Flashback Friday...on Saturday

Where has this sweet 16 month old baby gone? I remember thinking that he was SO big in these pictures...but now I look at him and I realize how little he really was. He will be five on Tuesday. I can't believe the time has passed so quickly...like a blink of an eye. Most of my posts will be devoted to him this week. Stay tuned!


We call this one Pansy Gardening. He has stayed at grandma's for our anniversary night and when we went to pick him up he was playing outside with her. They were planting pansies in her backyard.

Here is my sweet, sweet Ben sitting patiently while I took a picture. Look at his cheeks...there's no chub there now. My how time flies...when you are growing up!

Overdoing

Okay...so I have not posted much this week, AGAIN! My goal is starting fall by the wayside of everything else I have going on these days. I have not posted to my other blog now for almost two weeks...YIKES! So I got on just to post and I read my daily blog roll and my favorite Clutter Diet blog had a post about Overdoers Anonymous. Not a real group...but if it were it would TOTALLY be for me! If you are interested you can read it here.

I had a very full weekend planned, but things have gone awry as they often do in my overdoing world. Emily got sick last night so that cancelled at least one of the birthday parties today, we are going to attempt to attend the second one. We were also going to have some friends over tonight and I have called them to make sure they want to come. She is not contagious...but sounds HORRIBLE. This is due to her asthma. Anytime she gets a cold and it goes on it settles in her chest and she has a hard time breathing. I always think I am on top of things...but...when we went to the doctor this morning she gave her steroids, breathing treatments, and antibiotics (just in case). Emily has a history of pneumonia so the doctor was trying to be preventative with the antibiotics. I usually don't think this is necessary at all, and I can count on my hand the number of times she has ACTUALLY needed antibiotics, BUT...I certainly don't want another round of pneumonia.

In addition to the two birthday parties today, the friend tonight, tomorrow we are having pictures taken by my wonderful friend Allison, and going to a superbowl party tomorrow night. I had all these grand plans of what I was going to make for the friends tonight, and how I was going to finish up the things I am making for Ben's party next week, but now that has all gone out the window. Oh well...I suppose I was trying to do too many things anyway...right?

Tip Junkie

Are you a tip junkie? Do you like tips for everything, like me? I thrive on them. Well, I found a blog that feeds right into my tip habit, Tip Junkie.

I placed a button over there because she is getting ready to nominate her favorite "Mom-preneurs" for the Tip Junkie awards. Go there, read her tips, subscribe if you like it, vote on each category and enter to win prizes from the mompreneurs!

Enjoy!

Family Harmony

I have noticed that my attitude truly determines our family harmony. I hate that so much rests on my emotions because most of the time I have such a hard time keeping them in check. When I am under control and joyful my house is harmonious, but when I am not things fall quickly into chaos.

In the last three weeks our family has moved more toward harmony than we have ever been. I truly believe it is because I have begun to make some earnest changes in myself. I have let my emotions rule me for my entire life. If it even seemed like it was going to make me happy I did it. Most of the time not really considering the consequences. I rationalize that if I was happy that everyone else would be as well, and this new "thing" was going to do that for me. Thing was not always something material, in fact it was usually quite the opposite. It was usually a new system or procedure to getting things done.

All the time ignoring the truth. The truth is that nothing exterior is going to do it for me. The change must come from the inside. I must rely on God to work the changes in me. This has always seemed like the wrong way to go about things. Shouldn't I be able to control my emotions? Shouldn't I be able to change myself by pulling myself up by the bootstraps and just doing it? Apparently, I am just a silly human like everyone else. Even though this is human nature it is not what God wants me or you to do. He wants us to rely on him, He wants to heal our hurts, He wants to make real change in our life.

So even though it is hard and goes against everything that I am, I have been praying for Him to take over. Truly take over. And guess what? I think it might be working. :)

Real change is helping our family to live in harmony with one another. For once I am not expecting anyone to change for me. My emotions are also not holding everyone hostage. I am sure they are fully expecting things to go back to business as usual, but I am hoping that they don't.

Flashback Friday - early

So...I am feeling very nostalgic since lots of my high school friends have befriended me on facebook this week. I decided to pull out a few pictures. Some of you may get a little mad at me, but it was the good old days, and we looked AWESOME! :)

This was Dawn's surprise 18th birthday party. We kidnapped her and took her to Marco's on Nasa Rd 1. For those of you still there, does it still exist? See, even back then I was not a great photographer!

This is a picture of Kristi and I before prom. We were getting ready to leave for Benihana's for dinner. Apparently, she doesn't like her dress, but I think she looks beautiful. And look at all my hair, YIKES!

Enjoy the flashback!

Oh How I LOVE Comments!

I LOVE comments! It makes me fell like I am talking to someone, not just like I am pontificating here on my throne, lol. I try to reply to all the comments but I realized that I missed one a few days ago! I love it when I see those comment numbers under the post so I truly apologize if I miss your comment for few days, but please keep them coming!

Love you all!

Maestro or Rock Star

Ben has always been interested in playing music. If you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will tell you in this order...rock star, The Hulk, and Captain America. He has this amazing imagination. He tells stories all the time and frequently tells me that tomorrow is going to be a busy day because I have to go to my band.

So I decided to take him yesterday to observe a piano lesson. He was interested, but it was hard to pry him away from grandma and the Wii. Grandma had come to pick up some stuff to help with his birthday party so she ended up eating dinner with us and playing with the kids a little.

Once we got there he seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing, but once we got in the studio and the boy played the theme to Star Wars, he was totally HOOKED! He was amazed that the boy who was not much older than he was, could play this song on the piano. All he talked about this morning was going to piano lessons. Hmmm...I wonder how he will feel after having to practice thirty minutes a day, every day with mom next to him?

Did anyone watch?

Did anyone watch the inauguration? Our company was nice enough to let us watch in our training room. They streamed it in for us. I was so moved and left feeling even more hopeful. Our new president is definitely a terrific orator!

Anyway...if you watched it leave me a comment. Tell me what you thought. What emotions did it stir in you?

Happy Inauguration Day

Happy Inauguration Day!

I feel very hopeful about this new administration. I really do hope that we can make some changes here in our country, for the better. I urge everyone to pray for our new leaders. Specifically that they would follow the plan that God has set forth for our country.

I hope everyone has a chance to watch history in the making. Even if you did not vote for Obama you have to admit this is a momentous occasion and breaks through many racial stereotypes and hopefully will bring some unity and healing to our country!

Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends

For those of you who are in the know about these things, this is a ColdPlay album. But it is also the new series that our Pastor just started this morning. He is going to use it to start the book of James. I am very excited because this is one of my favorite books of the Bible.

We went through the first half of the first chapter this morning and I am convicted yet again. I love it when I hear a message that totally convicts me. They all should, I know, but sometimes I am really not listening I suppose. :)

If you want to check it out, and I suggest that you do, click here. It was a great message and there are discussion questions to help you delve deeper. But again I totally digress...

I am feeling convicted that I need to live the life even when I am in despair. I also need to be joyful. Something that Jeff said this morning was that "Desperate despairing people do desperate despairing things." Wow...that has so been me in so many situations. The most recent biggie was the year after Emily was born. I was totally desperate, no joy in site. I did however reach out to a couple of trusted to friends for awhile, but then like I always do I went back into isolation. Joy cannot be experienced in isolation, it must be experienced as a part of the larger community. But I can totally tell each of you that I probably do this more than I realize!

Despair is one of death's friends. Joy is not. James is urging us to fight for joy through faith. And this is what I urge you to do as well. Fight through that despair, don't isolate yourself, fight for joy!

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces (perseverance) endurance.
James 1:2-3

Sleepover Saturday!

Here's the Smilebox from last night our Sleepover Saturday! It went better than I ever could have imagined with four kids under the age of five. We will definitely do it again. I just need a NAP! :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Flashback Friday

Mother's Day 2007 right before her 2nd birthday! Look at those curls coming in! I can't believe she is already 3.5. Look at those chubby arms, this was her favorite outfit all summer long. Such a girlie girl.

Wow

I can't believe that I only posted three times this week, and not at all to my other blog. I am sure my one friend who religiously reads that one is dying to know what is going to happen next to that band of criminals. :)

I have been sick this week and totally gave myself permission to post or not post whatever I felt up to. I forgot today was Friday so all you fans of flashback Friday will have to wait until later today when I am at home and can find something interesting to post.

I don't have much to say today except that I making one of my goals a reality. Well, I should say that four women that I love dearly from all different parts of my life are making that goal a reality. Last night was our first night of our Bible Study. We are going to meet every other Thursday at Starbucks and I have named our group Thursday Night Coffee. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for all of us!

For those of you who may be interested we are going to be reading and studying my favorite book from last year, The Shack. I have been wanting to do a study with this book since I read it. We'll see how it goes.

Meenie, meenie, minie, MO!

Catch a tiger by a toe...my mommy says you are IT!

This has become how Emily makes all her decisions! Gotta love it! Her language has just exploded! Her other favorite saying is..."I love you, mama!" Makes my heart melt.

Spirit-Filled

Okay...so today I am totally convicted. Our senior pastor was back this morning and he gave a message to finish up a series on the Holy Spirit. If you are so inclined you might want to check it out at www.firewheelfellowship.com . But it has totally convicted me on this control thing that I have going on.

Did you know that for the Spirit to fill you that you have to decrease and it has to increase? Also did you know that you should not seek to be in control, but for the Spirit to control you? So yeah...like me you probably did know all that stuff, BUT...

We'll see if I can hold on to this conviction and let the Spirit fill me instead of me trying to control the spirit!

Flashback Friday

This one is dedicated to my sweetie, Chris. This picture was taken of us last Valentine's day. I realize this doesn't flash too far back, but I wanted to honor him today. He really has been supportive in all the changes I have been trying to make lately. Thanks, sweetie! Love you!

Old Habits...New Year

Okay...so have you ever tried to start a new habit? I bet every year when the ball drops you think of new habits that you would like to start and old ones you would like to get rid of. And whether or not you make formal goals, like I did, you know what you want to work on and the habits you would like to form.

I think I read yesterday that exercise and organization are the two most common goals or resolutions made for the new year, and I heard on Sunday at church that something less than 40% actually achieve any of their goals or resolutions.

I have always been a fairly goal oriented person on a very small scale. Mostly at work because there I am an over achiever. Okay...I will admit that I try to be an over achiever everywhere. For this reason new habits are really hard for me to establish.

You are probably thinking this is counter intuitive. Right? If you are an over achiever don't you make goals and complete them and excel. Well...maybe if you are not also a perfectionist. I have learned that my perfectionism gets in the way of my goals. I want to achieve them and I work really hard at all of them at the same time for about two weeks, tops. Then I just burn out. Once this burn out hits I delve into this deep depression because I am an over achiever and I have failed.

So I made five goals this year, like every year. And it is the middle of the second week of the year, and guess where I am? Close to burn out. Yup, that's right, very close. But I am still plugging away. I decided that maybe it was better for me to work on just one goal at a time, and add a new goal when I get the first one under my belt. Well, this doesn't actually work either because I am so ready to check the first one off my list that I burn myself out with the first one.

In attempt to thwart the deep depression that I can see on horizon that will last rest of the year I am trying to take action right now. I don't like living as a slave to my emotions or chemical imbalance, whichever you want to call it. So this is what I am doing today, just today. I am not even thinking about tomorrow. Thanks to flylady, I am shining my sink today, and I am setting up a bedtime and morning routine. These are to work toward organizing my home. Nothing more, and I don't have to be perfect, right?

Life Changing Yahoo Group

Okay, so I found my cousin that I had not spoken to in about six years on Facebook. I LOVE Facebook for this reason. I also found my first college roommate, and I get to communicate with others that I love on this fun networking site.

Anyway...Kandi told me about a website that changed the way she looked at housework and helped her get her house under control. I went there, and I will tell you...it was Life Changing! I joined the Yahoo Group.

This Life Changing Yahoo Group is www.flylady.net . Check it out if you have the problem of being overwhelmed and trying to keep up with your house and all the work that goes into it. I am on Day One. But I look forward to Day Two! :)

Crafts

When I was working on the crafts I made for Christmas I ran across this advent calendar that I had bought years ago, before we had children. I love Winnie-the-Pooh and all his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. I decided yesterday before I put away all our Christmas decorations that I would whip this up real quick. I was amazed that it only took me about two hours from start to finish. Oh, how I love procratination! I was at the last steps when Emily got sick. Chris was gracious enough to take care of her so I could finish it up. Thanks, Sweetie!

Isn't this the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Follow Up on Goals

Okay...I know that I told you I would not post everyday about my goals, but this is the make it or break it time for me. If I lose it now I will never start again.

I have found a book to read and I checked it out from the library and ordered it from someone on www.paperbackswap.com, it can also be ordered from Amazon, where I got this picture of the cover. It is also only $10.20 on Amazon. I am excited to begin reading it tonight!


I also got a new shoe organizer that I desperately needed, new hampers that look just spiffy in my room, small hampers for the kids stuffed animals, hooks for the kids towels in the bathroom, and decided what I wanted in my room to organize crafty stuff. In the vein of organizing I also made a menu for the week. I used to do this all the time, but totally got out of the habit. I also finished my friend Allison's curtains that she ask me to make last year. I did not exercise today and I feel it. I have less energy tonight, and my temper is ALOT shorter with the kids. Gotta get back on the exercise train tomorrow. Very productive day so far! I still have a couple of hours left...

Also I wanted to direct you to www.clutterdiet.com for a great article on visions and goals. Lorie really makes things very practical, I can't wait until her book comes out! She always sets a theme for the year so I thought I would as well. My theme this year is Risk Taker! I think this fits my goals pretty well, they are all risks for me.

Flashback Friday - late

Don't Feed the Animals!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Christmas Crafts

Emily received some craft kits from Santa. She has been bugging me since Christmas day to do her "Christmas Craftes". So today I let her go at it. Ben has a little stomach bug so he was on the couch in a TV coma. I always have so much fun just spending girl time with Emily.

"Mommy, I am working HARD!"
"I love pink and purple, mommy!"

Yes that is her speckled belly hanging over the table...so cute!

BTW...I did exercise today and I have begun the organization. Just thought some of you might be interested! :)

Day One

No, I don't plan on writing a post every day to chronicle my goals this year. That would probably bore everyone, including me, to death. :) I am going to check in periodically with how these goals are progressing. If I have to write about them at least weekly then maybe I am more likely to follow through...maybe.

So let's see...today I actually did exercise. Yesterday I bought a DVD with a walking workout. It is pretty good. I walked three miles today. Yay, me!

I also started to make a small plan for organization. In reading my daily blogs I ran across this post for the organizing blog that I read everyday. The author of this blog posted an article today about how to keep New Year's Resolutions. The strategy that she gave was three fold: Education, Motivation, and Support. She says that you must have all three of these in order to make the life change that most resolutions or goals will require. So I am going to check out a book on organization for my education, and my motivation is coming from my stress level and finding time to do things I want to do instead of always having to spend so much time on keeping this house in order. I will just need to find the support. That shouldn't be hard to do. My husband would love it if this place was organized. We would both be less stressed going about our daily chores. If you want to read the article here is the link: http://www.clutterdietblog.com/2009/01/no-more-failed-resolutions.html

Now for #2, the Bible study. I sent out invitations, but I have not heard back from anyone. First real risk for the new year!