Can She Do It?

Hello. How are you?

I'm fine. At least, I feel pretty great and accomplished at the close of this Sabbath Day. Why?
I decided to challenge myself to a full week of being nice. No mean words - nothing of the sort from my little, often malicious, mouth. This means no angry intonations. No yelling. No criticisms. No nagging. Just kind and loving words, served up with a much more calm and collected voice. I'm just sick of being surly. I want to be nicer - replace curt words with sweeter ones.

I kept my voice even, friendly, and low all day. I kind of cheated by greeting the kids in a nice way before they even said anything. I noticed that I think it makes a big difference so far. When things got on my nerves, I took a deep breath and shrugged them off.

Do you think I can make it a whole week? Even when my buttons are destined to be pushed who knows how many times each waking hour? I don't take criticism or handle confrontation very well. I get defensive and frustrated. I sometimes offer a sarcastic "sorry!" which might then escalate into a futile argument. =/ I don't enjoy it when someone says something to imply I'm not doing my job properly. Sometimes they haven't actually said anything, but I still assume they're thinking ill of me because of previous things they've said. (If that even makes sense.)

Anyway, I have this habit of letting myself get mad when it really isn't necessary. What am I trying to prove? That I have no self control? That's kind of silly. I also tend to get riled up when I hear people complaining about stuff (which is hard to point out without becoming a hypocrite - complaining about the complainer.)
So I'm going to work really hard on this all week, keep myself acutely conscious of every word that passes my lips, and see what happens.
Maybe next week I'll work on nice thoughts. ;)

I actually fasted today for help with this goal. After church as I was fixin' dinner, I put on a CD Cora had been given in Young Women's. I'd halfheartedly listened to it a couple of times before, but this time I actually heard the lyrics of a particular song. It was perfect. I felt it was just for me. It's called "By the Way I Speak" (by Jenny Phillips)

My words hold the power 
To lift up and to save
Or to put down and degrade
I am shaped by the things I say

May the words I speak
Be filled with kindness
May my manner of speech
Be cheerful and clean
May my voice be a light
That lifts people higher
May I bring hope and love and trust
May I bring peace
By the way I speak

I always have the choice
To be gentle and to praise
Or to find fault and complain
I show my heart by the things I say

I hope I can make a difference in my home this week. If (I mean WHEN) I succeed in this and nobody notices any change in me, maybe I wasn't such a meanie in the first place. We shall see.

What are you working on this week?

Juicy Tunes

I finally have on my little phone a bunch of songs I've been wanting. Yay for good music!
I just thought I'd share in case my blog wanted to know what I listen to when I run or do housework.
Several of these selections may seem a little silly, but in one way or another they all make me tick.
Some of them I just love the sound of, some of them have the most fitting words, others are fun to sing along to, and the rest are necessary additions to any music library. Also, every one of them makes me think of at least one person I know. And aren't people fantastic? Anyway, here's the playlist...

Because (The Dave Clark Five)

A Groovy Kind of Love  (The Mindbenders)

Ain't Too Proud to Beg  (The Temptations)

Rescue Me   (Fontella Bass)

With or Without You   (U2)

Hold Me Now  (Thompson Twins)

The Great Pretender  (The Platters)

My Heart Will Go On   (Celine Dion)

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me   (Mel Carter)

Who Put the Bop in the Bop-shoo-bop-shoo-bop  (The Drifters)

People Are Strange (The Doors)

Head Over Feet  (Alanis Morissette)

Uninvited  (Alanis Morissette)

Rock Me Gently  (Andy Kim)

More Than Words  (Extreme)

What's New Pussycat?  (Tom Jones)

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?  (Dionne Warwick)

If  (Bread)

1,000 Ships  (Rachel Platten)

A Thousand Years  (Christina Perri)

Unchained Melody

The Tears of a Clown  (Smokey Robinson)

Knock Three Times (Tony Orlando and Dawn)

I'm Telling You Now  (Freddie & the Dreamers)

Hooked on a Feeling  (B.J. Thomas)

Sugar, Sugar  (The Archies)

Candy Girl  (Franki Valli)

We've Got Tonight  (Bob Seger)

Cathy's Clown  (Everly Brothers)

Imagine (John Lennon)

Crying in the Rain  (Everly Brothers)

Got My Mind Set On You  (George Harrison)

White Flag  (Dido)

Devoted to You (Everly Brothers)

Dream a Little Dream of Me (Mamas and the Papas)

All I Have To Do Is Dream (Everly Brothers)

When You Say Nothing At All  (Alison Krauss)

I Think I Love You  (David Cassidy & The Partridge Family)

I saved the best for last. =)  Every time I hear "I Think I Love You" I go a little crazy inside. 

I don't even fully understand why. It's just a fun, happy, groovy song. Perfect for singing along to.

Out of the Mouth of Oliver

I've been taking notes each time Oliver says something that makes me laugh. =)

He measures amounts of things in "dots". For instance, he "only got a dot of time to play" or "only ate a dot of cereal." He's pretty dramatic when he says it.

One night at bed time he was trying to figure out why the kids have to go to bed before the parents do.
"How come grown-ups get to stay up as long as they want? Because they don't goof around and be loud?"

His cousin gave him a plastic gold medal to wear around his neck. I asked him if he'd won it at the Olympics. He asked, "how could I do it if I wasn't inside the TV?"

While in the car, a Pink song was on. Listening to the chorus (you gotta get up and try, try, try) he wondered,  "how would it be that hard to get up?"

I changed the radio station one day when "The Best Day of My Life" by American Authors was on. What can I say, it's kind of over-played... Oliver piped up from the back seat, "hey, that's my favorite song!"  It's mostly funny to me because I don't think he really notices or cares about music that much. Now when I hear that song I smile and think of my fun-filled, hopeful little boy. One of the only other times he's stopped me from turning off a song was when we were pulling into the driveway halfway through "Bohemian Rhapsody". I don't remember his exact wording, but he told me to wait because he was listening to it. That's my boy. =) And I would never turn that song off unfinished.

Upon seeing a picture of a beehive on the honey container: "Mom, if you turn the hive upside down it would be a tornado and honey would be flying all around." =)

I saved my favorite one for last. I don't remember what I was doing to spoil his day that time, but this was his retort... "The only thing I don't like about moms is they take away all the fun."  I'm always getting chewed out for something - not giving him enough time to play, not buying him toys, changing the radio when he's listening, making him do chores... why don't moms understand?!

Why am I not surprised?

Why does pretty much every day feel like April Fool's Day when it comes to me and technology? 

Isn't it cute how I said my phone's camera was working properly, then the photo I "shared" obviously had some lame error which made it impossible to view? I even previewed the blog post before I published it and it looked fine. This is the story of my life (as everyone knows). 

I think the problem had to do with me cropping it. I really didn't want to post the uncropped photo because it looks considerably junkier. So my options were either to delete the entire post and pretend it never happened, or settle for the original image. I guess I need to crop photos before I transfer them to my computer. I wish stuff would just do as I say. My life would be a lot easier that way. 

Selfies

I just thought I'd share the only solo selfie my new phone has had the honor of taking. 

I know I'm not the biggest fan of bathroom selfies, but who isn't a hypocrite every now and then?

I was mostly testing the camera's capabilities. Yep, it worked fine.

Pleeease pay no mind to the dirty mirror. 

Feel free instead to gape at the nifty giraffe-print case Ryan picked out for me.

1/3/2014 - 12:52 AM

This is me wondering why I wasn't getting a reply to a text I'd sent hours earlier. 

I like it when people answer my questions in a timelier manner. 

When I get no response I can't help but over-think the reason. 

Was it something I said? 

Are my texts annoying them?

It might be that they can't locate their phone, or perhaps it was accidentally left on silent mode. 

Or am I intentionally being ignored?! 

-----------------------

And here is a selfie with Mel, one of my best friends. 

She and her family came to visit us from Pocatello the evening of January 1 through the evening of the 3rd. 

I'm so grateful for her friendship. She is wise, caring and understanding, super strong and all-around amazing. And she's fun!

1/3/2014 -  5:45 PM

Try not to be too sad that I don't have any other selfies to share. 

Snow Bunnies!

Here's a peek at our bunnies' first time playing in the snow. 

I can't get over how cute they are!! 

I am totally smitten with these little critters!

Christmas Day

It's March and I'm still discussing Christmas. I need to get it wrapped up (pun) so we can all move on with our lives.

Christmas Day came, just like it does every year. But this time nobody in our family was sick, so that was a nice treat.

The kids have never been known to wake up super early on Christmas morning, or any morning ever. =)
I remember when I was a kid I would sneak downstairs (a few times) in the middle of the night to scope everything out, then us kids would get up before the sun and ask permission to root through our stockings while the parents slept a while longer.


I failed again to get many worthwhile pictures of the kids opening presents. Did I learn nothing from my mom?!

I guess I mostly need to learn how to take non-blurry pictures.

Here's a cute little canvas treasure Oliver made in kindergarten. I love it!

In case it's too small to read, it says: Merry Christmas From Your Little "Deer"

Oliver digs anything that has to do with ninjas. 

This was the clearest picture I got of Jane or Cora. =/  Jane got a bunch of Monster High and My Little Pony stuff. She loves all of that. Cora got a variety of Doctor Who and Lord of the Rings things. And lots of novelty t-shirts.

Oliver lives in this Ninjago hoodie. 

And here's a really unflattering picture of me opening my present. As you can see, I was confused. I wasn't sure what exactly was in that little white box. 

I didn't ask for anything. I know shopping stresses Ryan out a lot, so I specifically instructed him not to get me anything because we'd just spent a bit of money re-doing our downstairs bathroom. Plus I always seem to buy a few things for myself when I'm out Christmas shopping for other people. =/  

I gave Ryan two books that I thought would add some humor to his life. "The Onion - Our Dumb World"  and a Dilbert book. (They ended up being good selections that have make him chuckle each time he reads.) I also got him some boring work slacks and shirts and a couple of fun t-shirts. There may have been more, but I'm not too sure.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had bought me an iPhone. =)  

It was kind of hard saying goodbye to my old phone. 

Out with the old, in with the new. 

I didn't know I'd like having a smartphone. I was mostly comfortable with my dumbphone, and didn't have any immediate plans to replace it. Ryan made the decision for me, which was helpful, seeing as I am the worst at deciding on things.

And here are the cookies I took to my parents' house to share...

I think I'm actually getting sick of sugar cookies. *gasp* 

Or maybe it's more of a worry that everyone else is burned out on them. 

I hate to think I'm inconveniencing anyone by making them too frequently. 

I think I just need to make them a little less often.

After we had our morning at home as a family, we went to Ryan's parents' house for a little while for their  traditional biscuits and gravy and the opening of some presents. 

Then we made our way over to my parents' house, where we had another lovely time. 

As I sit here partway through March, I can't recall the exact sequence of Christmas Day's events. 

All I know for sure (along with whatever I listed above) is I got to hang out with my siblings and their families for several hours. 

We ate, we played games, exchanged gifts, then we probably ate some more.

My awesome sister-in-law (Maren) made a tray of these incredibly tasty caramel apples for each family. 

Let me tell ya, my belly received them very well!  =P

I thought I'd found a real treasure at Shopko. I bought 2 bags. My siblings and Mom and I are lifelong circus peanut fans. I took this unopened bag to share on Christmas Day. Everyone was intrigued. Meg, Erin, Gavin and I sat around the living room and I passed one out to each of them, then we all took a bite on the count of three. We were all kind of confused and slightly disappointed. They were okay, but it was agreed that the orange-colored, pure sugar flavor of the original kind was nothing to be trifled with.
The peppermint ones just aren't as special. It's good I only bought 2 bags. =)

And that's officially it for Christmas 2013.

Bring on spring!