By Nicole

Well... this isn't really an "ode", but the title sounded good.  I looked up all types of poetry online , and got impatient, so I quit. Besides, I wrote this at 12:30ish the other night, in purple crayon on a random notebook, while trying to sleep.  There are times that I think If I didn't sleep a wink   I would be fine And other times, yes That I must confess   Sleep is divine If only I could choose When to wake or to snooze   I'd be dreaming!   First attempt at poetry in YEARS. 

I am so tired. Not tired of writing.  I actually have 10 post ideas in draft form, and thanks to all the smart, creative ladies on BlogHer NaBloPoMo right now, I have a few more ideas that I want to steal, um... ahem, pay tribute to.  For one, I have seen some birthday cake posts... like this awesome Rainbow Cake .  I started making cakes for my kids about Connor's second birthday... so I have quite a few that I could share and write about the successes and utter failures.  I haven't ever posted pictures of any of my cakes because my fear this whole time has been that someone would send them to the CakeWrecks people and they would ridicule me. I don't think I could handle the rejection.  Now I think I am so tired that I don't care... Anyways, I had the worst sleep I have had in a long time last night.  After about 1:30 a.m. I finally dozed off and  every sound woke me up from that point on, until the alarm went off a...

My husband and I had a funny, banter-filled conversation the other night over sleeping and waking habits.  You see, he recently switched shifts.  For the majority of our relationship - a year of long-distance dating and eight years of marriage, he has worked night shift - 10pm to 6am.  By the time he gets home in the morning, the kids and I are up and ready to leave for work and school.  There were periods of time when I hated it (see http://womaninawheelbarrow.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-growth-and-growing.html ), but for the most part... I had grown to like it (don't tell him).  You see, we had two nights a week to snuggle and then I had five nights a week to stay up as late as I liked and watch what I wanted and write up blogs or eat ice cream, or all three at the same time.  Those were the days (ahem, nights).  Well, now he is home most nights, which took some getting used to (for both of us), and he switched again to this crazy shift ...

Sleep - ah, the relationship I love to hate. I am obsessed and repulsed at the same time. At times, it is all I want to do, yet the time I have I like to spend awake, doing. As a mother of two boys (who STILL wake up in the middle of the night to crawl into our bed) I have had my share of sleepless nights. I have also spent portions of my life studying or working during the night, since it was the only "free" time I had. I generally have a night owl complex. Once the boys are asleep, I am wide awake... balancing the checkbook, making earrings, folding laundry, blogging, talking to Jason while he is "working", and generally, wasting time that I could be sleeping. In the morning I am mad at myself for staying up too late and by midafternoon, I loathe my ultra bad habit! I torture myself with sleep deprivation for a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 days and then spend two to three days going to bed at the same time as the kids... but it is so disconcerting when ...