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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

United with an old flame

So, I guess you could say that I'm obsessed again.  I love it when this time of year comes around!  I feel as though I have been married to our local community center again lately.  As the warm weather seasons are quickly approaching us again, I figured it was time to try to get back into shape.  Old shape would have meant new wardrobe and and bad financial choices.  I'm not sure why I do this to myself, eat like a pig 8 months out of the year to sweat like a pig for the other 4. 
So anyways, I've set some goals, that I'll maybe share with you another time, and have been working my little heart out. For he past five weeks my routine has consisted of 5-6 cardio and strength training workouts and 2-3 lap swimming sessions each week.  I love how I feel after all of this and I hope that I can keep it up.  Since I hate diets, this is what I'm doing to prepare for shorts and swimsuits. 
Share with me what it is that your doing to prepare yourself for summer, or maybe your naturally blessed and don't have to do anything.  
HAPPY SPRING!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

feeling like a bad mom

It's a terrible feeling, sending your children to bed after an evening of arguments.  My DD and I really seemed to hit it off tonight and it sure wasn't on the right foot if you know what I mean.  Now I'm spending time by myself wondering what I have done wrong as a parent.  Where did I mess up?  Although I'm sure that this won't be the last time I ask myself these questions, and I'm sure that I'm doing a fine job of parenting, it just kills me when we have these horrible days. 

But, my last words to her with a smile tonight were....
I'm your mom and I'll always be your mom,
Your my daughter and you'll always be my daughter,
And I love you and I will always love you!
And nothing can ever change that!

Now, I'm off to bed, but first I'm going to pray over my sleeping children that I have been blessed with and love ver so much.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Spring!

Oh how wonderful. 
Spring is in the air and the snow is melted. 
The grass is still brown but green in some spots. 
The bikes are out of storage and the band aids are stocked.
Boats are being uncovered and cleaned.
Signed up for summer ball.
Streaming through thoughts of flowers and vegetables.
Explaining why it's still light at bedtime.
Windows are open and the fresh smell of spring is all through the house.
Boots are ready to be packed and spring jackets are out.
Birds are chirping and the sun is shining.
Please Spring, stay in the air.
Oh how wonderful this just might be.

Restaurant etiquette

Apparently my job might be getting to me this week, so this is what I had to write...

Part I : For Adults


Upon entering a restaurant, if you have to walk by a Please Wait To Be Seated sign to seat yourself....... then don't expect prompt service any time soon. Waiting to be seated just may have been quicker after all.

When you have been seated at a particular table, don't get up and move to a different one on your own..... ask someone kindly if it would be a problem to switch tables to better accommodate you. There usually is a rotation of tables between servers. (And bring your menus with you if you move!)

When your server has asked if your ready to order or if you would like a few more minutes, don't tell them that your ready and then take you time to decide between your top 4 choices. We have plenty of other things that we can be getting done while you are finalizing your decision.

Listen closely and communicate with your server. There's probably nothing that drives me more nuts than when I make a trip to a table and ask "is there anything else that I can get you right know other than a refill on your soda?" and the customer rudely replies, "yeah, some more pop!" (Isn't that what I just said?)

I understand that it's all great and dandy to go out to eat and have someone wait on us hand and foot, but it is very hard to be an excellent and efficient server when you are repeatedly making trips back and forth to the same table because they decided they would tell you everything they needed before the end of the evening, one item at a time. As if you can't multi-task?!

Don't continue to shake your empty glass of ice, irritating everyone around you, while trying to get your servers attention. Chances are they probably already noticed that you needed another beverage and are trying to get you one as quickly as possible. Or, simply make eye contact to draw attention to your empty glass.

Tell your server immediately if there is a problem with your meal. Don't wait until almost everything is gone and then decide to complain about it. Chances are that you will not get any compensation since you waited until everything was gone. Apparently it was still okay to eat so NO you won't get your money back or something FREE!

As a server who depends on her tips as her main source of income, here comes a huge pet peeve..... If you cannot afford to tip correctly then you should not be eating out!

This list here is to just name a few things that might just make your next trip out to dinner a little bit more enjoyable for you and your server.


Friday, March 12, 2010

Five Question Friday

Okay, so I'm excited to tell you that today is my very first time participating in the Five Question Friday.  I've been following it a while now, but I thought that today would be a great day to start since these are some of the questions that I have been getting asked lately. 

So, here's to those of you who want to know my answers...
 (And when your done, hop over to Mama M's to see what she had to say)


1. How much time do you spend on the computer a day?

Well, I feel as though I should be extremely embarrassed to admit this answer, however I'm not, well maybe a little bit.  Anyways, does probably too much count for an answer?  I guess it depends who your talking to.  Regardless of how much time, does it even matter as long as everything is done by the time the fam gets home?  Alright, I'll just tell you that it's A LOT!!!  If mama ain't got her screen time then nobody's happy ;)

And I still ask myself how I can't keep up with my blog posts as much as I would like.  (I'll let you know that answer when I figure it out.)


2. Will you pay for your children's college or raise them to pay for their own way?
It's funny that this question came up since I was just talking about this lately.  My DH and I have partially decided that the two children we have may be all that we have, since we would like to help provide for them as much as possible.  We definitely plan to teach them responsibilities and good money management as they become teens so that they can manage their money wisely and help contribute to paying their way through school. However we understand the importance of extended education and plan to help them out with such expenses, but only to get them up and going. 
I guess we'll see, only times will tell!


3. Have you ever been in a car accident?
I feel like answering this question could possibly set me up for a curse, but then again I guess that I could count this one time. 
Shortly after my high school best friend and I had our license, we were following each other back home from a day of shopping in the town.  We were both waiting at a stop sign for an opening so that we could pull out onto the highway.  As a break in traffic came I saw her begin to pull out slowly, so I began to follow her slowly.  As I looked to check again that there was enough room for me to pull out behind her, I began to accelerate until I was stopped by her bumper.  She apparently decided that she was going to wait at the sign a little longer, who knows.  To add the humor of these two blondes, they decide to get out and check the damage (there wasn't any, absolutely no trace of anything that had happened which saved our butts) and then just sat with our cars practically in the middle of the road to chat about it for awhile. 
But then again, if that's only the worst?!?!

4. What is your favorite book?
I really don't like to admit it, but hmmm... I don't think I have a favorite book.  You see, I've always wanted to be one who loved to read novels, but I just can't do it.  I'm not sure if it's because it seems to take me so long, or if I just truly can't get into it.  On the other hand I do enjoy reading magazines occasionally and I also like Christian books that have to deal with self improvement.  Okay.... and I love to read some of my favorite blogs!
5. Do you make your bed everyday?
Do I make my bed everyday????..........  Well, I'm starting to finally get the hang of it.  I would probably say that I make it about 5/7 days a week.  I can't seem to keep our room very clean, so when I make my bed it helps me to feel better about the other part of the mess that consumes the remainder of the room.
Hey, whatever works!!!


To post your very own Five Question Friday visit here to find out how.
~HAPPY FRIDAY~


MckLinky Blog Hop




Thursday, March 11, 2010

I'm still here...

I know that I haven't posted in a while and I'm sorry to all of you who keep coming back to check in.  I hope that this one time won't discourage you from following my posts.  Anyhow, I've been so consumed with something that I want to share with you all.  Hoping that maybe someone can relate, or at least it will help me to understand something that I have been struggling with, more clearly.  It is all slowly coming together so keep your eyes open for the post. 

On another note, I am not a fan of all of this rain we're getting right now.  It leaves me with a cold and damp feeling and I'm constantly chilled to the bone.  I guess, on the bright side of things (even though bright hasn't been in sight for days now) the rain is quickly melting the snow.  Which will mean less snow to melt after our next snow storm (there's always one in April).

Enjoy your Thursday~

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Oh my buns...(but not that you care)

So I signed in for my second week of boot camp this morning.  I never thought that I would make it through the first day.  I was sure to be a boot camp drop-out.  But NO, I was there checking back in today for week number two.  And I think that I forgot to mention somewhere in there that I sat on the toilet last week from Sunday morning until, well umm, I think that my DH finally came in to help me off Monday morning.  We definitely worked the buns on Saturday.  Yep, it was Monday because he needed my help getting the kids ready and off to school.  I did call the doc and he reassured me that it wasn't a medical problem.  So I decided to diagonse myself with, I think I called it "totally out of shape", yup that's what it was, just plain totally out of shape!

So this got me thinking,  I wonder if God is this sore when he's constantly working on getting me spiritually in shape?  Because I know that I'm not nearly in shape there either.

~Looking forward to next week~

Friday, March 5, 2010

You're right! It ISN'T my job.

This will not be a usual thing on my blog (to repost links to great posts) but I felt that this was very appropriate.

This story really hit my heart.  It helped me to sit back and re-anaylize my parenting job.  I have been so consumed with wanting my daughter to be happy so often that I guess I've looked passed the depths that I've gone for her happiness. 

I now have a better understanding that it isn't my job to make my children happy, but what can I teach my children that will allow them to be happy.

 I highly recommend reading this well written post by It's Almost Naptime.

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-dont-want-my-children-to-be-happy.html

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Letting go of the Promised Land

Today I woke up finding my heart in a world of pain.  My DH and I had finished our evening with not the greatest of conversations.  I had made such an awful decision to ask such a question as so right before bed.  Here he was, sure of what was going to happen after the lights went out; and then BOOM!!! the storm sets in and we went to bed upset.

I decided to start out the question with my most infamous line... "I don't want you to get mad at me, but I just want...".  A question that is asked probably every day more times than any husband cares to hear.  He listened very annoyed by quietly to my request with my soft and sweet voice and when I was through he made my tears run (not that it's very hard to do or anything).  He shot me down.

I catch myself more times than I would like too, in a wanting phase, if you would?  I think they call this discontentment?  A place I fall far too often.  I am so aware of this sinful action that I feel, but yet it is so hard to break.  It's like I go through phases.  I will do such a good job at really trying to be content for a period of time and then it's like I feel that the world owes it all to me or something for being so content for a whole couple of weeks.  One of those... I've been good so now can I have blank

Fortunately God does not work this way.  Although sometimes I just want him to grant my wish like some genie in a bottle, but then again what kind of life would I have then?  God rewards those who wait and call on him.  HIS timing is PERFECT!  But sometimes waiting can feel like eternity.  And I begin to wonder if He will ever meet me where I am.  Will I ever get to experience that desire?  It's the unknown.

Thankfully I have come to know my God.  I understand that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord. (Romans 8:28)  I trust that someday my discontentment will be overcome by the contentment that only the Lord can provide for me.  I know that there will be a day where I will no longer ask for the I wants, but I will be thankful for the I haves.  I will understand that it is useless for me to get upset about everything that I can't have or afford, because God will provide the necessities.
I want to change the way I live.  I want am going to be a testimony of my new life verse...

~Philippians 4:11-13
I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.

Amen

Until then, this Israelite needs to let go of the idea of the Promised Land, and take His presence in my life for
what it's worth.

Monday, March 1, 2010

He'll help me through

On the list of the top ten things that brake a moms heart, you will find my #7 reading... my child crying when I drop him/her off at school/daycare.

My heart has been breaking from this lately.  My Little Man has been torturing me lately with his separation problems.  My mind is boggled with confusion.  I am constantly asking myself why this is happening.  As a mother you are naturally trained to think of every possible reason that he may be doing this.

We prepare our children for what's to come and happen.  We have strong beliefs in our house that it develops maturity in our children to be open and honest.  We feel that just as we like to know what is going to take place in the near future, so do our children.  This allows for them to prepare themselves emotionally and physically for what is to come. 

So we've prepared Little Man religiously for each day that follows today.  He understands when he goes to school and he understands when he goes to daycare.  He gets it!  He even knows how long he will be at each place (there's nothing that gets past him now that he's learning to tell time).  And yet everyday we have a gigantic meltdown.  He uses every excuse under the sun as to why he doesn't want to leave the house. 

My husband and I have continued to be firm and together on the same page with this situation.  We try very hard to not allow our children to win these battles.  We have remained strong and consistent with what is expected from our children.  And yet through all of this, we still offer positive affirmation.  We give him praise for a job well done. 

Even when I feel that I can't take this anymore and I just want to give in, I know that God has put these wonderful women in my life.  These amazing angels that help me to push forth everyday knowing that they love my son so much and they watch over him at school and daycare as one of their very own.  We know that he's in good hands and that makes it all the easier.

But, please Lord hear my cry.  I need this to stop.  I know it's not nearly as bad as how it makes me feel but it's breaking my heart.