Works-For-Me Wednesday (WFMW)/Makes-Me-Smile Monday (MMSM)

Have you heard of blog carnivals? Basically, a blogger chooses a topic (like menus or breastfeeding or anything imaginable), writes on it, and invites others to write and post on the same topic on the same day. I’d like to host a carnival; this was kind of my idea with my literature post, but I hadn’t quite thought it all out yet. Last week I found a weekly carnival on Rocks In My Dryer called Works-for-Me Wednesday (WFMW).

Carnivals appeal to me because they encourage interaction; my mom thinks we SAHMs are lucky to have email and blogs to stay in touch; 30 years ago she was a lot more isolated. A weekly carnival sounds great to me because it provides some structure and continuity (I love structure: it’s 12:30, time for napping). So that’s what WFM this week — being, as I’ve been called, the “Nap-Nazi” and also encouraging the kids to “self-entertain.” I love to cuddle and read and sing, but I also like to have an hour 30 minutes 15 minutes (please) to do my own thing. Kids have imaginations; use them!

I thought and thought, as we drove around this weekend, about what kind of theme I could use for a weekly carnival. I’m obviously borrowing from the WFMW format (imitation=flattery and all that), but I’ve got more tips than I could ever hope to implement — what I need is a tip on how to remember/actually use those tips.

And what I really like is stories. I also like my pet peeves (but most of these involve Dick, and I’m seeing only the good this week). I thought of “Bugs Me Most on Monday,” where we’d share a happening or an irritation, that, normally, is no big deal, but that, when it happens on a Monday, when you’re running late and haven’t gotten a shower yet and don’t have time to run to the store for that one last ingredient, it’s just the final straw. Dick thought this could degenerate, pretty quickly, into negative whining (what, me?).

There’s sad-funny and mad-funny and bad-funny, and then there’s sad-sad and mad-mad and bad-bad, you know? I’m for the funny, or interesting, version of sad, mad and bad. And the cool thing, I think, is that when you’re viewing your life through a lens of “how can I write/think about this in a funny or interesting way?”, most things become pretty funny or interesting rather than “I’m going to slit my throat if I have to pick up one more wet towel.” Even the poop on the carpet when my 2-year-old says so eagerly, “Oh yes Mommy, I wanna sit on my potty.”

So, I hope you’ll join me, on Mondays, in sharing something that “Makes Me Smile.” Post your story/idea on your blog and then link to mine through the auto-link generator I (Dick) will install in my MMSM post that day. If you don’t have a blog, leave it in a comment so we can all get a smile (yes, even you lurkers and first-time readers; you know who you are!). Borrowing again from WFMW, I’m planning to have a themed MMSM once a month. In honor of Mother’s Day, the inaugural Makes-Me-Smile Monday on May 14th, 2007 will be a Makes Me Smile: Mother edition. Easy, huh? Who doesn’t have at least one funny/interesting story to share about their mother?

So stop back on Monday, May 14th, and share a smile (or this whole attempt at socializing might be a flashback to my 12th birthday party. Don’t ask — there’s a reason we call it an “awkward stage.”).