To start out.

Toddler on the brain is where I am at in my life.  The first year of your child's life is the all consuming fire.  I can see how relationships get strained in the first year.  I suppose that is why I am glad that I am not in one.  I can tell you right now if X's father was living with us right now we would be fighting all the time.  We have widely varying ideas on how to raise children.  Yes I knew that before we created life but I really thought he would walk away.  It is not a commentary on what kind of person he is, I just thought the reality of her would be more than he was willing to handle.  It's more like I hoped he would.  I don't think it would be right to air all the laundry so let me leave it at he visits her but still doesn't know the difference between a sleepy cry and a "I just cut my arm off." cry.

I guess I am starting this blog for the purpose of expressing my parenting ideas - seeing if they work - going back to look at my ideas and explaining to myself why things worked or didn't work.  

This blog is also going to have some information about my experience as a mentor to a teenager.  I have never been one before but someone I know fairly well trusts me to influence her child in as positive a manner as possible.

I am working on starting a lawn from scratch with seed just to see if I can make it work.  Along with that are the renovations that I think will enhance my property that may take years to finish but will hopefully leave some important information in the wake.

As a fourth purpose to this blog I want to find out what it takes to really help a community get off the ground.  My area is suffering from isolation from each other as neighbors and as a result the crime is increasing.  I will explore my ideas on how to pull it all together.

Of course all of this is to teach my daughter how easy it is to isolate yourself and how important it is to be involved and engaged with your community.  Bear with me as I describe life as a single mom of one toddler, a member of a struggling community and trying to be one person who makes a difference in the world, even if it is only felt for four square city blocks.