Percolating Practice

Intentional.Me

2010-11-25T06:40:00.000-08:00

I've moved!

Come visit me at the new url: Intentional.Me (http://intentional.me)

A special Thanksgiving post should be up right now.

Have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving!

Shell

Only One More Week....

2010-11-18T08:16:00.000-08:00

The new blog site is coming soon! ONLY one more week.

The blog will be officially up at the new site on THANKSGIVING DAY.

Check back here for the new address... Just a few more kinks to workout first. :)

Have a blessed weekend!

~Shell

And the Announcement Is......

2010-11-12T05:02:00.000-08:00

I told you the other day that I had a big announcement in store, so here it is:

On Thanksgiving Day, Percolating Practice will be getting a makeover! New address, new name, a more focused purpose....the works! The Goodbye Junk challenge will also be moving to the new site and continuing there as well. However, the new site isn't quite ready to launch, so hang in there and be patient while the finishing touches are put in place. Check back here for more details, and of course, THE NEW ADDRESS!

Thanks for being patient while everything is in transition. I promise it will be done soon, and worth the wait!
~Shell

How #Relevant10 Met #GoodbyeJunk & #HelloMornings Today...

2010-11-04T11:43:00.000-07:00

So, I FINALLY got to talk to my sweet friend about her experiences at the Relevant Conference this morning. We met for coffee and talked for hours, it was so wonderful. She knew that I had wanted to attend with her, and was sweet enough to bring back her goodies and share them with me! Isn't she the sweetest friend?

Look at all the cute, fabulous stuff I got from Relevant, through her:

I promise, I left some for her too! :)

I am so glad that she is NOT a reader. A blogger who hates to read. Funny, huh? But, lucky for me! I got some really cool books that are going to be perfect for HelloMornings. Just a short, easy to read page a day. I can't wait to start tomorrow. AND, a version I can share with the boys....Even better! I've been wanting to find something like that, but haven't gone looking, and here it just 'falls' in my lap. I love how that works! Plus, an e-book copy of Ann Voskamp's 1000 Gifts, which I've also been dying to read, and a cute little journal to write...something tiny in!

Plus, a super cute paperweight for my office (maybe it will encourage me to keep my desk neater). That little cute 'PEACE' necklace has something on the back..... "BE STILL". Now, tell me that wasn't meant for me?

So, I've mentioned how this all connects with the #HelloMornings group that I love, but how does bringing all this STUFF into my house fit with #GoodbyeJunk? Well, for the first time, probably ever, I was INTENTIONAL about what I was choosing to bring into my home. There were some other really cute things to choose from. Things that I wanted, but I put them back, because I knew deep down that they were just future GoodbyeJunk. I only chose things that I knew I had a purpose for, and would really, truly use. Progress!

Oh, and FYI, more GoodbyeJunk stuff coming soon, so bear with me! I'm working on a big, new announcement.... More good stuff to come! Look for details closer to Thanksgiving.

In the meantime,

may you be blessed with friends as wonderful as mine,

and may you remember that as fun as it is to receive,

it is even better to GIVE.

What I learned from #Relevant10

2010-10-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

I've made Family my priority lately (over online stuff...)

So, I didn't even get to attend the Relevant Conference last weekend, but that didn't stop me from learning from it! There were so many great people there, all tweeting little pearls of wisdom. It totally rocked my weekend. It was such a wonderful, powerful, positive thing to keep reading their tweets all weekend.

So, what did I learn? I learned that I'm doing alright. Not that I can't improve, I'm still far from perfect (and I'm not seeking perfection anyway), but I'm on the right path. There has been a twinge of guilt that I've not blogged once this month...For a long list of reasons, all of which lead back to the fact that I set FAMILY as a higher priority, and just had to let go of online stuff until things are less overwhelming again. So, what did I read coming out of Relevant tweets this weekend? Tweet after tweet after tweet reinforcing that my priorities were on the right track, for once. I love it when God sends you those overwhelming messages sometimes!

From my IRL favorite blogger SomeGirlsTweets:
~Make your home a place of peace. My life isn't about what people think I am, or what they think about me. #Relevant10

~We don't want to harm our real life relationships with our blogs.

~Rest in the gift God has given you. #Relevant10 - Angie Smith

~We are held accountable to God for how we treat our family. #Relevant10 (@WeareTHATfamily)

~What times are special for your family? Make that time sacred and be offline. Your family is of high importance. #Relevant10

~"It's the living of life, not the writing of life that is going to change the world!" #Relevant10 - Sally Clarkson

~Take a computer sabbatical regularly! #mediafreeSundays #Relevant10

~"I'd much rather neglect my [online life] than neglect my husband and children." #Relevant10

~"Blogging can be a powerful tool... But if blogging is taking you away from being a wife and a mother it's not worth it." #Relevant10

And a favorite, that fits my life perfectly right now, by michellebygrace:

~If your blog conflicts with real life, choose real life. -Kimba (@KimbaASPTL) Relevant10

I can't wait until I DO have a little more time and can go in and read all the great posts coming from the lucky ladies who did get to attend Relevant. I'm going to have great stuff to read for months to come! What a blessing.

There is a linkup on the official Relevant Conference site: http://therelevantconference.com/ or Click here for one of the other linkups, or search the hashtag #Relevant10 on twitter for more.

Truly Amazed

2010-09-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've heard, because it's all I'm talking about lately, that I'm leading a team for my local Relay for Life. You can read more about it here, where I guest posted about it over at SomeGirl's place. I felt very called to do this. My heart was leading me to it. But I never imagined that we could have possibly been so successful. I know it's not me, it's that I listened to the whispers of God telling me I coud do this. Really. Because my introverted self wouldn't have/ couldn't have ever done this without that push.

Now, tonight, my team is ranked number 4 on the top teams list. And I'm not telling you this to brag, because it's not something that I did. It's something amazing happening. It's a miracle, in my book, that it's all coming together in such happy way. That I could recruit enough friends to fill out our team. That together we could fundraise over $1,100, before the event has even begun! That is a pure and wonderful miracle.

What's that verse about God having a bigger plan for me than I had for myself? Is it even a verse? I googled it and came up with a movie quote, but whatever it may be, that's definitely what it feels like to me. I had hoped to struggle along and maybe raise $500. I wasn't sure if there would even be more than 3 of us on the team. But is' all working out bigger and so much better than I ever dreamed. The verses below were the best I could come up with. If you know one that fits better, I'd love for you to share it.

If you have joined my team, and are helping to make this happen, or if you have donated to our Relay for Life team, THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping our team to help others. I am so truly blessed.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Proverbs 16:3

A person may plan his own journey,
but the Lord directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

If You Could Do Anything...

2010-09-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

It's Friday. I thought a little fun might be in order, so I'm asking this quick question. I hope you'll leave an answer in the comments and let me know what your answer would be! I can't wait to hear from you.

If you could do anything.... What would it be? No strings attached, no cost limitations, no 'oh-but-who-would-watch-my-kids', no restrictions. Something that would make you just full of joy and happy inside. Something just for you. If you could do anything, for yourself, what would you do?

For me? I'd wander around and take pictures. I truly love photography. Someday I plan to go take a few classes, but in the meantime, I'm happy anytime I can pull out my pocket camera and take some fun, interesting photos. It makes me happy, deep down inside. I'm especially happy taking pics out in nature. Puts a smile in my heart that looks kind of like this ---->

So, If you could do anything, for yourself, what would you do?

What's stopping you?

#GoodByeJunk Helpful Tip #3.... Keep Going!

2010-09-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Keep Going! That's it for the tip today. Just keep going. You know how Dorie in Finding Nemo sings, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...", well just keep tossing, donating, selling, filing, whatever it is you've been doing. Don't give up now that you've gotten such a good start getting rid of junk. Keep doing what you're doing. One thing a day. Several things on the weekend. Whatever is working for you, just don't give up!

Don't forget to chime in and let us know how you're doing from time to time!

I promise to have a better tip next week.... It's been kinda crazy around here, and Thursday just really snuck up on me this week! Keep saying Goodbye Junk in the meantime...

Don't Make This Mistake...

2010-09-22T06:45:00.000-07:00

The biggest mistake you can make

is to do nothing because you can only do a little.

Don’t second-guess yourself. Even the littlest gifts add up over time to make a big difference. Do the thing that you've been wanting to, but haven't because you don't think you can do enough. The biggest mistake you can make is to do nothing because you can only do a little.

Are you still saying #GoodByeJunk ?

2010-09-20T04:11:00.000-07:00

The Goodbye Junk Challenge:
*Get rid of one item each day.
*Find one item that needs a home, and give it a home. Easy!
For more details, click here.

Are you still working on our #GoodbyeJunk challenge? I know I am. This week I didn't have too much to donate, but I pulled out what seemed like tons of trash and got rid of it. Old phone books, piles of expired coupons, old bills and other junk mail that never got tossed when it should have. I've also got a bag going with unopened happy meal toys that I've found all over. We're donating them to the school carnival for game prizes.

I was also good about finding a home for some of my paper clutter, namely my littlest one's preschool stuff from last year. I spent Friday night with some friends starting his scrapbook, and I got about 12 pages done. I'm hoping to have that one finished in a couple of weeks, so that I can move on to finding a home for his older brother's school papers. I've got 1st and 2nd grade to catch up on...Yikes!

My friend who came and scrapbooked with me had a great idea about not letting the school stuff pile up. Her plan is to scrap things as they come home, if they are worth saving. So, Friday night she spent her time scrapping this year's first day of school and her son's first-ever spelling test. And now she's caught up. Isn't that great? I just might have to steal her idea!

How is it going for you? Are you doing well or struggling? Link up or leave a comment below so we can encourage you! Don't forget to find us on Twitter with the hashtag #GoodByeJunk too. I'd love to see some TwitPics of your success!

What have you been working on for saying Goodbye to Junk?

A Revelation...

2010-09-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

I realized something tonight, driving down the road to my yoga class of all places...

I am HAPPY.

That sounds a little silly, doesn't it? But this was a major revelation. I'm not talking, 'Hey, it was a good day today Happy'. I'm talking, 'Wow, this-is-incredible, can't-stop-smiling, deep-in-my-soul HAPPY' Just generally happy. Not because of a particular thing or event, but.....just because.

Do you want to know the kicker? I should be freaking out right now. I am sooooo far backlogged on paperwork, my office is a perpetual disaster zone, my good friend and I have taken on the role of putting together and leading a team for the Relay for Life, my pastor just asked me to take over the job of leading the handbell choir (which I feel woefully underqualified for...), I'm trying to declutter our house and organize our family of four, I'm hosting a GoodbyeJunk Challenge on this blog & on twitter.... I'm getting started training to walk a half marathon, with asthma... See?

I.Should.Be.Freaking.Out.Right.Now.

But, I'm not. I am HAPPY! Go figure.

Maybe it's the Yoga. Maybe it's Goodbye Junk. Maybe it's HelloMornings. Maybe it's Prayer. Maybe it's taking real care of myself for a change, and looking at things with gratitude. Maybe it's just the simple fact that I'm not trying to be perfect anymore, and I'm just trying to do my best little by little to make progress. Maybe it's a combination of all of those things. Whatever it is, I'm going to keep doing it, because it's working!

Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead....

- I Peter 1:6

May you find joy and happiness as well.

This post is dedicated to my dear friends K & M. I'm convinced that conversations with the two of you are a real part of where I've found this happiness. Thank you for the blessing of your friendship and support!

#GoodbyeJunk Helpful Tip #2

2010-09-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Junk Helpful Tip # 2:
Get rid of the junk in your pantry. It may not be in sight for company, but YOU see it everyday. Wouldn't it feel wonderful to look into a clean, not junky pantry when it's time to fix dinner?

Go through and toss expired foods in your pantry. Try one shelf at a time. One shelf a week. Whatever works for you. While you're at it, set aside everything that will expire in the next few months, so that you can use them up, or donate them to a local shelter. Thanks Nemo, for inspiring this tip by tweeting about cleaning out your cupboards!

I went through mine about a month or two back, one at a time. Over the course of a couple of weeks I threw out a disgraceful amount of expired food, most from when I was doing the coupon game which seemed like it was saving me tons of money. In truth, it just encouraged me to overstock or stock up on things we didn't need and therefore wouldn't use, because it was 'such a good deal'.

I put foods about to expire in a basket on my kitchen counter. Everything that would expire by the end of 2010 went in my basket. I'm trying to use them up, and hope that having them out in plain sight will help me to remember that. So far it's working pretty well, and we've probably used up about a third of them already. You could also donate foods to a food pantry, if you don't want to use them and they're not too close to expiring.

Throwing away expired foods feels extremely wasteful. And it is. But the reality is, if it's already expired, there isn't anything you can do about that. Feeling guilty won't change that. What you can change is how you buy, store, and use the food you restock with. Don't go out and go hog wild replacing every thing you just tossed, because chances are you'll have the same expired foods later on down the road. Rethink what you need and how you buy it. Make it work for you, with the goal of not letting food expire.

My pantry looked bare at first, but now I've gotten used to it this way, and I love it. There are only things that we eat regularly in it now. Special things I can go out and buy when needed, but if they are in my pantry, chances are I won't use them before they expire. The bonus? I can easily see everything we have, and I don't end up buying it again at the store just because I couldn't see or find it. I plan to go through the pantry roughly every six months to look for items that might be expiring soon, or within the next several months. Then I can put them in my 'I need to use these up' basket again, or donate them to a food pantry.

Are you 'holding onto stuff because you feel it would be a waste of good money if you got rid of it...'? Read this article and free yourself of the burden of feeling wasteful.

Also, Gwen wrote this wonderful post about the impact of our Goodwill donations. Stop by and check it out. She talks about the impact of donations for both the people Goodwill Industries helps and for the people who shop there for great deals! Thanks, Gwen.

#GoodbyeJunk Updates...

2010-09-13T07:49:00.000-07:00

Hey all...
How did you do this week at saying #GoodByeJunk? Did you get rid of something daily? Did you do enough for the week all at once? How about finding a home for random things? Were you successful at that too?

I had a great week. I got rid of 43 pounds of stuff, added it to the pile from the week before, and drove it all to Goodwill. What a wonderful feeling. So far, I've donated at least 67 pounds of junk. It feels terrific! There are lots more things to work on, so I'm not going to be done anytime soon, but I love the feeling that just doing one thing a day makes me feel successful. And it's so easy I don't even try to avoid it!

By the way, there is a great calculator at GOODWILL online where you can calculate the impact of your donation. I put in the things I rounded up my first week, and it came out to roughly an hour of training per pound. An hour a pound of help for someone else...What a fabulous incentive to declutter!

As far as finding a home for things, I've been doing pretty well at that too. Mostly in my office, where there were a lot of leftover VBS or summer craft things that needed to be put away. I also worked out in the garage a bit, organizing and tossing things in there.

Don't forget to check back on Thursday, when I have another helpful tip scheduled to keep you motivated! If you have anything that's working really well for you, or a tip you'd like to share, please email me at goodbyejunkchallenge@gmail.com so I can include it in a future post for everyone. Thanks!

If you're doing the challenge with us, how did YOU do?

Link up to a post you've written about #GoodbyeJunk, or just leave a comment for us so we can encourage you! Don't forget to tell us your Twitter handle so we can encourage you there too. Be sure to tweet me @2BeStill if you haven't already so I can support you! After you link or comment, be sure to stop by and visit some of your fellow GoodbyeJunkers to give them a little support. I'm so proud of how well everyone is doing. Keep up the great work!

Here's this week's GoodbyeJunk Linkup:

#Goodbye Junk Helpful Tip #1

2010-09-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

As my son would say, "Helllloooooo, ladies!!"

How are you doing with your #GoodbyeJunk challenge this week? Don't forget there will be a new linkup coming on Monday, so snap a picture, or jot down something that you can post or leave in the comments so we can support you!

Here's our first Goodbye Junk Helpful Tip: Figure out a way to deal with your horizontal surfaces. You know- those flat spots on a table, counter, or wherever that just collect junk in piles? Yeah. Those surfaces.

For myself, I've done two things. First, once I get one of these cleared off, I make it a priority to keep it cleared off or at least get it completely cleared off before the end of the day. The biggest help here is not letting something that doesn't have a home sit there for later. I try to find a home for it right away. Somedays that works better than others. The other way I've decided to deal with these junk hotspots is to make them pretty. Yes, you heard me! If it's pretty, I'm much more likely to not want to cover it up with some pile of clutter. Try it. Let me know if it works for you.

Here's an example before and after of one of my previously awful horizontal surfaces. This is in my office, which is by far the very worst room in the house. I think even the garage might be better. So, before:

I wanted to hide these drawers (they look so messy, even though their contents are organized). But I still wanted to have easy access, so I took some particle board and covered it with pretty scrapbook paper.

Particle board, recycled from somewhere else in the house.

This is so much prettier in person!

I even added a lovely quote that makes me happy.

And finally, the result:

Saying Goodbye Junk to the piles on either side next!

Now, it's a lovely table top, and I don't want to put anything on it that will take away from the prettiness of it. In fact, I'm planning a few more finishing touches to make it even nicer. The bonus is all the drawer storage for different projects that's now hidden underneath, but still easy to access. Just finished it, so I'll let you know how that works out, but I'm pretty hopeful that it will be a success.

If you're still looking for inspiration, read here for more helpful ideas from Organizing Junkie (and she's got a little challenge too...)

How are you dealing with your horizontal surfaces?

#GoodbyeJunk Challenge Linkup

2010-09-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Goodbye Junkers! So glad to have you along for the ride. Doesn't it feel great to get rid of the junk and not have to deal with it anymore? Aren't you looking forward to cabinets that don't look like this anymore? Don't you love how easy it is? Just two things a day- one to donate/trash/sell and one to find a home. Simple. We can all do that. For more about the details of the #GoodbyeJunk Challenge, click here.

I want to say thank you for all the support that I've gotten for this challenge, and for all the support I see all of you giving each other. Way to go, everyone! Wouldn't the world be so much nicer if everyone were so encouraging? In that spirit of encouragement, let's link up and continue to support each other. Please link up either a post on your blog (with a #GoodbyeJunk theme, perhaps?) or your twitter handle. Or both!

I plan to have two #GoodbyeJunk posts each week. On Mondays, we'll have a linkup where we can show our successes (do a post with a picture of your cleaner space, or just tell us how it's going. Or just tweet about it. Anything #GoodbyeJunk related, really!). On Thursdays, I'll share a short and sweet tip that might help you with your #GoodbyeJunk challenge.

So, it's a day late due to the Labor Day holiday yesterday, but here's our first linkup! Please take a moment to stop by the other blogs and leave a comment, or leave your fellow #GoodbyeJunkers a tweet of support. Oh, and feel free to grab a Goodbye Junk Button for your self/blog. The code is over on the sidebar. Thanks, and happy #GoodbyeJunking!

Link up here for #GoodbyeJunk Challenge support:

Don't Give Up!

2010-09-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Success does not mean never giving up. It means always finding a reason to start a new beginning.

All of us, at some point or other give up. In our head (or maybe out loud) , there is a sad defeated *Sigh* and the thought 'I give up' drops in. It might be for a day a week, a minute or even just a fleeting second. But at some point, we all experience that "I give up" feeling. And it's okay. I think it's normal. It's good to vent your frustrations, to let them out and not bury them inside. But it's even more important to keep finding a reason for a new beginning.

I gave up. I did or didn't do ________. But this is Labor Day weekend. Which means Tuesday is a new beginning. How many things start 'The day after Labor Day'? It's a new beginning. Or maybe October 1st. It's the first day of a new month. Maybe every Sunday is a new beginning. Maybe Monday. Maybe Friday because it's the beginning of the weekend. Maybe...it's the middle of an unremarkable day and your new beginning is just a random point in the day. The point is to seize those new beginnings. Enjoy them. Pat yourself on the back for finding them, for starting anew, and for not letting the 'I give up' feeling to linger and defeat you.

New beginnings are fun. They are exciting. They are motivating. Why wait for January 1st or some other far away time to start over? Find a reason to start a new beginning today and do it!

Note: I had this post written, and stumbled upon the quote below posted by @monicaricci on Twitter. I love when perfectly timed things like that happen!

"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose,

for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."

~Mary Pickford
1893-1979,

Actress and Producer

What are you waiting for? Start now!

Finding Gratitude Even Through Utter Frustration

2010-08-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

You know what they say, 'When life gives you lemons....'

I am in the middle of a MAJOR life lesson right now. I'm learning a lot about how little control we really often have. Although we like to think we're the ones running things, that control is so often just an illusion. We cannot control rude or dangerous drivers, although we might yell or honk in an attempt to do so. We cannot control other people, situations, the world or a loved one making a poor choice. We might think we can somehow control these things, and even spend large amounts of time and energy worrying about them, playing out scenario after scenario in our heads in an attempt to gain control. But ultimately, the only things we really control are ourselves, and our reactions to things.

This life lesson is teaching me to accept what I cannot control, and to instead focus my energy on myself and how I react. I want to react to things with kindness and compassion; with gratitude and patience; with thanksgiving and with love. We cannot control the world, but we can seek to have a grateful heart. Gratitude is not an illusion. We can look for gratitude, even in the midst of the most utterly frustrating experiences.

I am grateful

For everyday, taken-for-granted kinds of things:

~for health -for this body of mine, with it's aches & pains, issues, and extra pounds

~for family- a nearby loving and supportive network

~for freedoms and liberties in this country I love

~for friends without whom life would be boring and dull

For overflowing abundances:

~of God's love

~of blessings too numerous to count

~of simple joys, like sweet bedtime kisses or 'just because' hugs

For constant, unshakeable blessings:

~my wonderful, handsome husband and sons

~my brothers and sisters, by both blood and marriage, living near or far.

~my beautiful, imperfect home and gardens

For first world conveniences that would be third world wonders:

~freshly brewed morning coffee where others thirst simply for clean water

~a home with running water where others go homeless and unwashed

~a refrigerator stocked full of food where others go hungry

Most of all, I am grateful that I have been given so much, because with this abundance comes the opportunity to share it with others, and share the blessings.

I am grateful.

I want that shirt

2010-08-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

You know those really witty T shirts that you see here and there?
I want one that says:

Jesus is my guru. 

Now wait!! Stick with me here. I'm serious about this. I'm not making fun of new age-y yoga types.   I get a lot of 'you're wacky/nutty/slightly crazy' for my love of yoga, but hang with me, at least for this post.

I've been studying the 'stuff' behind yoga, to learn more and how it meshes with my personal religious beliefs. What I've found has been both very encouraging and inspiring, and all that I have learned follows along the same lines as how the bible teaches us to behave. It's very interesting. Especially since yoga is very ancient wisdom, older than the bible.

One of the things in this book I'm reading started talking about "how to choose a guru". Not in those words, but that was the idea. Uh-oh, I thought. Here's where it gets a little wonky and I'm going to have issues. To me, "guru" is some wacky person followed blindly by another even wackier nut-ball. But I kept reading, and this is what I found:

~A guru is a spiritual teacher...a teacher of truth.
~Guru has two parts- 'Gu' means 'stuff which hides our true light' and 'ru' which means 'the thing(person) that removes the stuff hiding our true light'.
~A spiritual guru must live what he teaches, because power comes from that truth
~It is not always necessary for the guru/teacher to be physically present, or even in physical form to teach us.

Hmmm...something to think about. A guru is a teacher who lives by example. Who was the ultimate teacher? Jesus. Did he live by example? To his very last breath, literally. Can he remove our "stuff" (a.k.a. sin) and let our light shine? Isn't that why he came?

JESUS is my guru.

Jesus says: "I am the way and the truth and the life." ~ John 14:6

The bible says, "Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16 I like the way the Message puts it even better: "Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept."   Isn't that a wonderful image? 'Bringing out the God-colors in the world.' Love that.

Finally, Jesus said to the disciples: "I want you to open their eyes, so that they will turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." If that doesn't fit the definition of a guru, then I don't know what does.

Jesus was always telling people to think differently. I don't know if making a witty t-shirt was what he had in mind, but he knows where my heart is.

Focus for the Week:

2010-08-29T16:56:00.000-07:00

God's law is in their hearts.

Their feet do not slip.

Psalm 37:31

Goodbye Junk Challenge

2010-08-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

So, I've been trying to embrace life, and have more time for my family by getting rid of the junk that has found it's way into our house since moving in three years ago. The clutter is taking up time I don't want to devote to it. Time to find things. Where did I see that ___again? Time to clean. It takes more time to clean if there is more stuff sitting around. Time being frustrated with how much stuff there is everywhere. This is big for me, because it robs me of enjoying my day even when I'm not cleaning.

Another thing I'm trying to do, besides get rid of junk, is to make sure that everything that stays has a real home. Not just some pile on the counter, but a real place to be put away. I've found that I'm much more successful and consistent about keeping things neat if there is a home for things. The kids are better at cleaning this way too. Things that don't have a home inevitably end up in a pile on some horizontal surface in my house. And stay there. Not good.

After surfing around and reading some articles about clutter, I decided to host a Goodbye Junk Challenge. Do you have junk like this that you want to deal with once and for all? Do the Goodbye Junk Challenge with me!

In reading online somewhere, maybe unclutterer.com, I came across this idea to get rid of one piece of junk a day for a whole year. What a great idea, I thought! Being the beginning of a new school year, it seems like the perfect time to start a new challenge like this, so here's what I'm thinking:

*Get rid of one item each day. It must leave your house for good...donate it, trash it, recycle it, give it to someone, sell it on ebay, whatever, just so that you don't ever have to deal with it again. More than one is fine too, but if you just get rid of one thing a day, that counts!
*Find one item that needs a home, and give it a home! Maybe something that you've never known where to put...figure out a place. Or maybe just put something back in it's rightful home. Easy!
*Leave a comment or link a post about how you're doing. Let's encourage each other!!

That's it... quick and simple, right? Want to join me? Let's see how much junk we can get rid of together!
Here are a few other details:
*Feel free to make this challenge fit your life. Want to do a week worth all on Saturday? Fine! Want to fill up a box before taking it to Goodwill? Great! Just make sure that the stuff you pile up to leave your house actually leaves your house, otherwise, you'll just be going through it all again in the future, and who wants that?
*If you miss a day here and there, or even a whole week, don't give up! There are no Junk Police to knock on your door, and ask what you've donated today. You don't have to do the whole year. There is no right or wrong. Just clean until you're happy!
*Remember there are lots of sites out there with helpful ideas. Unclutterer.com and http://orgjunkie.com are two of my favorites.
*Just for kicks, meaning, 'because there is a math-y nerdness in my blood', I'm going to weigh the stuff I get rid of. For example, when I started Monday, I filled up a basket of stuff. 19.2 pounds. Tuesday, it was lighter weight stuff...about a pound. Today, I pulled out 5 pounds of stuff from my china cabinet. You don't need to do this, unless you want to. I just thought it might be fun to see how much I've donated once I'm done with the year! I'm sure it will be staggering...I'm shocked that the little pile I've got for Goodwill is already over 25 pounds in 3 days! You could also make a pile, take a picture of it when you donate, whatever. Or just be happy it's gone. Like I said, do what works for you.

It's a win-win challenge. I/we get a nicer, cleaner, more organized house, and Goodwill (or the charity of your choice) gets to benefit from our donations!

Are you ready to take the

Goodbye Junk Challenge?

I hope so!

Goodbye Junk

2010-08-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon!

When Life Kicks You in the Teeth...

2010-08-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

I'm having a month that feels like life just keeps kicking me/us in the teeth. Ever have one of those? Where thing after thing after thing happens to drag you down? Well, that's me. And I'm usually a pretty look-at-the-bright-side kind of person. I look for the good, because there is already too much bad in the world. If you see the good, if you practice looking for the good, then it becomes easier and easier to see it.

But I'm having a hard time of it this month. I keep getting dragged back down. I know that there are much worse things happening to other people in this world.

People who are gravely sick.

People whose children have cancer.

People who've lost their jobs.

People in serious pain.

People who are fighting addictions.

People who don't even have food to eat

or clean water to drink.

There are a lot of people who are dealing with way worse problems than we are. I mean a lot of people! But I'm still feeling kicked in the teeth, I think mostly because I completely lack any control over our situation(s).

Last week, on a particularly bad day, I found this post (thank you @traceepersiko!) which I loved. It started with, "Sometimes talking to Him is all you can do." And that sentence in particular changed my whole attitude that day. So, while I'm still having a hard time seeing the good, at least I can remember that advice.

Sometimes talking to Him is all you can do...

Helping the Family (the chores post...)

2010-08-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Since it's back to school time, we're getting back into our regular school routines, and that means more formal chore duties again. Not that my guys didn't do any chores during summer, just that it was a more relaxed, 'Hey, please go do ____' type of thing. Now, we're back to our chore chart. I think chores do three major things: *Teach responsibility and life skills
*Help the family
*Show how you are an important part of the family

Someone asked me what kinds of things I have my kids do. Cleaning up their own toys is one. That's pretty basic, and they have a sort of organized toy/play room, and then in their bedroom they are only allowed what can fit in what we call the "toy pockets"--stuffed animals not included.

The "Toy Pockets"... just a shoe organizer.

Sometimes those pockets start overflowing, so they have to dump them out, sort out the stuff that really needs to be put away somewhere else, throw away junk/broken things, donate toys they don't want anymore, and so on. This was them cleaning out the pockets at the beginning of summer:

Purging Toys

They have to make their beds, which used to mean getting everything back up off the floor...

(Even the 4 year old who regularly slept in between the beds on the floor...)

The result usually looked like this:

Not what I'd expected...but mostly neat & off the floor.

Sometimes they'd make the other bed:

This is why it takes an hour to make the bed...

This kid of mine is making a stack of animals as tall as he is...

He's 4 foot 6 inches tall...Can you see my little one in the pic?

General room cleaning would result in something like this:

8 Year Old Interior Design...Dino Style

However, now that their room has been completely made-over, making their beds is much easier. Just straightening out the blankets/covers, mostly. We are strictly enforcing the 'everything must be off the floor and put away' rule each night, which means there really isn't much room cleaning to be done other than making the beds. That's pretty huge considering they've been in that room nearly 24/7 since the makeover!

Other chores include:

Left side:8 year old / Right side: 4 year old(with pics)

We use a pocket chart. I found it in the dollar section at Target last year around this time I think. It works wonders. I can add or remove chores as needed, and as they finish one, they take the card out and put it back in the tray. We also have a card for HOMEWORK, [put away]BACKPACK & LUNCHBOX, and one for SHOES, so that I don't have to nag those everyday-must-do things either. Now that I think about it...what happened to the BRUSH TEETH card? Seems to have mysteriously disappeared. Time for a new one!

I don't make them do all of these things everyday. It's more of an as needed type thing. And they tag team some chores. Like laundry. The little one has to bring it to the laundry room, and the older one has to sort it. New this year, he's also going to learn how to do a full load himself (with my help, of course). It was his original idea to add the chore of doing ALL the laundry. I so wanted to take him up on that, but just couldn't do it to him! After I explained how much work that was, he was happy to edit it back down to one full load. And that will probably just be once a week.

Also new this year:

*Taking out the garbage.

*Little one is going to put away silverware (after I remove the sharp knives)

*Older one is unloading all the rest of the dishwasher, moving up from just silverware...

***The NO NAG Clause: If I have to nag you or remind you to do your chores, then I get to add another chore to your list. And, it might just be one of my harder/longer chores, so beware!

***The FAMILY HELPER Clause: If you see a chore that needs to be done, and do it without being asked, you get to remove one chore from your next chore list!

And, speaking of chores... I'm still trying to purge and organize myself. I signed up to some challenge to post a pic, but can't find the post to save my life. I still did the challenge though...

Here's one of my kitchen cabinets before:

I hated this cabinet!!

And here's the after:

Sorry it's blurry...not enough light for my iphone camera.

So, what chores do your kids do?

Focus for the Week

2010-08-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

Real quick: How many loved ones are in your life? Mom, dad, kids, sisters, BFFs, brothers, grandparents, cousins, aunt & uncles? Got your number? Mine is around 30. Probably more, but that's just a quick count. Now, take your number and divide by 3. For me, that makes 10. That's how many people I love that might be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. One in Three. Staggering, isn't it?

That's my focus for the week:

Care more about others.

Right now, I'm focused on doing that through raising money to help fight cancer. I feel strongly pulled to do this, and I'm not sure why. I just can't help but picture one of my loved ones being one of the people who will be diagnosed with cancer. One in three of us will be diagnosed in our lifetimes. But we have the power to change that, and to help people already fighting right now. Will you help? You can click on that little purple A Proud Supporter of Relay for Life button up on the right to donate. Even as little as $10 could make a big difference. Or you can go here and buy some cool scrapbooking supplies (there are easy albums great for Christmas gifts!) and all profits (that's 30%) of your order placed through my page will go to the American Cancer Society too.

Care about them as much as you care about yourselves

Philippians 2:4 (Contemporary English Version)

#HelloMornings

2010-08-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

I love a pretty pink sunrise.

Every once in awhile, I get really motivated, get up really early. I usually make this rather long list of things to accomplish, but because I'm basically alone while everyone else is asleep (and no one else is up on FB or Twitter to distract me), I usually get almost all of my list checked off before the house comes alive. It's a wonderful feeling. I feel great all day.

My point in telling you all of this random information about me is a challenge I found through an online friend (one whom I really wish I were going to get to see IRL in October, but that's another story...). My friend Michelle is hosting a Maximize Your Mornings challenge through her blog. The idea is to get up a little earlier, get in some quiet time for meditation or prayer, get in a little exercise, and start your day off in a better way then just rolling out of bed at the last minute and scrambling to get started. This is a super easy challenge. Not wake up at 4:30 or anything crazy. Just: Step #1: Get out of bed. That's it for the first step. Five minutes earlier. That's all. Baby steps, easy goals, no burnout. I thought: "Piece of cake...I won't have any trouble with this. After all, I do it occassionally anyway."

Boy, was I wrong! I have seriously struggled these last two weeks to just get out of bed. I'm not sure if it's a mental thing, knowing that in 10 more days school starts and I'll have to be up EVERY day early, or if I've just never accepted how lazy I am. Either way, I really need this challenge! I don't do well at all if I get up when my boys do. I end up grumpy and irritated that I didn't get any 'me' time. I'm not glad to see them because I'm not glad to be out of bed yet. When I do manage to get in that 'me' time at the beginning of the day, it changes my whole attitude and outlook. I'm glad to see the boys when they wake up. I'm happy to have gotten some easy chores already out of my way. I'm looking forward to the rest of my day, because it's started out so peacefully.

Best/worst day of the challenge so far? The other morning, I had my plans laid out for morning time, had my yoga mat laid out, my journal open, my alarm set. I was 100% prepared to wake up and have a great morning. But, when that alarm went off, I was tired, grumpy, my asthma was bad, and my head hurt. "Forget it," I said to myself and rolled over. But that alarm also had a reminder note: "sign up for swim lessons". And I just couldn't let it go in my brain. There are only 4 spots! What if we don't get in? So, I dragged my aching head into the office and signed up for fall lessons. And then I tweeted something like "#HelloMornings: I'm up but going back to bed. #Cheating, I know." My brother replied back later that day: "I don't know what game you're playing, but if going back to bed is cheating, it has stupid rules." I laughed so hard at that! He was right, of course. Nothing wrong with going back to bed once in awhile, especially when you're not feeling well.

Now, thinking back to that reminder that dug it's way into my brain and wouldn't let go, I'm thinking maybe that's the answer. I'm going to try putting a little message to myself along with the alarm. "Go on, get up...you'll feel better when you do." Or maybe, "Don't miss the chance to start your day with a little peace and quiet."

If you're doing the challenge along with me, I hope you're enjoying it too. If you're not a morning person (I am definitely NOT), I highly suggest you give it a try. It's a amazing how good you can feel once you're up and going.

May you be blessed by quiet

and peaceful mornings!

Want to Help Me Pay it Forward?

2010-08-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

Did you know that ONE in THREE of us will be diagnosed with cancer in our lifetime?

Ever thought you might be able to fight cancer by scrapbooking? Well, now's your chance. My Relay for Life team has set up an online fundraiser to raise money to fight against cancer. This online event is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. All profits, that's 30% of retail, from online sales (using the link below) through August 30th will be donated to the American Cancer Society through our Relay for Life team.   If you decide to order, please put Relay for the host name where it says "Credit Order to my Host". The double host credits will be used to purchase items for the silent auction, also to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.
We appreciate any help you might feel led to give!

Shop here to help fight cancer: www.mycmsite.com/michelleacker

DATE:     Through August 30th, 2010
TIME:    Anytime!
HOST:    RELAY FOR_LIFE
PLACE: A WORLD WITH MORE BIRTHDAYS
Shop Here To Fight Cancer: www.mycmsite.com/michelleacker
Now through August 30th

Stock up to scrapbook your summer vacations, work on existing albums, or start something new. Christmas is just around the corner...Check out the picfolio line for easy photo album gifts!

Thanks,
Shell

The Summer Done List

2010-08-09T13:17:00.000-07:00

Summer Fun- Living Room CampOut

I don't know about where you are, but here in Texas, we're down to the last two weeks before school starts. This time of summer always makes me a little sad, not that I'm not counting the days, because I AM! I'm sad because it's the end of our free schedule, let's-just-have-fun-together time. I'll miss my boys when they're gone at school.

When May rolls around and school is about done, we're always excited about the huge time in front of us, and all the stuff on our "Let's do THIS" summer list. Last year, our list was oh-so-long, but by the end of summer, we'd seemingly not done very many of the things on it. We had a great summer. But I felt disappointed in not doing all the fun things we'd thought of to do. Mostly because we had forgotten what we had done.

This year, I decided to look at it differently. I decided to keep track of all the things we'd done, instead of what we 'could have' done. I'm calling it our "Summer Done" List. It's growing pretty long. It's packed with fun memories, and all the fun things we've done together. We're savoring these last two weeks, trying to pack as many more things onto our list as we can before we have to officially close it when school starts. And that little shift in perspective has made all the difference. Honestly? This summer wasn't better than last year's summer. But the fact that we have a list of memories to go back and reflect on, that makes it seem like a more of a jam-packed-fun-filled summer. It's a list of positives instead of a list of a list of what we didn't get to do. And I'm not nearly as sad this time around, because I know we thoroughly enjoyed our whole summer!

How about you? What would be on your Summer Done List?

Or do you have another creative way of counting your blessings?

Focus for the Week

2010-08-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wish there was just someone to tell you, "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for"?

There is. And He also says, "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed."

My focus for this week? God's plans...not my own.

I took the above verses from The Message. You might have heard it or be more familiar with it like this:

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.

“They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

12 In those days when you pray, I will listen.

13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

~Jeremiah 29:11-13 (New Living Translation)

May you have a blessed week!

Well, Golly & Gosh, Maybe it's True...

2010-08-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

"If you think you can do it, or you think you can’t do it, you are right.”
– Henry Ford

I stumbled across this quote yesterday, and it made me realize that deep down, I've had the thought that this little blog couldn't or wouldn't really make any difference for anyone but me. My purpose for writing was to help myself embrace life and find balance, and if it helps someone else along the way, then wonderful, I thought. But deep, deep down, my heart was also thinking, "BUT IT WON'T. It's just not gonna touch anyone else. You're not important enough, or....[insert whatever negative thing comes to mind here]".

But now I've been loved ambushed. And my heart has changed from thinking "This won't matter to anyone" into... "Maybe something I post here will be just exactly what someone else needs to hear."

So, here's to ~~hoping~~ praying that this practice of mine will bless others in any small number of ways. I'll be putting "feet to my faith" and trying to be a blessing more often. I hope you'll come back and visit soon!

Have a very BLESSED weekend.

-Shell

The Day I Got Ambushed

2010-08-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. I am both at a loss for words, and have so many thoughts racing through my mind that I'm not sure where to start. So, I guess I'll start at the beginning.

Yesterday, I got ambushed, and it was truly one of the best days of my life. Seriously. Right up there with getting married and having my boys.

I got up, had coffee, checked email, got the boys ready, typical morning stuff. We headed out to drop my youngest off at his summer camp, and then headed home to do a few chores. One of my chores being some work paperwork, which means getting on the computer, and being my gmail-facebook-twitter-addicted self, I had to check my email again first. I opened it up, and there were FOUR comments on my blog. From three people I don't know. It was like Christmas in August! Completely unexpected, completely out of left field. Beautiful comments. Seriously, I cried. I'm crying right now too, btw! ;)

'Wow, that's so wonderful! Someone must have sent them my way, I've got figure out who to thank!'

I went on with the morning chores, ended up at my neighbor, SomeGirl's house, (our boys are buddies) and asked if she'd sent these kind comment makers my way? No. Not her. Hmmm.... Strange, but still wonderful. My whole entire day had been brightened, and now it was obvious that it wasn't someone I knew in 'real' life. Even more amazing and AWE-inspring. I was starting to feel a little of that 'God's got His hand in this' feeling...

Went on with my morning, taking my oldest out for our shopping date. My addiction to gmail made me stop on the way into the mall and check to see if my other friend had replied back yet about our plans that night. Yep! But right below her email was another.... "Your post has a comment" email. Actually, a couple of them. What? MORE comment love? Is it 2012? Is the world ending, because this little ole blog of mine usually gets comments from my 3 IRL friends/family followers. Six comments in a few hours? I felt like I was being punk'd...but in the really best, nicest way possible. And yes, I cried again. WHERE are these coming from? I've got to find out who to thank.

Well, it just kept happening. I'd check email and there would be a new comment. Or two new comments. I was truly blown away by the love and kindness that was pouring out of the internet to me, from people I'd never met. I don't think I can recall any other time when I just felt surrounded by so much love and positive energy all day long. The first comments were enough to make my whole day. The fact that I kept getting comments throughout the day, and even into this morning, just makes me speechless. There is definitely a BLESSING happening to me here. And it's beyond words. It's as if God is telling me, through these wonderful people, 'Okay...you've headed in the right direction. Keep it up!'

There have been two other times in my life when I have completely felt the presence of God. Not like, "Yeah, He is with me" but like I was surrounded by Him, and by His love. He might not have been visible, but He was THERE. They were incredible experiences. And now, this LOVE AMBUSH is another. I felt so loved all day long. And every time I would think that was wonderful enough, and not expect more, there was more love. It was like being surrounded by love all day, no matter which way I turned. Truly incredible. And I will never, ever forget it.

To each of you who left me a love ambush comment, and to my 'regular' comment makers too:

THANK YOU.

You have blessed me beyond words.

From the very deepest part of my heart, Thank You!

To the ladies at Gather Inspirit who set up this little love ambush:

Thank you.

You have no idea how blessed I am by you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

My hope for all of you sweet readers:

May you embrace life,

Find yourself surrounded by blessings,

And look for ways

to be a blessing to others.

Focus For the Week

2010-08-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Ecclesiastes 11:4 NLT

Being Sneaky...In a Good Way!

2010-07-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

So, I did something really, really sneaky this week. I heard something. I thought "I could help with that". I decided I would help with that. But I just wanted to do it, not explain it, or take credit for it. So I decided to do it anonymously. I told no one, just did it. I'm hopeful that I will see the a tiny glimpse of the hopefully positive impact this thing had. But if not, I know it was good enough, and that makes me happy. Period.

But today, another result of this thing, completely unexpected, snuck up on me and smacked me in the face with happiness. Truthfully, I had even forgotten I did this thing. Then, someone indirectly related to this, (I asked person X to do thing Y for person Z, and made it possible.....can you follow that?), person X, found out what I did. Not that it was me, but just what I did. And this person was blown away. I just happened to be there to see the reaction of this person to my little random act of kindness. My intentions were to spread happiness to person Z. I had no idea that the goodness would also touch person X, and T, U, & V. How cool!? And I'm not mentioning this here to toot my own horn. Really, it was a small thing I did. I hadn't planned on saying a word, but now that I see how many other people it touched too, it is so exciting! You've just got to try this for yourself! And I think being anonymous it the best part.

Pay it forward, people! It's so fun!

What's your quirk?

2010-07-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

An awesome friend and I had lunch together yesterday while out shopping, and we were talking about all the different quirks people have. Talking about how "normal" we are. No, that sounds bad. Really, we were wondering out loud what other people must see as our little quirks. You know, like some people just can't make up their minds, ever. Or someone else who has an easy time making up their mind, but has trouble seeing anything from another point of view. Those kinds of things. It's kind of hard to pick out what your own quirk is, because it is just so much a part of who you are.

Well, I figured mine out today. (Or at least one of mine!) And it might not be so much of a quirk that other people see, because I'm pretty darn aggressive about hiding it.

But, I'm trying to

Embrace Life,

and that means

overcoming

this quirk, which means I need to

quit hiding

it and

get over it!

So.... here goes. I let things paralyze me with fear. It might start out little, something I just don't want to do. Then I start to dread doing it. Then I let it pile up so long that I'm embarrassed I haven't done it. Then I start avoiding it. Then I pretend it doesn't exist for awhile. Then the denial bubble pops and I have this huge stress attack over it. To the point where I am completely paralyzed by fear and embarrassment when I could have, should have just sucked it up a long, long time ago and avoided all the secret stress and shame that I've been hiding for years. Yes, years. I can't believe I just said that in writing.

Okay, so there are two things I have let do this in my life. And I've promised myself to stop that. I've been praying (for awhile now) for some strength and courage to face these quirks of mine. These enemies of peace and balance. One of the things I've been slowly working on, but I've been letting factors, outside my control, kind of let me slide back into that denial and procrastination bubble. I'm going to be more aggressive about knocking out this quirk of mine. It's not something internet appropriate, but I will say that it's somewhat "work related".

The other thing, is a personal thing, and I'm just too ashamed to tell you what it is, or how long I've let it slide. BUT, I took the first of many steps today to knock this one out too. I found out some info, admitted my issue, and scheduled a time to get it handled. Wahoo! Actually, I thought I would feel better already, just getting that scheduled time on my calendar, but I'm still feeling pretty paralyzed. I'm guessing that the stress has built up over time enough that it's going to take awhile to fall away also. But I'm working on it.

So, am I alone in this crazy quirk of mine? Have you ever/do you now... let anything paralyze you into fear and inaction? If so, I'd love to know I have some company! Give me a shout in the comments (you don't have to let me know the details...) and let me know if you're fighting the same battles I am. I'd love to support and encourage you.

May you have a blessed

and Fear Free day!

Letting Them Know

2010-07-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

I found this HERE and wanted to share. Yes, it's one of those emails that goes around, but it's a good one. It's a wonderful way to EMBRACE life and bless others:

I’m not sure if the story is true, but either way – it has meaning… Many people do care about you just as you care about them. Maybe it’s time to let them know…

Here’s the story:

One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. ‘Really?’ she heard whispered. ‘I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!’ and, ‘I didn’t know others liked me so much,’ were most of the comments. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn’t matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. ‘Were you Mark’s math teacher?’ he asked. She nodded: ‘yes.’ Then he said: ‘Mark talked about you a lot.’

After the funeral, most of Mark’s former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark’s mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher. ‘We want to show you something,’ his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket ‘They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.’ Opening the bill fold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times.. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark’s classmates had said about him. ‘Thank you so much for doing that,’ Mark’s mother said. ‘As you can see, Mark treasured it.’

All of Mark’s former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, ‘I still have my list. It’s in the top drawer of my desk at home.’

Chuck’s wife said, ‘Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.’

‘I have mine too,’ Marilyn said. ‘It’s in my diary’

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. ‘I carry this with me at all times,’ Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: ‘I think we all saved our lists’

That’s when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don’t know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.

Have you taken the time lately to let people know the nice things you think about them? Commented on a blog lately that inspires you? Thanked the store clerk for being so helpful? Told your pastor how much you enjoyed the sermon this week?

Here's a challenge for you.

When you find yourself thinking something nice about someone, LET THEM KNOW! In person, in an email, a letter, or even a blog comment or tweet. Pass the nice-ness around, and watch it come back to you...

Embracing Life...Cherish Even THIS Moment

2010-07-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, my friend, SomeGirl, posted about the purpose of her blog. She has a very clear vision and purpose, and it fits wonderfully with her blog. (That's the point of having a purpose statement, right?) She made me think about this blog of mine, (she's always making me think, and I love her for it...) and the only thing I could think of in my purpose for it is that it's for me ~~to whine~~ to think about how I'm trying to balance things in my life so that the important things keep from getting neglected. I don't want it to be all about me. I want it to have a larger purpose, and I hope that something from it helps someone else out somewhere along the way. But I've been at a loss as to figuring out just how to do that.

Until this weekend, that is. Several things all happened that helped me realize what I really want this blog to focus on. (And I started to write out all the details, but it was just going to be waaaayyyy to long for you to read, assuming anyone is reading, right? So, I'll just skip to the point. If you really care to know the details, I'll be happy to share them, just ask.)

I want this to be about EMBRACING LIFE. Cherishing each and every moment, no matter how big or small, awesome or awful. Yes, even THIS moment, when my kids are screaming at each other, and making an awful mess, and getting-on-my-very-last-nerve. THAT moment is as important as all the good ones. Because it's the not-so-great moments that show us the true beauty and miracles of the great moments.

Life can end, or change radically, in an instant...

for me, for you, or for someone we love.

Life is a gift.

Don't waste it.

There is ONE Thing I Do Really Well

2010-06-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

I can finally say that there is ONE thing I do really well. It's not often that I say something like that to myself, but I am truly good at this one thing. I don't feel deep down that there is a way I need to change how I do this one thing. I don't feel like I'm just pretending to be good at it. I've always felt I did pretty well at it, but this week I tested myself, and now I can say: I've got this one down!

What is it?

NOT over-scheduling my kids.

Underwhelmed? No big deal, you might say. Well, to me, to us, it is a very big deal. We live in a time and a place where moms are toting kids from school to soccer to dance and then running to take another child to tae-kwon-do before going back to another soccer game. Whew! I'm out of breath just writing that! (Now, if that describes your life, let me just say, I AM NOT judging you. If that works for you and your kids that's wonderful.) It doesn't work for us. That kind of a day makes me want to cringe and hide under the covers just thinking about it.

Quite by accident, I tested myself on this skill this past week. By a calendar mixup (my fault!), I somehow scheduled THREE activities for my kids every day this week. VBS 8:45-noon. Kids Yoga Camp 2-4, and Swimming Lessons from 4:30-5:10. Wowsers. That is insane! When I realized my mistake, I almost backed out of the yoga camp. But my oldest was looking forward to it more than anything, and I just couldn't crush him by making him miss it (it's not offered again until late July). So, I decided we could do it for just this one week. It's the only week all summer that will be this crazy, we'll get through it. By Monday at 3pm, I was already looking forward to Friday.

Things I learned from this over-scheduled week:
*It's exhausting to always be hurrying to get ready for x...or y.... or z...
*There's no time for spontaneous fun like heading to the neighbors (to check out their tadpoles that have started growing legs already!)
*It's way too easy to cave in to requests for fast food, because everyone is exhausted. (I am horrified at how much we ate this week.)
*One activity is enough. We missed getting to go swim just for fun, or riding bikes outside.
* It really doesn't feel like summer when your kids are so exhausted you have to make them go to bed at 6:20 just to make it through the next day.
*You need room for flexibility in your days! Scheduling every minute might be productive, but it's more stressful than it's worth.

Today, after a week of crazy activities, we are taking back our flexibility. Both my guys woke up today begging to just be able to stay home. Please? If that isn't a sign that we were doing too much, I don't know what would be. So, we stayed home. No VBS. Instead, they are snuggled up together on the couch playing a game, happy as clams. No stress. No hurry up and eat, so we can hurry up and get in the car, so we can hurry up and....

How do you schedule your kids? Are you like me, and like to do a few things here and there, but leave most of your time unscheduled? Or, do you enjoy having lots of things already planned into your days? Whatever your style might be, if it makes you and your kids happy, do it. If it doesn't....well, figure out a way to do things so you are!

I am thankful for the blessings

of a week of entirely UNSCHEDULED days

coming up next week!

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I ~~need~~ needed to change in my life, like so many other people, is was my lack of exercise. I've started working out regularly for the last two months, so I feel like I'm making good progress in that department. But, it's not something that's ever going to go away. I'm going to have to keep doing the exercise, keep making healthy food choices, and keep choosing to be healthy over junky and lazy. That used to sound like some kind of terrible prison sentence. But, the more I practice it, all of it, the easier it gets. And the more I choose the right path, the more that becomes what I truly want. The junky stuff is slowly becoming the stuff that I'd rather not eat. Huh. I would have never thought that would happen.

I grew up skinny, thin-like-a-pencil, and ate whatever I wanted. I was a sugar maniac. I remember as a teen, some friends of my parents came to visit, and were just amazed at how much junk food I could eat, and 1) not get sick and 2) be so darn skinny. I just laughed. Now, almost 25 years later, things are different, and I totally see what they meant!   I ate terribly, because it didn't matter.

Now, it does matter. It's taking a lot of practice to change those habits. Practice, practice, and more practice. That's all it takes. Practice Makes Progress. Not perfection, but progress. Sometimes it's hard to see how much progress you're really making. It helps to look back, to write down where you started, to look forward to a goal you've set for yourself.   For me, I set a goal to do that crazy infomercial workout, P90X with my husband. 90 days. Insane workouts. My goal was to just get through it, the best that I could. I'm about 1/2 way through with it now, and I'm noticeably stronger.

Three weeks ago, one of the workouts was this crazy shoulder, chest & triceps workout. Push ups. 90million push ups. Regular ones, wide ones, one armed ones, ones where you jump up and clap in the middle. Did I mention I can't --I mean CAN NOT do push ups? I don't mean I can only do a few, I can't do any. So this workout was so frustrating. I tried. But if you can't do a regular push up, you can't do a one armed push up, now can you?   I stuck with it. I tried. I practiced. I failed. But I didn't give up. Practiced some more the next week, and the week after that. Then, yesterday, at my new challenging yoga class (I call it 'Killer Yoga'....it's brutal but fun.) PROGRESS! I did a full push-up. A full-on guy-style toes on the floor, legs straight with knees not on the floor, butt not sticking up in the air, correct form push up! The funny part was, I didn't intentionally try for it... It just kind of happened, and I was stunned! It might have been 'only one' push-up, but it was HUGE progress. Progress isn't always easy to see. It really likes to quietly sneak up on you, but only if you keep practicing when you can't see it yet.

That same idea carries over to other areas of life. Other things that need practicing. There are other ways I want to see progress, but don't yet. Catching up and keeping up with paperwork. Cleaning and organizing. Spending time in prayer and meditation. Practice. It's all about the practice. Keep practicing. Keep trying. Little by little those things will add up until suddenly the progress will be visible.

How about you? Is there an area where you are practicing something? Waiting to see some progress? Don't give up. It will happen if you keep working for it!

Set a goal.

Practice.

Practice again.

Practice a little more.

Keep practicing.

Celebrate each little bit of progress as it sneaks up on you.

Keep practicing.

Keep celebrating.

That goal will become reality.

May you be blessed by both the practice and progress!

Summer Plans

2010-06-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

"What are your summer plans?" It seems like I've been asked this daily for the last month. We really aren't doing anything ~~special~~ out-of-the-ordinary. Hanging out, swimming, VBS, enjoying each other. Seems like nothing special, right? But it is special. It's oh-so-special. It's time. Time to enjoy each other, and count our blessings.

I ran across this poem while cleaning out my "I'm-going-to-end-up-on-that-Hoarders-TV-show" office this morning. I think I'm going to make it my summer mantra. Thank you, Lord, for my two wiggly, sticky, bug-loving blessings.

A Mom's Prayer

Dear Lord, It's such a hectic day,

With little time to stop and pray,

For life's been anything but calm,

Since You called me to be a Mom.

Running errands, matching socks,

Building dreams with matching blocks,

Cooking, cleaning, finding shoes,

And other stuff that children lose,

Fitting lids on bottled bugs,

Wiping tears and giving hugs,

A stack of last week's mail to read,

So where's the quiet time I need?

Yet, when I steal a moment, Lord,

Just at the sink or ironing board,

To ask the blessings of Your grace,

I see them, in my small one's face,

That You have blessed me

All the while~~

And I stoop to kiss

That precious smile.

~Author Unknown~

May you be blessed this summer.

Happy & Excited Fights Sad & Sentimental

2010-06-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of school. Hooray! I, as much as my oldest, having been counting down to this day for a month at least! No schedules. No homework. No getting up early. No stopping in the middle of the afternoon for school pickups. Just summer freedom and time together! Bliss.

So, you can imagine my surprise when the tears started as I dropped him off for his last day today. At 3:00, my baby will be a THIRD GRADER!!! Oh my. How did that happen? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was fighting with him to give up his binky? Or helping him get dressed? Rocking him to sleep every night in my arms?

I thank GOD that my baby is still a snuggler. That he still loves his mama and wants me there when he goes to sleep at night. I am thankful that he's growing up to be a good, smart, kid. I love that he's excited to do things with me, to show me things. To share his world with me. But I know that ALL TOO SOON, that time will end, for awhile at least. He'll be a teenager, too cool for mom who has suddenly become a huge embarrassment and who (in his mind) doesn't know or understand anything. I am dreading that time. It will break my heart. But my time bonding, teaching, and loving him now will carry me through (with a lot of prayer and help from God, I'm sure!). And I know that we will come through it, and on the other side be close once more. And someday, hopefully, I'll hear the words, "Mom, you were right. I'm sorry for thinking you were such...." Which reminds me, I need to go apologize and thank my parents again for putting up with my teenage years!

So, today, I'm sad and sentimental. But I'm even more happy and excited that I get the chance to spend the summer with my guy, bonding, playing, loving, and growing together. I'm not going to let a single moment pass by... This is a summer to treasure!

May you be blessed with appreciation

of all you've been given.

Hold on to it.

Treasure it.

Don't let it slip away.

How To Feel Defeated

2010-06-02T19:18:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you're just rolling along, having a normal, happy day, when suddenly WHAM! Something slaps ya down and leaves ya feeling completely defeated? Hopeless. Crushed. Beat down. Does that ever happen to you? No? Well, let me give you some quick and easy tips on how to let yourself feel defeated. It's easy. (Warning, don't try all of these at once! Maybe just one or two at a time... Or, ~~maybe~~ hopefully, none at all! )

How to Feel Defeated:

#1 Don't get enough sleep. Make sure that you are always just dragging along, barely making it through your day. This makes it really easy for that feeling of defeat to just sneak up on you and knock you down. Any little set back will do it.

#2 Don't manage your stress. Sweep things that bother you under the rug and pretend you're not worrying about them. Ignore them and let them all pile up on you as long as possible.

#3 Never EVER ask for help. Don't ever let anyone know that something is bothering you. They might do something wacky and awesome like help you out, or cheer you up, or my favorite.... PRAY for you!

#4 Keep as much chaos in your life as possible. Keep a pile of clutter on the table (or counter top) at all times. Make sure you never have enough laundry clean or put away. Randomly put your car keys, glasses, or cell phone down in different places, so that you always struggle to find them. Never, ever, ever file your important papers in any kind of organized fashion.

#5 Spend every waking minute taking care of someone other than yourself. Put your children, husband, family, friends, neighbors, dog, postal carrier and bank teller first. If you have time to take care of yourself, you obviously haven't worked hard enough to find someone else who needs your help more!

#6 Keep people at a distance, and avoid keeping a close circle of friends at all costs. Friends will lift you up, not help you to feel defeated. Keep as far away as you can from anything that even resembles a friendship.

#7 Talk negatively to yourself in your head all day long. Tell yourself how horrible you look in that bathing suit. Remind yourself what a stupid mistake that was that you made yesterday (or last week). Talk to yourself even worse more harshly than you would talk to your worst enemy.

Okay, as I said in the little warning above, doing none of these things would be best! Obviously, I don't want you to do any of these awful things to yourself. This is my tongue in cheek reminder to myself to not let that moment of feeling defeated take over. I had one of those today, you know. I know, you're shocked. You'd never have guessed, right? It was related to a certain four year old that I'm madly in love with, but who is having certain issues that fall in the TMI category. So, after, another blankety blank blank ~~accident~~ incident, I just felt completely defeated. And I tweeted it. (The feeling defeated, not the TMI...) Within moments, my super awesome, can't wait to meet her in real life, twitter friend tweeted this back to me:

Fear not!

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's going to get better.

#prayingforyou

JamieAnne, you have no idea how much better that tweet made me feel! It made me cry. (I'm tearing up now writing about it.) How wonderful is it that we can make friends and support each other, across time and space, without having ever met? Pretty neat, I think. Thank you!

Just one more note, and then I'll be done, I promise. About #7, talking badly to yourself? I read this post earlier today, "You Are Much More Than Your Bathing Suit". Appropriately, it was right before I headed out to the pool for the first time this season. Let me tell you, this lady has the right idea, the right attitude. There is always a positive way to look at something. It sometimes takes awhile to figure out what that might be, but it's there. Look for it. Search for it.

Don't give up until you figure out what the positive is, and use it to crush the negatives into submission.

Balance Defined

2010-05-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for balance for a good long while now. Some days are better than others, of course, but I'm always trying to get closer to finding that balance. Other people are looking for balance too. I've even seen some posts on Twitter and other blogs about seeking "anti-balance". That stopped me in my tracks. Why on earth, I wondered, would a person want to live an anti-balanced life?

Well, if you know me, you know that just made me defensive about my search for balance, so I went to check more into it. What I found was very thought provoking. It made me realize that not everyone defines balance in the same way. Huh. Never occurred to me that there could be more than one way to view the idea of finding balance in your life. It made me think more about what exactly I mean when I say I'm on a quest for balance.

For me, balance is not equal time for every aspect of my life. It's absolutely not possible. But what I am seeking, is to combine all the little things and big things together, so that at the end of the day everything is in harmony, everything is balanced.

The picture I have in my head is of a great teeter-totter. On one side is the person that I believe God wants me to be, and on the other side are all the little things and big things in my life, added together, trying to achieve balance. Not enough of something let's that side go up and let's God down. Too much of something else weighs that side down, weighs me down, so that all the blessings God is giving me can't be fully enjoyed. It's not a quest for equality in all areas, but more like a grand recipe of time & effort that ultimately seeks to equal out and balance with what my life is intended to be. Five minutes of quick kitchen clean up added to half an hour of bedtime stories and snuggling. Throw in an hour or two of paperwork, a little menu planning and prepping/cooking dinner, some time to workout and take care of my body, time spent with my husband. All of those things are interconnected, and touched by one another. In seeking balance, I am seeking to find a way to mesh them all together to the best result, so that no one thing is getting neglected, and everything is getting not equal time, but the time that it needs and deserves.

Just as all things do not need or deserve equal time, not all days are the same. Some days the mom part of the equation needs to take the largest share of my time, and the paperwork and cleaning have to wait. Other days, I'm not needed so much as a mom, and I can give the housework and job the attention they need. Each day is interconnected with the next... trying to achieve overall balance and live the life God intends me to.

How about you? How do you look for or define balance in your life?

May you have a blessed, balanced, and thoughtful day!

If you're curious about the anti-balance thing, do a twitter search for the hashtag #antibalance. And, by the way, I think we're aiming for the same results, but just looking at it differently.

In Memory

2010-05-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

To My Dear, Dear Friend,

I wish today could just be a happy day to celebrate my little one's 4th birthday.
I wish it wasn't also the day we lost you eleven years ago.
I wish my heart didn't break at the memory of seeing the grief on R's face.
I wish your beautiful daughter had you to hug and to hold, her necklace with your picture is a poor substitute.
I wish your son had been given the chance to get to know and remember you.
I wish you had been here to go to my wedding, and become my sister-in-love.
I wish it were all a bad dream.
I wish I couldn't remember the song that was playing on the radio as I drove home to find out what had gone horribly wrong.
I wish your mama's heart wasn't forever broken.

I hope, up in heaven, you know how much you are still loved and remembered.
I hope you can see how much fun our boys (they're cousins, isn't that awesome?!!) have together.
I hope you smile, and your heart melts like mine does, when you see how they've become best friends too.
I hope you're proud of the beautiful, kind daughter you have. She rocks.
I hope you know that I hate not having you here to celebrate milestones ahead of me!
I hope you can see how awesome your kids are, and how well they are doing.
I hope you know how thankful I am that you introduced me to my hubby.
I hope you know that you are deeply missed.
I hope you are at peace.

I wish you were here.

All my love,
Shell

The Really Bad, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2010-05-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, well I really wanted to title this
The Really Bad, Horrible, ~~No Good~~, Almost No Good, Very Bad Day
but I couldn't do the strike through text, so....whatever.

I had another great weekend, but haven't been motivated to blog. I've been enjoying life too much, which is good. I've been thinking who cares about the blog anyway, whatever. But things were really great, besides that, and then three nights in a row of very little sleep (for various un-fun reasons) caught up with me yesterday and I crashed hard. Headache bad enough to make me want to cry all day, asthma making it very hard to catch my breath, and I just couldn't deal.

It wasn't a fun day. But one bright sunny spot, was a blog I read by a new friend, someone I've yet to meet for real, but she's great. She did a post of lists of ten, and on her ten websites/blogs I visit list, she had this blog listed. That really made my day. And made me want to write something, and pull myself out of the funk I was in, blog-writing wise. Thanks, JamieAnn!

Now, my day still stunk, but at least my head was in the right place a little bit! So, as the afternoon hour approached where I needed to go pick my oldest up from school, I searched for a way to stay a little balanced in spite of how badly I felt physically. I could either:

A) take the boys home, turn them loose with a snack and go lay down (AKA letting them destroy the house while I wasn't looking)
-OR-
B) take them home and try to get them to do chores and homework (AKA ending up yelling at them to do what I've asked for the 9th time while they fight with each other about why it's not done)
-OR-
C) Keep them out of the house, and entertained until dinner.

Now, I have to be honest, choice A was by far my first choice, but seeing that I had worked ALL DAY Sunday to get the house picked up and a little bit clean, I just couldn't bring myself to let it get destroyed so soon. Choice B wasn't really even an option, because my head hurt so much. I needed to find a way to make choice C work. I needed to sit quietly somewhere while also keeping them entertained and out of the house until dinner. Hmmm... how do you do that? The park? Too bright (and it was getting ready to storm). Indoor playarea? Too LOUD. Ah-HA! We'll go to a matinee.

We went to see the 4:20 showing of Furry Vengeance. Perfect timing. Enough time to get our stuff from Target and head to the theater. We got there just before the storm hit too, and although we almost got blown away trying to buy tickets, we made it in without getting soaked.

It was a brilliant choice. While I fully expected it to be a horrible movie, the boys loved it. Apparently, it was "slap-yourself-in-the-face-with-both-hands-funny" according to my three year old, because that's what he did at the funniest part. My oldest loved it too, and you'd have thought he had already seen it from the way he could say what was going to happen next (from watching all the good parts on the previews, I think). I have to admit, it was pretty bad, but I also laughed out loud more than once. It was so bad it was funny, I guess. But worth every penny for being able to sit still in a mostly dark room for 90 minutes with two boys who didn't argue or make any messes! And, when we got out the storm had passed, and we literally walked in the house 5 minutes before daddy, just in time for dinner. Total Success.

It's called making the best of a bad situation, I guess. Finding a little balance. Making lemonade when life gives you lemons....

Whatever you want to call it,

I hope you find a little of it next time you're having

a rough day too.

Food for Thought

2010-04-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

Happiness comes with the achievement of little goals. With little tiny steps that you take every single day, you'll have a little accomplishment that will teach you a different reality. I'm telling you right now, that you have everything that it takes to achieve anything that you want. And it will not be easy, but it will be WORTH IT.

-Jillian Michaels

Weakness Wednesday

2010-04-28T06:59:00.000-07:00

People do these wordless Wednesday posts, but even that is too much for me today. So, here are my weaknesses today, and reasons for not blogging yet about my awesome weekend...

Overwhelmed.

Unbalanced.

Messy House.

SORE body.

Better posts soon, I promise!

10th Annual Run to Remember

2010-04-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning, I'm doing the 10th Anniversary Run to Remember, aka the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. I'm just doing the 5K, because I was finally balanced enough to not bite off more than I could chew. And I'm glad. If I had signed up to walk the half marathon (13.1 miles!!!!!) with my friends, like I wanted to, I'd be really kicking myself now!

I have a ton of things to write about, but it's 10:00, and we have to get up at 4am, so it will all have to wait. But I have kick-ass girlfriends up here in Oklahoma, and even though I've been gone for three years, it's just like it used to be. Everyone took the time to come out and see me, and I'm so glad to have been able to say hi and chat and relax with them. My OK girls rock!

I'll talk lots of pics and probably tweet a little once I'm done with my short course and waiting for them to finish their 13.1. It's a very moving experience. It defines the word awe to be down there and part of it. I'll share it with you later.

Shell

May Today...

2010-04-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

I got this in one of those make-you-feel-guilty-if-you-don't-forward-it email chain letters. I hate forwarding those on, but I loved the message in it, so I decided to share it with YOU.

May today there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones.

Allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

May you have a blessed and balanced day!

Wear Your Pj's To Work Day!

2010-04-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Today is National Wear Your PJs to Work Day! How cool is that? Now, I kind of feel like I'm cheating, since I work at home, but I'm still going to wear my Pjs all day! Why should my kids get to be the only ones to wear their pjs to school once a year?

Okay, in all seriousness, I'm wearing my PJs today, not just because I want to, but for a really good cause. The Pajama Program donates pjs and books to children in need who might never get tucked in with a bedtime story. Never know the security of having their own pjs and mom or dad to read a story to them every night before bed. Bedtime/storytime is one of my favorite parts of my day. No matter how much my boys are making me crazy, or how bad I feel, I always love snuggling with them and reading a story together. It breaks my heart that some children never know that gift.

So, while my introverted self cringes, I'm going to go Starbucks for coffee, and when they say "How are you?" I'm going to say, "I'm great! It's national wear your pjs to work day, and I'm supporting the Pajama Program!" I have little slips with the Pajama Program logo and website on them to hand out. I'm taking my son to school (the one where you have to go in with him...) in my Pjs. I'm going to yoga...in my pjs. Maybe I'll be really brave and go inside the bank to make a deposit! Why does that seem worse than going to starbucks? Oh, and my boys and I are donating the money we made at the jbf sale to buy pjs for this great cause. We were able to order 14 sets of Pjs for Pajama Program boys and girls. Now that's a sweet dream!

Would you like to donate?

Go HERE for ways to help Pajama Program directly

(including online donations.)

PajamaProgram.Org

Yin Yoga... Oh Yeah!

2010-04-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

I tried a new yoga class at Divine this morning, Yin Yoga. I had misread the schedule for the last two months and thought this was the same as the Yang-Yin class I had tried awhile back. Oh, no! This class was awesome. All stretchy and relax-y and feel-good-y. (Yeah, I know those aren't words, but work with me!)

We really need rain. It's dry, and there is pollen everywhere that needs to be washed away. So, the teacher said she had put together some music from different Native American nations praying for rain. It was kind of cool to listen to the music, with the sounds of rain and thunder in the background, and stretch and relax. Actually, it was perfect. (Well, except for when I couldn't get rid of the thought that the rain sounded more like bacon sizzling in a pan...But that didn't last TOO long...)

The yoga definitely helps my asthma. It makes the aching go away, and hopefully, it will keep making it better. I felt a lot better today than I have all week. Day 8 (Tuesday) I did 30 minutes at home in between other stuff, and although I was feeling really bad, it totally helped me get through the day. Day 9 I skipped, again. Can't really say why, other than laziness and feeling bad, which aren't real reasons. I just didn't try enough to get it done. Today was day 10 of the 40 days, and I'm so glad I spent that hour at the yoga studio this morning!

Ooops...gotta go... my boys just ripped the soap dish off the tile bathtub wall.....Gotta go balance that! ;)

Putting Feet To Our Faith

2010-04-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

Children, you show love for others by truly helping them, and not merely by talking about it.

1 John 3:18 (Contemporary English Version)

Last week, my wonderful friend, SomeGirl, took part in TOMS One Day Without Shoes campaign. They spent the day barefoot, donated shoes to Soles4Souls, and prayed for people around the world who have no shoes. If you're ever looking for encouragement, or happy, positive posts to read, stop by SomeGirlsWebsite and check it out. It's about love and good deeds. The world needs more of that love to counteract the stuff we see on the news all the time. SomeGirl is encouraging us to do good deeds, Love One Another, and put feet to our faith. Not just have faith and believe. But do something good with it.

My way of putting feet to my faith started last December. Leading up to Christmas, my church took part in the Advent Conspiracy. (Advent is the season of waiting, leading up to Christmas, just in case you were wondering...) AC is about giving presence, not presents. It's about giving something that matters, instead of so many material things. (Don't get me wrong, we still do presents too). To do the Advent Conspiracy is to:

Worship Fully.

Spend LESS.

GIVE more.

Love ALL.

We saved money, collected coins, and at the end, donated what we had collected to build clean water wells for villages in Africa. Our church donated to Marion Medical Mission, whose effort is aimed at preventing medical problems through providing clean drinking water. They have a program where they help villages build shallow wells that are sealed against surface pollution. It only takes about $350 to build a well for 100-300 people. That's not even a dollar a day. How many of us spend more than that just at a drive-thru, or on junk food, or candy, or some other not-necessary-for-survival treat?

I was really sad at the end of the Advent Conspiracy that I didn't have much to give. No where nearly enough to donate a full well. Because I had bargain shopped for Christmas presents in January, most of the shopping was already done. But I gave what we could, and kept thinking about it. By the time January 1st had rolled around, I had hatched an uber-complicated plan. We would keep doing AC all year! Thankful for the clean water I had to drink from my tap, my fridge, and in bottles, I decided to donate a dollar to my AC fund for every lazy bottled water I drank. Ashamed by how often we drove lazily thru a drive-thru, while others walked miles a day, just to find clean water, I decided to tax myself five dollars for every drive thru visit. I had this grand plan about saving money for a good cause, losing weight at the same time, becoming more aware of my actions. I even pictured myself proudly telling everyone next Christmas what a great job I'd done with this all year AC plan. Well, I never had dollar bills to put into the collection box I'd designated for this plan. I had to start adding them up in my head, and then plan to go to the ATM to get cash out to put in the box. Never happened. Way too complicated. I finally decided that I WAS THE ONE putting all these stupid, complicated rules in place. I COULD CHANGE and simplify the plan! Duh.

Now, I no longer have plans to show off and brag about my success at the end of the year. That's not the point of all this, and I'm glad I realized that. I'm still dedicated to saving/giving money for the a water well. But I'm just putting in a dollar a day. A dollar a day can buy a well by next Christmas. Putting in $30 at the beginning of the month is easy enough. I can give 100-300 people a Christmas gift that will give back to them every day. A gift that will keep them from getting sick. A gift that will show them God's love in the world.

How are you putting feet to your faith?

What good deeds do you do?

SomeGirl and I would both love to hear about it!

Whispers from Heaven

2010-04-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

My grandfather was a wonderful guy. All four of my grandparents are/were awesome, but today I'm thinking about Papa Jack. Growing up, we lived far apart, so we only got to see our grandparents during the summer for a week or so. I have wonderful memories of visiting Grandpa and Grandma in upstate New York. Feeding the squirrels off the back porch. Sitting on the front porch watching life go by.

After my grandmother passed away, Grandpa came to live with my parents. (Thank you mom & dad, for making the sacrifices you did to make that work. It was a blessing to him, and to me, and to the boys. You guys rock!) I am so thankful for this, because it gave me the chance to get to know him better. To see him several times a week. To include him in our family celebrations. To see my boys get to know their great-grandpa. (That's how he became Papa Jack instead of Grandpa...my oldest re-named him and it stuck.)

Grandpa was always a very quiet man. Not much to say most of the time. In fact, very little to say. That's what got me to thinking about him today. It must be where the quiet introverted streak in me came from. The most I ever heard him talk was to my boys. He would talk and laugh and play with them. He could barely walk, and yet you'd find him down on the floor, 90 years old, playing with the boys. Full of joy just watching them.

Today, it's been two years since Grandpa passed on and made his way up to heaven. Late at night sometimes, my oldest still sighs and says, "I miss Papa Jack." I do too. I thought about him this morning. He served in the Navy during WWII, on board a ship in the Atlantic. He was there on D-Day. At his service, there was a military honor guard. The words "On behalf of the President, and a grateful nation..." still ring in my mind. I have a whole bundle of stuff from his naval career that I plan to put together into a shadowbox and scrapbook to honor and remember him. I need to start on that this summer. I was mentioning that to a friend, without realizing that today was the exact two year anniversary of his passing.

This evening, cooking dinner, I thought about him again. I was thinking about how he was so introverted and quiet like me. And I thought, I should post about him. Maybe on his birthday. So, I went to look up his birthday, how old he would have been this year. And I saw this...

John Howard Teetz

June 16, 1915 to April 13, 2008

Exactly two years ago, today. Isn't that funny? That I would think of him twice on this day, before realizing that today was the day? It's happened to me before. Something pops into my head a couple of times, enough for me to go look at something about it, and it's exactly the date the same date, but a year or two later. It's like a nudge from above. A whisper from heaven. Who knows. Maybe it was God giving Papa Jack the chance to whisper 'hello'. Or maybe it was simply God reminding me of my blessings.

We miss you Papa Jack. And we love you, for always.

Promises

2010-04-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

Just checking in with a quick update for my 40 days of yoga. I have some other, better posts to write, but today my asthma is winning and I'm feeling terrible, so they'll have to wait.

As for the 40 days of yoga, I have a confession to make. Day 4 and Day 5 I didn't do any yoga. I planned to. But it didn't happen. Day 6, yesterday, I wasn't feeling great either, and I worked on some music playlists so that I have something to do yoga to at home, without having to watch a video. Kind of a stretch, but better than nothing.

Tonight, Day 7, I am exhausted. My chest hurts. My lungs ache. A lot. I've been waiting all day for the chance to crawl into bed. But I promised myself I was going to do these 40 days. Yes, I've already missed a couple. But I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep going and keep my promise to myself. So, I put my boys to bed, then pulled out my mat.

Day 7 is done. I feel better. Better for keeping my promise. Better from the yoga itself.

Now, off to bed. Finally! ;)

3 down, 37 to go...

2010-04-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

40 days of yoga. Three days down. 37 left to go.

Last night, I went to Hot Yoga at the studio. It kicked my butt. I don't know if it was the heat, or the asthma, or not eating dinner first, but it was hard. I thought I was going to throw up. I thought I was going to literally pass out (at which point I skipped a balancing posture sequence in favor of child's pose). It was hard, but I kept going.   I kept the mean voice at bay. I finished the class and felt fantastic when it was over.

Right now, I'm measuring my progress with two different things. The first, is a simple forward fold. You know, bending over and touching your toes? Well, when I first started, I really couldn't even touch my toes. Now, I can pretty easily fold over and place my hands flat on the floor next to my feet. If I'm really warmed up, I can even slide my hands, palms up, under my toes and completely under my feet. Hooray for progress.    Seated forward fold is less flexible, but at least I can more than touch my toes there now too. I think my hands were only able to go about 1/2 way down my shins before.

The second way I'm measuring my progress is with crow pose. This is a pose that I saw at the beginning and completely wrote off. I will NEVER be able to do that one. Go see what it looks like here. Okay, so now you see what crow looks like. In crow, you are completely balancing ALL of your body weight on your wrists. Did I mention that I broke my wrist and have a titanium plate and four screws in there? My wrist just doesn't bend all the way anymore. So, this crow pose? Not gonna happen. No matter how hard I work. Or so I thought.

Last week, I was brave enough to ask my friendly yoga instructor if she had any ideas on how to make things easier on my wrist. Sometimes we hold poses on it that are just really uncomfortable. Or that I have to quit early. So I asked if she had any advice. She told me to buy a wedge to use for support and try that. So I did.

Before the wedge, when it was time for crow, I'd balance on my wrists, with my knees up on my elbows, but with both feet completely on the floor. More weight on my feet than my arms. Not even close. Then I'd watch everyone else and be really impressed. Tuesday, I got up on the wedge with my wrists, high enough on my toes, that I could take a tiny, nano-second, hop up onto my wrists before falling back onto my feet. Just a fraction of a second, but MY FEET WERE OFF THE FLOOR!!! The next night, last night, I managed to get up into it again. I was all the way up with just the very tippiest part of my toes just barely touching the floor. SO close. I could hold it there for several breaths. I CAN DO THIS! I can do CROW! Not yet, but I will.   And when I do, I'll be posting a picture of it here for all to see.

How do you measure progress? Is there something that seems almost impossible that you are working on, too? I'd love to hear about it.

Set your target and keep trying until you reach it.

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American speaker and motivational writer.

Kicking That Mean Girl's...You-know-what

2010-04-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

So, 40 days of yoga. I'm looking at that now with only 1 day down, and 39 to go, and it sounds daunting. What was I thinking? I am so already sore from just last night's kick butt Hatha Fusion practice. It was great. It was HARD. It was exactly what I needed. But that mean girl in my head keeps saying "You can't do this. What a stupid idea. You'll never follow through with it... Who do you think you are, anyway???"

Which brings me to the point of this post. Excuse my language, but I am going to kick that mean girl's ass. Seriously. 40 days of yoga. 40 days of telling that mean girl to shut-the-hell-up and step to the curb. Get out of my life! GO AWAY!

Why? Because I realized something during a yoga class last week. I was struggling, and miserable, and all this anger was coming out. (It sounds weird, but sometimes in the middle of class, emotions/stuff just come out, and this time I just suddenly got SO MAD!) So there I was, holding some pose or other, and just fuming mad. Don't know why. Then the mean girl started talking to me. "This is stupid. Why are you here? You don't belong here. You're way too fat and out of shape. You don't belong here. You shouldn't be here, fat girl." And I held the pose, and listened to her. I even repeated it to myself "I don't belong here." And then I realized something kind of earth-shattering for me. That mean girl in my head isn't me. That mean girl in my head is the voice of... well, I'm almost afraid to say it because you'll think I'm crazy, but... the devil.

Now, you may not believe in the devil. Heck, you might not believe in God. You might believe in part of it, or none of it. I did. I used to not believe in any of it. Then I believed that there was something bigger, but it wasn't God. Then I believed in God, but not about Jesus and the resurrection. Then I believed in God & Jesus, but not the devil. Until one day I heard something along the lines of "If you believe there is good and evil in the world, and you believe in God, and that God is good, then you kind of have to believe in the other side too, that the devil is there on the side of evil." And so, at the risk of sounding like a looney-tunes religious nut, I believe in the devil too.

My friends and I have had many conversations lately about our inner mean girls. I've even said that we should talk to ourselves nicely, like the way someone who loves us, or God would talk to us. Someone who loves us would be encouraging and supportive, not destructive and mean. But it's so hard to shut up the mean girl! I'm trying to be nice to myself, and do good things for me, but she won't shut up. She keeps coming back, trying to tear me down. And so, listening to her in the middle of my yoga practice, I suddenly had the thought... That's the devil talking. That's not you...you're trying to make yourself a better, healthier person. That's an evil voice trying to tear you down. And just like that, the mean girl shut up and vanished, and the anger melted away. Huh. How about that.

Go out and kick some mean girl butt today! ;)

40 Days

2010-04-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

Remember how I wrote about giving up my messy house for Lent? Well, it worked. Not that there are no more messes here, because it was way worse than 40 days could cure, but it's a lot cleaner in here. And I never felt overwhelmed or unbalanced, because I just cleaned a little something every day.

At the beginning of Lent, I wrote: So, what am I giving up this year? I'm giving up the clutter and chaos in my house. It keeps me from being as good as I could be for my family, it frustrates me, and it takes up too much of my time that I could use for better things. Gone! To ashes! I commit to turning at least one pile/drawer/cabinet full of clutter 'into ashes' each day during Lent. Check back on Easter and I'll let you know how much of a difference it's made!

Easter came and went yesterday. Alleluia!! There is less clutter sitting around, and it's become a habit to clean things up a little at a time. Five minutes? Throw in some dishes. Ten minutes? Fold and put away the laundry and restart it... Less chaos. Less frustration. Less mess. More time for family and the things that matter. I'm going to keep doing this, cleaning and uncluttering at least one thing a day, until I feel like things are under control. Yes, I have a feeling that I may never actually get all-the-way there, but at least I can get closer than I am now!

Because the 40 days of Lent were so successful, I've decided to tackle another 40 days, now that Easter has passed. 40 days of yoga. I am promising to do 40 days of yoga. At least 30 minutes a day. Restorative counts, as long as it's in class. (No cheating by working on my breathing in bed when it's time to go to sleep.... :) I had planned to do this, but hadn't told anyone yet, when my friend sent me this email:

According to yogic science, it takes :
40 days to change a bad habit into a positive one ;
90 days confirms the new habit in you ;
120 days allows the new habit to become who you are ;
1,000 days ensures you have mastered the habit

How's that for timing? Pastor Mike is always saying something to the point of: "You go nowhere and do nothing by accident. God always a purpose for your life." I love it when God's timing shows up in visible ways. My friend had no idea I was planning on doing something like this, but just thought I'd be interested. And I was reinforced in my idea for 40 days of yoga by her email. How wonderful!

Here's hoping that 40 days will create in me a positive yoga habit. Is there a positive habit you'd like to develop over the next 40 days? I'd love to hear about it and support you if you decide to join me. Leave me a comment and let me know.

May you be blessed and inspired to try creating your own positive habit over the next 40 days.

Putting on Blinders (and a little Monday Motivation)

2010-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've been putting off posting for few days, thinking about where I'm going with this blog. I started out doing this only for me. Just to document my progress with yoga and see how far I've come trying to find balance. Then a friend started reading it (I'm glad she did!), and I started thinking about her when I wrote. Next, I found some very inspiring Christian blogs, and I realized that side of me really needed an outlet, so I started thinking about that when I wrote. Several other important people in my life started reading this blog, who may or may not share my beliefs, and I started thinking about them when I wrote. I found out about a blog conference, and the women/bloggers who are going, and started reading their blogs, and wanted them to start reading, so I started to think about them when I wrote.

Can you see where I'm going with this? It's all very UN-balanced, and scattered all over the place. No wonder I couldn't decide what to write about or feel like what I was writing was "good enough". So, as of today, I'm putting blinders on. You know, like racehorses wear, so they can't see stuff that would spook them? I'm putting on those blinders. I'm not going to think about all of you and everyone else, I'm just going to stick to my original purpose: Finding balance and my yoga journey. Now, that said, I'm glad you're here. I hope you find something interesting or thought-provoking, or helpful. I'd love to hear your comments and hear what you think about what I write. But I'm going to put the blinders on when I'm doing the writing. It's what I need to do in order to find my balance.

It's Monday, and I'm looking for motivation today. I wrote an email planning a trip to see some wonderful friends, and that helped a little. Enough to get me over here to write, anyway. Maybe this post will motivate me to get up and accomplish something else next. Who knows? I'm very sleepy and lazy...a side effect of the asthma, I've figured out. Now if I can just figure out how to fix it.... The meds help the breathing part, but I can tell that I'm still not 100% when all I want to do is lay in bed all day and stare at the wall or the tv. Actually, I was motivated this morning to go out and work on my flowerbeds, but with a thick, and I mean THICK, layer of neon green pollen covering everything outside my house, I figured it would be better for the asthma to stay inside. Seriously, it looks like someone colored the whole driveway with neon green chalk. It's insane. I'm praying for a huge, long, rainstorm to come wash it all away.

Are you motivated today? How do you get motivated when all you want to do is lay in bed all day?

This is Me

2010-03-31T06:42:00.000-07:00

I had been planning to write a post about the "Real Me" when my friend Some Girl beat me to it. She did such a good job, that it could have almost been word for word about myself. Check it out here if you'd like to see what she wrote. After reading her post, I got to thinking more about my true self. I am far from perfect, but I also try to be a good person. I slip up and snap at the boys when I'm tired or frustrated. I spend time on the computer when I should be playing with them. I'll do almost anything to help a friend. I swear, although I try not to. I try to do good things. I'm impatient with, and yell 'IT'S NOT YOUR TURN!', at drivers who can't seem to figure out how to use a four-way stop. I'm pretty good at going with the flow (except at those darn 4 way stops). I'm selfish and want things my way. I let my kids eat sugar, drink pop, and watch TV, but I also make sure they spend a lot of time outside being active, and learn the difference between treats and healthy choices. I have a strong faith. I'm almost never brave enough to talk about it. I leave dirty dishes in the sink almost every night.

I am introverted to the point of seeming rude at times. I really wish I wasn't. I really wish I could be more bold and outrageous. For example, if you dyed your hair cupcake pink, I would think it was pretty cool, and secretly wish I could do something so bold. (I think I'd go for white with pink stripes.... seriously.) If you invite the whole neighborhood over for a cookout, I would think it wonderful and welcoming. But I'd also be cringing at the thought of having to talk to people I don't know well. I wish I were more outgoing.

But, take all the good and bad, and I'm happy with my life. Not that I'm not working on improving things, and finding balance. I am. But I'm happy with me, right here, right now. I wasn't always able to say that.

First Workshop

2010-03-30T05:48:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went to my first yoga workshop. Or specialty class. Or whatever it's called. It was on Yoga Nidra, which is yogic sleep, or conscious relaxation.   A very relaxing class, literally. I got three big things from this class.

1. Yoga is about calming the mind, and controlling your thoughts. Even the physical practices of yoga are about focusing your thoughts, and quieting that voice in your head that won't.shut.up. I kind of knew this, but needed the reminder. I call it the Be Still, and know that I am God process. I need a lot of practice on this one.

2. Each of us has an energy, and depending on how we live our lives, that energy is different. If we drink, and smoke, steal and do drugs, our energy will be very different than if we live our life practicing faith, reading scriptures, and doing good works. That's what the teacher said! I loved hearing that in a yoga class.   Before going to the class, I was a little worried that there would be some weirdness or other that I would have to ignore, and instead I heard "read scripture and do good works". Take that people who think yoga is devil worship! ;)

3. It's very annoying and irritating when people fall asleep three minutes into the hour long practice and start snoring! Okay, seriously, it was. And they did. Several of them. But I'm being thankful this week, not resentful, so I'm going to focus on being thankful for learning the process of this practice. I am not going to be frustrated that I couldn't concentrate because of the snoring, and lawn mowers, and traffic, and thingy banging on the roof in the wind. Maybe it was all a test of my ability to focus and clear my mind. Clearly I failed, since I found myself annoyed and thinking of possible facebook status updates regarding the snorers! Oh well. Practice makes progress! ;)

It's important to take time to truly relax and let the body rest. I've gone to other restorative yoga classes (without the snoring) and come out feeling more refreshed than if I'd taken a nap.

May you be blessed with some true relaxation today.

It's Monday, Again?

2010-03-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

It's Monday again. How does that happen so quickly? This last week seems like it just disappeared from underneath my feet. I'm trying to keep the huge pile of things that didn't get done last week from overwhelming me. I purposely chose not to do them, and to spend time with family. I am glad that I did. I spent time during the week with my sister and her family, and with my parents, and it was wonderful. This weekend, we spent most of our time at my mother-in-laws house building a new deck. Well, watching my husband build a new deck... :) And I'm glad for that too. Really, I'm most thankful for both being born into, and marrying into, wonderful families. I am so blessed. Not many girls get to love their mother-in-law like a second mom.

This weekend was also Palm Sunday. I may be weird, but I think that is one of my favorite holidays. It is upbeat, and happy, and celebrating Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling prophecy from hundreds of years prior that he would be the Savior. People are waving palm branches, crying out "Hosanna!!" as he rides into the city. Now, I had to look up exactly what that means, because sadly I wasn't sure. It started out as a plea "Rescue me! Save me!". By the time of Jesus, it was more of a term of adoration, and they were basically expecting him to save them from the Romans.
Palm Sunday is always one of the services which touches my heart the most. Because when Jesus was riding into Jerusalem, He KNEW that he was going to die on the cross. He went anyway. He went for me! He went for you. He went for all of us. So the thought that He knew what was coming, and went anyway, just gives me chills. Add into that the cries of Hosanna!! (Save me!!), and I can't help but tear up at some point during the service. It's just that powerful.

Last week, I kept my goals short: Enjoy family, and Be positive. I think that was very successful.
This week, I'm going to do the same. I'm going to:
1. Be Thankful
2. Take the week for myself. Not that I'm going to lay on the couch eating bon bons and watching movies all week. I'm going to focus on doing things that take care of me. Eating well, yoga, prayer, whatever. Too often, I let myself and my needs slide to the bottom of the list. This week, I'm going to be thankful for the blessed life I've been given, and take care of myself.

May you be blessed with a Thankful Heart this week.

***Disclaimer: This post (and others) makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about regarding Jesus, and God, and all of that. I don't. I spent years having no belief in God at all. And although I've found my faith again and been going to church for about 8 years, I still am really clueless. I know that Jesus was born on Christmas, and that He was crucified and died on Good Friday, and that He was resurrected on Easter Sunday. That's about it, as far as really understanding things. I'm working on filling in the details. I do a lot of looking things up online (google is great!) , or in books, when I come across something I don't get yet. ( Like Good Friday.... Why on earth is it called Good Friday if it was the day Jesus was crucified? ) That's next on my list! ;)

Please hold...

2010-03-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've been spending the week balancing the usual stuff with visiting with my sister and family who are here for spring break. We live far apart, so time together is not to be wasted! I've also been working out in the yard a lot, enjoying the spring weather. So, not enough time or energy for blogging. But I'll be back in a few days. In the meantime, here are some of the pics from our trip to the Botanical Gardens.

Hope you are enjoying the spring weather wherever you may be!

Happy Monday!

2010-03-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Just logged in to do a quick post, and I see that I'm up to 5 followers! Woo-hoo! Thanks to all of you, whether or not you hit the follow button or subscribe ( I have no idea how to know about who is doing that), or if you just stop by once in awhile. Please take just a second, really, just a second, and CLICK HERE for something I really want you to know. Then come on back and finish this post if you're up for it.

So, now that you know how glad I am to have you here, here's the next Monday Morning Staff Meeting.
First, the roundup from last week, then I'll tell you about my big lesson for the week:

Go somewhere new. We went to two new parks and found some cool play areas.
Read something. We read several new books from our awesome re-opened library.
Explore something. We were going to explore the new library, but someone got sick, so we had to postpone.
Build something. We built more onto the tree fort with daddy. Okay, so I just watched, but 3 out of 4 family members helped, so I say that counts. :)
Clean something. Hmm.... cleaned A LOT. Some major stuff, some daily stuff. My house looks so much better now, and I just want to do more! (See mom, you were right. Eventually I grew out of the messy stage. It just took 38 years... )
Grow something. Managed to keep my flat of Impatiens seedlings alive for another week.
Cook something. Didn't do any new recipes, but still cooked, so that's good enough.
Plant something. Planted some stuff along our new path to SomeGirl's house.
Investigate/Scout something. Saved for next week, due to sickness.

So, what was the big lesson from the week, I'm sure you're dying to know? Well, you may or may not know that I guest posted over here last week for Fraddling Friday. I spent the week thinking about how I was fraddling. Fraddle is doing something someone else loves because they love it, and you love them. Because I was thinking about it all week for that Friday post, I spent a lot of time thinking about something I wasn't looking forward to doing. And I started telling myself to think about it with a different attitude. I started telling myself, "Be thankful, not resentful." I started saying it to myself in my head, Be THANKFUL, not resentful. I am THANKFUL, not resentful. And then I started to be thankful for it. Thankful for the chance to do something that would really make the day of someone I love. Thankful to be able to do that thing. Thankful for the chance to share that thing with the person I love. And I stopped resenting it. The result was that I wasn't stressed out and resenting that thing the whole time, and instead had a nice day.

There are two quotes that I really like about attitude. The first, is by Winston Churchill who said, “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” He was so right. The other, is from Francesca Reigler, who said,

"Happiness is an attitude.

We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong.

The amount of work is the same.”

My to do list for this week is going to stay simple. Just two things, really.

1. Spend time enjoying my sister and her family visiting.

2. Be positive about things, even things I don't like, and choose happiness over misery. (That pretty much covers everything, if you think about it...)

I am choosing to be happy and strong. How about you? Is there something you could change your attitude about and make life happier for yourself this week? Leave me a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear from you!

May you be blessed with a positive attitude, and the ability to see the bright side of things this week.

Come visit!

2010-03-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I'm guest posting today over at SomeGirlsWebsite for Fraddling Friday. It's my first guest blogger post, so come visit me there and check it out, and let me know what you think. I've been tweaking it all week, so it's a good one, I promise!

See you there.

A Sunbeam to Warm You

2010-03-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day is has always been a special day for me, being part Irish. There is a part of me that has always been fascinated by stories of Ireland, and the lush green country there. Someday, I hope to go visit and explore it myself.

In college, I met my future husband on St. Patrick's day. So, in honor of the sixteenth anniversary of the day we first met, I've decided to share a traditional Irish blessing with you.

May God grant you always...

A sunbeam to warm you,

A moonbeam to charm you,

A sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you.

Laughter to cheer you.

Faithful friends near you.

And whenever you pray,

Heaven to hear you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

Encouraging Weeds

2010-03-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Who says weeds are weeds and not beautiful, bountiful flowers? This is the question my son and I were talking about on the way home from school recently.
He: Mom, what kind of flower is that?
Me: It's just a weed honey.
He: No, not the yellow one. The pretty purple ones.
Me: Those are just weeds, too.
He: Why is it a weed? It's so pretty! What makes it a weed?

At this, I flashed back to an almost identical moment from my childhood. We had gone down to the family farm to visit my grandparents for a week during the summer. It was a house without running water, no cable TV, and so we spent a lot of wonderful time outdoors. One day, after walking through the fields collecting all the prettiest flowers I could find, I got back to the house and proudly presented them to my grandmother. I asked about what kind of flowers they were. She smiled, and told me they were weeds rather than wildflowers. Not that she didn't appreciate me picking them for her, because she did. And she was very kind about it, but I still remember the feeling on not understanding how things that were so beautiful could be considered worthless weeds.

Seems kind of unfair to me, that so many pretty flowers that grow quickly and spread easily in even the toughest conditions, are deemed "undesirable". Dandelions for example. I know many people who are constantly working to banish these "weeds" from their yards. I think the yellow blossoms are actually quite cheery. And the little white puffballs that they turn into are the stuff of magical childhood wishes. So why the negative feelings about them? Those purple 'weeds' that my son was admiring are particularly beautiful when a homeowner has let them take over the yard. It's a truly gorgeous sea of purple flowers when they are spread across a lawn like that. But they are considered undesirable. Go figure.

I can't help but think that some people are treated exactly the same way. Just because they are in the 'wrong' place. Maybe they've lost their home and are looked down upon for living in their car or a shelter. Maybe they simply live outside the boundaries of what we consider normal. Maybe it's something else that sets them apart. Everyone has value. Everyone has something good to give the world. It might not look like we expect it to, but it also might be so much better than we expect too. We have to look deeply inside ourselves to find out what it is we have to share, and we have to be open to the gifts that others have to share as well. What can we learn from someone who is growing and surviving, even in the toughest conditions? A lot, I think, especially in our neatly manicured little worlds.

Come back soon for the other part of this post, when I'll fill you in on the encouraging part...

Wish Flowers....Encouraging ~~weeds~~ Wishes, part 2.

May you be blessed today and always

by the beauty that is all around us.

Staff Meeting - Take Two...

2010-03-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it takes seeing yourself from someone else's eyes to realize something about yourself. That's what happened this week. I had two people tell me that my list from the Monday Morning Staff Meeting last week was scary. I think one said it was scary, and the other said it stressed her out reading it. Now, that list was a very reduced size list from what I would usually use ~~as my to do list~~ to set myself up for failure. That list was my heavily-edited-to-just-one-or-two-things per area list. Those two comment-makers would have had a heart attack if they knew what I wanted to write! I thought I was going pretty easy on myself. And yet two people thought that it was scary and stressful. So, it's time that maybe I really take an even longer, harder look at ~~how whacked-out I am~~ how I'm still being unrealistic in my expectations for myself.
Now, that being said, the list from last week did make a big difference in my week. I felt a lot more focused, and on task, as long as I was getting something from the list accomplished each day. I didn't get everything done before Friday like I had hoped, but I also didn't beat myself up about it. More of the list got done than not, and so I consider that a success. I definitely found it helpful to sit down and have a 'meeting' with myself and plan a little. But I do plan to rethink my expectations for myself, to be sure.

So, thank you girls, for the eye-opening comments. I clearly need your perspectives. This week is spring break, and so my list is going to be a little more focused on fun rather than work, but I'm hoping it's a lot more balanced, and not at all scary or stressful. Since it's spring break, I'm going to consider the whole week an O.F.F. (official fraddling Friday) week. Ten things for Ten Days without school. Ten ways to Fraddle (show love and spread joy). Ten ways to live in the moment and enjoy time with my boys. Here goes nothing:

Go somewhere new.
Read something.

Explore something.

Build something.

Clean something.

Grow something.

Cook something.

Plant something.

Investigate something.

Scout something.

If we can make a game out of the 'cleaning something', then they will all be fun things too. We'll probably be going somewhere new, to the Dallas Zoo, maybe taking the TRE to get there. We're going to explore the newly reopened local library, build something at the Lego Store, plant some veggies for our garden, grow some of our seeds from last year, scout out new parks for the summer, and investigate....well, I'll leave that open to my boys to decide. So it could be anything from spiders to volcanoes to mud puddles. But I know it will be fun. And hopefully, this list was a lot less scary and stressful! And I promise to work hard on keeping my next week's list unstressful too, even once we're back in the real world of school and work.

May you be blessed by taking it easy on yourself this week.

You deserve a break!

It's an O.F.F. Day

2010-03-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

I've declared Fridays to be 'O.F.F.' days. That's short for Official Fraddling Fridays.

If you're new to fraddling, it simply means doing something for someone because they love it and you love them. It doesn't have to be complicated. It could be as simple as letting the boys throw rocks in mud puddles. (Is there anything more joyful for a little boy then mud?) I think of fraddling as being present, being intentional, showing love, and spreading joy. Check out SomeGirlsWebsite for more from the creator of Fraddling.

So, Fridays are now reserved, as much as possible, for Fraddle. I'm aiming to get as much work done Monday-Thursday as I can, so that I can simply have fun fraddling on Fridays. Maybe your schedule can't take a whole day for Fraddle. But you can find time somewhere this week to show your love and give someone joy.

It's easy. It's fun. And it's oh-so-rewarding. You should try it!

May you find ways to bless someone

(and in the process be blessed yourself)

with fraddle this week.

Lessons from the Happy Monster Band

2010-03-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, lessons come from the most unexpected places. Like the PlayHouse Disney lineup on the Disney channel. My littlest is on the couch right now watching the Happy Monster Band. From the kitchen, I hear one of their songs... "Practice Makes Progress". Now, I have always said or heard, 'practice makes PERFECT'. And since I have such perfectionist tendencies, I tend to want to either do it perfectly, or just scrap it and not even try. This is a huge problem, and something that I'm working really hard to let go. Like my friend, SomeGirl says, we are recovering perfectionists. So, hearing this song 'Practice Makes PROGRESS' really struck me. Here are just a few lines from the song:

Practice Makes Progress

It will help you be the best

practice makes progress

it will help you find success

(If you want to hear the whole thing, click the link

and the song will be on the bottom right

once the playhouse Disney page comes up. )

It's true, isn't it? The whole point of us working on things, practicing things, whether it's yoga or cleaning & organizing, or eating right, is to make progress. Do any of us really, truly, think we can achieve perfection? No. We might aim for it, and I might expect it of myself, but I don't think it's actually possible. Actually, I know it's not possible. None of us are perfect. So that means I'm automatically set in a position for failure, at least in my head. I like the idea of expecting progress instead. Lately, instead of beating myself up about not reaching those crazy perfectionist goals, I've simply been telling myself that a little + a little + a little = success. It will add up and get you there.

One of the other things that struck me came from a conversation with my friend, J., yesterday. She and I talked about always feeling defeated, because we're always having something come up, and then we get off track and have to keep starting over. It feels like we're endlessly starting over. Which is depressing. But, maybe we need to just rethink that. Maybe it's just all in our perspective. As long as we do keep starting over, we're that much closer to success. As long as we don't give up when unexpected things come up, we'll stay on the right track simply because we do keep starting over.

I have a long way to go, but I can already see these little + little + little adding up. My house is cleaner. The kids area of the garage is organized now where they can just go out and grab something to play with, and have a spot to put it back. (This is a huge deal now that it's starting to warm up outside.) My ~~messy pit~~ office floor is clear, and the couch isn't piled with boxes of stuff anymore. That list that I made this week at my pretend "staff meeting"? It has really helped me focus on what to do. SomeGirl told me it stressed her out to read it, and I can see that. But for me, it's helping me to feel successful, because I didn't put any crazy time goals on there. I'll just try to achieve those things this week sometime. It's also helping me feel successful, because as long as I'm doing something from that list, I'm on the right track. Before, I was telling myself, "Today I'll work on the office. Or the kitchen. Or the laundry." So then, if I was working on laundry on the "office day" I'd feel like I was off track. But it's all part of the bigger picture, the bigger job. And aiming to have it done so that I can just do whatever on Friday with the boys is VERY motivating!

Things are clicking. Things are adding up.

Things are getting more balanced!

WooHoo!!

Yee-haw! (This is Texas, after all...)

and ALLELUIA!

Or, as my youngest just said,

"Yabba Dabba Scooby Dooby Doo!"

May you be blessed with seeing

PROGRESS

in things you are working on, too!

Simple Joys

2010-03-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Do you ever take the time to look at the world through a child's eyes? To really think about the world the way they think about it? Besides seeing everything from a much lower elevation, children have a really unique and simple way of looking at the world. For them, everything is black or white, it's right or it's wrong, and it's all about justice and fairness. Children are free, they love to help people, and the littlest thing can be the biggest adventure.

Children are simple. Not easy, but simple. Do what's right. Be fair. Show love. See the world as the big adventure it is. Pretty good advice, right? So, how do we put that advice into practice? Good question. It's something I'll be mulling over this week to be sure.

The song below is one of the few things that I actively recall learning in college. Probably from the trauma of having to SING it for a grade in my musical education class. (I can't carry a tune to save my life...). But, I think that it's also probably the message in the song that's kept it in my brain for the last 15+ years.

"Simple Gifts" was written by Elder Joseph while he was at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine in 1848. These are the lyrics to his one-verse song:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

May you be blessed with the gifts of simplicity and freedom this week.

Monday Morning Staff Meeting

2010-03-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of the things I'm doing to find balance is reading some blogs on uncluttering and being more productive. One of them suggested scheduling a twenty minute meeting with yourself to figure out what you really need to accomplish. Now, granted, this was aimed at people who have so-called "real" jobs, but since I've already established here that I have multiple jobs, I'm adopting the idea. I'm calling it my Monday Morning Staff Meeting, I've got my work boots on, and you're invited to tag along.

Ok, team, here's what needs to get accomplished this week, in no particular order:

Let's start with you, Office Manager. Tackle that pile of paperwork on your desk and get it cleared off. When you get done with that, I want you to get those two baskets of "to do" and "to file" stuff finally taken care of. Get your email cleared out again too.
Housekeeping? I know it's still raining and muddy out, but you've really got to get those floors mopped and vaccumed. Yes, I know they'll just be dirty again two minutes later, but do it anyway. Finish getting the laundry done also please.
Yoga girl? You need to get to the studio and get in at least three classes this week. And start off the other days with fifteen minutes of practice too. I don't care how bad your asthma is making you feel, go anyway. You'll feel better when you're through.
Head chef? You need to get the weeks menus planned out and get the shopping done. Let's have at least a couple of slow cooker nights, so you can have the kitchen cleaned up before dinner. Make sure you tell the dishwasher that she is not to leave without the kitchen being fulled cleaned at the end of each evening.
Faithful child? You need to put God and prayer time first everyday. Once you've done that, the rest will fall easily into the right perspective. Let's get through the end of chapter two in your study book this week, and don't forget to pray for those on your prayer list.
Nutrition lady? You need to make sure you're eating from your healthy anti-inflammatory foods list. Don't forget to drink lots of water and take those vitamins.
Mama bear? Make sure you work with the boys on completing their chore lists without constant reminders. And don't forget that it's your job to play with them and enjoy them everyday too!
Lady Gardener? There's a lot of debris to get picked up in both the front and back once the rain lets up. Let's try to also get the leaves cleaned out of those front flower beds too. It will be time to plant soon! If the weather doesn't clear up, at least get that worm composting bin started.
Girlfriend? Don't forget about Talkin' Tuesday. Not that TT would ever be forgotten, since it's one of the highlights of your week.
Wife? Make sure you do something nice for your hubby this week. Just something little to show him how much he's appreciated and loved. Plan something for Friday night when the kids are at Nana's. Maybe do some more anniversary planning too.
Dual blogger? Let's get some blogging done each day, and avoid the Talkin' Tuesday hangover this week. Maybe catch up on the drafts that are started for the boys, and then keep the balance blog updated daily.
Inner self? Set aside at least one hour this week to just do something that you love that brings you joy. Just for you.

And finally, remember that Fridays are O.F.F. days (Official Fraddling Fridays). With Friday being an O.F.F. day, we need to get this to do list done so that Friday can be just about showing love and spreading joy.

Mama, You've Got My Support Too

2010-03-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot this weekend about this new mama that is a good friend of a friend. I don't want to use her real name here, because I don't really know her well, so I'll call her Brielle (it's a Modern English name meaning strength of God...kind of pretty, don't you think?). Anyway, Brielle is a new mama. She just brought home her new adopted daughter. Now, she's not a brand new mama, in the sense that this isn't her first child, but she's a new mama in that she's just brought her precious baby home.

This precious baby daughter is also the sister of Brielle's other adopted daughter. What a blessing, right? To be able to not only love and care for and rejoice in the blessing of a new child, but to also be able to keep two biological sisters together. I had heard that Brielle was hoping for this to happen. And I was overjoyed to hear that she'd been blessed in this way.

It has been a tough year for Brielle. She lost her mother this year, unexpectedly, I believe. She's had to deal with learning to live without that support and love. I haven't had to experience that yet, so I can only imagine her grief. And even though I can't really comprehend what that's like, my heart goes out to her. I was glad to hear that the new baby was here, to bring her some much deserved love and joy.

Then, I heard the bad news. Unfortunately, not everyone in Brielle's life is happy about the new baby. Isn't that sad? A new life, new joy, everyone should be filled with happiness and excitement, not planning an intervention to tell Brielle....whatever they think is wrong with it I guess. I can't even imagine how someone could say there is something wrong with taking in and loving a helpless little newborn. That it could in any way be wrong to bring your daughter's sister into your family. I just can't comprehend it.

I'm sure her loved ones mean well. Maybe their concerns stem from the loss of her mother, or maybe they come from the fact that Brielle has more than the average family of two adults and two kids. Sometimes I look at families with more than two kids and think, "Wow. How do they DO that?". I know that people sometimes look at these families as if there is something 'wrong' or 'crazy' with having more than the average number of kids.

Here is what I have to say to that: I have chosen the two kids and two parents route. It's right for us, although I wouldn't necessarily mind having more kids. It's just that I don't have the will to go through all the paperwork to adopt, and I am positive that my body couldn't handle the hormone ride of pregnancy again. (I lost most of my mind the first two times, never really got it back, and I might just come out a vegetable if I went through it again...LOL). But I can't help but look at my two boys, and feel all the blessings and joy that come from them, and wonder if I'm not the crazy one for not having more. Who would turn down an abundance of joy and blessings? No thanks, I've got enough. Don't give me any more good stuff. Doesn't sound very smart, now does it?

So, although none of this is any of my business, I just want to say to Brielle, "Mama, you've got my support." I'm on your side, and I'm praying for you and this wonderful new addition to your family. I'm praying for you to stay strong, to be filled with joy and happiness, and to cast away any doubts that might come your way. I pray for that intervention to turn the tables on your loved ones, and become an intervention for them, so that they might better understand your heart and support you. Most of all, I pray that you are all able to get on the same page, a family in harmony and at peace.

May God give you...

For every storm a rainbow,

for every tear a smile,

for every care a promise

and a blessing in each trial.

For every problem life sends,

a faithful friend to share,

for every sigh a sweet song

and an answer for each prayer.

Happiness Is...

2010-03-06T21:22:00.000-08:00

I was thinking tonight about the things that make me happy...

Happiness is.....

...my husband and my boys
...a dark, quiet room, and my comfy bed with high threadcount sheets
...fabulous friends to talk with and be encouraged by
...snuggling with my boys before they are too big and too old
...the first hopeful flowers of spring
...taking photographs of the things I love
...a wicked thunder and lightning storm
...a three year old who can tell you he's going to throw up AND make it to the bathroom
...grandparents who love to spend time with my boys
...a rare date day with my husband

...a MacBook, and time to blog
...scrapbooking with the girls, so my boys have loads of great memories of their lives to look through and remember
...Nana nights
...budding trees after long dreary cold winter days
...a dvr full of my favorite shows, and a quiet night to watch them back to back
...an awesome hot yoga class
...days at the park
...sunshine and blue skies with fluffy white clouds
...a dog who is loyal and loving no matter how much he's ignored
...using the internet to keep in touch with people who I would have certainly lost touch with

...beautiful unexpected snowstorms
...finding and exploring my faith in God
...reading my Google reader lineup of inpsirational and motivational blogs
...sleeping in past 8am
...a clean and organized house
...teaching my kids how to give to the less fortunate, and seeing how excited they are to help others
...laughing with my husband...over whatever...
...having a beautiful yard in which to work, and play, and just enjoy.... my own mini park
...the look on my son's face when he looks at me with complete bliss, just because I'm there...
...the sound of my littlest saying, for the umpteenth time, "hi, mom" (His version of I love you)

...blogging about the crazy things my boys say and do, so that they won't be forgotten
...empty laundry hampers
...dinner in the crockpot by 9am
...eating out when there are already dishes to catch up with in the sink
...having a mother in law you love, and get along with, and enjoy spending time with
...finding (controlled) ways to allow the boys to explore their passion for destruction
...grilling out on a warm summer night
...having fried rice for dinner (because hubby cooks!)
...breakfast for dinner, it reminds me of my wonderful grandmother
...Friday afternoon Happy Hour (friends, snacks, bikes, trikes, and mommy talk in the driveway)

...having wonderful neighbors just across the street
...living only a mile down the road from my parents, and just a few more from my MIL
...restorative yoga (it's better than a nap!)
...fraddling: (surprising my boys with something they'll love, just because)
...bedtime stories with my boys
...playgroup friends to keep both my boys and I sane and get us out of the house
...quiet days when both boys are at school and I can work uninterrupted
...a good book, and time to read it
...a good school, and great teachers, just down the street
...quiet talks with my oldest on morning walks to school

There are many, many more things I count as blessings. May you be as blessed as I have been.

How do you answer the question:

Happiness is...?

Don't Look Over Your Shoulder!

2010-03-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to tell you, yes, YOU. Don't look over your shoulder, I'm really talking to YOU! I just wanted to tell you thank you for being here. For coming to read. You being here, and reading this, makes me think more, write more, and blesses me more. Whether I know you or not, whether I know you're even here or not, You Bless Me. Thank you. I hope I can return the favor.

Shell

Yoga as Worship

2010-03-03T00:43:00.000-08:00

I started this blog to have a way to see my progress, both with looking for balance, and yoga. Mostly for yoga though. I wanted to have a way to look back and see how far I'd come, and how it had helped. I know it will help, simply because of how wonderful and refreshed I feel after a class. Not so much during class, because it kicks my out-of-shape butt, but at the end, and after.... I feel A-maz-ing. Just incredible. The feeling usually lasts all day.

Now, notice I say I started out with those intentions. But, clearly, this has become equally, if not more, about my search for balance and my relationship with God. Because here, I can write the things I'm too afraid to say out loud to people, as wrong as that may be. And I'm realizing how much I need this outlet for that side of me!

However, I don't actually see the two things, God and yoga, as separate, or opposing, or whatever the rest of the world may think. I have always been a person who doesn't feel very connected to God in church. I know, I know. How can I say that? Well, hang on and let me explain before you decide to stone me. Church is okay. I learn from it. I'm uplifted by it. But it's not where I feel closest to God. I have always felt closest to God when I am out in nature. Out in His Creation, I see the miracles of all He created, all around me. I see his touch in the leaves on the trees, hear it in the wind, smell it in the flowers, admire it in the sunset. That is where I feel connected to Him.

When my oldest was around two, we were out in LA with my parents, visiting my brother. Mom and Dad went out to dinner with some friends, and I decided to hang back at the condo with my little one. We ended up walking down to sit on the beach and watch the sunset. It was a wonderful evening. Quiet and peaceful. As we walked down to the beach, I remember thinking how I wished that there were shells to collect on the beaches, like there are in Galveston. It's one of my favorite things to do...look for pretty shells on the beach. But there just aren't any on the California beaches usually.

At this time in my life, I was just starting to come back to my faith after a long, long, LONG period of doubt. I mean, a really long time. As my little one and I found our way onto the beach, we saw that it was just covered with dozens and dozens of shiny, smooth, black stones. I'd never seen anything like them on any beach. They were beautiful. So we sat together on the sand, and watched the waves and the sunset, and collected these really cool rocks. And as I watched my son dig in the sand with the sun setting behind him, I felt so connected to God. So in tune with Him. So believing in Him! It was a somewhat surprising but oh-so-joyful feeling. And I was so grateful for every moment. It's one of those times that I can recall with such clarity, that the joy comes right back along with the memory. We took home a small pocketful of those rocks to remember the evening.

The next day, we went back down to the beach again, hoping to walk and collect a few more rocks. There was not a single one on the beach, anywhere. They were completely gone. If I hadn't saved a few the night before, I might have thought I'd imagined them. And I can't help but feel that God put those rocks there just for me. Call me crazy if you want, but He totally used that evening to get through to me again. And I finally listened!

So this is why I say I don't feel closest to him in church. Church is good. But nature is better. His creation is better. And now, I've realized that yoga is another way for me to feel closer to Him, and thankful, and aware. There is no one else in between us. No pastor. ( I love Pastor Mike!) No choir ( I love our choir!) No having to greet and say hello to dozens of people (who are all very nice, but did I mention I'm an introvert, and I mean INTRO-vert, and that really just drains me?).    In nature, and during yoga, it's just me and God.   Period. Me being thankful to Him. Him filling me with peace, love, strength, hope, or whatever I need most that day.

When I started to write this post, I thought it would be about how yoga doesn't have to be new age, or Hindu, doesn't have to be anti-christian. And I did a little research on the web, and yikes!   There are some preachy and judgemental people out there! Wow! You "christians" are the ones who drove me into that long, long, long period of doubt. Because it was a long time before I learned that God and religion are NOT the same thing. Religion is what man brings to it, however he might choose to twist it to fit his own....whatever. I'm not going there. I hate religion. I love God. And if it comes down to a choice, I'm going to ask myself everytime what would God & Jesus say or do over what do humans and religions say to do.

Jesus was always freaking people out. Doing things that "weren't allowed".   Hanging out with tax collectors and prostitutes. Maybe in 2010 he'd be hanging out at the yoga studio, who knows? I do know that he wouldn't be worried about what people were saying he should or shouldn't do. He'd be worried about what was in my heart.   He wouldn't see yoga as me in worship of myself (because trust me, when I see myself in the mirror I'm not going to worship that image!) but instead he would see in my heart that I am in awe and worship and awareness of Him. He would know that I am acknowledging that I can't do it all on my own, and I need Him. He would know that I am thankful for every cell of my body that is able to practice these crazy poses, thankful for getting a tiny bit better each time, thankful for the good health I have, thankful for the chance to be still.

"Be still, and know that I am God."

Psalm 46:10.

That has got to be my favorite verse in the bible. So powerful. So difficult to do.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart

1 Samuel 16:7

So, yes, for me, yoga IS worship. And I know He knows what's in my heart, so I'm okay with saying that. It is my chance to spend 90 minutes taking care of the body God has blessed me with, and also being still and loving Him.

In the words of Jesus:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8

Do you know what? There are a few times, when I've had a really, really good practice, really focused the whole time on being still, and being aware of Him, when at the end, I felt as connected to him as I did that night on the beach. I can feel His peace and love. It's incredible. It's joyful. It's priceless.

Joyful Thanksgiving. Is there any other workout that can leave you filled with that feeling? That's a workout I can keep doing. That I actually look forward to doing.

May you be blessed by the stillness and quiet,
so that you might have a chance to practice 'knowing God'.

The Recipe for Balance

2010-03-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

More signs of hope for spring! I've had several little crocus bulbs poking their heads up despite the cold, cloudy, dreary, yucky, miserable, will-it-ever-be-over-and-warm-up-again weather!

They make me smile,

make me happy,

make me hopeful.

The pictures above and below are how they looked this morning:

Then, this afternoon, the sun came out and hope bloomed:

Those are the same two flowers, both photographs taken today. Amazing what a little time, and hope (and sun!) can do to change the way things look!

They may be hiding in the leaves, Mother Nature's version of I Spy or Where's Waldo, but they are there if you are just willing to look. Hope is always there, if you're just willing to look and to believe. It may still be waiting beneath the soil for the right time to pop up and bloom, but it is there. Embrace hope. Do not get discouraged. Be hopeful.

Several months ago, when I first started to redecorate and clean out my pit of an office, I hung up a large cross on the wall. In the middle, there is a circle with the word HOPE inscribed upon it. My husband looked at it, and said, "What do you need hope for?" And I looked at him, and thought "What do I not need hope for?" I need hope that I can achieve all the things on this huge 'to-do' list that I've given myself. I need hope that I can get myself (and my life in general) balanced out and happy. That I can finally get this stupid office cleaned out! Now, this pit of an office is no exaggeration. It has been overflowing with stuff since before we moved to Texas. In Oklahoma, the room was about 1/2 the size, but we had two computer desks, my husband's drum set and music gear, his electronics junk, and all of the office bookkeeping/paperwork crammed in that little room. It was not the least bit organized. When we moved, the office got bigger, but it also became the dumping ground for whatever hadn't been unpacked yet. Or stuff that we didn't know where to put yet, or.....whatever we didn't want people to see and trip over. Throw it in the office and close the door. Two and a half years later, I finally decided enough was enough. I'm going to get that office cleaned out and organized if it kills me! I'm working on it. And it's slow going. But I'm thinking about it from a more balanced perspective.... a little, plus a little, plus a little more, will eventually end up with the office/retreat that I have in my head. I will get there. I have hope!

It's a little bit like yoga. I can't do half the poses. I can't balance on one foot with my fingers wrapped around my big toe and my leg out straight in front of me. Heck, I can barely balance on one leg! But every time I practice, I get just a little bit closer to my goal. And it's okay to be working on it. To be practicing. I'm giving myself permission to not be perfect all at once, but to let it be a process, a journey. Toward balance, not perfection.

I put that cross up on the wall of my unfinished office, to remind myself that I'm not on this journey alone.

I pray that God, who gives hope, will bless you with complete happiness and peace

because of your faith. And may the power of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope.

Romans 15:13

Contemporary English Version

Last week, my husband said to me, "When you finally get that office finished, you know you will have reached the end of your quest." Well, what he said was better than that, but I can't remember the exact words he used. They were both funny and so true. And he's right. That office is the symbol of my quest for balance. And I am definitely still searching!

For now there are faith,

hope, and love.

But of these three,

the greatest is love.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Contemporary English Version

Sounds like a great recipe for balance to me. A little faith, a little hope, and a little love. I'll have to keep that mantra in my head!

May you be blessed with faith, hope, & love,

and maybe even a tiny bit of balance!

Reflections

2010-02-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

On this day of your life, God wants you to know ... that to love is to be vulnerable.

Love is the opening of the heart, the welcoming of your beloved. Loving is not secure, authentic loving is risky. Security lies behind the walls of a closed heart. You either invite the union by opening in love, or you secure the isolation by closing down.

I read that this morning, kind of shrugged, and thought, Well, that doesn't really apply. I love and am loved by my boys, my husband, my family, my friends. I'm already open and taking that risk. Then God poked me in the back, tapped me on the shoulder, whispered in my ear... (Wait, I am not a crazy person. I don't mean He actually poked me or any of that. I didn't actually hear a voice. But it was the same as if I had...)
So, I'm sitting there, almost smirking to myself about how I've already got this one handled, and then... Bam! Gibbs Slap to the head.... (Come on, you watch NCIS don't you? Mark Harmon rocks!) Anyway, I get this mental slap-to-the-back-of-the-head and the not exactly whispered.... "What about Me?"

As usual, He's right, and I'm wrong.
Do I love God? Yes!
Do I go to worship? Yes!
Do I pray regularly? Yes!
Do I try to go about my daily life as I think He might want me to? Yes.
Do I participate in handbells and other groups at church? Yes.
Do I read and study and reflect? Yes.
Is my heart completely open and fully taking the risk of loving and being loved by Him? No.

That's a little shocking isn't it? It's my secret (not-so-secret now...) confession. I am still afraid. I am still worried about offending people who might not agree with me. I am still worried that people will think I'm 'one of those religious nuts'. I am not comfortable talking to people about God, or telling them that I will pray for them.   I am worried about being judged. I still isolate myself from God, even though I know that He is always with me, always supporting me, always loving me. Sad, right?

I had a friend ask me the other day if I had given up anything for Lent, or if that was just something Catholics do. And I couldn't say it. I wrote out this beautiful post about it, obviously have it well thought out and am doing it everyday, but I couldn't say it. I was afraid. And then I was ashamed at not taking the awesome opportunity to share with her.   So I tried to start telling her, but it just came out a jumbled mess that didn't make much sense. I wasn't comfortable talking about how I look at it as giving up something that separates us from God. That was just too risky. And because I haven't let my heart truly, fully open, I lost a perfect opportunity to share God's love. Shame on me.

God, make a fresh start in me,
      shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
   Don't throw me out with the trash,
      or fail to breathe holiness in me.
   Bring me back from gray exile,
      put a fresh wind in my sails!
   Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
      so the lost can find their way home.
   Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
      and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
   Unbutton my lips, dear God;
      I'll let loose with your praise.

Psalm 51:10-13 (The Message)

Something I need to, and will be, working on, to be sure. It's just not something you ignore when you're head slapped and told 'snap out of it' by the real 'boss'. So this is me, saying, "Yes, Boss!" May God help me to unbutton my lips and my heart, so I can sing His praises and share His love.

May you be blessed with a fully open heart,

and filled to overflowing with His love.

It's not all about me

2010-02-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

I wrote before about how we were going to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate my oldest's upcoming birthday.   Not my personal idea of fun, but lots of fun for a mom to watch her boys have such a great time. And I even learned a few things while we were there.

My youngest fell in love with these wave runners that were glued to the floor on the little kids area of the waterpark. He pretty much just wanted to sit on them and shoot water at people the whole time if he wasn't floating in the lazy river. He told me they weren't shooting water out of their squirters, but that they were squirting out cheese. Both days he told me this. I envisioned him riding a giant can of spray cheese, but it quickly got boring to just stand there and watch him squirt ~~water~~ cheese for an hour.   So I did a little yoga. I kid you not. In one of my classes last week, the teacher had us squatting on our toes. It's supposed to be good for the soles of your feet. And she said that if it's really torture for your feet to do this (like it is for mine), that you should try to do it a least once or twice a day for a couple of breaths. So I toe-squatted next to the cheese rider. And I tried to just be in the moment and appreciate how much fun he was having, instead of thinking about how bored I was. He was so happy to be there doing that while the older ones rode the bigger rides, and all I had to do was just ~~stand~~ squat and watch.

Later, we made a second trip to the arcade. Nana generously gave each of the boys money for more tokens, so they all headed off to find their favorites from the first visit. Nick's was one of those claw machines that picks up candy, and if you miss, you get to try again. Perfect for a three year old. Success on every try. He was in heaven.   I, however, was bored again. And I was worrying about him running out of tokens. And not getting any tickets. And not getting to play any of the other games.   Until I remembered how happy the ~~wave~~ cheese rider had made him, and realized this was exactly the same. They were his tokens, so if this made him happy, so be it. Again, I let go of what I wanted, handed him token after token, held out the bag for him to put his candy into, and just enjoyed watching him have fun. In his eyes, it was absolutely perfect, and he wouldn't have changed a thing. All my worrying was for nothing (as it usually is...).

Finally, once we had made it back home and were doing the bedtime thing, I was once again ready to be done and move on. I laid in their room with the boys, waiting for them to go to sleep, silently wishing they would hurry up. Then I thought of just trying to be present in the moment again. I thought how blessed I am to have two healthy little boys to love. And then I thought of three mothers I know, who would have given anything to be in that same situation I was wishing to hurry along. A good friend whose son is very sick and in the hospital again for surgery. A mom who is planning a pancake fundraiser to honor the little girl she lost to cancer, instead of snuggling with her in bed. A mom who lost a son to cancer, and would give anything just to kiss him goodnight and tell him she loves him, even if he were asleep. They wouldn't be wishing to hurry the moment along. They would be wishing for it to never end.

And it hit me. Or God whispered. Or whatever.... It's not all about me! Duh. I really don't think I'm that self-centered, but I definitely needed the reminder that it's not all about ME. It's all about showing love, spreading joy, to those we love. Even showing love, God's love, to people we don't know.

Imagine that. It's not all about me.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me,

I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least

of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Matthew 25:35-40 (New International Version)

May you be blessed by showing love and

spreading joy to someone else.

Eureka! I have found it (or at least a piece of it!)

2010-02-23T23:19:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make.   I am a people pleaser. It's not really such a good thing. I've always cared too much about what people think of me, what they think of how I look, what I'm doing, how my children are acting. Even when I knew I wasn't really doing anything 'wrong', I would often feel.... I don't know, almost ashamed?... if someone disapproved of something about me. Or even if I just thought they disapproved. Or might disapprove. Kind of ridiculous now writing that down, but it's true. It has always been one of my struggles. I want approval.

Yesterday, as I was trying yet again to fit in a trip to pick up my new glasses, I had a conversation in my head. And I used my nice inner voice instead of the mean, judgemental one. "Does it really matter if you fix your hair like you're going out on a date first? They'll still give you your glasses if you're wearing a ponytail.   Just because it's in an upscale area, do you really need to dress up first? No. What you're wearing is fine. It's GOOD ENOUGH!"   So off I went in my jeans and my ponytail to pick up my new glasses. And do you know what happened? I walked in the door, and back out (wearing my new glasses) in about 90 seconds. Now, wouldn't I have felt foolish, and un-necessarily stressed, if I'd spent an hour doing my hair and makeup first?   Yes. Did the girl tell me "Oh these are fun...you look cute!" even with my ponytail and jeans? Yes!

Today, my friend and I met at McD's for an after school play date/mommy talk. There were quite a few people there, and our boys happily played for an hour or so before getting hungry. By the time we got our food, the place had pretty well cleared out, and it was nice and quiet in the play area. We sat all four of our boys down at the table next to us, and let them eat. Well, you know sooner or later, at least one of the boys was going to burp. It just happens. And then another one burped back. And then they giggled. And then another burp. And more riotous giggles. They were being boys and having such fun.   My friend and I looked at each other, recognized the harmless joy in our boys, and I said, "Well, at least it's just us in here and they aren't bothering anyone." I'm a big believer teaching good manners, and good behavior, but also in letting children be children, and letting boys be boys. Burping is a natural bodily function. And somehow those bodily functions are just highly amusing to kids. Go ahead an burp, have a little fun. You're not hurting anyone, and it's not like we're out to dinner somewhere!

About 30 seconds after I said 'at least we're alone in here', we hear from the other side of the post next to us: "THAT IS SO RUDE!!! THEY SHOULD NOT BE BURPING LIKE THAT. IT IS JUST RUDE.   I FIND IT VERY OFFENSIVE."

Oh......crap. Sorry, but that's what I thought. Great, we're NOT alone in here, and now this mom is getting all huffy about it.   I mean, she was harsh. And judgemental. And the words coming at us just felt like venom.    So much so that, before I could form and offer an apology and explain that we had thought we were alone, I was speechless. I was.   I couldn't believe how harshly she was speaking to us, and assuming that she knew everything about how our boys behave ALL THE TIME, and how we've chosen to raise them. (Now, let me just say, she had every right to be offended. And even to ask us to get them to stop. But it was the manner in which she was basically verbally attacking us that wasn't cool.)

In a kind voice, my friend replied with something like, "Yes, boys are like that. Do you have any boys?"
She said: Yes, I do. I have FIVE CHILDREN. (With the tone, And I am a better mother than you!)

And then she continued on, and on, and on. How it was rude. How she doesn't allow that. That her children are not allowed to burp.   Ever. If they absolutely must, they have to leave the room first. Are you kidding me?    How it is a constant battle, but she doesn't let them burp no matter what. How she has five children, and if she can do it, then we could do it also. As if we don't, and have never, taught our children any table manners.

Now, as she continues to lecture us about how we should teach them manners, I have already long since quietly turned to the boys, and asked them to stop, since we are not the only ones in the playarea. They stopped immediately, and ate the rest of their food talking quietly. Not another burp, not even a tiny one.

The mom is quiet for about a minute, and then starts lecturing us more on how it really is something that we should do, we should teach them table manners, and we should not let them burp, and we should this, and blah, blah, blah. Now again, I have no problem with her feeling this way, but I do have a problem with her assuming to know how and what I've taught my children, and how and why I choose to parent them. The venom coming from her was so awful, that I chose to not explain myself to her. Because she wouldn't have understood anyway, that it was a choice, and a rare one for me, that we'd made to let the boys 'let loose' like that in public and just be boys and have fun.

I was so very angry at her presumptions, and her judgements, that I was shaking. I was furious, livid, what other words can I use? My friend even remarked to her at one point that while she felt our boys were being rude, her comments to us were feeling a bit rude as well. She said, 'I have not said one word that has been rude to you' and then continued on with her lecture. No, your words might not be rude in themselves, but your tone and sticking your nose into someone else's business certainly are! Not to mention that the length of her berating us lasted for about five minutes compared to the 30 seconds of burping at the boys table. Eventually, after she had stopped and started again about four times, I leaned around the post to face her and said, "I understand that you were offended. But if you notice, they have long since stopped. I would think that you could let the matter drop now." And thankfully she did.

My friend and I tried to calm down from the adrenaline rush of being verbally attacked, and from being so angry about her presumptions about us and our boys. We're talking about having something to blog about (hmmm... SNL could do a skit of Reba McIntyre.... 'Let's Give Them Something to Blog About...') As wer're talking she says, laughing, "Well, you'll have to find a way to find balance in this now you know!"

That got me thinking, and I actually calmed down and let it go pretty quickly after that. Because I realized that I wasn't trying to please that mom. I knew that I had taught my children table manners and good behavior. I knew that I didn't find any harm in choosing to let them let loose for a change, since we thought we were alone. I knew that I was sorry to have offended her, but that it was truly just an honest mistake about us being alone in the play area. I knew that **gasp!!**, I don't think burping is that big a deal. I knew that I wouldn't have gone back and made different choices.   I knew that I'm confident that both my friend and I are good moms.

And so, Eureka!! I have found it!!   A tiny piece of that balance I'm seeking. It's been percolating, and now I have the actual feeling (not just me telling myself) that I'm good enough the way I am, and that I'm a good mom, regardless of what some other mom might think. An unexpected blessing to sure!

A Simple Guide for Behavior

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—

unless, of course, you want the same treatment.

That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging.

It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face

and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own.

Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,'

when your own face is distorted by contempt?

It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again,

playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part.

Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face,

and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

Matthew 7: 1-5 The Message

May you be blessed with God's idea of good behavior :)

Choosing Thankfulness

2010-02-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I am exhausted, but I am thankful for it means I got a lot accomplished today.

Tonight, my lungs are aching from the cold, but I am thankful for being able to breathe at all, when others struggle with much more serious illnesses.

Tonight, I am freezing, but I am thankful for the roof over my head, and my warm bed to crawl into.

Tonight, I really don't want to put the boys to bed, but I am thankful for the blessing of having not one, but two wonderful children.

Tonight, I am overwhelmed by the toys that I've pulled out to sort, organize, and give away, but I am thankful that we are blessed enough to be able to provide these luxuries for our boys when many others long for simple necessities.

Tonight, I don't really want to read bedtime stories, but I am thankful for the closet full of books that my boys and I enjoy together.

Tonight, I don't feel like drinking water with my dinner, but I am thankful for clean drinking water at my fingertips any time of the day or night.

Tonight, I don't feel like doing laundry, but I am thankful for the clothes we wear and for the laundry room in which to easily get them clean.

Tonight, I am thankful for so many things....

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances,

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (New International Version)

What blessings are you thankful for tonight?

The Big Test

2010-02-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

So, I feel like I've just started this journey, and today is my first BIG TEST. There are what feels like 900 things to do, and I'm already running out of time. I'm feeling very UN-balanced. We're taking my oldest to Great Wolf Lodge tonight celebrate his upcoming 8th birthday. Last year we surprised him with Great Wolf, because I refused to have another chaotic crazy birthday party. The kindergarten one was just too much for me, so I told him we'd have a really cool birthday surprise instead of a party. This year, he had the choice of a small party or another family fun trip, and he wanted to do Great Wolf again, so we're headed there right after school.

This is where my test begins. I'm really struggling today to stay calm, stay focused, and choose what matters most. So, I stopped to write here and take a minute to think about it. First priority...work. I got all my paperwork done (the current stuff at least), and I have my desk cleared out to just the next pile of catch-up, must-do paperwork. That can wait until Monday morning. That's my uncluttering for Lent for the day too.

Next up? Well, I still need to finish packing for the night, clean up the house (my act of kindness for my hubby), pick up my new glasses, get gas for the car, check the P.O. box, get a huge pile of stuff ready for JBF, fix lunch, go by swim diapers, do a few minutes of yoga, read my devotional for the today/tomorrow.... The list is pretty much endless in my head.

So, what's most important? I'm going to put the devotional reading/yoga at the top, because it won't make the cut if I don't. Second, my act of kindness for my husband. Cleaning the house before we leave so it's clean when we come home. Third, I definitely need to finish packing up pjs, etc. That shouldn't take long. The glasses will just have to wait until Monday. Although I really, really want to go pick them up and get to show off their cute new style, it's not the most important thing I need to do. JBF will definitely have to wait, and if I can't get it done for the Ft. Worth sale, that will still be "good enough", since there is always Grapevine a few weeks later. Lunch will have to fit in there somehwere along the way, too.

Want to share the devotion with me? My church sent this out, although I tweaked which version of the bible the verses came from. Some are just easier for me to understand than others. You can find any of them online, at biblegateway.com/passage/ and pick and choose. It's awesome.

Friday, February 19

What makes you a child of God?
Grace-God’s free gift of love that I do not deserve and cannot earn.

Yet you are the holy God,
   ruling from your throne
   and praised by Israel.
    Our ancestors trusted you,
   and you rescued them.
    When they cried out for help,
   you saved them,
   and you did not let them down
   when they depended on you.

Psalm 22:3-5 (Contemporary English Version)

Saturday, February 20

Don’t you have to be good for God to love you?

No. God loves me in spite of all I do wrong.

A Prayer for Protection
I come to you, LORD,
   for protection.
   Don't let me be ashamed.
   Do as you have promised
   and rescue me.
    Listen to my prayer
   and hurry to save me.
   Be my mighty rock and the fortress
   where I am safe.
    You, LORD God,
   are my mighty rock
   and my fortress.
   Lead me and guide me,
   so that your name
   will be honored.
    Protect me from hidden traps
   and keep me safe.
    You are faithful,
   and I trust you
   because you rescued me.

Psalm 31:1-5 (Contemporary English Version)

Okay, see? I chose wisely. I put this at the top of my to-do list and I already feel better. I can't earn God's love, no matter what I do. What a relief to not have to try! (Not that I won't try, but at least I can take it a little easier on myself when I fail to live up to my own standards!) And then reassurance that he will love me no matter what I do wrong. He will protect me, and he will lead me and guide me, if I just let Him. Amen!

May you be blessed by knowing that you don't have to be

"good enough"

for God to love you. He just does!

To Glow in the Darkness

2010-02-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

The last couple of years, I attended the Ash Wednesday service at my church. It was a service that I had never gone to before, and really didn't understand, but I'm in the handbell choir, and we were playing during the service, so there I was. It ended up being one of the most powerful services I've ever attended. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, what on earth is Ash Wednesday anyway? That was the question I was thinking in my head, but too embarrassed to ask. I'd heard of 'giving up for Lent' but never really understood it, or the reasons behind it. I had absolutely no idea of how Ash Wednesday related to any of that either.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the 40 days leading up to Easter. This is called Lent.
According to Wiki, People may decide to observe Lent by giving up a favorite food or drink (e.g. chocolate, alcohol) or activity (e.g., going to the movies, playing video games, etc.) for Lent, or they may instead take on a Lenten discipline such as devotions, volunteering for charity work, and so on. Today, some people give up a vice of theirs, add something that will bring them closer to God, and often give the time or money spent doing that to charitable purposes or organizations.

I still didn't get it. What does giving up my morning coffee have to do with getting closer to God? This seemed like one of those odd, it's-just-the-way-we-do-it, rituals to me, until I attended that first Ash Wednesday service. Then it all clicked. During the service, we were all asked to write down a few things that we would like to change about ourselves. Things that were standing in our way to becoming the person God intends for us to be. I think wrote down something like 'not worrying so much' and 'being a better, less frustrated mom'. (It was the beginning of my search for balance even back then before I had a name for it in my head.)

Then, we came up to the front one by one with our little scraps of paper. And we each took our paper to the candle flame, set it afire, and dropped it in a plate to turn to ash. Physically, visually, giving up those things we had written. Bringing ourselves closer to God.
The service continued, and included us once again coming up to the front, to recieve the ashes on our foreheads. Again, I didn't get it. And I wish I could remember what the pastor said as he used the ashes to draw a cross on my forehead. It was so, so powerful. The most powerful moment I've ever had in church.   I can clearly picture his face, and remember exactly how I felt, how I felt almost as if God himself was reaching out through the pastor to me, marking me as a child of God, but can't for the life of me recall the words.   But the message was this: Lent is about giving up something that separates us from God. Not your morning coffee, or an afternoon piece of chocolate. Something bigger and more important than that. And Ash Wednesday is the reminder when you give that up, when you turn it to ash, you rise up from those ashes, and get just a little closer to God.   At least, for me, that is what Ash Wednesday and Lent are all about.

So, what am I giving up this year? I'm giving up the clutter and chaos in my house.   It keeps me from being as good as I could be for my family, it frustrates me, and it takes up too much of my time that I could use for better things. Gone! To ashes! I commit to turning at least one pile/drawer/cabinet full of clutter 'into ashes' each day during Lent. Check back on Easter and I'll let you know how much of a difference it's made!

But, wait!   There's more!! Again, I'm thankful for this blog, because in writing it I stumbled across this site, spirithome.com which says: Lent is not all about giving things up. It's also about adding good things to our lives or to others' lives -- the kind of good things that follow on what Jesus asks of us. Click on that link for ways to add things for Lent.

I'm going to use a couple of those ideas myself. I will:

Do acts of kindness for people daily, just because the opportunity's there

give them little tastes of God's love.

Spend time daily appreciating the beauty of nature that makes me feel close to God

(Pictures to come, stay tuned!)
Use yoga and prayer as a way to worship daily

(More about how I see yoga as worship coming soon!)

Isaiah 58:6-12 (The Message)
6-9"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
   to break the chains of injustice,
   get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
   free the oppressed,
   cancel debts.
What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
   sharing your food with the hungry,
   inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
   putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
   being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
   and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
   The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
   You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

9-12"If you get rid of unfair practices,
   quit blaming victims,
   quit gossiping about other people's sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
   and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
   your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
   I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
   firm muscles, strong bones.
You'll be like a well-watered garden,
   a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
   rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You'll be known as those who can fix anything,
   restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
   make the community livable again.

What will you give up or add for Lent?

May you be blessed today, during this season of Lent,

and every day.

Math Night...It was a good lesson!

2010-02-16T20:56:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day, and I spent a lot of it looking forward to getting to yoga class tonight. I've had more than two weeks of classes now, and I love them. All of them, doesn't matter which class or instructor. I hate having to miss several days in a row though. This has happened when I can't get there on Fridays, sleep in and miss Saturday mornings, and then also miss Sunday because of the Super Bowl and Valentines Day. I can really feel it. I am tight and sore. I want to go to yoga!! I managed 40 minutes at home last night, but without the heated room, it's just not the same. Today, however, there is a class late enough that I can make it after the hubby is home from work. Hooray! Yoga tonight!

I picked the boys up from school, looking forward to yoga tonight, and headed to McD's playland. We've got a now standing date with some good friends to play and socialize after school. It's great for the boys, it's great for us as moms too. Everyone is happy, and we're out of the house not making a mess. It's a win-win blessing all around.

We stayed at the playland until the dinner chaos started, then headed home. Yea! Yoga tonight! I can't wait! We headed in the house for a few minutes to clean out lunch boxes, empty papers out of folders, and put away backpacks. Then we headed out the door to the school's Family Math & Science Night from 6 to 7. Last thing to do before yoga! Yea!

We got to the school right at 6, because I need to leave for yoga at 7!, and headed down to the hall where my oldest's grade level had set up four rooms of math and science activities. We started out building and measuring a paper snowman, and by 6:10, I was already thinking, Hurry up! We're never going to get through all this so I can go to yoga. I found myself telling that voice to relax, it will all work out. This is making my boys happy, that's what matters. A minute or two later.... Arrgghh!! How many buttons do you need to color on that snowman! Come on!! Let's move on! I want to go to yoga tonight!!! I found myself secretly hoping for the huge crowd and crazy chaos that we faced at last year's Math Night. Maybe we'll get to leave early because it will just be too crowded and hard to do anything....so I can go to yoga!

Then, I overheard the mom next to me telling her daughter how to measure her snowman correctly. No, not like that, like this... to the quarter inch! No, the quarter inch... 1 and 1/4. One quarter. One and one quarter. Yes, but don't make the one so big. Do it like this.... And I thought to myself, wow, this is supposed to be fun. They're only supposed to measure to the nearest inch, why all the extra pressure? No grades here, does it really matter if her 1/4 is a little lopsided? Does she even need to write 1/4 for that matter? Just let her have fun with it. And then it hit me. In my head, I'm just as bad as that. I'm the fun-hater. Hurry up and color those buttons, because I want to go to yoga! I wasn't being in the moment and accepting the glory of it as it is RIGHT NOW. Right now, I'm being a mom to two great little boys. We're supposed to be having fun together, and instead of being present, I'm worrying about yoga later.

So I let go of yoga, and decided if it happens, great, and if not, then that's great too. I'm going to be present now, have fun, and enjoy my boys. And to quote my oldest, "It...was.....Awe----SOME!!"

Mentally adding 9+8+12+4+5....

and he got it right!

We measured, we added, we glued, and then there was this awesome goopy stuff with cornstarch at the end. And not once did I again think hurry up, or let's go, or but I want to go to yoga!

My boys mixing up the goop

That was FUN! This cornstarch goopy stuff? Way-cool. It's part liquid, part solid. You roll it into a ball in your hand, and then when you let go it turns back to liquid and oozes through your fingers. My boys wouldn't touch it. "Eeeww..... gross... I'm not touching that stuff!" They were fascinated watching me play with it, and let me just say, they missed out on the fun! I could have played with that stuff for quite awhile. Very fun. Actually quite stress-relieving too. And it was such a blessing to gross them out!

I'm so glad that I let go of the yoga and just had fun with my boys. They couldn't stop saying how awesome it was on the way home. "It was Awe---SOME!! (I wish I could type that sing song voice....) Today was the best day ever!" They felt love and joy because I let go of what I wanted and focused on enjoying and loving them instead. I was not giving up and self-sacrificing and then resenting, but changing my priority, and then enjoying it. And I am so thankful for that lesson!

A true blessing and all because I didn't get my way!

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

May you love and be loved as God loves us, and may you be blessed by not getting your way!