How to Sleep Well

Life is Good: rest easily

The first day of the new year is in the books!

How to Make 2017 a Happy New Year

Life is Good: we are a fresh lump of clay ready to become anything!

Since we are a house full of sickies, I was perusing the interwebs last night and found this gem. I think it is perfect for the first day of a new year.

My wish and my prayer for any eyes that fall upon this post is that 2017 is filled with joy, good health, and peace. GLYASDI.

credit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/d8/ad/73/d8ad73379ff36914384b85dbfab0e30c.jpg

What to do on New Year's Eve when you are sick and have kids

Life is Good: new beginnings are great

I admit it. I'm sick. After taking a round of antibiotics for a bacterial lung infection, double ear infection, sinus infection, and pleurisy (ouch!), I caught a virus while traveling to KS for Christmas. Sigh. Not to mention that Grant caught the same bug and so did our Big Kid. So we canceled our babysitter. I just ordered pizza. And it's going to be an early night for everyone (with hopes of waking up to 2017 with renewed energy!).

But not before I do one thing. Not before I get rid of the junk of 2016. 

I tend to hold on to stuff. Emotions. Experiences. Memories. And not just the good ones. I've been told many times that I am an empath. I don't know if that's exactly it, but I do know that when I feel, I feeeeeeeeel. And I've come to accept that when you live with your heart wide open, you feel all the beautiful feelings with incredible glory. And it is uh-mazing. But it also means that you feel the sad stuff, too, with depth. But for me, it's worth it. I would not give up the undefinable, no word really describes it energy that I get from smiles and laughter and love...for anything. 

But as I grow, I know that I need to find better ways of dealing with the depth of sadness, guilt, and regret that comes along with feeling so fully.

An idea came to me about a month ago from out of the blue (thanks, God) and I'm determined to do it. Tonight, I wrote the things from 2016 that caused me sadness or pain, the things that drained me emotionally, on pieces of paper. The people who weren't kind, the friends who let me down, the clients who didn't appreciate me, the mistakes, the failures, the disappointments, the negativity, and the pain of loss. And I put those things written on pieces of paper into a glass jar. I turned the lid on the jar tightly. And I said goodbye. Goodbye to all of those not so great things that took up space in my heart. So that I might have more room for the joy of 2017. 

So here's to letting go. Here's to release. Here's to joy! Happy 2017!

Music for Two Year Olds

Life is Good: Thanks to Taylor Swift and Amazon Prime

Our two-year old is utterly bored with me and I am sweating & panting from chasing him throughout the house. He's our own little weapon of mass destruction. I mean, wild child. I mean, spirited child. I mean, cherub. Yes, he's a sweet little cherub. Right now. Because, today, how we are keeping the moment pleasant is with Baby Rockstar: Taylor Swift. 

And, breathe.

Gratitude Month, Day 10 & 11

Life is Good: cupcakes for everyone!

I know, I know. I don't have a Day 8 post. It was a complicated day for me personally. I've written it in my head, but I don't know when I will type it out. I hope you will hang in there with me while I attempt this one post a day thing. If I were a morning person and could get up a little early to write, that would be awesome. But I have never been a morning person. EVER. EVER. And these days, I'm not a night owl, either. Sigh...

Day 10:

Today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to celebrate our Little One's birthday this weekend (a week+ early) with little friends. There will be balloons and balls and boxes to climb into and out of...and cupcakes!

So grateful for the internet and those who share their recipes! I grabbed this one from allrecipes.com and adjusted it a bit. Here it is:

Susie's Eggless Chocolate Chipped Cupcakes

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups ground Enjoy Life brand semi-sweet mini chocolate chips* (due to nut allergies, we can't use traditional cocoa powder like the original recipe suggests)

3 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegetable oil 

3 cups water

3 tablespoons vanilla extract (I use Madagascar)

Directions:

1. Sift together dry ingredients into a large bowl. Set aside.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together wet ingredients (using a spoon).

3. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and let sit five minutes to let the baking soda do its "magic".

4. Spoon batter into cupcake pans. I filled mine a little over 3/4 full to get cupcakes that rose enough for a bump but did not run over.

*I used my mini cuisinart and ground the chips to a rough powder so that the cupcakes appear to be "chipped" but spread out more than chips would, thus making the flavor throughout the batter, not just when you take a bite with a chocolate chip in it. Grinding the chips much longer would (hopefully) color the batter to a light brown and taste more like a chocolate cake. I haven't tried this yet, though!

Our Little One loves doggies. So much so, that when he sees any animal, he says, "Arf! Arf!" before saying the real noise. In my mind, I had this brilliant idea to make dog faces on top of his birthday cupcakes. In my mind, it was brilliant. In reality, oh, man. These are, quite possibly, my worst cake & frosting fail thus far. And I've had a lot of fails! I'm pretty sure my cakes & cupcakes are banned from Pinterest! ; )

Day 11

Veterans Day--so grateful for veterans and the people who love them for their many sacrifices. Here's a graphic that I posted on my personal Facebook page:

Quite a few of my Facebook friends posted photos of themselves when they served in the military. Some of them I never knew had been in the military. All of them looked so young. I was especially taken aback by a guy just a year or two older than me. In his photo, he has camouflaged his face and is carrying a machine gun. His mother commented that she really didn't want to see that photo. I understand why. It was really jarring to me. I'm just going to stop there. So many thoughts, but I'm just not articulate enough today to make sense of them. But it is truly jarring to me to think that very, very young people---whom we might even call kids---eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old---are the ones who, time & time again, were protecting our freedoms, fighting for the freedoms of others, losing limbs, giving their lives...

And on Veteran's Day, I'm grateful that my Grandma told me this story about her brother, Bob. I still remember sitting in my grandparents' "front room". Grandma was peeling potatoes in "her chair" by the piano and told me, solemnly, this story about the last time she would see her brother alive. 

Gratitude Day 9

Life is Good: oftentimes because of the kindness of friends 

Today I am so very grateful for this lady. 

Equal parts Joanna Gaines' number one fan and Mother Theresa with quite a bit of sassafras thrown in there, my friend, Karmin is one of the best. She's loving, nurturing, and supportive. And sends me memes like this one to show me that she knows me well:

She's the kind of friend who, when you jokingly but seriously post on Facebook (when you are a million months pregnant and on bedrest) that all you can think about is pie, she goes and gets a pie and puts it on your porch and then texts you to tell your husband to check the porch and give you the pie. And when I mean she is the kind of friend, I mean she does this exact thing. Amazing. A drop everything to help kind of friend. Not just to me. To everyone. And this is just one example of the gigantic nurturing heart that beats inside of her. 

I never would have guessed in a million years that someone who I didn't know five years ago would be so important to me today. That's the beauty of life. Unexpected blessings. And Karmin is a huge blessing to everyone who knows her. 

Happy birthday, Karmin! You deserve a hundred more years of happiness & delight. Thanks for being a cherished friend. I hope this is your best year yet!

Day 7 of my month of gratitude

Life is Good: so good I'm super busy!

Day 7 of my month of gratitude whizzed by. Some days, most days, I get up and then all of a sudden, it's time to pick up the kids from school and then boom! bedtime. As fast as they go by, the days are long. Having an almost two year old keeps us on our toes. Especially while managing basketball practice and two sets of homework. (I still hate homework!) (Shhhhh!)

Today, my gratitude is for healthy children. And the delight I get in being a mother. I enjoy being a mama so much. The parenting part can be hard some days. Especially now that the Big Kid is in third grade. So many new words and concepts to help him navigate through. And friend stuff. Oh, man. The friend stuff can be tough. But the mama part is easy. The love overflows. The laughter rings throughout the house. Smiles abound and every inch of me feels warm like sunshine. Being a mama is my happy place, for sure.

Some days, I want to hit the pause button. Some days---like Saturdays when we're all together playing board games or making art or snuggled up reading on the couch---those days I want to pause for long lengths of time. But I can't do that, so instead, I commit it to my memory. I'm pretty sure that I will look back and see that these are the best days of our life as a family. And I'm grateful for each one.