A Day in the Life - Dancing Queen's Birthday! (AKA Valentine's Day)

Starting the day off at about 12:30am after work: Shopping for the day's supplies.

Round about 1:45am: The final present haul.

As you can see from the clock on the stove, it's now 2:21am, and that's my second cider. I wish I could take credit for the cuppycakes, but those were all my sister. Red velvet (filled!) with cream cheese frosting for Dancing Queen's Valentine's Day/Birthday party in the class room. I began baking.

So, my phone died around 2:45am. The cakes (one Hello Kitty, one rectangle,) came out beautifully. I left them on the stovetop to cool. I stayed up to wrap presents, and post irritating Facebook statii, and when 5:00am rolled around, it was time for secret cake. Behold, slumbering royalty...

Sleeping no longer! I tried to get a photo of her opening her gift (A Hello Kitty wrist watch,) but it was too dark from where I had snagged a seat on the edge of her bed. At this point, after she had finished her cuppycake (Also red velvet, but not one of the ones her Aunt Shannon made,) we both went to bed for a bit.)

11am rolled around. I debated hard over putting this photo in. My den is, as you can see, a bit cluttered here. And the baby is naked. And he has coffee.

And I have coffee. And an empty wine bottle. But that's from the cake making the night before, so no worries.

Now, what I didn't take photos of, because I totally didn't have it in me to pull out my phone to capture the smug look on the dog's face was the empty pans on the floor under my dining room table where the dogs had gotten the cakes I baked the night before and eaten them. To the Bat Cave! Err, Kitchen! To bake MOAR CAKES! We're at about noon here. I decided I was going to cut down on dishes, and mixed up both boxes of cake mix in one bowl. Silly AccidentallyMommy -- you didn't pay close enough attention, and BLOOP went all of the batter into one pan. No big, right! Wrong. 12:15pm, the kitchen has filled with smoke, and I have finally put a cookie sheet under the cake pan to mitigate the lava flows of cake batter.

1:30PM: Cake's done!

Yep, behold my masterpiece! Thankfully, that's technically going to end up being the bottom. Still, not an auspicious start.

1:45pm: Cake is cooling. Time for the stew to start in the Crock Pot.

2:00pm: Home from school, mid-day present time!!!!

OMGSHOESSSSS!!!!

MOAR??

OMG HELLO KITTY SHIRT AND SKIRT!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaand...my phone died again. 

3:40pm: Pulling laundry frantically out of the dryer. I had to go to work briefly for a Secret Valentine exchange I was in charge of at 5:00pm, as well as some, well, you know, work. It was at this point that I totally forgot to take a picture of Dancing Queen in her outfit.

4:15pm: Getting gas so I can actually GET to work!

4:17pm: Check it out, I smellz good after a shower!

5:00pm: Secret Valentine exchange. Now, sometimes, at work, we get a little eclectic. Sometime's there's skateboard gangs. Sometimes there's poi on the sidewalk. Sometimes there's clandestine beer. And sometimes...just sometimes...there's fresh cow hearts as Valentine's Day gifts. Note her attempt at looking pleased while doing a fabulous job of masking her mix of shock and a wee bit of horror.

And note her Valentine's look of pure RL troll glee.

7:45pm: Work was over. Traffic was TERRIBLE. I was, at this point, nearly an hour and a half late getting home. And I had to stop for essentials -- cream for the buttercream frosting, wine, and fried onions because fried onions.

8:10pm: Missed dinner. No pics of my empty bowl. Instead, on to presents!!!!

9:00pm: Cake time! Yeah, we do how we do. Backwards. Now to ice this badboy, and hope that it ends better than it started.

9:15pm: TA-FUCKING-DA, BITCHES! I. Am. Fabulous. Seriously.  Look at that cake. LOOK AT IT.

LOOK CLOSER!!!!!

Oops, lost the candles. LOLOL. Not much goes as planned in my life. That's okay. She pretended they were there and just blew out nothing after we were done singing. She's such a good sport about Mommy's ineptitude.

10:37pm: Bed time. Happy birthday, and Happy Valentine's Day. A very happy, very tired, very content mommy and daughter on a very special mommy and daughter day.

Feminism in my life.

"Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women.^[1][2] This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment." -Wikipedia

I think feminism may have been bred into me. I was born to a single, 20 year old woman, who was determined to make her way through college and make a life for us. She did that. She struggled through school with a toddler to get her Bachelor's in science, and then she went out into the world and made a name for herself. She now has two Master's degrees and is the head of a nationally recognized biotechnology program at a local college.

This post isn't about my mother, though.

This post is about me, and how being a feminist affects every single decision I make in life. This post is about how I've bred feminism into my own children, both my daughter and my son. This post is about what feminism means to me.

As a rebellious teenager, I defined feminism as being able to run around and do what I wished, date however many men I wanted, and have my world on a plate with no social repercussions. I bought myself birth control, and I worked a job where my co-workers were predominantly male. The misogynists I knew called me an undisciplined slut. I disagreed. I still disagree. 

As I've matured, so have my views on feminism. Sure, I still believe all those things above, but I also believe that I don't have to be the bra-burning rebel I was back then. I can be a feminist and create change in much more subtle ways.

When pregnant with my daughter, I was convinced originally that I would have an abortion. It felt like having her would be untrue to my feminist roots. Then I made the choice to keep her. For a long time I felt guilty about that, like I had let down all the other feminists in the world by not exercising my right to an abortion. Then I had the epiphany that I did just the opposite - I used my power of choice. The day that dawned on me, many other things became clear. Things like the fact that I could also make the choice to be a stay-at-home mom, or a part time work-out-of-home mom without feeling like I was betraying my fellow women.

Like I said, these days I'm a bit more subtle. I don't attend as many rallies as I used to, but I donate to NOW and other women's rights organizations. I fight against female genital mutilation in countries and religions where it's still practiced. I do what I can to help support the ending of the sex trade and domestic abuse. I teach my children that women are people too. My daughter has a firm grasp on the fact that she can and will be whatever and whomever she wants and I'll stand by her 100%. My son, while only three, nurtures his baby dolls, enjoys having his nails painted, and is unafraid to play dress-up. I will continue to teach him that women are his equals, in all ways.

Feminism to me means that I'm unafraid to reach for the stars, and I'm unafraid to instill that in my children, as well. Feminism means that I'm a whole person.