One Day Mason Will Hate Me

One day my son will hate me for the pictures I have taken of him over the past almost 3 years. But when you have those moments where you just need to snap the shot and live with the consequences, as a mom, I think it's worth it.

Last night Mason insisted on going to bed in costume. I'll show you pictures in a moment, but what the best part was, I failed to tell Aaron. So when Mason woke up crying last night and Aaron went to check on him, he was shocked to find Mason sitting on his bed looking like Super Hero Fancy Nancy.

He looked as if he was fighting crime. Pay no attention to the pillowcaseless pillow. He doesn't like them for some reason. Takes them off every time I put one on.

At any rate, this picture will be one that he hates me for showing any future girlfriends he might have. HAHAH But when I snap one of him so peacefully sleeping in his super hero Fancy Nancy getup like this....

I don't really care who sees or how much he hates me! :) I love my boy.

Peace

Raising Adults, Not Children

Do you ever compare your mothering style to other moms who seem to have it all together?

I'm constantly thinking "Wow, she is an amazing mom?" or "She has awesome kids, I wonder what I'm doing wrong?!?!" or my favorite "Why can't my kids be like her kids?"

That last one is the harshest one I ever say to myself. I have to constantly remind myself that all kids are different. I couldn't be a mother to another mother's children. Just like another mother couldn't be the right mother to my kids. I have several friends that are WAY stricter than me with their kids and I have several that are WAY more lenient than I am. I'm unsure where my mothering style fits, or if it's even working.

I've witnessed myself many times drawing conclusions or judging other moms on how they do things. It's either because they don't know any better, or they were raised in a strict home (or the complete opposite), maybe they had addicts as parents which is why they are completely anti-anything that can be addictive, or maybe they just think that society will be a good learning experience for kids.

I think for me, I'm a middle of the road parent. There are things I'm adamant about my kids understanding and then there are things that I'm adamant they learn on their own. I didn't grow up in an overly strict home. My parents set the ground rules and then there were consequences. I didn't usually disobey my parents. I wonder how they were able to instill that feeling of respect in me? I'm not saying I wasn't mouthy as a teen or dramatic, but I didn't go out drinking, or stay out all night with a boy, or skip school too often, or fail my classes. Because I respected my parents.

I look at my kids and I wonder if I'm instilling this feeling of "respect" in them for me (and Aaron). I think that is what alleviated a lot of my behaviors when I was a teen. I totally respected my parents. I didn't want to disappoint my dad or embarrass my mom. I just don't know how to be sure to instill that in my kids.

I know that I'm doing one thing right and that is setting a Christian example for them and taking them to church. Perhaps that's where my folks went right. I went to church as a teen.

I know that by spending time with my kids, listening to them, playing with them, doing arts and crafts with them, and letting them mess up will all play a role in our ability to communicate when they are teens. I know I have several years until then, but I'm raising adults, not children.

I want these two that have been given to me and Aaron to be contributing, responsible, respectful, and dependable adults. Sometimes I worry I'm really screwing up!

Peace.

St. Patricks Day

So, it's what ... only a few days late, right!?! Well anyway, we don't really "celebrate" St. Patricks Day in our house. Not because I think anything ill of the holiday, I really just don't know how to celebrate an Irish holiday. LOL

So the one thing I did do, because my kids love all holidays, is make them rainbow pancakes. Last year, I made shamrock pancakes, which were a hit. So I thought, I'm gonna step up the notch this year and do rainbow waffles, but I didn't have enough flour. What a bummer!!!

Did you know I can't find my flipping broom???

Anyway, so I made rainbow pancakes. They weren't hard. I made the pancake batter then separated it out into 6 bowls. Then I colored the batter with food coloring. Then I dropped some red as the base amount and then just layered the colors of the rainbow in order. And they made some bright and fun pancakes.

Did you do anything fun for St. Patricks Day?

Artist Daughter

My daughter is in love with art. She loves to draw, color, paint, make things, write stories and then illustrate them. She loves music, musical instruments, singing. She loves art.

I've recently been researching ways to teach her art at home in order to peak her interest a little more. She takes piano lessons, which she LOVES and is doing so well.

So today I had her do some perspective art. I think is what it's called. I put an apple on our dining table and talked with her about how to paint what she saw. She "fake" painted with the paint brush first imagining the details that she was going to put on her paper. We used watercolor as her medium for this task.

Her view of what she was to paint.

She really enjoyed looking at the apple studying it's position on the table, and all the things around it that were in her viewpoint. She put it on the paper. I think next time we'll use a thicker paint that will allow her to manipulate the details a bit better.

Her art!

I gotta admit, I think she did really well. This was her first time trying out this type of art. I love that she has such a desire to do art in all forms! I hope to work more with her on her artistic capabilities and encourage her to seek out more ways to use art in her life.

Peace.

Things I've learned in 7 years....

Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. I cannot believe how fast our seven years of marriage has gone by. Ya know, I don't feel like my kids are growing up fast, but it is hard for me to wrap my mind around being married for seven years.

To some, I know that's not a long time. To others, that is a VERY long time. I know many people who have been married a lifetime, and I know about the amount of people my age who are on their second, some third, marriages.

What is this phenomenon with marriage? Why is it is strange to be married longer than five years?

I was looking at divorce statistics for our nation. I know we're all aware of the 49/50% divorce rate we tout in our country, but did you know that the majority of those divorces happen in the early years of marriage? I didn't.

My parents divorced well after 20 years of marriage, as well as several others. It's amazing to me that when two people get married, all it takes is one person to file for a divorce and the marriage is over. I guess, having been married a mere seven years, that this idea is foreign to me, because we are a team, a pair.

I'm not writing this post because of divorce, but rather because I'm married. And I will not lie to you or anyone, marriage is not easy by any means. And it is sometimes ugly. But for me, it is mostly amazing!

In our seven years of marriage, we have brought two amazing lives into this world. Two little people that will forever impact the way the world functions. We have made some smart and dumb decisions together. But we did them TOGETHER. We have had our fights, sometimes over the top and stupid ones, sometimes fights of passion, sometimes just fights because we weren't connecting like we should.

In all this time watching my husband transform into a man has been this inspiring experience. He is so amazing. I enjoy watching him interact with our kids. Teaching them, disciplining them, raising them. Being a father. It really is a phenomenal experience to watch my once "immatureish" husband at 24 struggle to handle our new baby girl transition into this confident man that knows what he loves and expects about our kids.

And to feel and know his love for me. I can't even begin to explain that! Our first few years were rough, probably like a lot of new marriages. TV, movies, media, make marriage seem so easy, so flawless, so .......... fairytale like. And these things do appear in our marriage. At times, I can't believe how happy we are, how smooth things are going, how well we are communicating. But that didn't happen over our wedding night.

We are two different people who have the same goals in life .. mostly. We want to raise our children to live up to their best and brightest potential. We want to give back to the world. We want to go through life together. We want to rely on each other for EVERYTHING.

I'm always saying I don't just "need" Aaron. I "want" him. I could go through life alone without a partner, but I'm simply not designed that way. I am designed to have a partner in life for the good and bad times. And I am so blessed to have such a winner winner chicken dinner as my husband, partner, friend, father of my children.

If there were seven things I could say to encourage a healthy and loving marriage it would be these things:
1) Love your spouse like you love yourself or better!
2) Sacrificial love .. the kind where you put his or her needs before your own is the best kind.
3) Trust him or her regardless of the demons that are constantly trying to drive your marriage to the grave.
4) Be yourself!
5) Decide to do this together. Two people can be married but living separate lives. Doing life together makes your marriage that much more likely to succeed.
6) Call on God! He is our creator. He created us to be married to each other. Therefore he designed marriage. He knows what it's going to take.
7) It's the simple things. Extravagant gifts, trips, dinners, lifestyles are fun. But if the small little things don't get appreciated, you're unlikely going to enjoy the big things to their fullest.

Peace.

Winter Sunshine Brings Focus

I am a winter person. However, this winter has been extremely hard on me. My son got frost nip in January and ever since, we've been locked indoors. It's been a LONG couple of months. My walls are closing in on me. And just when I'm about to lose my mind with the weather and the nonstop dropping of snow, the sun comes out.

The sun truly does come out! It's like a whole new day and outlook. Yes there is still 3-4 ft of snow in my yard. But the sun came out. My days are brighter. My blinds are open. My mind is somewhat more focused.

So what do you do when you are locked in your four walls for days .. weeks .. at a time? Well I write. :) And this is why I've been absent in my blogging. I am working on a couple of projects. Both of which I am EXTREMELY excited about.

Writing is my passion. As long as I can remember I've been writing my thoughts, poems, short silly stories, blogging. I even got a bachelor's degree in journalism. I love to write. I'm not a fictional writer though. I love to write real life possibilities with a fictional twist. I'm also working on a biography of sorts of an Alaskan character who is no longer living. This should prove to be interesting. From what I've heard about him and from what research I've done. He was an interesting fellow.

My hubby is my muse. He gives me such great ideas and I just go with it. He knows I love to write, and he knows that I find comfort in writing. It's really therapy for me. I write best at night. Which is why you'll see some of my blog posts at the strangest hours in the evening.

I may not be a great writer, but it doesn't hurt to have a hobby or two that you are passionate about. Besides, writing is like any other hobby. The more you do it, the better you become.

As our seemingly endless winter here in Alaska comes to a close, I hope that I am able to get out into nature more and find more inspiration and time to put into my passions. Because writing is only one passion of mine. Nature photography and enveloping myself into nature are my others!

What are your passions or hobbies? Do you find time to put the effort into them? What are your obstacles in focusing on them?

Daily Dose of Vitamin HS -Holy Spirit

 I am having trouble extending the same acceptance that I ask for from others. Do you ever find yourself caught up in your own double talk? Where you want those to accept your behaviors, but you refuse to accept theirs? I find myself doing that more and more as I learn more and more about what Jesus wants from me and my life.

I have a hard time not backing down from seemingly pointless arguments. I make it a necessary point to point out the obvious ill-nature in others. I try to remind myself that I, too, am not perfect in any way. I have fallen, I will fall.

Today I was searching for some answers from Jesus about my stand on people in general. Why can't I be the right one and make it known? Why can't all who hear me, believe? This is just pure arrogance. And it completely blocks out the real message.

People won't hear me, they will hear Jesus. And if I'm the one taking this credit, what does that make me?? I know that getting caught up in quarrelsome conversation that only causes me to argue about Jesus is not healthy. I'm not acting righteously if I'm doing that.

So my question becomes, how do I NOT get caught up in debates that are not spiritually guided? How do I stay away from the feelings of intolerance? What is the direction that Jesus wants me to go in situations like that? I'm still unsure of all those answers. But I know that clearly in 1 Cor. 3:3 Paul says, "You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?"

So it has to be my daily goal to be righteous. It takes a lot of work. A lot of pray. A lot of focus on the Spirit. This is my daily dose of Vitamin HS for today.

Me and Facebook.

Do you ever just get sick and tired of social media; i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace(if it still exists)? And think, what would you do if you got rid of it and went back to snail mail or even .. take a breath .. E-MAIL?!?

As I have been interacting with my family and friends afar over the past few years on Facebook, I've seen many many changes on Facebook. Some I don't mind, some I CANNOT stand. I definitely don't like the ones that change my privacy settings. Look I'm not so paranoid (or arrogant) that I think my children will be targets for child abduction just because their faces are on the Internet. I just think that it is my choice .. and to some extent my right .. to have my pictures private.

I get it, it's the Internet. Don't put things on the Internet that you don't want anyone else to view or know. And the pictures of my children are completely harmless, but they are my children. I guess my rant isn't so much to do with that I dislike Facebook. I think it's a wonderful tool to keep people in contact with each other. I also think it can be used in a malicious way.

I have major problems with people who judge me because of the stuff I choose to put on or not include. I have issues with people who think that I'm a mean person because I didn't invite them to an event and then see pictures of the event on Facebook. Look, this is my life. And I live it how I feel is fit for the well-being of my kids and my husband.

My deal with Facebook is that it can be a huge intrusion into family life, interaction with other humans, the important interaction with our kids. It can be used to cause drama, settle arguments, spread news in a matter of seconds, hurt feelings, get help, get advice. Pretty much anything we need Facebook to do, it can do. But I'm still unsure of why my privacy settings, which are controlled by me, keep getting compromised. This is a big issue for me.

I have broken up with Facebook many times. Then we get back together. I guess I'm just missing the personal connection with people. I do live in Alaska, and this does provide quite the barrier for interaction with our family and friends. This was our choice, and I'm not complaining about that. I just wish there was some other way, besides Facebook, to keep in contact with family that wasn't so ..... impersonal.

So I started a family blog. One that will have our major events in our life splattered all over it. I'm still trying to figure out that blogging setup, because it kind of has some major differences than this blogging set up.

I guess I'm bi-polar with Facebook. It rubs me the wrong way often. I get caught up in the "I hate Facebook" emotion and it overtakes me and I take drastic measure to counter those emotions. My husband would be the happiest man on Earth if I didn't have it. He can't stand it. He also doesn't have one.

So, when I say I'm "leaving Facebook" .. as childish and immature as that statement is ... I'm not really. Just know that I'm frustrated. It's my way of blowing off steam.

I saw a picture at some point on there that said when an adult says they are leaving Facebook it's their way of running away. It's so applicable to me. LOL I'm just packing my figurative suitcase and running down the street to the corner house for a bit. :) Besides .. if I left Facebook .. I couldn't Pinterest! =)

Peace