Showing posts sorted by relevance for query I love mondays. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query I love mondays. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, September 28, 2009

I love... Mondays

Really, I do. I know. Don't hate me. Monday is pretty much like any other day in my world, but even when I wasn't a SAHM (stay at home mom) I still liked Mondays. I'm a mutant and I accept it.

I need more share-apy. In trying to add a little more positive in my life, not dwelling on the negative, I started making a list in my head. On a Monday. And so this is where "I Love... Mondays" was born. It was a good day, too.

Wanna hear?


I Love... Mondays.



I love... autumn. The leaves, the changing temps, the need for jeans and sweatshirt, thick hearty soups. I love how the light changes, the shadows change, and things just seem to glow.

I love... the leaves - changing color, the crisp and crunch when you walk through them, I even like raking them. It makes me feel good to work up a sweat (though I could do without the blisters), piling them up and forcing my kids to jump thru them.

I love... my daughter's dramatic enthusiasm about all things. From dancing, princesses, and pink to the way she describes things with big adjectives like "teeny" and "ginormous". Her hugs will pert near pop your head off. Her enthusiasm for learning is inspiring; she loves to sound out words and figure out the letter they start with, she counts everything (up to 25), and insists loudly on you listening to her as she does it.


I love... where I live. I love that it's a small town and I can let my children play at the park without worry. I love driving by cows and horses. I love the curvy roads, the hills and valleys. I love seeing wildlife (deer, eagles, pheasants, the seldom seen fox or coyote). I love being able to stop the car in the middle of the road so my children can watch, too.

So tell me, what do you love?

Leave a comment and share your loves, too.

Monday, October 12, 2009

I Love...Mondays


Each day has beauty. Sometimes we need to try harder to find it. I know I do. This is my effort to combat those blahs and blechs. I'm setting my mind on things above, those things that are true, lovely and pure. Things that are excellent or praiseworthy, I'm thinking about those things.


I love Mondays. I do. It's not a lie.



I love my morning "coffee," my cobalt blue mug, leaves, color, nature, God, my children, snow, my children eating snow, beautifully captured photographs, a good eye, a new perspective, black and whites, my love-hate relationship with my camera. I love blur, also known as bokeh. I love encouragement. I love prayer. I love my husband. I love my husband's old, soft, worn-out white tshirts. I love contrast.







I wish I knew how to manipulate photos to increase color saturation, so that the colors were more vivid. Like I see them. Or to make them truly black and white. I would love that.







Things I love today, in pictures.










I would love to hear what you love. Leave a comment?

Monday, January 25, 2010

I love Mondays, husband edition

I love Mondays. You may think it's an illness. Or an unsquashable tendency to look to hope.
Lamentations 3: 17 I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord." 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every Monday morning; great is your faithfulness.


And this Monday is dedicated to my hubs, dear sweet, ever grumpy King Kong, who lovingly tidied up the house yesterday, even scrubbing the puke out of the toilet, and was smiling when I got home.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
I love... his sexy legs. Yup. They're niiiice. I'd show you a picture, but I'd have to take a pic of him in his "shorts" and he might balk at that.

I love... seeing the wedding ring I gave him on his strong rough hands. Diamond in the rough (or gold, as it were). It looks like it belongs. We belong.

I love... his boyish enthusiasm, as much as it also drives me nutso. His sceming and planning and dreaming.

I love... how he's not shy about loving on his kids.

I love... and admire how he speaks of my good qualities to others, not about how he's frustrated with a messy house or my complaining ways.


So... this is my own bloggy concoction that hasn't caught on. Too bad. If you'd like to write your own list of things you love, feel free to put a link in the comments on this post. I'd get a Linky, but I doubt anyone would link, and I couldn't handle the rejection. So link, or not. :D




That's how I roll. Well, sometimes.

Monday, October 26, 2009

I Love... Mondays

God edition.

I love prayer. I love feeling the touch of the Holy Spirit when praying for someone, the fall of tears like a cascading mountain stream, seeing God move.

I love the call of prayer, feeling led to be used. I love how it has it's own strength, it's own hope, it's own power, it's own life. The only requirement of me is to listen, to hear it, and to be obedient.

I love the rainbow of colors that blanket the ground as I look out my window across the park. Now that fall has zoomed on by, the rain and cold coming swiftly and endlessly, there has not been much opportunity to enjoy the autumn colors outside. The cold temps have caused all the leaves to fall rapidly. So they lay, in golden glory, like a beautiful blanket. I will miss their rustle, but I enjoy them still.

I love worship. Music, dance, prayer, praise. I love acoustic guitars and low range voices.

I love this event.

I love seeing God at work, in my faith, in my family, in His provision, His hearing our cries.

I love seeing my girls play dress up, wanting to me to put on music, and then dance with daddy.


Your turn. Leave me a comment about what you love. Or blog your own post and leave me a link in comments. I love to hear about what you love.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Monday, Stinky Monday

I have nothing better to do. Obviously. You most certainly could tell that by looking at my perfectly organized, spotlessly clean and tidy house. Just so you know, it's Monday. I'm sure most of you did not miss that fact.








Potty training is a funny thing. Not really, but stick with me. An unexperienced person might think that potty training is merely "training" a child to do their business in a toilet. That is SOOOO not the case. It is so. much. more. Think of all the steps that you take, without thinking, when you go to the bathroom. First of all, there's actually going to the room one calls bathroom. Sometimes (certainly not our house) there is a closing of the door. Then, pulling down of pants, sitting on the toilet, and doing the deed. But don't think you're finished there. After pulling up your pants, usually the next step would be to flush the toilet. In my house, ALL parties (including Hubba Hubba) must close the lid. And it does not irk the heck out of me when company misses this step.

You might find this an unncessary step, but when I lived in the country where the water was the color of ground up carrots, I didn't want even my cat (now gone) to drink the stuff. Hubba Hubba, the then BoFro, had no issue with complying. (just so you don't think I had to train him too. He's highly untrainable, that one. Am I digressing? Nope. Not me.) Anyway.

These days, it's a good measure to take to prevent things from falling into the toilet, especially considering it may or may not have been flushed since last used. Or, to keep toddling infants from playing with anything that might be in the toilet. ahem. Once the toilet has been flushed, lid closed, you now must wash your hands. Of coarse, everyone that has been trained by me, amazingly completes all of these steps, every. freakin'. time. they use the john, so I would never walk into the bathroom to find my baby of 14 months playing with and (no I'm Not going to say it, wait, yes I am) eating fecal matter. Feel free to grab the nearest waste receptacle and gag your guts out. I'll wait.

So obviously, this morning, when I was checking on a certain little boy who was not putting on deodorant did I find my infant child swishing in the bowl. I most certainly wasn't incensed and then quite relieved upon seeing that there was NO fecal matter in the bowl. ooph.

My not quite six year old does not have body odor the likes of which could fell a large man.

Enough gross. Revive yourself. Grab some ginger.

One of my favorite kitchen utensils is the pizza cutter. It wonderfully slices cleanly and easily thru most things. I have discovered that life is much easier if I bring it along to places where I know it will be used (not to exclude the mall, because plastic knives are worthless, and there tends to be lots of eye rolling when I ask the pizza guy to cut that ginormous slice up for my 2 yr old). So last night when packing for a church meeting, which included free pizza, I did not pack the pizza cutter first, before sippy cups, diapers or bibs, all of which were not afterthoughts once on the road. Nor did I have any such thoughts that surely someone would notice my genius and declare me some sort of supermom. I was not right, and this did not fluff my ego. Because my ego does not need fluffing. The real story is that I am a super mom. And you should all bow down and admire my highly imperfect ways.

Pizza cutters are also attractive toys for small people (and by that I do not mean midgets). They are essentially safe, and so I didn't balk when my 14 month old was playing with last nights pizza cutter. Even after I noticed a piece of pepperoni still on it. However, when he started banging it on the window I decided it would be a good idea to remove the offending object (pizza cutter, not pepperoni) from the perpetrators hands. This did not cause my little bugger to throw a major tantrum, the kind where they conciously throw themselves, almost in slow motion, to the floor, roll around a bit, flailing and kicking their feet. I do not marvel every time at this phenomenon, wondering where they learn these things, and why this would be inate behavior. I most certainly did not have the desire to laugh when he paused to check out my reaction. Seeing none, he did not just stop.

He is not now in his bed for a nap.

Thanks for the share-apy, folks, compliments of MckMama. Now, I'm gonna go outside and take some pics of snow on leaves, and hopefully include them in an I Love... Mondays post. No, I did not just say SNOW, on October 12. And this is not our second, and second measurable snow, of the year. Where did fall go? Oh, yeah, same place as summer. So hey, check for that post, and join me in I Love... Mondays. Back in a few!

3380

Friday, January 22, 2010

Sunnyside up, please!



I have sent the children out to play. PTL* for silence. Just the clicky clack of the keyboard, and some 80's song on the radio in the kitchen.


I feel a bit guilty that I am not enjoying my children. That I don't enjoy them all day everyday, or even most of the day some days. I'm very caught up in the work of it all, and I'm forgetting to see the sunshine. I fail to frolic and giggle and notice the grass grow (or the snow pile up, as is the case). Most of the time. Which is a shame, really. And I know this. I know I'll get old and wish I had just paused more, enjoyed more. But I don't.


This too shall pass, this strange and difficult season of my life. Eventually I'll get my rear in gear, climb out of the funk, find some fun. I'm working on it, but I haven't quite figured it out. I'll get there.


I have been struggling of late with the concept of Bold Blogging (for at least two reasons), which seems to have caught like wildfire in certain circles of the bloggysphere. Showing your real life, your real struggles, and not living behind some facade of unrealistic mommy perfection. Anyone who knows me would probably be surprised that I am struggling with the concept of "being bold." My name means "Bold Warrior." It is not ill-fitting. In fact, I can be too bold, too forthcoming, too in-your-face, too here's-my-opinion. I have spent a good portion of my life learning how to temper myself in that way. I have caused myself problems in family relationships, work situations, and very possibly with friendships (though I can't think of any specific examples of that at the moment). It was (and is) a hard lesson to learn that not everyone needs to know what I think or my opinion. Being truthful can be hurtful. In everything we need to have grace and love. Apparently. ;)


Another of my wonderful characteristics is that I can be melancholy. Pessamistic. Critical. Complainer. Ok, that's more than one, but they sort of all mush into one big negative crap-ball. And my fall/winter has been shadowed by a sort of dismal, hormonal, melancholic state. Yuck. Really, yuck. I find myself complaining more. I have a harder time smiling, having fun, relaxing, enjoying life, seeing the beauty and blessings before me. Who wants to hear about that? Certainly not me. I don't even feel better when I write about it. More than once I have started a blog post and erased the whole darn thing because I felt guilty about spreading my doom and gloom. The world doesn't need more of that. That's not who I want to be. So I challenged myself to find beauty and blessings with my I Love Mondays posts. It was hard. It is hard. I haven't given it up. I just have found it hard to delight in something more than my blue coffee mugs and my own private bedroom with a door. I need to try harder.


I am generally a pretty transparent person, and I'm sure I share too much about myself IRL*. But to wage war against my negative side, I need to spend my time pursuing the good, the encouraging, the fun.
Phillippians 4:8 Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.



I need to remind myself of the exciting and amusing side of my life, the blessings which I have, and not more time dwelling on the stuff that's churning inside the walls of my heart. If you really want to know me, I'm completely open to friendship, and I'll be happy to bare it all there. I'm not scared of being bold. I'm being responsible with my less admirable parts.

*Praise The Lord
*In Real Life

Monday, June 29, 2009

Nope, Not Me!

Well, it's Monday. Did I ever tell you that I love Mondays? Seriously. I have always like them. A new week, a new beginning. I never have understood why everyone considers them such a "dooms day". It's just another day. No, it's not just because I don't have a "real" job, cuz baby, it's reality here EVERY DAY! No rest for mommies. But I also liked Mondays when I did have a real job.

So to get to the point, I'm once again joining in on today's blog carnival, Not Me, Monday. Gotta love that weekly confessional. Er, I mean, day when you imagine all the things you could never do. Ahem. Right? Check out MckMama's blog for more fun and fantasy. Because these are things you could only imagine ever doing.



I did not have a puker TWICE this week, in the van. The first time would most certainly NOT be from drinking rancid apple juice left in the car from an outing 5 days earlier. Because I always have a neat and tidy car, never a speck of dirt gracing the floors or seats, ever! I never just leave the garbage in there till you basically can't "walk". And I certainly make sure my small children are adequately hydrated so they would not need to drink rancid apple juice.

I do not have 2 puke-covered car seats sitting on my front lawn. How redneck hillbilly would that be? Ha.

I did not go to a garage sale to buy clothes for a child who had puked all over herself so that I could then take her to the grocery store in something other than her diaper and sandals.

I did not walk around the entire rest of the day with a smear of barf on the boob of my shirt. It is not the best perfume ever!

I did not fully enjoy myself at our local town festival, having my share of "liquid happy", LOVE hanging out with my husband for some adults only time, and getting home at 2 am! I would never do that to my babysitter. We also did not wish that we could abuse benefit from the great job our babysitter does for us again the next night.

I did not come home and FB in my happy state. Isn't there some rule about "dialing" that also applies to FB?

I did not wake up the next morning dizzy, and then proceed to drag all 4 of my chillen's down to to the turtle races and fire truck rides at 9:30 the next morning. My dearest hubby was not still dead to the world when we returned at 11.

I did not let my children go on the "water ride" at the festivities, fully dressed, instead of walking the 2 blocks home so they could change into more appropriate swimwear. I am not that lazy.

I did not heard my 5 yr old son, say at the turtle races (it's more exciting than it sounds) and DURING THE PARADE WHERE PEOPLE WERE THROWING HANDFULS OF CANDY AT HIM that "this is boring." WHAT is WRONG with you, child????

I am not totally struggling to keep myself from inhaling all eating some of the parade booty my kids hauled in. Sweetarts are not a total weakness for me, nor are those fruit flavored tootsie rolls.
sigh.
I am not stoked that I have lost 11 lbs, but also not a little bummed that I haven't lost a little more. I do think that it is still possible to lose my goal by my birthday (which is not 9 days from now for anyone who likes to send presents !!)
Your turn!
Have a happy Monday!

Monday, June 15, 2009

What the heck, Monday.

I haven't done a NMM (Not Me Monday) in a while. I am not even really sure what to write about, so it will be interesting to see what my brain comes up with as I do this. But since it's been a while, and MckMama's was particularly great today, I figured, what the heck. Why not. I feel a little inspired.

So here it is, in all it's glory. The infamous, fabulously fun and hugely hilarious, completely theraputic, more-honest-than-I-outta-be, creatively, cringe inducing Not Me Monday blog carnival, where you spill your guts about those things that most certainly did not happen in your life.


I did not recently start South Beach diet, unable to weigh myself properly, and just take the number I had from the last time I was at the dr's office, regardless of the fact that it was towards the end of the day and I was fully dressed with shoes on. This will not result in a higher number than it probably was, so that I will be more likely to achieve my goal of losing 15 lbs by my birthday.

On the same vane of dieting, I did not have a mini-breakdown after a rather rough day of mothering and CHEAT by eating a HOT DOG, with BREAD, aaaand KETCHUP! (Scandalous, I know!) And then follow it up with 2 spoons of the totally awesome caramel sauce I was using to make the Better than Whoopee cake for my husband's birthday. I do not stress eat.

Lil'D did not get his first taste of meat by finding a hot dog on the floor under the table. Since he didn't seem to be enjoying it, I did not then just wash it off, cut it up, and serve it to him. Hot dogs? From the floor? Why, I would NEVER!

I did not cave in to my husbands "need" for more of our tax return fund so that I then could justify spending $300 on myself for a plane ticket to go to a college reunion for a college I didn't graduate from. I am not that suckered or selfish as to squander away more funds from the rapidly dwindling "house" money.

I did not obsess so much over the plant placement of my garden as to measure it, grid it, and then write it all down and ask for my dad's input (the Master Gardener). He did not tell me to do exactly as I had thought. My husband did not say I was making it way more difficult than it needs to be. I did not respond by saying that No, I am just more particular than you would be. And then I did not realize he was probably right when my dad then told me to do exactly what I had thought in the first place. I'm not ever obsessive, nor do I have a problem admitting I'm wrong (or more specifically, that HE's right).

I did not find my children "riding" the garage door to my neighbors garage last night (you know, one kid hanging one, the other pushing the garage door opener button). I did not get furious, spank them and send them to bed. I would not be totally embarrassed for my neighbor to know that. She does not read my blog. (Sorry, Lis. **bows head in shame, walks away**)

As I write this, I am not letting my daughter eat peanut butter straight from the jar, with her fingers, in the living room.

Whew. Now that that's finished, I gotta eat. Oh, and fix lunch for the kids, too, I suppose. Especially since they're eating my sacred sugar-free fudgecicles. Is NOTHING sacred for mothers???
Happy Monday. I love Mondays. really. I do. Don't hate me.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Not Me, Monday business.

Welcome to a blog carnival of "share-apy", courtesy of MckMama. The day you shamelessly don't confess all the things that didn't happen in your life. Because such things would never happen in the homes of such respectable people.





Like the fact that I did not find that my youngest daughter had eaten a whole entire bag of chocolate chips. The. whole. bag. In less than an hour.


I do not have an infant child who can eat an entire whole (as in, uncut) apple, skins, core, and all, by himself. It does not keep him completely occupied and in essentially one place for nearly an hour. Nor is he immensely pleased with this "treat."

Regular bathers that we are, here, I did not arrive at church to remember that one such KJ still had frosting smeared in her hair from a wedding the night before. I most certainly would have noticed the frosting at home when I was brushing her hair, there. Because I am a stickler for grooming, and never forget to brush, or wash. Especially before church or school. And I did not attempt to "hide" the greasy frosting hair with a poor attempt at a pony tail on top, fashioned from unbrushed greasy hair without a brush. I am way more prepared than that.

On a day when B-Boy had a 2 hour late start, and daddy was home to man the rest of the crowd, we did not arrive half an hour late for the 5th day of preschool. Because having to dress and feed only one child instead of four means that we should have arrived early. I am obsessively prompt. Always. R i g h t.

And now.. If you'll join me, I am creating my OWN blog festival called "I Love... Mondays." Check the main blog page and see the latest and greatest. Or... be the first person to link! Thanks!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Smile. It's Monday.

Have you ever seen your child pick ABC gum off the floor/a picnic table, pop it in their mouth while you just looked the other direction? Ever had your child miss the toilet in public, get urine on their clothing, and just tell them, "too bad. Deal with it"? I certainly haven't.



Feel free to join in on the cathartic and fun share-apy over at MckMama's place. Express your need to be daringly transparent, having no shame about your motherly imperfections by telling about all those things you "didn't" do.



And without further ado...





I did not put my child's pants on backwards this morning, and not realize it until we got home from one of the school drop offs.

We do not have 2 drop offs and 2 pickups today. Because K-12 has a 2 hour late start and Preschool does not, this does not mean that I will make 3 trips to school before noon. I also will not have shuttled 4 kids not my own, plus my two, back and forth from school today. None of this makes me feel like a taxi, and I did not wonder if this is training for having teenagers.

On Saturday, while having a mom's night out with a friend, we did not experience a short burst of uncontrollable laughter that nearly made us both pee our pants, and did not slightly disrupt the awesome coffee house singer. We did not enjoy it one bit, either. The laughter or the music.

We did not both feel like we stayed out too late, as we are not getting old to the point where midnight is late. Neither did it feel weird to leave our homes at 9 pm. We're party animals. We always go out that late.

Well, that's all I got for now. I'm off to the school for the third, but not last, time today. Please check here for my own creation of share-apy with another great "I Love... Mondays" post.