Thursday, January 29, 2009

25 Weird things about me

Ok, so a friend of mine sent me this on facebook and I did it too, so i thought i would post it here :)
Rules: Once you've been tagged, write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.
(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
1. ok lets start off easy... my favorite color is red. But not a orangy red or a pinky red a real true red. I also love black.
2. I love Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, as well as Nightmare before Christmas. I am pretty much obsessed with all of it!
3. I love pirates! Don't know why because the real pirates are REALLY nothing to mess with, but Jack Sparrow makes it look so fun, LOL!
4. I love Vampires. And I loved them even before Twilight! Loved that too, but really have been obsessed with vampires.
5. Love Harry Potter book, and I am doing Hogwarts Homeschooling with my girls, too fun!
6. I love sci-fi and role playing gaming.
7. I love computer games, video games and World of WarCraft.
8. I love to read self help books and informational books. And i get millions of books, then read about 100 pages of each and put them down and pick up something new.
9. I want to have a self sufficient lifestyle and live on a farm and have chickens, and goats and alpaca, and bees and a huge garden and fruits and everything i would need to survive if the world ended.
10. I love to sew and make things, but i never have made things for myself.
11. I am terrified of drowning or being eaten by a shark. I don't know why, but I am so scared to go into deep water for fear of being eaten by a shark or drowning. Though i know how to swim.
12. I don't like chocolate. It is true. I don't like chocolate ice cream, pudding, milk, cake. I will occasionally eat chocolate with or flavored things. But on a whole I don't like it.
13. I love camels and toffees. Butterscotch is good too.
14. I wanted all 3 of my girls to be a boy, and then when i got pregnant with my fourth i prayed for another girl! ROFL!!!
15. I lettered in high school in Theater and went to college on a theater scholarship.
16. I can't dance, I am more coordinated now than i ever was as a kid, but i cant dance worth beans.
17. I have bad handwriting and can't draw anything more than stick figures. And even those are questionable.
18. My husband and I were engaged after our first date. And married 3 months later.
19. I always feel bad when I go out with people or go to their house, because I always talk too much. And never realize it till i am gone.
20. I used to own a lingerie business. It was lots of fun, and very... enlightening. LOL!
21. I started home schooling my girls this year and i think i am learning as much as they are.
22. Being a mother is the most rewarding thing I have ever done and is the greatest joy and sense of accomplishment in my life.
23. My husband is my best friend and my favorite person and I couldn't live without him.
24. Due to my mom being a Jewish convert to Christianity, and her family all being Jewish, we observe some of the Jewish holidays.
25. The more kids i have, the more i want :)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Angel Style!

Ok! So! Angel dressed herself the other day. Which isn't a new thing! She does it everyday. Every day is a new adventure to see what it is that she will wear. She loves it and insists on doing it herself, most of the time. Sometime she will ask for my help, I will pick something out, and she will look at it and say, (every time) "But it isn't blue mommy. My favorite color is blue". LOL!

So anyway, the other day Angel dressed herself as usual. But when I looked at her, I thought to myself, you know, she looks like the epitome of me right now! And the epitome of Bakersfield! For those of you that don't know we lived in a tiny town of 800 people in Star Idaho before moving back to California. And James is from Orange County, and I was born in Los Angeles. I consider Bakersfield to be the in between of Star and Los Angeles. Star was a small farming town with lots of families and a close knit community atmosphere. Los Angeles...well... I don't think i need to explain living there!

So this is what i find her wearing:

Lets start at the bottom and work our way up!

1. Cowgirl boots. Pink cowgirl boots. I loved the statement these made. A bit funky and a whole lot of country. These reminded me of me because we are trying really hard right now to get back to basics and simplify our lives. We are starting a large garden, we are trying to have chickens and bees and do some farming stuff.

2. The yoga pants. Those reminded me of my crunchy side, as my friend Amanda calls it! LOL! The side of me that wants to eat better and not eat processed foods. Eat organic and healthier. That i do attachment parenting with my kids and home school them. That i am starting to make homemade foods to eat more and more instead of store bought. That I am learning to knit and sew and do more. And yes i do need to start doing yoga! I really think it would help with my sleeping better...oh wait, you have to have a baby that sleeps through the night to get that!

3. The fleece polar top. Ok so this is her preppy side! Her upper class, want to make something of myself and succeed in life self. Her urban preppy life! LOL!

4. Last but not least, her hat and bow! Her, ultra chic boutique look! Representing all her cuteness and girlieness. And representing all of my creativity and sewing outlet. My love of all things girlie (now, never used to be that way). My love of fabrics and textiles, of creating and making. Of color and artistry and imagination and fantasy.

Ok, now i know that you might all think that i am stretching it a bit, but when i looked at her dressed this way, this is how i felt and what i thought of. And i thought of how much, one simple little outfit, put on by a 3 year old, represented who i was and what was going on in my life. It was like the quote that Heath Ledger, the late actor, said "You learn most about yourself, through your child. And it is so true.

I am blessed everyday by my children and the things that they teach me and the way that i grow from knowing them and being their mother.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

New Years Resolutions! Uh... Yearly goals!

As i have had time to reflect on the past year we have had a lot of good things come to our family as well as several challenges. First good thing from this last year is the addition of our beautiful son Christian James to our family. The second wonderful thing to happen was that Brittany was baptized into the church. Another wonderful thing that we had happen was Angel potty trained! WooHoo!
A few of the challenges that we faced were, James becoming very sick for quite a long time and being in and out of the hospital for months. But the blessing was they found out what was wrong and he is now feeling much better.
Another challenge that we have faced is that James lost his job. However, we are praying that the new year will bring him much success in this area.
We also faced the challenge of having to once again change schools. As the private school the girls were in was totally inadequate. However the blessing was that we found a wonderful charter school for them to go to that i am able to home school them through.
Another great blessing was that the school has provided us with many new friends. And it helped us to find the homeschooling yahoo group that we now belong to and have many new friends through as well.
This last year has truly brought many welcomed blessings into our lives and helped us to realize what is important.
So i have found that when i say i have New Years Resolutions, i never do them. So i am now having yearly goals. I have so many of them that i decided that i would write them all down. but more than that i decided that if i am going to try and accomplish them that i need to work on them and look at them daily. So i took my list of yearly goals and i added them to my outlook. It pops up every morning as a task that i need to do. Since i am at my computer so much during the day anyway, i thought this would be a good way to remind me of the things that i want to accomplish for the year.
Well my goals have started off much like they have in years past. But i have a few new ones that i am going to be working on as well. i accomplished a few of my goals last year. Not as many as i would have liked to, but more than i did the year before so i feel like i am getting better and growing :)
So here are some of my goals for this year:

1) To come closer to the Lord through daily scripture study, prayer and church attendance. Church attendance is the hardest one for me. I have adult ADD and sitting for 3 hours is torture. It is so hard for me, but it is my goal to be a weekly church attender. i know that if i want my children to grow up and be active in the church and be weekly church attenders, that i need to set the example for them. I also need to go to my church activities and do my Vi sting Teaching monthly.

2) To lose 40 lbs. Ok, so i have already started working on this. I joined weight watchers and i have been doing pretty well at it so far. I gave up over Christmas,because i was at my moms, and that was just a major no go! But have been doing well the last 2 weeks. It is hard though because i am still nursing and i have never been able to lose weight while nursing. It is hard also because my weight varies so much on the scale due to the nursing.
I found this great article and i think it has some wonderful information on what not to eat. The first one is my biggest downfall, i love fried foods! Btu i am going to try to be better this year!
http://www.diet.com/dietblogs/read_blog.php?title=5+Foods+A+Woman+Should+NEVER+Eat&blid=12189

3) To have a closer and more loving relationship with my Husband and children. I know that in the business of homeschooling, gymnastics, park day, house cleaning, nursing, sewing, church activities, friends and everything else we have going on, sometimes the hugs, the snuggles, the quiet times and the i love yous get left out. it is my goal to daily try to improve my relationships with my family. More hugs and kisses, I love yous and i appreciate yous. As well as Family Home Evening weekly, daily scripture study and prayers.

4) Downsize and simplify. I soooooo need to downsize and simplify my life. I have been consumed with material possessions for too long. The constant buying buying buying got way to far out of control last year. Mostly form having my own wholesale fabric group, where i bought every fabric under the sun. So this year I am downsizing and simplifying everything i have. it is my goal to go through all my stuff and to get rid of all the junk that has been sitting around my house taking up room, that i don't really want or need. And to donate it to charity, or people who need it.

5) To do my family history work. I need to do my family history this year. it is no longer acceptable for me to say, I'll get to it. I need to do it, and i need to do it now!

6) I want to improve my skills in certain areas. i want to improve my knowledge of my camera and photography and how to take better pictures. I want to improve my cooking skills. i want to be able to cook, good wholesome fresh foods for my family, not just easy and convenient junk that has little nutritional value. I want to improve my sewing skills more. By leering how to do pockets and zippers and other things to be able to enhance my garments even further.

Well, that certainly isnt all but that is all but those are the most important ones that iw ould like to accomlish this year.
So Happy New Years everyone! And pray fro my success as i pray for yours!