Simple Little Joys

I am always told by friends and family that I think too much.  I think too deeply...all the time...about many different things.  About how short life is; all the what ifs; why bad things happen to good people; the meaning of life; what my next step should be in life.  But for the sake of a peaceful existence, the experts say you should not think too much.  There is no tomorrow or yesterday - there is just right now.  We are simply supposed to exist in the present; simply just BE.

I hear what they are saying.  I understand that if I don't ruminate about the past or worry about the future, I will be less hampered down by worries and anxieties. That premise makes sense; however, it is alot easier said than done.

Some days though, I manage to do it for a short time.  The other morning I was in the shower, and I happened to read the bottle of body wash I was using. I absolutely love the smell of it.  When I read the bottle, it made me smile.  This is what it said:

It is a coconut vanilla body wash from Bath and Body Works that smells wonderful (this was apparently purchased a couple of years ago, as it is now discontinued; I found it in my cabinet and just started using it; nothing like buried treasure in your own house!).  It reminds me of being at the beach (it is aptly called Moana which means ocean.).  It comes in a beautiful, blue bottle.  What made me happy when I read the bottle is that it states the Tamanu nut oil is from the "Tree of 1000 virtues".  Doesn't even the name of that tree make you think philosophically?  It is such a cool sounding tree!  So this is my point.  I was able to get lost in the simple joy of a fabulous smell.  And then the joy was increased when I read the bottle.  It was a rare moment when I was truly enjoying the present.  There were no other thoughts or worries racing across my mind; I was simply just enjoying the moment.

So today's blog is about some simple (and cheap - everything was $20 and under!) little joys that have made me happy the past couple of days.  These are moments when I am not worrying about anything, I am simply enjoying the beauty in the present moment.

That same morning that I enjoyed my body wash, I put on one of my favorite bracelets.  It is a beautiful pink color and if I remember correctly, it was around $20 from Kohl's.  The color alone makes me happy (as it is my favorite color and hue of pink), but I also love all the cute little charms, as well as the initiative it stands for (curing breast cancer).

Another unexpected little joy came in the form of an inexpensive leather bracelet I came across at a little stand on the boardwalk, in Ocean City, MD (I can't find the name of the gentleman who made the bracelets.).  I just love this bracelet; it is so cool!

Gorgeous pink and purple blooming flowers:

And most precious of all, an impromptu little wild flower bouquet, given to me by my 7 year old, while on a walk this beautiful summer night:

Enjoying the Little Beauties in Life,
Me


Motivational Moment:

For today's simple Motivational Moment, I liked the following two quotes from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/joy.

“There are random moments - tossing a salad, coming up the driveway to the house, ironing the seams flat on a quilt square, standing at the kitchen window and looking out at the delphiniums, hearing a burst of laughter from one of my children's rooms - when I feel a wavelike rush of joy. This is my true religion: arbitrary moments of of nearly painful happiness for a life I feel privileged to lead.”

 - Elizabeth Berg, The Art of Mending

 

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.”

 - Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines, Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

 

Both of the above quotes wonderfully express my point of enjoying the small things throughout your day.  I particularly like the title of Shauna's book: "...Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life".  What a fabulous title!  Thank you Shauna!

 

My wish for you today is that you have moments where your mind stops racing and you are able to simply enjoy the little simple joys that you come across in your day; and may there be many!

 

 

 

Family Vacation

Well...I made it!  I survived our annual family vacation.  I find it ironic that I always get so excited to go on vacation and by the time I get back home, I feel like a survivor.  I recently read a quote by Jerry Seinfeld that I think is pretty accurate of life: "There is no such thing as fun for the whole family."  Isn't this true?!  I mean, think about it, when you travel as a family, you have people of all ages and sexes.  How on earth would anyone expect that there would be one place you could go that would be everyone's perfection?  Yet, as parents, we want to find this perfect haven - both for a get away from our daily routine as well as something the kids will love.

The beach comes pretty close to perfection for a vacation spot for our family.  I have three daughters who are pretty low key.  We have always loved just hanging at the beach, playing in the sand or in the ocean, walking along the beach, reading books, etc.  Hence, I was a little surprised on this trip when my youngest wanted to spend all of her time in the pool and not on the beach!  (Kudos to my husband for indulging this child throughout this vacation).

This was the first time I rented a condo through VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner).  I was very pleased with our experience.  You can get a much bigger place for a lot less money than a typical hotel room; not to mention that we would have needed 2 hotel rooms for our party of 7.  We had 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4 TVs, 2 balconies (one beach side and one bay side), a living room, kitchen, and even a washer and dryer.  There was an outdoor pool and an indoor pool.  And most importantly, we were located on the beach!  We went before the full regular summer season started, so we did not have any traffic issues or crowded beaches or activities.  Overall, this Ocean City, Maryland vacation was a very good place to take the family, especially being there prior to the big crowds.

On a side note - I learned a lesson the hard way 5 years ago, when I planned my first vacation after having my third daughter.  We went to Virginia Beach and stayed on the ocean.  (BTW - that is also when I learned that there is a difference between 'ocean view' and 'ocean front'...our hotel was on the ocean...and we would have had a pretty nice "view" of the ocean (from the side of the hotel) if only the elevator shaft wasn't there, blocking said view.  That trip taught me that when you are traveling with three kids - between the ages of 1 and 5 (although I don't really think age is the key here - albeit younger is easier) you should always get a suite - something with two bedrooms or at the very least one bedroom with a separate living room for watching TV.  Let's just say hubby and the kids did not mix too well come evening/bed time; which made for quite the miserable experience for me...the entire week.  (Like I said - chalk that one up to a life lesson learned...that will never be repeated!)  Hotel room drama aside, Virginia Beach was also a very nice, family vacation location (I loved the Boardwalk).

For the record, I was by far the worst person during the 8 hour car ride to Ocean City.  I am NOT a traveler; I am a home body.  Always have been, suspect always will be (although I do love the ocean...might have to make that my home eventually).  I was at a seminar recently where the instructor said that we are hard-wired by the time we are 10 years old.  So instead of trying to change who you are, you should build on your strengths to become a successful person.  Anyways, I was the only one car sick after the first HOUR of driving; it made for a VERY long 10 hour trip.  I was very impressed with the kids and my mom (who also gets car sick); we were crammed in like sardines!  Every time we stopped, we had to partially unload the minivan so that the kids could get out of the back of it.  None of the kids complained about not having space and no one asked "Are we there yet?"! 

Here are some pics from our trip:



Stuff we had to move to the front seats every time we stopped so the kids could get out of the back!





Literally packed to the top!

I have to show you the cutest thing that the Ohio Turnpike service stations offer for moms with young kids: Mommy and Me Potties!!  I love whomever came up with this genius idea (it had to be a mom who experienced the pleasure of trying to cram into a single stall with a young child...).

We made it through the eight hour drive (it became a ten hour trip with our stops) and this was our view from our hotel room:

There were some pretty flowers growing on the beach:

  

My bedroom had a wall of windows that faced the ocean.  I had the pleasure of seeing the sunrise two mornings in a row (it was beautiful!):

Of course, who could go on vacation without enjoying yummy candy: fudge, caramel apples, truffles, gummies!  There were Candy Kitchen's on almost every block!

As luck would have it, tropical storm Andrea came to Ocean City on Friday of our vacation week.  Here was the view from the hotel the first half of the day:

At one point, the fog (or cloud cover - not sure which) actually came up to our window so we couldn't even see the beach:

The next day brought fun waves:

And of course, to throw in a little excitement on our vacation, my husband hit the driver's side door on the cement pillar while backing out of the parking spot in the condo's parking garage.

Alas, I did reach my state of bliss a couple of times throughout the week (before Andrea hit):



Ahhh...The Good Life: Sun, surf, and a good book!


Missing the Beach Already,
Me


P.S. I am very happy to report that, despite all of the nasty little sicknesses that were plaguing our household the entire last month of school, everyone was healthy for this trip, which was truly a miracle in itself.


Motivational Moment:

There are many good hearted people in this world.  Many of us encounter them in our every day life. It can be simple, small acts of kindness, such as a smile or a kind word, holding a door open for someone, picking something up for someone who dropped it, etc.  There are also many hero's that save people's lives, like firefighters, police, EMTs, organ donors, (to name a few) and all the hero's that surface during tragedies caused by people or mother nature.

This Motivational Moment is a shout out to a very kind woman who happens to love kittens and takes in foster kitties when needed.  My parents have a large garage on their property and many times throughout the years, momma cats have had kittens in there.  Usually the momma stays around to nurse her babies and then my mom finds homes for the kittens and gets the momma spayed (if she can catch her).

About 6 weeks ago, three kittens were left stranded in the garage (the momma cat disappeared for whatever reason).  My mom took the ~9 day old kittens to the vet and found out how to care for them and nurse them around the clock.  Needless to say, this was exhausting for my mom.  I told her to post pics of the kittens at the local vets as well as local pet food stores asking if anyone had a nursing momma cat that could adopt these orphaned kittens. 

As luck would have it, a wonderful woman, who had a momma cat at home who was just about done nursing her litter, noticed the sign at the vet's and contacted my mom.  She agreed to take the kittens to her momma cat to see if she would care for them.  This woman ended up keeping the kittens, much to my delight.  Tonight (which was about four weeks later) she brought the kittens over for a visit.  It turns out the momma cat was already too dried up to nurse the kittens, so this woman had to feed the kittens formula.  The momma cat did clean them and watch over them and love them.  I couldn't thank this woman enough for taking this big burden off of my mom and for caring for the kittens herself.  Here are some pics from tonight's visit.

To all those people who perform small and large acts of kindness - you rock!  Keep spreading your joy.  To those who don't, get busy being kind; you'll be happier because of it.

Blog Award

The awesome Manic Mama nominated me for a blog award (http://musingsofamanicmama.blogspot.com/2013/04/2-awards-part-1.html )!  (I can't believe a month has gone by since she nominated me - I wanted to reply the next week - it's that whole end-of-school-year-insanity zapping my time!) 

The blog award looks like fun, so here goes:

The award is the Liebster Award.  I am supposed to answer her 11 questions (which I love how intriguingly thought-provoking they are!), divulge 11 facts about myself, and then nominate 11 other blogs with less than 200 followers and ask them 11 questions.

Like Manic Mama, I will answer her 11 questions first.

1) What are your plans for 10 years down the road?  This is an excellent thought-provoking question and it kind of reminds me of the whole 'bucket-list' concept.  I don't have a bucket list.  It is also similar to the question "what do I want to be when I grow up".  I didn't know in high school or college - despite taking those 'career tests' and I still don't know now and I am 41!  I would love to say I would be able to be retired (NOT have to work) and be able to do whatever I want and have a house on the beach for the winter months and in a northern state for the summer and fall months.  But the reality of being a mom is that my hope for 10 years down the road is that I am still financially stable - even more so, that all of my daughters are healthy and happy, and that my husband and I have our health.  Not very exciting, not very adventurous, but sounds fabulous to me!

2) Why did you start blogging? For the past several years I have been wanting to blog - for several reasons - I thought it would be fun, I wanted to share my random rants about life, I wanted to have a motivational aspect to it since I love all things motivational/inspirational (quotes, pictures, art, nature, etc.).

3) Are you planning on changing things up on your blog or have you already?  I am slowly getting more educated on blogging. When I started (this past August), my blog was very bare bones.  Now I have figured out how to add pictures and links as well as list other blogs I like.  I would like to keep on building my blog - for example I would like to have tabs and list blogs by theme; I would love to be like those bloggers who get to try fabulous vacation homes for free by just blogging about them!!  :)

4) Do you have any favorite "secret" obsessions?  Well, I don't think these are 'secrets' by any means, but my first favorite obsession is chocolate!!  I LOVE ALL things CHOCOLATE!!  My second favorite obsession is romance novels.  I love losing myself in a good book!  And my third favorite obsession would be my 'junk food' TV shows!  I love laughing through the sarcasm and innuendo of Castle, the mystery of Revenge, and the pure scandal of Scandal and Nashville!  :) 

5) What is something you'd like to learn more about or learn to do?  This is on a pretty simple level, but I would love to be an excellent chef who could easily whip up healthy, delicious meals for my family.

6) What is something you've learned that empowers you when you're stuck in a rut? I love all motivational 'things': art, beautiful pictures of nature, inspirational quotes, pictures, stories, movies.  They inspire me to stop being a slacker, if I am stuck in a rut.

7) If you had the chance to meet someone (past or present) and ask them any question, who would it be and what would you ask them?  I am sure the 'proper' thing to do here would be to mention some significant person from history and ask a very intelligent question.  But I am taking the more simple approach.  I would love to meet Pink and ask her how she became who she is today.  She seems like a woman who has no fear and her body is in amazing shape.

8) If money were no concern, what would you do differently in your life? Splurge? Travel? Hire a nanny? Save the world?
I love the fantasizing that this question inspires.  If money were no object, I would have a beautiful house on the beach, as well as a beautiful house in a more tempered climate and not very crowded city.  The biggest luxury I would enjoy would be to have a personal chef who makes me nutritious yet delicious meals as well as have a personal masseuse to give me daily massages. 

9) What's your favorite thing to shop for?  If money was no object, I would say furniture!  Since that is not the case, I would say books.  I love me a good book!  The worst things to shop for: bra's and bathing suits!  Boy - what a way to hate your body and get in a bad mood!  Apparently shopping for regular apparel 'hides' the bare truth - or at least offers you some protection from it!

10) What is your favorite thing about yourself? What thing bothers you most about yourself?  My favorite thing about myself is the ease of which I laugh.  I love things that make me laugh and love how easily I am brought to laughter.  What bothers me the most about myself is the innate worrier/fearful side of me.

11) If you had the chance to be your total opposite for a week, what do you think you'd learn?  I have spent my life being a worrier, so the opposite of me would be someone who is not a worrier; who has no fear and just enjoys life to the fullest.  It sounds very freeing; what a novel way to live!  I would imagine I would do all kinds of things that fear keeps me from doing now - traveling the world, parachuting out of a plane, trying all kinds of different food, etc.

11 Facts About Me:

1.  I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend.

2.  I love escaping reality in a good book or good movie.

3.  I have jealousy issues.  I am jealous of people who get to do their passion for a living (who truly LOVE what they do); I am jealous of rich people (people who have no concern whatsoever about money; who have an endless supply of money to do whatever they want for their lifetime!).

4.  I HATE flying in airplanes.  Metal tube in the sky.  So many reasons that is just wrong.

5.  I hate flowery perfume.  I was raised in a house with a step-father who had a fit if anyone wore perfume; he said he could not breathe around perfume (I always found this extremely ironic considering he is a heavy smoker and does not believe that anyone could have a problem with breathing around second-hand smoke.  I am also amazed at how non-smokers can live in the same house with smokers); so now I cannot tolerate perfume; it hurts my throat and irritates my nose.

6.  My father died when I was 4.  He was an alcoholic.  It is the reason I never drank when I was younger because I was always terrified that I was genetically pre-dispositioned for the disease (it was those SADD classes in high school).

7.  At age 41, I realize how precious life is and how short it is.  The past couple of years have brought the deaths of a neighbor, a friend's husband and then her mother, and the devastating loss of my husband's parents.  In addition, a friend my age is currently battling for her life with Lou Gehrig's disease.  Life is short.  Cancer sucks.  Terminal illness sucks.  All the more reason to live each day to the fullest and enjoy every minute that you possibly can.

8.  I love what Manic Mama said about Twitter and I couldn't agree more.  How crazy to have to communicate by short blurbs.  Sounds horribly frustrating.

9.  I hate being sick.  I am a big baby when I am sick.  (Evidently, I also have an issue with patience...or the lack of patience!).

10.  I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

11.  I wish for world peace and the end of all the horrible, painful, terminal illnesses out there such as cancer and Lou Gehrig's Disease!

For the last part of the award - I decided to list the 11 questions that I am supposed to ask 11 other bloggers and put them out there for anyone who would like to answer one or all of them (because I really have no idea how to find out if a blog has less than 200 followers).

1.  Do you love what you do?  Are you doing your life's passion and able to live comfortably off of it?  And if so, how did this come to be?  Did you always know from a young age what your passion was?

2.  What do you do for fun/leisure?

3.  What is your main character flaw?

4.  What is your main character asset?

5.  What is your guilty pleasure?

6.  Are you happily married?  (It is amazing to me that I do not know many happily married people.  It is sad to say, but the majority of the marriages that I know are not truly happy ones.  Either one person - or both - are miserable or they are merely functioning, raising kids.  This has become quite the noticeable thing during what I will say is my friends' and my "mid-life crises" years.  For example, my girlfriend's husband came home from work and said: "I love you but am not 'in love' with you.  Life is short, we don't know how much time we have left, so I want to be having fun.".  They have been married for 18 years.  Ironically, my girlfriend was not devastated.  She agrees that they have just been roommates for a long time now, without many similar interests.  And while I agree with his sentiment that life is short and we certainly do need to enjoy our lives, I find the reality sad that many marriages are not truly happy.  Why is that?  I am realizing that this is quickly turning into a blog of it's own - so I will have to delve into this topic more on some other day.)

7.  What inspires you?

8.  What is your favorite food?

9.  What is your favorite place to vacation and why?

10.  Do you read books?  If so, what is your favorite book, or even favorite type of book?

11.  If you had to be known (famous) for one thing (your legend per se), what would you want it to be?


Always Full of Questions,

Me


Motivational Moment:

We are getting ready to go on a family vacation to the beach!  This weekend I started packing for the trip (since this upcoming week is the last week of school and dance; the dance recital is the night before we leave; our schedule is crazy for the next 7 days!).

Anyways, when I was shopping at Target (love that store!), I found the coolest journal for the girls to write in throughout the vacation (I love that my girls enjoy journaling/writing like I do).  It is called The Journal of Awesome by Neil Pasricha.  I bought this journal because of the cute little happy sayings scattered through it (such as: dangling your feet in water; when your pet notices you're in a bad mood and comes to see you; grandma emails; laughing so hard you make no sound at all!).  I didn't happen to notice the inspirational message from the author until I gave the journals to my daughters to pack for the trip. 

Here is a snippet of Neil's opening letter: "A few years ago I hit some giant speed bumps in life.  Within the span of a few months, my wife told me she didn't love me anymore and my best friend lost the battle with serious illness.  I was heart-broken and lonely, and my mind was all over the place.  I found a lot of comfort back then in writing about one awesome thing every single day...Over time these awesome things started putting my mind in a different place.  They helped me get to bed without a twisted stomach.  They helped me focus on all the little things that make life so awesome."

Neil's story is very inspirational.  He started a website called '1000 Awesome Things' (http://1000awesomethings.com/ ) which led to books as well as the journal mentioned above.  (BTW - his website has over 51 million views!!!).  Thank you Neil for sharing your story and your 'Awesome' thoughts!  And congratulations for getting through such a difficult time in your life and for being in a happier, successful place now.

There is much written about people who get through truly difficult times and come to be in a better place than they were before the difficult time.  There is even the thought that without the difficult times in life, we would not experience happy times because we would not have lived through the drastic differences that each experience brings.

May all of you who are going through difficult times be able to find your moments of awesome and may you get through to the other side of the difficult time to a place of peace and happiness.

End of School Year Insanity

I have realized that there are three times a year when my typical, every day, busy schedule of raising three kids, gets off-kilter and leans towards the truly chaotic: the start of the school year (http://serenitygoddess.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html), the weeks leading up to Christmas, and the last month of the school year.

Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  This means I had to have three kids prepared with special gifts for 5 days for their teachers (yes - elementary math tells you that I had to have 15 gifts ready to go).  Add to this same week, a 'Star Student' week for daughter C, with special items to bring in every day, and then throw in the stomach flu for 4 days (just for fun) for said 'Star Student'!  Then fast forward to Sunday, after completing that exhausting week, and add hubby getting the stomach flu and daughter B coming down with a horrible cold.  This, of course, was Mother's Day.  Instead of going out to dinner (which was the original plan), I went grocery shopping and made dinner at mom's house with my girls.  We ended up having a good dinner and a nice evening, for which I am thankful.

Looking ahead to the remaining three weeks of the school year:
 - Orchestra concert this Wednesday evening for daughter A,
 - weekend orchestra trip (this weekend) for daughter A,
 - Pulmonologist appointment next Monday morning for daughter C,
 - baby shower next Monday, after work,
 - Band concert next Tuesday evening for daughter B,
 - End of year teacher gifts,
 - Dentist appointments for all three after school on the second to last day of school,
 - Dance classes for all three daughters, preparing for the recital, which is June 1st.

The school year ends on Friday, May 31st.  Right after school that Friday, we rush to Dance Recital rehearsal (really...rehearsal on the night of the last day of school - seriously?!), and then comes Saturday, June 1st:

 - Dance Recital for all three girls,
 - husband's best friend's wedding,
 - graduation party of best friends daughter,
 - day before 8 1/2 hour drive to our beach vacation.

I can't believe how many conflicts we have that day, and all are pretty significant life events for those involved.  'When it rains, it pours', is the saying that comes to mind.  All I can say is, I am thoroughly looking forward to some serious beach down time at the end of all that!!  :)  So excited!

In closing, I want to send a heartfelt wish for peace for my sister who has lived through five, devastating miscarriages.  I know Mother's Day is always heart-breaking for you, for which I am sorry.  I wish you faith in your path in life; I wish you love for who you are and for your life.  I love you.

To my mom: words can not adequately express the love and appreciation I have for you and all that you do.  I thank you eternally for the love you give to my daughters.

To my three, awesome daughters: thank you for your beautiful, handmade cards and gifts.  Thank you for your hugs and for making me laugh.  I love who you are and what you add to my life.


Motheringly Yours,
Me


Motivational Moment:

To all you moms out there, here are some quotes (from http://www.quotegarden.com/mom-day.html) to make you laugh and feel good about what you do and who you are:

 - Mothers hold their children's hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.  ~Author Unknown

 - Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs... since the payment is pure love.  ~Mildred B. Vermont

 - A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.  ~Peter De Vries

 - A mother understands what a child does not say.  ~Author Unknown

 - Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.  ~John Wilmot

 - A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.  ~Irish Proverb

 - Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.  ~Oprah Winfrey

 - It kills you to see them grow up.  But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.  ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

 - All mothers are working mothers.  ~Author Unknown

 - Sweater, n.:  garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  ~Ambrose

 - Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children.  ~Marilyn Penland

 - You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus


May you love your children with all your heart and be filled with joy throughout your life.

In Search of the Fountain of Youth

I caved.  It's so disappointing.  I caved to cultural expectations.  To youthful appearance - or the lack thereof.  To societal norms.  Yep, I colored my hair again.  I said I wouldn't do it.  (http://serenitygoddess.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html)  I was going to stand strong with my goal of pure living (better, preservative-free eating; no longer putting toxic chemicals on my head).  If men can do it, if they can 'age naturally', then why can't women?!  But alas, I caved.

My mom is a cosmetologist.  She has been doing hair since she was in high school. She has done my hair my whole life.  She keeps her grays happily hidden under dye.  To say that she is a fan of keeping a youthful appearance would be an understatement.  She is a beautiful woman, on the inside and the out!

Today when I told her I 'caved' to societal norms, she literally raised both arms in a victory pump and said "Yes you did!".  She was jubilant.  She said I was too young to look so old.  And I said, "but mom, we should be happy to age naturally".  And she said, "No Way!  That's why they made hair dye!".  She is a believer of fighting aging with all the tools available to us.  I love you Momma!  You are the best!!  :) 

At least I can say I didn't completely cave.  I didn't do the entire head of hair; I did highlights, which means I didn't cover all my grays; I just brightened some of the hair by adding streaks of red.  I still hate the thought of being 'required' to keep up with the whole dye process.  Once you start dyeing your hair, you need to expose yourself to those nasty chemicals every 2 - 3 months, to keep up with it as your hair grows out. Ugh!  We will see how long I keep this up.  Since it had been 6 months since I colored it, it had grown out alot.  I figured I could either cut it short (removing the longer, colored part) or I could color it again.  Apparently I wasn't ready to go short yet; or truthfully, I wasn't ready to face all that gray yet.

This is the first time I have seen the top of my head since I stopped coloring my hair in October (6 months ago) and I can't get over how many grays are up there.  (I always thought grays came out when you were in your 60s - not 41!  It's all that false advertisement from all the women dyeing their hair!!  And what's with the big space in my part between my bangs and the rest of my hair.  This aging is for the birds.)

 The fun "foiling" highlighting process!

The finished 'wet' look.

The finished 'dry, frizzy' look (yes I know, it needs product or to be straightened).



A Sucker for Society,

(aka Shallowly Yours,)

Me

Motivational Moment:

I decided to look up some quotes on beauty (http://www.goodreads.com) and I have to say I am pleased that almost all of them referred to inner beauty (note - I did not google 'inner beauty' - just 'beauty').  I was completely humbled by these quotes; how silly to be concerned with going gray, honestly.  See for yourself:

“Sometimes people are beautiful.
Not in looks.
Not in what they say.
Just in what they are.”
― Markus Zusak, I am the Messenger

 

“It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”

― Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

 

“For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
 For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
 For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
 For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
 For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
 People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
 As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.”
― Sam Levenson

 

May you spread your beauty to others today and in so doing make their life a little easier.

For the Love of Sleep

Have you ever realized that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.  This can apply to so many things in life: relationships, jobs, money, etc.  But my topic today is a much simpler one...SLEEP!

I have realized that I am a lover of sleep.  I LOVE sleep.  Really, I do.  I am someone who likes getting the full 8 hours of sleep.  My husband and brother-in-law exist on 4 - 5 hours of sleep.  Yuk.  No thank you.  My brother-in-law has even said that he feels he is wasting his life if he sleeps too much.  (Which I think is crazy because I know I feel so much better when I get a good night's sleep versus when I don't.)  Some people say they will catch up on their sleep when they are dead.  I say, if you are not getting enough sleep, you will die sooner.

I didn't realize how much I loved sleep until I didn't get a good nights sleep.  Last night, I was really tired.  I started falling asleep while watching TV a little after 9.  I headed up to bed (of course, by the time I go through the whole bedtime routine, over an hour has passed.).  I laid my head on my pillow.  I was luxuriating in how good it felt to be laying in my bed.  I got to enjoy that feeling for a whole 60 seconds.  And then I heard 'the cough'.  The deep cough of my youngest daughter, who has a cough-variant asthma.  The deep cough that means she is not going to sleep well (typically for several nights), and hence, I am also not going to sleep well.  It also means running into her room with the bucket while she throws up from said deep cough.

  ------ A tip for new parents: have buckets around the bedroom areas of your house.  For some reason, night time is a popular time for stomach flu's and bad coughs to kick up unexpectedly, requiring the immediate need for a bucket. ------

As I was laying there at midnight - awake - next to my coughing daughter, who I had propped up on pillows in an effort to alleviate her sleep-stealing cough, I was lamenting my missed night of sleep.  Hubby - by the way - was able to sleep through this deep nasty cough - even though our daughter was pretty much coughing right at him.  (Lucky are the deep sleepers!)  :)

There have been two other times in my life when I realized my love of sleep: being in the last trimester of my pregnancies and during the first 6 months after the delivery of said bundles of joys.  During those wonderful last months of my pregnancies (and yes, this is said with extreme sarcasm), I remember laying in my bed at night absolutely adoring it (my bed).  I am not kidding you, my body was all aches and exhaustion and my bed felt absolutely heavenly!!  It was as if my body was melting into my bed.  The first couple of months after having twins, I remember feeling like I was going to lose my mind from being so tired.  I had a love/hate relationship with going to bed.  I would go to bed at night, completely exhausted and sleep deprived and wanting a long, good night's sleep but feeling like I was going to go crazy because I didn't know if I was laying down for an undisturbed 5 minutes or 2 hours, until one of the twins woke up.  No wonder sleep deprivation is a top torture technique (as if I have any clue what torture techniques are popular, (thankfully!!) other than watching TV, that is).  Simply stated, sleep deprivation sucks!

Those who have experienced insomnia couldn't agree more with this subject.  I have a couple of friends who are experiencing insomnia right now and they also have a love/hate relationship with going to bed at night.  They are exhausted and want a good night's sleep but also dread going to bed just to lay there for hours not being able to sleep.  I have only experienced insomnia a handful of times in the past couple of years, thankfully.  I remember thinking I was going to go crazy laying there and wanting to sleep but not being able to; freaking out the longer I couldn't sleep, knowing how tired I would be in the morning.

Here's to everyone getting good, restful, restorative sleep.  Sweet Dreams!


Sleepily Yours,
Me


Motivational Moment:

Ironically, even though new parents don't get much sleep, newborns sleep most of the day and there is nothing more peaceful to look at then a sleeping baby! 

(Baby pics from http://www.magickalgraphics.com/ )

And of course cats!  They are fellow sleep-lovers and have perfected napping!

Ultimate Blog Party 2013

I was surfing the top stories on AOL tonight (because I was, of course, supposed to be doing actual work, but procrastination is SO much more fun!) and I came across this hilarious blog: http://crappypictures.com/parenting-i-quit./ by Amber Dusick.  (And for the record Amber, quitting and running away sound so fabulous right now!)  And while on Amber's page, I discovered the link to the Ultimate Blog Party 2013 http://www.5minutesformom.com/75741/ultimate-blog-party-2013/, which just so happens to be going on right now!!  (I love serendipity being at play here, in that I didn't notice the link the week after it closed!!  Thank you Amber!  Murphy's Law didn't get a chance to bite me this time.  Yay!)

The Blog Party sounds like an awesome experience - so, I will do as the lovely two "5 minutes for mom"s suggest and tell you a little bit about myself and my blog.

I am a stressed-out mother of three (awesome girls)!  I work full time, have a house that is constantly winning the clutter war (I have yet to even come close to winning one battle since I have had kids!), and I never seem to have enough hours in the day.

I mainly blog about whatever current rant is going through my head.  I think way too much and way too deeply about life.  My blog name - Serenity Goddess - is my ultimate goal!  :)

I like ending each blog with a Motivational Moment because even though life is stressful and hard at times, it is also beautiful and amazing and goes by way too fast.  I love beautiful pictures, songs, and words and find that beauty and people inspire!!!

Enjoying the Blog Partying 2013,
Me


Motivational Moment:

I love the two new sites I discovered tonight (http://crappypictures.com/parenting-i-quit./ ; http://www.5minutesformom.com/75741/ultimate-blog-party-2013/ ) and all the exciting, new connections they represent.  I think it is so cool (and inspirational) that so many people can connect over something like blogging.  We are all in this thing called 'life' together and we are sharing our time here together.  We might as well help each other out and make the absolute best of our time here for as we all know, it ends way too soon!

Here's to meeting new friends and connections, the joy of blogging, and getting the absolute most out of our lives!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/75741/ultimate-blog-party-2013/