Now that Christmas has finally been packed away in the attic, I’m nesting. I think of it as having all the benefits of being pregnant and about to pop without the swollen ankles, 11 p.m. cravings for Taco Bell MexiMelts, or labor pains.

I’ve been on an organizing and decluttering spree (must make room for those 9 million plastic hair accessories left by Santa), and I’ve written an article at DivineCaroline about stylish storage finds for toys I found on the Web. Since Christmas I’ve filled a 30-gallon trash bag with clothes Miss A has outgrown, encouraged Miss C to go through her room and watched her happily fill a bag with stuffed animals to donate to Goodwill, removed all of our kitchen cabinet hardware and washed it in the dishwasher, and organized our family home movie DVDs and put them in chronological order.

Now if I can just train our dogs to only shed hair outside. Jack, our Akita mix, is doing his annual full coat blowout and so far he’s lost enough fur to stuff a California king duvet. Honestly if a vacuum cleaner manufacturer wants to adopt a family, please consider us. We are the poster family for Hepa filtration.

Lo and behold the urge to organize in January must be universal because it’s all over the blogosphere…

Fabulous Mommy Fussypants posted a cool, and frugal, idea recently for storing kids’ toys.

Meredith at Like Merchant Ships wrote about toy storage.

My fellow DivineCaroline buddy, Amy Clark at Mom Advice, wrote an article about frugal storage options.

Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer is now a contributing editor at BlogHer and her first article was about teaching your kids to declutter.

The blogger formerly known as the Sarcastic Journalist, Rachel, has a new blog chronicling her family’s quest to live a simpler life, free from the urge to buy, buy, buy. And Chris at Notes from the Trenches has a new blog chronicling her family’s (of seven children) quest to stop shopping for one year.

For me, the fight against clutter is a bit of a challenge. Sure I have a 5-year-old who willingly fills a bag with her unwanted stuffed animals, but she slept with the Target toy wish book during the entire month of December and has been brainwashed by Billy Mays infomercials.

p.s. Christine at From Dates to Diapers asked me to help spread the word about the Pure Essentials laundry supply giveaway on her blog…go check it out! As someone who recently had to make a few trips to the laundromat due to a broken dryer, I found myself extremely grateful for the ability to do laundry at home. Yes, sometimes it’s the simple things that make you happy.

Miss C and I snuggled in her bed, cozy beneath the pink comforter, and flipped through her baby album together.

After looking at the pictures from her first Christmas, we came across this photo.

This was taken five years ago last week. She was 7 months old and had just had her first big girl bath in mommy and daddy’s tub and I wanted to remember the occasion. Miss C weighed in at a heavy weight 18 plus pounds at her 6-month checkup and I still can see those sweet fat rolls. I remember e-mailing this picture to family and friends with the caption, “Santa was good to me, was he good to you?”

Where does the time go?

Now Miss C wants her own bathroom and knoweth how to lay down the sass.

The sass is incredibly frustrating. Miss C is so sensitive at times, too, and I can tell she’s dealing with some of the everyday insecurities that crop up at school with kids teasing her and that sort of playground emotional teeter totter. It saddens me because so often I just don’t know what to do. I overreact, I am impatient with her, and I make things worse.

And then I see a photo like this and remember she was my first baby and in so many ways she is still a baby. Her personality is developing and she’s learning to deal with frustration and anger and the multitude of emotions that flood her little soul.

Sometimes when I look at Miss C sleeping and her face is peaceful and full of hope I see her baby face peeking through the little girl veneer.

OK, enough of that or I’ll make myself cry.

OK, ABC Family channel? (Emphasis on family.)

You were a lifesaver when the hubby and I were incapacitated during the great mystery pizza sauce hurlfest of December 2007, but do you really have to air a K-Y massage oil commercial at 2 on a Saturday afternoon during Doctor Doolittle?

To quote Miss C:

“Look at that mommy. It makes your skin glow!”

We’ve had the TV off all day and this is what I get within 20 minutes of turning it on.

Updated January 19: Dodo O who commented, “I would use it to sit down in the park, the beach, or just out on the porch in the summertime,” is the winner! Thanks everyone and don’t forget to check out the new Friday Snowy Days Giveaways posts.

Today’s Snowy Days giveaway is for a hip, and useful, outdoor mat from GoBaby, founded by New York City designer moms Robin Shane and Gina Fabiano.

The OutMat rolls into a yoga-mat-style bag, is washable, and has a pocket for those little items a mama needs, such as car keys, a cell phone, and sunscreen. Adjustable straps make it easy to hang on the back of a stroller. It’s a perfect size for parent and child (50″ X 50″) and weighs less than 3 pounds. If you’re headed for the beach this spring break, the terry cloth side of the OutMat can double as a towel poolside and for beach trips it’s perfect as sand shakes off of it with ease. Consider this a stylish alternative to the old quilt tossed in your car for impromptu picnics, trips to the park, or soccer practice. I love well-designed baby and children’s products with mileage and I can definitely see using the OutMat beyond the Elmo years.

GoBaby also sent me muffatees, cute handknit fingerless gloves, to try. I don’t know about you, but wrangling gloves or mittens on a toddler is enough to send me to the liquor store. They also sell beautiful nursing bracelets, which are a stylish way to stay on top of your baby’s feeding schedule (beats the heck out of the safety pin I’d attach to my nursing bra.)

To be entered in the drawing for this beautiful orange and blue OutMat (the photo above makes it look pink, but it is a pale orange), just leave a comment here telling how you would use the OutMat. For one additional entry, post and link to this giveaway on your blog (e-mail me if you’d also like the Snowy Days Giveaways pink snowman graphic.)

Entries for this drawing will be accepted until midnight CST Friday, January 18, and then I’ll draw a winner’s name from all qualifying entries. You don’t need a blog or website to enter, but you do need a valid e-mail address. Thanks and good luck!

p.s. My Spam Karma program can be a real you know what, so e-mail me if your comment does not go through.

No sooner were the tumbleweeds of red and green tissue paper and tattered toy boxes carted to the curb for garbage pick up day did Miss C began planning her 6th birthday party.

That’s fine and all but her birthday…

is in June.

Part of this is just getting swept up in the kindergarten party circuit and all the exciting promise of buttercream icing and presents and balloons. Since fall she’s attended a princess makeover party, a sleepover that went bust and ended at 10 p.m. when little girls began to weep and clutch their sleeping bags, a bounce center party, and a gymnastics party. Next month she’s going to her very first roller skating party. She’s been swayed by each gala event and I ‘ve tried to reel her gently back down to earth by suggesting perhaps a nice swim party at the Y.

No dice.

Not only does she want to invite her entire class, which I’m actually fine with, but the guest list keeps expanding to include friends from her “old school” (daycare). Her current dream birthday party theme is a Barbie Island Princess backyard luau. Also, somehow a swimming pool, which we do not have, and a stage, which we also do not have, figure into this event. Miss C’s solution to everything is “some builders can build it mommy!”

Yeah I’ll get right on that. Anyone have Colin Cowie’s cell phone number?

Miss C and I often butt hormones, and lately she’s started using the line, “Mommy, you’re not invited to my birthday party!” Unfortunately one of her classmates used that little gem of a comeback, and it’s all the rage now at our house. Thanks a freaking lot kid.

I told the hubby last night that Miss C was mad at me briefly over some especially traumatic after school inhumanity, my refusal to let her eat a PopTart or play online computer games until she did her homework, and that she shot me that “Mommy you’re not invited to my birthday party!” line.

I suppose I had heard that just one too many times and I told the hubby that I very maturely responded, “Well, mommy is your birthday planner so I guess you won’t be able to have a birthday party if I’m not there.”

Miss C thought about that and got quiet.

Then I sat down on the floor and started playing Littlest Pet Shop with her and all was well.

Hubby’s comment?

“Damn that was bitchy.”

Touche!

It’s good to see the Spears family finally getting something right. Wait, Dr. Phil, riding on the bedraggled coattails of a celebrity’s demise? Ya think?

I’m not surprised that the media hype about pregnant baby sister Jamie Lynn boosted the audience for the Zoey 101 season finale to more than double (7.28 million viewers.)

I’m just relieved that Miss C and Miss A are blissfully unaware of who the Spears sisters are.

p.s. Speaking of shameless self-promotion a la Dr. Phil, don’t forget that tomorrow is the last day to enter the RoC skincare giveaway AND I’ll be posting a new review and giveaway for a hip water-resistant portable outdoor playmat from Go Baby!

During the bottomless pit of holiday downtime with its endless snacking, lack of routine, and overuse of the TV as a babysitter, Miss C became hooked on several “as seen on TV” products.

She insisted I buy the Betty Crocker cake decorating set so I could make her a flower cake for her birthday.

She ran to me one afternoon pleading, “Mommy come look, come look at this purse! Quick! Quick! You’re going to miss it! It holds everything and you can find anything!”

She begged for Moon Sand, with glitter no less. You could sell cardboard boxes to a 5-year-old girl if they came with glitter.

I blew all this off as a testament to the powerful allure of TV commercials.

Last night she was straightening up her room (she was prolonging bedtime but who am I to argue with her willingly cleaning her room) and I told her I might buy a bulletin board to display her photos and school certificates and other special papers.

“Mommy what’s a bulletin board?”

“Well, it’s a place to hang things like pictures and special school papers. We could hang one on the back of your door.”

“But how would you hang it? There’s no hanger there.”

“Well I’d get daddy to hang it up with a nail or something like that.”

She paused for a moment as her 5-year-old mind spun into overdrive. Her eyes grew wide as she had a revelation.

“Mommy! You need to get some Mighty Putty. It holds anything!”

That Billy Mays is one slick peddler.

Lake Vogel, originally uploaded by blondemom.

The hubby and I have been following the news about missing hiker Meredith Emerson. We were just in the North Georgia mountains in May celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary, and I snapped this photo at the edge of Lake Vogel. It’s an area we love and one that holds special sentimental value for us.

I can’t imagine what her family is going through right now.