Not sure where to dig in… From being allowed to sleep in this morning (thank you, hubby), to one of our twin sons’ longest bed time tantrums ever, to an Arizona Congresswoman being shot. All very confusing and unfamiliar.

So I thought I’d share two recent discoveries that, in turn, helped me make better sense of this world.

A few days ago, on my birthday, our daughter and I went to a local bakery to pick out some fun cupcakes. Some middle school kids entered the bakery, excited to purchase the latest treat. An adult woman – a mother, I’m assuming – turns to one of the girls and says, and I paraphrase, “wow, aren’t you [her name]? I haven’t seen you since you were a wee thing!” They continue to catch up and I stop paying attention. But at one point – blame the universe – I start eavesdropping again, and they’re just about to bid farewell to each other. The woman asks what the girl’s mother is up to these days, and the girl says, “oh, she started this organization called Parents Work a few years ago. It fights for working parents’ rights and stuff.” Needless to say, I was intrigued. A day or so later I did an online search and found what she was talking about: ParentsWork.org. As stated on the home page, “ParentsWork is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of Illinois parents and grandparents dedicated to ensuring that we all have the time, resources and support we need to care for our children and families.” Bingo. Love this. I devoured the site and became a member for $10/year. Can’t wait to explore it more.

My second discovery was less social policy, and more social networking. I’ve been debating whether to use my family members’ names on this blog. I have decided not to. But it made me think of these silly acronyms I’ve encountered on parenting sites and blogs. “DH”, “DD”, “DSS”… I had only a suspicion of what they meant. I mentioned this to my husband at dinner, and of course he said, “You should google it.” So I did. Apparently there’s a whole world of motherhood related acronyms out there. In my search I came across two highly entertaining lists: One is at http://www.mamapedia.com/article/acronyms-4198, where after scrolling down a bit I learned about the other one: http://www.flylady.net/pages/FLYFaq.asp#buzzwords. Ah, now I get it! Still not gonna use them, though.