit the vacuum into, is starting to figure out that the doggie door might be fun to wiggle through and who wants, more than anything, to reprogram your TV by teething on the universal remote control?   Do you let him play in the floor while you keep one eye on him and the other on the dog trying to  bury his bone into your suitcase while you fold his tiny, sweet little pjs?   Do you put him in the pack-n-play and pretend not to hear his cries of “Mommy, why aren’t you playing with me?”   Do you try to race around while he’s napping and get it all done so that you are 100% focused on him when he’s awake?  

I always struggle with this.   I LOVE playing with Kenny.   He is a real hoot.   I would be content to do nothing but play all day with him.   But remember that mini-essay up there about being a wife first, and all that about running the household?   When do you guys get that part done?   I so often find myself stuck somewhere in the middle and not doing the housework well and not playing with Kenny with all of my brain, and the poor dog is no longer even playing second fiddle – he’s stuck in the back by the xylophone player.   This Mommy stuff isn’t for wimps, that’s for sure…

So I  need to get back to the housewife part of my life now and get us ready for this trip!   By the way, we are going to Oxford to attend a week-long summer session with Ravi Zacharias and his evangelism team.   Click on the RZIM link to the right if you are interested in reading about it.   I am sure I will have many stories to tell of our trip, my parents (who are coming along to keep Kenny company) and much more.

And that really is true about the dog door… he discovered it this morning and it’s all I can do to keep him away from it… hm… maybe he can teach Dudley how to use it…

I am overwhelmed.   What a gift this is!   There I was on the 24th of June, frosting cupcakes for my birthday party, in the process of chasing Dudley the weimaraner around the kitchen to wrestle cupcake number 3 out of his slimy mouth, when Casey yells down the stairs, “Hey Kristjana… can you come up here and look at this for a minute?”

Our son, Kenny, aka “No Nap Joe,” had decided to settle in for an actual mid-day snooze, and I was blissfully baking cakes (ok, blissful except for digging the remnants of the gooey chocolate ones out of Dudley’s mouth) and Casey was upstairs going over scripture that we planned to read for Kenny’s dedication ceremony, which was to take place at my birthday party on Sunday.   I deftly secured the remaining cakes on the highest point in our kitchen and came upstairs to see what he had come up with.

He started into some strange banter  looking  for  “Mommy Blogs” on the web, typing in random web addresses and going on about how there needed to be something started that could be not only a blog, but also a community for moms, and on and on.   And to be frank, my mind was starting to wander…

“I wonder how much longer Kenny will sleep.   I need to finish the cupcakes, mop the floor, fold the laundry, clean the guest bath…”   when suddenly he typed in “mommyblog.com” and I thought, “nice color sceme…” and then saw a cartoon of the many beautiful faces of my little boy growing on a tree!   And me!   And Casey’s Happy Birthday message!!   This was for ME!

I am often sweetly asked, “What kind of hobbies do you have?” by other stay-at-homers, and they are most often met with  a blank stare.   Hobbies?   When do they do hobbies?   “You know, when your baby is napping?”   So that’s it!   Ok, well, my  baby doesn’t really nap.   He will occasionally doze in my arms, or go down for what I call the “20 minute special” but a nap, in any real sense of the word, is not something I can count on.  

I’ve been recently remarking (ok, more like wistfully wishing) to Casey that I had a “time-out” or break during the day where I could do something that was just ME.   Not housewife (which I think is a great occupation; I love being able to stay home), not Mommy (which is the coolest invention next to marraige!), but ME: Kristjana Cook.   I’ve been needing  a creative outlet – after all, we were created by the foremost and perfect Creator – the need for such an outlet in is our DNA!

(more on all those thoughts ~ from staying at home to wife and mother to being creative as a result of being Created ~ in later posts…)

And here it is.   Not just an outlet or a hobby; not a start-up scrapbooking kit (I’d be so awful at that!) or a sewing machine, but a real, live, living website!   I love how Casey always thinks BIG.   And this is huge.   I can’t wait to see where this goes and what becomes of MommyBlog.com.

This is a dream opportunity!
And would you know… my baby is NAPPING right now.   Sleeping.   Mid-day.   Even smiling in his sleep.   Imagine me taking a huge, delicious breath and  smiling from ear to ear.   This is going to be so much fun.

To anyone who is landing on this site, please note that this is a gift for my wife Kristjana for her birthday on June 25th, 2006.   Stay tuned…

Dearest Kristjana,

Happy Birthday Boo!

Welcome to MommyBlog.com!   This is your website, the website community for Mommies, hosted by the world’s best Momma. Honey I am so excited to give you this gift, more than maybe any I have ever given to you.   Because this gift will change daily.   It is one that you can mold create in the way that you see fit.   You are free to create, like you were made to do.

I could not resist buying this domain.   It was a fun project.   I found the domain name for a reasonable price. I found a cartoonist named Dr. Arun in India, and an incredible Web Designer named Eileen in NY.   I hope, my dear wife, that this will be an avenue that will connect not only you to Mommy sanity, but many Mom’s around the world.

You are a brilliant woman.   I know you have felt a bit isolated from other adults, adult conversation, etc.   There are millionsof Mom’s that feel the same way.   This could be an intimate site where our friends/family catch up on things.   Or, this could be read by millions.   It doesn’t matter to me.   You have the talent to take it as far as you want.   I have no expectations.

But I do want to encourage you.   I will free you up taking care of Kenny so you can write.   Once this launches, other Mom’s sites will be hoping for your input! You’re the CEO of this site.   We can update it, get a new cartoonist, a new look, etc.   From a business standpoint, you already have a lot of people coming to the site.   This could be a MySpace for Mommies.

You are the love of my life…   Have fun.   Happy Birthday!