Luke’s first Christmas was a success!

I spent 5 hours trying to put up my Christmas tree today and string lights.  It took me forever because the baby was fussy and no one else in my house could help.  I had three strands of lights on the tree (that worked last year), when I pulled them in and found out one of them didn’t work… then, trying to get them to work, a section on another strand stopped working.  That’s when Andy started giving me hell for not testing them and proceeded to tell me that’s why he thinks lights on trees are stupid.

So I quit.  To hell with the damn tree.  Nobody, apparently, wants it but me, and I’m going through hell just to put it together. I don’t have time to mess with it before yet another corporate holiday party, but I’ll finish taking it down tomorrow.  Fine.

A UT student visited me at the station the other day.  She wanted to interview me — a media practitioner — about my job and talk about technology.  I think I overwhelmed her.
We talked about how the traditional way media has been looked at is changing.  When I was in school… you chose one path… broadcast or print journalism.  Now there are multiple paths and they are constantly intersecting.  Media outlets that fail to recognize this fact don’t seem to be as successful as those that do.  At my station, the website has taken on new prominence.  It’s not just a place where the newscasts send people for a web link.  Now the reporters contribute and video and other extras are extremely important.  It’s that way at a lot of other places too….
Look at the Statesman.  They break stories on their website… and their reporters are shooting video and recording audio for it.  They’ve got blogs and tons of surveys just to engage their readers.  Talk about a convergence of media.

The student that visited me seemed to be blown away by all of this.  I took her around the building, and one of the people we spoke with talked about how exciting these times are.  We don’t know how exactly media is going to change, but we know its important to be there and change when it does.  We can’t play catch up and expect to succeed.  But he also pointed out how its all of us who didn’t grow up with the Internet and crazy tiers of cable that are having to stay alert and learn all of this… it’s the student’s generation that knows the “digital world.”  They grew up as “digital generation,” and soon they’ll be taking the reigns.

Those words have hung with me.  And I believe them, but after my TSP meeting yesterday, I started to become worried that while the digital generation may instinctively know how media is changing, college communication classes may actually be teaching them old-fashioned ideas.  We had to choose the Managing Editor for the Daily Texan, and the candidates each spoke to us about their qualifications, but when questioned about how the Texan should work with the other student media entities (i.e. television and radio) and the web, they either shunned the idea or seemed hesitant to dive right in and take advantage of the opportunity.  My sense is that the Texan leadership doesn’t seem to understand how important convergence of media is in this day and age.  The Texan should not feel threatened… but instead it should explore and embrace the incredible opportunities out there….

I’m making these comments as an outsider looking in, but also as someone who’s seen a huge shift in how media works in my short 10 years in my industry.  Hell, the Internet barely existed when I started college… let alone blogs, YouTube, and the plethora of other amazing things happening right now.  The audience has changed, and successful media recognize that it will continue to change.  We don’t know where we’re going… but we know it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

I am right now holding Luke in his carrier, trying to stand, rock him to sleep, and still catch up with things in the online world.  I’m not sure why it’s so important that I stand, but it’s uncanny that he can be asleep and instantly know that I’m sitting,
Back to the grind today. I’ve been running myself ragged trying to do everything I think needs to get done.  Most of it I can only do while
Luke’s asleep, so I’ve been having some very long days.  The schedule I’ve set for myself is starting to catch up with me.  I’m so exhausted at night I’m asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow.  But I’m really not trying to complain,  That’s just life… my life.  And I’ve got things pretty easy by comparison to a lot of other moms.  I just wish I could fit in some video work or Keyser Farm editing.  Oh, that reminds  me.  My brother is working on a cool project that’s posting video online.  He wants me to shoot b-roll about being a new mom.  I’ll try to explain in a future post when I don’t have to stand and type.

— My husband and child
— My parents and brother
and all those other family members
— My friends
— My dogs
— My job
—
My home
— My neighbors
— My city
— My experiences
— My hobbies
—
My FREE TIME! (when it happens)

I was just thinking about all that, since
yesterday was Thanskgiving.  Andy, Luke and I went over to our neighbors’ house
for dinner, since I decided a long time ago we weren’t going to cook.  Jesse and
Jeff invited us over so we wouldn’t have to go to a restaurant.  We had a great
time!  The other bonus is that I didn’t have to work today, so I’ve been able to
spend lots of extra time with Luke and catch up on all the things I haven’t had
a chance to accomplish while he’s been napping.

We’re off to the museum tomorrow for an exhibit on an Egyptian pharoah that
I’m dying to see.  Happy Thanksgiving!

I go back to work in one week.  I can’t believe it.  Where did the past 2 months go?
When I first took off work to have Luke, I wanted to go back so bad.  Everything was going so fast… I wasn’t sure I was ready to raise him, and I wanted to grab onto everything familiar and routine.  Now, I realize how much I’m going to miss.

His smiles.

His laughter.

His messes.

I know he’s not going away.  He’s here to stay… but it feels like the end of an era.  I’m so not ready to leave him for 9 hours a day.
SIGH… the working mom’s heartache.

Yesterday the Statesman printed a response to a letter to the editor that told us moms to cover up in public.  I really liked her letter!

Why can’t babies eat?
Re: Sept. 14 letter to the editor, “Hey, moms: Cover up”:

The letter writer, admittedly “a woman who does not have kids,” urged mothers who breast-feed in public to go to the bathroom to nurse or use a pump.
As a woman who does have kids, I would like her to know that because they are unsanitary places to consume food, I do not eat in bathrooms, so neither do my kids. I would also like her to know how expensive breast pumps and bottles are, since she’s never had to purchase either.
Breast milk is free, and nursing in public is a right protected by Texas law. So if the letter writer can eat her meals out in public in front of God and everyone, so can my kids.

KIERSTIN JAYNE MAURER
Austin

Oh!  And here’s another one!  Awesome!

Nursing is natural

The author of the letter to the editor about breast-feeding will
probably learn when she has children that breast-feeding is not the
same as formula feeding in a different package. It’s just not as simple
as pumping and feeding the baby a bottle.

Many babies will refuse a bottle (especially from their mother), and
pumping is not necessarily a simple thing. All this is beside the point
though. In order to be offended by a woman breast-feeding her child,
people would have to really be trying. Most mothers I know are very
open about nursing, but I would have to try pretty hard to get a good
look at a nipple. If someone is offended by the very idea of someone
breast-feeding, well, then I think he or she should take that up with a
qualified therapist.

ERIN HAUG
Austin

I mailed very polite letters to my legislators the other day asking them to support breastfeeding legislation that I mentioned a few posts ago.  I hope I can help make a difference!

Call me crazy, but I actually love working on my household’s finances.
Yeah… I know… weird.  I’m the person most likely to glaze over when there’s talk of stocks and bonds and crap like that… and trying to roll over my 401K gets me all confused… but when I take control of stuff like that and start understanding it all… it’s a major thrill for me.

Several years ago, I realized that I only had a superficial understanding of home economics.  Sure, I knew how to balance a checkbook… but 401Ks?  IRAs?  Loan terms?  Tax deductions?  That was stuff I had neglected to really understand.  So I bought one of those for dummies books and started studying.  You know, they should really require all high school kids take a course on how to handle home finances.  Home economics for the 21st century.
Now, I spend my Saturday mornings sitting at the computer, looking at my Quicken accounts and analyzing how much we’re spending, moving money into savings, investments, and deciding which charities will benefit.  Sometimes I’m all excited about our outlook.  Other times, I’m freaking out… like lately, as I wait for the full-impact of childcare expenses to take hold.

Don’t misunderstand.. I am no financial guru.  I still get really confused.  But it makes me proud to take control of things in my life.  And Andy lets me do it.  We still consult on the finances… but as far as keeping track and paying bills and whatnot… he’s perfectly happy to let me be in charge.  The last thing he wants to do it sit around and worry about bills.  So it works out.  I get to be anal and conquer my fear of things that can be complicated — like numbers and economics — and he gets to do what he likes.

My latest endeavor has been to roll over an old 401K into an IRA with Fidelity, which handles my current 401K.  Money Magazine recommended moving all accounts into one company, if not one account so it’s easier to keep track.  Whew!  Talk about a pain in the butt.  At least Fidelity wants my money so they do everything they can to make it easy. 

Next step?  18 years of teaching my son all the stuff I never bothered to learn.

I made the switch to organic dairy about three years ago… or at least, I began the switch.  I started with milk, then moved to yogurt, cheese and eggs.  (Are eggs dairy?  Maybe not.. but they’re in the dairy section.)
At first I was worried about the price, but when I tasted the stuff, I realized that organic is far superior in taste to anything else — not weird metallic flavors that you get used to if you never have organic — and that made it well worth it.  Then, when Andy and I decided to start a family, it became even more important, because I don’t want Luke to be exposed to all those nasty chemicals, hormones and drugs if I can avoid it.

Apparently I’m not alone in my move to organic dairy.  According to a New York Times article, organic dairy consumption is on the rise in the United States… up 25 percent last year from the year before.  And wouldn’t you know it… Wal-Mart wants to cash in.  They’ve apparently been carrying the Horizon brand for a few years.  I wouldn’t know… I don’t shop at Wal-Mart.  I guess they’ve decided they want to carry their own, cheaper brand.  So they hooked up with Aurora Organic Dairy, which has two huge “organic” farms in Colorado and Texas.  The company says it meets all FDA guidelines for organic, but critics say their closer to a factory farm than an organic farm.  And their cows hardly get to roam the pastures and graze on grass like other organically-fed cows do.  They get high-calorie grain diets.  Whole Foods toured their farms and decided it wasn’t up to their standards.  Now if Whole Foods doesn’t like it… doesn’t that say something?  It makes me wonder where Central Market gets its brand of milk, but somehow I doubt it was from this company.

I didn’t used to think about where my food came from, but as I’ve grown older and hopefully a little wiser, I’ve realized that it’s more important than ever to know where our food was grown or raised.  That’s one of the reasons I gave up meat… it’s almost impossible to track where it came from unless you either A) do a lot of detective work (time) or B) buy local, organic (money).  I already spend enough time and money doing that with the produce and dairy.  Something had to give. 

We don’t live in an age of family farms anymore, unfortunately.  Most of them are factory farms.  And honestly, it’s not worth risking my baby’s, my husband’s, or my own health just for mere convenience.