One good thing....30 day challenge

Every now and again I get in a funk. I'm all moody and icky. I hate getting like that. Last year I was in a pretty long funk, just really couldn't find focus, felt overwhelmed all the time. As Jeff and I were talking about how to help me find balance and center....I came up with an idea (sometimes I have a good one)....I would buy a journal dedicated to good things. I've always wanted to be a journal everyday kind of person, but never really do unless I'm in a really dark place or just can't figure out my emotions on my own. This works for when I need an outlet, but what about everyday things....what about the awesome things that are all around me. So I decided to get a journal and everyday write one good thing that happened. Most days it was easy, some days it was...."I took a shower" but overall I felt this really helped me. It put my day into perspective and helped me end my day on a good note. It also really helped me during the day....I was constantly looking for what I would journal about and found many many things thru out the day.

Now I'm not in a particularly emotional place, I feel very satisfied and joyful....but as the holidays come and my job starts to pick up in responsibility I feel like I need to challenge myself. So for the next 30 days I will be writing everyday. I will write about the good things that happened (and hopefully not have to go over to my "darker" journal.)

I'll keep you posted :)

Cooking

Someday I hope to have more tabs...and have a full cooking one. Until then this will have to do. I LOVE cooking with my girl. She is a very patient helper and loves to cook. She likes to look thru cookbooks and pick new things to eat. This has helped with her picky pallet. The great part about all this is that she will only get better with age, she will get easier to work with and be able to do most by herself. Soon I wont have to do anything but sit on the couch and eat.

This weekend we made Beignets...Which are basically doughnuts. Our viewing of "Princess and the Frog" brought on the looking thru of the cookbook she got a couple years ago. Iit was super fun to watch her with the sticky dough, I love the textileness (yes I made that word up) of food. I'm just getting back into blogging so I didn't photograph as much as I should have, but enjoy the two I have. Both kids had fun putting the powdered sugar on and then licking their sugar fingers-and who am I kidding...I did too.

One before shot


YUMMMM

Thoughts on Soccer

This was our first year doing soccer. At first I was so excited. Lilly looked so awesome in her uniform and hopefully this was going to help her coordination-she's not super athletic. Instead of posting each week, or at the beginning/end I waited till I could get a full scope of my feelings for the program.

Like I said, I was super excited to start. Lilly seemed thrilled. Our first practice/meet and greet went really well. The first game was good....I did notice that some of the parents were REALLY into this....like, super into it. I was just there to have fun. Also not many of the parents were overly friendly, not rude just not what I expected.

There was also the Charlie factor. The game lasted an hour..that is a long time to ask a 2 year old to sit and watch kids run around, and oh yeah, you can't run out there with them. So I spent a lot of my time walking him around, playing soccer with him and getting water from the fountain, which meant that I couldn't watch the game.

As the weeks went by, with only a few days notice of the time, I became more and more frustrated with the mid-day time slot and little notice...this made planning things hard.

With all of this.... our huge learning curve and complete lack of knowledge of how the AYSO works I would have to say....with only one game left....I'm gonna miss soccer-shocker I know. I LOVED watching my girl run out there, giving it her all. I loved pushing her to do something she wasn't always the most excited to do. I loved her learning about disappointment and team work and friendship. I loved that my grandma and aunt made it to many many games and were as excited to see her as I was. I loved seeing Charlie cheer his sissy on and run thru the parent made tunnel. I didn't come out of this season with any lifelong friends, or ultimate love for soccer...but I did come away with more flexibility and dare I say I'm looking forward to next season. Because if there is one thing I've learned...being a parent means doing a lot of things you don't want to do so your kids can have fun.

Halloween 2011

It was Halloween yesterday. I went into the night expecting lots of whining, fighting and crying. I expected over tired, "one more house" and NO's. But what I got was nothing I ever imagined (not to be over-dramatic)...let me explain.

It was a pretty organized night. kids watched "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" while I made dinner. Then it was costume time. Now since we picked him up Charlie was very anti-costume, in fact we had only tried on the costume once before. I figured I would have to carry the kid and try to convince people he had a costume on. But the promise of candy is a powerful thing...he happily put the costume on and was ready to get some candy!!!

The part that really knocked my socks off was Lilly. She continues to impress me with her patience and kindness. She was so great with Charlie, she waited for him, reminded him to say thank you and let everyone know that this was her little brother and he was Mickey Mouse.

Someday he will realize what a wonderful big sister he has. Someday he will cherish her as much as she does him.

But for me, for us we will not forget this Halloween. Where we watched our kids be loving and kind and sweet with each other. Today I am thankful for the kind sweet heart my girl has. And with each passing day as she grows bigger and more mature, her heart and sweetness grows with her.

Happy Halloween


Ninja Lilly

Mickey!