Random thoughts...

Sports. I caught Drea watching ESPN the other day. Yes folks, on her own, she turned the channel to ESPN and was really watching SportsCenter. Andy is so proud.

 

Mice. Hate them. I'm a complete sissy about them. I have been having an issue with them trapsing around my kitchen. So I have had to set traps, kill and dispose. Wait a minute, my stepdad has had to set traps, kill, and dispose of the mice. I heard a trap go off the other morning before work, so I refused to even walk into my kitchen and made the very logical decision to find breakfast at work. He came to dispose of the ones that were caught and Charlotte was very upset that he threw them outside before she got to see them. So he took her outside and showed them to her and then she asked to borrow his gloves. She then proceeded with picking them up and visually examining them.

 

*On a side note concerning the two thoughts above, I have amazingly well-rounded daughters!!
 

Microwaves. How annoying is it that every one is so different and you have to be a brain surgeon to be able to use one that you don't use all the time.

 

Logic. Why is it when you decide on a new spot for something because it makes more sense that you would always look for it to be in this place, that the next time you go to look for you look everywhere but the new place....which again, you thought seemed like the most logical place. It just proves that just because something is logical to you on one day didn't mean it will be the same logic on the next day.

 

Fashion. I can tell I'm getting old when I'm in a store and I'm checking out a section of clothes that look pretty cute and then I slowly realize that I'm in the "older" woman section. Oh no. I don't know what is fashionable anymore. I may have to ban myself from shopping without the supervision of my 5 & 8 year old daughters.

 

Bunk beds. The girls have bunk beds now because a friend blessed me with them! I was contemplating getting it for them for Christmas and said it out loud and Judi just said I have some I need to get rid of. They are awesome and my kids have been enjoying every minute in them. I never knew I would be such a worry wort about them. But they make me so nervous. It doesn't help that my girls are like monkeys so keeping them from hanging over the edge and climbing all over the thing is difficult. But it has been a incredible blessing! Enjoy their picture session below.

 

Speaking of blessings....my life has been overflowing with them! My Dad and Beth have me their Christmas tree!! It is beautiful and I love it. Mom and Bob have new extra lights and let the girls rummage through their bulbs. I love Christmas!!

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Oh yeah, and this is a teddy bear that Judi gave to my girls too. Charlotte fell in love with it as you can see.

Christmas 2014

I'm SO enjoying this season!

Here are some goodies from Christmas/December....

Girls Night Art Party!!

November was such a fun (and crazy busy) month! I know we are half way through Dec but I didn't realize that I didn't publish this post so there are a couple to catch up on.

These pics are from an Art Party we did at the The Starving Artist. It was a girls outing and we had a blast spending time together and laughing....And we celebrated mom's birthday too.

IMPERFECT PROGRESS

(From Day 5 of No More Unglued Mama Mornings devotion)

What kept me from making changes with unglued mama mornings for so long was the feeling I wouldn't do it perfectly. I knew I'd still mess up and come unglued. Sometimes we girls think if we don't make instant progress, then real change isn't coming.

But that's not so.

There is a beautiful reality called imperfect progress. The day I realized the glorious hope of this kind of imperfect change is the day I gave myself permission to believe I really could be different.
Imperfect changes are slow steps of progress wrapped in grace … imperfect progress. And good heavens, I need lots of that. So, I dared to write this in my journal:

Progress. Just make progress. It's okay to have setbacks and to need do-overs. It's okay to draw a line in the sand and start over again—and again. Just make sure you're moving the line forward. Move forward. Take baby steps, but at least take steps that keep you from being stuck. Then change will come. And it will be good.

These honest words enabled me to begin rewriting my story. Not that I erased what came before, but I stopped rehashing it and turned the page afresh. Eventually, I started blogging about my raw emotions and imperfect changes. In response, I got comments whispering, "Me too."

"Being unglued, for me, comes from a combination of anger and fear," wrote Kathy. "I think part of it is learned behavior. This is how my father was." Courtney honestly admitted, "I come unglued when I feel out of control because my kids are screaming or fighting or whining or negotiating and won't listen. I like silence, calm, obedience, and control. When it's not going 'my way,' I come unglued and freak out and it goes quiet. And then the regret comes."

And the comments kept coming, all of them expressing the exact same struggle, the same frustration, and the same need for hope. So many women whose daily circumstances differed but whose core issues were the same.

I realized then that maybe other women could make some imperfect progress too. And a book idea was born from that simple realization. But I had to laugh at the irony of it. I had just published a book called Made to Crave that dealt with what goes into my mouth. Now I was writing a book called Unglued to deal with what comes out of my mouth.

This Unglued journey is about my imperfect progress. It's an honest admission that this struggle of reining in how I react has been hard for me. But hard doesn't mean impossible.
How hard something is often depends on your vantage point.

For example, consider the shell of an egg. Looking at it from the outside, we know an eggshell is easily broken. But if you're looking at that same shell from the inside, it seems an impenetrable fortress. It's impossible for the raw white and tender yolk to penetrate the hardness of the eggshell.
But given time and the proper incubation, the white and yolk develop into a new life that breaks through the shell and shakes itself free. And in the end, we can see that the hard work of cracking the shell was good for the new baby chick.

The shell actually provided a place for new life to grow, and then enabled the chick to break forth in strength.

Might the same be true for our hard places? Might all this struggle with our raw emotions and unglued feelings have the exact same potential for new life and new strength?

I think so. I know so. I've seen so.

Mother Teresa is quoted as saying, "Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." Make some small imperfect progress today and discover your potential for new life and new strength.

MAKING IT A REALITY:

For the next week, write the words imperfect progress at the top of every day's to do list. If you have a smart phone, set an alert to pop up each morning of this week to remind you, "Make imperfect progress today." Then determine that making imperfect progress with your reactions is the most important thing you can accomplish today.

Just a note...

After my kids go to bed, I always imagine all the things I'm going to get accomplished. Before they go bed, I have lists going through my head. I set alarms on my phone, write lists on paper, and plan all sorts of ways to accomplish a few additional things to finish my day. Then I get the kids in bed and my brain goes to mush! LOL!

I'm sitting here getting ready to go to bed because the one million five hundred things I had planned to do once my children fell asleep have evaporated into thin air. Balancing the checkbook, making an event image for Ronin Fitness, designing business cards for Enliven Occupational Therapy, emailing Andy about Drea's birthday party and our schedule, designing Drea's birthday party invitations, taking out the trash, folding the towels I washed, getting stuff together so the girls and I can go to the gym tomorrow, and the list goes on and on. Now let's not discuss how this list is completely unachievable and these expectations are way too much to expect of myself in like an hour or two at the end of the day.....  We just won't go there. I know that I won't be able to do all of these things but I do hope that I may accomplish at least one or two of them. The problem is I often get to zero of them because I get in this stupid zone out mode and next thing I know it's 10:30 and I should get ready for bed before it's suddenly midnight. Yes, there's nothing wrong with zoning out at the end of your day but I'm there often and especially when the girls are with me.

Anyway, just a note on what is catching my attention about my behavior tonight.

P.S. - After I typed this blog, I did end up taking out the trash, folding the towels, getting our stuff together for the gym and cleaning up the kitchen from dinner....Oh and emailed myself at work to actually look at the to-do list in my purse that I made on Sun. :)

Oh, and the picture below.....my favorite kind of evening zoning out.

Becoming better....

Moments like the ones above are convincing me that I may be becoming a better Mom. The girls and I were having some fun one night before bed and snapping some pics. I can't remember the last time we laughed like that together. I tend to be the rigid, keep on task as much as possible and get stuff done kind of mom. This moment here...We should have been getting ready for bed....We had been out later than usual at the Rockets banquet....But we started being silly and I was enjoying it. I was taking in the moment and enjoying their laughter and how much they were enjoying me playing along with them. I was realizing how much more important that is than what time we were getting to bed. 

Now....did I do this the rest of the week? Not necessarily. Lol. Of course we had other enjoyable moments but maybe not necessarily at bedtime. Lol. But that's ok. I'm learning that growth is slow but growth at any speed is still growth. 

That means I'm becoming a better Mom in my mind and a better person. It's only a little bit but I don't have much confidence in that arena sometimes so that makes me happy. 

Day to day

I truly don't understand how some days I notice how alive and wonderful I feel and some days I feel like my world is swallowing me up and I'm drowning alive.  I guess that's just life.

Barbells for boobs

Last weekend I participated in a fundraiser workout at Ronin Fitness for breast cancer awareness.

We ended up raising over $1200 and the event went great! Below are some pictures throughout the day. I'm so glad it was such a success.