Lunch Bunch

Okay, for this week's Lunch Bunch, the question is:

If you could address a graduating high school class, what would you say?

Boy, do I want to go short and sweet or long and boring? Hmmmmm, I'll probably think I'm doing short and sweet, and end up with long and boring...

Its different being general to everyone or even just specifically for boys or girls. If I was just talking to girls, I would say BE NICE TO EACH OTHER, working together women can do amazing things--but put against one another we can be seriously awful.

One thing I have tried to have as a motto is: You will always feel bad about doing something wrong, but you will NEVER be sorry you did what was right.

I think I love this Mother Theresa quote though:

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

And I think that about sums it up. :)

What would YOU tell them?

Schedule Schmedule

My kids are just going back to school today. Our district had a strike and they were out of school all last week and all this week until today. Now they're back and I can start that whole worrying about my kindergartner all over again. Its lovely.

But at least we can hopefully start our "school schedule" now, you know the one that says I should have showered by now...

I suck at keeping schedules.

I surely like to make lists and plans but thats about as far as I get most of the time. And I love it if I accidentally do something so I can cross it off. Thats awesome.

This is about what my day was like with all the kids home (in picture form):

It was craziness I tell ya.

This is how it is now with only the boys home:

A whole lotta this. Why are boys so gross?

I Like Everything But I Like The Computer Best

Hi guys. Yup, I'm posting two whole days in a row! Can you believe it?!

Anyway, I was contacted by the bloggers who started Blossoming Bloggers and was asked if I wanted to do a Lunch Bunch post. All it is, is sharing a recipe and a prompt question. You can click over there to see the recipe, the question I asked was:

"Do you make time for hobbies and interests outside of being a mom and how do you do it?"

I'm supposed to write an answer to it as well, but I'm more interested in knowing how you guys make time for your interests--thats why I asked the question! heh

Since I have about a million and one interests (I'm easily amused....look a butterfly!!), I try and stick to things that are beneficial to my family (like decorating my house for cheaper than buying stuff) or things that I truly love so that the time I do use away from my family is worth it.

I've always liked photography, but never had an opportunity in high school or such to pursue it much, after I started having kids, I was of course taking pictures of them as much as possible. I've always loved art and drawing and painting, but to pull out supplies is messy and the time it takes to paint can be ridiculous when you have small children. Photography is instantaneous for the most part. *Click*--you have art. Its sometimes hard to go back to drawing, even though I miss it. Besides the fact that photoshop also fulfills that artistic need I have. One thing I've done this year to encourage my photography hobby was to join a 52 week project, each week we get a new prompt and have to take a picture for the theme within the time frame. Its fun because its not just pictures of my kids and it stretches my imagination, I've loved it. (If you want to check out my project, you can go to my photography blog here.)

I have lots of interests that I've put aside until my kids are older, like quilting and serious sewing and I mentioned painting as well. One of the interests I find doable with little kids is reading, we can even do it together sometimes! I made it a goal to read 50 books this year and will be finished with that goal within two more books. Exercising is another interest of mine, although I've fallen in and out of that so much. My husband and I started doing the "Insanity" work out, I got about four weeks into it, without seeing very good results. My goal now is to just do something active every day with my kids, and hopefully that will be a good start.

My biggest interest is the computer, so I encourage growth in that area by spending as much time as humanly possible on it... And I'm interesting in being extremely rich, but just haven't quite got it down yet.

Alright then, obviously since this is all about me, I could go on and on... :) But really, let me know how you make time to grow your talents and keep your interests...well, interesting!

What is HAPPENING?!

Dude. It isn't even 11am and I am ready for this day to be over.

Our school district is striking, today is the first day of no school. So of course I want to sleep in. Do the kids get the memo? Of course not.

I'm laying in bed, and my one year old climbs up to me, and promptly throws his tiny bowling ball hard head right into my closed eye. There was a flash of light, I'm surprised I didn't have a vision or something.

I decide to kick him out and stay in bed and read to recover. He comes up again and promptly throws one of those hard cardboard baby books. RIGHT AT THAT SAME FREAKING EYE. I have a big old lump there and it hurts to blink. I've never had a black eye before, we'll see if my very first is caused by a one year old baby. Kristina, maybe you are right.

I decide to go downstairs in an attempt to not be mauled anymore. The kids are fighting, they are screaming. Besides being tired, hurt, annoyed and frustrated, Aunt Flo came to visit yesterday, so I'm also an evil witch.

Then the phone rings. Its the dentist office, wondering if we're going to make our appointment that started 10 minutes before. Uhhhhhh, I thought it was tomorrow. I had to have told her "I am so sorry!!" fifteen times and she never once said it was okay, she was mad at me. I feel like crap.

I'm cramping. My face hurts. My kids are being crazy, wild animals. One of my children screams at least every two minutes on cue. Someone please make it stop...

School Blues

I sent two of my kids off to school today. My oldest loves school, she's excited for school, she's responsible and I'm not worried about her at all. My #2 is starting Kindergarden and I AM FREAKING OUT.

You have to understand a couple things about her. First of all, she's tiny. And I mean seriously TINY. Like my three year old is bigger than her, like she's almost six and can seriously wear 3T clothes on her skinny butt. It makes me nervous that she'll be picked on. Plus its just heartbreaking to see her tiny little body sitting at that big table all alone...(control yourself woman!) Secondly, she's super quiet. She has a tiny little voice and when she's upset she curls in a tiny little ball and quietly weeps to herself. WEEPS! I just can't stand the thought of her being upset and crying in the corner where the teacher won't notice. Ugh. Also, the girl is sort of in la-la land, she is creative and funny and just does her own thing, which I love--but it might not translate so well sometimes. I'm so afraid she's going to be lost in there.

Now for the non-negative part:

The other day we went to the park, within minutes she was wrapped up in a blanket with two other little girls. She makes friends easily and she's not worried about dumb stuff. She doesn't usually let things bother her (because she's in la-la land...), so I'm hoping she'll just be kind of go with the flow-ish. She's sweet and cute and loves to do art and wants to write and read, so I'm SURE she'll have a great time.

Its just the not knowing thats making me crazy.

I may have hurried out to the car trying to hold back tears and then cried like a baby before I got home. And I HATE it when people get all emotional for the first day of school, so once again karma has come back to bite me...

See how my one year old comes up to her chest? Yeah.