Hurricane Irene, not at the shore

At this very moment, Hurricane Irene is hitting Virginia as I sit just outside Philly in the near western suburbs. We have electricity. We have rain. We have a little bit of wind.

As with blizzard warnings, I am not one to run to the store and stock up on two weeks worth of supplies and equipment. Mainly because I don't live in a RURAL area. And with the oncoming hurricane, I equally did not prepare. My bathtubs are not full of water for whoknowswhat. I did not rush the grocery store aisles for any crumbs of loaves left standing (there were none, my husband was there - judge him). I didn't even stock up on batteries *gasp*!

Call me crazy, but I'm just not taking this seriously. I may live to regret it, but my feeling all along has been that it will be heavy winds, heavier than I've ever experienced, and tons of rain. But, I don't think I will be without electricity and clean water for up to two weeks. Maybe if I lived near the beach. But I don't.

So my preparedness kinda went like this. First, I stocked up on wine. Otherwise, how would I sleep through 80 mph winds. And because, people, I am actually supposed to be ON VACATION AT THE BEACH right now. Not how I imagined starting off my vacation, but there we have it. We did remove the hanging plants - potential projectiles no more - and moved the patio furniture into the garage. I also turned the fridge up to the max should we lose power (which I fully expect we will). I also gathered together all the candles.

And that's about all the hurricane preparing I did.

Oh and I'm charging all electronic devices, because I would DIE if I couldn't connect to the internet. I mean, PRIORITIES!

We are so bummed to be in our house, and NOT ON VACATION with our friends, that the kids are all facetiming each other on the husbands' iPads. It's so sad. We'll be lucky if we get there on Monday. Flood waters be gone!

Oh no, the lights just dimmed. Time to sign off.

Is it blogger's anxiety, or life anxiety?

I have blogger's anxiety. Or writer's block. Or an inability to link two sentences together with any real meaning. Whatever it is, it has paralyzed me from writing the way I prefer to, openly and without refrain. I blame this on the fact that many people I know read my blog... family, friends, neighbors...so I've become self-conscious about what I write and share. I suppose you could also chalk it up to feeling vulnerable. I simply don't want to put everything out there for people to judge.

Also...I'm afraid I've lost my focus. If I ever had it.

Over the years I've been so inspired by many other bloggers. Their beautiful websites. The connections they've made. The way they have grown in social media. I've also been overwhelmed by them. I want to do more with my blog, but I can't figure out what. I keep thinking something will magically dawn on me. But it hasn't.

I started and deleted many a post in the last two months, and while I don't want to give up blogging, I'm not sure I can continue here. I thought it was a phase and it would go away. But, again, it hasn't. I'm not sure that Figments of a Mom is me anymore.

As I'm writing this and trying really hard to dig deep within myself to understand what is wrong, I think what it really is is that I'm overwhelmed by life. I want to do and be so many things right now that I can't focus. I work fulltime, but I'd rather be doing anything else....

I love creating. I want to knit, crochet, make things anythings with my Silhouette. I have bins and bins of baby clothes. I want to use the fabric to make quilts for my girls, but I am still learning to sew. I want to learn to sew well so I can also make curtains, pillow covers and other things for my house. I want to take photos, all day. I want to travel, and move somewhere completely new. I want to spend my time going to flea markets, thrift stores and estate sales and refinish the furniture to sell in my own boutique. I want to plan girls nights out events. I want to finish decorating and furnishing my house. I want to landscape my yard. I want to build my own furniture. I already have the saw! I want to have a website that thousands rely on for information, inspiration and support. I want to teach all of this to my kids, and take them places on the weekends. I want to spend time with my friends (and that includes my husband because I'm sure he's reading this and wondering where he fits in).

And that's not even all of it.

So what I need to do is get organized in my head, and figure out a way to not feel so overwhelmed. Because I'm not going to shorten my list. It's in my head daily. Getting organized may involve professionals. It may require a solo weekend away from everything.

I have no idea what that means for this blog. Everything may unfold here, or it could spawn an entirely new space.
However it happens, it needs to happen soon because I'm never content and it's starting to take its toll.

Back to School Printable

I feel like this summer barely got going and now it's nearly over. We still have one more beach trip to make to top it off. Although I love getting new school supplies, I still get that slightly nauseated feeling when the first day nears.

I've seen some back-to-school printables cropping up here and there, but I thought these were cute enough to share from Silver Box Creative Studio. Who doesn't love getting a little surprise note now and then? Print and spread the love...

Source: silverboxcreative.com via Angela on Pinterest

I ♥ Photography

I love taking photos - especially candids of children and people. Once upon a time, I wanted to work for National Geographic: traveling, taking photos and writing. My dream job. I think being a wartime photojournalist would be amazingly exciting too. Call me crazy, but something tells me that won't be happening at this stage of my life.

Often at birthday parties and get togethers, I spend more time behind the camera than not. I have to remind myself to be present and in the moment. But I feel obligated to capture everything. If I could figure out a way to work as a vacation/party/lifestyle photographer and match the salary of my fulltime job, I'd be set!

In any case, our most recent trip to the beach with four generations of my family gave me plenty of opportunity to indulge my hobby and have some fun. Just a sampling...

Here is the matriarch, my grandmother, aka The Grandmother, who is a mother to 7, a grandmother to 16 and great grandmother to 8.

We herded the great grandkids into the lifeguard chair, because a family vacation to the shore is not complete without this photo prop. Unfortunately, with that many kids squished together up high, someone is bound to get crabby or distracted.

E playing model in the lifeguard boat.

If E has a turn, little K gets a turn.

I took family photos of my cousins four children. The 2nd to youngest had a hard time sitting still - normal for a three-year old.

What is it with babies and sand in their mouth?

By the way, all these photos were essentially taken with a point and shoot camera.