In Which We Discuss...Stats!

If you know me, you know I geek out on anything that can be measured - preferably quantitatively, but I'll also accept qualitatively in a pinch. I love working in Excel. Graphs are my be-all-and-end-all. Need a formula for that? Hold a sec; got one right here.

So I've been tracking the launch of this new blog pretty closely, because STATS, ya'll. So...without any further adieu, may I present the facts and figures from the first 24 hours of The Momma in the Middle.

(Also, I promise not to make this a daily habit - I'm just geeked out on this because it's day 1 of a new site.)


First up, pageviews by country and by platform. I see no real surprises here - I know who is in Iraq (hi, Jerry), and Canada (hi, Julia), and Italy (hi, Jessie), and Singapore (hi, Kresta), and South Africa (hi, Meg)...although the Peru hit has me stumped. Maybe an AAer who is traveling?

Next up, we have pageviews by day (24 hours split over 2 days), which is a healthy total for a blog with only 2 live posts...and 100% of traffic coming from Facebook.

And then the breakdown by post - post #2 has a really good total versus post #1 consider the headstart #1 got!

Next up, post interaction on the new Facebook page. Not too shabby!

And finally, general stats for the Facebook page. Dear 114 People - I love you, and you've made my day! Muah! The interesting piece here is that apparently, 108 likes are from friends...which means that I have 6 likes from people I'm not connected with already - that's kind of unexpected since this was totally a friends-and-family launch. But nice! I'll take it and thank you very much!

Know what this all means? I'm in the middle of the greatest bunch of friends, family and acquaintances a girl could ask for. Ya'll rock! Thanks for coming on this journey with me!

Still in the Middle

When my former husband and I first separated, I went into a blue funk every time the kids were gone to stay with him instead of me. I'd stay in my pajamas, chain-smoking, reading dreary novels, and crying my eyes out.

Blech! Thank GOD I'm no longer that person.

I absolutely needed that time to mourn then heal - but Lord knows you can't stay that way forever.

Now, I look at the time that the kids are with their father as opportunities to get all of my non-kiddo related things done - chores, errands, Tom Cruise movie marathons, extra client work, projects, school or church work, and Tom Cruise movie marathons. (Did I mention Tom Cruise movie marathons? Just want to be sure I didn't forget that.)

Do I still miss them? Of course. Right now I'm sitting in a house that's waaaaaaay too quiet. The kids have been gone for 25 minutes and will be with their dad through Saturday (with a brief stay back with me because of his work schedule). I'll miss them the whole time they're gone...but I'll still be in the middle of our lives, working on stuff for all of us!

For instance, over the next few days (while I'm still supposed to be convalescing), I'm going to clean out a closet, put up Christmas decorations, put away massively large mountains of clean laundry, have a Tom Cruise movie marathon, and thoroughly clean out my bedroom and get it decorated for Christmas. While I'm watching a Tom Cruise movie marathon.

I'm still the Momma in the Middle...the kids will be back before I know it, so I better get cracking on my to-do list!

Happy

I realized tonight that I was happy.

Not just content to have arrived successfully at the end of the day.

Not just relieved that most of what needed to get done mostly did.

Not just thankful that more bits and pieces of nonsense didn't get kicked up.

Actually. Happy.

How did I come to this moment of happiness, you ask?

While scooping cat poop.

Stop it. I'm being serious.

I had a zen moment while cleaning out the many litterboxes used by my feline overlords.

Remember: Actually. Happy.

Just...while holding cat poop.

See, I'd come home from this month's city council meeting, picked the kiddos up from the wonderful neighbor who was watching them, and bundled them all off to bed, lickity split. Silence in the house by 8:45 - that's enough to warrant its own zen moment right there.

Next up was bundling myself off to bed - I'm fresh off a 10-day hospital stay for pneumonia and need all the rest I can get.

But...

But...

The litterboxes needed scooped. The feline overlords and canine court jesters needed fed.

Sometimes, when my brain overflows with things that MUST. BE. DONE. RIGHT. NOW., I go into panic mode and none of it gets done. Other times, I go into manic mode and suddenly a list of 3,445 items materializes and must be finished by midnight.

Not tonight, though.

Tonight, thinking about the must-do's actually brought me strength, and an aura of calm that I haven't experienced in quite some time. And...happiness.

I was happy to be in the middle of the kids' lives, even just in mundane ways like successfully packing them all off to bed at the "right" time.

I was happy to be in the middle of the cats' lives, felines who have shared my many abodes over the past 15 years. Ample poop means healthy animals!

I was happy to be in the middle of the nightly feeding frenzy of the dogs and cats, because they bring great joy to our home.

But above all else, I was - and AM - happy to be in the middle of God's saving grace, surrounded by the love and guidance of Jesus and wrapped in the cloak of the Holy Spirit. The past 15 months have been the craziest in my life - and I can say definitively that without my faith in God, I wouldn't have made it through.

Somewhere along the way of this year and a quarter, I forgot that being happy was possible. Instead, I decided that the rule of the day was survival. Now I realize that I had things backwards: I'm not happy because I survived...I survived because I'm happy!

Life is good. Not perfect. Not without struggles. Definitely full of challenges. But here in the middle of this crazy, wonderful, exciting world, LIFE. IS. GOOD.

Diary of a Crossing Guard, Sophia Edition

I'm not sure whether to begin today's edition of "Diary of a Crossing Guard" by saying:

"Picture it - Sicily - 1922..."

or

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?"

So, we had an incident in the crosswalk this morning. About halfway through my shift, while I was in the middle of the road crossing several families, a car decided to blow both the red light and my stop sign. The driver appeared to be paying attention to a cell phone instead of the road.

I could not get the driver's attention by waving or shouting, so I ended up slamming my stop sign into his hood and the right side of my body against the side of his windshield. Fortunately, that DID get his attention and he stopped just before he would have run over my foot and less than a foot from a family in the crosswalk.

Everyone is okay. Unfortunately, I didn't get the guy's license plate because I was more concerned with ensuring that all of my crosswalkers were okay after they got safely to the other side. Speaking of side, my right side is fairly sore, but probably just bruising. An incident report with witness info included has been filed.

People, PLEASE, for the LOVE OF GOD, put down your dang cell phones in school zones. And elsewhere, too! Several people, including myself, could have been seriously injured this morning. By God's grace, we weren't. SLOW DOWN, CELL PHONES DOWN, PAY ATTENTION IN SCHOOL ZONES AND EVERYWHERE ELSE!

Diary of a Crossing Guard, Day WHO KNOWS?!

One of the parents in the crosswalk today made my morning with the following:

"Where were you yesterday morning? I missed having eye candy in the crosswalk."

Thank you, dear parent. I've come a long way these past few months in abandoning the frumpy mom persona I'd taken on and began anew to fix my hair, wear cute clothes and put on makeup. I know appearance isn't everything, but having my efforts noticed made my day.