Category: Anecdote (Page 11 of 31)

What’s in a Year of Blogging?

January 1, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

Happy New Year! One of my favorite things about a new year on the blog is taking a look back at the old year. There are all kinds of analytics available with stats at the ready, which makes this post really easy to compose. So here are some of my favorite tidbits about the Observation Desk (did you know that was the name of my blog?!) in 2015:

Most Viewed Post – “No Matter How You Do The Math, Death Just Doesn’t Add Up”

This post about my late sister, Kylene, on what would have been her 30th birthday got more hits in a single day than I’ve had in entire months. It was a really special post, and it brings a smile to my face to know that so many people are interested in the beautiful person that was my sister. I wouldn’t have wanted any other post to garner so much attention.

The Great CT Caper was a really big part of my 2015 and I hosted many of the authors and illustrators involved in the project, so it’s fitting that one of those guest posts made it to the top. The Japanese Wedding post was actually from 2014, but it proved to stand the test of time with a lot of hits in 2015. I’m cutting back on guest posts for 2016, so it will be interesting to see how this category pans out in the next year. (With that being said, I’m not eliminating guest posts, so if you are interested in posting in 2016 simply contact me!)

Views by Country – By far the most views came from the United States, but Brazil (surprisingly) and Canada put in good showings as well. A few one-offs of interest included Mozambique, Andorra, and Fiji.

Most Fun Search Terms – This is probably my favorite category to look back on. There are always some really wacky search terms that bring people to my website, though a change in how the data is collected definitely limited the specific search terms used (there were over 700 searches listed in the all-encompassing “unknown search terms” category). A couple of my favorite were “good one liners for a girl named katie,” “the way of chatting to a rude boy so that he can get impressed,” and “genie female.”

Turning to 2016, keep an eye out for a continuation of #InkRipples, starting on Monday with the monthly topic of travel. There will, of course, be the usual writing/bookish updates and cutie pictures of the boys. I don’t think I ever did a final look at my attic writing space, which technically isn’t 100% finished (what ever is!), but has turned out quite nice. If I remember, I’ll post about that some time this year.

What else? Who knows! I’m sure there will lots of other things that pop up. Anything particular you’d all like to see on the blog? I’d love for you to share in the comments. And thanks to everyone who takes the time to pop in and read…I wouldn’t be here without you (well, I might still be here, but I’d just be talking to myself!). All the best to you and yours in 2016!

Mommy’s Night Before Christmas

December 21, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

October 2022 Update: If you love this poem, check out the newly revised and illustrated picture book MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Phoebe Cho.

Available now from Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Kobo, and more! Find signed copies on the Purchase Books page.

Mommy’s Night Before Christmas

by Katie L. Carroll

‘Twas the night before Christmas, the kids were in bed

Anxiously awaiting the Big Man in Red;

The stockings weren’t hung (we don’t have a chimney),

We just set them down in front of the TV.

Who am I kidding? The kids weren’t sleeping,

The baby was teething, drooling, and weeping;

The preschooler was playing with a million toys,

Driving his cars and making lots of noise.

Half an hour later, the baby passed out,

His brother went to bed (not without a good pout);

I let out a great big sigh of relief,

Then I looked around and thought, “Oh, good grief!”

The house was a mess, the laundry never-ending,

And there was still that ornament that needed mending.

At least we were done hiding that stupid elf,

Went back where he came from, him and his shelf;

Hours passed, we thought we were finally done;

We found more gifts, the fun had just begun;

We were out of wrapping paper and tape,

Reused gift bags put us back in good shape;

I sat down to relax, put my feet up,

Snuggled into a blanket with my tea cup;

A bang outside roused me to my feet,

I peeked out the curtains, looked down the street.

“I don’t think it’s the neighbors,” Daddy said;

“What? You think it’s Santa in his big sled?”

He went to check it out, shot me a look,

And told me to go back to reading my book;

A minute later, I heard a great yell,

And said under my breath, “What the hell?”

I put on my shoes, grabbed the monitor,

Slipped into a coat, and stomped out the door;

The clear winter night brought no Christmas snow,

Instead moonlight washed the yard in a soft glow;

Daddy stood there staring up at the roof;

I hissed, “What are you doing, you big doof?”

He merely pointed, his face full of fear,

And gave a soft whisper, “It’s a reindeer.”

Now, I haven’t believed since I was six,

Thought surely his eyes must be playing tricks;

Then I heard a stomping and a nicker

That made my heart beat a little quicker;

Looking up, I saw the brown muzzle, red nose,

The Fat Man himself, and I simply froze.

Daddy and I exchanged a look of wonder,

The shock could’ve put us six feet under;

I shook my head and came to my senses,

Glared at Santa, went on the offensive;

“Get off my roof, your reindeer too,” I hissed;

I glared at Santa, feeling really pissed;

He laughed, “Don’t end up on my naughty list.”

Clearly this guy wasn’t getting my gist.

“With all due respect, get the hell out of here;

If you wake my kids, you won’t see next year.”

Quiet as a shadow those reindeer took flight,

Santa whispered, “Merry Christmas and good night.”

The Dichotomy of Parenting

December 18, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Time has a way of changing when you become a parent. The minutes tick by slowly but the years fly by in a flash. Time seems to move at glacial speed when your child is sick or misbehaving or when you have a stretch of rainy days and the dreaded boredom kicks in. The hard moments feels like they’ll never end. But then one day you look back and realize your baby is 4 or 10 or even 20!

Then again this contradiction is indicative of parenthood. You want to spend every minute soaking up your child, but you can’t wait to get an afternoon or a night away. You strive to raise an independent, self-sufficient human being, but it hurts to let him go off on his own. You push him to experience all the world has to offer, but you need to protect him from all the bad things, even though you know you can’t. You show him unconditional love, but also have to be a disciplinarian.

You love your child more than you thought humanely possible (that’s the easy part), but being a good parent is really, really, really hard. You make mistakes, and by doing so you become a better parent. But no matter how long you are a parent, there is always some new challenge to be tackled.

Parenting is messy and impossible and beautiful. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done!

What are your worst and best parenting moments?

November #inkripples Continued: Gratitude Isn’t Just for Thanksgiving

November 23, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

In this special bonus #inkripples post for the November theme of Remembrance/Thankfulness (see my original post “Where Did My Memories Go?”), I wanted to talk about something I’ve been trying to incorporate into my daily life: focusing on gratitude.

Turns out one way to be happier in life is to be grateful (see “Giving thanks can make you happier” and “The Neuroscience of Why Gratitude Makes Us Healthier” by Ocean Robbins). You don’t even have to express that gratitude to anyone in particular. Merely thinking about it and feeling it garners benefits, like boosting your mood and giving you a better sense of connection.

Ways to experience gratitude include actually, ya know, thanking someone and showing appreciation for them (in person or in writing), writing down or making a mental list of things you are grateful for, and praying or meditating (with gratitude in mind). It’s okay to keep it simple by noting the simple blessings in life.

I’ve been trying to take one moment each day and think about some of the things I’m grateful for. Building it into a daily routine makes it easier to incorporate into your everyday life. I like to do it in the shower. 😉

I gotta say, writing this post has actually made me feel good, and I’m not even thinking about anything specific that I’m grateful for. Maybe all you need to do is type the word “grateful” enough times and it will be true.

So what I’m saying is don’t reserve your thankfulness for that one day a year when you sit around the table eating turkey. Do it every day. And if your old Aunt Mabel is acting particularly grumpy on Thanksgiving, go ahead and suggest everyone take a minute to think of something they are grateful for. It might just bring a smile to the old bat’s face!

Have you joined the #inkripples movement yet? Ripples in the Inkwell is a monthly meme created by Kai Strand, Mary Waibel, and Katie L. Carroll(me!). On the second Monday of each month, we post on a particular topic. The idea is that we toss a word, idea, or image into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There’s no wrong way to do it and we’d love for you to participate (full details here). Be sure to provide a link to your own #inkripple in the comments! Look for details on next year’s ink ripples topics in December!

Hello, My Name is Katie, and I’m a Millennial

November 18, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

I say this as if it’s the first step in 12-step program: admitting I have a problem. Namely that I am a Millennial. And I have been in denial for most of my life about being part of the much-discussed (and often maligned) generation.

When I heard that people born in my birth year are often considered the inaugural year of the Millennials, I was like, “No way. That must be wrong.” Yet it’s true that the early 1980s are the beginning of the generation, with 1982 being specifically designated because it marked the class who would graduate from high school in the year 2000 (a fact that was shoved down our throats from when we first started elementary school).

Part of my shock stemmed from the fact that I’d heard so much about the Millennials that I just couldn’t relate to. They are entitled and narcissistic. They can’t handle the real, adult world because they were raised by “helicopter parents.” This upbringing means they can’t handle hearing the word “no,” can’t take any criticism, and that each one of them believes they are a special snowflake and should be treated as such by everyone (see the CBS story “The ‘Millennials’ Are Coming” that is rife with such, well frankly, insults).

This analysis made me cringe. So when I found out I was a Millennial, suddenly all of these really harsh criticisms were about me. And I just couldn’t identify with what was being said about my generation (turns out I’m not the only one…see the article “Most Millennials Resist the ‘Millennial’ Label” from the Pew Research Center).

I started working when I got a paper route at the age of 9. In high school, I made the honor roll every single quarter, I earned 12 varsity letters, I worked in a local hardware store, and volunteered at the hospital (not to mention that I hung out with my friends and had a pretty active social life). I worked my way through college and graduated Summa Cum Laude. And I can most assuredly tell you that none of that was “given” to me; it was all earned.

My life experience and outlook feels so far off from how the labels would paint me. I thought maybe that was because as far as Millennials go, I’m ancient. I’m three times older than the youngest Millennials. My 16-year-old nephew is part of the same generation, and while we have a similar sense of humor, we are miles apart in where we are in life, and my upbringing was very different.

I can remember a time before the Internet and personal computers. I was a rather late convert to getting a cell phone and social media (though they are now an integral part of my everyday life). So maybe I wasn’t a good representation of the generation. But then I started thinking about the other Millennials I know, and I found the characteristics that we’ve been pegged with didn’t match with the characteristics I was observing.

And here is where I think lies the problem: You can’t take an entire generation of people and try to boil them down to a handful of traits. Turns out a lot of these criticisms of Millennials are actually more representative of a certain socio-economic group (and even then I question how well the analysis holds water), and we are a whole lot more diverse than we’ve been labeled (see the article “The Millennial Muddle” by Eric Hoover).

The Millennials I know are tolerant and open-minded. We’ve played an important part in electing the first black president in the U.S. and in making same-sex marriage legal in the U.S. and beyond. We make our own definitions of happiness, wealth, family, hard work, and gender roles, among other things. It’s not the we don’t care about the ideals of former generations or that we don’t have respect for them; it’s just we don’t need to be defined by them.

We’re also the generation that is growing up in the shadow of 9/11. Most of us have entered (or will enter) the work force post the Great Recession. Those of us who have gone (or will go) to college are graduating with the highest levels of student loans ever, debt we’ll probably be paying back until our kids go to college (if they can afford it, which is unlikely as education costs continue to rise so drastically). Then we’re faced with a poor job market, and all the while everything costs more and our assets (like our homes) are worth less.

In a lot of ways we’ve been dealt a crappy hand, and, yeah, the world can feel like a scary, anxiety-inducing place. But we’re living in it and making the best of it, and I think as a generation, we are working to make the world a better place because I think we all deserve that.

Maybe that does make me entitled. But I’m not just going to sit around and wait for things to magically get better. I’m going to work every day at it…and I’m going to do it in my own way. Because I don’t need anyone else to tell me what makes for a meaningful life, while at the same time I recognize that others, from any generation, can certainly show me what that is.

So my fellow Millennials, I’m going to state here that I am proud to be a part of this generation. Let’s keep doing our thing and not freaking out about what boxes we’re put in by those who make a point of pigeonholing us and calling it research. Let’s live our lives with purpose and meaning, whatever that means to each of us.