In the beginning...

There was blog.  And the words were on the blog and the words were the blog.
Allow me to introduce myself to...myself, as I am the only one reading this right now.
I am a single mother of four children.  They're cute, they're awesome.  They're a LOT of work--work I enjoy, but nonetheless, WORK.  Serious work.  Life-changing work.  Work that will change YOUR life because if I ensure they are raised well, they will not become a burden to you and will not be breaking into your car to pay for the crack they need so urgently.
So, consider your step into my world as a step into YOUR future.  Mark my words:  These little monkies o' mine will change the world.  Maybe not the entire world DIRECTLY, but their lives' influence will reverberate throughout the planet.  And not just in a general, ethereal, hippy-new agey way but tangibly.  Only, you may not see all that.  You may not see how your life gets directly affected by the awesomeness of my kids walking in their destinies.  So, because you may not see all that, you can not prove me wrong and so by default I win and my kids are awesome.  Ok, so the end of that.
Next order of business:  Besides being "mom", I am also TerriMac.  Like one name--TerriMac.  My name is Terri Lynn McLaughlin (note the word "Laugh" in my name--I like it and I show it off superiorly) but everyone who knows me well enough to remember me calls me TerriMac.  I constantly remind the children (when I'm done "momming") that I'm no longer "Mom" but I'm now TerriMac and TerriMac needs a freaking break.  Go to bed.  It's 8 o'clock.  I don't care if you're 15 years old.  Go to bed.  It's 8 o'clock and TerriMac needs "downtime".  I relish the idea that "downtime" will be a major word in the vocabulary of my kids when they are parents.  It'll be such a victory.  I will hear them pull that word out of their parent vocabulary bank (the bank into which I deposited throughout their childhood) and it will make me happy to know I've set them up with a great investment--a nightly, self-serving, healthy iniquivocable priviledge that they will get to enjoy all the days of their child-rearing lives.  Though they question me now, they'll thank me later for establishing the idea that 8pm is a perfectly normal bedtime for a high schooler.  It is...  You parents for which this idea is too late to implement:  Don't hate my because I'm beautiful.
So, more about me?  Oh, yes, I can do that!  Bullet points:

• I'm a great mom that believes the only way to be a great mom is to try to get away from my kids a couple of  times a week.   (It doesn't always happen, of course, and trips to the grocery store DON'T count)  I was a stay-at-home mom for most of the 9 years that I spent married to my "Babay Daddeh".  I worked as a Spanish interpreter, but mostly focused on my kids and the Babay Daddeh.  I am grateful for the mental/spiritual space I walked in at that time, but now I have my own life--3 great jobs (Spanish interpreter, Spanish teacher, and property manager), friends that are bosom friends of more than 10-20 years, and a great town in which to let my hair down. 
• I like to dance in public, as I walk down the road, in the middle of the day.  It stirs things up.  It frees folk to see someone, ANYONE walking in freedom.  I don't care what the passers-by say and I don't do it for anyone but me (and the One that has fooled me into believing He's my Creator and that He loves me).   
• I'm highly independent and I am a resource for wise counsel to many folk I know.  I love people, but I tell it like it is to those I love.  I am willing to say what I think the truth to be even if I know they will get offended.  My friends know that. I'm the voice of reason balanced with love that is sometimes mushy, but that's only a bonus.  
• I love to network people together.  I love to help people starting a business to brand themselves and really define where they are going, what they are doing.  
• The knowledge that I am very much watched over, very much lived in, very much smothered in kisses by a Being that made me while being Very Much In Love with me is the most amazing realization I have come into in this life.  I don't Believe I'm loved.  I KNOW I'm loved.  I experience a real Entity talking to me, revealing Itself/Himself to me.  When your Creator pushes your buttons, there's no confusion over who's the Button Pusher.  No confusion--Only love and awesome good times--Total acceptance, total understanding.    I'm just a person, just a chick, and anything other than G-D LOVES ME is, frankly, too complicated.  My goal is to be made perfect in the understanding (by personal EXPERIENCE AND FEELING IT) that G-d loves me.  

That's it.
That's me in a nutshell.
So, now you know.  Will you join my life-party and hang out with me? I hope so.  I'm committed to a good time and think we'll have one together!
Much love!
Tmac-alcious