Three Small Things

I have been trying something out lately to help keep from feeling overwhelmed all of the time and it seems to be working. Each morning, I create a list of three things that I want to accomplish that day. Only three. If I happen to do more than that, well, fabulous but it isn't mandatory. By creating a small list, I feel accomplished by the end of the day knowing that my list is finished. Also, it keeps me working. If I don't have a list and I'm feeling overwhelmed, I tend to ignore what I need to do. But, with a list, I feel like I have to do those things.

Yesterday, my things were: wash diapers, tidy the bathroom counter and tub (Liam throws everything he can find into the garden tub in our bathroom) and send out an email to my seminar committee. My three things covered three different aspects of my life: my kids, my household and my profession.

Today is Saturday so I am not focusing on my profession. My list for today is: go on a walk or do some activity with the family, clean out the garage and tidy the kitchen/dining area and living room. This morning we enjoyed a great walk with the kids. Cadence and Gabriel are getting very good on their bikes and Cadence ended up way ahead! After that, Liam went down for a nap. I put together some shelves I got on Craigslist and totally organized the garage. It looks great! I still have to tidy inside, but I'm on my way to finishing off today's list. :)

"Mommy, why were people like that?"

That was the question that I received this morning from my bright-eyed eight-year-old daugther while quizzing her for her social studies quiz. They are discussing regions, specifically the Northeast and the South. When I asked her to tell me about Alabama, she mentioned Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. I asked if she knew what they did. She gave a very good description of Rosa Parks' famous bus ride and she told me that Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted black and white children to be able to play together. Then she asked me why they weren't allowed to in the first place. I closed my laptop, looked at her and tried my hardest to explain something so disgusting as racisim so that my innocent eight-year-old daughter would understand it but not be overwhelmed by it. She paused for a moment to process it all and almost whispered "Mommy, why were people like that?" I was honestly able to tell her that I didn't know and that it was a very sad time for this country. She paused and thought again. She asked "What would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks never lived? How would it be now?" Then, before I could answer, she said, "You know how sometimes a white mommy has a brown baby? What would happen to them?" Cadence has several bi-racial friends and, suddenly, she became very concerned for them. I explained some of the hardships that would have faced bi-racial couples and their children in the Civil Rights era but I assured her that things are a lot better now. Not perfect, but better. I didn't want to give her the idea that the world was perfect, because it isn't. But I also didn't want her to worry about it constantly. Then Gabriel, who had been listening intently, piped up and said, "Mommy, what am I?" I smiled and hugged him and said, "You are Gabe and that is all that really matters."

After that we watched portions of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech on You Tube and talked about the importance of not judging a person "by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." We also disussed the kids' racial background a bit because they were curious but they ultimately agreed that what they see on the outside doesn't have anything to do with what is on the inside.

That was definitely more than I had planned on doing before breakfast, but I'm glad we had the talk.

I Have a Secret...

I have a secret. You can't tell anyone, okay? Not ANYONE! Especially not someone that will tell my children. Are you ready....? Are you sure? Ok.

We are taking the kids on a surprise trip to Disney World!!!

Provided we do not have a snow day between now and March 9th, Cadence has a long weekend from March 9th through the 12th. We aren't going to tell them until we are ready to leave. We are going to wake them up, drive them to the airport and hop on a plane to Orlando. I'm so excited! It is going to be a very quick trip and we'll only spend two days in the parks (one at Magic Kingdom and one at Epcot). We're planning the trip pretty last minute, but we managed to book a character dining meal on Sunday at Epcot.

Also, we were able to book airfare for all five of us for $338.33! OMG!!! I love a great deal, so I couldn't turn that down. We also scored an amazing deal on our room so we couldn't say no.

We are looking forward to the trip and hope to visit with some friends and family while we are down there too!

Now remember, it's a secret. You can't tell anyone.... ;)

Making the Most of a Rainy Saturday

I was going to try to squeeze all of this into a Facebook status update, but I couldn't so I figured I take a minute to blog. :)

Today is the type of day that makes the whole craziness of the week totally worth it. We had an awesome Saturday with minimal fighting, complaining or general craziness from the kiddos. :)

Cadence had a friend spend the night last night. We took the kids out to dinner and then watched a movie. This morning I made whole wheat waffles for breakfast. They gobbled up two helpings each (I didn't tell them how healthy they were). I always use this recipe but sub 1/2 of the flour for whole wheat flour and then add about 2 tablespoons of wheat germ. Sooo tasty!

After breakfast, Cadence's friend went home and I headed off to the gym. It was very difficult to do since it was so rainy out. I just wanted to curl up in bed. But if I'm going to survive the Tough Mudder later this year, than I need to keep up my routine.

After my workout and shower, Chris and I took the kids to Everyday Organics for lunch. The food and service there is amazing! I highly recommend it. Everything in the restaurant is organic so there's no need to wonder about what is in your food.

Cadence, Gabriel and Chris went for hair cuts with Grace and Liam and I went grocery shopping at Earth Fare. Later the whole family went geocaching together for the first time. Cadence and I had been with Christy and her kids but this was Chris and Gabriel's first time. We had a blast and found three geocaches. For those of you that don't know what geocaching is, check it out. It's a lot of fun, it's free and it helps bring your children closer to nature. Everybody wins!

After that we hit Walmart for a few things that we don't buy organic and headed home for dinner and another movie. Congrats if you made it this far through my post. It was a great day and we are only half way through the weekend!!

Picture Frame Jewelry Holder

In an effort to get more organized, I have begun a series of projects around the house. One of the main areas of chaos in our house is my dresser. I have everything from clothes that need to be put away to jewelry to toys belonging to the kids covering it. So to help with the mess, I decided I needed a better place to store my jewelry. I found that the jewelry box that I have doesn't fit everything, especially my really long necklaces, so I made this: A picture frame jewelry holder.

I bought the frame from Goodwill for $0.50. I then drilled four holes and added four plain, wooden knobs from Home Depot (each cost about a dollar), ran some twine across the frame for my earrings, painted it and hung it using some ribbon that I had laying around the house. Easy peasy and oh so functional!

Evanescence

Disclaimer: I apologize for the terrible spacing. I copied this post over from Word and no matter how many times I put two spaces at the end of a sentence, Blogger seems to ignore it. So sorry!

A few months ago, it was announced that Evanescence would be kicking off their new tour in Clemson. Since they are my favorite band, I was stoked! I checked my calendar for the date - a Friday! I almost never go to concerts because they usually fall on work/school nights. This was great! I scrolled down my calendar a little further and realized that was a very important day - Chris was scheduled to undergo ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair. I immediately pushed the concert out of my mind.

Over the next few weeks Chris kept telling me that I should buy tickets. I refused. He even said that he'd be okay to go to the concert that night. I wouldn't entertain that idea at all. In the end, I didn't buy tickets. Three days before the concert, I was driving to work and listening to my radio. They were giving away tickets and meet & greet passes to the show. I figured I'd try to call in and, if I managed to win them, than it was just meant to be. I won!

I still was battling the idea of leaving Chris after his surgery to go to a concert but he continued to assure me that he would be fine. I decided that I would take Cadence with me. Although she is only eight years old, she loves Evanescence as much as I do. She is taking piano and voice lessons and wants to be like Amy Lee when she grows up. She knows almost all of their songs and can tell you what album and track number a particular song is if she hears it.

I bought Cadence an Evanescence t-shirt and she picked out some accessories from Charming Charlie's and off we went. Prior to the show, we attended the band's sound check and watched them practice about six songs. Cadence asked if there would be more people at the concert as there were only about 50 at the sound check. I assured her that there would be. After the sound check, the members came around to meet everyone and sign autographs. Amy Lee stopped and spoke to Cadence for a few minutes. She asked Cadence if she preferred singing or piano and Cadence told her that she preferred singing. She reminded Cadence that she needed to practice and also told her that she has a very musical name. Cadence was completely star struck.

Here are some pictures of the items we had autographed. We were not allowed to take photos in the meet & greet session; however, the radio station took some and should be uploading them to their website sometime soon. I'll update the post once they are up.

After the meet & greet, we grabbed some dinner and met up with John and Erin, who were also attending the show. We made it back to the concert and found our seats. They were pretty great - third row in the bowl. It was a little loud for Cadence being so close though and we were a bit cramped so we moved up to the upper bowl for the rest of the show. Cadence was completely happy up there. She got very excited when certain songs played but was disappointed that they did not play "Haunted" - Cadence's favorite Evanescence song.

We got home very late and Cadence slept almost all the way home. Chris was still curled up on the couch - Grandma and Big Jake to excellent care of him. Although I hate that Chris had to miss it, I think Cadence had a great time. It was an excellent first concert experience.

Untitled

I promised I would start my next blog entry out this way, so here it goes:

My creeper cousin says I haven't been posting enough lately.

She's right. I've had all sorts of posts in my head but haven't seemed to get around to actually writing them. I was going to post all about Cadence's amazing red carpet birthday party, but I didn't get around to it. I was going to post about our Thanksgivings and our Christmas, but something always kept me from sitting down to the computer and actually doing it.

So I'm writing now.

Finally.

I'm not even going to try to catch up on everything from September forward. So much has been going on that I wouldn't know where to start. I will say that a lot of wonderful times were had and great memories were created over the fall and into the Christmas season. I will also say that the Christmas season ended with one of the most difficult events to ever face our family: we lost our beloved Aunt Judy to cancer.

When I was first told that she received eternal healing on New Year's Day one of the thoughts that ran through my mind was what New Year's Day would mean for us in years to come. Would it be a day of mourning or celebration? How could I count down the seconds to midnight knowing it was counting down to the anniversary of such a loss? Then I remembered this picture that I snapped of my aunt a few New Year's Eves ago:

We rang in the New Year by the Falls. She was dancing all over with the band playing behind her. I yelled her name right as the fireworks went off and she paused to smile for me. It was perfect.

Although future New Year's Days for everyone who knew her will be difficult, I think she'll be celebrating them. She'll be dancing around with Heaven's band playing behind her and will pause to smile at us. It will be perfect. She'll be celebrating the day God called her home and eternally healed all of her pain. We should celebrate it too.

I didn't intend for this to be a sad post. I'm sorry if you had to reach for your tissues. I did too. I promise the mood will be much lighter next time I post. And I promise to post more frequently. I really do have lots to share and lots to say. I just need the find the time to share it and say it. If you happen to find any of that time, will you please send it my way? Thanks.